The weekend: Saturday 3/10-Sunday 3/11

This weekend, the twins have their German friends here. They are part of an exchange program at school which sends the French students to Germany for 10 days and then the German students come here for 10 days! Since they stay at their school during the week, they'll only be here for the weekend...which is kinda nice since I'm sharing a bathroom with them all. :p

Yesterday (Saturday) we all went to lunch in Hossegor, at the coast.

Photo: My lunch--A salad with grilled goat cheese and a Roquefort flan...which I gave to Ralf, as I'm not a huge fan.

After lunch we took a nice walk on the beach (well, the boys headed off to do their own thing) and I ended up doing handstands and cartwheels with Margot and her friend, Lou-Anne.

Photo: My Host Family!

It was such a lovely day (about 60 degrees) and I am so looking forward to when it gets a little bit warmer so we can go swimming! You see, I wouldn't mind swimming right now (because already it's better than in Oregon), but here they aren't really used to having to be numb to go swimming...so we'll just wait a little longer! :)

Photo: My cartwheel buddies

On Saturday night I got to skype with a bunch of my family as my Grandma, Aunt Barbara, Aunt Sally, and Uncle Ed were all over at my house for breakfast! It was so wonderful to get to catch up with everyone and to SEE them! I even managed to get a few pictures! :)

Photo: Beautiful people who I miss!

On Sunday I picked Alison up in Capbreton in the early afternoon and brought her back so she could be here for the rugby match between France and England.

Everyone was really excited about it (Margot and Catherine painted their faces with blue, white, and red) and we all watched the match together. England ended up winning (Alison was thrilled, everyone else was super bummed...I didn't care much either way) by two points, 24-22.

Photo: Watching the game--you can see the expressions on the French fans... Alison's thumbs-up is just popping in at the bottom of this picture

After the game, I spent the next few hours making pizzas (with the help of Catherine and moral support of Alison)--it ended up taking quite a while in a oven that only works on the top... But, in the end we had three large pizzas, three smaller pizzas, and one small loaf of pesto bread! Everyone loved the homemade "American" pizza and it all was eaten (except the bread, which we're saving for dinner on Tuesday)!

Photo: Enough pizza for an army (and apparently we had an army here...there aren't any leftovers!)

Teaching... Monday 3/5-Friday 3/9

This week at school I've been working with the 5th graders on their penpal letters with the American kids. Those letters (from the US) are pretty much the most hilarious things I've ever read! I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time...

Photo: "I almost forgot I am asian"

In any case, the teaching went well this week and I'm feeling confident about it now. Perhaps that's because I was only teaching at the school next to me and it's the other school that gives me a lot of trouble... Oh well!

On Thursday I went to the other school because they were celebrating Carnaval (a little late, yes... they had to postpone it due to bad weather). So, instead of teaching, I just hung out (dressed up like a hippie) and helped the teachers when I could.

Photo: Some of my CE1 students

Photo: Some of my CM2 students

All the kids were dressed up in costumes--it was pretty much like Halloween in the US. They all lined up and we had a little parade down the streets--and through the huge supermarket!

Photo: Parading (I love the forest around here!)

Photo: Five Spidermans and a Buzz Lightyear...

Photo: "Saint-Pansard"

Then returned to the school where the 5th graders read out a list of the bad things they were blaming on "Saint-Pansard" and then they burned the version of him that they had made. It was pretty epic, really.

Photo: The burning "Saint-Pansard"... they even put some fireworks inside of him!

After that we all went to the playground and had crêpes that the parents had made. There were plates and plates of crêpes, along with some other traditional cakes. Mmm!

Photo: One of the three tables of treats!

Wednesday 2/29-Sunday 3/4

Mark and I relaxed for the next three days (Wed-Fri), playing some basketball, doing a lot of laundry, and playing cards with Margot.

Photo: Mark and I bought Margot a new basketball!

Photo: Playing Palace

On Friday we went to the beach in Capbreton!

We were lucky to have lovely weather and we took advantage of it to spend a little bit of time on the beach.

Photo: In Capbreton

Photo: Rocking the red shorts

Photo: We got ice cream!!

We didn't get to stay too long, though, because we wanted to make it back in time to see Margot's tennis match .

She's really good! Way better than I am!

We took the overnight train up to Paris on Friday night and arrived at 7am on Saturday (3/3). Since we had a little bit of time until the Mac store opened, we walked all the way there from the train station! The guys at the Mac store were really nice and (after instructing me to go to the store across the street and purchase a new hard drive) agreed to install my new hard drive for free! So kind of them!!

We spent the afternoon wandering the Père Lachaise cemetery with Laura, a friend I met when I was studying in Angers! She's also doing the Teaching Assistant program, so we decided to meet up for the afternoon!

Photo: Laura and I at Père Lachaise

We had fun seeing all the quirky gravestones and chatting as we wandered through the super confusing "streets" between all the graves.

Photo: Mark in front of Jim Morrison's grave

Then, later, we met up with Candice (and her two cousins, who were visiting from the US) and we all had lunch at a little café.

Our last day in Paris (Sunday, 3/4) we finally had bad weather. The whole rest of our trip was blessed with amazing weather, but finally the rain hit.

Photo: Our hotel refrigerator for our picnic food...

So, we just hung out a lot and ended up ordering pizzas and watching some movies (that we had planned to watch together during the trip, but up until then my computer had been broken, so we'd been unable to do so). It was nice to just relax as we done so much walking the day before.

I said goodbye to Mark at the airport on Monday morning and he spent the next 24 hours getting all the way back to Sacramento. I spent the next 5 hours hanging out in Paris, waiting for my 5 hour train back to Tyrosse. I was so exhausted (and sad) by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and pass out. Well, it turned out that Ralf's favorite soccer team was playing that night, so there were a whole bunch of people over to watch the match! Catherine had made chili and everyone was hanging out. I managed to hang out for a little bit (and eat some delicious chili) before saying goodnight and heading up to bed!

Saturday 2/25-Tuesday 2/28

On Saturday (2/25), Mark and I took a train to Bayonne (where we had two hours to kill, so we toured around a little bit--making sure to get a Gâteau Basque for Mark to taste!), then another train to Lourdes (where we had one hour to kill...we just sat at the train station), and a bus up into the Pyrénées to a little town called Cauterets.

Photo: The village of Cauterets

Catherine's family owns a flat in an old hotel there (it's absolutely gorgeous) and they invited us to go stay there with them.

Photo: The Hotel

When we arrived, everyone had recently gotten back from a long day of skiing and they were planning to go out to a favorite restaurant for dinner.

Of course we went along! We were a huge group: the Bergfelds (5), Chantal's family (6), Pierre's friend, Jules, and Isabelle with her baby, Alexandre...17 people! Luckily the restaurant was prepared (apparently they go there every year) and we all tucked in to a massive dinner of fondue or raclette! Mark and I chose fondue and ate until we were ready to explode! It was so delicious!!!!!

Photo: Delicious Dinner!

The next day we rented some shorter skis and went to the Pont d'Espagne (about halfway up the mountain) with Isabelle and Alexandre. They were planning to go sledding and we were headed to the green slope.

Photo: Pont d'Espagne

Photo: Yes, I am wearing a green gumdrop suit...

I had no problem getting back into skiing (I'd gone two days when I was younger). It was really fun to be out in the snow and it was actually really warm and sunny!

It was Mark's very first time on skis, so that was quite a challenge.

He had some painful tumbles before lunch, but after lunch he kept trying and ended up feeling a lot more confident by the end of the day!

Photo: At Pont d'Espagne

On Monday (2/27) I left in the morning with Ralf, Margot, Hugo, and Lucas and we took the cable cars waaaay up to the top of the mountains! I had borrowed Chantal's skis, so they were quite a bit longer than the ones I'd skied with the day before...

Photo: Ralf and Margot on a lift

After we'd gone down a green, we took the ski lift all the way to the very top of the slopes. The view from up there was incredible!

Photo: The view at the top

But then we had to get down. I said I was up for trying the blue slopes, so we headed down. I, not surprisingly, fell three times on the first slope (one of my skis coming off two of the times), but after I became more adapted to the steeper, narrower slopes and longer skis, I did okay! I didn't fall much after that and it was so exciting! (And, at times, terrifying!)

Photo: Mark and Catherine coming in from the slopes

Mark arrived around lunchtime with Catherine and she gave him a few lessons on skiing (how to turn and how to stop). After lunch, Margot and I skied with Mark for a while and he was so much better! He didn't fall at all and he was a lot more confident with his turning. He stayed on the lower slopes to practice for a while and I went back up to the top to ski with the whole group (Isabelle had arrived as well).

Photo: Up at the top!

It was fun getting to watch the kids go on the ski jumps (not that they did anything particularly fancy, but they loved having us as the audience) and I went down a few red slopes as well! (Here they have four levels: Green, Blue, Red, Black)

Photo: OH YEAH!!!

At 4:30pm, Ralf and I headed down to meet up with Mark and take the cable car back down to the town. We were all exhausted!

That evening we just relaxed and played a bunch of cards with Margot, Catherine, and Isabelle.

Photo: Playing Cards!

Photo: Dinnertime

Tuesday (2/28) we headed back to Tyrosse, but this time we got a ride from Isabelle! It was nice to avoid the 5 hours by train, as it only takes 2 hours by car because there are no lay-overs.

To see more pictures from our trip to Cauterets, check out this album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2730570590724.2112550.1451010052&type=3&l=addf2147ed

Tuesday 2/21-Friday 2/24

On Tuesday afternoon (2/21), we got on a train headed down to Tyrosse, but we didn't arrive until almost 11pm. So we spent Wednesday hanging out with my host family, taking Dunja for a walk, playing basketball and cards with Margot, etc. I spent a bit of time trying to get my hard drive fixed, but no success. :(

Photo: Dunja and her new best friend

Early Thursday morning (2/23), Mark and I took the train to San Sebastian in Spain. We were lucky to have beautiful weather (a little bit chilly, but very sunny and blue skies) and, after dumping our stuff at the hostel, we wandered around the city and then hiked up this big hill that has a statue of Jesus on top.

Photo: The beach in San Sebastian

It was a beautiful walk and the views from the top were stunning!

Photo: A view of the city

Photo: Photoshoot during the hike

Photo: We made it all the way up to Jesus!

We were lucky to have a kitchen at the hostel, so we cooked all our meals (the restaurants are pretty expensive there and most of the food is meat!).

The next morning we picnicked for breakfast, sitting on a big wall at the edge of the beach. It was so warm! If we hadn't been leaving that day, I would have been very tempted to go swimming!

Photo: Picnic breakfast!

Photo: Mark enjoying the sun in San Sebastian

Friday 2/17-Monday 2/20: Catching Up...

Well...it has been a while. I haven't been posting because, well, my hard drive went on strike and (after much confusion and a few visits to the Mac store in Paris) I ended up buying a new hard drive! Hopefully I'll be able to get all of my info off the old one when I get home. In any case, there's my excuse!

I don't think there's any way that I'd be able to catch up for all the days that I missed, so I'm not even going to try! I'll just give a little summary of what happened during the vacation and during my first week back to school.

On Friday night (2/17), I took the overnight train up to Paris so I could meet Mark at the airport when he arrived the next morning. We spent three nights in Paris, staying in a cheap hotel near the Gare de l'Est.

Photo: Sacré Coeur

During the days we spent a lot of time walking around, just wandering.

We headed up to Sacré Coeur (the beautiful, white cathedral on the hill), spent quite a bit of time around the Opéra Garnier, saw the outside of the Louvre, stopped by the Moulin Rouge, and made sure to have a little visit to the La Tour Eiffel.

Photo: Near the Opéra Garnier

Photo: By the Louvre museum

Photo: Outside of the Moulin Rouge

Photo: La Tour Eiffel!!!

We managed to find a movie theater that was showing the new Sherlock Holmes movie in English with French subtitles, so we ended up seeing it on Sunday night!

On Monday (2/20), we met up with our friend, Marina, who was an exchange student from Germany at WOU last year. She's living in France for a few months, working as a nanny for a family that lives about an hour out of Paris! We all toured Notre Dame Cathedral and then went out to lunch at a little Italian restaurant.

Photo: Outside of Notre Dame

That evening, Mark and I got dressed up and went to see the newest French musical that was showing at the Palais des Sports in Paris. It was rather like a rock concert and the costumes were spectacular. It really reminded me of HAIR, actually! We both enjoyed it and ended up in the crowd up at the stage during the long finale!

Photo: Outside the theatre