embuscades

The lovely Miss Benedicte is back for a week from Dubai where she's working in order to finish up her Masters presentation at the university here. We took advantage of her time here (and the sunny weather Saturday) to go have an embuscade on the terrace of the Tour Solidor, our old hang out.

I'll just leave you with a few pictures of our embuscades, the lovely garbage truck in the background and Miss Natalie who showed up after being given a rose from random bachelors roaming the streets... haha :-)

Medieval Festival

Every year for the first weekend of July there is a medieval festival in the town of Bayeux (famous for the Bayeux Tapestry, and spared for the most part from WWII bombings). It is an amazing festival, especially since it is centered around the medieval cathedral! Luckly for Mystery Guest and I it was the only sunny day in the last 6 weeks, somehow an outdoor festival is not nearly as fun in the pouring rain...

They've got tons of booths, some with demonstrations, some where you can participate, where you can buy things or drink some medieval beer (brewed the old fashioned way, not leftover ;-) haha)

This year they also had a medieval Japanese area, with a tea ceremony, demonstration of raku pottery and samourai fighting techniques. It reminded me of the Harvest Festival the Japanese students used to put on at my university at home.









Here is the Samourai's tent where the tea ceremony was held (sadly we missed it).













A lace-maker.












Friar Tuck.









And for 2e you could try your hand at archery :-) I came close to the bull's eye a few times, Mystery Guest got it once!

4th of July!

Last night we had an awesome 4th of July BBQ!!

With our excellent Grill-Man, Oscar manning our impromptu BBQ and a huge spread of food (potato salad, pasta salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, watermelon, hot dogs, hamburgers, chips/salsa/guac, veggie & dip etc...)

Dig in people!

We were all suprised that we had leftover food because of all the people that turned up but it was a great party! And to top it all off we had some amazing brownies (provided by the fabulous Anne-Celine) as well as cookies and apple crisp! Yum yum!

ca-che up!

Been a bit forgetful about blogging! Need to catch up!

Last Saturday Mystery Guest and I took a little drive around to go geocaching! There are several within a 15km radius of Caen and we were very proud of ourselves when we found 2 out of 3!

The first one was in a little village next to Caen, next to an 11th century church with plenty of cows around. :-) Then we found one next to the Pegasus Bridge and then tried to find the third in a natural park but I think someone must have moved it.

Found!!

summer?

Natalie and I have decided to put together a big 4th of July shindig here in Caen... we've come to the realization that we probably won't be able to have it outside as the weather has been less than summery the month of June! I mean honestly wearing sweaters inside? What is this? There's a huge heat wave in Greece and Turkey with temps of 50C and here its about 13C max! Grr...

But today I walked outside to collect payment on a translation and was surprised when my sweater was too hot... should I get my hopes up that tomorrow I can have a real 4th of July BBQ? Maybe that would be asking a lot...

Paris

Last Wednesday I went on a short day trip to Paris with a friend of mine. She just got a job at a cool English bookstore W.H. Smith, on rue de Rivoli (next to the Louvre) and needed to do her required medical exam. So I said I'd join her and we'd make a day of it. First stop was lunch, we wanted to go to a sandwhich place she had talked about but couldn't find it so we went to my favorite Japanese noodle shop. Its tucked in a corner right on a main street next to the Opera but has the best (and biggest!) lunches for a good price. I got a HUGE plate of yakisoba and 5 gyoza for 10 euros!

Then we stopped by her bookstore so we could take a look around... I felt like I had stepped into America! I never realized that French bookstores just have a different feel about them and this one felt like home. It was nice and although expensive she gets an employee discount ;-)

Then we got to do something I had been wanting to do since I was a study abroad student in 2002... visit Monet's waterlilies in l'Orangerie! It had been closed for construction for the last 6 years and finally reopened!










The paintings are stunning and although there are other works of art downstairs I prefered the waterlilies and could have just spent my time there. The rooms that the paintings are located in are oval shaped and there are 4 paintings lining the room which is lit by natural light from a skylight above. It is beautiful and very calming and after 6 years I can say I've been there!









Then we made a quick stop at Starbucks by the train station for some Frappachinos (Banana Java Chip thank you very much!) and cheesecake before hopping on the train to go home.









It was a quick trip but good fun!

surprise!

My bestest friend Natalie just got back fromt the States with tons of presents for friends. Since I didn't request anything (normally I put in a request but I'm going home in September so I can do it) she surprised me with a box of Cracker Jack! Yum!!

As I was chowing down in her appartment, the Scottish roomie asked what it was...!

We figured out the best way to explain Cracker Jacks...

They're Kinder Surprises for Americans!

more rainbows!

I'm working on my thesis and isn't it funny how you look up one thing on the web - say Wikipedia - and then oh, that's an interesting link and click on that and end up finding yourself on YouTube listening to the Reading Rainbow theme song...?

of rainbows and sunshine

Yesterday there were non-stop downpours all day long, it was horrible running around trying not to get soaking wet. But when I came back and looked out the window I saw a beautiful rainbow stretching over the whole city. Looking out the other window I saw the church Saint Pierre in the distance, there was an after the storm light that when combined with the sunset and the last rements of the rainstorm producted a beautiful sight to see that even my camera couldn't catch quite right...











This morning the sun was out and while I drank my morning coffee I could hear the bells at Saint Pierre tolling and the Sunday market getting ready for action on the streets below. So I ran out and bought some summertime treats, local strawberries (les maras des bois), cherries and nectarines. I hope this time summer is here to stay! I've had enough rain!!!


Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there, especially mine!

... I'm back

I'm back in the blogging world... There have been lots of things going on recently, none of which I'd like to go into more detail on my blog, but needless to say I've been a bit stressed but am doing a bit better.

When I was talking to a friend of mine about this stress she suggested that I try her acupuncturist doctor. She has been going there for the last 6 months or so and says that the woman is very nice and the treatment seems to really work.

Being from the States I've never really gone to any alternative medecine, but I thought why not. The woman is also a regular GP and so not only does she do acupuncture but regular healthcare as well. I think the combination of Eastern-Western medecine can be really interesting. Not only that but because she's a regular doctor I just had to pay the regular 21euros fee, plus a couple extra for the needles. So even if I didn't like it, the whole thing is almost completely reimbursed by the state healthcare system :-) Cool eh?

So I went there this morning and my friend was right, she is so nice. She's very insightful and asked me questions that I would never have thought relavant or connected to my stress. The needles hardly hurt at all, just the lightest of pricks, not even like those little pricks at the end of your fingers to sample blood (god those hurt!) probably because these needles don't even draw blood. She put several on my feet and lower legs, a couple by my wrists, a few on my back and two or three on the top of my head! The strange thing is that these needles are bendy! She put them in my back and then asked me to lay down!

The whole thing was a very relaxing experience and she asked me to make an appt in 2 weeks for a follow up and to see how things are going. I asked for a perscription for allergy meds since I'm all out and can't wear my contacts my eyes hurt so bad, she also gave me a perscription for some minerals and stuff to get my immune system back up. I went to go fill these perscriptions and was surprised when the pharmasist brought a box filled with glass tubes that looked like this:

I had seen them before and they always creeped me out... They are little glass tubes with medication inside, called ampoules. Basically you break (yes break with your fingers!) the glass tip and then as the liquid is suspended inside by some force of physics, you break off the other tip and all the liquid drains out. Now I've seen people do this directly into their mouthes but me, no I couldn't handle it so I put it in a glass and then drank it. Its just too weird hearing the crunch of the glass...

gone fishing

When life throws a curve ball* at you sometimes you just need to pull back and take a break, I need that little break from blogging right now ... but never fear - I'll be baaack. :-)


*How American am I with my baseball metaphores?

when it rains...

...it pours!

I went to the bank today with a friend of mine to help with him with his account and wanted to add me to his account so I could help with transfers over the summer when he goes home to the States.

So we walk up to the desk and he explains to the guy that he wants to add me to his account and the guy asks for my ID. When I hand it over he fills out a form. I leaned over when I noticed that he filled out my birthday as 29/06/2007 (the day my ID expires).

I couldn't help but point out that, it is in fact not my birthday, I am not negative years.

So I said, actually my birthday is Oct 27, 1981.

And I see him write down Oct 25, 1981.

So I politely correct him but he ignores me. Then just before leaving he said, Ok just to verify the information and repeats all that he's written on the form. When he gets to my birthday I said, actually it is the 27th, not the 25th. And he replies, right, the 25th, ok.

Shaking my head I said, sure, fine. I swear.... :-)

I went to the pharmacy yesterday because I have these weird red spots in an isolated patch on my shoulder, almost like 10 million spiders bit me or a random cluster of zits or something. Anyway not to get into too much icky detail I just never have skin problems like that so I thought I'd stop by a pharmacy and see what they thought. In the middle of the conversation I was instantly reminded of these recent conversations of Sam and Frog with a Blog. It went something like this:

Me: Hi, I just had a question for you. See I have these weird red bumps on my shoulder. (I show them).

Pharmacy Lady: Oh, yes that does look weird.

Me: I just never have skin problems and I couldn't figure out what it might be so I thought I'd see if you had a cream or something.

Pharmacy Lady: Well it must be insect bites because it itches.

Me: Um, actually it doesn't itch.

Pharmacy Lady: No, it does itch I can tell. Plus you've scrached it.

Me: No, not that I remember, I've had insect bites before that itched and this doesn't itch.

Pharmacy Lady: No, its a bug bite and it itches. I'll give you a cream to take care of the itch.

Me: It doesn't itch.

Pharmacy Lady: Ok, take this cream and put it on 3 times a day, it will take care of the itch.

Me under my breath: But it doesn't itch.

Pharmacy Lady: Ok, that will be 5E.

I caved, she was so convinced that I have a gazillion bug bites in an area the size of a silver dollar that I paid the 5 euros and hoped the cream would work. I can tell you now that with the cream, I still don't itch, surprise surprise.

tee hee

thesis writin'

Last year I signed up for my first year of Masters (M1) in English Lit here at the university. But between all the classes, homework and then working 2 jobs at 3 schools I managed to pass the classes but never wrote my thesis to pass the year.

So this year I signed up for M1 again, but this time no classes (since I already passed them) just my thesis to write. It took me so long to actually find a topic and a direction to head in, but now I've found it, I have my outline written out and the main part of my introduction written out. I have tons of ideas and things to say but having a hard time organizing my thoughts in a coherent manner so I'm reading and re-reading all my research.

My topic is on a contemporary American poet and her works and as I was leafing through one of her books of poetry something struck me. This not-well-known-outside-of-certain-circles author had published this book in my small and remote hometown (pop. 8,000) in Washington State! I never even knew we had a publishing company at home!

I took this as fate, I am meant to write about this! Now, enough procrastinating, gotta get back to work!

mother's day

I picked a flower for you :-)

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!!

We'll go back to this beach next time you come visit, can't wait!

Love you,

Karina

artsy-fartsy

The last few weeks I've felt that I've got some creative needs that need to be met! I used to do a lot more artwork, and crafty projects back in the day (was almost an Art Major in college!)

I bought a glass engraver a few years ago, its a great little tool that has paid for itself several times over. Its a little hard to get used to using because on glass it tends to skip and once you engrave glass you can't erase!

Friends of Mystery Guest is having their baby baptized in a few weeks and I thought it might be a nice gift. I always take pictures of my handmade gifts and am always tempted to post them but knowing that a lot of those people would read my blog I can't! But this time, ha ha, I can! So what do you think?

2eme tour

Today is the second round of voting for the French Presidental election. I again got to go in the little booth with Mr. Mystery Guest and pretend I was voting too. It is a cultural experience and something that is interesting to be a part of. Which reminds me of when I was voting for the US President almost 8 years ago and my Japanese roommate asked me out of curiousity what I thought about the election, to which my response was shooting coffee out my nose. The Japanese have a slight problem differentiating between "l" and "r" in English so you can imagine my surprise.

We find out in a couple of hours, at 8pm who will win. I have a sad feeling that out of the two evils it will be the greater than rather than the lesser than...

I found on another blog an article by Bill Maher that I again almost shot coffee out of my nose reading, I highly recommend you take a look but to whet your tastebuds here's a quote:

"We're not first. America isn't ranked anywhere near first in anything except military might and snotty billionaires. The country that is ranked No. 1 in healthcare, for example, is France. The World Health Organization ranks America at 37 in the world -- not two, or five -- 37, in between Costa Rica and Slovenia, which are both years away from discovering dentistry."

speederman 3

Last night I went go to see Speederman 3 with Mr. Mystery Guest and CJ. I had heard mixed reviews but overall enjoyed the cinematic expericence

:-)

I would say the first 2/3 of the movie were really fun and well done, you would even say it was a real spiderman zipping along but then it got cheezy and kitch and thats when I started having a good laugh - but at all the wrong parts.

I still think its worth seeing on the big screen just for all the action scenes.

la colline aux oiseaux

One beautiful park that most people don't take a chance to visit while in Caen is the Colline aux oiseaux (the bird hill if you will hehe). It is right next to our famous Mémorial and used to be a landfill, although you'd never guess that now.

Plus the park is so huge that even on a beautiful holiday like yesterday when everyone and their mother's uncle's dog wanted to go for a walk or picnic we still managed to find quiet shady areas where we could sniff the lilacs or feed the llamas :-)

Anyone know what these beautiful purple flowers are called? They were stunning hanging along the pathway...

I even got into the spirit with my little daisy ever so carefully tucked behind my ear by Mr. Mystery Guest :-)

Happy May Day!

tickets... check!

Well I broke down and bought them... the plane tickets I'd been eyeing for the last month to go home in September for my annual visit.

I was waiting on job confirmation for next year, yup its all set I've got my job again next year!! Yippee! But in the meantime prices jumped in ticketland :-(

The upside is I got my first-ever direct flight from Paris to Seattle! Yipppeee! Try 10 hours of movie watchin' instead of 16 hours of flights and connections in random airports! So folks, for those of you back home, mark your calendars because I'll be in the Pacific NW from Sep 16th-28th and then a long weekend visiting my grandparents in SoCal before flying back here Oct 2nd. Whooooo-hooo!!!

boating pics

As promised :-)

votez!

It's been a busy and exciting weekend. Came out to la Manche yesterday afternoon and took a lovely drive around enjoying the unbelievable weather before treating ourselves to a sushi dinner (thanx Darty for the tickets restaurant!)

Today it is still beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. Before lunch I got to go with the fam to vote :-) As I've lived outside of my own state since I turned 18 I've never actually voted in person, always by absentee ballot so I was curious to see how it was done, esp in France! So we toodled down to the local mairie (pop. 859) to cast the votes. You take the piece of paper (or several if you want) and an envelope into the little booth and then choose one paper with the canidate's name on it and put it in the envelope. Then you hand your voter card to the guy and he reads out a number, someone else checks the number against the registration list and says "ok Mr. Mystery Guest can vote" and then you drop it in the box. Then they say "a voté" and you go and sign your name on the registrar and thats it!

Because its such a small community we hardly had to wait at all and apparently according to the TV people are turning out in record numbers to vote. Can't wait to hear what's going to happen!!!

This afternoon we went out on the boat for a little tour, it was beautiful and not too cold with a windbreaker, photos to come ;-)

new pad, take 2

Ok so here are some pictures of the new apt! When you first walk in the door this is what you see, the kitchen table on your right, windows in front and stairs on your left.
















Then if you were to turn around the kitchen table is now behind you and you can see the little cooking corner, 2 burners, fridge and oven (the microwave is hidden under those green stairs there).












If you walk up the stairs this is the view looking back down.













When you first walk up the stairs you have the desks on the left (as you can see here) and the click-clack couch along the wall.













Through the hallway is the bathroom on the right with a mini-tub and then the bedroom.





















And thats the grand tour! Can't you hear the silence? :-) Me like-y!

sunshine makes me happy

After a cold foggy day yesterday the sun made an apperance again today :-)

I'm at work now on my hot new computer that they put in my office, yippee!! And good timing too because the free internet we were mooching wasn't working at all this morning :-( Hopefully it will be working again soon, otherwise withdrawl symptoms will start soon! But in the meantime the connection is amazingly fast at work so I'm taking advantage of it to catch up on emails and blogs... hehehe

To go along with the summery weather I got my hair cut and highlighted today, it always throws me because I only get the highlights redone twice a year and when I leave it startles me and I get the impression that I've gone blond blond but then I end up getting used to it and all is good :-)

Now time to get back to real work and stop putzing around on the computer! :-)

mix-up?

I got a phone call on Thursday from a Prof that I had done a translation for last fall. He left a message on my machine saying that he has a collegue who needs some work done and if I would be interested. So I called the collegue who said that he has a CV that he has to give in by Monday morning and really needs some help, and he also said that he wasn't very good with computers so if I could help with the page adjustments etc, easy peasy. So I said I would be free Saturday morning and off I went this morning to help with the translation.

Or so I thought!!

I get there and he's very nice and all and shows me the CV and I asked if he had already started the translation, he looked at me blankly... uh oh...

So I asked what he needed my help for. Turns out he really can't use a computer so he basically needed a secretary! Someone to type up the CV and format it and save it on his computer as well as on the University's USB key cause he didn't know how.

Now I don't think that it is strange or unusual not to know how to use a computer, he's a very old school prof and that wasn't the thing that surprised me. It was however that he needed an American to help him out! I always just assume that when someone calls for help like this its for the "English"aspect of who I am, not typing skills!

So I had a good chuckle to myself and got on with it. All went fine and we got it finished and he paid what I usually charge for English classes (the only rate I had to go by as I've never sold myself as a secretary before... well there was that one time but you know I didn't do all that much typing persay... lol).