Goodbyes and guilt trips

This has been the week of the guilt trip. I had my last day at each of my schools and every day I accumulated more and more drawings and cards and "pourquoi-tu-dois-partir?"s. Here is a small sample of the going-away cards I've received. 

"Thank you for helping us to learn English vocabulary, names of animals, and song lyrics. We hope that you have a good return home."

"Thank you for helping us with English. Thanks to you we know lots of English things and with you we remember the English words. Thank you very much, Katrina. Happy Birthday."

"Thank you for the English classes with you. I would like for you to stay with us, but I can't even stay away from my parents for four days so I understand you want to go back."

"You are the best teacher in the world."

"Katrina, goodbye and thank you for everything and also happy birthday!!!!! I'm going to miss you!!!!!"

"Hi Katrina!!! I hope you have a happy birthday (early). Thank you for coming on Thursdays and one time on Tuesday. And I hope that you have a good (???). And thanks again for coming and working with us. I couldn't buy you a present. Goodbye, Happy Birthday" 

"Arizona, Funny, Smart, Darn? too bad that you're leaving, Unique, Don't Leave, Arizona"

"Katrina, Arizona, Very Pretty, Funny, Unforgettable, Don't leave, America"

"Thank you Katrina for being there for English, it was great. I'm going to write the names of cities and that way you can go visit them. They're United States cities: Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, New Orleans, Philadephia, Miami, and the capital: Washington."

"Thank you Katrina for your help with English. I'm marking the cities where you can visit: New York, Havana, Mexico, Dallas, Washington, Los Ang, Canada. See you soon Katrina"

"Katrina, Adorable, Very Beautiful, Funny, Smart, Don't forget us, Arizona"

I'm going to miss these kids.

Ma descente dans les gorges de l'Ardèche

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a boat down through the canyons of the Ardèche River (Gorges de l'Ardèche) and it was by far one of the most amazing experiences I've had in Europe. For tourists, it can be difficult to travel beyond large cities to see the natural beauty of Europe, but I've been incredibly lucky to have my host family to show me around to beautiful places I would never have seen without them (specifically, here and here and here). I only hope I can return the favor someday.

Google Map of the river

I left with Mme. T at 8:30 in the morning, despite the fact that I hadn't gone to bed until 1:30 or 2 am due to a very, very late going-away dinner with Kayley's professors (8pm to 12:30 am!). Fortunately I forgot about my sleepiness as soon as we stumbled into our rowboat. In the boat, there was me, Mme. T, an elderly woman, another younger girl, one boatman with a brace on his entire left leg, and two able-bodied boatman to row. In total, there were about forty or fifty people in our group, the majority of them employees, their families, and co-workers of Mme. T. The main objective of the excursion was to see how the river had changed since the winter and to get an idea of how the summer tourist season might go this year. At times the water level was very low, but most of the boatmen seemed enthusiastic anyway.

Proof that I was there

The take-off

The week in photos

Pastry tasting

Being lazy on the terrace with the cat

Winning at French scrabble with only 154 points

A drawing of Tyler and me courtesy of P.

The other day P. wanted to have a mini art contest with me so we each drew two pictures and the family had to vote for their favorite. Of course P. was the winner. What sort of monster would vote against the 7-year-old? This is the winning illustration -- her depiction of me and Tyler dreaming of our wedding day (Nous rêvons de mariage.). And Tyler, don't worry about her misspelling of your name -- I promise I'm not marrying some new guy named Taylor. Also, contrary to the drawing, I'm not suddenly so ample-bosomed. 


I have just three more weeks to go and I feel like there is still so much that I haven't seen even just in France! Travel buddies?

Montelimar: Ice cream and castles

I will be home in just one more month! I still love living in France with my host family of course, but I've been getting more and more anxious to get back to 'real life' again. I'll be spending my next month taking advantage of the rest of my time here with the food, places, and people I'll be missing very soon. Here are some pictures from this past weekend in Montelimar with Kayley and Evan. We had ice creams, played on the parapet and checked out the contemporary art exhibit at the Chateau Adhemar, and went to see The Iron Lady.

First ice cream of 2012 -- Dark chocolate and hazelnut chocolate

Kayley taking a picture of Evan

Chateau Adhemar

 

Taking more pictures

A view of Montelimar

Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows (minus the lollipops and rainbows)

Ever since I returned from vacation, the weather has become more and more bearable. This is of course unfortunate news for the coat and boots I bought just two months ago, but oh well. I'm thrilled to get outside without it being a necessity. For the first time since October, I took my time walking home from work on Tuesday. 

To give you an idea of just how nice the weather is right now, here are a few pictures from my first weekend back in town at the park in Pierrelatte with Kayley and Evan. 

Please note the absence of my coat, hat, and gloves.

Kayley soaking up the rays... I loaned her my sunglasses afterward.

Evan -- short sleeves!

Enchilada Wednesday

Whenever someone asks me what I miss about home, Mexican food always comes up somewhere between family, friends, and bagels. I bought a bottle of Tabasco sauce months ago, but I always feel a little silly busting it out at the dinner table -- it doesn't exactly go with quiche and salad. However, my presence has piqued my host family's interest in spicy food. 

On a shopping trip while I was out of town, S. (the 11 year-old son) convinced Mme. T. to purchase this handy enchilada kit. I was a little skeptical (especially since I was the one in charge of making them), but they ended up tasting pretty good. The kit included tortillas, enchilada sauce, and spices. Add chicken, shredded cheese, and voila!

Not my enchiladas, but they looked fairly similar.

I only added half of the spice packet (a drop of Tabasco makes S. chug several glasses of water) and that was plenty for the French family. Next time I'm thinking of going the veggie route and maybe whipping up some guacamole. Or Serrano's bean dip? Yum.

Lyon: Take Two

I'm finally back from my February vacation to Lyon, Prague, Budapest, and London -- it was a blast but it's definitely nice to be back in Bourg, if for nothing else but to stop living out of a dirty backpack and finally have clean laundry. 

One thing that I've learned about myself from this experience is that I do not take nearly enough pictures. I don't know if it was because my camera is too big or if my purse was just too crammed with stuff already, but I found myself rarely taking it out since I was traveling with three other girls, all taking pictures already anyway. Expect a post in the future full of the photos I was too lazy to take. First up, Lyon.

The reason I started this blog (almost four years ago) was to document my summer study abroad adventures in Lyon. When Anna came to France at the end of December, we resolved to return to Lyon to visit our favorite places and discover the city in the winter. The freezing temperatures and snow certainly changed the city. We spent most of our time going from cafe to shop to cafe to shop to cafe to restaurant, bearing the cold for brief moments in between. 

On our first night we bundled up and walked from our hotel in Guillotiere all the way to Vieux Lyon. In retrospect, this was not the smartest of ideas because the cold ended up getting Anna sick at the beginning of our trip (and later at the end), but we enjoyed our scavenger hunt for Mexico Lindo (it was closed, possibly for the whole vacation) and the Irish bars. We ate some kebabs before taking the metro back to the hotel, watching a movie, and going to sleep. 

Our first hotel of the trip

The Pink Tower

This was the weather last week. On Tuesday, I walked through a light snow to get to work at the school that I just happen to live the furthest away from. But it was charming. I seldom see falling snow, so it felt a little magical. It also didn't snow enough to actually create snowmen or anything, so that was a bit of a letdown but not a big deal. Now, here is the weather this week:

No amount of Flagstaff and snowboarding trips has prepared me for this cold. The worst is the wind.

This region of France is famous for "le mistral" -- aka evil wind that is merely annoying when it's sunny and messes up your hair, but is lethal when it's already freezing outside. You know how in Arizona the shade is always ten degrees cooler than anywhere else? Well here the wind does the same, but obviously not in a pleasant way. And it doesn't help when people start talking about how next week it will be "10 below" because I constantly forget that they mean -10 degrees celsius, not -10 degrees fahrenheit.

Starting Friday I'm off to Lyon, Prague, Budapest, and London for vacation... a very fun, but still very cold vacation.

Oh dear...