Monday: Today I slept in but woke up at a reasonable time. I ate breakfast, took a shower, and hung out around the house until lunch time. Lionel and Guilhem came home for lunch again and then we (including Emma and Guillaume) had a delicious corn, tomato, green olive, greek cheese, and vinegar salad. It was so good because it had a tangy-ness to it but the corn also gave it a sweet kick. Then we had our delicious main course of baked pork, potatoes, and onions (yes, all baked TOGETHER so the flavors were epic). With that Lionel and I enjoyed some of that whole-grain mustard. We topped off the lunch with fruit and then enjoyed our coffee and chocolates. Typically I have a mild coffee that is 40% coffee beans and 60% chicorée and it is so good. Sadly, though, they ran out of that this morning so I tried the stronger café filtre. This was also good coffee but I like the pleasantness of the chicorée better.
After finishing my reading for Business, I said goodbye to Emma and Guillaume and walked to class. I wish I had something interesting to tell you about that class but I honestly do not. My favorite part about Business in the EU is that it moves quickly. After class I met up with Roshanna to do some french homework and talk about our upcoming weekend in Bordeaux. What we figured out is that we have 5 of us wanting to go, Roshanna's friend Crystal is going to show us around the city (she lives there), and we need to look up the prices of train tickets and two nights in a hostel. I took the bus home after that and then settled in for the evening.
When I got home, Lionel was sitting by the fireplace complaining that he thinks he has the flu. The poor guy ended up spiking a fever during the night! I felt so bad for him... the flu is miserable by itself but it is also super cold here right now. At least he was able to eat dinner, so maybe it wasn't a full flu. Dinner was a new cauliflower soup and I think it might be my favorite way of preparing cauliflower now! It had a lot of flavor and it was almost creamy. After that we had the most delicious crêpes ever: melted cheese and slices of thin lunch-meat style chicken. Mmmmm my mouth waters over it still. With that we ate a spinach salad that was tossed with vinegar, olive oil, and a little salt. For dessert I had a peach yogurt. Another lovely day :)
Tuesday: I had breakfast very early today because my classes started at 8a. But I didn't end up eating alone- Lionel was there too and he said he felt so much better. He had definitely spiked a fever during the night but he said that at one point he got so hot he had to get out of bed. It must have been one of those 24 hour things. After breakfast I walked to school because I was running too late to make the bus. Class was rather sleepy today; I don't even remember everything we went over. During our break I had lunch with Roshanna in her room. She heated up a pasta she had made the other night and it was actually pretty good. It had ground beef, green beans, shrimp, and cheese all mixed together so it was very filling. After lunch she made me a vanilla tea and shared some chocolate with me. Strangely, that chocolate she has is some of the best chocolate I've had yet- it's baking chocolate!
When school was done I managed to make the bus home. I got right to homework, hanging my laundry, and other chore-type stuff. This is the first truly productive afternoon I've had in a while and it paid off: I had all of my homework for the next two classes completed hours before bed time. :) I also had all this free time to look up train tickets and hostels for Bordeaux and was able to help Guilhem with some of his english homework. That was fun because part of his homework was to complete a crossword puzzle and it was like a race for him. So much fun to watch.
Lionel got held up at work really late tonight so dinner was with Christine and Guilhem only. Tonight there was a truly amazing lentil, cucumber, potato, and chicken bouillon soup. Oh my goodness am I making this when I get back to the States! It was so delicious that it warmed up my soul. Plus, there was a slice of the ever-delicous homemade wheat bread on the side and that is just the most perfect of meal-toppers. To make the meal even better, Christine had hand made raviolis that were stuffed with a soft meat and tomato filling. Well, she said it was meat; it was soft enough to be cheese. We dressed our raviolis with olive oil, parmesan cheese, and piment d'espelette (a mild spice) and it was absolutely amazing. I ate something like a spinach and avocado salad too but I didn't care about it- the soft, warm raviolis had my undivided attention. To prove to me I was in Heaven, we finished off with my favorite fromage blanc and raspberry preserve dessert. Ahhhhhhhhhh
After dinner, Guilhem showed me a video of their family at Christmas performing a song from some french movie. Christine and Guilhem sang, Emma played the flute, and there were cousins playing the guitar. It was rather adorable. And after that, Christine showed me her other daughters' (Maÿlis and Anne-Sophie) facebook pictures. I'm not sure why that's what we did but it was fun. Well, it was fun until she said, "Now I must look someone up" and began typing "S-a-m-a-n-" into the search bar. Yes, we spent the next ten minutes going through MY facebook pictures. I was thanking my lucky stars I've never been one of those people to post ridiculous pictures of myself on public websites. It ended up being only mildly embarrassing. ;)
Wednesday: I had breakfast with Lionel and Christine this morning and then I walked to school because Lionel left too early to drive me there. Class was a little difficult today: it started off with the teacher saying that students have been going into Ryan and Robina's office to complain that the class is too easy. She seemed a little offended by this and apparently went on to prove that we were all wrong by making the rest of the day's work very difficult. I managed to keep up with it pretty well but it required my full and undivided attention to focus on the rapid french. I know that some students weren't as lucky- Roshanna left class feeling pretty annoyed by the entire thing.
On a side note, something pretty exciting happened through e-mail today. I got in touch with a professor at the university who was looking for an American student to teach her two children (11 and 9) english every Wednesday afternoon for an hour and in exchange would give a private french lesson every thursday for an hour. I told her I was interested and she asked if I could start today after school! The lesson was to take place in a conservatory for music and dance and since she is incredibly interested in music, Roshanna decided to go with me to check it out. I met with the kids in a little homework room and just sort of talked to them in simple english and had them repeat certain things after me. It was both difficult and really cool at the same time. Next week I want to bring some fun english music (like Disney songs) for them to listen to and see if I can't get them really excited about learning english.
Roshanna and I met back up after my first lesson to get a warm drink. She took me to the most adorable and most girly of cafés I've ever seen! It was called "Café Boutique" and was covered in pink and cutesy details. I got a "decaf" espresso (if that's even possible) and I loved it.
Unfortunately the day took a somewhat negative turn when I got on the bus going in the wrong direction and didn't realize it for 15 minutes. I got off in a really shady part of town and sat in the freezing cold and dark all by my lonesome for almost 20 minutes waiting for the right bus. I called Christine to let her know I wouldn't be home in time for dinner and to let her know what happened. She didn't seem too concerned so I just took a deep breath, relaxed, and kept my eyes peeled. The bus came, I got on, got home, and had no problems. At least now I can be sure that I will never let this happen again. haha
Dinner was perfect, as usual, because it was not only delicious but warmed me up mentally and physically from my bus escapades. It was another round of epic fondu and potatoes, ham, pickles, and spinach salad. YUM. I topped it all of with some wheat bread and another raspberry/yogurt dessert. Happy me :)Thursday: Today was breakfast again with Lionel and Christine but this time Lionel dropped me off for school. I was early (for once) and did pretty well in class today. We had difficult activities again but I felt really good about them and was able to answer a lot of the teacher's questions. I got a cheese, lettuce, tomato, and hard-boiled egg baguette sandwich for lunch and splurged a little by also buying a warm Nutella panini. I am so happy I did- what could be more delicious than melted Nutella on toasted bread?! After school I had my first lesson with Cécile (the woman whose children I'm tutoring in english) and it went very well. We simply talked and chatted in french. She had me do a very simple activity on the computer and before I knew it, the hour was over. I can definitely do this each thursday. Afterwards, I met with my group of girls to organize our weekend trip to Bordeaux. I booked our hostel online and we made a plan for what time to leave after school tomorrow. Finally, I received a coat that I bought from a french clothing website called La Redoute and it put a smile on my face that must have freaked out the other people on my bus. I had some time to myself when I got back to the house and used it wisely to listen to music, have tea, and dance around my room.
For dinner we had a very good pumpkin and carrot soup with fresh wheat bread. Our main course was something I find to be very french because who else eats fried eggs for dinner? The eggs were cooked in a skillet with a little olive oil and they came out simply sliding off of the serving spoon. They were super soft, runny, and not at all burnt. We each had two with another spinach salad and then it was mango and banana fruit salad for dessert. Top that with some sugar and it is surprisingly delicious. I showered after dinner and then talked with my mom for a while as I packed for the weekend. Lastly, I finished my homework for the glorious last day of the week and hit the hay. Next stop: another Best Weekend of My Life in Bordeaux, France!
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