dimanche, avril 27, 2008

bike ride

Yesterday Mystery Guest and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went on a bike ride out to the nearby lighthouse. It was one of those perfect days, one of the first summerlike times where you can feel the sun on your back and the ocean breeze in your hair (haha cheezy I know but so true!). It was about 6 or 7km out there and once we got there it was warm enough to lay down on those big rocks and take in the sunshine!We heard there is a geocache in the area but we with the directions we would a compass so we just scoped out the area and will be back soon to really search for it.
Beautiful no? You can see the town of Barfleur (and the recently restored church) in the distance.
I can't wait for summer!! Now if my memoire would just write itself...

samedi, avril 26, 2008

Ca$h

Mystery Guest and I decided to go out on a Saturday night for a little date night, we went to go see Ca$h. It was really fun, reminded me a lot of Ocean's 11 - the same style, music and theme of big slick crooks. The story, however, was quite different and kept you wondering what would happen all the way through. I can tell you that I never would have guessed the end! Those are my favorite kinds of movies, the ones that keep you on edge and surprise you with the final scene :-)

mercredi, avril 23, 2008

spring flowers

the sun came out... and spring is in the air!

lundi, avril 21, 2008

weekend at Etretat

Whew! It's been busy around here! It is April break but just like the last 4 years I've decided to work during my break. They have a program here run by the local government that buses in junior high kids for an English workshop. They ask teachers and assistants to run the different classes (and the pay is great!!) for either one or both weeks. I always sign up for both ;-) This year I'm teaching American Geography, it's usually pretty fun but tiring trying to motivate these kids. You have to try to have fun lesson plans since it is during their break, but not too fun or they tune out quickly... Anyway week 1 is done and only 4 days left of week 2!

To get a little change of scenery Mystery Guest and I drove up to a little village near Etretat where some friends of his live in a beautiful big house. They are great, so nice and fun to hang out with. The weather got a little better as the weekend went on but with their covered veranda you have the feeling you're outside but without the wind (and rain!). It really feels like a vacation with the jacuzzi and vegging on the sofa. Mystery Guest got to play on the computers too :-) I got to play with their little girl, she's going to turn 2 next month and is just adorable!
To thank them for inviting us I made some chocolate chip cookies and it was too cute when I watched the little one eat her first cookie. She eyed it with such suspicion - even when I told her it was a gâteau. In then end she scarfed it down though! I also made them some pancakes for Saturday brunch, seems like I've hit my audience when it comes to American food! I know Mystery Guest's family has already taken to my pancakes ;-) even with maple syrup! In the afternoon the weather cleared and we took a little walk down to the beach to work off all those calories!
It was beautiful down there, extreme low tide exposing all the seaweed covered rocks and you could see the sun setting in the distance and a huge rainstorm off in the horizon... Idyllic.

Here are the insanely steep steps you climb down to get to the beach. Mystery Guest is pointing to the geocache that we fixed, the other one we put there a few months ago but was misplaced so we had to go back and fix it :-)

samedi, avril 12, 2008

news from la Manche...


I love this shot in the local newspaper where beau-père (on the left) the avid fisherman is clearly the new celebrity around these parts ;-)

vendredi, avril 11, 2008

spring pics

Spring has sprung the last couple days, ever since the snow went away. It feels so nice to have the sun toasting your shoulders and hear the birds chirping away... I walked around town to take a few pictures. The first one is of the back of the chateau de Caen where they have been restoring the ramparts.
Yesterday on the news it was fun to see the weather report, usually the country is divided in half, the top grey and rainy (according to the news!) and the south sunny, but today the north was bright and sunny and the south was nothing but thunderstorms! haha take that! :-)Wednesday evening some friends invited Mystery Guest and I out to the countryside. They are housesitting this beautiful old farm for a month while their friends are in Australia. Before dinner we walked around the property, met 2 of the 7 horses, all of the dogs and cats. Apparently their friends bought the property in 2001 when it was mostly in ruins and half of the house was hidden by the weeds, but now it is beautiful, all restored with that creamy white pierre de Caen.
They also added some cool things, in the barn there is an old cider press that still works but they added a table in the middle and benches around the trough so they can seat 15 people around 1 round table, too cool!! Plus these friends left some bottles of wine aside so we had some yummy bordeaux with our chili dinner and homemade cookies! That and a rousing game of Catan made for a great evening! Thanks guys ;-)

dimanche, avril 06, 2008

springtime in normandy

I spent the weekend out in La Manche chilling with Mystery Guest and enjoying some off and on spring sunshine. The weather had finally started to get nice and spring like warm on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday it was windy but we managed to squeeze a walk to the beach in in the late afternoon. It was beautiful as always out there. Today the weather was also very spring like and tempermental, going from sunny to rainy and sometimes hailing. But as we headed back to Caen tonight as we got closer we saw this huge menacing black cloud over the city. And as soon as we reached the city limits it started snowing like crazy!


That's a picture I took from my bedroom window, the snow was sticking on the ground and even on the road! It stopped and started the rest of the evening... crazy! I hope the trams are running ok tomorrow morning, I have a class to teach and I'm sure as hell not walking 45 minutes up there in the snow!! :-)

And then the same view Monday morning..

jeudi, avril 03, 2008

concentration... or lack thereof...

Sorry for that little April Fool's joke back there... tee hee, I thought I might get some of the bloggers but I never thought my family would believe me! You'd think they'd know me better than that and that I would call first instead of putting it up on my blog ;-) But anyway I was proud, it was my first very successful April Fool's prank as I can never get through them straight faced, I always crack at some point!

Other than that I'm just trying to make some headway on my second memoire... Yup that's right, each year of this masters program (2) I have to write a thesis. The first year you research and write in English and the second year you still research in English but write in French, talk about a muddle of vocab in your brain! Last year I barely made it through at the nick of time, this year I started off stronger and more motivated but its one of those times right now where I am seriously losing motivation. Talking with my advisor helped a lot yesterday so I'm hoping that feeling will stay with me! It just really takes the spirit out of you knowing that your written French isn't up to par and having that mental block between ideas and paper is so frusterating!

Anyway vent over, time to go read some more books...

mardi, avril 01, 2008

big news!

I have big news for everyone out there!! Last night Mr. Mystery Guest popped the question!

I still can't believe it, it was just so romantic and perfect... so of course I said yes!

He came over to my house to pick me up for dinner and in his hand he had a beautiful bouquet of flowers so of course I went to the kitchen to get some water for them and when I put them in the vase I noticed a beautiful ring nestled in the center of one of the roses...!! Then he got down on one knee and I started bawling. Could hardly answer through the surprise and tears... I must have been really hot with puffy eyes! lol

Anyway lots to talk about now, but I've got to run to work, more updates to come!!! :-)


**update: hehe ohhhh I got you guys goooood! even Mystery Guest did a double take haha :-)nobody noticed the "empty" box?

ps. sorry mom!! ;-)