In recent months, I have:
- Visited some castles in the Loire river valley. We saw Chambourd, and visited Tours (the city. heee. We went on a tour of Tours), a former abbey, a vineyard, and Amboise, which is where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. da Vinci's manor was pretty cool to visit, but definitely not worth the nine euros we payed to get in. Also, French strangers now have pictures of me acting like a complete idiot on a mock-up of da Vinci's helicopter design. Overall, trip was fun, but we seriously considered smacking the Mediterranean students who wouldn't freaking shut up on the five hour bus ride.
- Had a very makeshift Thanksgiving. At the last moment, we decided to make chicken, mashed potatoes, teriyaki green beans, and what I could have sworn were cranberries, but were actually sour cherries. And some sparkling wine. Which totally exploded all over the table. We lost about half the bottle, but it was definitely a humorous moment. Once I got over the fact I had wine all over myself. I also learned that drinking a third of a bottle of wine all on my own is really, really dumb. Won't repeat that experience again.
- Spent ridiculous amounts of time in class. I mean, seriously--15 hours of straight, unmitigated French a week, plus two 2-hour classes once a week, also taught in French. I've started mixing English and French together, especially in regards to verbs. Though I am getting better at expressing myself in French. At least, regular day-to-day French. It's still really hard to discuss abstract topics, or things I don't even know about in English.
- Learned several creative ways to prepare noodles in the microwave. Like, mix regular spaghetti sauce and this type of spreadable cheese they sell here in a bowl with noodles, and it's like gourmet spaghetti. So incredibly tasty.
- Done lots and lots of laundry by hand. It's expensive to use the washing machine here, about four euros to wash and dry one load. And since we have a sheet exchange every 15 days for our bedding, I don't have anything huge that needs to be washed
To look forward towards in the next post: Christmas vacation! and *shock!* *le gasp!* PICTURES. I have lots. Just need to organise them and put them up on photobucket or somesuch.
2 comments:
A dusting of snow, huh? I have suched mixed feelings about snow. It's pretty, and lots of fun to play in. But it makes people behave like idiots on the road. I've never had any problems driving in snow, but I remember a few storms on our way to and from Chicago. One was a complete white-out, where we could barely see the lights on the cars ahead and behind us. The only way to drive was to remain in the grooves that had already been made and inch along. Another time, visibility was fine, but the road was covered in ice and people were skidding and spinning out all over the place. Anyway, I say that because it's been snowing a lot since I got back to school.
Incidentally, we were once on the road going toward the barn, and someone coming the other way had a pickup with an empty water tank hitched to it, rolling along behind. And then it unhitched itself. It kept moving, and it veered toward the other side of the road - i.e., where we were. That was exciting.
And you've heard the story of me nearly getting a stake of wood through the head.
What exciting car stories do you have?
Okay, I suppose I could have read this entry before sending you an email filled with questions.
That much wine all at once? Hahaha...silly Corinne. Although that's something I would do. Wine is so tasty! It's easy to go too far.
I like your spaghetti recipe. I wonder if I could concoct something like that here.
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