This morning I watched the end of the rugby semi-finals on TV (France vs. Wales) while eating my croissant with nutella. Ralf buys croissants for everyone on the weekends, which is a delicious treat! It was really close, but France ended up winning 9-8!
I helped Catherine with the laundry, then she invited me to come along on a shopping trip with the kids. They were headed to a different town where there was a big sports and outdoors store. I didn’t have plans, so I figured I would go with them. The kids needed different sorts of athletic wear (padded rugby shirts/cleats/jogging suits/etc.) and it ended up taking a long time for everyone to get what they needed. I spent a little time looking for a raincoat because I didn’t bring one and I realized that if I want to keep biking around during the winter, I should probably have one! When we all got to the register, most of the other shoppers seemed to be paying with credit cards. My rain jacket cost €13.95—and I had exactly €13.83… So, when I got up to the register, I had to borrow €0.12 from my host mother and then I gave the poor lady all these stacks of coins. She had trouble counting them (by the third time through I gave her a hand), but in the end I got my jacket!
After lunch, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. I found a recipe online that didn’t use baking soda (because it doesn’t exist here) and I had brought some brown sugar from home (because it’s not commonly used here). The cookies turned out all right!! Catherine adored them and Ralf and the kids liked them, too. Even Margot (who already told me several times “I hate cookies. I’ll try yours, but just because I’m polite.”) liked them, so that’s a big success!
At 6:30pm I got to skype with my parents! Catherine was excited to “meet” them, so, of course, while I was downstairs telling her to come say hi, my father popped in his fake teeth. Charming. The first few minutes of their conversation involved the “billybobs”—I think Catherine was relieved when he took them out. :) It was good to have them finally meet each other! At the end of my chat, my Aunt Barbara and Grandma stopped by my house and I got to see them as well! Skype is such an awesome thing. It was very comforting to see them all sitting in my living room!
I headed downstairs aroung 8pm when I’d finished my skype call and discovered that Catherine’s sister and her family were coming over for apératifs. We ended up sitting around in the living room while Lucas used a program on Margot’s iPod that asks questions to discover which famous person you’re thinking of. It was actually pretty incredible—Chantal (Catherine’s sister) was thinking of Santa Claus and by asking all sorts of questions, it figured it out! I asked if anyone had heard of “The Name Game,” which is sort of like a mix of Taboo and Charades. Basically, everyone participating writes the names of 5 different famous people on 5 slips of paper and all of them are put in a bowl. Then the group is split into two teams. There are three rounds:
#1—Each group takes turns having one of their players stand up and pick up slips of paper out of the bowl. They can describe the person, but cannot use the words written on the slip of paper. Example: SANTA CLAUS “He’s jolly, he gives presents at Christmas, he lives at the North Pole…” Each person gets 1 minute to try to describe as many of the people as possible. Once all the slips have been described, they are counted (and put on the score sheet), then returned to the bowl.
#2—This time, the “describer” is only allowed to say one word. Example: SANTA CLAUS “Christmas” Each person still gets only 1 minute and everyone on the team takes a turn until all the slips are used up. They are counted, recorded, and returned to the bowl.
#3—For the final round, it’s charades! Since everyone has already heard all the words two times, they should know what to expect. So, the “describer” has to use miming to make their team understand who to guess. Example: SANTA CLAUS Mime having a big belly, put a sack on your back, look jolly, etc.
In the end, all three of the scores are added up to find out the winner. It’s an absolutely hilarious game (taught to my by my Aunt Ellen!!) that has been a big hit every time I’ve shared it with others. This time was no less hilarious.
We ended up playing the game with all 11 of us (with a small break in the middle for pizza, which we ordered in—and the rest of my chocolate chip cookies) and it got pretty exciting! Some of them are really competitive and there was lots of objections if anyone tried to do anything that was against the rules (like miming during the first two rounds, heaven forbid!). I had such a great evening! It didn’t matter that I didn’t know some of the famous people, it wasn’t too hard to make it work. Plus, thanks to the fact that his name was in there three times, I now know “Vincent Clerc,” who is the star rugby player for Tyrosse!
Today was a great day: talking with my family made me feel a lot happier, and then a marvelous evening with my host family made me feel right at home. Hopefully we’ll get to have more game nights!
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