"coucou!" A friendly way to say hello!
Can you believe it? Here we are 4 days from Valentine's Day, and I have yet to hear one word about it! You'd think that the country of romance would be more interested in le Saint-Valentin, but you'd be wrong. I mean, girls actually refer to their boyfriends as "mon chèrie" in normal conversation. Mon chèrie this, mon chèrie that, "Mary, quand est-ce que ton chèrie va te rendre visite ici?" (Mary, when is your boyfriend going to visit you here?). But they don't fall for the candy hearts and cards.
I'll still probably try to throw it into a lesson plan. But we still have lots of other important work to do because I promised my kids that I'd prepare another Bingo for them, and they're still just now learning the necessary clothing vocab. Only one more of Rosine's English-German Breakfasts left, and then we'll be mostly uninterrupted (except for strikes).
Life has continued to be sweet here in Valence! We had a pretty miserable cold spell for a couple of weeks (no snow, just wind), but it finally seems to have lifted. During the hibernation period, my French friends introduced me to just about every form of indoor entertainment that you can find in Valence: ice skating, bowling, and go-karting. We watched movies and I went to see a couple in theaters (dubbed in French is not the way to go). Also, I spent one Saturday afternoon singing at a nursing home. My french friend Noémie invited me to come with her singing group, so I got busy learning 4 French songs, and we performed them! I think I'm going again this Sunday.
The past weeks have also been filled with some culinary adventures! This, clearly, is one of my favorite ways to spend my free time. I had a fantastic dinner at the 7 Bistro at Maison Pic for a friend's birthday, and I tried pig's stomach! It was served over mashed potatoes and was absolutely delicious. I went to talk to some of Cloé's friends in the kitchen after dinner and they informed me that they prepare the pig's stomach by cooking it for 27 hours! I've also had quite a bit of fun cooking for myself. Recently I've been inspired (by the sales at the grocery store) to try preparing regional cuisine such as raviole (tiny ravioli) and caillette (a kitchen sink sausage ball type thing). I balanced this out by later making my own hummus and pita chips and then having a fajita night, to give myself a taste of home. I also currently am loving making any recipe based with quinoa and any recipe in which I can throw in all the vegetables I get at the market. Look how beautiful it is:
The best part is that I've done very careful price comparisons, and shopping at the market is much cheaper! And you get to make delicious things like cinnamon roasted pumpkin (my new favorite). Other culinary adventures include the Tunisian treats that Fiona and I picked up in Marseille! This orange thing is called zlabia, and it is SO delicious! (but it does not contain oranges or carrots, as it's appearance might suggest)
Speaking of Marseille, I've been doing some day-tripping! Once the weather got a little bit milder, I started venturing out around the area. One Saturday Nicole and I went over to Grenoble to hang out for a while (hence the beautiful picture of the mountains at the beginning of this post). I saw on Twitter that this guy who paints using coffee as a medium was going to be presenting at a coffee shop in Grenoble, so Nicole and I decided to drop in. We spoke with him for a bit and it was very interesting! We also got to ride the bubble cars up the mountain to the Bastille and see a beautiful sunset on the mountains around Grenoble! This was a neat experience for me, because when I was trying to make up my mind about whether or not I'd come to France, I frequently looked at pictures of Grenoble online because I thought I'd be living there. It was neat to go and visit the city and reflect on how differently everything has turned out than I imagined during the decision-making process, but also how much better it is than I could have hoped for! Try as you might, you just can't plan for everything.
Also, yesterday, I had the distinct treat of going back Aix-en-Provence for the day! This is where I studied abroad 2 years ago, and I hadn't been back down to visit yet. My friend Fiona came with me and we took the train down south (passing through Marseille for a bit) to visit my old stomping grounds! Aix is every bit as beautiful as I remembered, and it was so much fun to walk around it again for the day! I even ran into someone I knew in the street. Fiona was sweet and humored my visit to the Vanderbilt-in-France center, where I caught up with the 2 wonderful program directors for half an hour or so! She also let me take her to my old apartment and all my favorite places in town, like Café la glacière and Bechard Patisserie!
