Ashtrays on their heads

I can't believe it.  On Monday I had to beg my students to stop talking.  My 5 minute debate topic turned into a 45 minute debate.  They were interested and excited, and well that is just going to be great because planning this class is going to be pretty easy I think, and I really enjoyed it.   How refreshing!

I got a compliment on my French the other day, and I am feeling a lot more confident with my accent.  It's strange because as I am studying Spanish, I am getting mixed up on a few words...but I think that after a year and a half, I am understanding how the language sounds, even if I don't know every single vocabulary word and am not sure if I will ever master the subjunctive.  People have stopped asking me where I am from every time I open my mouth.  

I am still prone to the occasional absurd mistake, though.  I was trying to explain Ash Wednesday to someone the other day, and well I got to the word ash and mixed it up with ashtray (cendre vs. cendrier), and no one quite understood why on a religious holiday everyone would put ashtrays on their heads...but seriously, other than that my French is good, I swear!

Looks like I will be heading to Berlin with my four closest friends for the week of vacations in February (as part of my extended birthday celebrations....).  The rest of my classes start tomorrow, and the vacation starts in less than a month.  It is going to be hard to leave this country of such plentiful vacations next year.