ipod

I got an ipod for my birthday back in 2004... recently the battery just doesn't hold out as it once used to... Since I mostly use it in town for 30 min at a time its not a big deal but since I've got an upcoming trip to Oz for Christmas and a 30 hour flight I thought some music might be nice! (and podcasts of course!!!)

So I was toying outloud with the idea of getting a new nano or something and Mystery Guest said, oh well I could just change the battery. :-)

So 16euros later a little battery arrived in my box and Mystery Guest slaved over prying it open this evening and did a happy dance at the end (looking something like this after he got it!) Right now my little po-pod is charging up as we speak and should be all brand new tomorrow!!!

Yeah Mystery Guest! You rock!

thanksgiving wrap up

Just to make you drool....

Wonderful people, amazing food, fantastic time!

Gobble gobble :-)

t-day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans out there (and a very belated Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians...!)

Go stuff yourselves full of yummyness no matter when or how you celebrate this year! Gotta bust open that top button!

:-)

thanksgiving

Well its almost turkey-time! This fall has flown by and now the little American community here is getting ready for the big T-day!

It has now become tradition for Natalie and I to organize a potluck Thanksgiving at her house the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We're in the process of divving up the food list and I'm going to be making my famous stuffing (Apple and Onion), pecan pie, cranberry sauce and probably some biscuits and/or cornbread muffins.

I love Thanksgiving but I've been thinking a lot the last few weeks how I've almost lost that homesick feeling I used to get. I remember reading blogs a few years ago about how some American families in France just don't even bother to celebrate Thanksgiving and I would wonder how they could ever give up my favorite holiday. It is still my favorite holiday, to have wonderful friends and family, food and that cozy feeling of fall... but now I can understand how it could be possible to not feel that desire, or rather need, to celebrate. Maybe at the same time this is because I already have plans and won't be sitting at home wishing I were celebrating, who knows...

Maybe its like how in the beginning I used to crave American products that I couldn't find here and now I can find pretty much everything I want. That sure beats schleping back a big suitcase each year! France used to be unique and different, everything from the language to the grocery stores to the countryside... but now as I drive through Normandy I can't help but think that the little village churches seem justs as normal or even more so than a 24-hour Safeway...

I think all this random reflection was sparked by reading other blogs, those of people who just arrived a few months ago and are now going through the hard part of culture shock. But where does one fit in after spending so long abroad? I'm not French nor am I really American anymore when the last 5 out of 7 years of your adult life is spent abroad...

alive

Well between being sick this weekend and the strikes etc I haven't blogged much but I was having a great time playing with my new camera! Isn't that an amazing picture? No tripod or anything! I'm so excited!!!

More to come laaater :-)

animal fetish?

When reading Poppy's blog this evening I was reminded of an ad campaign that I wanted to post about... does this disturb anyone else besides me?? Something about these sexually-charged animals is just creepy!!

cinema

Last night I saw le Coeur des Hommes 2 which I really enjoyed. As my friend so perfectly put it at the end of the movie "Its like Sex and the City with guys."

tee hee maybe that's why I liked it so much ;-)

greve

On Tuesday night the students at the university decided to go on strike. This mostly is affecting the batiment de lettres (language arts) where I teach English classes on Monday and where more importantly I had my thesis defense on Wednesday morning at 11am!

Talk about adding more stress to the situation!! I got a call on Wednesday morning from Mystery Guest who said, yup the building is completly blocked and see if you can't reach your advisor over the phone. So I did, left a message and hoped we could still do it in another building! Luckly all went smoothly and I passed my thesis and the first year of my Masters!!!! (insert happy dance here!) I got a good grade - if I do say so myself - 16/20!

As far as the strike goes everyone is wondering if this will turn into another CPE situation... any thoughts??

brittany

My feet were itching to travel so on Thursday I called up Sam to see if I could go take a little trip down in Brittany :-) She said no problem so I hopped on a train Friday afternoon and made my way down to the gite! We had the best time just lazing around, just what this girl needed!! On Saturday we finally made it out of our pj's and out of the house in the afternoon and took a walk through this beautiful forest.

Then we made our way over to a nearby town and had a fantastic tartiflette dinner with the lycee assistants placed there. (not to be confused with the briflette they make down in Dubai...!)

The next morning I took off and made my way over to Rennes where I had a two-hour wait. Leah braved a dull Sunday morning to meet up for a sandwich at Subway and showed me around the city, all the half-timbered houses and rue de la soif ;-) The town hall was beautiful and I just couldn't resist catching this mohawk dude in the picture hehehe. I took the little train back to Caen Sunday afternoon and had 2 belated birthday presents waiting for me!

geocaching

Yesterday Mystery Guest and I took advantage of the day off (All Saint's Day) to brave the grey skies and drive around in the countryside. We saw some amazing little villages around Caen, I just love love the stone houses around here all made from pierre de Caen and are just stunning.

I've totally got addicted to geocaching, its such a great way to see regions, cities and countrysides that you normally wouldn't go check out. Yesterday we found 2 different caches :-) Here are a few pictures...

Near one of the villages we couldn't find the cache, but we did find this tumulus which was so cool, built 4,000 years ago and not a soul in site to mess up our pictures ;-)