La casse

Saturday night Mystery Guest and I met up after I got off work to go see the Avengers (two thumbs up!) and on the way home since we had two cars he followed me home.

When we got home he went straight to my car because something was off- literally. The plastic covering my taillights had completely fallen off and my bulbs where exposed. Not only that but Saturday night and all day Sunday we had torrential wind and rain. He covered the exposed part as best he could and we took a look online to see how much a replacement part would cost if la casse didn't have it.

First thing this morning we called to see and they had one!!! So a quick trip to the junkyard, 40€, a scraped knuckle and 5 min install later and my car has a new-to-me taillight. Woo!!

'cause I eats me spinach

A big pack of baby spinach on sale inspired me to go back to this recipe. Yum.
http://confituredulait.blogspot.fr/2011/05/new-recipe.html

Weekend recap

4,000 words... Warm spring breeze, camellias, Orion starry night, best friends skipping stones, fantastic cookie stop...

It doesn't get any better than that.

Petit chocolat

I just think its so cool that my boss recommended a dessert that is locally made - down to the milk that comes from her parent's farm.

They are little mini pots aux chocolat that are the size of a petit suisse but taste like a delicious dark chocolate pudding.

And no, Montebourg is not in reference to the French politician but rather a town out here in the Cotentin.

Tip of the day

Step 1: Get plastic 'rouleaux' from your bank.

Step 2: Take tin can full of copper change that your American friends left you and sort into 5, 2, and 1 cent piles.

Step 3: Fill your plastic rouleaux.

Step 4: Admire your handiwork.

Step 5: Depose your hard earned 8€ at the bank.

Smile :-)

Foggy

It never lifted today. Thick as pea soup & heard the fog horns all day.

Sunny Sunday

Workin girl

I've been neglecting my poor blog but with being the busy workin girl that I am I'm too lazy to fire up the laptop for a real post.... But I do have one about our fantastic new kitchen (and knives!) up my sleeve.

In the meantime work is still going swimmingly, I even got in some quality knitting time on my lunch break today.

Winter sunrise

Chilly

Better late than never I guess! We finally have hit cold winter temps (only 2months late... I hope the gods don't have any nasty payback in store for us!)
I went up to the market to get my veggies, those cold crisp winter mornings do make great pictures!

Numbers..

At work I've had to get used to long rapid fire series of numbers (in French of course!) but also to French handwriting. Inspired by a post written by Gwan a few months ago I present the kind of stuff I'm faced with everyday.

A prize goes to the lucky reader (non-French of course!) who gets it right!

Workin'

My job is keeping me busy but I'm really really enjoying myself. The colleagues are fantastic (there are only 3 of us) and the customers are friendly too.
On top of it all I'm working in a beautiful seaside town which is flooded with tourists in the summer but in the winter retains is magical charm. Lunchtime walks are a treat!

January walk

Yesterday Mystery Guest and I took advantage of the mild winter we're having (unlike the horrible snow from the last two years!) This winter we had a few days of frost back in October but nothing since then. But don't think I'm complaining! Living out here in the countryside where people aren't used to snow, where no one has snowtires and the roads are rarely plowed I'm perfectly happy with the mild temps!

But yesterday you would have thought it was an early spring day once the sun came out. We drove over to Carteret which isn't too far from where we live. We walked down by the church ruins (which you can see in yesterday's post) and since it was really low tide we walked all the way down to the water passing by some crazy shellfish which we found out later (thanks to Facebook!) are gooseneck barnacles and apparently a delicacy in Spain and Portugal. In the center picture you can see how clearly we could see Jersey yesterday, beautiful.

We were playing the goats scampering over the rocks by the point when we realized the tide was coming in so we made a mad dash over the rocks to get to the other side. Once along the main beach (where those cute beach cabins are) we hiked back over to where the car was parked following the Sentier des Douaniers and saw one of their old stone shelters overlooking the sea.

It was a beautiful day, every five seconds that came out of my mouth but I couldn't help ooohhhing and ahhhhing! :) Work has been off to a great start but being stuck in an office all day it sure was nice to get outside and have the sea air deep in my lungs.

Afternoon walk

2011

I wanted to post this earlier but I started a new job Tuesday and haven't had much free time especially since the cell connection in the old stone building is really bad.

I've been meaning to do a recap on 2011... It was a good year. Some of the highlights were finishing my call center job with its grueling 3 hour daily commute, meeting my new nephew in Mystery Guest's clan and becoming a French citizen. I also got to help dear friends celebrate their marriages and had my first (but not last!) experience working in a 'real' French job.

Looking back one of the real highlights of my year was spending quality family time. Seeing my little sister after 4 years all grown up! My parents and especially my grandparents. Back in February I spent 4 days with them in Southern California listening to stories and doing puzzles. I'm so lucky now that I was able to because after a bad fall on Christmas day my Grandmother was hospitalized and subsequently operated on. She sadly never woke up and passed away Monday night.

It's so hard not being able to be there for my family at a time like this, the service is going to be this afternoon in my Grandma's church and I've been thinking about them all day. But with a new work contract and California so far away I just can't make it back and am trying to say goodbye in my own way.

I know she'd understand, she was one of the strongest women I know. A nurse, always telling me what nice veins I have.... :-) She was full of pride and commitment to her family. I have such wonderful memories of her. And to quote my uncle, "while this is a sad time, let's try to remember to celebrate Mom's life: Kansas farm-girl done real good."

Christmas lights

When I was in Caen the beginning of December I got to test out my new remote that Mystery Guest gave me for my birthday. It was freezing cold that night so we didn't hang around to play with all the options/lighting modes but this picture came out pretty good. They did a nice job of "painting" the front of the Mairie with a light display.

Christmas recap

Well things went really well for our first time hosting Christmas. Everyone arrived at the end of the afternoon for an apéritif (my MIL brought lots of bottles of bubbly for the occasion!) I served Deviled eggs which went over well, along with some bought puff pastry nibblies.
For dinner I made a Chapon which MG and I thought was a castrated turkey - turns out it was a castrated chicken but given the size of it (3,5kg!) I kept calling it a turkey anyway... So that turned out yummy and we had it with mashed potatoes & gravy, polenta, green beans & bacon, stuffing and carrots!
Afterwards sticking with local tradition we had a trou normand to help us digest before attacking the cheese and then dessert. I made a hazelnut/blackberry cake that my FIL adores and a pumpkin pie which everyone loved. I snuck upstairs for a 6 way google hangout with my dad, sister, uncles and grandparents which was SO fun!
By then we were stuffed and exhausted so we opened our stockings (it was my little surprise this year - I made personalized stockings for the family! I think it's a tradition that should take hold here!!) and I think they all liked them along with the goodies inside! Then we watched a movie.
But we voted 3 to 2 to open the rest of the presents the following day (Christmas morning).
After a relaxed breakfast of challah and lots of coffee we finally got into it ;-) and there were fantastic gifts all around!
We kept it simple the rest of the day, leftovers for lunch and Carcassonne all afternoon.
I called my mom after they had left and did another FaceTime chat with my sister in Oz. I love technology!!

So all in all a great Christmas weekend. We're seeing some friends tomorrow & invited for NYE so between now and then it's time to relax a bit because I got offered a 3 month contract starting January 3rd :-)

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Holidays!!!

We're getting ready for Christmas! For the first time Mystery Guest & I are hosting Christmas! Luckily it's a small Christmas this year, just his parents & brother. I'm putting my American spin on things this year but we're still doing Christmas on the 24th instead of on the 25th - some things you can't change! Especially when it comes to asking them to wait to open presents! So the house is clean, desserts done yesterday, all that's really left is a little decoration and popping the castrated chicken in the oven... :-) Have a wonderful weekend & celebration!!!

Caroling

On Sunday afternoon an American friend invited me to go caroling in a nearby church put on by the local franco-british association.
I got there before she did (a branch was stuck on her car with all the storms we've been having!) and was immediately reminded why haven't been to one of these events in a long time. Last time was probably 5 or 6 years ago when I was living in Caen. I dragged MG & Béné to the local Anglican church for carols.
The problem each time has been the same: old churchy carols played too slowly in the organ. I have nothing against the old fashioned carols but they were SO slow!!! Plus the lyrics weren't the same as what we learned. And to top it off the French ones that they sang were REALLY churchy!!
I was so glad when my friend turned up and we snickered like naughty schoolgirls in the back pew.
Then afterwards we were invited to a 'pot' and the mulled wine hit the spot!

I got a chance to meet my friend's lovely daughters but didn't enjoy the conversation interrupted by old English ladies wondering where I was from. And then the horrified look when I said that I didn't live in Paris but live here full time. Yeah, that's right we haven't met before because unlike you I don't hangout with other Anglos all the time...

Sigh. I say next year my friend and I organize our own carols!! Jingle Bells biatches!! :-)

champagne!

On Wednesday night I was invited to a ceremony which wrapped up my journey of becoming a Franco-American. I officially became naturalized in May but because there ain't many of us furrenginers out here in the countryside who go about asking to be naturalized they only have a ceremony once every six months. Mystery Guest and I were invited to go and I really had no idea what to expect especially since some other naturalized  Americans didn't go to their ceremonies. I guess to be honest I assumed it would just be in the main prefecture waiting area! But I did have my fingers crossed for champagne and champagne I got!

We were asked to show up 15 minutes early for  a 6pm ceremony. There were about 30 people there plus their families/friends. But then we were lead out of the main prefecture and to the official residence of the "prefect" (who is basically the head of the "departement" or "state" that I live in).

Classssy! Beautiful tapestries, fairly modern yet tasteful decoration.

The prefect came out dressed to the nines in his military uniform and after a short informative video about being French (the only thing I found odd is that they tell you what it means to be French after you've been naturalized! what if you change your mind???) Then he gave a short speech and the European anthem was played. Afterwards we were invited to join him in singing la Marseillaise. When Mystery Guest asked if I knew all the words (we were given a photocopy of the lyrics just in case!) I said of course not, I know the few key lines but that's it - not that that's a bad thing don't ask me to sing the whole Star Spangled Banner off the top of my head either! (I'll always have a soft spot for the American national anthem, it's just so poetic and not so bloody...)

Then they handed out our new paperwork individually and took back our carte de sejours. I'm pretty sure they read us out in terms of the size of the cities we were from because I was dead last! Some of the mayors came to the ceremony - one even gave a lady a bouquet of flowers!

Then there was a pot, drinks and lots of yummy things to nibble on. Glad to see my tax euros being put to good use - that champagne was tasty!

I'm really glad I went (even though the capital city of our departement is about an hours drive) and that Mystery Guest could join me. Sometimes a ceremony is really nice, it really finalizes something, takes shape and becomes more meaningful than a letter saying congratulations. Plus it didn't drag on for ages, short, sweet and to the point which was perfect. :-)

I was interviewed by the local radio and on the drive home everything just came together. Still feels a little odd to say that I'm French - but in the same way that it feels odd to say that I'm 30 - it hasn't totally sunk in yet.

But I'm sure it will - I can't wait to vote in two presidential elections next year!