Saturday 1/14: I AM A GALETTE.

I spent the morning lazing about and then went grocery shopping with Catherine and Margot. We managed to get it all done in 20 minutes (each of us had our own cart) and were back in time to head to Capbreton at 2pm for Margot’s handball game. The Capbreton team is number one in their league, so we were expecting a hard game. But, it was atrocious! Margot’s team played really well…the Capbreton team fouled constantly and was pushing people down. Unfortunately the refs were just high school age kids from Capbreton, so they pretty much just let it continue the whole game and didn’t kick the girls off the court (in handball they have to sit out for 2 mins and the team plays down one player) when they kept fouling. I was disgusted with the Capbreton coach for encouraging 10-yr-olds to play that way! In any case, Margot’s team ended up losing 14-12, but they had nothing to be ashamed of.

When we got home, Chantal and family were at our house to have Kings’ Cake (“Galette des Rois”) and hard cider. It’s traditionally what you have on January 6^th, to celebrate the day that the 3 Kings arrived in Bethlehem. But, here they eat it during pretty much all of January! We had both kinds—the “brioche” kind and the almond paste kind.

Photo: (top) Brioche galette

(bottom) Frangipane (almond paste) galette

The trick is, there’s a little “feve” (a tiny figurine) hidden in the cake and whoever finds it is king (or queen) for a day. Claire and Hugo found the ones today.

After we hung out at talked for a bit, I left to go to a get-together with the folk dance group. They were having a meeting for all participants to announce some important things and then have a little party. Of course they served galettes and cider! Since I hadn’t eaten much previously (a croissant for breakfast and a piece of apple for lunch), I had three large pieces of galette and a glass of cider! I literally felt like I was becoming a galette.

It was pretty awkward actually, because everyone there knows each other so well and they all stand around chatting in their little groups and I stand by the wall, watching. Sometimes I stand next to a group and listen and laugh, but it’s pretty awkward. Oh well, at least I’m making an appearance! And tonight one lady came over and we talked for about 5-10 minutes, which was really nice! I’m not so bad at continuing conversations, but I don’t really feel comfortable walking up to a group of people and just asking something randomly. So, by 8pm I was ready to head home. An elderly man gave me a ride back to my house, which was on his way.

Tonight we had dinner without Catherine because she was at a friend’s house. I had made contact very briefly with Maria on skype right before dinner, so I mentioned that her internet doesn’t work well there. Lucas and Hugo actually asked a bunch of questions about where Maria is and what she’s doing there. Normally they don’t talk very much and if they do, it’s typically a sarcastic comeback at their mom. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t there… But, we had a nice dinner and then I went back upstairs to try to talk with Maria. Unfortunately her internet is really weak and blippy, so when we tried to skype it would only last for 20-30 seconds. We ended up instant messaging instead, which was better than nothing! If you want to hear about her experiences so far in Tanzania, check out her blog: http://mariahommes.blogspot.com/