Personalized T-Shirt from my Roomies

hcMy roommates and I went out to a really great, Breton creperie last Thursday to celebrate the Italian assistant's last night in Rennes. Yet another goodbye meal = bittersweet. I enjoyed my usual galette "complete salade", which is cheese, ham, and egg melted in a yummy dark-wheat crepe, topped with a very light salad. At the end of the meal I received a huge surprise as my roommates presented me with a personalized tank top. On the front are several pictures of us, and the back reads: "L'Auberge Bretonne ... ou Bizarre?" I absolutely love it!! Of course I promised to wear it to the school cafeteria the following day for a little show-and-tell. I wish I could post the video of my reaction to the gift (but it's just too painful for me to hear myself exclaiming "thanks, i love it, how did you do this, when did you do it" etc in my horrendous French accent), but here are some modeling picts.

Last Raclette Dinner for L'Auberge Bretonne

L’Auberge Bretonne, as my roommates and I have coined our little international community, had our last raclette dinner together on Friday night to say goodbye to the Russian assistant. We toasted with Breton cider and then ate raclette with sautéed potatoes, mushrooms, proscuitto, and French ham. I also used this as an occasion to give my roommates little scrapbooks that I’ve been working on for them the past couple of weeks. I selected and developed my favorite pictures from the last 6 months together (not an easy task if you know how many pictures I take!), and arranged them in small scrapbooks with different quotes, lyrics, brochures, local magazine cutouts, etc … personalized for each person. I think they really enjoyed them, and it was fun looking through them all, laughing about all of our random memories from the year. Unfortunately, we were soon interrupted by yet another unfriendly visit from the dorm supervisor. It was 10pm on a Friday night, and there were 8 of us sitting at our kitchen table

with a bottle of wine and few beer bottles. He yelled at us for drinking alcohol on the premises, etc. It’s just a bit hard to take him seriously when we’re a group of responsible adults (everyone well above the drinking age) enjoying our last meal together with some drinks. And puhlease we were looking at scrapbooks at the time … I don’t think it gets much less “party atmosphere” than that! Anyway, my camera was sitting at the table when he busted in, so I sneakily turned on the video mode to capture the confrontation, hehe. We’ve of course watched it several times … basically the Italian assistant is left to defend himself after the man unfairly singled him out, another assistant casually ignores him & continues to flip through a scrapbook, another actually continues to drink her glass of wine, and the rest of us each try to put in our two-cents, defending ourselves in French. It’s hilraious … I tried to upload it but couldn't due to length. Aside from this interruption, we had a great night together celebrating the bonds that we’ve made over the past 6 months. It’s hard to say goodbye to people after spending so much time together, adapting to a new environment together, and sharing so many new experiences.

Here are some pages from the little scrapbooks I made :)

Woo Hoo for Packages!

I consider myself lucky to have friends who a) celebrate half-birthdays (Miss Tina Lee) and b) send birthday/Christmas combo packages months late (Miss Jessi Langsen) … these practices result in wonderfully out-of-the-blue arrivals, and I love it! Jessi sent a great little variety of surprises … hand-made shot glasses from Mexico, diamond-shape ice-cube tray, a cute shirt from Urban, a funky wallet/travel doc/checkbook cover, some haircare goodies from her line of trade, a copy of early March New Yorker!, and of course a CD of the latest faves on her music radar. Tina’s package included a much-needed, very-appreciated travel i-Pod, battery-less speaker (seriously the size of a Lego piece!), my favorite gum, and a CD of her latest finds. Merci beaucoup, les filles!!

Great French Dinner

Saturday night my professor from the medical center where I teach invited me over for dinner with herself, her husband, and another couple. It ended up being a very enjoyable evening – am amazing spread of great food and interesting conversation and people. The professor and her husband themselves are very fascinating, well-traveled, and intelligent. And the other invited couple were actually both Americans who have lived in Iceland for the past 30 years but have also owned a house in Bretagne for 15 years; the man is a philosophy professor at the University of Iceland. So this mix of people obviously provided for a variety of interesting conversation topics. And, of course, I’ve never been disappointed by dinner in a French home! We started with fresh oysters served with bread, butter, and a crisp white wine. Next we had fresh oysters served warm, on their shells, in a thick butter and shallot sauce. Then the third appetizer was a small bowl of mussels in a tasty butter and vegetable broth … yum! For the main course we had lightly seasoned pork and a variety of fresh steamed vegetables … carrots, green beans, sautéed mushrooms, lentils, roasted garlic bulbs. Spinach salad and an assortment of fresh French cheese followed the main course. With dinner we had a couple of bottles of red wine (think they were from Burgundy but I can’t remember); the first was good, and the second was really remarkable … I of course tried to remember the name but all I can recall is that it was a 1990. We ended with a light strawberry & cream tart … mmmm.

The Beginning of the End ...

It’s crazy, but I have officially begun my last full week of teaching! After this week, we have two weeks of vacation at the end of April, followed by 3 days of teaching until the end of our contracts on May 1^st. The time has absolutely flown by! The first few months were hectic with administrative paperwork and just getting used to new friends, new job, new living situation, etc. Three weeks into teaching we already had 2 weeks of vacation, and then after that the Christmas holidays came and went. January was full of planning for the February vacation, then March passed quickly, and here we are in April. It seems like I’ve just recently gotten totally comfortable with teaching/efficient with preparation/etc … and it’s soon to be over! The first assistant left last weekend to go home to Russia, and the rest will be leaving at the end of this week (with the exception of the Spanish and Chilean assistants, who are also sticking around for part of May). The assistants from Europe all got permission to not come back for the official last 3 days of our contract in May, after the spring vacation. I think the end is definitely bittersweet for us all. Above is a picture of the 9 assistants (only 7 of us live together at the school; the 8^th is an Austrian who lives in a nearby city and the 9^th is a German who lives at the school next door) at our last lunch all together in the cantine.

Adventures in (French) Babysitting

Well, I actually don’t have any terribly exciting adventures in the babysitting domain … just the fact that I babysat for a professor at my high school last week. She’s American, married to a Frenchman, and they have five and eight year old daughters. The whole family speaks both English & French fluently, and the girls were adorable! As a baby-sitting job it was really pretty simple … they were eating dinner when I arrived, then they spent an hour showing me their rooms & toys, and then it was time for bed. Up until this point we had only spoken English together, but the youngest girl wanted me to read her a book in French before going to bed. As soon as I started reading it out-loud in French, she started giggling and called her sister into the room – “Come here, you’ve got to hear this!” And, yes, the other sister had to agree – “Ton accent, c’est fort.” Yep, I know I’ve got a pretty strong accent. The five year old continued to laugh for the rest of the book – good to know … my French speaking is apparently hilarious to little kids, super! After they both went to sleep, I put a movie in; finally got a chance to see Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood Indian-wedding classic that I’ve always wanted to see!

What happened to March?!

This is just a random entry to catch everyone up on the last few weeks. I’ve been relatively quiet on the blog front for March and April. After my February vacations, I’ve just spent most of my time in Rennes, hanging out with roommates, teaching, and going out a bit. I’ll quickly describe a few of the goings-on from March below:

First off, it was a month of fun birthday celebrations. In the beginning of the month I went to a birthday party for the French boyfriend of one of my American assistant friends. It was a great night full of Breton cidre, American fun-fetti cupcakes (yumm!!), and a little bit of French drinking-game Jinga … always a good time!

The second birthday celebration was for m roommate Andrea, and we all went out to eat fresh mussles together at a restaurant in Rennes. There were about 15 of us, and almost everyone ordered a different plate of mussels and fries; I think the place has about 12 different kinds of mussel dishes on their menu. I got “Moules à la Normande,” which was mussels stewed in a cider & crème fraiche sauce with sautéed apples … delightful! See below for my huge serving …

For her birthday she had four of her Chilean friends to come stay, so their presence gave us a good excuse to party for the weekend! We spent one night hanging out at our place, another at the apartment of a different Chilean assistant, and others in a creperie and bar. Many of these nights ended up in late-night, rowdy soccer in the hallway or outside. Since I’m not exactly in top shape right now, it’s a good way to ease back into playing, haha! Pictures below are of some of this month's visitors ...

B-B-B-Barca!!!!

We had full three days in Barcelona , so we started each day with a walk down the Ramblas, while discussing which area we should check out for the day. On Thursday we toured the Casa Batllo, one of the buildings designed by the crazy/modern architect Gaudi. It was built as a house for a wealthy Spanish family; there is a water-theme throughout the whole building (lots of blue mosaic tiles & stained glass, no right angles in the whole building, and a spectacular rooftop terrace with colored turrets that had a fish-scale-like quality. Although the guided audio tour was a little bit flamboyant and over the top, it was something cool to see.

That morning we also checked out the St. Joseph market - see the pictures below for the colorful spreads of fruit, chocolate, etc!

On Friday we went to Parc Guell, also designed by Gaudi, and this was my favorite sight from Barcelona. It’s a huge outdoor park with lots of winding paths which lead to a huge terrace/plaza overlooking the city. If you’ve seen l’Auberge Espagnole, then you’ve seen this park; it’s where Xavier and Anne Sophie kiss on the bench. Anyway, the view of Barcelona is great, and a long, brightly colored, mosaic bench snakes along the entire edge of the terrace; in the middle there’s a plaza filled with palm trees and random performers. Pictures below of Parc Guell:

Friday night we went out to a couple of bars and ended up receiving free passes to a club, so we decided to check that out. Uhh … not the best idea ever … turned out to be an exclusively-gay club which wasn’t all-too welcoming to females. After trying to dance but not really enjoying the atmosphere, we left and called it a night! Here’s a picture of my roommate’s impression of the bar … thanks, Metro! On Saturday we checked out the most famous Gaudi sight – La Sagrada Familia, which is a sprawling, unfinished church that has been under construction for over 100 years. We didn’t pay to go in, but just took a few pictures outside. This is the second time I’ve seen it, so I don’t really have any new impressions to speak of :)

Then we took the Metro over to Montjuic – another hilltop area that offers a great view of the city. To return to the waterfront, we took a funicular down the side of the mountain. We spend the afternoon and evening walking around the marina and Las Ramblas before stopping in a tapas bar for some drinks and food.

















All in all, it was great to spend the second week in Spain with my roommates! Barcelona is such a cool city – huge/metropolitan/international/festive atmosphere AND a beach! I’d love to go back when it’s warmer to spend some time on the beach!

And I'll leave you with this ... although Ronadinho didn't show up for the game, we luckily found him chilling on the street :

F.C. Barcelona Match!

Thursday we took a short flight from Mardrid to Barcelona, where we met up with Simone, our Italian roommate, at the airport. We took the train into the city and found our pensione, a couple of streets off of Las Ramblas, the huge pedestrian street through Barcelona. The three of us shared a room at a really cheap pensione (only 15 euro a night) … but after a few cold showers and early-morning construction noise, we realized we probably should have looked for another place for the last few days. But we decided to stick it out and ended up staying at the same place for all four nights. As soon as we got settled in, Andrea and I took the metro out to Camp Nou, where we saw a soccer match between F.C. Barcelona and Valencia. It was crazy, huge, and very fun! There were at least twice the amount of people there compared to the games I’ve been to in Rennes. Valencia scored first, but Barcelona ended up tying the game in the last 10 seconds of injury time at the end. I got to see Messi, the Argentine player who I’ve been slightly obsessed with since the last World Cup, so that was fun! Unfortunately, Ronaldinho hasn’t been playing lately; when we asked a local fan why he didn’t play, the man’s response was that Ronaldinho “likes the nightlife of Barcelona too much.” Hmm, interesting. When the game ended around midnight we unfortunately found out that the metro had closed, so we basically had no idea how to get home. Luckily we found a really nice man who fortunately gave us a ride back to Las Ramblas, as well as a few tips on some sightseeing.
















Video Clip - End of Game

Week Two of Vacation ... Hola, Espagne!

Now onto the second week of vacation … I flew from Paris to Madrid with my roommate Andrea on Monday afternoon. We stayed in the Huertas quarter at a cute pensione which occupied one floor in an old building. It was actually a really cool and cheap placed to stay; you enter at the street through huge wooden doors that open into a courtyard with a huge, old wooden, double spiral staircase leading to the different apartments/hotels on each floor. I took a picture (left) because it was so impressive! Monday afternoon we just chilled and then ate dinner outside at Placa Major, a giant plaza nearby.

On Tuesday we spent the whole day walking around Madrid. It’s a really enjoyable and easy city to explore on foot, and it was a nice & sunny day, so that was great! Among other things, we saw the Puerta del Sol, National Library, and the huge Parque del Buen Retiro. We enjoyed a typically Spanish (ie: late and leisurely) lunch at a café and then went to the Museum del Prado in the evening (free entrance). Well, we obviously weren’t the only ones with the idea of going at night for free, so we joined several hundred people in line. It’s supposed to be one of the best art museums in Europe – with paintings by Velazquez, El Greco, Botticelli, and many others. Obviously I’m not an art aficionado but I’m glad we went to it. After the museum we explored a couple other quarters that we hadn’t yet visited and stopped for drinks in a really cool, cavelike restaurant. We ordered a pitcher of beer that was served in the strangest glass container I’ve ever seen; the bottom was wide and flat like a wine decanter, and then it had a long, thin beak through which you poured the beer. And instead of serving wine in bottles, it was served in rubberlike pouches; I guess that could be chic, but it just reminded me of playing “slap the bladder” with Franzia, haha. And all of the waiters were wearing t-shirts with the restaurant’s motto written in Spanish – “We don’t serve Coke here.” I have to appreciate that! So that was a really unique and cool restaurant to find. After that we were hungry and tried to find someplace to eat by walking through streets packed with bars and restaurants. Apparently in Spain it’s customary for the doormen to solicit pedestrians by offering free shots (with no strings attached), so we took advantage of that custom, haha. Seriously though, everyone offered free drinks if you came in and just looked at their menus! Finally we decided on a small cerveceria where we ate paella.

At the Parque del Buen Retiro

Trying to drink out of the funky carafe ...

Tina goes back to Les Etats-Unis ... booooo

Monday morning we had a quick breakfast of café and pain au chocolat on our little balcony and then headed to the airport … where Tina finally got to meet one of my roommates! Andrea was at the airport waiting for our flight to Madrid, so they got to quickly meet each other. It was sad to say goodbye to Tina and impossible to sum up such a great week together!














Updates to come (somewhat) soon for the week in Spain!

Beautiful Sunday in Paris!

Sunday morning we leisurely woke up to a gorgeous, sunny (not typically) Parisian day in February – it was amazing outside! We grabbed coffee and started what turned into a 6-hour walk along the Seine through the city. It was beautiful, and everyone was outside enjoying the weather – one of the best days in Paris that I can remember. We ate baguette sandwiches on the bank of the Seine and continued our walk along the river until we cut up at the Louvre to walk through the Tuileries. We walked down the Champs Elysées, which was definitely too packed with tourists to be enjoyable, and then past l’Arc de Triomphe for the obligatory photo. This resulted in a seemingly friendly and harmless Frenchman asking to take individual pictures with each of this … creepy, but we obliged since he had taken a picture for us. He then gave us a piece of paper with his blog address and said something about Sarkozy (the French Pres), for or against, I don’t really know what he mumbled. But I just hope we don’t end up on some random blog! Then we walked over to the Tour Eiffel which was also packed! We took tons of fun pictures below it … and my favorite is obviously in my Minneapolis/Target shirt! No kidding, I think we have at least 15 pictures of us posing there. We finished Sunday afternoon by grabbing fresh crepes on Rue de Rivoli and then walked back to our area for happy hour outside at a café. Sunday night we really wanted to find a place with mussels, so we ended up back at Rendez-vous des Amis … full circle because we (unintentionally) started and ended our trip there. Wonderful day in Paris! Photos include lunch on the Seine and the square next to our hotel.