Best Week Ever in photos

Wed evening: Pad thai from my two thailandaise classmates. I had NO idea how easy it is to make once you have the sauce, which is apparantly very difficult to make and takes a looong time to ferment. Challenge accepted.

Wed evening: This night we went around the room mocking our bad professors, reminiscing about our good ones, and sharing our stories about falling in love. T now has a fan club.

Friday morning: Classes are officially over! So many hours of exams. I geeked out about this big lecture room. Something I didn't get much of as a student. After the DALF, I sat with my friends for an hour or so on the grass, taking advantage of our time together.

Friday evening: Soiree jazz to celebrate the end of classes. Fun! Saying goodbye to Ian, Andrew, and Lauren, not fun. But I know their energy and spirit will ensure they are on to great things.

Saturday afternoon: On the way to meet my friend J for ice cream on the chateau, we find an orchestra in the middle of the sidewalk.

Saturday evening: Finally finished all those goodbye presents for my professors and colleagues while watching some contest for Europe's best singer. All other countries had some beautiful girl doing more dancing and acting than singing. But I would vote for Russia. 6 old ladies in traditional Russian garb singing what looked like a folk song and messing up the words from time to time. I saw too much English and too many fireworks in that show, and those Russian grannies were really refreshing.

Sunday afternoon: BBQ chez maman Veronique! Hazy in the morning but the sun came out and it was gorgeous in the afternoon. Plus, I finally got to meet the family Whit has been raving to me about since I met her. And with good reason. Lovely from the inside out, every one of them.

Sunday evening: Double birthday party with the Barbes! These girls made me a crown (because I may have demanded a crown) that took my breath away. And I met the most adorable little ginger kitten that night. I also dropped some asparagus in my wine when I lost control of the tongs, but then drank the wine anyway. Class!

And Monday: Met a beautiful new baby who has been born to an amazing mom and dad and big sister, shared my chocolate chip cookie recipe with probably the most socially adept and intelligent 14-year-old boy I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and had cafe and pizza with some people who I am really going to miss.

with 15 days left to go

These are the shoes that are so busted they are not worth taking home.

Yep, you are seeing right. Normandy tore through FIVE pair this year. That's a good thing I guess - less to take home?

Being home in 15 days is starting to feel unreal. I have so much to get done before then. And French administration is a nightmare. I feel like anything that isn't taken care of already will not likely be done at all.

As usual, I feel like I didn't get to spend as much time with most of my friends as I would have liked to. Regardless, I am so happy that I got to live here for another year, grow closer with my friends, and start to master this language. I still have a long way to go, but am leaps and bounds ahead of where I was in September.

Tomorrow, final exams, the beach, a jazz concert and dancing.

Today, a Skype interview with a program I would love to be a part of. I hope they like what I have to offer them!

Oh, photos from our unforgettable pancake day!

Semicolon pancake!

Me cooking pancakes in the tiniest kitchen ever shared by 11 people

Because birthday does rhyme with Monet

Yesterday I turned 26 years old. I think I asked my parents at some point what time I was born. I think they didn't remember. So I usually just go for a celebration that starts at midnight. Midnight on the 20th I was chatting franglais with Whit, Raph, Ian and Andrew at the Broc Cafe. Then I walked home under a sky that I would have expected to be much darker at 1am.

I woke up the next morning, put on my birthday shoes (which look exactly like my regular shoes btw) and walked over to chez Whit to meet her and Daniela, my road trip buddies to Giverny! And what road trip girls we were. Complete with us shouting "road trip," stopping for snacks, rocking out to "You're the one that I Want," and shouting "Giverny!!" in unison as we passed the first road sign for the village.

So, you know how Monet painted these?:

The inspiration for the water lillies series was his garden in Giverny. And that is where we spent the day on Sunday. You know I am a sucker for collective energy. For me, there is no better place than somewhere with a lot of other people appreciating the beauty all around you. So of course I loved Giverny. Even, or maybe especially, under the rain everything was magnificent. We walked the paths that Monet walked, laughed together in this garden that it must have taken loads of people to cultivate. We snapped shots of lillies, hulking trees, weeping willows, colorful orchids, and each other.

We took a little visit of Monet's house. Looked out his bedroom window into his garden. I especially loved his blue kitchen. Blue plaid curtains, awesome stove, and a whole wall of hanging pots, pans, spatulas. And even better than that, a kitchen all decked out in yellow!

We ate overpriced cheese dishes that none of us enjoyed (who knew my favorite of all cheeses is gross when warm?). We drank coffee and juice. We smiled with the flowers when the sun came out.

I am so glad that the rain didn't stop us from going, because raindrops on flowers can be as lovely as the flowers themselves.

May I always have birthdays that are shared with amazing friends, in inspiring places.

All photos are the master photography of Whitney. My battery was being weird.

Me, Whit and Daniela on the Japanese bridge

Rainy leaves

Les Nymphéas

Jour Férié Awesomeness

Jour Férié = bank holiday. Today is the ascension. And the following awesomeness ensued:

-Woke up completely stress-free, with no exam to get to or study for.
-Told Grooveshark to play me any of the 500 most popular songs at random, and it chose "Welcome to the Jungle." You haven't lived until you have seen me alone in my room screaming "I want to watch you bleed."
-Made my secret brownie for my tea party (group of professors who like tea, not who are crazy reps) I am going to miss this group. We have so much fun together. And they are great, caring friends. I told them I liked baking, so they gave me the bible of all french pâtisserie cookbooks!

No, I will not tell you the secret ingredient.
-Planned what to do on Sunday. Spending my birthday in Monet's gardens. Life is real freaking good.
-Next Thursday I have a Skype interview for a job I really want at a place I really want to work. Crossing all my appendages. I ask you to please do the same.

La Foire de Pâques

So here's a video about the Easter Fair that has been the spot to go for the past few weeks. Famous last hangout for my friends Bing, Samuel and Rana who were looking for a fun, memorable last evening before they left la france. I've also been with friends just looking for something fun to do on a Saturday when it's nice outside. So many rides. So much dizzy. So many lights. See for yourself.



Full-disclosure: this was the first time I actually tried editing a video. And it's a video I took on my webcam and cell phone. So I am aware that it is really terribly done. But I'll keep trying.

Things I left out of the video:
-How I screamed so hard on the upside down ride that my friend asked me if I had another cold the next day because I had lost my voice.
-How I got really into the haunted house and running out looking scared that a really nice lady pulled my friend aside to ask him if I was OK.
-How I spent about 2 euros (20 centimes per try) trying to win T a little bear and failed miserably, while Whit totally won a stuffed mario on her first try.
-How a silly mom wore a skirt to the foire and a gust of wind at the funhouse showed everyone everything.
-Another thing I noticed that def would not fly in the USA:

(Yeah, just go ahead and zoom in on that beach scene)


Things I left in the video:
-Me searching for the word jam. Cause most of the time I still can't believe I learned french and love when I forget words in English.
-Me saying I'm going to the Foire tomorrow. It's definitely over now. Sorry, took my time uploading.

Taking a breather

I have been studying on lock. And interrupting each hour with en episode of Cake Boss to keep myself sane, of course. The brain can only take so much without some shallow reality television to balance it all.

But isn't his Jersey accent going to interfere with the french comprehension, you ask? Oh, don't worry. I am falling asleep to Plus Belle la Vie, France's answer to the drama-packed daytime soap.

I have NINE exams next week, three of which are tomorrow! Those are for my degree from Université de Caen, Diplôme avancé d’études française. Then the week after that the DALF: Diplôme approfondi de langue française. That's the international beast, but I am less nervous about it because it's a language assesment. I go in with what I have, can't really prepare for that anymore than I have been, speaking French as much as others will let me and watching the TV in the salle commune as much as humanly possible. For the others, I have to know about subject matter that I don't have any background in at all! Economy? Juridique? What was I thinking challenging myself? I should have stuck to literature!

Since it's gorgeous outside, I have also (finally) picked up running again and am doing national poetry month May to make up for falling off track in April.

What else is going on? I know I talk to some of them often, but in general I feel completely cut off from my friends and family in the USA. Guess that's what happens when you pick up and leave for the bulk of a year. I am beyond ready to settle myself back into New Jersey life and pick up where I left off. Food swaps, late night chats with my roomie, beach days, exercise time with my nephew, all of it.

As excited as I am to come home, I can't see myself not here. I'm going to miss the boulangeries, the barman at the What Else, the cheap cheese and apples, and 100 times all that, my friends and family Caennais. You'd think I'd be used to leaving by now. It never gets easy though. Sigh. I need a job in the USA that lets me come to Caen every year. I won't give up until I find it.

Time is getting away from me! I can count the weeks I have left on one hand!
My next weekends:
This one: studying
Next one: Giverny (Monet's town)
The one after that: Germany
The one after that: HOME IN THE ARMS OF MY BABY!!!

Damn.

Study music:

why i love my boyfriend

On gchat:

me: ok baby, me too, i better get some sleep
pancake date tomorrow morning with nath
its a national holiday!

T: France has a pancake day?

me: hahah no that came out so wrong
its the end of the war anniversary
and im celebrating with pancakes

T: Don't care it's pancake day

Yes you did!

When you are much too tired to write but want to share the amazing night you just had with your friends...VIDEO BLOG!