We are back in Rouen, glad to have had such a wonderful trip. We're now working on getting pictures up on facebook. I was going to bloggy blog tonight at length about being back and things but my dear Donnie woke up with the beginnings of a cold. So in an effort to ward it off, we have gargled with salt water, stuffed ourselves to the brim with tea and water, eaten lots of garlic, taken our vitamin C. Now we're going to bed but first we'll put tons of Vicks on our throats and smell like Mom Nichols. We're gonna fight this thing. And now, sleep.
xoxo
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Home Sweet Home in Avignon
I actually didn't mean for the subject of this post to rhyme. But it truly feels like I am home sweet home, at least for a bit. Three and a half years ago, I lived with this amazing family in Avignon for 5 weeks while I took a French class at the American Institute here. I specifically requested a family with no kids, or with kids who no longer lived at the house because I just wanted to be able to sit around and talk with my host parents. And talk we did. They live about 40 minutes by foot from the center of the town, so rather than going out to party each night with the rest of my classmates, I was perfectly content to stay home and talk to Aline and Momo -- we watched police movies and ate amazing food (Aline and my gramma are my two biggest inspirations in the kitchen and I still make the salad dressing that Aline taught me to make). We drank until we couldn't drink anymore. We talked (or debated, once Momo got involved) about the gender of nouns, abortion and the death penalty in the States, starting families, and love. Aline told me that I needed to start doing abs if I was ever going to find my Prince Charming. And look how right she was! This woman knows everything.
Donnie and I are wrapping up our trip with a two night stay with Aline and Momo. Just yesterday in Lyon, we were saying how much we really wanted to just go back to Rouen and be home -- the trip was a little too long for what we were ready for. But instead, we went to Avignon which has been more like home than I could have imagined or hoped for. We were welcomed with open arms and immediately, we reconnected. When Donnie went to the bathroom, they both looked at me with their stamp of approval. I am so happy.
We're doing a little bit of sight seeing here and there, but nothing extravagant. These two days are about indulging in Aline and Momo's company, eating good food, and talking to Donnie in French to see if he understands anything (which he does, sometimes!). Probably there won't be much more to report about our visit, but I couldn't be any more content. La vie est vachement belle.
Donnie and I are wrapping up our trip with a two night stay with Aline and Momo. Just yesterday in Lyon, we were saying how much we really wanted to just go back to Rouen and be home -- the trip was a little too long for what we were ready for. But instead, we went to Avignon which has been more like home than I could have imagined or hoped for. We were welcomed with open arms and immediately, we reconnected. When Donnie went to the bathroom, they both looked at me with their stamp of approval. I am so happy.
We're doing a little bit of sight seeing here and there, but nothing extravagant. These two days are about indulging in Aline and Momo's company, eating good food, and talking to Donnie in French to see if he understands anything (which he does, sometimes!). Probably there won't be much more to report about our visit, but I couldn't be any more content. La vie est vachement belle.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Today we walked a million miles.
Alrighty -- Barcelona highlights and then a bit of Lyon:
We saw a bunch of different Gaudi buildings: Casa Batllo, Casa Vicens, Casa Mila (La Pedrara), and we also spent a couple of hours in Parc Guell and walked around the permanently under-construction Sagrada Familia. Our CS host, S, told us that the Sagrada Familia is supposed to be finished in 2015 but probably in the year 2015 they'll say it will be finished in 2030. Or something. The castle-like building is built using only donations to the church and the money from entry fees. So whenever they run out of money, they stop construction. Donnie and I were disappointed at first that there were so many cranes and other construction things in the way of our view, but now we feel like we saw an ongoing part of history. Pretty cool. Also, it gives us a good reason to go back when it's done. Just like the Harry Potter section of Universal Studio in Florida. Except in both cases, we want to wait a bit for the initial crowds to die down. Anyways.
Other points of interest... This ended up being a crazy time to visit Barcelona because there was Carnival, a weekend long celebration of joy and happiness before Lent starts. Kind of like a drawn-out Mardi Gras. There were kids in costume everywhere we went, including an awesome 3 year old with a drawn-on moustache. There was a parade but on our way to the parade, it started pouring, so we didn't last long there, and went back to our hostel to dry out.
We ended up staying at S's house for three of the four days planned, leaving a day early to go stay in a hostel in Barcelona. She was a lovely host, preparing us for public transportation, loading us up with maps and advice for what to see, but we were staying in a rather drafty room on a thin pad on the floor, and her house was about an hour away from the center of Barcelona by public transportation. We were ready to step out our door and walk into the center of the city. The hostel we found was right along the Mediterranean Sea and it had a slew of interesting people. We ate breakfast with two Russian girls, a German dude, a man from England, and another American (whose friend is also an assistant!), while staring at the sea. Lovely.
The next day, we headed to our previously-reserved hostel/hotel. There was a loud child there, but otherwise it was lovely. That day, it was Valentine's Day, so we went to dinner at a restaurant called Dostrece (213, the area code of the guys who opened the restaurant, who were from LA) and shared a lovely meal for couples only complete with tapas style hors d'oeuvres, lasagna and blue cheese gnocchi, and dessert, and complimentary champagne and wine. Donnie and I are hardly wasteful people, so we did our job of finishing both the bottles of alcohol. Oops. The next morning, the lovely city of Barcelona became my own personal Barfalona. That's all I'll say about that.
We spent a terrible day of travel to get to Lyon the day after V-tine's day. I had a major gueule de bois (or, and for Cameron, a katzenjammer) and Donnie wasn't feeling so hot either. We took a train to the airport, waited in lines at the airport to check in, took an hour long flight to Lyon, took a 45 minute bus into the center of Lyon. Oy. But we arrived and met our Couchsurfing hosts here. They (I and K) are great. I and K are a German couple who have lived in France for years and years. They both use German, English, and French in their jobs and have Russian and Spanish skills as well. Amazing.
I (our host; it keeps looking like I'm talking about myself but I'm not) took us on an incredible backdoor tour through Lyon today and we shared two meals with them. Last night, Donnie and I made a recipe from a vegetarian cooking magazine that Gram (Donnie's grandma) gave us. It was a stuffed baked eggplant dish. Delicious -- thanks, Gram! And we accompanied the meal with a fajita salad: basically, we took the ingredients we use to make fajitas and stuck them on top of some mâche (this kind of lettuce-ish stuff here that we like a lot) and drizzled my dressing on it. Also a great thing. Tonight, I (host again) made dinner for all of us -- he made this dish called quenelle, a typical lyonnais meal. Except he made it vegetarian. It was verrry tasty. Success all around.
We're off to Avignon tomorrow to go visit my former host family and to show the town off to Donnie. We're wishing we had one more day to explore Lyon, but at least we had a little bit of time to know that we definitely want to come back here someday!
Over and out.
We saw a bunch of different Gaudi buildings: Casa Batllo, Casa Vicens, Casa Mila (La Pedrara), and we also spent a couple of hours in Parc Guell and walked around the permanently under-construction Sagrada Familia. Our CS host, S, told us that the Sagrada Familia is supposed to be finished in 2015 but probably in the year 2015 they'll say it will be finished in 2030. Or something. The castle-like building is built using only donations to the church and the money from entry fees. So whenever they run out of money, they stop construction. Donnie and I were disappointed at first that there were so many cranes and other construction things in the way of our view, but now we feel like we saw an ongoing part of history. Pretty cool. Also, it gives us a good reason to go back when it's done. Just like the Harry Potter section of Universal Studio in Florida. Except in both cases, we want to wait a bit for the initial crowds to die down. Anyways.
Other points of interest... This ended up being a crazy time to visit Barcelona because there was Carnival, a weekend long celebration of joy and happiness before Lent starts. Kind of like a drawn-out Mardi Gras. There were kids in costume everywhere we went, including an awesome 3 year old with a drawn-on moustache. There was a parade but on our way to the parade, it started pouring, so we didn't last long there, and went back to our hostel to dry out.
We ended up staying at S's house for three of the four days planned, leaving a day early to go stay in a hostel in Barcelona. She was a lovely host, preparing us for public transportation, loading us up with maps and advice for what to see, but we were staying in a rather drafty room on a thin pad on the floor, and her house was about an hour away from the center of Barcelona by public transportation. We were ready to step out our door and walk into the center of the city. The hostel we found was right along the Mediterranean Sea and it had a slew of interesting people. We ate breakfast with two Russian girls, a German dude, a man from England, and another American (whose friend is also an assistant!), while staring at the sea. Lovely.
The next day, we headed to our previously-reserved hostel/hotel. There was a loud child there, but otherwise it was lovely. That day, it was Valentine's Day, so we went to dinner at a restaurant called Dostrece (213, the area code of the guys who opened the restaurant, who were from LA) and shared a lovely meal for couples only complete with tapas style hors d'oeuvres, lasagna and blue cheese gnocchi, and dessert, and complimentary champagne and wine. Donnie and I are hardly wasteful people, so we did our job of finishing both the bottles of alcohol. Oops. The next morning, the lovely city of Barcelona became my own personal Barfalona. That's all I'll say about that.
We spent a terrible day of travel to get to Lyon the day after V-tine's day. I had a major gueule de bois (or, and for Cameron, a katzenjammer) and Donnie wasn't feeling so hot either. We took a train to the airport, waited in lines at the airport to check in, took an hour long flight to Lyon, took a 45 minute bus into the center of Lyon. Oy. But we arrived and met our Couchsurfing hosts here. They (I and K) are great. I and K are a German couple who have lived in France for years and years. They both use German, English, and French in their jobs and have Russian and Spanish skills as well. Amazing.
I (our host; it keeps looking like I'm talking about myself but I'm not) took us on an incredible backdoor tour through Lyon today and we shared two meals with them. Last night, Donnie and I made a recipe from a vegetarian cooking magazine that Gram (Donnie's grandma) gave us. It was a stuffed baked eggplant dish. Delicious -- thanks, Gram! And we accompanied the meal with a fajita salad: basically, we took the ingredients we use to make fajitas and stuck them on top of some mâche (this kind of lettuce-ish stuff here that we like a lot) and drizzled my dressing on it. Also a great thing. Tonight, I (host again) made dinner for all of us -- he made this dish called quenelle, a typical lyonnais meal. Except he made it vegetarian. It was verrry tasty. Success all around.
We're off to Avignon tomorrow to go visit my former host family and to show the town off to Donnie. We're wishing we had one more day to explore Lyon, but at least we had a little bit of time to know that we definitely want to come back here someday!
Over and out.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
In Lyon
Hello friends! We made it to Lyon and had an epic day of traveling today. Now we're staying with some amazing couch surfing hosts who are Germans but live in France and also speak fluent English, and some Russian and Spanish and they lived in India for a while.
Details soon, but I'm exhausted. Good night, world! And happy belated Valentine's day!
Details soon, but I'm exhausted. Good night, world! And happy belated Valentine's day!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Paris/Barcelona: Days 1 and 2
This will also be brief because I'm just waiting for Donnie to get out of the shower so we can leave (oh no! he just came out! where does the time go?!) to explore Barcelona. But, several highlights:
1) Our hostel room in our Paris Hostel was lovely and comfy and on the 6th floor, no elevator. I have sore quads now but it's good that we got that work out in because it prepared us for ....
2) Our massive sprint in Barcelona. Last night, we got in to Barcelona rather late and after chasing our couchsurfing host "S" from place to place (Plaza de Catalunya, the Green line stop, the movie theatre where we ended up waiting across the street for 2 hours while S saw Precious and we ate a pizza with yummy veggies including eggplant and mushrooms which I magically eat now). Then, after S's movie, we met up with her and some of her former couchsurfers hailing from Portland. We talked for a little too long and then had to make a mad dash to the bus stop for the night bus that left at 1:27 am. We got there, panting, red-faced, and sweaty, at 1:29. Missed it. So we had to wait 58 minutes in the cold dark night of Barcelona with S, exchanging stories. S was a journalist and then a truck driver for four years and she then traveled throughout the world (New Zealand, Canada, New York, China, etc) for two years, mostly couchsurfing. Way cool.
3) There are cats at S's apartment, as well as two other couchsurfers. They are nice enough, though one of them told me that "life is about having expectations and then those expectations are never met." Not so sure about that one...
4) S has an oven! So for lunch today, Donnie and I made toasted sandwiches with butter and cheese and red peppers and spinach. SO GOOD. We're trying to make the most of having an oven for these few days because then we'll go home to a serious lack of oven for another 2 1/2 months.
5) Donnie and I went grocery shopping for the rest of our time in Barcelona. Cereal and soy milk for breakfast, cheese and bread for portable lunches, some veggies and pasta for dinners -- 14€17, which we payed for with a 5 euro bill and the rest in coins. BOOYAH.
Now we're going to explore La Rambla which is known for being touristy and thus a tourist trap full of pick-pockets and prostitutes (thanks, Wikipedia). But it's supposed to be lovely. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca once said that La Rambla was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end". (Thanks again, Wikipedia™.)
BYE!
1) Our hostel room in our Paris Hostel was lovely and comfy and on the 6th floor, no elevator. I have sore quads now but it's good that we got that work out in because it prepared us for ....
2) Our massive sprint in Barcelona. Last night, we got in to Barcelona rather late and after chasing our couchsurfing host "S" from place to place (Plaza de Catalunya, the Green line stop, the movie theatre where we ended up waiting across the street for 2 hours while S saw Precious and we ate a pizza with yummy veggies including eggplant and mushrooms which I magically eat now). Then, after S's movie, we met up with her and some of her former couchsurfers hailing from Portland. We talked for a little too long and then had to make a mad dash to the bus stop for the night bus that left at 1:27 am. We got there, panting, red-faced, and sweaty, at 1:29. Missed it. So we had to wait 58 minutes in the cold dark night of Barcelona with S, exchanging stories. S was a journalist and then a truck driver for four years and she then traveled throughout the world (New Zealand, Canada, New York, China, etc) for two years, mostly couchsurfing. Way cool.
3) There are cats at S's apartment, as well as two other couchsurfers. They are nice enough, though one of them told me that "life is about having expectations and then those expectations are never met." Not so sure about that one...
4) S has an oven! So for lunch today, Donnie and I made toasted sandwiches with butter and cheese and red peppers and spinach. SO GOOD. We're trying to make the most of having an oven for these few days because then we'll go home to a serious lack of oven for another 2 1/2 months.
5) Donnie and I went grocery shopping for the rest of our time in Barcelona. Cereal and soy milk for breakfast, cheese and bread for portable lunches, some veggies and pasta for dinners -- 14€17, which we payed for with a 5 euro bill and the rest in coins. BOOYAH.
Now we're going to explore La Rambla which is known for being touristy and thus a tourist trap full of pick-pockets and prostitutes (thanks, Wikipedia). But it's supposed to be lovely. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca once said that La Rambla was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end". (Thanks again, Wikipedia™.)
BYE!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Eep. We're leaving in 13 minutes and I'm still in PJs.
Very quick. Donnie got here on Friday; life couldn't be better now. Except he is way too tall (think Will Ferrell in Elf at the beginning of the movie) for the shower and the doorways. Oops. But otherwise, I feel like I'm living in a paradise, he's realized what a "fairytale villiage" (his words) we live in, and we're settling in together.
We're leaving today for Paris, tomorrow for Barcelona, then spending two days in Lyon and Avignon each before coming back home. Whirlwind trip, and I'll update with pictures (I promise!) upon our return. Not sure what our internet access will be like til we get back.
xoxo and gros bisous to all!
We're leaving today for Paris, tomorrow for Barcelona, then spending two days in Lyon and Avignon each before coming back home. Whirlwind trip, and I'll update with pictures (I promise!) upon our return. Not sure what our internet access will be like til we get back.
xoxo and gros bisous to all!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday was a great day.
On Tuesday, I gave each student five conversation hearts for Valentine's Day (thanks, Mom, for my V-tines day package!) and had them write a poem using those phrases. Two of the students wrote their poems to me. Here's what they said:
Kinzy
I'm sure
Nobody rock than you
Pleaze e-mail me and kiss me when you're home
Your too hot and we want to keep you in ar heart.
<3 [two of my students]
Kenzy, yes, you're beautiful,
likes a cup cake,
awesome you are
you rule of my heart
and you are very nice and a very good teacher
you stay in my heart
good bye Kenzy
xoxo
[another student]
Aren't they great?
Also, later in the day, I had a class in a computer lab and the main teacher was doing presentations and let the "kids" work on their own, and I discovered some of the students were reading Vie de Merde online, so I suggested that we switch over to English and read F My Life. So I spent the class explaining phrases like "getting lucky." Oops.
Then, to top it all off, (this is really good), I discovered that one of the three toilets in the women's restroom in the teachers' wing HAS A TOILET SEAT! And I've been using one of the other ones this whole time, and therefore basically avoiding going to the bathroom unless absolutely necessary. But hooray, toilet seats are in my future!
Kinzy
I'm sure
Nobody rock than you
Pleaze e-mail me and kiss me when you're home
Your too hot and we want to keep you in ar heart.
<3 [two of my students]
Kenzy, yes, you're beautiful,
likes a cup cake,
awesome you are
you rule of my heart
and you are very nice and a very good teacher
you stay in my heart
good bye Kenzy
xoxo
[another student]
Aren't they great?
Also, later in the day, I had a class in a computer lab and the main teacher was doing presentations and let the "kids" work on their own, and I discovered some of the students were reading Vie de Merde online, so I suggested that we switch over to English and read F My Life. So I spent the class explaining phrases like "getting lucky." Oops.
Then, to top it all off, (this is really good), I discovered that one of the three toilets in the women's restroom in the teachers' wing HAS A TOILET SEAT! And I've been using one of the other ones this whole time, and therefore basically avoiding going to the bathroom unless absolutely necessary. But hooray, toilet seats are in my future!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Oh what a cute old lady!
This morning on the metro, there was a really cute old lady. She was quite sprightly in her whitehairedness, and she and I smiled at each other a few times. I would like to be like her, when I'm older, taking the metro and smiling at and inspiring younger people.
On Thursday night, I went out and ran into a bunch of my students. After they got over the shock of seeing one of their teachers ("Mais, Madame Cornelle!), it was fun to talk to them outside of class. They were BTS students, so the ones who are somewhere around my age, if mostly a little bit younger. I had a really good night talking to them about France and America and TV shows and studying language and things.
This weekend, I did laundry! I hate that it is such an accomplishment to do my laundry that I post about it just about every time I do it, but... I love when my clothes smell nice, and I love hanging clothes up on a drying rack. There's something so lovely about seeing all those colors spread out on a wire stand. Simple pleasures, right Mom?
Donnie gets here on Friday. Actually, Donnie, can you hang on and come a little later because I have SO much to do before you get here! I'm just kidding. Please come ASAP. But still, I have to buy him a phone and clean the apartment and get used to using my own pillow again and fill out my CAF forms and this thing and this other thing and bah! But, truly, I am so excited to have him here, to share my life in Rouen with someone I love so much. So even if things don't get quite done, I think it will be okay.
I'm off to the grocery store now. I need to get Donnie's phone and some pasta and a vegetable or two and I'm going to see if I can find frozen pumpkin at the Picard like I've heard I might. Cross your fingers!
UPDATE: Back from the grocery store, two bags of groceries later. How do I do this? Cell phone purchased, didn't have enough space in my bags to contemplate a visit to Picard, but that will be an adventure to come!
On Thursday night, I went out and ran into a bunch of my students. After they got over the shock of seeing one of their teachers ("Mais, Madame Cornelle!), it was fun to talk to them outside of class. They were BTS students, so the ones who are somewhere around my age, if mostly a little bit younger. I had a really good night talking to them about France and America and TV shows and studying language and things.
This weekend, I did laundry! I hate that it is such an accomplishment to do my laundry that I post about it just about every time I do it, but... I love when my clothes smell nice, and I love hanging clothes up on a drying rack. There's something so lovely about seeing all those colors spread out on a wire stand. Simple pleasures, right Mom?
Donnie gets here on Friday. Actually, Donnie, can you hang on and come a little later because I have SO much to do before you get here! I'm just kidding. Please come ASAP. But still, I have to buy him a phone and clean the apartment and get used to using my own pillow again and fill out my CAF forms and this thing and this other thing and bah! But, truly, I am so excited to have him here, to share my life in Rouen with someone I love so much. So even if things don't get quite done, I think it will be okay.
I'm off to the grocery store now. I need to get Donnie's phone and some pasta and a vegetable or two and I'm going to see if I can find frozen pumpkin at the Picard like I've heard I might. Cross your fingers!
I tried on fake glasses at Claires in France. Yes, apparently I am 13 again. Regardless, I wish this style wasn't so popular or I would totally get some like this. Except in red maybe, or purple. Basically, Donnie is lucky because he got glasses like these before they were cool (or did he make them cool?). Everyone else is just way too trend-following for my tastes -- but oh, if I didn't care about avoiding being just like everyone else, these would so be mine!
UPDATE: Back from the grocery store, two bags of groceries later. How do I do this? Cell phone purchased, didn't have enough space in my bags to contemplate a visit to Picard, but that will be an adventure to come!
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