EWWW!!

Yuck yuck!!

I haven't seen pothead for a couple days now, I've been busy packing and going up to V-town to sign the lease among other things. I don't know if he's been around or not... I think he's been in and out.

Today I was packing more stuff up in the kitchen and the old banana smell was really starting to get to me. I opened up the cupboard and the bananas were unrecognizable!!! I kid you not!!! One big black mass of juice-leaking bananas... YUCK! I couldn't handle it anymore, I chucked 'em* and sopped up the rotten banana juice left on the shelf.

I never wanted to do his dishes or clean up after him so he wouldn't get the idea that cause he lives with girls he wouldn't do anything, but this was too much! Plus the beau-parents are coming over for lunch and to take a few boxes since they're in town today and it was just too icky and stinky to leave there. I would have been so embarrassed even if it isn't my mess...

*actually I really did, my gag reflex kicked in and I couldn't even handle it so I threw it out the window... honestly I can't believe I just did that but YUCK! double YUCK!

packing things up!

Last Friday Mystery Guest and I went to the agency to start giving them the paperwork for our apartment. Agencies are crazy! They ask for all sorts of documentation that seems a bit above and beyond of what they would actually need to see that you can pay your rent...

Since Mystery Guest is starting his new job July 1st (the same day we officially rent the apartment) they need a letter from his boss saying that yes indeed he will be hired from July 1st. Apparently though, this letter was not enough because it didn't include his salary. It's just the little things like that, when they keep asking for different things all the time that tends to get you easily annoyed with them!

But anyway I'm here in my colocation trying to pack up my stuff before Thursday (we're actually moving me Sunday but between going to sign the lease and a birthday party I've got to get it all done by Thurs). I went through the kitchen yesterday and packed most of my stuff up. As I was going through the cupboards I realized that the guy (roomie #2 - or "pothead" as he will be referred to here on out) that roomie #1 picked last month doesn't really understand certain things... Dishes will sit in the sink for days upon days but that's not really the big thing... In the cupboard there was a certain oder wafting out... when I peeked in I saw rotting bananas and a jar of open jam with the spoon in it. The orange juice he buys also tends to be moved about the kitchen without ever making it to the fridge. EW!

Gross gross.

He is an odd guy but pretty nice, just a little slow. I think there's just a little something missing up there..

I'm missing some boxes so I'm going to ride my bike up to Picard today to see if I can't scavange a few. The ones I picked up a couple Wednesdays ago (when the shops get new shipments they leave all their boxes nicely folded up on the street for moving people like me to grab!) are really sturdy and HUGE, they work great but way too big to fill with heavy things like books/dishes etc.

movin' and shakin'!

There has been a lot going on around here but since I try not to post too much personal stuff on here I've been holding back.

But never fear dear readers things are happening around here! Mystery Guest and I went to the agence immobliere today to get the list of documents needed for our apartment rental. We'll be moving out of Caen to V-town at the end of June into a great duplex apartment! (hint, come visit! there's plenty of room!). If you take a look on the map V-town is on the Cotentin peninsula on the way to Cherbourg. Yes, it is tiny town but on the main train line and has everything you really need downtown. Plus Mystery Guest starts his full time job July 1st and can walk the 500m to work every day and I'll start my job probably in October. I found a job teaching English at a private school in Caen and am able to arrange my schedule to only work 4 days a week. I'll be taking the 45 minute train ride those days to go teach. The best thing is that my job will give me a CDD for the first year and then if all goes well I'll get my grubby little paws on a CDI! Yippee!

For you Caen peeps no worries, I'll be in town a lot, promise! This summer will consist of finishing my memoire, passing my drivers license and preparing lessons for next year, I won't be bored but I'm sure to get sick of sitting in front of a computer all day!

I am however preparing myself for the internet withdrawal I'm sure to have when we move until we can get a line set up. I said to a friend the other day that I think that blogs are the Soap Operas of our generation and I really feel it when I miss a post! But they are such a wonderful way of exchanging information - for example Mystery Guest might have an allergy to gluten and having already read GlutenFreeGirl I hopped over there to take a look at things to eat and different symptoms to understand more. He's giving a gluten-free diet a go this week to see if it helps. I made a yummy veggie dish last night, totally just my own creation but it wasn't half bad!

Paris weekend!

Wow! What a great weekend! I wanted to post as soon as possible so as not to forget anything! I decided to go to Paris for the Blogger's picnic put on by the fabulous Katia & KylieMac on Saturday evening. Since I don't exactly make it to Paris all that often I decided to take full advantage of my time there. I arrived at 10am on Saturday and was met by a great friend of mine from my university who is now living in Tours working on her PhD, we had a coffee and then wandered over to a Thai restaurant near Republique where we met up with our old French TA from our university. We had a fantastic lunch there, I had requested some sort of ethnic food for lunch as I don't get it often here in Normandy and that Phad Thai lived up to my expectations!!

We had almost finished our meal and non-stop catching up on eachother's lives when we heard a loud and obnoxious "S'IL VOUS PLAIT" screamed across the restaurant to get the poor waitress' attention. When Miss V. turned around to shoot the uncooth man a dirty look he smiled at her and his pearly whites instantly reminded her of something - "whoa! that's the second time Jean Dujardin is in the same restaurant as me!" she whispered to us. I turned around (this was afterall my first star sighting!) and saw him sitting there talking to 2 other people. I decided to feed his already-too-big ego and go ask for a picture. The movie star stuck chopsticks up his mouth, walrus style for my picture - so classy! His friend said to him, oh that's going to be all over the internet, to which I replied, no no just the American websites, that doesn't bother you right?? haha!
Afterwards by the metro we came up with soooooo many other ways to have talked to him but alas its like a comeback, the good ones always come to you long after the moment has passed. We said goodbye and I ran off to Place d'Italie to check out Aimee's cafe and meet up with the artist formally known as Sam and Leah. It was so much fun to finally meet Aimee and to see her adorable cafe. It is so cool to see someone's dreams come true :-) As we sat there chatting Andie walked in the door with her kids. It was so funny because I've meet up with bloggers before, but always when we had planned on meeting up. When Andie came in my first reaction was to say hi as if it were a long lost friend instead of someone I had never met! But she was great and her kids were so much fun begging Aimee for her homemade chocolate chip cookies.

It was time to go so we went over to the shopping center to pick up the necessities - wine, pringles you know... as well as some maple syrup. The only place I can find big bottles (1 litre!) of maple syrup is in Paris and since I've gotten Mystery Guest and his family addicted to pancakes I decided it would be best to stock up ;-)

We made our way over to the picnic on ile de la cite and had an absolute blast catching up with old friends and meeting new people. We munched on all sorts of goodies including some cherry m&ms which were sent in from the States. (no offence but ick! they taste like chocolate cough syrup!)
After the wind turned a bit chilly we wandered into the Marais for a drink. I left with the lovely Katia and her Muffin Man to stay at their place in the burbs. We crashed and didn't wake up until 11am the next day. I got a text from Sam and met up with her and the others for some bagels but the place was closed so we opted for Starbucks... what a pity ;-) When she had to go to work I met Ambre in the Marais and we went to go hang out on the grass in Place des Voges while waiting for another university friend traveling around Europe to call.
We finally all met up and was joined by another friend, I think it had been about 6 or 7 years at least since we had all seen eachother. Our little catch up (at Starbucks of course!) was too short but great to hear everybody's crazy stories!
I zipped out of there at 7pm and made it on my train with 3 minutes to spare :-) I think I took advantage of my Paris weekend, what do you think??? :-)

Thanks to everyone, especially Katia and KylieMac for organizing such a wonderful picnic! I'll throw some pictures up on facebook soon!

cultural differences...

I thought of another cultural difference the other day... it has to do with thermometers and where/how you take your temperature in France (and I'm not talking about Fahrenheit/Celsius).



Let's just put it this way, in our home Mystery Guest and I will have two separate thermometers...

another shameless plug

for Lidl! This week they're having another week of American products including 3 bagels for 1.19e! I think I'm going to stock up, they're much cheaper than Picard ones :-)

Where were you on September 11?

On Friday (June 6th, also the Anniversary of D-Day) the Mémorial of Caen opened an exhibition on September 11. (also described here and here)

I haven't written much on my blog about my Master's work here but this year I have to write another thesis and I've chosen to write about poetry written in response to September 11: focusing on the ideas of memory, remembering and bearing witness.

This exhibition is perfect timing for me, I'm wrapping up my research and am going to be writing this summer so that I can turn it in this fall.

I've always loved the work that the Memorial has done, people come here expecting to see a museum about World War II and the D-Day invasion, but it is not a museum about war but about peace. They do amazing presentations of events, people and places on a world wide scale and this one went above and beyond my expectations.

Instead of dwelling on the event itself, like the museum this exhibition is divided into three parts: before Sept 11, Sept 11 and afterwards. Politics aside it was extremely touching to see these people's experiences, especially the "remembrance fence" and all of the "missing people" posters. I felt myself moved to tears on more than one occasion.

I overheard a lady speaking about the day, with a strong Queens accent. As I moved closer to hear better she described her experiences during that long day, how she couldn't reach her husband because of the cell phones jamming, how she struggled to collect her kids from the neighborhood school etc. I decided to talk to her and I explained who I was and what I was working on. I asked her what she thinks the world should do to try and remember. She was very friendly and it was the first time I've talked to someone who was there, and her trauma is still very present.

She asked if I was there too. No, I was in France. I had just arrived a week earlier for my study abroad year and was coping with trying to understand what was going on on French TV. She asked how the French reacted and I assured her that it was an amazing thing; people came up to me on the street and on the tram telling me how sorry they were. It's always easy to remember the negative hard to forget Freedom Fries and the war which all happened later, and hard to remember the positive.

I like the quote from Le Monde the next day: Nous sommes tous américains.

The humanity I saw today was so moving and that is what should be remembered.




Here is a video by the Wall Street Journal, a bit too dramatic for my taste but it shows a good part of the exhibit.

franglais

*Now more updates below!! fun times to be had by all!!

Now I'm not one to talk about work much on a blog but this is too good... I'm doing oral exams for all of my students and it is exhausting but there are some real gems in there, especially concerning different mistakes in English.

I'm not trying to make fun of them, considering all the mistakes I've made in French (haha lets not go to specifics people!) but there are some really funny ones. Some are just using a French word in English which makes the sentence sound funny:

*Society (they mean company)
*Enterprise (again company but everytime I hear it I see a little Starship Enterprise zooming past.. yes Captain!)
*Chief (the boss, but I see the stereotypical Indian chief dancing around in my head)
*I'm cherching for a job (I'm looking for a job)

Then there are some pronunciation mistakes:
*"K"now (you'd think after all these years of English they'd learn that the K is silent...)
*July (they always pronounce it You-lee)
*Blackpeppers (instead of Backpackers - it was in a text we were looking at)
*A job is a party of life (instead of a part, but hey I'd love to have a job where it is a party everyday!)

and then my favorite... I have no idea where this came from but a male student told me:
*It's better to have children when I'm not a younger woman (I agree!)

Those are the top ones, I've still got all day today and tomorrow so if I come up with some more of these I'll be sure to throw them up! And maybe I'll put up my favorite mistakes that I've made in French... maybe...

** this just in, did you know that:
"A generation ago there was no fly machine or car"
??

*Her friends who made the choice to live regret it (I think, and hope, they meant leave...)

or the German sentence of:
*She can higher job in his career have (riiiiiight....)

welcome to the sticks

CNN is doing a week-long report called "Eye on France" and there is a funny interview with Danny Boon on his film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis.

His English is quite good and he is really funny - I love the part where he jokes around about being a porn star because its the only thing that he hasn't done yet!

Anyway the clip is interesting because he sold the rights to the film to Will Smith who is going to make an American remake - Welcome to the Sticks.

I'm curious to see where that will go...

MIA

I've been a bit out of the bloggosphere with all sorts of things happening, but all is looking good. The job hunt is going well, have an interview tomorrow and the appartment hunt is also looking good :-)

This week I'm stuck at work (my last week! yippee!) doing oral exams for 250 students. It's going ok so far but its tiring, I'm here from 9 to 5 at the earliest with only a half an hour lunch break. Its hard to keep your concentration and make sure with something as subjective as an oral exam you keep things fair and not let your fatigue get reflected in their grade.. Plus there has been a huge wind and rainstorm all week and since the heat is cut for the summer and there is no direct light it is frickin freezing in here! I even have an extra sweater! So I'm making tea all the time trying to stay warm.

So I've got a few more hours today and then the rest of the week but come Friday I'll be free!!!



...free... yeah... right, lets try I'll be busy moving, practicing the code so I can get a French license and of course my memoire... gahh!

new soul

dans le sud

I got back on Tuesday from a wonderful trip down to the South to visit a friend of mine. Since I didn't have vacation in April (I decided to work for some extra cash-ola) I took a few days before the exams while my students are doing their study week. While Miss A. was working/in class I had a little adventure in Arles/Avignon one day and Carcassonne the other. I've never been south of Lyon (except a day and a half in Nice) so I was excited to explore something new but always happy to come home to Normandy :-)

I'll just leave you lovely readers with this video :-)



PS. Indiana Jones so not worth it! Don't waste your money... :-)

for the bible tells me so

Yesterday I was reading a post a friend put on her blog. It was about the documentary For the Bible Tells me So. I had never heard of it but after doing some poking around on the internet I managed to watch it and I have to agree, it was an amazing movie.

Dealing with such a hot topic this movie managed to show a side that was not constantly a "put down." The strongest message I felt was to be open minded and to use your noggin. I think the biggest dangers are believing in something because someone else tells you to and following blindly in something. I think these messages spread beyond what is discussed in the film.

I wish a movie like this would have come out when I was in high school, I saw so many people just following what so-and-so says just because they said it. It was so horrible to watch such smart people be so close-minded. I like the way the film presents things in a heartfelt manner, it doens't seem to be "we're right and this is why" but rather lets look at both sides - at all people - and then look at some logic behind it. It is dangerous to put labels on anything or anyone, history has shown us that.

Why are we still doing it today?

One of my favorite clips used in the movie was this one, I like smart comedy :-)

happy mother's day!

Happy Mother's Day!!! :-)

Iron Man

Yesterday was a quiet day, the coast was socked in by the fog almost the whole day so Mystery Guest and I stayed inside and got some work done.

Today, however, we need a break and with the sun out and shining we drove over to Cherbourg and did some running around. Got ID pictures taken conform to the new regulations (for his carte d'identite and my carte de sejour), some stuff at the grocery store and an awesome new phone for Mystery Guest from Lidl. (did I ever mention how Lidl rocks my socks????)

Then we went out for some sushi and a movie. Went to go see Iron Man. I'm always a bit skeptical of action movies, but to be honest it was so fun! Robert Downey Jr is great in the role, adding a bit of comedy and his quirky nature :-)

dr. pepper

Spotted in Auchan in Cherbourg last week... but at 1e45 a can - I don't think so!

vacances dans le sud!

Hello Hello!

Ok I need some help from the blogging world! I'm going down to Montpellier next week for 5 days to visit a good friend of mine, but 2 of the days she has to work - since I've never visited the south of France before I'd like to do some day trips. I was thinking 1 day Avignon and 1 day in Carcassonne. I was looking at train times and if I reserve in advance I can get cheaper tickets.

So my question to you: is there enough to do in Avignon if I hang out from 10am - 8pm? Same in Carcassonne? I don't really like travelling on my own so I'd rather have things to do but not spend too much money either... anyway any advice would be very welcome!! :-)

Thanks!!!

dirty neighbors?

As someone who hasn't had a dryer in over 5 years reading this article came as a huge shock! I couldn't believe it when people complain about the "unslightlyness" of seeing someone's clothes hanging outside to dry!

I love it when its summer and I hang up my clothes in my room (living in an appt right now, can't wait for a house with a garden!) and opening up the windows all day. The afternoon sun hits my little drying rack and between that and the constant breeze off the English Channel my clothes dry quickly and smell great. Yes, sometimes it would be nice to have a dryer so I could dry my sheets at home, but due to lack of space instead I take them down to the local lavomatique every couple weeks. (er... yes, big lie on my part... sadly it is not nearly as often as I would like it to be... opps) Otherwise my appartment would look like this one :-)

Hello people, wake up and smell the greenhouse gases, global warming is not a myth! If everyone did a little something to help out maybe things might actually change..

May 1

May 1st is Labor Day in France and a national holiday. Since this year it was a Thursday a lot of people take off work on Friday to get a long weekend out of it. (Next weekend is even longer, Thursday and Monday are both off!) Since Mystery Guest's parents were out of town this weekend we invited some friends to come discover the region. Kristina and Charlie (another franco-american couple) were able to come for the day on Thursday but had to leave early Friday morning. Nonetheless we crammed a lot of great things into one day and the weather mostly cooperated!

In the morning there were some nasty black clouds that would send occasional showers our way but passed quickly with the wind. We decided to take our chances and have a picnic next to a little river where we had had a picnic last October for my birthday. We had a few showers but hey, how many people can say that they've had a picnic in the rain?? As we raised our goblets of wine to the passing cars people waved and laughed at us - it was great!

Then as we drove to the beach the skies cleared and we had a beautiful walk along the coast.

Kristina taking a close up picture of the flowers (which made us all laugh, it looked like she was a sniper trying to take out the Germans...)

Then we went into Cherbourg to go to the Chateau des Ravalet and then into downtown to grab a drink on the terrace. The town was pretty dead but there were some people selling muguets - lily of the valley - in the main square.

Then we took them down to a great little cookie store, like an old fashioned general store where everything is homemade and delish! And finally to Briquebec and a creperie for dinner!
It was a great day!! Not too busy, we had time to lay in the sun and enjoy a day off to play :-)

Of course in the evening we had to go for a game of Catan, two actually it was just too good!

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...

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 :-)

spring flowers

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

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 :-)

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 ;-)

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 ;-)

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..

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...

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!! ;-)

change your clocks!

Don't forget that in France we spring forward today and change our clocks!

jazzzz baby

Last night I went out with some friends to listen to some jazz. There is a little cafe/bar that tends to have free live jazz music every Friday night. Last time we went we had a little, er, miscommunication about the time so we missed it but this week no problem! It was great, the music was wonderful, the wine was cheap and delish (2.50e for a house red and it was gooood!) and the company was hilarious. We had some pretty entertaining conversations, most likely influenced by said cheap wine, and the best was when 3 of the Frenchies decided that I reminded them of Johanna...

Now, who is this Johanna?? I've heard people reference her to me before but never took the time to figure this out. Apparently there was a teenybopper show on in France in the early 90's which reminds me of Saved by the Bell and one of the characters is an American, Johanna.

So I could understand why the accent or something might give us something in common but when I looked up this video on YouTube I just don't see it! Sarah said that yes, take away the fabulous hair and there is a little something...

I'll let you decide for yourself:

praise be!

The day has finally arrived! The day all expats have been dreaming of... please spread this blessed word as far and wide as you possibly can!

Yes, oh yes, they are selling window screens at Lidl!!!

I'm off to stock up next week! Can't wait! :-)

Happy dance!

expensive groceries

In Le Monde yesterday it has finally been studied that food prices have gone up... uhh really??

"Ainsi, les pâtes alimentaires ont augmenté de 16 % en un an, les oeufs de 14 %, le lait de 12 %, le beurre de 10 %, la farine 10 %, le riz de 9 %, les fromages de 8 % et les yaourts de 7 %."

In the last year pasta has gone up 16%, eggs 14%, milk 12%, butter and flour 10%, rice 9%, cheese 8% and yogurt 7%.

I can tell you I've sure seen that difference in the last few years, its crazy how much these basic products are increasing and salaries are not.

And why is it that gas in Europe continues to increase despite the fall of the dollar? That one is what really gets you, 1 gallon of gas in France will cost you about $10 based on the euro/dollar exchange rate these days! Its a good time for Europeans to go to the States but a bad time for Americans to come travel around Europe that's for sure.

In other news I tried out a new scone recipe yesterday, yum! So light and fluffy they were dewwwishhhhious ;-)

colloque

Today I went to a conference organized by the English Research Department on campus. There was an honored guest this morning, Geoffrey Hill, considered by the majority of critics, to be among the most distinguished English poets of his generation.

After a wonderful introduction by one of my profs (a Geoffrey Hill scholor and translator of some of his poems!), Hill read some of his work.

It was amazing, the poetry is so complex and detailed but hearing it read outloud by this big Santa Claus man with a beautiful deep voice was unbelieveable.

It was one of those times where something that would seem to have been written by "old white men" comes alive and shake off the dust. Great experience.

bravo! bravo! BRAVO!

When was the last time we heard a real speech like this?? Excellent.