On Saturday, I woke up to bright blue skies, sun, and 70℉ weather! I went running and then spent a few hours reading out on the lawn chair by the pool. It was really warm! Crystal (*who is from Oregon, but is currently studying at the University of Glasgow) wasarriving at the airport in Biarritz at 4:50pm, so Catherine and I had planned to pick her up. However, Catherine was busy and said that it would be better if she just drew me a map and I would drive there by myself. Eep. I agreed, but was pretty nervous (as I'd never driven on the highway here). Apparently I had good reason to be nervous.....I got lost twice on the way there and ended up arriving at 5:30pm. Oops. Luckily I found Crystal (who was--thank goodness--still waiting for me) and we had no trouble finding our way back to Tyrosse.
We slept in on Sunday and then walked over to the school garage sale. There were so many people there! I was surprised how many vendors were there and I saw quite a few students. The only thing I purchased was a copy of "The Thief Lord" for 1€. At 1pm, Catherine, Crystal, and I headed to Capbreton to pick up Alison and go to the beach!
Photo: A morning walk through Tyrosse
Photo: Picnic at the beach!
It was so HOT! We had a picnic lunch and then relaxed on our towels, reading. Crystal was reading "The Hunger Games," since I have the copies and she'd never read them. It got so warm that eventually we couldn't help but head for the water!
Photo: SWIMMING!
Crystal and I swam for a while (apparently the water was about 55℉...warm for us, but too cold for the locals) and then went back to dry off. Catherine had to leave at 3:30pm, but Crystal and I didn't want to go back that soon. We had decided to just walk home later...it's approx 8.5 miles, but we figured that we could do it in a little over 2 hours.
We stopped to change at Alison's house (which is 1.5 miles from the beach) before striking out on foot. It was the perfect temperature and we had fun walking and chatting.
Photo: On our walk
However, after we had walked about 1.5 miles, a car honked at us and then pulled over. The driver (an elderly man) rolled down his window and asked if we wanted a ride. I asked where he was going and it turned out that he was headed to Tyrosse!
So, we got in the car and hoped that all would be well. He was very nice and talked the whole way (and had a really strong accent, which was exciting because I couldn't always understand what he was saying). It was very nice of him to offer to take us and he kept saying how he hated to see people walking and that he figured we didn't dare hitchhike. Well, now I've done it!
Photo: Before getting a ride...
On Monday, I had to teach early...so Crystal stayed in bed and read "The Hunger Games." By the time I had returned from class (where we worked on telling time), she had finished the first Hunger Games book. So, I grabbed the next book off the stack and handed it to her. I had some work to do before we could go out and wander around, so Crystal kept reading...
Then we headed out in search of some pastries! We ended up buying mini Gâteaux Basques and eating them in the sun, in front of the church. It was relaxing and delicious! Photo: Enjoying her Gâteau Basque
Photo: A post-Gâteau Basque smile... :)
Then we stopped at the train station where we had to wait for 10 minutes while a Portuguese lady (who didn't really understand French) tried to buy a train ticket from Tyrosse to Lisbon--which, apparently, isn't actually possible. While we waited, we started talking about The Hunger Games...and after a few minutes, I realized that Crystal wasn't reading the 2nd book. She was, in fact, reading the 3rd book. Oops! Apparently when I had grabbed the next book off the stack, I didn't check to make sure which one I had handed her! And the stack wasn't in order... So, she had just read 200 pages of the 3rd book, without having read the 2nd one! I felt so bad! No wonder she was so confused!
When we got home, I gave Crystal the 2nd book and (after lunch) we biked over to the other school. Crystal found a nice patch of grass outside to lie in and read while I went to teach. The classes went okay today. The younger kids' class was only 18 minutes long because (as always) it takes so long for them to come in from lunch recess. Oh well! I'm done worrying about that. And with the older kids we are trying to finish up our replies to the Oregonian pen pals. They should be finished on Thursday, I hope! As the kids were leaving, one of the boys strolled out repeating "Je suis un rabbit. Je suis un rabbit. Je suis un rabbit. Je suis..." ("I am a rabbit") over and over. I am unsure why he was saying this, but I had a lot of trouble not bursting out laughing!
I had to teach one more class at the school next to me, so I left Crystal once again to her book. My class went really well--I had them review their numbers by playing a game that they all got really into. At the end, the winning team got pizza stickers (that actually smell like pizza) and they were super stoked (thanks, Jessie, for the stickers!!).
Crystal managed to finish the 2nd book and had moved on to finishing the 3rd book by this point. And, I might point out that each of these books are around 400 pages. She managed to finish the last one during the afternoon. Pretty impressive!
Photo: The Hunger Game trilogy...read in 2 days by Crystal.
We took Dunja for a long walk through the woods, stopping (of course) to play on the monkey bars! I went barefoot for most of the walk, which was lovely. I just don't go barefoot as much here, but it's so nice to feel the earth beneath my feet!
Photo: A walk in the woods
After dinner, Catherine, Crystal, Margot, and I watched "Little Miss Sunshine"! I love that movie! Crystal and Margot had never seen it before. Unfortunately it didn't have French subtitles, so we just had to translate for Margot. Everyone liked it.
Today (Tuesday), Crystal had to leave to go back to Glasgow. I'm so glad that she was able to come for a visit--even if it wasn't very long. And so lucky that we had such nice weather!
Photo: Saying goodbye at the train station
I taught my normal classes today (we just started The Body with the class of 8-9 yr olds and they are learning to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes") and during my break in the afternoon, I read on the patio. It's amazing how much it feels like summer! I had my conversation class tonight and we discussed the elections. They described how the elections in France work and then I attempted to describe how the elections work in the US. I had some trouble explaining electoral votes, etc. I need to look it up and re-explain it next class. It's just a bit confusing! However, one interesting thing that I learned about French elections: the government gives 150,000€ to each candidate for their campaign! They fundraise the rest.
The pictures in this post are courtesy of Crystal! :)
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