Just one more

One more to go. Just one more shitty up-at-6.30 Monday morning... You see, I teach at two of Montpellier's 3 universities (I know, it's crazy, but that's how they do things here), but I don't teach many hours, and I only teach in the first semester (not my choice, by the way, I would have liked to have spread things out a little), and since mid-November (when my Thursday class finished) I only teach on Mondays: 8-10 at the Economics faculty, then 1.5-3.15 in the annex to the Arts faculty.

For a night-owl like me, you cannot imagine what torture it is to have to get up at 6.30 and GO OUTSIDE while it's still DARK for Chrissakes.

But now, I only have one more week of teaching. And then my Mondays will be all mine once again. I can hardly wait!

Plus, the advantage to all my teaching being in the first semester is that I will get paid "early" (the status I have, "vacataire" - which means the job is not my main job (my main job is freelance translating) - is about as crappy as you can imagine, each semester being paid in one go, early March for the first semester, early August for the second), as in March. Woohoo!

The other advantage to all my teaching being in the first semester and all on the same day is that I have a gap - between 10 and 1.15 - which is too short to make it worth my while to go home (wouldn't have time to do anything), but long enough to get Christmas shopping done and have lunch in town. Oh, the bliss!

My Christmas shopping is coming on a treat, by the way. Well. Sort of. The homemade Christmas cards are... imperfect, shall we say. And certainly haven't been posted. But my father's presents are more or less done, the girls' presents too (except C's birthday present), and I've even got some of my MIL's present. Feeling quite smug, actually. Though that's no doubt a recipe for disaster. Nothing for D yet (he's wavering about the exercise bike - he thinks it's too pricey, which is true), but I'm working on it. Also have to find a way to tactfully leave hints about what I'd like (assuming we don't buy the bike).

Now all I have to do (bearing in mind it's 1.20 am) is make another 10 Christmas tree decorations for the school Christmas market and then once again drag myself out of bed to take the girls (and the decorations) to school tomorrow morning...

And then. If all goes well. If no one phones or sends me work via e-mail. I might actually have time to get down to some tidying up.

Tis indeed the season of miracles. Sort of.