for devon

Sunset from my bedroom window :-)

yipppee!!

I'm making some headway! Just finishing up Chapter 2 of my memoire this morning, going to print it off (hopefully my office is open so I can print for free...) and send it to my prof.

Its getting down to the wire, I have just over 2 weeks left to finish up Chapter 3 and the conclusion... Gahhh!!! It is possible but it is going to be a very busy next few weeks. I gave myself the timeline of 2 weeks because in 3 weeks I have to work (give make up September exams, written and oral, to my students who failed last year) and then as soon as thats done I'm going to the States for 2 and 1/2 weeks!

Must keep working. Must keep working. (my new mantra...)
















Just checked my blog stats and its my blog's 2 year birthday!!
Happy Birthday Milk Jam!

hahaha

ostéo

Recently I've been making my regular appointments, the dentist, the eye doctor etc... and this year added in a few alternative doctors. I decided to try a new one, ostéopathie. I'm still not sure what that would translate to, if it is the same or different as a chiropracter... but over the last year I've been having a lot of shoulder pain from sitting at my desk all the time.

When I went in it was your "typical" French doctor's experience, as in you arrive in a residential neighborhood, ring at an apartment and go upstairs. When I got inside I waited for a few minutes in the waiting room then went into the office. Sitting at his desk I told him what was wrong, he asked for my carte vitale and then to strip down (ok, not his words!) to my undies. Its funny, as much as I've gotten used to life in France, especially the differences in doctor's visits, this one always makes me realize that I'm still an American. I don't show my surprise, I don't hesitate, don't ask for a robe (cause you know they won't have one) but I do think about it... I wonder if that will ever stop years down the road... maybe.

Anyway he said that two of my lower vertabrae as well as two in my neck were out of place, so moving my legs around and telling me to breathe in deeply he popped it all back into place. I do have to admit I feel a lot better, still a little knotty in my shoulders but there is a lot less tension.

acrobranche

Yesterday for my friend Kristina's birthday a bunch of us got together and went to a forest outside of Caen to try out a ropes course.

At West Adventure we paid our 19E and had 3 hours to do as many different courses as we wanted. There was the "family" course, the "advanced" and the "frissons" (shivers/goosebumps). We all had a great time but it was difficult because it had been raining so everything was really slippery and made it harder trying not to fall!

It was also a kind of personal challenge for me because when I was a teenager we did a ropes courses as part of the summer camp and it was SO hard for me, I would litterally sit there petrified with my stomach in a knot. This time all the scary parts (the zip cord especially!) were just not as bad, and actually really fun. The only part where I got freaked out was where you had to grab a rope and swing tarzan style to the next platform. Something about jumping off with nothing under you was really hard.

But instead of just being scared the whole time I had a lot of fun and so deserved the little pat on the back I gave myself :-)

sleepless

I went to bed last night around midnight and snuggled in. I half woke up around 2:30am when I heard people talking really loudly. I couldn't figure out if it was the neighbors or someone in the street below... but when they didn't stop and then put the music on really loud I started to get annoyed.

I figure they must have gone out at night and then since the bars closed they decided to continue on in the apartment. The last time I went to go ask them to be quiet they didn't hear me knocking for a good five minutes and then said they would keep it down - but of course didn't.

So this time I decided to try a new strategy... I waited for a while and then around 3:30 got fed up and called the police. I think somehow the damsel in distress works well. The receptionist sent out a car and they arrived within 5 minutes. I let them in the building and they said they would go "sort things out" and then I heard them banging on the door downstairs. There was some loud words exchanged, then the music was cut and then all was quiet...

It was bliss.

Sometimes its good to be a girl ;-)

Guernsey

Whew! Been a while since I posted! Bad lazy blogger that I am! Anyway I've been out and about enjoying the beautiful weather we're (finally) having here in Normandy.

Last Tuesday I jetted off on the train to Cherbourg to visit Mystery Guest and after a day of hanging out we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn to go to Guernsey for the day. The ferry left from a small port town about an hour from his parents so we were up with the chickens ;-) But that way we had the whole day to hang out on the island. We arrived at Port Peter and visited Victor Hugo's house. Then we rented bikes and spent the day roaming the island.


As it is a British island it was really really hard getting used to riding on the left-hand side, especially going through roundabouts! I swear I was gripping the handlebars the whole time!

We discovered all sorts of fun coastlines and a few sandy beaches. The scenery is amazing! You would think with water that blue it was in the middle of the Indian Ocean but alas it was about 20C and we didn't bring bathing suits.

If you get the chance I would highly recommend taking a trip out there, or to the other islands - Sark if you want something more rugged (and sans voitures) or Jersey if you're looking for something more cosmopolitan.

Wedding Recap

I'm still exhausted from the wedding weekend but it was fantastic! I arrived Friday night and so did a lot of her friends (coming in from Germany and all) and so we had a blast hanging out in the rural bed & breakfast that they rented out for us.

Saturday was a long day, the ceremony was at 2:30pm and then the food and wine never stopped until 5am!











Here is a view from across the lake, the church and the ruins of an old abby (right next to the reception hall). We were so lucky with the weather, first time we had a sunny weekend in 2 months! On Sunday a bunch of us rented some boats and took advantage of the sunshine.









The wedding cakes. Janine is a florist and did all the table arrangements as well as the flowers for the church and reception, they were beautiful!











A new tradition that I learned about was the French Onion Soup at 5am at the end of the party... I was reluctant to eat it, but it was delish! :-)

I'll leave you with a few clips from the wedding, the first is the table of French relatives enjoying a jaunty tune ;-) And the second, well I think if you wait for the chorus you might recognize it... I was so ashamed... haha.

workin' working' or trying to...

It's amazing how when you have lots of time to work on something big and important you can always find a million different things that are 'more important'...

I do get work done, turned in Chapter 1 last Saturday and as my prof is on vacation until the 19th I've got until then to finish Chapter 2... but between weddings and bithday parties coming up I don't have all that much time, realizing the pressure is starting to mount is a good thing but I swear half the time I sit here and try to force my paper to write itself - could happen, right?

So I guess enough procrastination around here, back to work I go! 1 page of Chapter 2 done, 19 or so more to go... :S

more engraving

I'm attending a franco-german wedding next weekend, two great friends who already seem to have everything and didn't give out any lists... So yesterday I hit up Galeries LaFayette in Caen and managed to catch the end of the sales. I picked up 4 of these little glasses for a great price and then took them home to engrave them. As my friends plan to open a flower shop one day I thought something with flowers or plantes would be nice and came up with this wrap-around ivy pattern with a few little hearts, but nothing too cheesy.

I thought they'd make nice little verrines so I went to another store and picked up little mini... well actually they are sporks... because I couldn't decide if I wanted mini forks or spoons... its funny they remind me of lunches in elementary school except a metal version!

Then as a final touch I added their names and the date to the bottom of the cup. I wanted something that would remind them of their wedding but at the same time something they could use everyday. I hope they do!

Now what am I going to wear to this wedding next weekend?? Humm...

sleepy

Last night I decided to go to bed early so that I could get up early today to do all my errands... just as I crawled into bed with a good book my neighbor decided to have a party... I havn't had any noise problems yet but with his window open directly below mine I could hear their (loud) conversation as if it was in my bedroom!

I thought, ok I'll see if they finish up soon, I don't want to be the annoying neighbor. But when 1:30am came around and it didn't sound like it would be wrapping up anytime soon I headed downstairs. It took me 5 min of knocking at the door to get him to come to the door and before I could open my mouth he quickly apologized and said he would keep it down. I said I would really appreciate it as I live directly above and can hear everything.

Happy I went back to bed. But did they keep it down? Not even close... It wasn't even a big party, sounded more like a gathering of friends but something about how the noise carries it was sooooo annoying. They finally left around 3am and I fell asleep.

So today I had to wake up early to get a whole bunch of stuff done - including sending my 1st draft of Chapter 1 off to my advisor! I got it all done last night, but I'm so nervous to hear what she has to say... going take today off and then get back to work on it tomorrow :-) Chapter 2 and 3 here I come!

down under

My little sister went and got a job down under! She just moved on Sunday from San Diego to Melbourne work :-) I'm so excited for her, she never went on a study abroad experience and I think it is such an important and enriching time in your life.

So now the family is spread on 3 different continents with 3 very different time zones... ha!

What's also cool is that Mom decided that we should all spend Christmas together and have a travel adventure in Australia! So I was lucky enough to get a ticket using her miles and will be heading down to kangaroo land for the first time this December! I'm so excited I can't wait!

In other news I'm madly trying to work on my thesis. It's amazing, its so time consuming and I feel proud of myself when at the end of the afternoon I have ONE page written to show for it... That will have to speed up though if I want to finish on time! I gave myself the personal deadline of the end of August as I will defend it in October to go into the second year of my Masters (and September will be busy with work and going home for 2 and 1/2 weeks). So give me a little cheer if you can! :-)

ambulance

I'm sitting at my desk drinking my morning coffee and I just heard an ambulance go by. It reminded me of something I wanted to blog about last week while in Paris.

When I was at the fab katia&kyliemac picnic Natalie and I went in search of a breeze on the bridge. Trying to cross the street was crazy, there were tons of people out for the holiday traffic was really busy.

Then we heard an ambulance with its sirens blareing and backed up on the sidewalk. I then noticed this older man and his son wanting to cross and as the ambulance sped by he raised his fist and screamed at the ambulance "ta gueule!!! ta gueule!!!*" I just couldn't believe it! Who would scream at an ambulance? I mean I know the sirens are loud but seriously, they're out to save dying people!

Crazy Parisians!

*shut the @%&^$ up!

Harry Potter!

Well the little Amazon.fr stork delivered a very precious bundle! Sometime this morning Harry Potter arrived chez moi :-)

3 hours later I'm about half-way through already, and torn between wanting desparatly to know the end and wanting to savor it a bit longer..

So people don't tell me ANYTHING! I will be avoiding internet as much as possible until I finish :-) hehehe - should be soon!

bday present

A friend of mine celebrated her birthday this week, the actual day being Monday but the party last night. So I was busy making a little birthday present for her. I decided to take a champagne flute and engrave it, so I chose a little flower motif for the glass and then around the base I wrote "Joyeux Anniversaire 2007 Aurore" to make sure it was personalized :-)

I'm glad I remembered to take pictures, I always make people presents and then forget to take pictures! Plus its really hard to take pictures of engraved glass, trying to get the details etc...













Otherwise not much new the past few days, trying to motivate myself to get work done on my thesis... I did catch a movie yesterday, 2 Days in Paris. I really liked the beginning, I thought it was hilarious but the end, as Sam said, was a bit darker and I enjoyed it less.. I would still say its worth seeing though!

Ok going to stop messing around with blogs and Facebook and get to work!! :-)

shocked

This commercial just aired on TV... has anybody else seen it and been shocked? Didn't think French commercials could shock me anymore but wow...

Paris picnic!

I just got back from Paris, Natalie and I went for the fabulous Katia & Kyliemac Bastille Day picnic!

I arrived in Paris yesterday and after dropping my stuff off chez Kyliemac we all made our way over to the Invalides to have a big 'ol blogger picnic. It was roasty toasty in Paris yesterday but it was great in the sun meeting new people :-) I got to meet fun Paris (and out of towners) bloggers, as well as their friends/spouses etc.

We oooed and awwwed over the fireworks display and danced around with some real American sparklers while drinking pink champagne, good times!

This morning a group of us went out to Breakfast in America for some real American goodness (blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and of course some bottomless joe, or jus de chaussettes) before caching the train back to Caen.

The sun's out and I think summer might finally be here!!

Oh, and a call out to all those with fabulous cameras who were snapping their little hearts out... I want copies!! Phuuuleaaase :-)

hahaha!

http://www.terre.tv/indexvod.php?case=1&ref=00151

You've got to check this out!!! :-)

Harry Potter!

I just got back from the movies, to see Harry Potter! It was great! I had forgotten a lot of things that happened during the 5th book (Order of the Phoenix) and as always they did an excellent job adapting the book to the big screen. Its hard to adapt such an imaginative story, with fantastic characters but I guess between the detailed discriptions of J.K. Rowling and the director's imagination they made something that is exactly what I had imagined as a reader. Can't wait to see it again in English :-) That's the nice thing, telling myself that I need to see it again for the change in language... riiiight...

And now my appetite is whet for the final book, coming out in just over a week! Ohhhh can't waiiiiit! Am going to go and pre-order my copy now! To think I wasn't a Harry Potter fan until my first summer in Caen when I was bored to tears with my library card in hand... haha

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...?