So, just a quick update. Hank got to Rennes today (he had to quite literally run through 2 airports to make it here) and we had a lovely lazy afternoon eating pizza and watching Disney movies :)
Its 11pm now, and the jet lagged boy is sleeping so I don't want to make too much noise.
A la prochaine!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
¡¡¡¡Aye Mexico!!!!
Or Barcelona. Because I'm going there in March with Leah. Bought the tickets AND booked the hostel today. Go us!!! Too bad neither of us speak Spanish. Una assietta por fovora?!?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Getting back down to business
So, all my visitors are gone, I'm back in school (at least until the end of February when we get another week of vacation....), I've actually got homework (for once), things are starting to get back to normal here in Rennes, France. Yesterday was another one of the world famous CIEE excursions, which usually end up with us spending wayyyyyy to long in the most random of places and then sleeping on the bus. We went to Saint Malo and Mont Saint Michel, and even though I'd already been both places, they're really interesting towns, so it wasn't too bad. The only downfall was the weather, which decided to be gray, cold, and windy. And a sad change from last semester, CIEE is only doing one overnight excursion (to the Loire Valley) in lieu of 2, but now we get two day trips (the one yesterday and another to Vannes/Carnac). I always had a lot of fun on the overnight trips, and it was a good way to get to know the other kids in the program. Ohhhh well.
Leah and I recently tried to plan out our trips for the upcoming semester. So far we've got: Barcelona in March, Amsterdam and Copenhagen/Aarhus (maybe Brussels/Belfast???) in April, Bordeaux (who knows when), Paris and Versailles in May (we already bought the tickets for this one!), and then we want to try for Rome/Prague/Dublin at some point in the semester if money holds out. Although you always hear about cheap travel in Europe, it never really ends up being all that cheap.....You have to get to the airport, usually Paris (or Beauvais for RyanAir, which is a HUGE hassle), and then the cheap airlines don't really fly into the main airports, so you have to get from the airport to the city you want to go to, if you don't know anyone in the place you're visiting, you have to pay for a place to stay, food, cool things to do, etc. It adds up fast. But, Leah and I decided we have around 100 days left here, we need to make the most of it and not worry tooooooooooooo much about the cost. It just means we have to resist the glowing lights and fashionable clothes of H&M a lot more this semester. PLUS the euro is down to $1.36. Best. News. Ever. Well......
Maybe even better news than the falling exchange rate: Hank got an internship in Stuttgart, Germany starting MARCH 1st!!!!!!!! Which means I have to add Germany on my list of travels. This internship was such a last minute thing, and its a great opportunity for him. Knowing my love of tigers, Hank promised me a trip to the zoo in Stuttgart, so I'm pretty excited :) I'm hoping he'll be able to stop by Rennes before he starts work, because it might be kind of hard to plan to see each other when both of us our busy with our European lives. Its pretty cool that we'll both be over here at the same time, and I hope that we can at least meet up once or twice before I fly off at the end of May.
I'm starting the job search for summer in Madison, because after all these destinations I'm hoping to see I'm going to be BROKE. I turned in my application for the desk job I had last summer, but I'm a little worried that since I'm coming back home so late I won't be able to get it. So, if anybody knows anybody who are employing nice, hard working, French speaking, awesome people, let me know.
Til next time,
Katie
Leah and I recently tried to plan out our trips for the upcoming semester. So far we've got: Barcelona in March, Amsterdam and Copenhagen/Aarhus (maybe Brussels/Belfast???) in April, Bordeaux (who knows when), Paris and Versailles in May (we already bought the tickets for this one!), and then we want to try for Rome/Prague/Dublin at some point in the semester if money holds out. Although you always hear about cheap travel in Europe, it never really ends up being all that cheap.....You have to get to the airport, usually Paris (or Beauvais for RyanAir, which is a HUGE hassle), and then the cheap airlines don't really fly into the main airports, so you have to get from the airport to the city you want to go to, if you don't know anyone in the place you're visiting, you have to pay for a place to stay, food, cool things to do, etc. It adds up fast. But, Leah and I decided we have around 100 days left here, we need to make the most of it and not worry tooooooooooooo much about the cost. It just means we have to resist the glowing lights and fashionable clothes of H&M a lot more this semester. PLUS the euro is down to $1.36. Best. News. Ever. Well......
Maybe even better news than the falling exchange rate: Hank got an internship in Stuttgart, Germany starting MARCH 1st!!!!!!!! Which means I have to add Germany on my list of travels. This internship was such a last minute thing, and its a great opportunity for him. Knowing my love of tigers, Hank promised me a trip to the zoo in Stuttgart, so I'm pretty excited :) I'm hoping he'll be able to stop by Rennes before he starts work, because it might be kind of hard to plan to see each other when both of us our busy with our European lives. Its pretty cool that we'll both be over here at the same time, and I hope that we can at least meet up once or twice before I fly off at the end of May.
I'm starting the job search for summer in Madison, because after all these destinations I'm hoping to see I'm going to be BROKE. I turned in my application for the desk job I had last summer, but I'm a little worried that since I'm coming back home so late I won't be able to get it. So, if anybody knows anybody who are employing nice, hard working, French speaking, awesome people, let me know.
Til next time,
Katie
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thats so owl.
We're so cute on the Champs ElyséesSo, my resolution to post more = 2 posts in January (whoops). BUT to make up for it, you get 2 bloggers for the price of 1!!!!
Elise is here in Rennes with me, and we've been hanging out and seeing the sights of Bretagne for the past week and a half. We started with a whirlwind tour of Paris. Off the plane, we dropped our bags off at our cute little yellow hotel room with a crooked door and headed straight to Notre Dame to chill with Quasimodo. We got up close and personal with some gargoyles (although we learned that they aren't really gargoyles but in fact are chimères. Darn you cartoons for your false information [anybody else watch that besides us?]). They were pretty cute. We named a few, such as Stan (he was on a postcard, we never actually found him). There were lots and lots of spiral stairs, 400 to be exact, because French people like making tourists climb steep dark stairs. We like to call this the Paris workout. We also saw a HUGE bell. I was tempted to lick it, just like Barney, but it was too far away. The following photos are a few of our favorite new friends from atop Notre Dame:
After climbing the towers of the cathedral, we hopped on the métro over to the Eiffel Tower, just in time to see it light up. We dodged several dudes trying to sell us glowing souvenirs, took some awesome pictures and then Elise saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle!!!!! She didn't know it did that, so she was pretty pumped (and thats an understatement).
SPAAAAAAARRRKKLLLLLLEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! You know how a lot of time the really cool touristy things aren't as cool in person?!? The Eiffel Tower does NOT fall into that category- its sweeeeeet. Since it was Friday, the Louvre was open late (AND FREEEEEEEE - for people under 26...sucks to be old) so we went to hang out with Mona. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. The Louvre is kind of overwhelming and basically is a lot of paintings of Jesus, so its hard to find the really cool stuff. It probably took us half an hour to find Hammurabi's Code (the first written law). We managed to hit all the important things, and we even tested out Mona's eyes. They really do follow you around the room. By the time we made it out, we were exhausted from all the stairs, and we headed back home and went to bed!
The next morning, after a somewhat slow start and slightly dreary Paris weather, we went to Musée D'Orsay to enjoy impressionism, among other things. It was easier to differentiate paintings/artwork, given some range in subject matter other than religion. We really enjoyed the room of all of Monet's work, including some of the lily pads. It was really cool to see some of the paintings that took up a WHOLE wall and some of the furniture was strange (and a tease, since you could not test out the comfort levels of each item. Some of the chairs looked really promising too). There was a special exhibit by this special dude, who after being harshly criticized by the public, became obsessed with painting these masks represented the distortion of the evil masses of the cruel public. Obviously he did not handle criticism well- but some of these masks were SUPER creepy. On a lighter note, one of the paintings we enjoyed the most, was The Orgy Painting. Basically, a whole bunch of Romans were having too much fun one night, drinking, making out, you know- the usual, and there was just a lot of drama going on among these young drunken Romans.
As you can see above, alcohol leads to no good. The older Romans obviously think these young-ins can't hold their own, there are love triangles, make out sessions, jealous emo kids- a high school dance gone wrong. Just looking at the picture makes me giggle.
In search of food and coffee, we walked along the Champs Elysées (one of the chic-est streets in Paris), where we stopped to admire (or laugh) at Louis Vuitton, especially because we both already own, you know, like 35 pairs of sun glasses each (at 350 euro a pop). We picked out our favorite trunks (because we are on the Titanic) to ship back home (and use as furniture on our porch, to copy the mannequins). The Champs Elysées was probably the start to this weird obsession with leather and boots, even the desire to wear cool high heels, that France seems to have instilled in me (Elise). At the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triomphe, a GINORMOUS monument built by Napoleon to compensate for his dwarf status. See the man in a blue letter jacket? Elise decided to flash a smile in his direction.
French boys are creepy. No smiling- ever. Lesson learned.
The Arc is HUGE and very cool to look at, especially the ceiling (like all the other cool ceiling in France- seems to be a requirement). There is a flame always lit, for the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. The intersection around the Arc is terrifying, since all the main streets intersect here, thus to cross the street, there are underground tunnels to get to and from the Arc. By the way, we found the Ericson family of France to take the above photo (creepy man included). They were at least 10 feet tall- even the mom. Also the by the way, people in France really like, like obsessed with, How I Met Your Mother- which is wonderful. Everyone loves Barney.
We went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where lots of famous French and international people are buried. Its huge and complicated, with tons of different sections. We took a picture of the map with our camera, hoping to take advantage of zoom, but we still couldn't find stuff. We visited Jim Morrison's grave first, once we found it. Then, meandered towards Oscar Wilde's grave, which also took a while to find because we overshot it. Once we were in the right section, it is fairly easy to find because it is covered in lipstick and kisses. It is a popular tradition to kiss his grave; a tradition we decided to take part in. Never have I ever kissed a grave....Shoot.
We were rushed out of the cemetery as it started to get darker- probably because of zombies, so, we left and decided it was probably safer in the sex district of Paris, Montmartre. Some day, when rich and famous, we will return to the actual Moulin Rouge.
While meandering more cobblestone, dangerous even in flat shoes, we bought some HOT WINE to keep warm. The wine is warmed, has some spices and orange slices and is delicious. Yum.
We continued to wander, saw the Sacré Coeur, a beautiful white church, whose service was in progress while we quietly walked around the outside. This was another example of the stair climbing for the Paris Workout. At the bottom of the hill, there were a bunch of guys with string, who tried to grab your wrists and make you a bracelet for lots of euro. No thank you.
Katie made me (elise) try more French-y things, like KIRS. It is white wine and a fruity syrup. We drank it at this cute little cafe over by our cute little hotel. We had crepes that night. I had NUTELLA and BANANA- it was messy, but brilliant. We had a train early the next day, so we headed to bed, and woke early to quickly carry all of my stuff to the sketchy metro stop at 7am. Saw a homeless man penis (my favorite early morning surprise) and the cops stopped the metro to search for some man, who we then saw them handcuff. Cool. Good morning.
Our first afternoon in Rennes was filled with an intense...wait for it....ping pong tournament. Yeah. It is hardcore. We watched Yoann destroy a wall in hot pursuit of a ball, lots of french swearing, followed by beer and baguettes. Yoann's family cooked us a delicious meal, a chinese-inspired dish of Beef and caramel, with wine, as well as a delicious fruit crumble desert and french cheese. This was my first French cheese experience. Nothing like Wisconsin cheese. But the Munster was DELICIOUS.
Monday, I (Katie) had to sign up for classes because my month and a half vacation came to an end this week. Tragic, really. In French style, Leah and my schedule ended up getting messed up, but, I guess we're used to France disorganization. For our long stay visas, Leah and I needed to go get x-rays of our lungs. WHICH WE GET TO KEEEEEEP!!!!!!!! Proud to say, I'm tuberculosis free! Check. I'm putting my x-ray up on the fridge when I get back to Madison. Also, we had to get a doctors appointment. Our doctor was about 12. Wore skinny pants, pointy boots, and had his scooter helmet on his desk. I think his backpack had red spider webs on it. I told him about Milwaukee (he'd never heard of it) and I almost tipped over the medical table, whoops. He told me the x-ray was a "beau cadeau" (beautiful present) and to take care of it. Awesome.
Katie, Leah and I took a day trip to Saint Malo, a walled beach town which is about a 45 minute train ride. I really like the trains- they make me sleepy. The weather was surprisingly nice, it was SUNNY, and we walked along the wall and adventured along the beach. Apparently the tide rises really quickly and its easy to get stuck out on the little island like forts- but we didn't get stuck. Just enjoyed each of the forts. We found Chateaubriand's grave overlooking the ocean. He was a moody French author who was born in Saint Malo. We agreed that it was a fitting and very EPIC place to be buried; very beautiful. It was also completely lovely to walk along the water, with lots of little kids bundled up playing, as well as dogs running about. We wandered about in the town searching for a place to eat and eventually ate wonderfully delicious Galettes, which are crepes, with egg, ham and cheese in them. We eat them a bunch, because they are super yummy. We also drank cider and had a sugar crepe for desert (Leah splurged and got a caramel crepe). We mostly hung out, looked at the ocean, and enjoyed the sunshine. It was peaceful and wonderful.
Things We've Explored in Rennes:
-We walked through the garden to hang out with the birds.
They were chirping up a storm; I reckon they like to gossip.
-The HOT CHOCOLATE specialty place. They have soooooooooo many different types of hot chocolate. YUM. I got raspberry flavored hot chocolate and Katie got honey and vanilla. They give you a little bit of brownie too. There are board games to be played and a lovely warm ambiance.
-The CHAI place. We've been there twice. Also delicious. They play good music and we snagged a table with cushions the second time we went. We've also decided to open our own little hippie coffeeshop some day when we are old- sometime after Katie has worked at Curves/Hollister and I've lived in a cardboard box somewhere? Ooooh the places we'll go.
-The Saturday Morning Market: We wandered through the fruit section, where Katie got a FREE apple, a quite tasty one, and I got a super yummy pear. We tried galette saucisse, which is a brat wrapped in a galette. While in line it started to HAIL, then snow, a little bit of rain and then it was sunny again. Bretagne has weird weather. They have EVEN more cheese than the farmers market in Madison, which is impressive. Also, a lot of honey. We also walked through the meat part of the market, which was pretty gross, with HUGE slabs of meat, cow eye balls and chickens with their heads still on. Yikes.
-Katie and I ate at this cute little restaurant in Rennes that we happened to meander into. We got a lovely student deal for pasta (which had corn in it, which was apparently debated about among the cooks/waitress, and they went for it, and it was a good addition), wine and coffee and we bought a dessert too. To our luck, they didn't have the dessert we wanted, so we got a super fancy and wonderful fancy dessert (it was really fancy) for the price of the cheaper brownie one. Awesome. Seated next to us was a man dining alone. Dun dun dun.....and he wouldn't stop talking to us. Unfortunately for me (Katie), Elise doesn't speak French, so I was stuck having to answer his questions. Upon leaving, the waitress asked me if we were bothered by him. I said no, it wasn't a big deal. She replied "Good. Because usually we don't let him in. He likes to chat up young girls." Great. The dessert was totally worth it.
-Magical Bakery: everything is jumbo sized, chocolately, and magical. End of story.
-Funny assortment dinner- We needed to pick up dinner before heading to Leah's, so we stopped to get sushi. We also got clementines (probably the yummiest clementines i've ever eaten). We also got brownies. Yum. Elise's sushi had mango and mint in it. Weird combo, but was delicious. I got one with cream cheese, avacado, and salmon. Called the Philadelphia. Also yummy.
-Sneaking wine in my room like 2 high schoolers. We also did not have the corkscrew to open it. Thus, we discovered, all you need is: a fork, a pen, nail clippers, tweezers...and a tad bit of DEDICATION.
Like stated above, PRINCESSES
We wandered a bit, although the weather was iffy (it is Bretagne after all), and
stopped in a bunch of random shops to look at shoes (Elise wants leather boots. I just bought some.). We found this random indoor mall that looked like some Victorian awesome thing. We learned about it in the castle. We found a big bell tower, a cool fountain, drank some cafe where we discovered that Katie may in fact be the devil, if not at least related, due to her 6.66 of change, saw a huge cathedral that was slightly lame (I think they rebuilt a lot of it), PLAYED WITH PUPPIES, drank a beer with some Irishmen, ate Thai food SUPER FAST (we had a train to catch), and then headed home to watch some How I Met Your Mother (obviously). Its been fun to explore parts of Bretagne that I haven't been to yet, even though they're super close and I've been here 5 (almost 6...holy cow.) months. Its been an adventure for both of us!!!! Plus we'll have cool pics to put on our porch next year (on top of the Louis Vuitton trunks).
Other observations: Escalators, while prominent, are always broken. French women can walk in crazy high heels and dress quite nicely- almost annoyingly nice. Lots of funny little inserts of English, such as STRONG BACON, and GO. There has also been many debates about PIRATES v. NINJAS- although we don't particularly understand the debate (Pirates would obviously be way more fun to be at a bar with.) Or...zombies v. vampires?!?!
Lucille and I engaged in a very serious and intense TICKLE FIGHT. She is crazy. We also played a game where one person was blind folded and had to run around and grab someone else. Katie and I had the advantage, since she is tiny and easy to guess. Lucile also thought it was funny that Elise couldn't understand what she was saying. I had to translate a lot.
I REALLY like all the graffiti on all the walls. I don't have any idea how they tag some of the places that they do, like the really high up ledges and such, but it think its super sweeet. (even the sorta lame ones are still pretty cool).
The next morning, after a somewhat slow start and slightly dreary Paris weather, we went to Musée D'Orsay to enjoy impressionism, among other things. It was easier to differentiate paintings/artwork, given some range in subject matter other than religion. We really enjoyed the room of all of Monet's work, including some of the lily pads. It was really cool to see some of the paintings that took up a WHOLE wall and some of the furniture was strange (and a tease, since you could not test out the comfort levels of each item. Some of the chairs looked really promising too). There was a special exhibit by this special dude, who after being harshly criticized by the public, became obsessed with painting these masks represented the distortion of the evil masses of the cruel public. Obviously he did not handle criticism well- but some of these masks were SUPER creepy. On a lighter note, one of the paintings we enjoyed the most, was The Orgy Painting. Basically, a whole bunch of Romans were having too much fun one night, drinking, making out, you know- the usual, and there was just a lot of drama going on among these young drunken Romans.
As you can see above, alcohol leads to no good. The older Romans obviously think these young-ins can't hold their own, there are love triangles, make out sessions, jealous emo kids- a high school dance gone wrong. Just looking at the picture makes me giggle.
In search of food and coffee, we walked along the Champs Elysées (one of the chic-est streets in Paris), where we stopped to admire (or laugh) at Louis Vuitton, especially because we both already own, you know, like 35 pairs of sun glasses each (at 350 euro a pop). We picked out our favorite trunks (because we are on the Titanic) to ship back home (and use as furniture on our porch, to copy the mannequins). The Champs Elysées was probably the start to this weird obsession with leather and boots, even the desire to wear cool high heels, that France seems to have instilled in me (Elise). At the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triomphe, a GINORMOUS monument built by Napoleon to compensate for his dwarf status. See the man in a blue letter jacket? Elise decided to flash a smile in his direction.
French boys are creepy. No smiling- ever. Lesson learned.
The Arc is HUGE and very cool to look at, especially the ceiling (like all the other cool ceiling in France- seems to be a requirement). There is a flame always lit, for the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. The intersection around the Arc is terrifying, since all the main streets intersect here, thus to cross the street, there are underground tunnels to get to and from the Arc. By the way, we found the Ericson family of France to take the above photo (creepy man included). They were at least 10 feet tall- even the mom. Also the by the way, people in France really like, like obsessed with, How I Met Your Mother- which is wonderful. Everyone loves Barney.
We went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where lots of famous French and international people are buried. Its huge and complicated, with tons of different sections. We took a picture of the map with our camera, hoping to take advantage of zoom, but we still couldn't find stuff. We visited Jim Morrison's grave first, once we found it. Then, meandered towards Oscar Wilde's grave, which also took a while to find because we overshot it. Once we were in the right section, it is fairly easy to find because it is covered in lipstick and kisses. It is a popular tradition to kiss his grave; a tradition we decided to take part in. Never have I ever kissed a grave....Shoot.We were rushed out of the cemetery as it started to get darker- probably because of zombies, so, we left and decided it was probably safer in the sex district of Paris, Montmartre. Some day, when rich and famous, we will return to the actual Moulin Rouge.
While meandering more cobblestone, dangerous even in flat shoes, we bought some HOT WINE to keep warm. The wine is warmed, has some spices and orange slices and is delicious. Yum.
We continued to wander, saw the Sacré Coeur, a beautiful white church, whose service was in progress while we quietly walked around the outside. This was another example of the stair climbing for the Paris Workout. At the bottom of the hill, there were a bunch of guys with string, who tried to grab your wrists and make you a bracelet for lots of euro. No thank you.
Katie made me (elise) try more French-y things, like KIRS. It is white wine and a fruity syrup. We drank it at this cute little cafe over by our cute little hotel. We had crepes that night. I had NUTELLA and BANANA- it was messy, but brilliant. We had a train early the next day, so we headed to bed, and woke early to quickly carry all of my stuff to the sketchy metro stop at 7am. Saw a homeless man penis (my favorite early morning surprise) and the cops stopped the metro to search for some man, who we then saw them handcuff. Cool. Good morning.
Other noteable Paris things: Where's Waldo is actually... Where is Charlie?!?! And Quick Burger has lots of signs for STRONG BACON, as well as strong cheese. Not as exciting as STRONG BACON.
Our first afternoon in Rennes was filled with an intense...wait for it....ping pong tournament. Yeah. It is hardcore. We watched Yoann destroy a wall in hot pursuit of a ball, lots of french swearing, followed by beer and baguettes. Yoann's family cooked us a delicious meal, a chinese-inspired dish of Beef and caramel, with wine, as well as a delicious fruit crumble desert and french cheese. This was my first French cheese experience. Nothing like Wisconsin cheese. But the Munster was DELICIOUS.
Monday, I (Katie) had to sign up for classes because my month and a half vacation came to an end this week. Tragic, really. In French style, Leah and my schedule ended up getting messed up, but, I guess we're used to France disorganization. For our long stay visas, Leah and I needed to go get x-rays of our lungs. WHICH WE GET TO KEEEEEEP!!!!!!!! Proud to say, I'm tuberculosis free! Check. I'm putting my x-ray up on the fridge when I get back to Madison. Also, we had to get a doctors appointment. Our doctor was about 12. Wore skinny pants, pointy boots, and had his scooter helmet on his desk. I think his backpack had red spider webs on it. I told him about Milwaukee (he'd never heard of it) and I almost tipped over the medical table, whoops. He told me the x-ray was a "beau cadeau" (beautiful present) and to take care of it. Awesome.Katie, Leah and I took a day trip to Saint Malo, a walled beach town which is about a 45 minute train ride. I really like the trains- they make me sleepy. The weather was surprisingly nice, it was SUNNY, and we walked along the wall and adventured along the beach. Apparently the tide rises really quickly and its easy to get stuck out on the little island like forts- but we didn't get stuck. Just enjoyed each of the forts. We found Chateaubriand's grave overlooking the ocean. He was a moody French author who was born in Saint Malo. We agreed that it was a fitting and very EPIC place to be buried; very beautiful. It was also completely lovely to walk along the water, with lots of little kids bundled up playing, as well as dogs running about. We wandered about in the town searching for a place to eat and eventually ate wonderfully delicious Galettes, which are crepes, with egg, ham and cheese in them. We eat them a bunch, because they are super yummy. We also drank cider and had a sugar crepe for desert (Leah splurged and got a caramel crepe). We mostly hung out, looked at the ocean, and enjoyed the sunshine. It was peaceful and wonderful.
Things We've Explored in Rennes:
-We walked through the garden to hang out with the birds.
They were chirping up a storm; I reckon they like to gossip.-The HOT CHOCOLATE specialty place. They have soooooooooo many different types of hot chocolate. YUM. I got raspberry flavored hot chocolate and Katie got honey and vanilla. They give you a little bit of brownie too. There are board games to be played and a lovely warm ambiance.
-The CHAI place. We've been there twice. Also delicious. They play good music and we snagged a table with cushions the second time we went. We've also decided to open our own little hippie coffeeshop some day when we are old- sometime after Katie has worked at Curves/Hollister and I've lived in a cardboard box somewhere? Ooooh the places we'll go.
-The Saturday Morning Market: We wandered through the fruit section, where Katie got a FREE apple, a quite tasty one, and I got a super yummy pear. We tried galette saucisse, which is a brat wrapped in a galette. While in line it started to HAIL, then snow, a little bit of rain and then it was sunny again. Bretagne has weird weather. They have EVEN more cheese than the farmers market in Madison, which is impressive. Also, a lot of honey. We also walked through the meat part of the market, which was pretty gross, with HUGE slabs of meat, cow eye balls and chickens with their heads still on. Yikes.
-Katie and I ate at this cute little restaurant in Rennes that we happened to meander into. We got a lovely student deal for pasta (which had corn in it, which was apparently debated about among the cooks/waitress, and they went for it, and it was a good addition), wine and coffee and we bought a dessert too. To our luck, they didn't have the dessert we wanted, so we got a super fancy and wonderful fancy dessert (it was really fancy) for the price of the cheaper brownie one. Awesome. Seated next to us was a man dining alone. Dun dun dun.....and he wouldn't stop talking to us. Unfortunately for me (Katie), Elise doesn't speak French, so I was stuck having to answer his questions. Upon leaving, the waitress asked me if we were bothered by him. I said no, it wasn't a big deal. She replied "Good. Because usually we don't let him in. He likes to chat up young girls." Great. The dessert was totally worth it.
-Magical Bakery: everything is jumbo sized, chocolately, and magical. End of story.
-Funny assortment dinner- We needed to pick up dinner before heading to Leah's, so we stopped to get sushi. We also got clementines (probably the yummiest clementines i've ever eaten). We also got brownies. Yum. Elise's sushi had mango and mint in it. Weird combo, but was delicious. I got one with cream cheese, avacado, and salmon. Called the Philadelphia. Also yummy.
-Sneaking wine in my room like 2 high schoolers. We also did not have the corkscrew to open it. Thus, we discovered, all you need is: a fork, a pen, nail clippers, tweezers...and a tad bit of DEDICATION.
So. Thursday night. You see...i've been hearing about how Thursday night is THE night to go out, wander the cobblestone, hang out in the other Mad Ave (not that any place could ever even touch the classy-ness of the wonderful Mad Ave Dance Club that we often frequent in Madison), take some smurf shots, drink a beer, dance in the streets. Viva la revolution. To start our night out solidly, we ate some pasta and got FREEEEEE dessert. Leah, Katie and I then enjoyed some cider and cheap red wine in a rando alleyway, because, we are obviously, a) super classy and b) we can. I really did enjoy the Madison Avenue here on the Rue de la Soif (Thirsty Road....interesting. Thirsty Thursday, France style). The conveniently cute bartender kept dancing to all of the Shaggy songs that played. We also saw a hobbit, who talked to us, mooned the bar, and tried to get with this chick. Good work, Frodo- protect that ring. We met up with Joanna and Adelene, two lovely French friends, hung out til bar time, and then, when kicked out of the bars, everyone moves to the streets. We had to move, twice, due to the impeding doom of fights getting close to us. So, this guy, came by and opened a seemingly locked door with his butt. 
So....obviously....we did too. We took turns, around the circle, opening the said locked door, with our booties. It was great fun. THEN! we met Barney Stinson, or so he claimed. Insisting that he was awesome, he demanded validation as the French Barney Stinson. However, he had no suit. No Suit = No Barney Stinson. Suit up, man....duh. VIVA LA REVOLUTION. We slumberpartied (yeah, verb) at Leah's, tried to watch a How I Met Your Mother even though Leah and I fell asleep pretty prompty and Katie finished it, and then awoke for an adventure to NANTES.
So....obviously....we did too. We took turns, around the circle, opening the said locked door, with our booties. It was great fun. THEN! we met Barney Stinson, or so he claimed. Insisting that he was awesome, he demanded validation as the French Barney Stinson. However, he had no suit. No Suit = No Barney Stinson. Suit up, man....duh. VIVA LA REVOLUTION. We slumberpartied (yeah, verb) at Leah's, tried to watch a How I Met Your Mother even though Leah and I fell asleep pretty prompty and Katie finished it, and then awoke for an adventure to NANTES.A Trip to Nantes: We went there. Most importantly, there is a CASSSSSSSSTTTLLLLEEEEEEEEEEE. We are princesses. The castle belonged to the Duc de Bretagne back in the day. He was pretty cool. Rebellious, viva la revolution, and all that. The only let down was the lack of dungeon. No dragons, but there was a legit moat. And machicoulis, these holes in the floor of the walls that people used to throw shit through to smash invaders!!!!! SOOOOO cool. (Katie is obssessed, if you can't tell).
Like stated above, PRINCESSESWe wandered a bit, although the weather was iffy (it is Bretagne after all), and
stopped in a bunch of random shops to look at shoes (Elise wants leather boots. I just bought some.). We found this random indoor mall that looked like some Victorian awesome thing. We learned about it in the castle. We found a big bell tower, a cool fountain, drank some cafe where we discovered that Katie may in fact be the devil, if not at least related, due to her 6.66 of change, saw a huge cathedral that was slightly lame (I think they rebuilt a lot of it), PLAYED WITH PUPPIES, drank a beer with some Irishmen, ate Thai food SUPER FAST (we had a train to catch), and then headed home to watch some How I Met Your Mother (obviously). Its been fun to explore parts of Bretagne that I haven't been to yet, even though they're super close and I've been here 5 (almost 6...holy cow.) months. Its been an adventure for both of us!!!! Plus we'll have cool pics to put on our porch next year (on top of the Louis Vuitton trunks).Other observations: Escalators, while prominent, are always broken. French women can walk in crazy high heels and dress quite nicely- almost annoyingly nice. Lots of funny little inserts of English, such as STRONG BACON, and GO. There has also been many debates about PIRATES v. NINJAS- although we don't particularly understand the debate (Pirates would obviously be way more fun to be at a bar with.) Or...zombies v. vampires?!?!
Lucille and I engaged in a very serious and intense TICKLE FIGHT. She is crazy. We also played a game where one person was blind folded and had to run around and grab someone else. Katie and I had the advantage, since she is tiny and easy to guess. Lucile also thought it was funny that Elise couldn't understand what she was saying. I had to translate a lot.
I REALLY like all the graffiti on all the walls. I don't have any idea how they tag some of the places that they do, like the really high up ledges and such, but it think its super sweeet. (even the sorta lame ones are still pretty cool).
We hope you've enjoyed our witty banter, as we've enjoyed our adventures. And always remember, VIVA LA REVOLUTION. À bientôt!
-Katie and Elise
-Katie and Elise
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Warming up by the fire
I'm at home, sitting by the fireplace, enjoying a bit of peace (after a pretty peaceful day)....
Today Leah and I bought our plane tickets home. Doesn't seem like that big of deal, but it got me thinking. Up until now, I was just going about my days here in Rennes, which has been kind of just like a giant vacation from the real world, with out much thinking of how one day I am in fact going to have to go back. Sure, I've thought of the things I want to do when my plane touches down in Chicago (Mickey's Dairy Bar and a BIG GIANT NON ESPRESSO REAL COFFEE from Indie), but home seemed very very far away. I now have a deadline. May 24th I'll be heading non-stop to Chicago in an airplane, waving goodbye to Rennes and a fantastic year abroad.
Leah and I counted the days. 124 (soon to be 123). I now have 124 days to do absolutely everything I want to do. All the cafés and pastries and traveling and galettes and chaï and silly French people I can handle. I'm hoping its enough. I've always been that person that writes a million lists and then never looks at them again. This time, I'm going to write that list of things I want to do and I'm going to cross them off. (well hopefully most of them)
Other exciting news: Elise is coming on Friday (as in a day and a half!). I foresee lots of adventures in France (and possibly elsewhere?). Its been so great to have visits from home. After 5 months away, seeing Hank and now Elise has been a big boost of morale. I'm leaving Friday morning to get her from the airport and we're going to spend the weekend in Paris, doing awesome Parisian things. The Louvre is open late on Fridays, so I think we're going to take advantage of that, and if the weathers holds, maybe a picnic with La Tour Eiffel herself on Saturday. J'ai hâte de la voir!!!!!
Random French quirk: They like to change the titles of English movies into different titles, in ENGLISH. Not even in French. A few examples:
The Hangover = A Very Bad Trip
Pirate Radio = Good Morning England
Whip It (which I saw yesterday) = Bliss
I can understand translated titles into your language, but really? A Very Bad Trip? C'mon.
Well, its getting awful close to my bedtime. Being in a house with kids has lead to me catching un rhume several times this semester....even Sophie's (my host moms) essential oils and teas can't ward of all illness. So, its off to bed to battle a cold I go......
Today Leah and I bought our plane tickets home. Doesn't seem like that big of deal, but it got me thinking. Up until now, I was just going about my days here in Rennes, which has been kind of just like a giant vacation from the real world, with out much thinking of how one day I am in fact going to have to go back. Sure, I've thought of the things I want to do when my plane touches down in Chicago (Mickey's Dairy Bar and a BIG GIANT NON ESPRESSO REAL COFFEE from Indie), but home seemed very very far away. I now have a deadline. May 24th I'll be heading non-stop to Chicago in an airplane, waving goodbye to Rennes and a fantastic year abroad.
Leah and I counted the days. 124 (soon to be 123). I now have 124 days to do absolutely everything I want to do. All the cafés and pastries and traveling and galettes and chaï and silly French people I can handle. I'm hoping its enough. I've always been that person that writes a million lists and then never looks at them again. This time, I'm going to write that list of things I want to do and I'm going to cross them off. (well hopefully most of them)
Other exciting news: Elise is coming on Friday (as in a day and a half!). I foresee lots of adventures in France (and possibly elsewhere?). Its been so great to have visits from home. After 5 months away, seeing Hank and now Elise has been a big boost of morale. I'm leaving Friday morning to get her from the airport and we're going to spend the weekend in Paris, doing awesome Parisian things. The Louvre is open late on Fridays, so I think we're going to take advantage of that, and if the weathers holds, maybe a picnic with La Tour Eiffel herself on Saturday. J'ai hâte de la voir!!!!!
Random French quirk: They like to change the titles of English movies into different titles, in ENGLISH. Not even in French. A few examples:
The Hangover = A Very Bad Trip
Pirate Radio = Good Morning England
Whip It (which I saw yesterday) = Bliss
I can understand translated titles into your language, but really? A Very Bad Trip? C'mon.
Well, its getting awful close to my bedtime. Being in a house with kids has lead to me catching un rhume several times this semester....even Sophie's (my host moms) essential oils and teas can't ward of all illness. So, its off to bed to battle a cold I go......
Saturday, January 16, 2010
2 weeks gone by way too fast
Tomorrow I head to Paris to say bye to Hank, who has been visiting me for the past two weeks. We've done a lot of fun things, spent New Years Eve in Paris, drank lots of coffee (and wine) in Strasbourg, hung out at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, and relaxed in Rennes with my host family....
It went by way too fast, and I can't believe I'm going to have to say goodbye to Hank (for the second time) on Sunday. But, we made the most of our time together, and I know that this next semester will go by just as fast. Pretty soon, I'll be back in Madison hanging out on the terrace, just like usual.
One of my New Years resolutions was to keep this thing more up to date, because I failed at it first semester. So, hopefully this means more awesome posts by moi in the future. I'll put up some pics for those of you without facebook to see of my trip through Europe with Hank and write a more detailed post later. I will do it. Promise.
Ta ta for now.
Katie and Hank
It went by way too fast, and I can't believe I'm going to have to say goodbye to Hank (for the second time) on Sunday. But, we made the most of our time together, and I know that this next semester will go by just as fast. Pretty soon, I'll be back in Madison hanging out on the terrace, just like usual.
One of my New Years resolutions was to keep this thing more up to date, because I failed at it first semester. So, hopefully this means more awesome posts by moi in the future. I'll put up some pics for those of you without facebook to see of my trip through Europe with Hank and write a more detailed post later. I will do it. Promise.
Ta ta for now.
Katie and Hank
Friday, December 25, 2009
Joyeux Noël
So, apologies as always, its been a month since my last post. With exams last week and saying good bye to all the fall semester students, I barely noticed how fast time flew by. Now it's Christmas, and I'm left scratching my head wondering where December went.
I guess I should do a quick recap of this past month:
1. Waffle houses. I wanted to do some festive holiday things with the kids in my host family, since I love Christmas and everything. I thought to myself, well gingerbread houses, thats a GREAT idea. Upon quickly realizing I would have to make gingerbread myself and after having messed up plain old sugar cookies (they turned into a giant mass of melted butter in the oven...), I changed my idea to graham cracker houses. Oh wait, small issue, they don't have graham crackers in France.....
Some fast problem solving at the supermarché led to Leah and I buying lots and lots of waffles and lots and lots of candy. The kids all invited some friends over and they got to make their own creations, and eat lots of sugar. The Gingerbread houses à la française weren't quite as pretty as the ones we make at home, but they definitely had their charm. Most impressive was Louis' friend Guillaume who managed to eat 6 waffles.
2. SNOW!!!!!!!!! It snowed for the first time in 3 years here in Rennes, all 2 inches worth. I'd like to say it was all because of me, I brought it from Wisconsin, but who knows. All I know is that it was wonderful! Agathe woke me up last Friday and said, "Hurry and see the snow before it melts!" I helped Agathe make her very first ever snowman, a slightly crooked, cute little guy with almonds for eyes. Sadly, he toppled shortly after. France in general is not well equipped for snow, and even though with my Wisconsin vision, it looked like nothing, French people all over were terrified. The buses stopped running, schools closed, people walked hesitantly on the sidewalks, bundled up for the frozen tundra. Par contre, Leah and I made snowballs. The next day, Leah, Lucile, and I had great big snowfight. Lucile really loves the snow, and she keeps telling me she wants to come to Wisconsin to see all of it.
3. Haircut! Nothing much to say, I went and got my haircut at Stephanie's host dad's salon. I was really scared because I didn't know any of the vocab and I didn't want to end up with a super short bob/faux hawk haircut and purple highlights or something. Thankfully, Steph's père was great, and he gave me a good haircut with bangs (!). He cut Leah's hair the other day and she loved it too. We survived our first French haircuts!
4. CIREFE end of the year party/Depart of the semester. So, last week was a pretty chaotic time. It was the last week of classes, which meant everyone headed home before Christmas. CIREFE (the university) held a big end of the year party at a discothèque. It was a lot of fun, very eventful (people got kicked out!). But, most importantly, Leah, Larissa, and I sandwiched Daniel Audaz, our program director (Madison alum, and possibly the cutest Frenchman on the planet). On Thursday, a bunch of us went out for last galettes at Creperie St. Anne, which were delicious, and then went to O'Connell's Irish Pub to say goodbye to all the people who were leaving. It turned into a giant American dance party, and we got free Guiness shirts and man thongs (hey, it was a Christmas party after all). It was a lot of fun, and a good way to say goodbye to all the CIEE kids. Its weird to think that most of my friends here are back in the states. Saddest of all was saying bye to Larissa. Friday night her family had Leah, Yoann, and I over for a dinner of raclette and afterwards we helped pack her stuff. Well, Leah packed her stuff, Larissa and I pretended to help. The next morning (as in 6:30 am...), the four of us, plus Larissa's host parents walked her and her heavy suitcases to the train station. Georges (her père) insisted on walking because of icy roads (obviously George has never been to WI). It was a quick, unorganized goodbye at the gare due to frozen doors on the train. She ended up having a lot of travel problems (snow in Paris) but is now safely back in the US! Leah and I are a little lost without her :(
5. Wine with Guillaume Marbot. For our last class of civilisation, our professor taught us how to taste wine. So, at 10:30am, we all had a little wine and discussed its many fine qualities with my favorite Frenchy ever, Guillaume Marbot. I learned that you should open red wine at least half an hour before you drink it, and that the more alcoholic a wine is, the more larmes it leaves on the glass when you swirl it. He scoffed at Sarkozy and Mitterand, who, as he told us, don't drink wine. "A French president who doesn't like wine?!?!?" ....I love this man. I actually did learn a lot from this dégustation, and the wine he picked was delicious. After the class, he let us take the left over wine, so, thanks to Monsieur Marbot, I have wine in my closet. Only in France.
Other honorable mentions: the mairie all lit up with a Christmas spectacle, chichis from the Christmas market, almost having a heart attack before my arhitecture oral exam and then somehow surviving, trying to call the French government and no one answering..., endless episodes of How I Met Your Mother, helping Sophie out with the inventory at the pharmacy, movie night at Yoann's consisting of white russians made with bailey's and Elf dubbed over in French, helping Lucile leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer....
Christmas deserves its own paragraph. The most obvious differences between the holiday here and in the US is the lack of decorations (at least for me). You walk around the neighboorhoods and no one has lights up outside. Most homes have a tree and a manger set, but thats about it. Not too many put lights all over the outside of their houses, or put up endless amounts of decorations on the inside. There is also a distinct lack of singing. They don't have very many songs for Noël. No Frosty, no Rudolph, no Rockin Around the Christmas Tree. While the Christmas Market and the lights in town do add to the festiveness, its a little hard to feel like its really Christmas. To help celebrate, Hugue's parents came over. In comparison with my family in the states, it was a lot more tame. No buffet style munchies, no cousins and aunts and uncles. It was weird to not be with everyone back home and to not have snow. At first, when I woke up, I was kinda sad about it all, and I wasn't sure I was going to have a good day. Luckily the day was full of things to do, so it kept my mind off all the people I miss.
Last night, we all placed our shoes under the tree, and this morning we found chocolate stuffed inside them and little piles of presents. I will say, at least in my host family, there were a lot less presents than back home. I guess it proves the whole "US = consume consume consume EXCESS!" idea. For example, Agathe got pens and a board game. She seemed a little disappointed nonetheless...Lucile was so happy with Père Noël's present of a barbie camera, she pretty much forgot the rest of her loot. Lunch was very structured, multiple courses, Agathe had planned entertainment in between. I ate foie gras for the first time, and I actually liked it, even though I felt bad for the little geese. We also ate fish, which they told me isn't typical. In France, its usually a turkey for Christmas. Agathe made a bûche de noël that was AWESOME! In between the main course and dessert, the kids put on a little Christmas spectacle. Agathe read a story out loud, and I helped Louis and Lucile make the sound effects. I think everyone liked it :)
Lunch took a good 3 hours, and afterwards all I wanted to do was sleep. I took a skype break and talked to my Mom. After that, I went back up and joined the family for a stressful game of Jenga. I forgot how nerve wracking that game can be. Hugue's dad is this funny little old man who is super interested in English pronunciations. He asked me to repeat the name Julia Roberts at least five times so he could try and get it right. Jooola Bovers. Jula Roset. He just couldn't get it. Dan Rather was a toughy too. The French and those darn -th- sounds.
I'll try and get some pics up on this tomorrow.
Now its after midnight and I am going to try and watch a little bit of "A Christmas Story" online before I head to sleep, visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. I hope everyone back home had a wonderful Christmas, full of family and food. Joyeux Noël!
Love lots,
Katie
I guess I should do a quick recap of this past month:
1. Waffle houses. I wanted to do some festive holiday things with the kids in my host family, since I love Christmas and everything. I thought to myself, well gingerbread houses, thats a GREAT idea. Upon quickly realizing I would have to make gingerbread myself and after having messed up plain old sugar cookies (they turned into a giant mass of melted butter in the oven...), I changed my idea to graham cracker houses. Oh wait, small issue, they don't have graham crackers in France.....
Some fast problem solving at the supermarché led to Leah and I buying lots and lots of waffles and lots and lots of candy. The kids all invited some friends over and they got to make their own creations, and eat lots of sugar. The Gingerbread houses à la française weren't quite as pretty as the ones we make at home, but they definitely had their charm. Most impressive was Louis' friend Guillaume who managed to eat 6 waffles.
2. SNOW!!!!!!!!! It snowed for the first time in 3 years here in Rennes, all 2 inches worth. I'd like to say it was all because of me, I brought it from Wisconsin, but who knows. All I know is that it was wonderful! Agathe woke me up last Friday and said, "Hurry and see the snow before it melts!" I helped Agathe make her very first ever snowman, a slightly crooked, cute little guy with almonds for eyes. Sadly, he toppled shortly after. France in general is not well equipped for snow, and even though with my Wisconsin vision, it looked like nothing, French people all over were terrified. The buses stopped running, schools closed, people walked hesitantly on the sidewalks, bundled up for the frozen tundra. Par contre, Leah and I made snowballs. The next day, Leah, Lucile, and I had great big snowfight. Lucile really loves the snow, and she keeps telling me she wants to come to Wisconsin to see all of it.
3. Haircut! Nothing much to say, I went and got my haircut at Stephanie's host dad's salon. I was really scared because I didn't know any of the vocab and I didn't want to end up with a super short bob/faux hawk haircut and purple highlights or something. Thankfully, Steph's père was great, and he gave me a good haircut with bangs (!). He cut Leah's hair the other day and she loved it too. We survived our first French haircuts!
4. CIREFE end of the year party/Depart of the semester. So, last week was a pretty chaotic time. It was the last week of classes, which meant everyone headed home before Christmas. CIREFE (the university) held a big end of the year party at a discothèque. It was a lot of fun, very eventful (people got kicked out!). But, most importantly, Leah, Larissa, and I sandwiched Daniel Audaz, our program director (Madison alum, and possibly the cutest Frenchman on the planet). On Thursday, a bunch of us went out for last galettes at Creperie St. Anne, which were delicious, and then went to O'Connell's Irish Pub to say goodbye to all the people who were leaving. It turned into a giant American dance party, and we got free Guiness shirts and man thongs (hey, it was a Christmas party after all). It was a lot of fun, and a good way to say goodbye to all the CIEE kids. Its weird to think that most of my friends here are back in the states. Saddest of all was saying bye to Larissa. Friday night her family had Leah, Yoann, and I over for a dinner of raclette and afterwards we helped pack her stuff. Well, Leah packed her stuff, Larissa and I pretended to help. The next morning (as in 6:30 am...), the four of us, plus Larissa's host parents walked her and her heavy suitcases to the train station. Georges (her père) insisted on walking because of icy roads (obviously George has never been to WI). It was a quick, unorganized goodbye at the gare due to frozen doors on the train. She ended up having a lot of travel problems (snow in Paris) but is now safely back in the US! Leah and I are a little lost without her :(
5. Wine with Guillaume Marbot. For our last class of civilisation, our professor taught us how to taste wine. So, at 10:30am, we all had a little wine and discussed its many fine qualities with my favorite Frenchy ever, Guillaume Marbot. I learned that you should open red wine at least half an hour before you drink it, and that the more alcoholic a wine is, the more larmes it leaves on the glass when you swirl it. He scoffed at Sarkozy and Mitterand, who, as he told us, don't drink wine. "A French president who doesn't like wine?!?!?" ....I love this man. I actually did learn a lot from this dégustation, and the wine he picked was delicious. After the class, he let us take the left over wine, so, thanks to Monsieur Marbot, I have wine in my closet. Only in France.
Other honorable mentions: the mairie all lit up with a Christmas spectacle, chichis from the Christmas market, almost having a heart attack before my arhitecture oral exam and then somehow surviving, trying to call the French government and no one answering..., endless episodes of How I Met Your Mother, helping Sophie out with the inventory at the pharmacy, movie night at Yoann's consisting of white russians made with bailey's and Elf dubbed over in French, helping Lucile leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer....
Christmas deserves its own paragraph. The most obvious differences between the holiday here and in the US is the lack of decorations (at least for me). You walk around the neighboorhoods and no one has lights up outside. Most homes have a tree and a manger set, but thats about it. Not too many put lights all over the outside of their houses, or put up endless amounts of decorations on the inside. There is also a distinct lack of singing. They don't have very many songs for Noël. No Frosty, no Rudolph, no Rockin Around the Christmas Tree. While the Christmas Market and the lights in town do add to the festiveness, its a little hard to feel like its really Christmas. To help celebrate, Hugue's parents came over. In comparison with my family in the states, it was a lot more tame. No buffet style munchies, no cousins and aunts and uncles. It was weird to not be with everyone back home and to not have snow. At first, when I woke up, I was kinda sad about it all, and I wasn't sure I was going to have a good day. Luckily the day was full of things to do, so it kept my mind off all the people I miss.
Last night, we all placed our shoes under the tree, and this morning we found chocolate stuffed inside them and little piles of presents. I will say, at least in my host family, there were a lot less presents than back home. I guess it proves the whole "US = consume consume consume EXCESS!" idea. For example, Agathe got pens and a board game. She seemed a little disappointed nonetheless...Lucile was so happy with Père Noël's present of a barbie camera, she pretty much forgot the rest of her loot. Lunch was very structured, multiple courses, Agathe had planned entertainment in between. I ate foie gras for the first time, and I actually liked it, even though I felt bad for the little geese. We also ate fish, which they told me isn't typical. In France, its usually a turkey for Christmas. Agathe made a bûche de noël that was AWESOME! In between the main course and dessert, the kids put on a little Christmas spectacle. Agathe read a story out loud, and I helped Louis and Lucile make the sound effects. I think everyone liked it :)
Lunch took a good 3 hours, and afterwards all I wanted to do was sleep. I took a skype break and talked to my Mom. After that, I went back up and joined the family for a stressful game of Jenga. I forgot how nerve wracking that game can be. Hugue's dad is this funny little old man who is super interested in English pronunciations. He asked me to repeat the name Julia Roberts at least five times so he could try and get it right. Jooola Bovers. Jula Roset. He just couldn't get it. Dan Rather was a toughy too. The French and those darn -th- sounds.
I'll try and get some pics up on this tomorrow.
Now its after midnight and I am going to try and watch a little bit of "A Christmas Story" online before I head to sleep, visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. I hope everyone back home had a wonderful Christmas, full of family and food. Joyeux Noël!
Love lots,
Katie
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