I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

The past few days here in Apt have been absolutely beautiful - blue skies, sunshine and 55 degrees. All you need is a light jacket and scarf to be outside. With this picturesque weather, it is making it quite hard to think that Christmas is just 16 days away*. I can't help it, I find my mind dreaming of a white Christmas....

I mean, come on - this is beautiful! But I can't help but dream of the white, fluffy stuff...

Yesterday was a great lazy day, spent relaxing and reading. One of my goals during this experience was to read 15 books. I have been somewhat lax in reaching this goal, but I did get a step further yesterday, with completing my third book since arriving here. In the evening, I made myself get out of the house and decided to see another movie. Now that I am comfortable going to the theater by myself, I feel oddly more at home by doing this, as many of my friends back in the States would be able to vouch for my love of going to the movies. From many people's recommendations, I decided to go see the French version of Frozen, called la Reine des Neiges. I really liked this film, the music was very pretty, the animation beautiful, and since it was an animated Disney movie it was easy to understand in the foreign language. I am liking going to French movies, as I do watch movies and shows in French on my laptop at the apartment, but most time with French subtitles. I like the added challenge of not having these, and being surrounded by other French people reacting to the movie along with me. I always find myself thinking in French on my walks back to the apartment, without even realizing it.

Translation: The Snow Queen, which is the folk tale that the movie is based on.

On my walk back, I took the opportunity to take more pictures of the beautiful lights around Apt. With the center of town deserted, due to it being a Sunday night, it was quite eery walking through town by myself. However, because there were no other people around, I managed to get some nice shots of this quaint, quiet town at night.

In front of the Prefecture

Translation: Happy Holidays!

This morning I spent some time lesson planning and talking to teachers in the salle de profs. This afternoon, I had my second week of modern English classes at the business that I am working for. I am happy to say that this week went much more smoothly, which is also because I was much more prepared, knowing now what kind of levels I would be teaching and what areas to focus on. I actually over-planned for today, so now I have plenty of material for next week. Score! It is always nice being able to have this extra job here during the week, plus the fact that I am able to speak and learn a little French in the process too.

Due to a little malfunction I had with the copier this morning**, I ended up with a lot of extra scrap paper for the apartment. And what is the best thing to do with scrap paper? Crafts! To be specific, the lack of snow and chilled weather made me itching to make some paper snowflakes for the apartment. I only made a few, but I feel like I will continue making them - making my own Provencal winter wonderland.

Let it snow!

*Countdowns: Christmas in 16 days and HOME IN 11 DAYS! Can you tell I am a little excited?
**And when I say little malfunction... I mean I had 200 extra copies that I didn't need. Woops.