les choristes

today, we wrote a small test before class. after three weeks of studying, one has the opportunity to evaluate one's level. My french is officially A2. Not too bad, I think. I learned a lot here and I am very glad that I took the course. I hope I can continue with the intermediate class back home.
I watched another movie tonight - not a l'ecole, even though there was movie night - but here. The other student's mom and sister visited from Japan and the general excitement about it pushed our dinner time back a little bit. We had the leftovers from my dinner last - yippie! I could eat that every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, okay. Maybe not breakfast.
So I watched a movie I took from school on DVD - Les Choristes. It was such a great movie, I liked it a lot. I really like this one actor, Kad Merad, a lot. It's the third movie I have seen with him and they are all very good.

bonne nuit.

yum

I cooked dinner for my host family today. that was awesome. I made all my favorite dishes - a salad with balsamic vinaigrette, goat cheese, pecans, and dried fruit, mashed potatoes with meat balls and carrots and pies, and of course flan de queso. It turned out very well. I think people liked it a lot.
the whole afternoon, angele helped my mix the minced meat and cut the vegies. It is a lot of fun to cook with a 7-year-old. She really enjoyed handling the food and making something. that was very nice.
now I am super stuffed, though. I can never resist when it is so delicious.

: )

le week-end

oy. I had a great weekend. France is so beautiful! Saturday I went to see Blois with a couple of pps, which was really awesome. nice chateau, cute small streets and lots of old houses. Also, just like in Tours, it seemed like there was a bog festival of all the local 'club du sport'. There were a lot of stations where people could try out the sports of the different clubs: fencing, biking, rock climbing, athletics, swing dancing, karate, keido, etc. etc. It was really impressive, because children seemed to be super excited to participate and try out all sorts of stuff. I think this is a great way to get people excited about sports and join a club. It might even be some kind of government organized series of events. pretty effective, it seemed. I thought is was a great idea.

on Sunday, I went yet on another bike to 'la fete de la tomate'. That was really nice too. The backdrop was the small chateau bourdaisiere with a great garden. They had heaps and heaps of tomato plants of 650 different varieties. People sold tomato products and excellent food. the sun was shining and the living was easy.

what a day!

I went on a bicycle trip through the french countryside to a beautiful chateau. It was so so nice. The yellow corn fields, the green vinyards, the warm and pleasant autumn sun. Just awesome.
I was gliding along on my rented bicycle that I got for 7 Euro for the afternoon. I daydreamed of by petit ami, thinking how much he would enjoy this too. I passed through tiny picturesque villages with free roaming chickens and beautiful flowers in the front yards. ahhh! I could do this all the time.

: )

la vie en france est un peu bizarre

On Saturday I changed rooms because one of the other language students left. I now have my own bathroom including shower. It's pretty neat. Almost awesome, were it not for the fact, that the toilet is a bit difficult to use. The distance between toilet and opposing wall is so short, that my legs hardly fit. I have to sit very awkwardly to make it work. Today I may have figured out how to do it. Has anyone ever tried to sit 'the other way around', i.e. facing the water basin in the back? Well, let me tell you, if there is not enough space, it works quite well.

I had this toilet break through when I was getting ready to go to the pool. I was pretty surprised that this small town actually had an indoor pool, even though the opening hours are 'un peu bizarre'. It's clearly very purpose oriented but still nice and also really cheap (2 Euro/p.p.). The weird thing was, though, that the showers were mixed. Men and women shower together. I find this 'un peu bizarre' as well, but I guess France is known for its openmindedness in the realm of sexuality. I chose to pass on my thorough shower apres swimming and felt very american.

oy.

a propos, j'ai decidee que je vais prendre une classe francaise quand je reviens a Boston. C'est tres triste, parce que ce vais etre sans Andy. je vais voir...

bonne nuit.

clubbing

My grandma and grand pa went clubbing today. g, I am boring. there is an annual week-long festival in her town and they went to the traditional Monday morning drink. They got there around noon and left 5 h later after touring through three different locations and had beers and shots with various people they know.
Meanwhile, I was in class studying french the whole day and working hard. Okay, okay, admittedly, I am in France living the good life too and have not much to complain about, really, but still. I guess this is something I can look forward to in old age.

Party it up.