Fete de la musique

Here is another video I did with my lil camera. This one is at a random music festival not too far from the house. The band was all jazzy and I love the little girl in the front row dancing along. I won't lie, I kind of hoped the kids with the ball would have caused some sort of catastrophe.


We ended up seeing one of Dominiques old neighbors at the festival which was weird because he hit on me - in front of his wife! It was a little awkward, but hilarious.

Traditional Dance

I took this from one of the random music festivals we went to. It's of one of the traditional dances from this area.

Le Weekend before Paris!!

Saturday we went to the grocery store so Nathalie could shop for a big dinner she was hosting. When we returned, Simon and I packed and drove to Nantes to meet up with cousin Clemont. I was all packed and ready for the train on Monday to Paris! The cousins, brother and I went to our Aunt and Uncle's creperie that I've posted about before and had another delicious dinner and dessert! I really like crepes, well, the dessert ones. Not the nasty dirty sponge Brittany crepes. Ew. those are gross. I don't recommend those to anybody. We also drank a ton of apple cider that is also specific to this region. After dinner Jerome brought out a selection of 'digestifs' to drink after dessert. (think congac, etc.) One of Clemont's friends and I thought it would be a fun idea to have a shot taking contest. In hindsight: BAD IDEA! I'm pretty sure 20 minutes after my 5th or 6th shot I threw up - then wanted to sleep ON the table because I was suddenly very sleepy. On one good note, I can drink as much as a 6' tall guy (or he drinks like a 5'4'' girl) and he threw up probably 10 minutes after me, but instead of making it gracefully to the bathroom like yours truely - he threw up all over the side of his moving car! ha! I do remember, however, one other lady who stopped to talk to Sandra and Jerome and she noticed I spoke English and wanted to have a conversation. I have NO idea what I talked about, I just remember hugging her and telling her it's okay because i'm American. She laughed and made a joke about drinking too much wine.

I'm not drinking any orange flavored Liquor for a LONG time. No contreau, no wannabe contreau with the same alcohol percentage. ::shudder::

Sandra and Jerome took me home so that I would have a real bed to sleep in and not on the floor of some dank apartment, or in a car. (which I tried to do when the boys drove me to their house. Apparently it took them a good 5 minutes to pull me out of the back seat because that seemed like the next best place to sleep than on the table).

The next day we went to Chez Mami to celebrate the combined birthday of two cousins, one turning 18, the other 20. It was a huge feast in the usual family fashion and I had a lot of fun. I'm feeling more comfortable with the big groups even though I still really don't understand when they speak really fast. They played the usual silly games, and I even participated in a few with the translating help of the relative next to me (I think it was a cousin, and he was hot, is that weird?) I also joined a small group in playing a game called "Jungle - something" it was a game of reflex and when you put down a certain card matching an others you had to grab a stick from the center of the table. The directions were a little fuzzy at first since I learnt them in all French (their idea was i'm here to learn french, dammit, no english allowed). I wasn't the best player, but I caught on and even came in like 3d place which means I did better than people who actually speak french and Understood the rules! Yessss!

We went to a nearby town to watch some fireworks for the holiday (monday was Bastille day) which was fun since I missed the 4th at home. The fireworks here were way cooler anyways. Instead of being super far away like the space needle or over some other body of water they were right in the field we sat in, so literally right above us. They also choreographed the whole show to Mozart. It was super classy and fun. But it was cold outside, too, so the idea of going back to a warm bed was all that was on my mind. Especially since I had to get up early to catch my train.

I felt really bad about scheduling a 9 am train. I misunderstood Nathalie when she said we'd be in Nantes and to book my ticket there because the house was super close to the train station. It wasn't, so Dominique and I had to get up and leave at like 8 am. Ouch. That's what I get for thinking I understand French. It all worked out though.

Day 38 & 39

Oh wow, another day of nothing important. Darn. When everybody got home from work we went and had an aparatif a 'The Welcome' where Mathilde works. Then we all went to Dîner at a chinoise restaurant. It was pretty good, except I couldn't really read the menu, which I'm used to - however I don't like a lot of Chinese food so this was especially hard. I ended up ordering some chicken. I forget what sauce was on it but they made fun of me because apparently it is some sort of aphrodesiac. Nothing like your "family" to make fun of you for eating sex food. I probably just blushed a lot. thankfully the lights were dim.
After dinner, there was music playing in the street so we went and checked it out. There was a little two man band playing music so we watched for a few songs. It was fun. People were just randomly dancing in the street and having a ball. I wanted to join but was wearing heels and I think I'd just kill myself dancing on the cobblestone with my choice of footwear. It was still fun to watch! I didn't have my camera to take pictures. Sad.

Thursday I didnt do anything because my allergies were killer. I just took lots of allergy medicine and slept. Such is life.

Rain Rain Go Away - Days 36 & 37

There are a lot of jokes in Britagne about the weather, which I'm accustomed to since I came from basically the same climate. It rained all day Monday so I stayed in and played freerice.com. It's a pretty fun little website and it goes to a good cause. Nothing like getting smart and making a difference at the same time, eh? We had a quiche for dinner. Vive la France!

Tuesday was about the same with the weather not letting up. I wanted to go running on the track down the street but the rain talked me out of it. I kinda like having a few lazy days now and then!
=)

Day 35 - Sunday in Brest

This morning I woke up French style- to the ACCORDION! How french is that? It's pretty French, alright, except I wanted to sleep in a little bit more, but I'll take it. During breakfast Renee and I talked more about America (obama! obama!) I was surprised that the first thing he didn't bring up about Seattle was Grey's, but instead Boeing. That's a first. We also discussed how much he hates Ikea because they apparently use Chinese child labor or something and I lied and said I don't shop there. In reality I plan on furnishing my future apartment in sweet Ikea furniture. He was also very familiar with our fault lines and earthquakes. He reminded me that we are due for a big one, aren't we?

James Blunt is also really popular in France. And I mean REALLY popular. All the adults began singing along when he came on the radio. Ew. This was happening while Renee drove us all around the city of Brest to give me the grand (car) tour. It was a neat looking city and I wish I had more time to look at it, ya know, maybe actually get out of the car? I also missed a couple of good photo ops because I'm slow and the car was driving too fast. One was of an old lady in the crosswalk whos umbrella just blew inside out and another of a young girl on her cell phone right in front of a wedding dress shop display. I'm angry I missed them. Oh well.

The family's cat is about to pop with little chatons and I really really really want to smuggle one home in my suitcase. Actually, I'd spring for a little carrier and bring it on the plane with me. I'm not sure how that works in customs. It would be a shame to do all that and then have customs say no way jose.

On the drive home, of course I fell asleep again. We stopped in a little town called Quimper (pronounced more like cam-pay) and toured the inside of a huge cathedral! It was awesome! It's really cool to be able to see the things you studied in school (art history minor) in real life and not just in your class books!Yeah. Pretty sweet. I slept the rest of the way home.

Weekend gathering

Two small cousins who live in Nice are up for a visit and came to dinner with Mami and Papi Rousset. The younger of the two is a little friendlier than the older and isn't afraid to practice her English a little. I think the older girl is just shy. I feel bad, but I forget their names. I think the younger is Savanne (I have no idea how to spell it). I like visiting with Mami and papi since they treat me as part of the family, although Mami talks super fast so it's hard to keep up with her and Papi has a hard accent that I rarely understand but he laughs a lot and it is contagious.

The next day all of the cousins from the other half of the family came over. I think it was a little goodbye dinner for Simon leaving for a month to the U.S. I'm not sure. We had a pizza dinner and headed off for some entertainment. The bar that Mathilde works at was closed, so we headed a few more blocks down the street to the Black Minou for dancing. It was ladies night, wee, so no cover. It's different here because in French Clubs you get a drink with your admission price. Well, not if you get in for free. It's still nicer than like back in Seattle where you pay cover and have to buy your drinks, too. All the girls love dancing so it was fun to shake my groove thing and have a good time. Another good thing to the club is that there is no smoking inside (anywhere in France, actually) thankfully. They do offer a smoking room though so all the smokers can huddle in this closed off room full of nasty smoke. I guess it's nice if you're a smoker and don't want to go out into the cold (ha, in the summer). It's also weird because if you so choose, you can buy a full bottle of alcohol instead of just a drink. I'm sure if you paid enough you could do the same back home, but I've never seen it. It's way easier than going back for drink after drink, and probably cheaper in the long run. I have yet to buy my own drink, though, so I probably won't find out. Another negative thing about clubs in France is that you only have to be like 15 or something ridiculous to get in. This is a little annoying to have a bunch of 16 year olds running around, too. I'm a fan of 21 and up crowd.

Back!

I had to take a little hiatus from updating the blog since we've (and me alone) have been doing a lot of traveling lately and I've been without internet (I don't know how I survived!). But I'm back now, and I keep my journal handy with me wherever I go to write down what happened so I won't forget.

Day 34 is where I left off I believe, and we woke up early. Today was a road trip to the city of Brest up North a few hours drive. I make a horrible road trip partner because all I do is fall asleep in the car. It doesn't matter if I ride in the car for days or 20 minutes. I'll fall asleep. That has to be my parents fault. Before I fell asleep for the whole car trip, however, I did notice something strange on the highway. Since there are really very few trucks or large vehicles here all the camping cars, horse trailers, and everything else that needs to be towed is done so by car. That's right, just regular car. It looks pretty bizarre.

All the radio stations also play a lot of crap American music. That's not that cool.

The French also drive more efficiently on the freeway. Very few times have I seen traffic here, yet. I'm sure there is its share in the city and because I live out in the country it's different, but I think i've only seen a back-up once - due to an accident. But, for the most part, the French all drive in the right lane - like you're supposed to, unless to pass. There are no slow drivers on the right like back home. Hassle free. The french drivers also leave their blinker on when they get into the right lane, which I found a little weird, and annoying after a while.

We didn't make it in time to see the begining of the tour de France in Brest. Lame. But I did see an Ikea.

We stayed with friends of my host parents and they were very intested to talk to me about America. Naturally, the first topic of conversation was Obama and if I am voting for the black president. Then we discused how much Rene (the host) hates buying into America (i.e. Coca cola). I watched their cat outside get into the compost bin and eat a piece of cantaloupe, then throw up on the porch. That was kind of gross.

My host parents drove me to Meneham which is on the coast and has tons of huge rocks scattered around the land. There were also little stone houses tucked in with tall the rocks and the gale force winds. We came back to watch a big town spectacle in which our hosts were a part of (and I think orchestrated). One of their daughter's names was Elise which was totally weird. I've grown up being basically the only Elyse in town. I think their might have been 2 other girls with my name (spelled differently) in my high school of roughly 4,000. The spectacle ended pretty late so we went back home to bed. I swear the French all have the same mattress, which is fine - it reminds me of memory foam so it's comfy, but this bed was a twin and I don't think I've slept in one of those since I was like 9. The room they gave me was
painted pink. That was a plus. And, I got to sleep in. Yay!

A Thursday..

Since my poor little book went missing I've completely lost count of what day it is that I've been here. Hell, I have hard enough time remembering the date and day of the week. Since I don't go to a structured job or school or anything I find myself constantly having to check my blackberry to see what day it is. That's basically all it is for over here since it doesn't work as a cell phone. And to take pictures. Oh, and play brick breaker on long car trips.

But today is a Thursday!

I used the teaching help e-mail address that Geovisions provided me so that I could come up with some new ideas for fun teaching games- basically anything. I am finding it really hard to teach adults without it being weird. I don't think they find it weird, but I feel awkward. I don't want to sound like I'm talking down to them like I'm teaching two children.

Anyways, some of the ideas they gave me were great! One of them was to bust out the kids cookbook that my parents shipped to me in a care package. The book we used is I think for Kindergarten level and it's an ABC's cook book, so there is a recipe for every letter and the instructions are very simple (actually, perfect for me since I'm a terrible cook). Nathalie looked through the recipes and found Banana Bread. They had never seen this before and wanted to try it post-haste. What I had in mind though for this exercise wasn't what happened. I ended up making the recipe! She collected all the ingredients for me and chopped the nuts. Somehow she turned the game around on me and made me do it while she watched. Talk about pressure. We also had trouble at first translating baking soda and baking powder. I did a little google-cooking-translation and found the names of the two ingredients and when they saw the name of baking soda I'm pretty sure they thought I was trying to poison them. Weird cultural difference - they don't use baking soda in any cooking whatsoever! Dominique finally found a box of baking soda under the bathroom sink! Apparently here they use it to Clean! And brush their teeth (but they don't use it for that in this house but they told me some people use it for that). So no wonder I got strange looks when I asked them basically for toilet cleaner to put in their dessert. I also had to convert it all to metric again. Bah.

The bread turned out good thankfully! They are getting the wrong idea about my cooking skills since the two things I've baked actually came out - good. Gulp.

Ooops!

So I've neglected the blog a bit.. I'm so sorry! Two things happened. The first, which started it, is that my journal in which I write most everything first, before it becomes electronic, somehow fell off the bed and landed just enough underneath that I didn't see it and subsequently forgot about it. I probably kicked it off in the middle of the night since I'm weird and sleep with a ton of useless crap on the bed at night. The second being that I've been pretty active and out-and-about as well and away from my lap-top. I'll try to do better, but for now, a plethora of posts!