tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5717389207985130502024-03-14T02:12:59.354-07:00La Vie en BretonThe chronicle of my séjour in St. Brieuc, France as an assistant high school English teacher.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-75189034083337722442008-05-07T02:00:00.000-07:002008-05-07T16:00:22.595-07:00CopenhagenThis vacation I visited Paul in Eastern France (Dijon, Besa<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=";font-family:";" >ç</span></span>on) but I don't have the pictures from that trip yet so I'm going to write about the trip I took to Copenhagen after France. My friend Dave from college has an internship there and I thought it would be fun to visit him! The first two days he was working and so I just walked around and saw all the touristy stuff:<br /><br />I'm pretty sure this is the Parliament....<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWO_WI4weceUoFW-3m5BEvKoMkfpphNHm5b0ASe7YXQid3mfkZUlHzJ3aQjqlFdnKloWT6lifmfjv-TbJjpzPc1UGQjqZFrOl6Gd-BChQdWv2M44dOdKFkp0nvWm2SBPMm2kmNcDOsg04/s1600-h/DSCN1021.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWO_WI4weceUoFW-3m5BEvKoMkfpphNHm5b0ASe7YXQid3mfkZUlHzJ3aQjqlFdnKloWT6lifmfjv-TbJjpzPc1UGQjqZFrOl6Gd-BChQdWv2M44dOdKFkp0nvWm2SBPMm2kmNcDOsg04/s320/DSCN1021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197569886438043714" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Royal Ballet:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggZ9FBCUV7KUsSARGWoKH1n_EU3V3x_FrEQn3s6oNvDW1LmUt1aV_eqNc_d5wWMb_Yfr5sthh_16DfsteLiwn8QJoyDbcL42I23IzCuDmbQiTs93a9jvtz29nKhIay2t7n8SQrjBKOaY/s1600-h/DSCN1024.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggZ9FBCUV7KUsSARGWoKH1n_EU3V3x_FrEQn3s6oNvDW1LmUt1aV_eqNc_d5wWMb_Yfr5sthh_16DfsteLiwn8QJoyDbcL42I23IzCuDmbQiTs93a9jvtz29nKhIay2t7n8SQrjBKOaY/s320/DSCN1024.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197570187085754450" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Striking Danish health care workers. They were circling the square I was having a picnic in and singing protest songs in Danish to the tunes of "When the Saints Come Marching In" and "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain."<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrSHat3gPxqAagTLC9C-06CIAOUq8gZgZjK8KG03YyGEqV6m2Okr84wB8hzbOvy-YITnIz5R0ioebuV_xYvWQdNUGYfWkGrZ__s5rcfdU5oChyoQwE5Q0CrbNocySVN8HqynP2V343H6o/s1600-h/DSCN1026.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrSHat3gPxqAagTLC9C-06CIAOUq8gZgZjK8KG03YyGEqV6m2Okr84wB8hzbOvy-YITnIz5R0ioebuV_xYvWQdNUGYfWkGrZ__s5rcfdU5oChyoQwE5Q0CrbNocySVN8HqynP2V343H6o/s320/DSCN1026.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197570586517712994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />They got closer and closer to me. They handed me a piece of candy (normally I wouldn't accept candy from strangers but they were nurses...) and a helpful leaflet explaining their plight (in Danish). I've never been more flattered than when actual Danish people thought I was Danish. They are the most attractive people I've ever seen.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_mzd879e-2s57z2yhqy4JUhP0S0uSa_oDMUgTJiQE6wAcg21CfT63CK0-fNzuKuqPHditwp4jKkJ_wm8qi-WUaZYj1ZP5fLDXIZJr-Y-4N2S3-bhCUYj_pX0eCzh34U3v78FXbLKBuo/s1600-h/DSCN1027.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_mzd879e-2s57z2yhqy4JUhP0S0uSa_oDMUgTJiQE6wAcg21CfT63CK0-fNzuKuqPHditwp4jKkJ_wm8qi-WUaZYj1ZP5fLDXIZJr-Y-4N2S3-bhCUYj_pX0eCzh34U3v78FXbLKBuo/s320/DSCN1027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197571436921237618" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Nuhavn, Famous Canal<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil88imyysUbNdjDn96PVEPpsv9VG438u8fzMoJ_3YE65XOJj_lZvpyIMrTSmH_djrKk3Xpyn_g_7LLU70YnkzIgNOg_Ua8n7Mv-nLfci97hsdugatvOmhb2yIguZD0wuMidaiDK5P3OV8/s1600-h/DSCN1029.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil88imyysUbNdjDn96PVEPpsv9VG438u8fzMoJ_3YE65XOJj_lZvpyIMrTSmH_djrKk3Xpyn_g_7LLU70YnkzIgNOg_Ua8n7Mv-nLfci97hsdugatvOmhb2yIguZD0wuMidaiDK5P3OV8/s320/DSCN1029.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197572725411426434" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I just wanted to take a picture of the boat and I got caught by a sailor.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Fp5a4tbiaPRqgyIAcOsI7P1MdcmdkLElND0eJzilcuqPut8-80yt-ZeYi-NCGcyePLLfblXitIlvuZVq-tNLssWe21xPVLZud3-U59LXEl1nJMysZuqUpyM-ah_AhOc3B94_Sow8_UY/s1600-h/DSCN1031.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Fp5a4tbiaPRqgyIAcOsI7P1MdcmdkLElND0eJzilcuqPut8-80yt-ZeYi-NCGcyePLLfblXitIlvuZVq-tNLssWe21xPVLZud3-U59LXEl1nJMysZuqUpyM-ah_AhOc3B94_Sow8_UY/s320/DSCN1031.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197573459850834066" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Cute caf<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=";font-family:";" >é</span></span>:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94PtsbobJzD_sbHFLg4af-5AMR6ZGTUJBbhhmDdtA_li7wmZky9nqEJUG7vn__gOMfI6KMVmucOBrxXXoPirskt_9FhLj5Rai4NWew_jY0A0A2NWV2cBTEh3IbAdTCd0JqvOrcy1Tg_I/s1600-h/DSCN1032.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94PtsbobJzD_sbHFLg4af-5AMR6ZGTUJBbhhmDdtA_li7wmZky9nqEJUG7vn__gOMfI6KMVmucOBrxXXoPirskt_9FhLj5Rai4NWew_jY0A0A2NWV2cBTEh3IbAdTCd0JqvOrcy1Tg_I/s320/DSCN1032.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197573889347563682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Queen's House:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCOj6AHCSGo-WaMwTgm8ERoc2pqWCGxnh9Yjwl9IgfqRT-qbSgZ1jomGWEApST-8cB3CfXH5xWAHjB5k0iP-8Cz7CfjPoqRtY9JBGq1sZf2U4I3vPqxkh6wj145kMoxYq6yUMh7zOwJr0/s1600-h/DSCN1033.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCOj6AHCSGo-WaMwTgm8ERoc2pqWCGxnh9Yjwl9IgfqRT-qbSgZ1jomGWEApST-8cB3CfXH5xWAHjB5k0iP-8Cz7CfjPoqRtY9JBGq1sZf2U4I3vPqxkh6wj145kMoxYq6yUMh7zOwJr0/s320/DSCN1033.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197574872895074482" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Cool building near Queen's house:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_7jxNqLc7Nb0iAfqPUJpDK49TSXmTp1XijL0kEv6IflDvXcy4eaWeDhw20bL3_NqvdD_Od5uCh2Q8RuLQso8yRFKi361c_V2uZ5-cldQUdnIH5r0AvatXPHTytu9Ymqs0b0MyS0DoRVc/s1600-h/DSCN1035.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_7jxNqLc7Nb0iAfqPUJpDK49TSXmTp1XijL0kEv6IflDvXcy4eaWeDhw20bL3_NqvdD_Od5uCh2Q8RuLQso8yRFKi361c_V2uZ5-cldQUdnIH5r0AvatXPHTytu9Ymqs0b0MyS0DoRVc/s320/DSCN1035.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197575319571673282" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Famous Little Mermaid statue with random people who wouldn't give other people a chance to take pictures in front of it:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-_ZScPTn_sbdBPpVuVB8hUJt5hXyWta7PIezazM16t8LfWdwazCRlJNXqsVbPbqwmTnr5-XEAPB0e31w_gQM3BrJMSkG7tvrXmYtMnO9CbmJsERIRc_Iq0DocyQA1iF6Xp4ON3CZ_fk/s1600-h/DSCN1037.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-_ZScPTn_sbdBPpVuVB8hUJt5hXyWta7PIezazM16t8LfWdwazCRlJNXqsVbPbqwmTnr5-XEAPB0e31w_gQM3BrJMSkG7tvrXmYtMnO9CbmJsERIRc_Iq0DocyQA1iF6Xp4ON3CZ_fk/s320/DSCN1037.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197575654579122386" border="0" /></a><br />Fun fact: This statue is an homage to Hans Christian Andersen's character. Hans Christian Andersen is one of the Danes' favorite native sons and they affectionately call him Ho C.<br /><br />Underwater statue of the Merman and his 7 Sons. I don't know why its underwater.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZg2bfGa9ApFMZu9r2MkDWKrpwjivpyM0e32ZiOJdd9kKoHm1LAMrpQu0WvZsxVjE24ZvUfbaQAw0GAB4-0zLhT6qqFDarnz5uRKsutDU2Fr-hXjGe1LU0_rK_Q0qY-iUiRhKgM2PZF8/s1600-h/DSCN1039.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZg2bfGa9ApFMZu9r2MkDWKrpwjivpyM0e32ZiOJdd9kKoHm1LAMrpQu0WvZsxVjE24ZvUfbaQAw0GAB4-0zLhT6qqFDarnz5uRKsutDU2Fr-hXjGe1LU0_rK_Q0qY-iUiRhKgM2PZF8/s320/DSCN1039.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197576023946309858" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The next day I went to a really cool art museum that had an interesting mix of art including Danish art which I'd never really seen much of before. I even saw several paintings by a guy named Dahl! Here is the museum:<br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SARAHS%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SARAHS%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpg" alt="" /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0-g75LoxAN3Ky9Nc3-W9X-RAtYsCA-NAMwMDRodchx-D3APPJrOGkoHeTK3ix64p7wiHF_3vLdEWDsask5gBZL1AZn383dHTYfZEUccBvcA_iKlPsclnPEsANZk6ro7Td_x5AZMsK54/s1600-h/glyptotek.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0-g75LoxAN3Ky9Nc3-W9X-RAtYsCA-NAMwMDRodchx-D3APPJrOGkoHeTK3ix64p7wiHF_3vLdEWDsask5gBZL1AZn383dHTYfZEUccBvcA_iKlPsclnPEsANZk6ro7Td_x5AZMsK54/s320/glyptotek.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197581933821309186" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />I also took some pictures of some cool buildings that day:<br /><br />Dragon Spire Building (At least that's what I call it)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMfoE6NQnZ355vngHKBWo79zBjX_cBI59Cb1fdfAgoqievcusn7j6TChBLanYW7zUt_wfTPNqUQ2YGqqYvrJtb7nrJFi0Tsw_Aa0O-OYmdk7tdYfrWI0M_w22gPpHei6pLobQ-PXT7ro/s1600-h/DSCN1041.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMfoE6NQnZ355vngHKBWo79zBjX_cBI59Cb1fdfAgoqievcusn7j6TChBLanYW7zUt_wfTPNqUQ2YGqqYvrJtb7nrJFi0Tsw_Aa0O-OYmdk7tdYfrWI0M_w22gPpHei6pLobQ-PXT7ro/s320/DSCN1041.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197582380497907986" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Black and Gold Twisty Spire:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJv2ja5tvMZXS2jRUM_ler2syvJCpTTamN3Xjk3Z59KrSCXEsXC0Gt_wPNc8zW-KADVlA5ohUXRKeXjRuIE_9TQI09tlwztV0qQGqIHfVyR-z5IJKguAFXG1TlojqoPn1zr6DlZXIKpL4/s1600-h/DSCN1043.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJv2ja5tvMZXS2jRUM_ler2syvJCpTTamN3Xjk3Z59KrSCXEsXC0Gt_wPNc8zW-KADVlA5ohUXRKeXjRuIE_9TQI09tlwztV0qQGqIHfVyR-z5IJKguAFXG1TlojqoPn1zr6DlZXIKpL4/s320/DSCN1043.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197583308210843938" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The next day, Dave and I went to Christiania which is basically a hippie commune set up in abandoned military barracks. The people have been living their for 30 years and they consider themselves to be an independent state:<br /><br />Entrance:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikv1URfznm2GpDrzMpXTaw9kn4PPzTxsMaAOVJGWOdPJxhBMC6FVTWBL0ggYf4PBsKNFrq6a714JAITjssiALyfhr4Lpx_h1AuwWMg3xuIW0OHQtW3-AAQPoI5uSHvcCL2KGsy2LNII7o/s1600-h/DSCN1048.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikv1URfznm2GpDrzMpXTaw9kn4PPzTxsMaAOVJGWOdPJxhBMC6FVTWBL0ggYf4PBsKNFrq6a714JAITjssiALyfhr4Lpx_h1AuwWMg3xuIW0OHQtW3-AAQPoI5uSHvcCL2KGsy2LNII7o/s320/DSCN1048.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197584235923779890" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Exit: "you are now entering the EU"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnlS0tz0EhCaZX4IiuP7VcCZDxEYASPPa0CtOeG6-Ht0ovgBYZ7O1hm7Vstvo7H_Wx-FRPKv7wwdPCqigz7inmd7polNdYXz2WVwkfZLblPHJfDl5evda9MMKD5iqeeha8av7RhCv-8A/s1600-h/DSCN1047.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnlS0tz0EhCaZX4IiuP7VcCZDxEYASPPa0CtOeG6-Ht0ovgBYZ7O1hm7Vstvo7H_Wx-FRPKv7wwdPCqigz7inmd7polNdYXz2WVwkfZLblPHJfDl5evda9MMKD5iqeeha8av7RhCv-8A/s320/DSCN1047.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197584536571490626" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There was a really delicious vegan restaurant where we ate in Christiania so I was pretty much in heaven. The next day I was leaving in the evening and we mostly just walked around Copenhagen. Dave told me about how in Denmark people use the graveyards as public parks (having picnics in between gravestones is totally normal) and the gravestones are really well kept up and unique.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23pyBR8IENQrsTJ1DItUafE56z95D34MPC_EuDfLWP-Sm7MStZBX3CrNBji4OoYwnV8sr2Tp_jqi82omhcSriw6L_wU5YPhCjGBdBxdsr7rNBWQ1tyt9aCV1szMmRZsteADg2mbEfn-Y/s1600-h/DSCN1051.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23pyBR8IENQrsTJ1DItUafE56z95D34MPC_EuDfLWP-Sm7MStZBX3CrNBji4OoYwnV8sr2Tp_jqi82omhcSriw6L_wU5YPhCjGBdBxdsr7rNBWQ1tyt9aCV1szMmRZsteADg2mbEfn-Y/s320/DSCN1051.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197768017574375762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzxtdz5hfZp_kUYbKsdIm1O4grSn3Fe1-_xo5w7d1-378g606dq8blWQj299rm1OoRbAgj745cKYyRUtENchCHcvNYWkToHmDYoYE8nQVLtdK0vzorz5tIpSJ35IvRYtTfLryri2u_lg/s1600-h/DSCN1052.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzxtdz5hfZp_kUYbKsdIm1O4grSn3Fe1-_xo5w7d1-378g606dq8blWQj299rm1OoRbAgj745cKYyRUtENchCHcvNYWkToHmDYoYE8nQVLtdK0vzorz5tIpSJ35IvRYtTfLryri2u_lg/s320/DSCN1052.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197768773488619874" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We really liked the quotation on the top of this one:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeoK_pEGZgUlbBR35h28WbvPDXVgpueeKy5Cg01NGfArZjp5LJGon5aipMpHaIhiYcicuZKy1h_jtjhW4aYTv-fHcTNX7yLWKRJcshblTxh5glzEUvDBpaQDFOxa7VVsWFv2kZCnSjOY/s1600-h/DSCN1053.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeoK_pEGZgUlbBR35h28WbvPDXVgpueeKy5Cg01NGfArZjp5LJGon5aipMpHaIhiYcicuZKy1h_jtjhW4aYTv-fHcTNX7yLWKRJcshblTxh5glzEUvDBpaQDFOxa7VVsWFv2kZCnSjOY/s320/DSCN1053.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197769580942471554" border="0" /></a><br />"Give me the grace to take a joke and pass it on to other folk"<br /><br />I also have to include a picture of one the lakes built around Copenhagen to keep out invaders:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFId0IVaqczuRStNiyauUVCj0ZjqPQ3wqjk_Fa8oYBvqd1dsc2fcm0AsC8pdRLx76jegX3i5Lx4lOHnAzDyM_4Zg9bXdfaSFkCG9vHxkFRjzBeZ9uKeeuOsU0HGdj3beJrchCgcYNK9M/s1600-h/DSCN1057.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFId0IVaqczuRStNiyauUVCj0ZjqPQ3wqjk_Fa8oYBvqd1dsc2fcm0AsC8pdRLx76jegX3i5Lx4lOHnAzDyM_4Zg9bXdfaSFkCG9vHxkFRjzBeZ9uKeeuOsU0HGdj3beJrchCgcYNK9M/s320/DSCN1057.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197773824370160018" border="0" /></a><br /><br />OK, I guess that's it! It was a great long weekend!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-4124950803271456552008-04-07T07:12:00.001-07:002008-04-07T07:45:32.931-07:00Playing Catch Up 2After getting back to Paris, I took the train to Strasbourg to visit Paul. We visited the modern art museum there and I took this picture because this piece was done by someone from St. Brieuc!!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0S15jr8f2MaPQwftlAwNAIbLTtJhh-z4ajbhRzlOfKuGiu6POw3fUn_04hPHl6pqpX2CLaNxsjbDNWYtlOCfm8qQYDAavG7UjtaCS44t7JunKnIWojv-5pawsIA6J4ryqSI8Kt7Pwv8/s1600-h/DSCN0987.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0S15jr8f2MaPQwftlAwNAIbLTtJhh-z4ajbhRzlOfKuGiu6POw3fUn_04hPHl6pqpX2CLaNxsjbDNWYtlOCfm8qQYDAavG7UjtaCS44t7JunKnIWojv-5pawsIA6J4ryqSI8Kt7Pwv8/s320/DSCN0987.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186514487811942978" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After a few days, Clare joined us and we took at a day trip to a castles whose name I forget, Riquewihr (with is on the Route du vin / Wine Route) and Munster. The castle was on top of a mountain and we were allowed to go in because of the high winds but it was still really cool to see it from the outside.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQT24PjfRP5vhtX0NWGmKwx92h-jgXdMEZVHHVhzxcgw4jEHhY1niZWoTiOR1EXMFqEBp_JWIQ6YqEqFyriMvIYEZ7wA0b2VVlNAvBSXdif_FoYfBjBnZ4MBNVfb5GDnJQxAF7-Xb79E/s1600-h/DSCN0989.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQT24PjfRP5vhtX0NWGmKwx92h-jgXdMEZVHHVhzxcgw4jEHhY1niZWoTiOR1EXMFqEBp_JWIQ6YqEqFyriMvIYEZ7wA0b2VVlNAvBSXdif_FoYfBjBnZ4MBNVfb5GDnJQxAF7-Xb79E/s320/DSCN0989.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186510746895428034" border="0" /></a><br />view from the top:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhThq9se2Rx9LP12cQGUlxB73SZPp61_ar4V_N70qamaUqeMp8CGPyhlD3B5soOsKvN52p4yu9jgQziucmMgmLRLJAbNhW09Qdh_HULqiDF06SNd-yXUYaZl9NEYlGvd7pUxq-_6VwNHss/s1600-h/DSCN0988.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhThq9se2Rx9LP12cQGUlxB73SZPp61_ar4V_N70qamaUqeMp8CGPyhlD3B5soOsKvN52p4yu9jgQziucmMgmLRLJAbNhW09Qdh_HULqiDF06SNd-yXUYaZl9NEYlGvd7pUxq-_6VwNHss/s320/DSCN0988.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186510983118629330" border="0" /></a><br />view from far away (it's possible that this isn't the same castle. Also ignore the scary black smudge next to the castle. It seems like I somehow managed to take a spirit picture or something)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1dfAgcBKCR9gj4ZohYFXCgEauaQ9t2W778iYV4BjeGynXi2ghkuPjfeEWea6PG7sRj4osutAq8GRN0faz8xgT28KEVBRMcvDmVonwYF616qfl379_6qxuDo4MDnzitIq0Dmlvjnhsfk/s1600-h/DSCN0991.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1dfAgcBKCR9gj4ZohYFXCgEauaQ9t2W778iYV4BjeGynXi2ghkuPjfeEWea6PG7sRj4osutAq8GRN0faz8xgT28KEVBRMcvDmVonwYF616qfl379_6qxuDo4MDnzitIq0Dmlvjnhsfk/s320/DSCN0991.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186511215046863330" border="0" /></a><br /><br />vineyards of Alsace:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwp2nE421Y7hTTw3B7Lbq2FD2PoFKSbv_91UFQvN1hsuB9Ne57d7KW0oYngNLyoAdeYVGpS33cdVeUhZ9Z-z0Ad5b2trYTzsHYG6dJQIrkw50LHxEENsap316HC1JayB-48AcaBt6KM1k/s1600-h/DSCN0992.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwp2nE421Y7hTTw3B7Lbq2FD2PoFKSbv_91UFQvN1hsuB9Ne57d7KW0oYngNLyoAdeYVGpS33cdVeUhZ9Z-z0Ad5b2trYTzsHYG6dJQIrkw50LHxEENsap316HC1JayB-48AcaBt6KM1k/s320/DSCN0992.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186511670313396722" border="0" /></a><br /><br />cute town in a valley:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtmTRiUUM9TfUkMVpdJp6SHIK2xaM-4Dxf79LF-fVBz3rJ2gIeu_dVPBcHzRfMDV3lJYbS4ludSqDqB7Uo-ZjoY2b7PKEitg9SjjOotqi6HU_vUSnf9Rl5A43oNCxLM5LecjmXQ-lu-M/s1600-h/DSCN0995.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtmTRiUUM9TfUkMVpdJp6SHIK2xaM-4Dxf79LF-fVBz3rJ2gIeu_dVPBcHzRfMDV3lJYbS4ludSqDqB7Uo-ZjoY2b7PKEitg9SjjOotqi6HU_vUSnf9Rl5A43oNCxLM5LecjmXQ-lu-M/s320/DSCN0995.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186511928011434498" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Riquewihr was a really cute town where they make and sell really delicious wines (mostly whites). We went to a cave and got to do a taste test before selecting some to buy. Even though these wines were really high quality, they are not expensive at all in France (about 7 euros a bottle or around 10 dollars). In the supermarket, spending over 3 euros for wine is pretty classy. Here are some pictures of the town:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBmAIkFHHFVskPb-XQi5oSQHj_9AaZd2_ZDMn9Nvu5xu5e4LR1llmg2nORtt7zCgMXyQgmqLT_nI8EiIBM3W_1N8rJ0LJCUbUijRrscEPcE168dPG7jI0YCiCR9uQBcnkZBCtK43IPVyk/s1600-h/DSCN0997.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBmAIkFHHFVskPb-XQi5oSQHj_9AaZd2_ZDMn9Nvu5xu5e4LR1llmg2nORtt7zCgMXyQgmqLT_nI8EiIBM3W_1N8rJ0LJCUbUijRrscEPcE168dPG7jI0YCiCR9uQBcnkZBCtK43IPVyk/s320/DSCN0997.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186512915853912594" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B4PZ0CrYZjRBxb-5DgjgDstVxVVmf5VFMHmhkyomNUhrsAuxRbPc5q2kr1PL83wru8y8VouHBkcaAR8GvgNl-V2o6ra4D2jsa2zfRm6uMdmyhLgPCNtZMXeKKwipWEQ1IliyRlqlU2U/s1600-h/DSCN0998.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B4PZ0CrYZjRBxb-5DgjgDstVxVVmf5VFMHmhkyomNUhrsAuxRbPc5q2kr1PL83wru8y8VouHBkcaAR8GvgNl-V2o6ra4D2jsa2zfRm6uMdmyhLgPCNtZMXeKKwipWEQ1IliyRlqlU2U/s320/DSCN0998.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186513242271427106" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgicrnxLaK_tIiz61OPsjCGy-RCUk9yySPzCFzJshN5d9W79MnIpyY7liIYQ_S1oed3FlM_l9N71AIaePNq2acyX6mUdUz_qp-bneVyvf2eRh1m5gYoMaqAw7QTf-sus9hde3YRSKfUfT4/s1600-h/DSCN0996.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgicrnxLaK_tIiz61OPsjCGy-RCUk9yySPzCFzJshN5d9W79MnIpyY7liIYQ_S1oed3FlM_l9N71AIaePNq2acyX6mUdUz_qp-bneVyvf2eRh1m5gYoMaqAw7QTf-sus9hde3YRSKfUfT4/s320/DSCN0996.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186513465609726514" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Munster was cute but less picturesque. I was able to buy some real Munster cheese (not at all the same as what they sell in the US.) I loved it but I'm not sure how pleased my car companions were to have me with them because it was a little bit smelly. When we were in the bakery to buy bread to go with the cheese we heard the cashier and another worker speaking Alsatian, which is a dialect of German spoken in that region of France. (It's right next to Germany and the area has been under both French and German control during its history.)<br /><br />I was pretty sad during this trip because I had found out that morning that my dog Sandy had passed away. She was 16 so it wasn't a huge surprise but it'll be hard to go home to a house without her!!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-55431401759195471782008-04-07T05:21:00.000-07:002008-04-07T06:49:52.546-07:00Playing Catch UpTo all my dedicated fans, I apologize.<span style=""> </span>I have no excuse for my long absence other than laziness.<span style=""> </span>So, on the eve of my next vacation I’m finally going to write about my last one in Berlin.<span style=""> </span>You’ll be spared a lot of the historical details since I don’t remember them any more and mostly you’ll just be able to look at the pictures!<span style=""> </span>The first night we got to Berlin it was late and so we just made our to Sophia’s grandfather’s apartment and hung around and went to sleep.<span style=""> </span>The next day we walked into town and saw a cathedral that was damaged during a bombing in WWII and never restored in order to remind everyone who saw it about the realities of war. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxUkfvymyyBB6PCog8ewzhrui51mCVrfpndSyvXUOdzBsOPepzOaYCmoIsaRkvGqv0z-soSUpwJyVdhicuHtUPcVPgt1WwTTNfvJCNOAU3qRz_s8CCRtmKMWbHFVnWhjLou2NNrc9-4_g/s1600-h/DSCN0947.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxUkfvymyyBB6PCog8ewzhrui51mCVrfpndSyvXUOdzBsOPepzOaYCmoIsaRkvGqv0z-soSUpwJyVdhicuHtUPcVPgt1WwTTNfvJCNOAU3qRz_s8CCRtmKMWbHFVnWhjLou2NNrc9-4_g/s320/DSCN0947.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186478311302408162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We also saw a really cool break dancing/ street performance. Interestingly enough the men conducted the entire performance in English (I guess because there were so many tourists) and his English was almost perfect. I haven't encountered any street performers in France with such a high level of English....<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2W9Z65VBru4FS5q79xS_XilliZr_jxQwd4AI4Fyl9Qjly7evbQMuoogx70IYBJl9-HHIECnBE6x0EAozMV49AIt7yWdHQ3PkIY4oABrt_5yLIftTDnAztDDoWmvgeuMbw0QXCd_s2fU/s1600-h/DSCN0950.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2W9Z65VBru4FS5q79xS_XilliZr_jxQwd4AI4Fyl9Qjly7evbQMuoogx70IYBJl9-HHIECnBE6x0EAozMV49AIt7yWdHQ3PkIY4oABrt_5yLIftTDnAztDDoWmvgeuMbw0QXCd_s2fU/s320/DSCN0950.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186479050036783090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Cool sculpture:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJkpbjan3GhTcnuRcuLV_LSXjHOB9RZub_nsiIKIg8P_8KFpyiVvp8nLnX_Axv95aT5N8Mx2a7xcdkKMURYebvqNgqdMz4xgzc3yUA52DQ0rcPtshjqHB6S1iT9Wt0LnSikPQaUzRAfs/s1600-h/DSCN0953.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJkpbjan3GhTcnuRcuLV_LSXjHOB9RZub_nsiIKIg8P_8KFpyiVvp8nLnX_Axv95aT5N8Mx2a7xcdkKMURYebvqNgqdMz4xgzc3yUA52DQ0rcPtshjqHB6S1iT9Wt0LnSikPQaUzRAfs/s320/DSCN0953.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186479281965017090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We then made our way to the Brandenburg Gate, which was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II and built between 1788 to 1791. It used to be the gate to the city and later became part of the border between East and West Berlin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBiArg5HItTicmQdWXYlDB0lhDVQc6QynpvUWuAGqO4-9H_V5k4DZlZ41tl1vFSj3t5Uzz3dfGSMxRa8mPScnFqrukN9JACZONOoLKsgvP1TBFs9FJZK_PcFu095-9NzQIgfAlowMtAXQ/s1600-h/DSCN0954.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBiArg5HItTicmQdWXYlDB0lhDVQc6QynpvUWuAGqO4-9H_V5k4DZlZ41tl1vFSj3t5Uzz3dfGSMxRa8mPScnFqrukN9JACZONOoLKsgvP1TBFs9FJZK_PcFu095-9NzQIgfAlowMtAXQ/s320/DSCN0954.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186482559025063954" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Next, Danae and I went to the Reichstag which is the German government building. If you look closely you can see me in my light brown coat at the bottom of the stairs on the right.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikIoCtJqTWfn_jDIOghp3rV69lKjQEAeeBdWAeneJ-xfMJpYdzlXtMF-FUCqE_sY-g8yBKpP3NGMmVPdVWVCSTIjDCBJUzan2xnX4gZ04q5JeG-jKz4exmb_su_ZZ72FrzGvyApOjN6n0/s1600-h/reichstag.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikIoCtJqTWfn_jDIOghp3rV69lKjQEAeeBdWAeneJ-xfMJpYdzlXtMF-FUCqE_sY-g8yBKpP3NGMmVPdVWVCSTIjDCBJUzan2xnX4gZ04q5JeG-jKz4exmb_su_ZZ72FrzGvyApOjN6n0/s320/reichstag.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186484169637799970" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There is a really cool modern glass part of the Reichstag that Danae and I climbed up:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjio7b4PdGEdXiuuNQTfdKtZMh99AV5vcmXss0NM4EJhYWhYKVfpTgFr785ugLovyZ3T5k_LK0pfjFZ9Yk08GZggyz-PJ3SxLX2qOwsephSG7s6VKo9LLPXYgrzJXg3D9zNquYcBWJmNk0/s1600-h/DSCN0955.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjio7b4PdGEdXiuuNQTfdKtZMh99AV5vcmXss0NM4EJhYWhYKVfpTgFr785ugLovyZ3T5k_LK0pfjFZ9Yk08GZggyz-PJ3SxLX2qOwsephSG7s6VKo9LLPXYgrzJXg3D9zNquYcBWJmNk0/s320/DSCN0955.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186485419473283138" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After our day we went home and relaxed with some beers at the apartment. This is Barbara and me enjoying some green beers from Berlin:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKrilFbcB88qDpmCahxbjAgCb-XcX5k0J8iYZ42HRWBaZGrp6qpbBg3OOv0R4CwvtGKBd68H32v82vcGlMb_Li72EkRBlBSa3rrffYlzX9iTR0u__JdfENZs2Fizz0KjPknFmecK2niY/s1600-h/DSCN0957.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKrilFbcB88qDpmCahxbjAgCb-XcX5k0J8iYZ42HRWBaZGrp6qpbBg3OOv0R4CwvtGKBd68H32v82vcGlMb_Li72EkRBlBSa3rrffYlzX9iTR0u__JdfENZs2Fizz0KjPknFmecK2niY/s320/DSCN0957.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186485999293868114" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The next day we went to the Turkish Market in the area of Berlin where there are a lot of Turkish immigrants:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_H4-FzwiHugiTLbOFDTpgKsL97kXO7vbM4acsyV70neeKq7WYaFQI-DtPMA-YtKkZFD90d6shFIH29wqT6LDQcP_qYKEvyEGUfg1p-N6AQua3iKiNH4BYx-es81d4fO3jIVXcLegCO4/s1600-h/DSCN0958.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_H4-FzwiHugiTLbOFDTpgKsL97kXO7vbM4acsyV70neeKq7WYaFQI-DtPMA-YtKkZFD90d6shFIH29wqT6LDQcP_qYKEvyEGUfg1p-N6AQua3iKiNH4BYx-es81d4fO3jIVXcLegCO4/s320/DSCN0958.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186486742323210338" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After the Turkish market we went to the Jewish Museum, which traces the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages up to today. The architecture was really interesting and was made to make you feel unsettled / unsure to show how the Jews have felt throughout history after their many journeys to new countries.<br /><br />The next day we went to Potsdam, which is a suburb of Berlin and home of lots of the castles of the German (Prussian) royal family. We took a tour of Sans Souci (French, not German, for Without Worry), Frederich the Great's summer palace.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yw7_axYxowdjF82RhSDLp3mVAEilGFTTfc1X94X-iD3yNwtZas8ybNQonKnV7CrSmRKE3PWQ41b4QvAWg4dhXSzWz9JIigNP8EE6IxKgPo7wG_r__aYkJmz4lzkbTIo5vCfzRMjG9Bo/s1600-h/DSCN0962.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yw7_axYxowdjF82RhSDLp3mVAEilGFTTfc1X94X-iD3yNwtZas8ybNQonKnV7CrSmRKE3PWQ41b4QvAWg4dhXSzWz9JIigNP8EE6IxKgPo7wG_r__aYkJmz4lzkbTIo5vCfzRMjG9Bo/s320/DSCN0962.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186490341505804418" border="0" /></a><br /><br />More castles:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5FfItvGcQbUPUPrSVF9Wx8UpMsd1NHAmsZit6JU-WlG5gxE6MCPc0j8BXQVNMjnQOiaR8bcRLzMuc9sGVEzHyPUKygPpCjXIvaop8rV69VJq6BIuS71zLpp7j0pARJHxG8H9Y67MHYU/s1600-h/DSCN0963.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5FfItvGcQbUPUPrSVF9Wx8UpMsd1NHAmsZit6JU-WlG5gxE6MCPc0j8BXQVNMjnQOiaR8bcRLzMuc9sGVEzHyPUKygPpCjXIvaop8rV69VJq6BIuS71zLpp7j0pARJHxG8H9Y67MHYU/s320/DSCN0963.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186490560549136530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcdWrwYENuBTvHrOgtVJbtMRGugjYMRa-TzR_lTKFprkrYGpL5O_4A3BXR2a0EdgqRE2-uDIKI1NfzmmOpXkn99OSis__JjwaZc57NYE3E-fmuveb67nBUtkK5blOp9fwrqLsDVAu5vIY/s1600-h/DSCN0964.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcdWrwYENuBTvHrOgtVJbtMRGugjYMRa-TzR_lTKFprkrYGpL5O_4A3BXR2a0EdgqRE2-uDIKI1NfzmmOpXkn99OSis__JjwaZc57NYE3E-fmuveb67nBUtkK5blOp9fwrqLsDVAu5vIY/s320/DSCN0964.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186490792477370530" border="0" /></a><br /><br />At Potsdam, I bought a book about Kaiser Wilhelm II's mother (Empress Frederich/ Princess Victoria of England) and I'm still working on it seeing as its about 500 pages but its really interesting to read it after having seen all of her palaces and the places she visited in Berlin.<br /><br />That night we went out to a club to experience Berlin's famous nightlife. I wasn't disappointed! We managed to find a club that was both huge and really unpretentious. It was sort of like being at a huge party with all of your friends. This is us before we went out:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRUIAnpuaHYOTfv45-n_dB5bJqD3nsczdNrbMIF3_ou4lcpCD_yrMsw_pICqa-t-6mDUeDJaC7a32e5t4v2qwHVPLs3YOLSYsyoB1ijjA47NcLTcZx7HZ_xsuZvmhkG19-bZt1unWxlY/s1600-h/club.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRUIAnpuaHYOTfv45-n_dB5bJqD3nsczdNrbMIF3_ou4lcpCD_yrMsw_pICqa-t-6mDUeDJaC7a32e5t4v2qwHVPLs3YOLSYsyoB1ijjA47NcLTcZx7HZ_xsuZvmhkG19-bZt1unWxlY/s320/club.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186492111032330418" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The next day after an (ahem) late start, Danae and I went to see Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was the barrier between American Berlin and Soviet Berlin:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYXY8SXctIz3AnnbfN7-vynoWcmGjDP6n5AzcI5ZzJUE5FODRcsC_5s__K6aUu7MOvwigO6xBFZzV89YlMA2MV76v4aaVt4mXH_irN-wd31ZrnRMyHvcNjdOMCk1T2yTDWGi7tvl-crmA/s1600-h/DSCN0967.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYXY8SXctIz3AnnbfN7-vynoWcmGjDP6n5AzcI5ZzJUE5FODRcsC_5s__K6aUu7MOvwigO6xBFZzV89YlMA2MV76v4aaVt4mXH_irN-wd31ZrnRMyHvcNjdOMCk1T2yTDWGi7tvl-crmA/s320/DSCN0967.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186493262083565778" border="0" /></a><br />Then we went to a Sri Lanken Restaurant for dinner where we decided it would be a good idea to take pictures like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJx2EZuGD83iY0aK2KTEiEHtX0IHQ6werZ1TeS4jmsM-NQmYVPjPSg2woddaMlEO2VrEIlybxb8rhCfEMzUE9F5pqdgqlngWwH3XulXoUOV4EXyAAT4IDzZCPmWykdwG9zITLfvKq_ZM/s1600-h/sarah+hair.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJx2EZuGD83iY0aK2KTEiEHtX0IHQ6werZ1TeS4jmsM-NQmYVPjPSg2woddaMlEO2VrEIlybxb8rhCfEMzUE9F5pqdgqlngWwH3XulXoUOV4EXyAAT4IDzZCPmWykdwG9zITLfvKq_ZM/s320/sarah+hair.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186497200568576338" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnf4pxKjBJuNuEUNZi7NcP3xzEvWBY7nlWINrzCF5HJN0DZUM3Lc4bX2Q-CufXoBUBqXA717gJssG7HU-BkQfFBzMLOwLwYDlbi0hxWAoqVNdCcJIJIj1LhtVNgzi8L2PazmlqsxMGw4/s1600-h/danae+hair.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnf4pxKjBJuNuEUNZi7NcP3xzEvWBY7nlWINrzCF5HJN0DZUM3Lc4bX2Q-CufXoBUBqXA717gJssG7HU-BkQfFBzMLOwLwYDlbi0hxWAoqVNdCcJIJIj1LhtVNgzi8L2PazmlqsxMGw4/s320/danae+hair.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186497432496810338" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixOL2I2fqxzuXTA1abQ0exnjEvmZjvmcDfezsuxJsLavh2zgnjLGZH93hyphenhyphenjAcReyDpSzrPzfDFRiPnMJ7JSOQTTxrQAue4Tf9S0Z7IGus-eN0U0ufsWB26T1_bliET2o-eDkewahllePM/s1600-h/sophia+hair.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixOL2I2fqxzuXTA1abQ0exnjEvmZjvmcDfezsuxJsLavh2zgnjLGZH93hyphenhyphenjAcReyDpSzrPzfDFRiPnMJ7JSOQTTxrQAue4Tf9S0Z7IGus-eN0U0ufsWB26T1_bliET2o-eDkewahllePM/s320/sophia+hair.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186497651540142450" border="0" /></a><br />I'm pretty sure the waitress thought we were insane. I guess Barbara was either too classy to participate or just really liked being the photographer.<br /><br />The next day we went to the East Side Gallery which is a part of the wall that still standing and is covered in murals and graffiti.<br /><br />This is us on the walk there followed by some pictures of graffiti:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge8UhOMPSaD48VIwYIlDYzvixWlDbMUrab_0HMrDIctX7F-M0yYkJQGK0QekvwvGG8RPnfLGmgs0wD5Yfj4s9LOw9y8vC-3C0KSjEbbaED915m-HYK9ZHm6SsgaOzyYIoAAUXrGEMTBd8/s1600-h/walk+1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge8UhOMPSaD48VIwYIlDYzvixWlDbMUrab_0HMrDIctX7F-M0yYkJQGK0QekvwvGG8RPnfLGmgs0wD5Yfj4s9LOw9y8vC-3C0KSjEbbaED915m-HYK9ZHm6SsgaOzyYIoAAUXrGEMTBd8/s320/walk+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186495847653878066" border="0" /></a><br />Note Barbara's head at the bottom.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCiRcISSkMwLtFVefXQVPXAAw7VSB-An4JyqzGUP-sZbTb4fqPmRzFNwSE22HUSn_bFFYrGrNCDG0psMhNEVZkIrupZQuRxRaR7Xm3mXNE867u3Ngm90NPCP29y6un_WBXHZ2xnLmsn8/s1600-h/walk+2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCiRcISSkMwLtFVefXQVPXAAw7VSB-An4JyqzGUP-sZbTb4fqPmRzFNwSE22HUSn_bFFYrGrNCDG0psMhNEVZkIrupZQuRxRaR7Xm3mXNE867u3Ngm90NPCP29y6un_WBXHZ2xnLmsn8/s320/walk+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186496307215378754" border="0" /></a><br />Barbara, Danae and me in from of the River Spree<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkY9xxDhOT21DVbwr6ycMnIYbb5DLIM9ko6uk_YyZde4UYKhPYVUkaCsAcH0XtGkgA_a5GIG4VltPMSgOcYBkAbI-G69GIBXy9jL3RKuwGJaDZDPxXKZQWiq1HTZ-Ls37V1OX0e47zJq4/s1600-h/DSCN0972.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkY9xxDhOT21DVbwr6ycMnIYbb5DLIM9ko6uk_YyZde4UYKhPYVUkaCsAcH0XtGkgA_a5GIG4VltPMSgOcYBkAbI-G69GIBXy9jL3RKuwGJaDZDPxXKZQWiq1HTZ-Ls37V1OX0e47zJq4/s320/DSCN0972.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186493841904150754" border="0" /></a><br />(not me)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWkUeYZaJMVByHNOb4w-bAjSSdhfwFVZavBfrFg6pDnTBbiIZsMSvTG4_yF28iRl8W22uhuT-vwlV3ZWneJH0vOQmVBSYHJkxqsaVLs0c2jhyphenhyphenDEtZksCqOMTr6YZxE2s7rH3M5q2jVa0/s1600-h/DSCN0975.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWkUeYZaJMVByHNOb4w-bAjSSdhfwFVZavBfrFg6pDnTBbiIZsMSvTG4_yF28iRl8W22uhuT-vwlV3ZWneJH0vOQmVBSYHJkxqsaVLs0c2jhyphenhyphenDEtZksCqOMTr6YZxE2s7rH3M5q2jVa0/s320/DSCN0975.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186494108192123122" border="0" /></a><br />("we were here" also not us)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmzI6WgvkjJmeox5C6kXYAPqBkmaubxXp55IawESZXwD75kB2TYNpWho-rshIM8smfSsQxHmktbusgYoICIDbEp8IIY4QUEGcSUtZJ4uV84W0AmK5hc3q6j0PdKPDcr72ZhETRjJOj7HI/s1600-h/wall+faces.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmzI6WgvkjJmeox5C6kXYAPqBkmaubxXp55IawESZXwD75kB2TYNpWho-rshIM8smfSsQxHmktbusgYoICIDbEp8IIY4QUEGcSUtZJ4uV84W0AmK5hc3q6j0PdKPDcr72ZhETRjJOj7HI/s320/wall+faces.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186495297898064162" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPGQrLVV0S8kRWKjU3WIPRa2nsbWoFwGlTQn4tT2inQBnWCLkBnL6bZU66CN8FqRo8uA1PHJGWsa_FlTWu0R1znmva4rPsl7BMhhh-fNikhk3KgA09nRweABy7pfVgWWuKO0AqTKWA_RQ/s1600-h/DSCN0973.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPGQrLVV0S8kRWKjU3WIPRa2nsbWoFwGlTQn4tT2inQBnWCLkBnL6bZU66CN8FqRo8uA1PHJGWsa_FlTWu0R1znmva4rPsl7BMhhh-fNikhk3KgA09nRweABy7pfVgWWuKO0AqTKWA_RQ/s320/DSCN0973.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186494554868721922" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuep8sHJxsR8qsjzGHCXPT1HMdPeMkJQIu-UI6xX_tbkJLteS5Kt4RtaygQZznTj5OTH4u0mwPngJ1zdJ9UJUcpHI7Fpxz3zosajfq17Gwax3ZHG2K6IJ64kGRXbKBquoEYteN4jjovgI/s1600-h/DSCN0976.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuep8sHJxsR8qsjzGHCXPT1HMdPeMkJQIu-UI6xX_tbkJLteS5Kt4RtaygQZznTj5OTH4u0mwPngJ1zdJ9UJUcpHI7Fpxz3zosajfq17Gwax3ZHG2K6IJ64kGRXbKBquoEYteN4jjovgI/s320/DSCN0976.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186494773912054034" border="0" /></a><br />not on the Wall but still so nice.<br /><br />After the Wall it was just about cake time (something that really exists in Germany!!) and so for the sake of full cultural immersion we decided to participate:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOKe3i3Zq9aVfiYZQcaz20W42VbBElbgJTJ_isoB4Db7C-0P1Zm5IKtaoJNIco6-6vf5GTgdt033_JUjykHs9pKcXTIudxuTeOvnGqrmqnzxE45OKnGlZdqZJBxiZIijkjPDm8QjBwCE/s1600-h/DSCN0977.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOKe3i3Zq9aVfiYZQcaz20W42VbBElbgJTJ_isoB4Db7C-0P1Zm5IKtaoJNIco6-6vf5GTgdt033_JUjykHs9pKcXTIudxuTeOvnGqrmqnzxE45OKnGlZdqZJBxiZIijkjPDm8QjBwCE/s320/DSCN0977.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186498424634255746" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5rJ7yxOxDVtZh0IK6CSObZH8lxyPLcLq2mPWFrz64WBGDYRrwKJyEFid06YGzgsD40KDyOVUpVUcpe5VtSSqbAleJmosrUYP9WZppAZiHSHWqPQgdOcR1cBFG34_4db_irYht3zWCHeY/s1600-h/DSCN0978.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5rJ7yxOxDVtZh0IK6CSObZH8lxyPLcLq2mPWFrz64WBGDYRrwKJyEFid06YGzgsD40KDyOVUpVUcpe5VtSSqbAleJmosrUYP9WZppAZiHSHWqPQgdOcR1cBFG34_4db_irYht3zWCHeY/s320/DSCN0978.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186498879900789138" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After cake, Danae and I went to Museum Island to visit the Cathedral:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4foxAkD3LW9NH7IOJyTSQmHd-XH1Wf0vjpeWLIJiCoiesSD2eD7K-BN9T5cQqwfABOk1edtrhgSsNAkKs4mdy6QMfib_Oh4h6j1Ivzs7ENJqdHMnWd27YKENxpBME6_sUqN6nsixHMa0/s1600-h/DSCN0979.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4foxAkD3LW9NH7IOJyTSQmHd-XH1Wf0vjpeWLIJiCoiesSD2eD7K-BN9T5cQqwfABOk1edtrhgSsNAkKs4mdy6QMfib_Oh4h6j1Ivzs7ENJqdHMnWd27YKENxpBME6_sUqN6nsixHMa0/s320/DSCN0979.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186499227793140130" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgerowhHWDFE372h4a6eY2C_tfLos6DGFWEbOW9GIsRsLE9GCC9v0GruVvShJ1ZhU0gEOf5R13hPRBevq6nnOhNFwepdxUSO2XC_pE0GtsDnCl8s1gzaKX2dgjmXKDX7_1jgSPK_Y7jc/s1600-h/DSCN0984.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgerowhHWDFE372h4a6eY2C_tfLos6DGFWEbOW9GIsRsLE9GCC9v0GruVvShJ1ZhU0gEOf5R13hPRBevq6nnOhNFwepdxUSO2XC_pE0GtsDnCl8s1gzaKX2dgjmXKDX7_1jgSPK_Y7jc/s320/DSCN0984.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186499760369084850" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We got up the next day at 4 to catch our flight (which, of course, was delayed!) and then I went off to Alsace which I will document in my next post in about 10 minutes!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-77932554059153485752008-03-03T06:53:00.000-08:002008-03-09T16:52:37.567-07:00Tour de Cesson, Mont St. Michel, and St. Malo!Well, even though this all happened two weeks ago I've just gotten home from Berlin and Strasbourg so I'm going to post it all now. Before heading to Berlin, Paul came to visit Brittany. The day after he got in we decided to take a walk to the Tour de Cesson which is a tower, now in ruins, built in 1395, that was used to guard St. Brieuc from pirate attacks. It was about a 45 minute walk and we also got to see the port. Unfortunately, we found out when we got there that the tower is private property and so we couldn't get right up next to it. (It seems like something the owners should think about changing since they could make a little money charging a euro or two to get close to it. Ah but there I go being a typical capitalist American).<br /><br />Port area:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgwQTlSsg4bOqVDztjYG8t-ByhGtO6knckCvav9OgOWa-Ll5U3glAx14_J3TAllNhwp9jQHyWjheV7ox9tVRZYh0O89iV2LaeUS9TMo5Af-3yaDSOpM6xwFgUE5MQOjGqM-chyphenhyphenfPgS_E/s1600-h/DSC03368.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgwQTlSsg4bOqVDztjYG8t-ByhGtO6knckCvav9OgOWa-Ll5U3glAx14_J3TAllNhwp9jQHyWjheV7ox9tVRZYh0O89iV2LaeUS9TMo5Af-3yaDSOpM6xwFgUE5MQOjGqM-chyphenhyphenfPgS_E/s320/DSC03368.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173844679244835042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The port; the tower is visible on the hill on the right:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79k2a0G18X23Fih4qTz_j29YSCfUv92jfTz-mgV4FP-xu22IZhVdgA5w-KXc_PuvVYdJrthURdrojFirR6fipwrdCZw9R45MGAyRB0blXRWm7W5xsEEJql4immjWO6GRC4cec0lqQwls/s1600-h/DSC03370.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79k2a0G18X23Fih4qTz_j29YSCfUv92jfTz-mgV4FP-xu22IZhVdgA5w-KXc_PuvVYdJrthURdrojFirR6fipwrdCZw9R45MGAyRB0blXRWm7W5xsEEJql4immjWO6GRC4cec0lqQwls/s320/DSC03370.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173844984187513074" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Tower on the top of the hill:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIo3cIciD6Oo8vNXNHl6XOqvxVz8OCPDrQXSeh1PWJPDHxY-PgwRTw5JrTsUuLMMDqCdse9dgggizYjdg_bs7Ny8JbqN8WplIidcNWvYhSfxByGENU2IAJjyho334xn5BSFAupew3w7zA/s1600-h/DSC03374.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIo3cIciD6Oo8vNXNHl6XOqvxVz8OCPDrQXSeh1PWJPDHxY-PgwRTw5JrTsUuLMMDqCdse9dgggizYjdg_bs7Ny8JbqN8WplIidcNWvYhSfxByGENU2IAJjyho334xn5BSFAupew3w7zA/s320/DSC03374.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173845422274177282" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Ducklings we saw in someone's yard:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQvq1BnHVFBXuNrcOWPbYjvtnqSW8ts-oS18D0c-jGCZSGdmBOltRqwO041iPrsYS_-M37dE8PDxXFYWvGwqXb8Bey_8Xq9gbZJXrgZ5ty6L_L8kPt6bMpyuDHwjbAAc9kZomw2yD__4/s1600-h/DSC03377.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQvq1BnHVFBXuNrcOWPbYjvtnqSW8ts-oS18D0c-jGCZSGdmBOltRqwO041iPrsYS_-M37dE8PDxXFYWvGwqXb8Bey_8Xq9gbZJXrgZ5ty6L_L8kPt6bMpyuDHwjbAAc9kZomw2yD__4/s320/DSC03377.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173845808821233938" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On Saturday we went to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo with Chantal and Clare. Mont St. Michel was totally incredible. It's technically in Normandie but its just over the border from Brittany so it wasn't too far of a drive. My pictures from Mont St. Michel don't do it justice at all so I'm going to wait 'til tomorrow to post any. (I'll have to steal them from others).<br />St. Malo was really nice too and the weather was warm enough that we could stick our toes in the water. By random happenstance we saw our friends Jessica, Otman and Rodrigo there as well.<br /><br />In this picture you can see the ramparts of St. Malo as well as Paul and Chantal looking at Paul's camera.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfAfPg-F38FyRfDS6z14kq5sLw-RlfsHTiwKhhktj0uf8L5JhNXrJHPaPxxDMCMO3XgvtsCjYxoKAJEdQECGQwtNyp34Go40PHlvkp8sVdcRLKelut-5C6Ctu8y-F6CpPagyZRkAiYeao/s1600-h/DSCN0942.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfAfPg-F38FyRfDS6z14kq5sLw-RlfsHTiwKhhktj0uf8L5JhNXrJHPaPxxDMCMO3XgvtsCjYxoKAJEdQECGQwtNyp34Go40PHlvkp8sVdcRLKelut-5C6Ctu8y-F6CpPagyZRkAiYeao/s320/DSCN0942.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175892746424458450" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Just some pretty views of the islands from the shore:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGnOdlcZhAfPGzrjCiraTJKZRvFb6juwwbJxrMIugdiC4ycmfcq2G-XTf4bKfjxC-HQ4YlYFi9Ys4FNLGpUxBuCwd0J_zozhw624vSe5nbYNCnBf7Lwxw3YhbusIhpfoy8OklGk7r3tI/s1600-h/DSCN0943.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGnOdlcZhAfPGzrjCiraTJKZRvFb6juwwbJxrMIugdiC4ycmfcq2G-XTf4bKfjxC-HQ4YlYFi9Ys4FNLGpUxBuCwd0J_zozhw624vSe5nbYNCnBf7Lwxw3YhbusIhpfoy8OklGk7r3tI/s320/DSCN0943.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175893283295370466" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicURuXGJyekTPMElCMOCdG0k2_28ysMtqm53UZOG8wjM5uA2YDqeE0zTypDlvd8qYOqgOojNnc1fZpTzOgjow8W4Cw_uLmzNyVM2u8Yt-KHkumpqf6rCIK3vb3mzWa-yeHAX-wr2Q7Mfk/s1600-h/DSCN0944.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicURuXGJyekTPMElCMOCdG0k2_28ysMtqm53UZOG8wjM5uA2YDqeE0zTypDlvd8qYOqgOojNnc1fZpTzOgjow8W4Cw_uLmzNyVM2u8Yt-KHkumpqf6rCIK3vb3mzWa-yeHAX-wr2Q7Mfk/s320/DSCN0944.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175893691317263602" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I'll add more pictures with people in them as I can collect them from others. Even though it was February it was warm enough to wade a bit! I'm tackling the Germany and Alsace posts tomorrow.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-4859285366181064982008-02-19T23:50:00.000-08:002008-02-26T12:02:16.209-08:00Morlaix!I've gotten a bit behind on my blog entries. I don't really have an excuse either because, let's face it, it's not like I'm swamped down at the office or something. Last Monday, Chantal, Clare and I visited a really cute town in the<span style="font-style: italic;"> département</span> of Finistère (the westernmost <span style="font-style: italic;">département</span> in Brittany) called Morlaix. According to legend, this town got its name because when the English tried to attack the villagers screamed "<span style="font-style: italic;">S'ils te mordent, mords-les</span>!" ("If they bite you, bite them back!" pretty vicious!). To understand this legend, it must be explained that "mords-les" and "Morlaix" are, inexplicably, both pronounced "morlay."<br /><br />We tried to do what was called the <span style="font-style: italic;">Circuit des Venelles</span>, which is a tour of the town's historic sights, but we ended up only making it to half of them. The entire tour is supposed to take one hour and fifteen minutes and it took us about three hours to do half. I like to think it was because we stopped to smell the roses but I think it had more to do with my less than stellar sense of direction coupled with a hand drawn map from c. 1976. In any event, the town was really cute and really <span style="font-style: italic;">breton</span>!<br /><br />Famous Morlaix Viaduct:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZaRafpwguzPx0HdkLAjcfeCpLb9NuWCSJHrvUFK2mV55GosbNd2brE3NQQWkhT_z7g8DtxzQNlpo3DBzbNi2LLHYjom2PWs8aOmQth27941lnRZ4-Vi0MOaagLD7fMZLelU1otjoOq4/s1600-h/morlaix+1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZaRafpwguzPx0HdkLAjcfeCpLb9NuWCSJHrvUFK2mV55GosbNd2brE3NQQWkhT_z7g8DtxzQNlpo3DBzbNi2LLHYjom2PWs8aOmQth27941lnRZ4-Vi0MOaagLD7fMZLelU1otjoOq4/s320/morlaix+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168970978964202482" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Chantal and Clare and a historically important fountain (dry):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMbtOIM_w_IO2M2hTW-9j5i3eVuNomHoPBtMzFFY5NQjjDIeRNDTlPPk5V1EDCCAOSZbB9ymQ6ixVAy5Ib1lw8SqBHbGQFOQDm61AfUeJNIgqS3FBTxKGzM_ZvjYbTJgj5b6yIPEozaI/s1600-h/morlaix+2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMbtOIM_w_IO2M2hTW-9j5i3eVuNomHoPBtMzFFY5NQjjDIeRNDTlPPk5V1EDCCAOSZbB9ymQ6ixVAy5Ib1lw8SqBHbGQFOQDm61AfUeJNIgqS3FBTxKGzM_ZvjYbTJgj5b6yIPEozaI/s320/morlaix+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168971322561586178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Graffiti translation: "Ticked off High School students." Someone probably tried to get them to learn English and so they went on <span style="font-style: italic;">grève</span>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06Fi1eftM63N4e8mRG-PeFeyjT_IqDS-9fd9bfpp6BR1gh_6dtypE1PK9X8MBELLIkk7Ks5Uei8GzUqBzhGRX1jvK7PxtehdedaffeFsulpeshyfJXJaPamC-lt0xGfNscQNBF35xEKQ/s1600-h/morlaix+3.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06Fi1eftM63N4e8mRG-PeFeyjT_IqDS-9fd9bfpp6BR1gh_6dtypE1PK9X8MBELLIkk7Ks5Uei8GzUqBzhGRX1jvK7PxtehdedaffeFsulpeshyfJXJaPamC-lt0xGfNscQNBF35xEKQ/s320/morlaix+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168971717698577426" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Breton</span> Venice:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDy3Nz9p8V9Mh4cTmkkEdjo-NZrDKDjVFiMUH1DTo0MZcoBQTl04FxGbH1Pe5kBxVbk-ATkKgT3ojGrdUCJnLMmge2yTOEMGHZjd1VsZLM46RCmjZX8g14dcP6n4RaJjiM7NP9rqxf3X0/s1600-h/morlaix+4.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDy3Nz9p8V9Mh4cTmkkEdjo-NZrDKDjVFiMUH1DTo0MZcoBQTl04FxGbH1Pe5kBxVbk-ATkKgT3ojGrdUCJnLMmge2yTOEMGHZjd1VsZLM46RCmjZX8g14dcP6n4RaJjiM7NP9rqxf3X0/s320/morlaix+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168972344763802658" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Cute houses:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2k7R810Wx2-b18LhLv-qpovZi4MDI2HwI2G-GiG1D3fVYVAKX9py1121U6eSQ0c65uQNHtbmWvJK8eHZ7Bzxb4-5ntI9I00iyxiyCuY_fvl0kOiLzF8ClMCrKwrzwabITL_IzspxVAU/s1600-h/morlaix+5.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2k7R810Wx2-b18LhLv-qpovZi4MDI2HwI2G-GiG1D3fVYVAKX9py1121U6eSQ0c65uQNHtbmWvJK8eHZ7Bzxb4-5ntI9I00iyxiyCuY_fvl0kOiLzF8ClMCrKwrzwabITL_IzspxVAU/s320/morlaix+5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168972649706480690" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Anne de Bretagne's house (she had many):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsQnHu6INwU_YTRLoRaXjFF02mvsMkr_IuQ46zrEvfT2FECocivSBwpMlN8WJVpY6WspVp5fujMEhJOpC7WMNb1LnSrPZ4RwBAux5j4aT4SH_xod0pVqzsi-e1L0LkVU7ze_Tzr5YUqE/s1600-h/morlaix+7.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsQnHu6INwU_YTRLoRaXjFF02mvsMkr_IuQ46zrEvfT2FECocivSBwpMlN8WJVpY6WspVp5fujMEhJOpC7WMNb1LnSrPZ4RwBAux5j4aT4SH_xod0pVqzsi-e1L0LkVU7ze_Tzr5YUqE/s320/morlaix+7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168973431390528594" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Well-earned hot chocolate in a caf<span>é</span> after climbing up and down<span style="font-style: italic;"> venelles</span> all day.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7wWJhgk4KTwe0ptVib6ZPEUYL7WiVRTqX5BH4BbaAPCuxmpx4LhtVWeOFy6layvfvpC8JbOSKzurpfkiX2avRov97g_d4DSqvcNqFcctVAS4VU7k68Rf4qgSdrBqBfK3f3h51HYQCdUc/s1600-h/morlaix+6.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7wWJhgk4KTwe0ptVib6ZPEUYL7WiVRTqX5BH4BbaAPCuxmpx4LhtVWeOFy6layvfvpC8JbOSKzurpfkiX2avRov97g_d4DSqvcNqFcctVAS4VU7k68Rf4qgSdrBqBfK3f3h51HYQCdUc/s320/morlaix+6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168972915994453058" border="0" /></a><br /><br />All together a successful trip! More about Paul's return trip, Mont St. Michel, St. Malo and la Tour de Cesson soon! Now I'm off to Berlin!!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-69904380336658384472008-02-10T11:56:00.000-08:002008-02-10T13:43:20.595-08:00Cahutta, Dinan and a PartyAs usual, Ellen, the sole assistant in Loudeac, came to St. Brieuc for the weekend. We planned on going out to one of our favorite bars but we accidentally got sucked into watching approximately 15 episodes of <span style="font-style: italic;">Real World: Sydney</span> on mtv.com. Our favorite roommate was a fun-loving hillbilly from the Georgian mountains named Cahutta. We both basically fell in love with him. His accent was too funny and we couldn't stop watching his romance with Texan KellyAnne bloom. At one point he talked about how he wanted two or three mountain babies running around and that he'd better start looking for a girl cause he wasn't getting any younger (he was 23). In short, spending Friday night having a Real World marathon was a fabulous use of time.<br /> The next day Ellen, Clare and I took a day trip to Dinan. I went once before with Paul but that was right before Christmas and it was cold and already dark. Saturday was a beautiful day and it was light out so the town looked totally different.<br /><br />Dinan Cathedral:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIKfuqOoLqev0m-MIifYqpOmgvriA2IBmR2IYPws2AQFa1BryWImb6MYqgjUtRZGyG7B7kdvoEwkwyqTVF7gI0PEHVFD-udKL6ZxyBRHUYNbqVzA2zkDsGkE8BC4KS3iGQWQU0tXvfHZY/s1600-h/100_1406.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIKfuqOoLqev0m-MIifYqpOmgvriA2IBmR2IYPws2AQFa1BryWImb6MYqgjUtRZGyG7B7kdvoEwkwyqTVF7gI0PEHVFD-udKL6ZxyBRHUYNbqVzA2zkDsGkE8BC4KS3iGQWQU0tXvfHZY/s320/100_1406.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165461780229972706" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2QgAPeFoKTB_Q1E-KX_tpxqLyJJrNR9lkPXVUgngbL2AGrUVYWFZDJlxKgBGd0ZVsgYa2X8sYszngQTdZaJ17WBhszTiuueHEm5YR5Kiw0lxGpKUw8VNWxzwIGXhyphenhyphenlF4mniFSDPa9u0c/s1600-h/100_1409.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2QgAPeFoKTB_Q1E-KX_tpxqLyJJrNR9lkPXVUgngbL2AGrUVYWFZDJlxKgBGd0ZVsgYa2X8sYszngQTdZaJ17WBhszTiuueHEm5YR5Kiw0lxGpKUw8VNWxzwIGXhyphenhyphenlF4mniFSDPa9u0c/s320/100_1409.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165462914101338914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Some views from the ramparts (which are the longest in Brittany):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxAnO-RAhnIYhDHD_yaLNwMUt1aVbLa2XU8jbccv8llki238-4431ljW2_IZm8AzCFmLDN8UjbapGvC1YKUs3T2kpFKcON0HbAk1x7ePneg-CutRFLl6MoV2tTWsJkvsTKHUPeItZVsU/s1600-h/100_1407.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxAnO-RAhnIYhDHD_yaLNwMUt1aVbLa2XU8jbccv8llki238-4431ljW2_IZm8AzCFmLDN8UjbapGvC1YKUs3T2kpFKcON0HbAk1x7ePneg-CutRFLl6MoV2tTWsJkvsTKHUPeItZVsU/s320/100_1407.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165462235496506098" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2EtmHsFvB396dvi5RZjRPjn6agbet025S7SbMaZW1BCsTwrhwZtsgt_likvHJL3CiFeprZInYX4ndHmQXkP7QQ7gizuoHn2vXO1id6xNAzhcc7_KnhUzeqIIgCC_tQBoZECAHJdo7WE/s1600-h/100_1408.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2EtmHsFvB396dvi5RZjRPjn6agbet025S7SbMaZW1BCsTwrhwZtsgt_likvHJL3CiFeprZInYX4ndHmQXkP7QQ7gizuoHn2vXO1id6xNAzhcc7_KnhUzeqIIgCC_tQBoZECAHJdo7WE/s320/100_1408.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165462450244870914" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Château de Dinan:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJf3-ss1RHN-ACmk1lJpxOgA8UanHE42W5g9tC-XAvvPhzGurCJdCOiJUHp7lZqjOIbwbvhcwL5XUsdzsvTNzHCxinbBArXdCqdTQrfYi1jy2NMZS9RD0lHCyO8fxPxAnVqIn-YdPxn4/s1600-h/100_1411.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJf3-ss1RHN-ACmk1lJpxOgA8UanHE42W5g9tC-XAvvPhzGurCJdCOiJUHp7lZqjOIbwbvhcwL5XUsdzsvTNzHCxinbBArXdCqdTQrfYi1jy2NMZS9RD0lHCyO8fxPxAnVqIn-YdPxn4/s320/100_1411.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165463944893489970" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNzOvTtC8kv9Ugxzwc3u84F8hIedt-fk3ahzjsCTREb1B0gX3IHS-IShjWktNRfXHTa3_kON2caI0vGFwnFh9s4quy1NVZTy9T4D6TBDkEpIJKwoMQitDraMCXVws__rxS1te68agRlo/s1600-h/IMG_1496.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNzOvTtC8kv9Ugxzwc3u84F8hIedt-fk3ahzjsCTREb1B0gX3IHS-IShjWktNRfXHTa3_kON2caI0vGFwnFh9s4quy1NVZTy9T4D6TBDkEpIJKwoMQitDraMCXVws__rxS1te68agRlo/s320/IMG_1496.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165464370095252290" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Medieval Commode:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqamlll-CJdcAhvGuJftfpvLJOe-bNRVhVVW-_y5Is4gKvm2I2oqNtIUcDAeESydGJXYmirlk5gUzgYscKzEAkCQC7sIoWyVc01FQ-rYV4_n2t6QuJSwHQ7uabMjJvcEtfTK47R0ubZJU/s1600-h/100_1420.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqamlll-CJdcAhvGuJftfpvLJOe-bNRVhVVW-_y5Is4gKvm2I2oqNtIUcDAeESydGJXYmirlk5gUzgYscKzEAkCQC7sIoWyVc01FQ-rYV4_n2t6QuJSwHQ7uabMjJvcEtfTK47R0ubZJU/s320/100_1420.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165465018635314002" border="0" /></a><br /><br />View from the top:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQz2mtTf4wVL_Go6uZgUTN_A67OLPOjOIh7JRodNk9iTZ_UktxbJ54YL8PgnL9vd8uIcwXOFpWLLYd8vRsc_LyHxtB1F9yksG5K5_kkS2aApHKsemZVPDY4I5F9DiaDlNVtIb9Gj0o7Ag/s1600-h/IMG_1512.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQz2mtTf4wVL_Go6uZgUTN_A67OLPOjOIh7JRodNk9iTZ_UktxbJ54YL8PgnL9vd8uIcwXOFpWLLYd8vRsc_LyHxtB1F9yksG5K5_kkS2aApHKsemZVPDY4I5F9DiaDlNVtIb9Gj0o7Ag/s320/IMG_1512.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165469906308096994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Sun Worship:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9AofVE1LN7AZ3Xrc0SwZN-LvG-i3nOAv-0GQFr-DVCW1V4fFEa5_IR42BJn6p_5f6rkwe4Pco17oCU5GbE1gFpKGtu2HIGlTQOQXeJylyBgpfAhUGopJT9BmjclTMpw2W9WfIc-R1Ik/s1600-h/IMG_1526.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9AofVE1LN7AZ3Xrc0SwZN-LvG-i3nOAv-0GQFr-DVCW1V4fFEa5_IR42BJn6p_5f6rkwe4Pco17oCU5GbE1gFpKGtu2HIGlTQOQXeJylyBgpfAhUGopJT9BmjclTMpw2W9WfIc-R1Ik/s320/IMG_1526.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165466229816091506" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Walk down to River:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmGIJscPQfXTWirjHCvl6Oqe5lwgobFrEVWOXUoeX76MkIgY8irv5xXlo3Pna50MR2V6D04rlSdjXFJPzHftAILk2lUItDfGvEVIZ9JEQtfe_Qdsm6W0yp-p_qJWfiDEnsKoztkb9yYc/s1600-h/IMG_1546.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmGIJscPQfXTWirjHCvl6Oqe5lwgobFrEVWOXUoeX76MkIgY8irv5xXlo3Pna50MR2V6D04rlSdjXFJPzHftAILk2lUItDfGvEVIZ9JEQtfe_Qdsm6W0yp-p_qJWfiDEnsKoztkb9yYc/s320/IMG_1546.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165466732327265154" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Rance River:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgVtf49MP_1T6HIPzGoekpdih2gRIdrlfSNxz9eLHK8tQ_KDEeLytU2bV2lm2-kO_YqFbI4bX-70JLaGiNNxDkNfp2ptMXhyqnIyw-J4N-l-PRaWzakea-buvxSKvi9qzSq5U9SmBG9s/s1600-h/IMG_1552.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgVtf49MP_1T6HIPzGoekpdih2gRIdrlfSNxz9eLHK8tQ_KDEeLytU2bV2lm2-kO_YqFbI4bX-70JLaGiNNxDkNfp2ptMXhyqnIyw-J4N-l-PRaWzakea-buvxSKvi9qzSq5U9SmBG9s/s320/IMG_1552.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165467153234060178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Saturday night we had a very successful party at my house to welcome Clare as our 5th roommate:<br /><br />The assistants at Lyc<span style="font-size:100%;">é</span>e Rabelais:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiFVgHxTJ6VnJ9JRVno4J07BdIE5tAUHe_sMWgCz7sBoW67wP4MT2H89OAAV0fFy5yPRLSt64DwOieMWfyIAWrSEzM45JSVVa05Tft4HaneEIM5ymNZB5_qLmX4r8KOu_fOuST142l_A/s1600-h/IMG_1567.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiFVgHxTJ6VnJ9JRVno4J07BdIE5tAUHe_sMWgCz7sBoW67wP4MT2H89OAAV0fFy5yPRLSt64DwOieMWfyIAWrSEzM45JSVVa05Tft4HaneEIM5ymNZB5_qLmX4r8KOu_fOuST142l_A/s320/IMG_1567.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165468119601701794" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A French girl and two North Americans:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheud3A4Z3qCloFNmKLiAi6j92E7zQvfiWY8OFfy8ekqY7d0Y1_s3UdPyMQDjh6FPU6bMN6MxkHe2_1KRGThib8HpC3AZlvhellKnzyLAr1UBEJQ1mO35N6AFRL078kRGhWoReTMeFPhyphenhyphenc/s1600-h/IMG_1568.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheud3A4Z3qCloFNmKLiAi6j92E7zQvfiWY8OFfy8ekqY7d0Y1_s3UdPyMQDjh6FPU6bMN6MxkHe2_1KRGThib8HpC3AZlvhellKnzyLAr1UBEJQ1mO35N6AFRL078kRGhWoReTMeFPhyphenhyphenc/s320/IMG_1568.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165468458904118194" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Dancing with Jessica:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOGW9Jvk12C61XDLu1xThtA1tXDtq1W2x0yYhExKcOeQaynktnnqePSMw64FHIIqD_qbE54GnEJRy30NTaykP1IZ_BO7vACkNnE4gG5SCfMhACK9fC0D-kAVx2OJJSOeacqOccaAPCy3I/s1600-h/IMG_1560.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOGW9Jvk12C61XDLu1xThtA1tXDtq1W2x0yYhExKcOeQaynktnnqePSMw64FHIIqD_qbE54GnEJRy30NTaykP1IZ_BO7vACkNnE4gG5SCfMhACK9fC0D-kAVx2OJJSOeacqOccaAPCy3I/s320/IMG_1560.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165469511171105746" border="0" /></a><br /><br />All in all, an excellent weekend.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-64193544393387472742008-02-07T12:22:00.000-08:002008-02-12T06:46:50.780-08:00Retraction<span style="font-style: italic;">La Vie en Breton</span> would like to issue a retraction. As it turns out, many people who had not consumed any quiche became violently ill as well and, as such, we have concluded that it was, in fact, a 24 hour bug. <span style="font-style: italic;">La Vie en Breton</span> wishes to apologize to whomever made the quiche. It was delicious and we hope that we have not caused you any undue pain nor defamed your reputation as a quiche chef. <span style="font-style: italic;">La Vie en Breton</span> sincerely regrets the error.<br /><br />p.s. Paul sent me some pictures so I added them to Odds and Ends!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-63835809231950664152008-02-04T04:25:00.000-08:002008-02-04T05:55:50.651-08:00Raw Oysters and Food PoisoningInterestingly enough, the two subjects in the title of this entry are unrelated. I'll elaborate:<br /><br />On Friday night, our friends Kati and Lena threw an oyster tasting party. Not steamed or smoked oysters either, raw oysters. Normally, in the States, I don't eat seafood at all (being a vegetarian) but since living here I try some from time to time since it is a specialty of the region. For some reason that doesn't make sense to most people, I would much rather eat an oyster than tuna fish so once in a while I'll make an exception in my vegetarianism for a mollusk.<br /><br />Anyway, the party was really fun and it turns out raw oysters mostly just taste like a mouthful of seawater. Here are some pictures:<br /><br />Our victims:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzJiUBmJzD6jNhw9OFGLbqlr-zGRYt0yeOV17GkMzyroGygbW2UOl9pryumM8mCszwyKwZNhtZliLf4XOJCiE91HdRZ7IqG_FVw9a8lsKKqeGI_7tPPxmEfeCUvLkdDHU-vev-B3zRvc/s1600-h/IMG_1459.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzJiUBmJzD6jNhw9OFGLbqlr-zGRYt0yeOV17GkMzyroGygbW2UOl9pryumM8mCszwyKwZNhtZliLf4XOJCiE91HdRZ7IqG_FVw9a8lsKKqeGI_7tPPxmEfeCUvLkdDHU-vev-B3zRvc/s320/IMG_1459.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163103413812177026" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The table:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgae8opytoFxtWuDXcMPudKbpBLU4WdMIDSDKaCUt52pZ5ClLCTBaxbiwraqSiVd-UIi6coQJOHEOek60br4lDVpLkva6giqtZB1-ReYsCKkzTOLFl-8IeEf_jTj-d8wpd4Klnypv2XbBY/s1600-h/DSCN0881.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgae8opytoFxtWuDXcMPudKbpBLU4WdMIDSDKaCUt52pZ5ClLCTBaxbiwraqSiVd-UIi6coQJOHEOek60br4lDVpLkva6giqtZB1-ReYsCKkzTOLFl-8IeEf_jTj-d8wpd4Klnypv2XbBY/s320/DSCN0881.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163106166886213778" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lena and her precious landlord, René, who helped throw the party:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUsyM1hpX17FHJijtkPqOA4_g2k7B8muFmpGwaVVoUpySlH3snuG_OJPIiIm421bfwudhaM3l6EBRLGyTNYPJOsOHdvuLR6KNTM0gPLy49FIIxMzvChGtxDHOQbO1WyzQAoIFDq6ApMc/s1600-h/IMG_1460.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUsyM1hpX17FHJijtkPqOA4_g2k7B8muFmpGwaVVoUpySlH3snuG_OJPIiIm421bfwudhaM3l6EBRLGyTNYPJOsOHdvuLR6KNTM0gPLy49FIIxMzvChGtxDHOQbO1WyzQAoIFDq6ApMc/s320/IMG_1460.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163106811131308194" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lena, Kati and Ellen:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR8b0P4eEGIwfZAqd3oYVqTSirzERcqXT19xK46qTBrk5rdGaoRKMS65db0q09KnYnPueoCt1ANp3tspcrZx5vbHtT17qCwF5FJCp01aAlShzUq6e94N0WCIhG_XWUGVZVsjnhLVRgG0I/s1600-h/100_1404.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR8b0P4eEGIwfZAqd3oYVqTSirzERcqXT19xK46qTBrk5rdGaoRKMS65db0q09KnYnPueoCt1ANp3tspcrZx5vbHtT17qCwF5FJCp01aAlShzUq6e94N0WCIhG_XWUGVZVsjnhLVRgG0I/s320/100_1404.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163107489736140994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Me and Clare:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiD8EbbmZ3U7rcgbA6xmc-osbMvhkSJMa9rs2Zui3fDLVKF-YefSy9XWhfgyY9DvEBytHj754qlQCaOUpQRIu3R2RYItocO5jpGB4zYhCo3TvMBOCp9PvIjSQaf-gXxYmRK9Y3C2iKX2Q/s1600-h/IMG_1458.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiD8EbbmZ3U7rcgbA6xmc-osbMvhkSJMa9rs2Zui3fDLVKF-YefSy9XWhfgyY9DvEBytHj754qlQCaOUpQRIu3R2RYItocO5jpGB4zYhCo3TvMBOCp9PvIjSQaf-gXxYmRK9Y3C2iKX2Q/s320/IMG_1458.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163108026607053010" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Ellen and me:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYPUr1-PW8yjDGEZ2g5bhBhh3vgfmDDwJvJLRSLbDVJpIjQdIZBxcztApoklHlshc2iKlliTF6rdJTk-WmttIgwLpI29ejatygp2HYLctnFpmGUcHHDJ5nlxXNd0MQ6YAHf8AXKq2CYw/s1600-h/100_1403.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYPUr1-PW8yjDGEZ2g5bhBhh3vgfmDDwJvJLRSLbDVJpIjQdIZBxcztApoklHlshc2iKlliTF6rdJTk-WmttIgwLpI29ejatygp2HYLctnFpmGUcHHDJ5nlxXNd0MQ6YAHf8AXKq2CYw/s320/100_1403.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163122608021023026" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After the party, most of us headed to O'Kenny's.<br /><br />Rodrigo (my Spanish teacher), Clare, me:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AurTR5AOnYD3ToHMMhEQ0uv9DuwpbpfMfzaqyvoXUNKRXiKOgv1MlkqmGlRMr3oQWIQlna5ppP9wWf_U9L0g7N8ohqDhfbhKNSQhmjeO_p77MX9ljVpA7rwH0LoNc_VpLuTe8TnZly0/s1600-h/DSCN0888.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AurTR5AOnYD3ToHMMhEQ0uv9DuwpbpfMfzaqyvoXUNKRXiKOgv1MlkqmGlRMr3oQWIQlna5ppP9wWf_U9L0g7N8ohqDhfbhKNSQhmjeO_p77MX9ljVpA7rwH0LoNc_VpLuTe8TnZly0/s320/DSCN0888.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163108645082343650" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Clare, Jessica and Ellen<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJTjSr2jyPbJ4PzrqkXQw6JyUEKGAguvDlMDoIR2W7uIKmL4kEQhskQt4gkgsxcv7IwReEf5MWAR95fnscD4QUDZJXYJ8iUFoLh49YIAt30y8fg5GlInAjMHPneOuUfBTXEZMx6S_X1dw/s1600-h/DSCN0882.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJTjSr2jyPbJ4PzrqkXQw6JyUEKGAguvDlMDoIR2W7uIKmL4kEQhskQt4gkgsxcv7IwReEf5MWAR95fnscD4QUDZJXYJ8iUFoLh49YIAt30y8fg5GlInAjMHPneOuUfBTXEZMx6S_X1dw/s320/DSCN0882.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163109267852601586" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Ellen, Me, Chantal:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFL4HqvQRu0RvBnD203ckhdi_jVGcM_JslHOc1BeUA0fRwe8oh3f9UDt-D84LH10i7z0YlJez6fvTwcAlLJpZn0dyXDxAK9ZIwhCEerDaGy-ASyoZs45OBuEdIjt3FOOyoKcPvzTNBfsc/s1600-h/DSCN0886.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFL4HqvQRu0RvBnD203ckhdi_jVGcM_JslHOc1BeUA0fRwe8oh3f9UDt-D84LH10i7z0YlJez6fvTwcAlLJpZn0dyXDxAK9ZIwhCEerDaGy-ASyoZs45OBuEdIjt3FOOyoKcPvzTNBfsc/s320/DSCN0886.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163121298055997730" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The next day we went to visit our pals in Rennes. We went to a party at their friends' house where there was a lot of food. Jessica and I were really hungry and so we pretty much camped out next to the snack table. The others tried a little food but not much. We especially liked a quiche/tortilla espanol thing and, since no one else was eating anything, and there were two whole quiches, Jessica and I went to town with one of them and pretty much ate all of it ourselves. If we knew then what we know now...<br /><br />These are our shiny, happy faces after we ate the quiche but before it tried to kill us (Julian on the left was quiche-free):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEdNM5DyML658EbnioJXmpkHWCJq_uM1B1nivozPHRjYKqs4ctPUZ3HS386CRgDry_IxcUswBM4GZwGZN7iom_YAQNEhcsxZGYdvuyoTkKNAEH6tFaMbEu44jwUFYUI0tYDSAB3XF7oXg/s1600-h/DSCN0892.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEdNM5DyML658EbnioJXmpkHWCJq_uM1B1nivozPHRjYKqs4ctPUZ3HS386CRgDry_IxcUswBM4GZwGZN7iom_YAQNEhcsxZGYdvuyoTkKNAEH6tFaMbEu44jwUFYUI0tYDSAB3XF7oXg/s320/DSCN0892.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163115358116227330" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Gwendal, Ellen and Clare, also quiche-free:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjei5JwRKjpITxjN5diaLza6Hi9t1g3Wa4ImTms1UnI43Bpb4Hy5MWnRA3ndojJPxUp8-VS59y7M6MYeiuWbalebtxQRgxzzxSCKlVQINJs2hPES7DbjwpMa14yZaIVgfYazNF-uF9aakk/s1600-h/DSCN0891.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjei5JwRKjpITxjN5diaLza6Hi9t1g3Wa4ImTms1UnI43Bpb4Hy5MWnRA3ndojJPxUp8-VS59y7M6MYeiuWbalebtxQRgxzzxSCKlVQINJs2hPES7DbjwpMa14yZaIVgfYazNF-uF9aakk/s320/DSCN0891.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163116491987593490" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Note: Gwendal looks really tough but he has a heart of gold.<br /><br />I'll leave out the details but suffice it to say, the next day Jessica and I were supremely nauseous and had to travel back to St. Brieuc in a terrible state. I will tell you one story even though its possibly slightly inappropriate:<br />At one point, a man came up to Jessica outside the train station and asked her for money, while she was literally in the middle of throwing up. Maybe that's too much information but it was too funny not to tell.<br />The moral of the story is, don't eat quiche that has been sitting out God knows how long, and that has been prepared under possibly slightly unsanitary conditions. <span style="font-style: italic;">Fin.</span>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-5539855938504490542008-02-01T04:11:00.000-08:002008-02-01T04:48:26.927-08:00I am writing this post from my own homeI can't express with words my joy over having the internet in my house. Its totally thrilling. So thrilling that I'm not going to ruin my good mood by posting about how my landlady is INSANE. I'll save that for another day. As a teaser, yesterday she reached new lows of irrational and illogical behavior.<br /><br />I have a few more stories about things my students say:<br /><br />1. Mathieu: (points to self) It's a good boyfriend.<br /> Me: How old are you?<br /> Mathieu: 20<br /> Me: (incredulous look)<br /> Mathieu: Bahhhh, 20 in 4 months.<br /> Me: Soooo, 19, in other words<br /> Mathieu: but I am major! (He meant that he wasn't a minor. This is actually alarming since he's in the French equivalent of 11th grade and should be almost 17 not almost 20)<br /> <br /> later....<br /> Mathieu: Sarah, we like you (meaning he and his friends in class).<br /> Me: That's nice, Mathieu, I like you guys too.<br /> Mathieu: You are very interesting<br /> Me: uh huh<br /> Mathieu: (points to self) It is man (points to me) It is woman. It works.<br /><br />No, Mathieu, it doesn't.<br /><br />2. In Anglophone Jeopardy, students were asked to give the capital of South Africa. One boy raised his hand very enthusiastically and yelled, "Venezuela!!!"<br /><br />3. Similarly, when the question was "Name 3 Presidents of the US not including George W. Bush," a very excited girl called out "Canada!!!" Really, there's no excuse for that since the words in English and French for "president" are exactly the same.<br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />In other news, Clare has held 3 different students' hands. Thankfully, these have all been guys in the technical college program; she hasn't done any hand holding with high school students...yet.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-27401976961625326072008-01-28T06:28:00.000-08:002008-02-07T12:16:32.371-08:00Odds and Ends (updated with some new pictures)Well, I haven't written recently because I don't have a whole lot to report on. My schedule at school changed recently so now I have one class on Friday mornings (still no classes Monday!) I have some new classes to work with but some of my classes are the same as last semester. My schedule is really complicated. I have a lot of things that vary between Semaines A and B. The teachers are always confused and never seem to really know if I am supposed to be with their class or not. This leads to a lot of canceled classes because I'll show up and the teacher was planning on me being there the next week and so he or she won't need me. Also, at least once, my new schedule resulted in a teacher getting upset with me because she thought I was skipping her class (I wasn't, I had her class on the opposite week). On the other hand, my new schedule means I have twice as many students whom I see half as often which means I only need to do half the lesson planning (and by lesson planning I mean googling "ESL games" 15 minutes before class).<br /> There was a <span style="font-style: italic;">grève</span> last week which meant that a lot of teachers didn't come to school. I honestly don't know what they were striking about but I'm sure Sarkozy did something shocking and unfair again. One of the four teachers I had that day told me she wouldn't be there, one other promised me she'd let me know her final decision and the other two said nothing. Out of five classes, guess how many I had that day. 1/2!!! The first class was the one where the teacher promised me she'd let me know. Having not received a call, I came to school. Of course, she wasn't there and neither was most of the class. Three boys did come and we had fun playing "Who am I?" and Hangman. They are really adorable and they <span style="font-style: italic;">vouvoyer</span> me and call me <span style="font-style: italic;">Madame</span>. Technically they shouldn't be doing either since they should be speaking English but they're my youngest class and so cute I can't get too mad. So that was my half of a class. My next class I knew was canceled, two more classes were canceled because that teacher was sick and for the class class not one student showed up (but the teacher was there). I could have gone home at 11 instead of 4 but I did get to use the Internet for free all day and watch <span style="font-style: italic;">True Life</span> on mtv.com, so I can't complain too much.<br /> Things haven't been totally business as usual here though, I did go to Strasbourg last weekend for a visit and to celebrates Paul's birthday. While there, we took a day trip to Freiburg, Germany which is a really adorable town. Here are some pictures I stole from Etienne (Paul's roommate who, along with his really sweet girlfriend, Eva, came with us):<br />A cute street and the cathedral which has sort of the same style as the one in Strasbourg.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEtVKRs8rkigCDSITB6ItzWlM1ABubc2ykxDDgSCCOsGJ3MGpfNtq8QcVrJjnfAIqndoDzCqMmHsjf6CVDyXdIpsuwgT-wuWXGnAEjmeRWHKiLWncvllOZIiFo4a3Gf48A9nONAc5XDXQ/s1600-h/germany+1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEtVKRs8rkigCDSITB6ItzWlM1ABubc2ykxDDgSCCOsGJ3MGpfNtq8QcVrJjnfAIqndoDzCqMmHsjf6CVDyXdIpsuwgT-wuWXGnAEjmeRWHKiLWncvllOZIiFo4a3Gf48A9nONAc5XDXQ/s320/germany+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160539094998165554" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRw_mJtseOfsoOTNlis31188n0QdvhhJMgjRn4gPPk-5T-ngYU1GI1FgJTWOhVZF75kGME-LwcRz6DJ6He_rptQDbLzCWVYV6PR-Zoqh6Duth668zs-dVjytZZlei8qDNBUV2wtB0K1E/s1600-h/germany+2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRw_mJtseOfsoOTNlis31188n0QdvhhJMgjRn4gPPk-5T-ngYU1GI1FgJTWOhVZF75kGME-LwcRz6DJ6He_rptQDbLzCWVYV6PR-Zoqh6Duth668zs-dVjytZZlei8qDNBUV2wtB0K1E/s320/germany+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160539232437119042" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQQAkeej-dVFiN1Pd1d2TQ4kuFfWDUxnFZwyYY1Xmp6W9MGqgm5I3RhW0jepgPz8sYoxtk2KNCv0PI2OPFj6AFLK8-d8hndJpM_9GJcL9Znr2vv4Owzf3HmaR8jKa60LhyphenhyphencsfESbVmi4/s1600-h/germany+3.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQQAkeej-dVFiN1Pd1d2TQ4kuFfWDUxnFZwyYY1Xmp6W9MGqgm5I3RhW0jepgPz8sYoxtk2KNCv0PI2OPFj6AFLK8-d8hndJpM_9GJcL9Znr2vv4Owzf3HmaR8jKa60LhyphenhyphencsfESbVmi4/s320/germany+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160539322631432274" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Etienne enjoys a sausage while the sausage lady watches:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0hdB-2iY3Z3vcI1OVoMrWh0ZODxg0w2xG6qGMLJdh_USEPB0leLEvjdt1tenI2WddAlRmpSLCN15FbAepenRd2jTLdknNG254v_uZIgDgk5gAn0OTWWe2KBvx7aFhIs0dn7UaOraP6I/s1600-h/DSC03220.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0hdB-2iY3Z3vcI1OVoMrWh0ZODxg0w2xG6qGMLJdh_USEPB0leLEvjdt1tenI2WddAlRmpSLCN15FbAepenRd2jTLdknNG254v_uZIgDgk5gAn0OTWWe2KBvx7aFhIs0dn7UaOraP6I/s320/DSC03220.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164333857517971794" border="0" /></a><br />One of the highlights of the Germany daytrip was going to a store called Vom Fass (which means something like "on tap" or "draught"). Basically, its a liquor store where everything is stored in glass barrels and where you can buy a bottle to fill up. It also had all different kinds of oils for cooking etc. in barrels. Our favorite was olive truffle oil. Here is a picture of some of the different alcohol choices to better explain:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv83aV7Is9VMDkMPV2TjIUEYlmUEA-EB-GV763UM-GxTJMR7lXfNjePimVUc7yVzN39C6hZuWmPjnFr15aqmSjKTJzx0Lw22IFDZdaYJLxrP_Abp5BlNuQXa3jSrd69kO7YIMDptWqIz0/s1600-h/vomfass.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv83aV7Is9VMDkMPV2TjIUEYlmUEA-EB-GV763UM-GxTJMR7lXfNjePimVUc7yVzN39C6hZuWmPjnFr15aqmSjKTJzx0Lw22IFDZdaYJLxrP_Abp5BlNuQXa3jSrd69kO7YIMDptWqIz0/s320/vomfass.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160540499452471394" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Etienne and Paul:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinVjd785ctWCRmniuTd2ZKnphm1QWfB4EWCe7QiqFpgHKYyefsi3xspNYCROf2ugES_OTeGKMm3EAxLcey3KC9OBK6hnv2AJHHfxKJMrlmsqm_z7C9RofDT3GUbbqSlypI2cewj577pwE/s1600-h/DSC03229.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinVjd785ctWCRmniuTd2ZKnphm1QWfB4EWCe7QiqFpgHKYyefsi3xspNYCROf2ugES_OTeGKMm3EAxLcey3KC9OBK6hnv2AJHHfxKJMrlmsqm_z7C9RofDT3GUbbqSlypI2cewj577pwE/s320/DSC03229.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164331649904781634" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The funny thing about this store was that the logo seemed so familiar to me and I knew I'd seen it before but I couldn't remember where. Then when I got home to St. Brieuc I realized that we had the same store here though I've never been in it. Its one of the only two Vom Fasses in France!! (It might have something to do with this area being the most alcoholic part of France for seven years running. Vom Fass must have done some demographic research).<br />I have also included a picture of Paul blowing out his birthday <span style="font-style: italic;">crêpe</span>. There was one votive candle stuck into the ice cream. It was delicious, though melty:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4FHFn3nrmf8xVr3KaR7uISJjACZSqwDmDO8pDoJE5-CfA_aVQz5v1GurDwb8JwKMBjZxjA0ca45RB2QVfc_iBawrfTZjvjkaYqwmkPvL49rEsWrUQoJceb45IIzYBprmazJNHOO_kQw/s1600-h/birthday.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4FHFn3nrmf8xVr3KaR7uISJjACZSqwDmDO8pDoJE5-CfA_aVQz5v1GurDwb8JwKMBjZxjA0ca45RB2QVfc_iBawrfTZjvjkaYqwmkPvL49rEsWrUQoJceb45IIzYBprmazJNHOO_kQw/s320/birthday.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160542002691025010" border="0" /></a><br />All in all we had a lovely weekend and I'm looking forward to Paul's triumphant return to Brittany <span style="font-style: italic;">sans streptococci</span>!<br /> One thing that being in Germany made me realize is that I speak French much better than German. Maybe this should've been obvious since I've never studied German a day in my life so I guess what I mean is that it made me appreciate how much better my French has gotten. In Germany, I couldn't carry out the simplest exchanges. I think the only German I said was "danke." ("Danke" to Wayne Newton for that). At one point a man came up to Paul and me in the cathedral and started gabbing away. Luckily, he didn't seem to need a response nor did he seem to notice that our eyes were wide with utter uncomprehension. Eventually, satisified, he wandered away. Thank goodness Etienne and Eva both studied in Germany and could help us buy souvenirs! This short trip to Germany did make me super excited for my trip to Berlin with Sophia, Danae and Barbara, though! (Especially since Sophia and Barbara are both Germanophones because I think Freiburg proved that I need supervision if leaving an Anglo- or Francophone zone.)<br /><br /> In other news, Hammy is doing well and I think his name has to stay Hammy (although I appreciate all the suggestions). I can't call him anything else now and even my roommates call him Hammy (or, Ammy, rather). It has been suggested that I train my webcam on him and call it HamCam but I don't think my life has gotten that sad yet. (Also, that would assume that I had the Internet at my place, which, of course, I don't and have given up expecting.) Also, my good pal Clare is moving into my house tonight!! We have a spare room and since she is always over it just made sense that she move in. I'm very excited because it can get a little lonely on the weekends in that big house when all my roommates are gone and now Clare will be there to keep me entertained! Last but not least, I have talked to my friend Rodrigo about giving me Spanish lessons which I will pay for by cooking for him. I decided to start because I have started to get bored with only 12 hours of work a week and I've got to nip that in the bud. There's no greater waste of time than boredom and I don't want to spend a minute of my time here not appreciating it.<br />There, I guess I did have a lot to say after all!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-68701291953547368452008-01-15T05:50:00.000-08:002008-01-15T06:11:37.007-08:00Funny/Strange Things My Students Do/Say1. When instructed to create a sketch about the Holidays, 2 students referred to Santa Clause as "Christmas Dad" (direct translation of Père Noël)<br /><br />2. One student asked me if it was possible to buy "cooking foods" in America (when pressed, he defined "cooking foods" as eggs and sugar) because his sister went to England once and came back telling people you could buy pre-made meals there but no ingredients.<br /><br />3. Asked me if I had a "little friend" (direct translation of petit ami, i.e. boyfriend). I told him I don't discriminate based on height when choosing my friends.<br /><br />4. Told me my hair was too long and then suggested that he could help me shorten it with something he had set on fire. (He had some kind of flint/steel combo that he was sparking at people). Don't worry, afterwards he was nice enough to tell me that he liked my hair, long though it is. Thanks, creep.<br /><br /><br />p.s. No, Mom, I'm not naming Hammy after you. He's a BOY!! Besides, its weird to name a hamster after your mother.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-92097616544095818992008-01-07T05:31:00.000-08:002008-01-07T06:49:47.514-08:00Happy 2008!I haven't been writing during my Christmas vacation because this is supposed to be a blog about France (or at least Europe) and not about the US but I did have a really good time and got to visit family in IL and FL. Florida was especially wonderful because it was 80°F (for any non-Americans that's about 25°C) and sunny everyday. I also got some lovely Christmas presents including 3 new cookbooks which will come in really handy for me and Clare when we need dinner ideas. I will tell one story about my trip home. When we were in Springfield, IL my mom and I decided to try out the hotel's Jacuzzi (indoors, obv.) We put on our bathing suits and went down to the pool area. There is a little foyer before you get to the actual pool that is locked to prevent ne'er-do-wells from using the pool. Hotel guests can use their key cards to get in. Or so we thought. Our card didn't work. Weird. "No big deal" we thought. We'll just reenter the main building and talk to someone at reception. Of course, the door to the main building had locked behind us and we needed our key cards to get in. Fabulous, don't panic, we're completely trapped except for a door to the outside. We discuss the best plan. We can't both go outside because then we might not be able to get in at all and we'd be trapped outside all night (Only to be found dead the next day. Very undignified to be found dead outside in your bathing suit in December) My mom decides to brave the elements, exit the only open door and run in her bathing suit to the front door. This was very brave for 2 reasons. 1. Neither my mom nor I have anything resembling a sense of direction and locked in the little room, we had lost our bearings. So, basically, she had no idea where to run. 2. She was in a bathing suit and a t-shirt, we were on the prairie at 9pm in December. It was about -21545° (n.b., that is an exaggeration in both Fahrenheit and Celius). Debbie Dahl is a trooper, however, and she ran out into the night to try and find the main entrance to the hotel (I'm not at all exaggerating about our senses of direction. They're terrible. We think we might be legally handicapped). My job was to wait vigilantly at the door and let her in if she needed me to. Of course, just then a helpful hotel guest spotted me and was going to help me escape from the pool foyer. So, I had to lean out the door and yell until my mom heard me and ran back inside. At which point, the helpful guest let us into the main building and my mom went to reception and got our cards fixed. After that, we took a well-deserved dip in the Jacuzzi. <span style="font-style: italic;">Fin</span>.<br /><br />In other news, 39 Avenue Corneille is now in possession of a lovely pet hamster!! I call him Hammy (short for Hamster, if you're slow) because we couldn't think of a name and I had to call him something. Blandine, being a true <span style="font-style: italic;">paysanne</span>, insists that he be named a "D" name because 2008 is a "D" year and, therefore, all the farmers name any cows born in this year "D" names. Suggestions welcome!! The name has to be something that my roommates and I can all pronounce. Here he is:<br />running like the wind in his ball:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3tFvIJcr3jW1yd1WfFmUKPReNE5zFoI7BoZTnFIXeaRRq2Pn7Aykj7wQQ1q9zy2GI8tWVR_6_9NZ1Tgjdp7hcHsjIWpKnh8xLTPguBz4EPFGe8MbrdcPlqW14Xn27FYr0-F6nf4iCuM/s1600-h/DSCN0857.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3tFvIJcr3jW1yd1WfFmUKPReNE5zFoI7BoZTnFIXeaRRq2Pn7Aykj7wQQ1q9zy2GI8tWVR_6_9NZ1Tgjdp7hcHsjIWpKnh8xLTPguBz4EPFGe8MbrdcPlqW14Xn27FYr0-F6nf4iCuM/s320/DSCN0857.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152742444758332930" border="0" /></a><br />having a drink:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCaRoELXdazD_MRYYxMniAaIxYNldJfpISwtqGGSigBf_z5wvlGK5f6Loxl11dS6WiL3-kw1MqGpS9ehHaDcakW59cV6SNOL8nyO5AOaRqKOZDxOYq22PdTXRFUZ11HwOLeW5bf9o4O0/s1600-h/DSCN0858.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCaRoELXdazD_MRYYxMniAaIxYNldJfpISwtqGGSigBf_z5wvlGK5f6Loxl11dS6WiL3-kw1MqGpS9ehHaDcakW59cV6SNOL8nyO5AOaRqKOZDxOYq22PdTXRFUZ11HwOLeW5bf9o4O0/s320/DSCN0858.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152742771175847458" border="0" /></a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-23361303167918103902007-12-18T05:07:00.000-08:002007-12-23T08:31:40.769-08:00Strasbourg etc. UPDATED W/ PICS!Lord, its been too long! I haven't written about Strasbourg because I kept hoping and hoping that I would be able to write about it from my house! I'm sure no one is surprised that 39 Avenue Corneille is <span style="font-style: italic;">still</span> without Internet. Maud and I got the livebox in the mail and set it up only to realise that our phone line had been disconnected. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. A simple call to your landlord and the problem is fixed, right? HAHA! You may remember that it took our landlord 2 months to cancel the Internet contract he had so that we could sign up for a new one. I'm anticipating a repeat of that situation. Although, it is Christmas so maybe we can all pray for a miracle. In any event, on Friday I'm returning to the States where I know that I have plenty of Internet so its nothing to worry about right now.<br /><br />ALSO, I forgot the memory card for my camera (I'm sure that surprises no one) so Chantal has all the pictures from Strasbourg and I wanted to wait 'til she posted them. She hasn't yet but I have full confidence in her and I'm sure I'll be able to add them soon. <span style="font-style: italic;">Bref</span>, Strasbourg is BEAUTIFUL. It's very different from any city in France that I've ever seen. The Christmas market was adorable and the cathedral is breathtaking! We were also fortunate enough to get to stay with some real live <i>Strasbourgeois </i>(Paul, a friend of Chantal and his roommate Etienne) They were really hospitable and took us to lots of parties hosted by their friends. They also provided us with late-night paella and all the Cocoa Krispies we could eat. It was a really fun weekend.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">UPDATE:</span> Chantal pulled through with the pictures.<br /><br />Skinniest buildings ever:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLJ0iuzYlq2eUA9HE-UbMGDZBNjuuXQYHbVNuN6YLqC1UWuqrtjKBEmkjc4yjZr1kDOpiR3PlrmwsFWgWrEAStMZhdu33riq7difRcBG2fQ0lUSs0_NxJFjzfWeiRJTGqeY9svhCXRBQ/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+117.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLJ0iuzYlq2eUA9HE-UbMGDZBNjuuXQYHbVNuN6YLqC1UWuqrtjKBEmkjc4yjZr1kDOpiR3PlrmwsFWgWrEAStMZhdu33riq7difRcBG2fQ0lUSs0_NxJFjzfWeiRJTGqeY9svhCXRBQ/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+117.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145655156014445794" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Lovely view of cathedral:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDLXvjFbB-6mhmTt4_n741dmPycX_6d204EPm1ShxYdGdXVj-okwgNV1KDA_98XAAiEHxenw3mSeWclHZ6Ru2XVSZUU_yLF8A_g_4m9uoKPXAVq_QmaioPf8Ymsp_jxOkG3DbtHzqSG2M/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+118.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDLXvjFbB-6mhmTt4_n741dmPycX_6d204EPm1ShxYdGdXVj-okwgNV1KDA_98XAAiEHxenw3mSeWclHZ6Ru2XVSZUU_yLF8A_g_4m9uoKPXAVq_QmaioPf8Ymsp_jxOkG3DbtHzqSG2M/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+118.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145655413712483570" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Inside lovely cathedral:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihB2gD0DVsQZFELRhPxQIqBdrV20o8vYrZ8PyvB_itTYDY2SH_DJmydoKAjoRsAQXVMedVTxkR89IRFEnML-EciPkyCGQSEBAH5DLoCjV7RDDuvATY1s8XIHyGv_1_14xaQTMhrl8yDZk/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+124.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihB2gD0DVsQZFELRhPxQIqBdrV20o8vYrZ8PyvB_itTYDY2SH_DJmydoKAjoRsAQXVMedVTxkR89IRFEnML-EciPkyCGQSEBAH5DLoCjV7RDDuvATY1s8XIHyGv_1_14xaQTMhrl8yDZk/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+124.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145655903338755330" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Crazy clock in cathedral:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDxNS4PssqG5-_mNzoepnH7EbnvyP1_ChbojQz6a28Mg387296ROVuKMXzmvpvRf5FUd9hvLpdglgy5oaxZKbPr-W-hE59nkReFzn_597slFwlncrcOP32bSwVH3KI6lfvfQBPslqLSE/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+126.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDxNS4PssqG5-_mNzoepnH7EbnvyP1_ChbojQz6a28Mg387296ROVuKMXzmvpvRf5FUd9hvLpdglgy5oaxZKbPr-W-hE59nkReFzn_597slFwlncrcOP32bSwVH3KI6lfvfQBPslqLSE/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+126.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145656289885811986" border="0" /></a><br /><br />2 views from the tippy top of cathedral:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANlSFREHnOQKlgO-8hpeBxJO2QIYnqbDSIOIH6s0_StrO2NYPic_BcTns1KE30F3Df9R957jcqWhpKD8wYVusdhalcS-_85645opeVYkNq88IdGvZAW5VRDj9eUBhaM3cRF7Xwe-BZ8w/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+130.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANlSFREHnOQKlgO-8hpeBxJO2QIYnqbDSIOIH6s0_StrO2NYPic_BcTns1KE30F3Df9R957jcqWhpKD8wYVusdhalcS-_85645opeVYkNq88IdGvZAW5VRDj9eUBhaM3cRF7Xwe-BZ8w/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+130.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145656895476200738" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAzNyc7hrQ66qaTEwoHsyho2O7cF-aVog0lfB951WHYdgBbOUVPs3fe7yV0WDSdoKS7Pnu-DERhEt3HN7LpsxmWIWEkO8GMIRG6gXAm3Osw8046zlo5aGe8DNHZzKVzk6DmxK9XMwakc8/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+131.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAzNyc7hrQ66qaTEwoHsyho2O7cF-aVog0lfB951WHYdgBbOUVPs3fe7yV0WDSdoKS7Pnu-DERhEt3HN7LpsxmWIWEkO8GMIRG6gXAm3Osw8046zlo5aGe8DNHZzKVzk6DmxK9XMwakc8/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+131.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145657161764173106" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Part of town called La Petite France:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx4hv3ulCIhahLJlnQMdUWsJqH7Nv1gqIOE3qjoWLIKW392cMYk6OgJdqE-30pSaiU9DUIIsFwOfKs5FQTTrKhHdH4Wmf2Uy1rzDy-0EUchZev4qfK21yaba2kbCCDDEUgROru3zdD9OY/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+137.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx4hv3ulCIhahLJlnQMdUWsJqH7Nv1gqIOE3qjoWLIKW392cMYk6OgJdqE-30pSaiU9DUIIsFwOfKs5FQTTrKhHdH4Wmf2Uy1rzDy-0EUchZev4qfK21yaba2kbCCDDEUgROru3zdD9OY/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+137.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145657535426327874" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lovely friends with lovely beers:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoo8at8KzynhmCnIeYu5lQfL51GrTnz9YzpSXQmWdKfYfYMBthnYl8IpPcyiBJXoopChNKJh4XrC5IcT9_0b-OsMPIDD_RonBq7FT4AKzpaJNzVDsKwASgt1m5wnnIicdfCL4sdH13Qso/s1600-h/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+135.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoo8at8KzynhmCnIeYu5lQfL51GrTnz9YzpSXQmWdKfYfYMBthnYl8IpPcyiBJXoopChNKJh4XrC5IcT9_0b-OsMPIDD_RonBq7FT4AKzpaJNzVDsKwASgt1m5wnnIicdfCL4sdH13Qso/s320/Europe+2007-+oct+nov+dec+135.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145657994987828562" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After listening to Chantal and me talk about St. Brieuc, Paul became nostalgic for his childhood holidays spent in Brittany and so he decided to visit us this past weekend. The weekend could have gone more smoothly.<br /><br />Let me list all the issues we had, note how all but one of them are directly related to my landlord and lady's incompetence:<br /><br />1. Approx. 60% of my home had no heat. My very kind roommate, Blandine, volunteered to use her lunchbreak to wait for the <span style="font-style: italic;">chauffagiste</span> at our house. When he got there they discovered that the door to the boiler room was locked and that the landlady had taken all the keys to Nice with her. The landlady had to FedEx us the key to the room and then (<span style="font-style: italic;">sans chauffagiste</span>) we had to fix the heat 3 times during the weekend.<br /><br />2. We lost electricity Saturday night. At about 8:30 or 9 Blandine called the landlady who, of course, had taken the key to the garage where the fusebox is. Lucklily she was in St. Brieuc for the weekend and promised to stop by. She didn't show up for a while. I called her wondering where she was. No answer. The electricity came back after a while so I tried to call her and tell her that, in fact, she no longer needed to come. No answer. She finally called at 12:30am! I told her that the power was back and she said, "Okay, I guess I won't come by then." As if it would've ever been okay to come by at 12:30!! I was in bed!!<br /><br />3. The boiler room flooded.<br /><br />4. The phone line situation<br /><br />5. Paul had strep throat.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Quel week-end</span>!! We did have a fun party Friday night at my place to celebrate Maud's 25th and yesterday Paul and I were able to visit some areas in Brittany I hadn't been to where he used to vacation as a child. (Pictures to come!!) <span style="font-style: italic;">Donc</span>, despite the best efforts of my landlords (and <span style="font-style: italic;">streptococcus A</span>) the weekend wasn't totally ruined!<br /><br />Pictures of Brittany:<br /><br />Pléneuf-Val-André's harbor/port/someone teach me the difference:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUB0ofreBynS3RvePUI2aBG5RNGJibc2i3CO0OiqD9wjRVIhhR1nkyhQyIU_hKzsAxc-Ksl4mpceK0jo42vGG0pTIO4myHY-HFCv3sFYGRroKiM7wHCv2fO1kTipvVgWA-vAyx6i2DEfY/s1600-h/DSCN0826.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUB0ofreBynS3RvePUI2aBG5RNGJibc2i3CO0OiqD9wjRVIhhR1nkyhQyIU_hKzsAxc-Ksl4mpceK0jo42vGG0pTIO4myHY-HFCv3sFYGRroKiM7wHCv2fO1kTipvVgWA-vAyx6i2DEfY/s320/DSCN0826.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145658879751091554" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Beach at Erquy:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0SyIdnuF_W_gq6pnY-TcalITItpCSv3BfEN7hcfry0yZ-KhqxJGUhMhaX0rQT1gBLonEIyjElJ7-mf0aQpnT63WGN0EiLlJ4t5z8Oj3_kiceKa_Qc-_x7QOuyyy0y3giY49uXLmdBnQ/s1600-h/DSCN0827.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0SyIdnuF_W_gq6pnY-TcalITItpCSv3BfEN7hcfry0yZ-KhqxJGUhMhaX0rQT1gBLonEIyjElJ7-mf0aQpnT63WGN0EiLlJ4t5z8Oj3_kiceKa_Qc-_x7QOuyyy0y3giY49uXLmdBnQ/s320/DSCN0827.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145662088091661682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and again:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5N2Ty0akJoR8JtXMzawcEOTx5Bbnm-md52rj7l4eLtVvssUfZ3Avc0nTzVa_xZFwAZbeuH4I27WJFv9wdQd8vRe2O4WQd7s_eIlYV1J4ev2l2AXfbsi24ooE7q8RL7O-NCJUGVEqfWFU/s1600-h/DSCN0836.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5N2Ty0akJoR8JtXMzawcEOTx5Bbnm-md52rj7l4eLtVvssUfZ3Avc0nTzVa_xZFwAZbeuH4I27WJFv9wdQd8vRe2O4WQd7s_eIlYV1J4ev2l2AXfbsi24ooE7q8RL7O-NCJUGVEqfWFU/s320/DSCN0836.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145665489705760226" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Cap d'Erquy (cap = cape, not hat):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0VzLp0PrfKnuDYqxQ4e3aHRMaWpbt3eix64l1uvndqUiuEl-wcRbANFtI5QvQco4c5vn3Q6pTltAxGJVn8DGH5AeGfGkC6GcmZB8Qe39f05I2FGHsXt8p1rHXBWulzAMCn2vqC1UW_o/s1600-h/DSCN0831.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0VzLp0PrfKnuDYqxQ4e3aHRMaWpbt3eix64l1uvndqUiuEl-wcRbANFtI5QvQco4c5vn3Q6pTltAxGJVn8DGH5AeGfGkC6GcmZB8Qe39f05I2FGHsXt8p1rHXBWulzAMCn2vqC1UW_o/s320/DSCN0831.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145662762401527170" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and again:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYqMEV1izL9Hj7-PS2OyqA9QFtWonKXdqj76awQrMR40LZhXKCWsNgNPSfjyIl5AButBXAFVB_H8flFrL4u0-tFih9buOM1P8C_JdybK8P71FDg8v-FJXYUzrlrEEaJ0yqSHF-k_FR7lY/s1600-h/DSCN0832.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYqMEV1izL9Hj7-PS2OyqA9QFtWonKXdqj76awQrMR40LZhXKCWsNgNPSfjyIl5AButBXAFVB_H8flFrL4u0-tFih9buOM1P8C_JdybK8P71FDg8v-FJXYUzrlrEEaJ0yqSHF-k_FR7lY/s320/DSCN0832.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145663088819041682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />2 Extremely Cold Top Models:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT43Woxn41B4Aq8nY69wyb0z07dCb_dk4Ba4bK14vAJF4VEiWMftngpwS0wfllbdBZGId4zOKH_uFhT8RZpuopHP_rDO_CSPy2NhXxBTgnXrWBK7mdj4_pwYKH578ueWcVhXeUn-MmZzI/s1600-h/DSCN0834.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT43Woxn41B4Aq8nY69wyb0z07dCb_dk4Ba4bK14vAJF4VEiWMftngpwS0wfllbdBZGId4zOKH_uFhT8RZpuopHP_rDO_CSPy2NhXxBTgnXrWBK7mdj4_pwYKH578ueWcVhXeUn-MmZzI/s320/DSCN0834.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145663393761719714" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I thought I was cold on Cap d'Erquy, I was a fool. I have never been colder than I was at Cap Fréhel.<br /><br />Cap Fréhel, the coldest/most beautiful place on Earth:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0gM9OrxCcZ-y9JofPkuTvJwIq40qbMNULFiykrf7M-L1fENFYQioZsNOov5oqPVua_YU0-w35TBcolw5JBr2Cv3rAVD-EffIXm8bfsjipuVJlY8MyyXQlsGijhIP1iTwS2en1GX0fD8/s1600-h/DSCN0840.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0gM9OrxCcZ-y9JofPkuTvJwIq40qbMNULFiykrf7M-L1fENFYQioZsNOov5oqPVua_YU0-w35TBcolw5JBr2Cv3rAVD-EffIXm8bfsjipuVJlY8MyyXQlsGijhIP1iTwS2en1GX0fD8/s320/DSCN0840.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145664720906614194" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and again:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAQbCIY__FWBixKgw5i8FB1XdYv6cm8ebRnQoYhRO29fjz7SCHVwxbTQ3KY3ctEkj_bjeF3oicu9XM3nr6UCKv62sYij51EaYacmQEhWejPKuSe77JAD0Esqhqf_H1z4YGjMyznkV8Vc/s1600-h/DSCN0841.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAQbCIY__FWBixKgw5i8FB1XdYv6cm8ebRnQoYhRO29fjz7SCHVwxbTQ3KY3ctEkj_bjeF3oicu9XM3nr6UCKv62sYij51EaYacmQEhWejPKuSe77JAD0Esqhqf_H1z4YGjMyznkV8Vc/s320/DSCN0841.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145664901295240642" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and again:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZr7AxrTISYPjhj4Al2zbj8MYMMCjcNddalsC05GG7SR29fPGjJqo4ozNsllLm4sYB5842slM32NRoNMvJhC9dw86ymlLgnBevZjO8d_SDd8jLHn7bVSBb-TrmiOZyDd2r7JHZnPHzlo/s1600-h/DSCN0843.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZr7AxrTISYPjhj4Al2zbj8MYMMCjcNddalsC05GG7SR29fPGjJqo4ozNsllLm4sYB5842slM32NRoNMvJhC9dw86ymlLgnBevZjO8d_SDd8jLHn7bVSBb-TrmiOZyDd2r7JHZnPHzlo/s320/DSCN0843.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145665223417787858" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We also journeyed to Dinan, which is a super cute Medieval town near St. Brieuc. It was decorated for Christmas. Here is a pic of one little street:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLLMaYBtJ-3ZRvLbvU_z0UauReRq7gLCWbNGeSzuUoOglHltQHCyCnwsEbOCvQo5OVj97fBmy3hMWcCYagHr1A4nopETAE-sbH5X-hghGHs6S5Zih26L0tWWAzvfSWhGsYTekMIMEVJM/s1600-h/DSCN0847.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLLMaYBtJ-3ZRvLbvU_z0UauReRq7gLCWbNGeSzuUoOglHltQHCyCnwsEbOCvQo5OVj97fBmy3hMWcCYagHr1A4nopETAE-sbH5X-hghGHs6S5Zih26L0tWWAzvfSWhGsYTekMIMEVJM/s320/DSCN0847.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145666572037518834" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This trip was made possible by Paul's sense of direction. As many of you know, if I'd been alone I'd <span style="font-style: italic;">still</span> be trying to figure out how to get on the highway from my house (that's assuming, of course, that I'd found a car with an automatic transmission).<br /><br /><br />Merry Christmas to all and I'll see many of you soon!!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-83745696478089283842007-12-03T05:52:00.000-08:002007-12-04T00:47:57.981-08:00ça souffle!I don't know how to make a capital "ç"<br /><br />Have you ever experienced wind so strong you actually couldn't breath? If not, I suggest you move to Brittany because that happens here all the time. When it's blowing right in your face its like the air is moving so fast your nose can't catch it. Also, when it rains, there's really no point in bringing an umbrella because it will turn inside out as soon as you step outside.<br /><br />This weekend I had another party. This one was a <span style="font-style: italic;">crémaillère</span> (house warming party). The party was great and Maud's friends came too, which was also lots of fun. Here are some pictures:<br /><br />This is Maud and this is her favorite pose:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg97xM7KxLK6nWxYKIr2zVGekI_3g9kNoi-SJLsW0534GKAAp0RYc0LcYiM6VFHYz-kq6TZPIR-rC7CI19HUmoJTHCZwUWNbuYYLnkz0qkF-GZSh1ZLpW7JyM1PJ43gvIpucD3M59ywInc/s1600-h/DSCN0809.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg97xM7KxLK6nWxYKIr2zVGekI_3g9kNoi-SJLsW0534GKAAp0RYc0LcYiM6VFHYz-kq6TZPIR-rC7CI19HUmoJTHCZwUWNbuYYLnkz0qkF-GZSh1ZLpW7JyM1PJ43gvIpucD3M59ywInc/s320/DSCN0809.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140034246165451378" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is Ben and Chantal laughing at a Québécois CD:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikk-bGFfCpO5OmECZgN6z8f2D6UZFNDk6lwy99pWIJA0x5TzHqzHffF-MJ4FERe3TBrFTWrYRAdRAepbVOzNePfOS3bL_D32bQ-haDpwXJmv1B2VkbKQInHQrsMFb-41qTOgG2iOBITx8/s1600-h/DSCN0810.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikk-bGFfCpO5OmECZgN6z8f2D6UZFNDk6lwy99pWIJA0x5TzHqzHffF-MJ4FERe3TBrFTWrYRAdRAepbVOzNePfOS3bL_D32bQ-haDpwXJmv1B2VkbKQInHQrsMFb-41qTOgG2iOBITx8/s320/DSCN0810.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140034658482311810" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Me and Chantal:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLdsQi9BURnlbqcq8css_9YdIj8mWHLfCVvNhyphenhyphenubnu9hyVfEBZTFI611SwO1itRYzRAlEcJH69f0-icDLhRQOgGZSiIdwdkAu8sl7B7Ir4J2oyOsZKUlfNGMXkZEw0uZQrIUFoA8L67U/s1600-h/DSCN0815.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLdsQi9BURnlbqcq8css_9YdIj8mWHLfCVvNhyphenhyphenubnu9hyVfEBZTFI611SwO1itRYzRAlEcJH69f0-icDLhRQOgGZSiIdwdkAu8sl7B7Ir4J2oyOsZKUlfNGMXkZEw0uZQrIUFoA8L67U/s320/DSCN0815.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140035126633747090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Maud and Erwan deep in conversation:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6PiOTW6Q9CKBF70kNcmSQFeiixKtxneHa9p0HTZLUHCSeG4RpzgsMks-dxGfbLJ4Y3xNllbJOC1vzOWIkdUKg-txz9KhFf7372rWDK5_YA2POsRlT7VVgNkDFzuInA1hAR4OuWeVcT8/s1600-h/DSCN0813.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6PiOTW6Q9CKBF70kNcmSQFeiixKtxneHa9p0HTZLUHCSeG4RpzgsMks-dxGfbLJ4Y3xNllbJOC1vzOWIkdUKg-txz9KhFf7372rWDK5_YA2POsRlT7VVgNkDFzuInA1hAR4OuWeVcT8/s320/DSCN0813.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140035435871392418" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Olivier, possibly asleep:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyiW8XkIfBU01VL4scLNItRsV9BGHv8VdwObEubRUwPiy-p00_ScqRUjXfJfIEvF4eD7EyvP93M2O7kFq1SPjvJr-g5tZGaIlISq3sjI6AJqD2r9xOAdK2EAvjFkOLa16p3roOOGHWa_g/s1600-h/DSCN0808.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyiW8XkIfBU01VL4scLNItRsV9BGHv8VdwObEubRUwPiy-p00_ScqRUjXfJfIEvF4eD7EyvP93M2O7kFq1SPjvJr-g5tZGaIlISq3sjI6AJqD2r9xOAdK2EAvjFkOLa16p3roOOGHWa_g/s320/DSCN0808.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140036011397010098" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Hannah and Phillip:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBOGwRMyDfkgGh0OTcjX2lN9oCzylNYLPQAkG-GCBZX4oQudaWo3wJn3oZvx9GKA2-hLzcoKqFQMqVfLPy4u3nU0Z3EMXDOYVquR33CLR8_k4MSMl_91tjTlYaUqxOPUp7LFaZJr3OdtY/s1600-h/DSCN0811.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBOGwRMyDfkgGh0OTcjX2lN9oCzylNYLPQAkG-GCBZX4oQudaWo3wJn3oZvx9GKA2-hLzcoKqFQMqVfLPy4u3nU0Z3EMXDOYVquR33CLR8_k4MSMl_91tjTlYaUqxOPUp7LFaZJr3OdtY/s320/DSCN0811.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140036393649099458" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There were other people at the party but I don't love taking pictures and so I only did it for about 5 minutes. If you were in the bathroom/getting a snack during those 5 minutes, sorry!<br /><br /><br />I have befriended one of the other English teachers at my school and sometimes on Wednesday afternoons, when neither of us work, she takes me to interesting places around Brittany. So far we've gone to Blinic and Paimpol. The beach near Paimpol was really beautiful. It looked like the beaches near Lannion except that the stones were less round and more jagged. They were still sort of pink though and so, especially since the tide was out, it looked like we could have been on Mars (except, obviously, for the English Channel just beyond the rocks; not very Martian). Before we went to Paimpol she had me over for lunch at her house where we had a lovely vegetable quiche and some delicious blue cheese afterwards. It's nice to feel like I have made a real friend at school who's nice to me because she likes me and not just to be polite.<br /><br />Also, this weekend I am going to Strasbourg with my friend Chantal!!! I am really excited because it is one place in France I really wanted to make sure I visited. I wanted to go right before Christmas too becuase they have a Christmas market that is supposed to be the best in France. Here is a picture I stole from the Internet:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKLPxT7IjcH3oq8HRSPb-urZShxR4qhJGwiLST3V9f8xp_wuunhWQlbuXKOvDN_9xXiHowl8uxJerRFhN_MKhaFapcZYucGlm9GzB45nuMDLLBxz53DrNpvrZ3G7ofXJRhiqxorkNKvE/s1600-r/no%C3%ABl.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosC2QPz61JK_COHQeQl6CguobpnwkRgJWTUsEHbp_m7-o1FEJWz-Xl0jufYM92kBp6_FCND9fO0v8PwyYLG7qTJrRfxd5BakBxYtoybNp62cNGW6CaNOh6MuzTjV97TY4KGhg6fGiUwQ/s320/no%C3%ABl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139751826295935586" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I am really excited and hope to find lots of good Christmas presents there!<br /><br />That's all for now! Say a prayer to the Internet gods that the next time I write it will be from my very own home! The man is supposed to come this week . . .Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-87544311572365427722007-11-29T07:16:00.000-08:002007-11-30T04:40:08.740-08:00death, riots, and a cabaret singerI have good news and bad news.<br /><br />The good news is, I killed the mosquito!<br /><br />The bad news is, she wasn't alone.<br /><br />Therefore, I've started to sleep coated in bug spray. My room smells like camp. I'm not sure why my little blue thing that I plugged in stopped working but it's really getting me down. I just thank God every day that I don't wake up with a bug bite on my eyelid (as my dedicated readers know, this as happened to me twice in my life) or on the tip of my nose (this has happened once). <span style="font-style: italic;">Alors</span>, things could always be worse. I did figure out how to turn down the heat in my room. It's now less of a tropical swamp habitat and more of a temperate deciduous forest.<br /><br />Today at my high school (about 2 days behnd the rest of the country) the students decided to go on strike. Now those less familiar with the French mindset might ask themselves, "What are they on strike from? They don't get paid nor do they produce any goods/provide any services" This would be a valid point if it weren't for the fact that French people aren't tied down to logic. There are host of reasons why various students across the country are on strike (the privitization of the univsersities, the riots in the South etc.) but it seems, from talking with my students, that <span style="font-style: italic;">lycéeans</span> in St. Brieuc are mad because Sarkozy has proposed to shorten the length of time it takes to earn a <span style="font-style: italic;">bac pro</span>. A <span style="font-style: italic;">bac pro</span> is basically a vo-tech high school diploma. Now, a student first must complete a BEP (don't ask me what that is, its some kind of pre-<span style="font-style: italic;">bac pro</span>),<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>which take<span style="font-style: italic;">s </span>2 years and then moves on to 2 more years studying for the <span style="font-style: italic;">bac pro</span> exam. Apparently, Sarkosy wants to get rid of the BEP all together and replace it with a 3 year <span style="font-style: italic;">bac pro</span>. Don't ask me why a shorter vocational diploma made so many students so mad. As some of my students who didn't protest said "I think they love school." Maybe; I think its more like they don't like Sarkosy and so they are willing to protest any changes he tries to make. Also, they are probably in agreement with the more legitimate concerns of the university students and the <span style="font-style: italic;">fonctionaires</span>. Who knows? The students here did brake some windows in their enthusiasm. That's dedication.<br /><br />I also feel the need to tell the world about a special lady named Maman. Not my <span style="font-style: italic;">maman</span>, who is also very special but whose actual name is Debbie, but a cabaret style singer at a local bar who calls herself Maman. Maman and her husband, Titi, who plays the piano, perform every Tuesday night at <span style="font-style: italic;">Le Piano Bleu</span>. They sing French favorites in a truly cheesy fashion and they<br />sometimes play a name that tune style quiz! I have an advantage when they play American songs but since I know approx. 4 French songs I never get those right. Luckily our team is made up of French and American people so we have all of our bases covered. My friend Leah has convinced me a total of 3 times to sing with her when Maman needed a <span style="font-style: italic;">pause</span>. Our perfomances have ranged from borderline catastrohic to mediocre but its been fun all the same. I've included one picture of Maman and one of me singing with Leah and this other girl who sings sometimes there. I don't remember her name but she is very nice. In that one you can also see Titi playing the keyboard.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEzNj35VXjmE49YU8kN56bn6iIQWD2AVqMW9DM_Kkk0N3Fz1Gw-Ar3LVorNfUtppk2lT___Z7tgWFEe-NtH1Y5DFxJz65vsnJf5d9cxUhIP7Euicx8j13qb-s8BsGO3h4Z204nk7YpsI/s1600-h/cougar.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEzNj35VXjmE49YU8kN56bn6iIQWD2AVqMW9DM_Kkk0N3Fz1Gw-Ar3LVorNfUtppk2lT___Z7tgWFEe-NtH1Y5DFxJz65vsnJf5d9cxUhIP7Euicx8j13qb-s8BsGO3h4Z204nk7YpsI/s320/cougar.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5138292245131827106" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwwvELHCSvJ5xcjalDvpP1P00SYNXBRlGv0nlijypX5SrgIqPEmd7CNDMlBnlW74URvunCMdb2geo7hPlSc-qZ0-ZTfUuBbvhsbWprO7hjKkPYPQXRudWQdkyW923pINVq9-gMg3gf5k/s1600-h/n2801195_32242947_4713.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwwvELHCSvJ5xcjalDvpP1P00SYNXBRlGv0nlijypX5SrgIqPEmd7CNDMlBnlW74URvunCMdb2geo7hPlSc-qZ0-ZTfUuBbvhsbWprO7hjKkPYPQXRudWQdkyW923pINVq9-gMg3gf5k/s320/n2801195_32242947_4713.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5138292408340584370" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />P.S. My roommate Maud called our landlord the other day about the Internet. He had a new story of course. This time he said that we need to call the company and deal with getting it installed. We'll pay for it but he'll reimburse us for some of it. This new plan is fine with me since I know Maud will actually get the job done instead of lying about it for almost 2 months like the landlord.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-22712463859467904322007-11-27T06:26:00.000-08:002007-11-27T06:59:18.937-08:00Thanksgiving à la FrançaiseLast Saturday several of us Americans went to Rennes because we had volunteered to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for some French friends. (We all worked onThanksgiving Day, which is why we had to go on Saturday.) We got there around noon and ourfriends came and met us at the train station. We went to Carrefour to pick up the ingredients and then headed to our friend's place to start cooking. The French guys had managed to find a turkey (it cost 67€) but it was not sufficiently butchered for most North American tastes. That is to say, it still had a head and organs. Luckily some brave souls, who, afterwards, named themselves the Gutwrenchers, got in there and did what had to be done while the vegetarians hid in the living room.<br /><br />We prepared a huge fest having been told that there would be about 10 hungry French people joining us. In addition to the turkey we had green bean casserole, herbed potatoes, roasted vegetables, salad, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, two pumpkin pies and an apple crumble. I am proud to say that the North Americans pulled their weight at the dinner table. To my great shame and disappointment, the same cannot be said for our French guests. Not only did they not indulge in the gluttony we expected after slaving in the kitchen all afternoon (only one serving each??), but some of them (sin of all sins) had eaten BEFORE THEY CAME! The North Americans tried to pick up the slack but, frankly, we were not expecting France to drop the ball like that and there were a lot of leftovers. (Which we happily consumed the next day for brunch.)<br /><br />While the French people were very nice to let us take over their kitchen for the day and it was fun to spread our great holiday to an interested and curious new audience, the moral of the story is, North Americans have more robust appetites than French people and Thanksgiving just doesn't really translate.<br /><br />p.s. I am also very disappointed to report that a slightly (read: perhaps more than slightly) immature Frenchmen drew a rude picture on our Thanksgiving (paper) table cloth, which we had decorated with bilingual Thanksgiving greetings, pictures of cornucopias and pumpkins, and hand-turkeys.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-67935860417822158782007-11-22T01:39:00.000-08:002007-11-22T07:31:21.931-08:00MAYDAYMy little friend the mosquito is back!! I thought mosquitos died in the cold but this seems to be some kind of genetically engineered super mosquito. I think she may be back because now I have heat in my room. It's possible that I have to make a choice between have a warm room and not being covered with mosquito bites. Maybe we can find a happy medium because right now my room is like a jungle. It's probably about 80° and I can't turn the knob on the radiator. I'll think I'll have to get my land lady back over to fix it so I can create a more temperate environment that is less conducive to mosquito life than the rainforest habitat I've got going on currently.<br /><br />In other news, two of my classes were canceled today, unless any more are canceled that will bring my total to 8 hours of work this week! ahhh France . . .<br /><br />P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!!!<br /><br /><br />P.P.S. Update: Another class was canceled giving me a grand total of 7 hours of work this week.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-35695515435402451752007-11-19T08:58:00.000-08:002007-11-19T09:11:26.340-08:00Another Great WeekendThursday night was a very special day here in France. It was the day the Beaujolais Nouveau came out and all the bars in town had specials going on featuring it. A few of my friends and roommates went out to experience it together. It was pretty fun and the Beaujolais was good and reminded me of Thanksgiving! Friday night was nothing special but Saturday night a lot of the St. Brieuc assistants went to a party in Lannion chez Sophia. We had a lot of fun and the next day we were able to visit some of the Lannion beaches. See below:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtgGQDVEfI6ZOXsI6DmhmySXHBwuIEfWcZgAjVTJViRCRghUiNIQvMlz1MpX1VW3kPQfORnBaX5G2c8Il6bsbsWBEMz4VACdQrdWLGLwKOelR2g848W1h1w5Awm1H1FhzUztYmRazzAf4/s1600-h/DSCN0804.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtgGQDVEfI6ZOXsI6DmhmySXHBwuIEfWcZgAjVTJViRCRghUiNIQvMlz1MpX1VW3kPQfORnBaX5G2c8Il6bsbsWBEMz4VACdQrdWLGLwKOelR2g848W1h1w5Awm1H1FhzUztYmRazzAf4/s200/DSCN0804.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134599655589025634" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWc7WBJVkfCI-oCEK8kc_9XgPjj1PNK4AQvpXJbAfWF-nVU9q1Bjqo5JnIbnJJkvMEzKeo07ecshfJQ3Pf0orwgL8BhpCCwe1H1czrQRrpSauLjlKwU8-ul9uATIVAlz1TKJ0IPDNIxyk/s1600-h/DSCN0806.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWc7WBJVkfCI-oCEK8kc_9XgPjj1PNK4AQvpXJbAfWF-nVU9q1Bjqo5JnIbnJJkvMEzKeo07ecshfJQ3Pf0orwgL8BhpCCwe1H1czrQRrpSauLjlKwU8-ul9uATIVAlz1TKJ0IPDNIxyk/s200/DSCN0806.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134599870337390450" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggucxEH5MGtKKqukzJTNOAkTihcS3xr_RYj6K7v0QQVyHu4oiP3QOnXwfI1_OYea69PMlz8NMA6ANU6TlqdvOO272SIBP2H_Q6NhnF9f7FVTO-7tSenh2FErcnJxwWSidEZaJ1Qa8fvjg/s1600-h/DSCN0802.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggucxEH5MGtKKqukzJTNOAkTihcS3xr_RYj6K7v0QQVyHu4oiP3QOnXwfI1_OYea69PMlz8NMA6ANU6TlqdvOO272SIBP2H_Q6NhnF9f7FVTO-7tSenh2FErcnJxwWSidEZaJ1Qa8fvjg/s200/DSCN0802.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134600153805232002" border="0" /></a><br /><br />My landlady came over today to help me with some paperwork so that the French government can start paying most of my rent (which is what they do for poor people, even foreigners). She also fixed the heat in my room (!) and told me that the Internet was coming very soon since they'd finally gotten a response from the Internet provider. Right now I'm supposed to be working on a translation as a favor for one of the teachers t my school so I'd better get on that!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-92159235489126010612007-11-12T06:42:00.000-08:002007-11-13T01:57:56.391-08:00Fun Weekend!It's Monday afternoon after a really fun weekend. Friday night I had a party at my house for the assistants in St. Brieuc and Lannion. My excuse was that it was to celebrate that we were all back from our various vacations but really it was just because I like parties. I made chocolate covered pretzels and bought cheese and bread. I also found a bottle of wine for €1.20 and one of <span style="font-style: italic;">cidre</span> for €1.50. They weren't good but I was still impressed. We had a good time and then went out to O'Kenny together for some Kilkenny (obviously). We also went to the worst (and only) night club in town. After that all the out of towners came back to my place to sleep on couches etc. Lot's of fun!<br /> The next night we went to a Fest Noz (which means <span style="font-style: italic;">fête de nuit</span>, or night party, in <span style="font-style: italic;">breton</span>) in Lamballe. There were traditional musicians playing breton music and we all (tried) to learn the traditional dances. It was a really good time. It started at 9pm and I couldn't believe that by the time we were all ready to go at 2 there were lots of Grandmas and Grandpas still going strong. There were also lots of young people there, which was interesting because I don't think teenagers in the States would be interested in dancing in lines all night with their parents, holding on to each other by their pinkies but they were really into it. There was one huge guy in a kilt, which I later found out is not really traditional <span style="font-style: italic;">breton</span> gear so I think maybe he was just insane, but he knew the words to all the songs and whenever the musicians tooks breaks he would sing songs along so people didn't have to stop dancing. I forgot my camera (of course) but I'll add pictures once someone sends me some!<br /><br />p.s. By popular request I'll add that there was call and response singing, accordian, guitar, violin, bagpipes and some kind of recorder type instrument (maybe a clarinet or a <span style="font-style: italic;">bombarde</span>). The music was really good and lively; similar to the feeling of Irish traditional music. The pictures are still in the works!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-44717998105700274212007-11-05T05:32:00.000-08:002007-11-05T06:09:16.725-08:00Out and About in St. BrieucPictures of My House and Town:<br /> my house:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Z6qCG8XjxhSaJr3k_JCH9XZqGrHmhZifiAuweBebE7exRsYH5o44XJVUS5b_6HOneuP3eL7nzNrdNGKrkYB24JVcUejI5W2psYos2fYntXOuGwXIxE-yhJvRLb9N-3jJNtEjtesndpw/s1600-h/DSCN0801.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Z6qCG8XjxhSaJr3k_JCH9XZqGrHmhZifiAuweBebE7exRsYH5o44XJVUS5b_6HOneuP3eL7nzNrdNGKrkYB24JVcUejI5W2psYos2fYntXOuGwXIxE-yhJvRLb9N-3jJNtEjtesndpw/s200/DSCN0801.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129350682473257698" border="0" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />my room:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt06DqTZ8SOLO7WokbhYTkPOKGQe2iaqk1tGSnHlIh0JZVh5PhCqatDGURcWiv3PHc9qEgE0lPjHaCFkKIOyzYLx65h5tXNPZchHSNGzOO55EtUDtc6D2tDeQSNdrgVJFbE2VtewcHBUI/s1600-h/DSCN0787.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt06DqTZ8SOLO7WokbhYTkPOKGQe2iaqk1tGSnHlIh0JZVh5PhCqatDGURcWiv3PHc9qEgE0lPjHaCFkKIOyzYLx65h5tXNPZchHSNGzOO55EtUDtc6D2tDeQSNdrgVJFbE2VtewcHBUI/s200/DSCN0787.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129351034660575986" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />my desk in my room: <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1_D5nlySPRUE-R4YHTh1N9gHxQ_SxuF_NC0qltdHbYQF2Fe1I1TPno4Z0gBGQPWMSfPXR_TSxSMgEsogN60M32Q3N3Rnu-bR6WzqO8t38DZMNb8Uy79vxilBmY7DRHe3vF_6wB35P04/s1600-h/DSCN0796.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1_D5nlySPRUE-R4YHTh1N9gHxQ_SxuF_NC0qltdHbYQF2Fe1I1TPno4Z0gBGQPWMSfPXR_TSxSMgEsogN60M32Q3N3Rnu-bR6WzqO8t38DZMNb8Uy79vxilBmY7DRHe3vF_6wB35P04/s200/DSCN0796.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129351992438283026" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />kitchen:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyCDAS6HUvgouLnnmyN7o39VMzAHJxQxybBwVBCs63rWmy5RA8cTRP-gJymTwnwKUumq9-k6hlk7cw64sCd1C8qn7j7IC0Y7IVNRUilOWk-a5xYD-fynzhFHF3Dr1PmBrcgXH3gR4gZ0/s1600-h/DSCN0790.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyCDAS6HUvgouLnnmyN7o39VMzAHJxQxybBwVBCs63rWmy5RA8cTRP-gJymTwnwKUumq9-k6hlk7cw64sCd1C8qn7j7IC0Y7IVNRUilOWk-a5xYD-fynzhFHF3Dr1PmBrcgXH3gR4gZ0/s200/DSCN0790.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129352804187101986" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />dining area: <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9R1pvwzPCPvG0ovzKIC0FU_MBqHVqnokQIKjMPLv4WjAwRIdxmMllLB486HVleKl8AqjFkzUAYVJZ_HPDY4aBqCXKzGByBKnlLqC3GCnVnp-jCWkxWjQsc9L5r2iUJKs01tS8d2adCcc/s1600-h/DSCN0791.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9R1pvwzPCPvG0ovzKIC0FU_MBqHVqnokQIKjMPLv4WjAwRIdxmMllLB486HVleKl8AqjFkzUAYVJZ_HPDY4aBqCXKzGByBKnlLqC3GCnVnp-jCWkxWjQsc9L5r2iUJKs01tS8d2adCcc/s200/DSCN0791.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129353744784939826" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />living room:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI21cwFgedsNQz7_mSChhp_3imkBh8HsuSmujVQxQx2BmFkZCxgRqEijCWaIrIX3YlGrNQVYju0rEs8Iyl6sg9MEVy0By8AWZTdesdzqhBfcTqAnmesMmgrY2GL64v6p-0cbeU1Ehvf34/s1600-h/DSCN0792.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI21cwFgedsNQz7_mSChhp_3imkBh8HsuSmujVQxQx2BmFkZCxgRqEijCWaIrIX3YlGrNQVYju0rEs8Iyl6sg9MEVy0By8AWZTdesdzqhBfcTqAnmesMmgrY2GL64v6p-0cbeU1Ehvf34/s200/DSCN0792.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129354118447094594" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />crazy toilet 1: <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCA_Hu-VmWsJSYxh2EBaoqaexshLrfremztmjVUVk-hO_U814Lp2VDS4NgHWWK-3jwM8dRlYgdksV_hh72wRYt1IYVUpwr_e41XZHc5YzP0BAIpF08RflwCQu1_DLQr908D2isE1ZaJoc/s1600-h/DSCN0795.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCA_Hu-VmWsJSYxh2EBaoqaexshLrfremztmjVUVk-hO_U814Lp2VDS4NgHWWK-3jwM8dRlYgdksV_hh72wRYt1IYVUpwr_e41XZHc5YzP0BAIpF08RflwCQu1_DLQr908D2isE1ZaJoc/s200/DSCN0795.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129354629548202834" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />crazy toilet 2:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsHpFRsGLmGLNOS-75ELaJeqX8bmrmNz3e4Qggln7SSwhgidNOXPClDf6onplCcXN57WKI9FX94fFzJlFugKCsP-afJdElnS5LIIAjR3b3TtWEcbh-784q59kFt-ETZd7xgpGUebarQk/s1600-h/DSCN0794.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsHpFRsGLmGLNOS-75ELaJeqX8bmrmNz3e4Qggln7SSwhgidNOXPClDf6onplCcXN57WKI9FX94fFzJlFugKCsP-afJdElnS5LIIAjR3b3TtWEcbh-784q59kFt-ETZd7xgpGUebarQk/s200/DSCN0794.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129355153534212962" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />St. Etienne's Cathedral: <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_X1TODqnMley4oIDB-NJ8VY1osnrmBda0bpVaYowmg_QM2j5OEnXPnEtGqx7C6AzbLgR0WsxCGLQtB7A5M1EXZ0ftek3_C8wHF5BMU3oeBTorGwc9pMIOqR09Si0d5OXa4SI1Iwstno/s1600-h/DSCN0767.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_X1TODqnMley4oIDB-NJ8VY1osnrmBda0bpVaYowmg_QM2j5OEnXPnEtGqx7C6AzbLgR0WsxCGLQtB7A5M1EXZ0ftek3_C8wHF5BMU3oeBTorGwc9pMIOqR09Si0d5OXa4SI1Iwstno/s200/DSCN0767.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129355836434013042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Super old Church from the 1300s:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEa_PTi3nfdTW9M5nqg9Hzjw3tDrDXhvMEmjhFohxL2AF1XS4YUB2YlxPhHmLajJGWqyzTak2wwRltn_av-EfXWEir8rMNw5LCnmBuQZ9tgdABrC-BQEO3CxxZFYTVmIbLkEWWW2QClQ/s1600-h/DSCN0768.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEa_PTi3nfdTW9M5nqg9Hzjw3tDrDXhvMEmjhFohxL2AF1XS4YUB2YlxPhHmLajJGWqyzTak2wwRltn_av-EfXWEir8rMNw5LCnmBuQZ9tgdABrC-BQEO3CxxZFYTVmIbLkEWWW2QClQ/s200/DSCN0768.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129356184326364034" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Beautiful Valley: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDBvqd9ZInT04VyNLeS69UDSiXfOnsbVDZ3ToDZUemkcjMSIoyvN3nuztBSljW1Bz3N2ZZYrFu4ONfGVwPy5bOR8LKvFdfM9xvumbS7c57jm_QnHRIksaLJ4Rzh4aDOykLaFbGrBkjfM/s1600-h/DSCN0773.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDBvqd9ZInT04VyNLeS69UDSiXfOnsbVDZ3ToDZUemkcjMSIoyvN3nuztBSljW1Bz3N2ZZYrFu4ONfGVwPy5bOR8LKvFdfM9xvumbS7c57jm_QnHRIksaLJ4Rzh4aDOykLaFbGrBkjfM/s200/DSCN0773.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129356832866425762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />View from my old room at the high school:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhODkMv0oaUYrV1yaLooLi1oG_3wcA43gYRAIv9Z0zX4xsEtPLBVIDL87VJrIDTzDi0jC9YydlVkx1CncyypaP3b0jbIYsLXDzdVVefOB9ovRsQhU2lq89Xus-5xl1QXQ9Ox1vBP_iObBY/s1600-h/DSCN0771.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhODkMv0oaUYrV1yaLooLi1oG_3wcA43gYRAIv9Z0zX4xsEtPLBVIDL87VJrIDTzDi0jC9YydlVkx1CncyypaP3b0jbIYsLXDzdVVefOB9ovRsQhU2lq89Xus-5xl1QXQ9Ox1vBP_iObBY/s200/DSCN0771.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129357124924201906" border="0" /></a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-904200681850996502007-11-03T08:01:00.000-07:002007-11-07T06:26:25.884-08:00Ireland!! (Lots of new pictures!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYDP7YzQ73HnFmdYNCv20U2bm8QziMz3KCvDzoTPTOe_tVKFLjY1n6P69rK02UyTAJdd6nQARJ4zu7eNVFnbwpIBYrNEOa5t7VIAcqObCSIut_GxrGnJQ5m42sr33SlxUX4ePB4V7DRU/s1600-h/kilkenny.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYDP7YzQ73HnFmdYNCv20U2bm8QziMz3KCvDzoTPTOe_tVKFLjY1n6P69rK02UyTAJdd6nQARJ4zu7eNVFnbwpIBYrNEOa5t7VIAcqObCSIut_GxrGnJQ5m42sr33SlxUX4ePB4V7DRU/s200/kilkenny.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130096207191464946" border="0" /></a>I just got back yesterday from my trip to Ireland with Sophia. I have lots of stories and I hope I remember all of them. If not though, I'm sure Sophia will, so reading both our blogs should give you the full picture. Also, I've brought my laptop to an Internet cafe so I can load my pictures. There were several days that I forgot my camera but Sophia was a diligent picture taker and I'm sure she'll upload lots of pictures I can steal!<br />First and foremost, I started with a picture of Kilkenny which is a delicious creamy beer that must be made by Guinness since it's always served in a Guinness glass. It deserves its place at the top of this entry as it played an important role in our Irish Experience.<br /><br />Our plqn flew out of Nantes and we got to the airport a very responsible 2 hours early. We stopped in the bookstore to look at some guidebooks of Ireland (since we hadn't done too much planning) and a little girl walked over to us and starting staring. Assuming that as a 6 year old she wasn't used to hearing people speak another language I greeted her with a friendly "<span style="font-style: italic;">Bonjour</span>." She answered back "Hello" in perfect English. Her name was Cody and she and her parents and her brother Patrick were living in France now but we from England originally. Its especially funny because Patrick looks, well, like a Patrick and not at all like a French boy. I'd seen him early in the airport and wondered if maybe he spoke English (or maybe looked really Celtic because he was<span style="font-style: italic;"> breton</span>?) My Anglophone-dar turned out to be right and Patrick joined our conversation pretty soon, too. Cody was, as many 6 year olds are, very blunt and after telling her we were American she asked "Is that why you talk so weird?" After telling her we were English teachers she gave us her (tentative) blessing, saying "Yea, I guess you sort of speak English." I think Sophia and I really were destined to meet Patrick and Cody though because after telling them our names Cody informed us "My goat's called Sarah and we used to have one called Sophie too, but she drowned." (Sophia was only slightly put off by my suggestion that she was somehow the reincarnation of Sophie, the dead goat).<br />Oh yea, and we almost missed our plane. This was not our fault since the gate number was not listed on the departure screen and we were also given some bad directions by a cafe worker. Luckily Sophia's sharp ears recognized our names being called (pronounced terribly, of course) by the woman over the loud speaker. If Sophia hadn't been there I'd probably still be in Nantes, waiting in Hall 3, wondering when they'd get around to announcing our gate number.<br />Luckily, that wasn't the case and we made it Dublin just fine. Once there we checked into our hostel and went about finding something to eat. Note to travelers: Dublin is much more expensive than small town France, budget accordingly. Sophia and I managed to find an Indonesian place (Along with my stellar Anglophone-dar I also have developed Ethnic-food-dar) and split some serviceable vegetarian food. After that we found a really fun bar and after a couple of pints of Kilkenny pushed our way to the front of the crowd and sang along to the live music. The musician was really fun and played The Beatles, Oasis, Elvis, etc. We went home quite early that night because we were tired from traveling and Sophia was a little sick. We felt like we had gained an hour though because of the time change.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXxm9C5nAwqT-tJznZY0wCpbemtsLrZB3LqDdZee_1vihz29fD7yNhGZMBmVNWAJmsb-GpNz0FbhzxvpMJf4wRedhn7ss8H6s_I8KighZ2_G5MMnxtNsin9HInHLpAZxJMRIRSupQyFA/s1600-h/kells+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXxm9C5nAwqT-tJznZY0wCpbemtsLrZB3LqDdZee_1vihz29fD7yNhGZMBmVNWAJmsb-GpNz0FbhzxvpMJf4wRedhn7ss8H6s_I8KighZ2_G5MMnxtNsin9HInHLpAZxJMRIRSupQyFA/s200/kells+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128640698609425010" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XUNsGoNPU0jFfi30MugL7MrUXdvnnGnYheD-OXfG7Ht1IyotW1ct991TWEOW1NZIaOkiYwz7IrsI_rXH26u51_xlEP56UqSqqGv1KOfINNdeKbbSEIZgTvkMR6knbIL3VBs9oDykiDg/s1600-h/kells+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XUNsGoNPU0jFfi30MugL7MrUXdvnnGnYheD-OXfG7Ht1IyotW1ct991TWEOW1NZIaOkiYwz7IrsI_rXH26u51_xlEP56UqSqqGv1KOfINNdeKbbSEIZgTvkMR6knbIL3VBs9oDykiDg/s200/kells+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128641415868963458" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The next day we set about sight-seeing in Dublin and first we went to see Trinity College where the Book of Kells is housed. We decided to take a guided tour because it was only 2 Euros more than the admission to the Book of Kells exhibit and it was super interesting. For one thing, we learned that the library at Trinity contains the largest room of any library in the world. (It's only a tiny bit bigger than the library at Trinity College,Cambridge but as the tour guide said, "They treasure every centimeter.") We also learned that there's a bell that rings every day during term at 6:15 calling all the students to dinner. This dinner is mandatory and students need special permission to miss it. However, no one ever misses it because its free! (Not too surprising that the 2 facts I most remember about Trinity are about books and food . . .) This is a picture of us in front of the Commons (Dinner) Bell and next to it is a picture of me in front of a scupture just like the one we saw at the Vatican.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_PYtNtFXhCMuZEjxvCaGIFz1ybvk3nshA79Q8L3lbaAubWWhPGKSYyuagqoBZ3IuaH2Kil0iQt9GPVzg_T7KaKUFaiC3R3lRYpVi60ZEBbFDE9bpzzvMut2GJvev3Tun2-kQkAECi7s/s1600-h/commons+bell.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_PYtNtFXhCMuZEjxvCaGIFz1ybvk3nshA79Q8L3lbaAubWWhPGKSYyuagqoBZ3IuaH2Kil0iQt9GPVzg_T7KaKUFaiC3R3lRYpVi60ZEBbFDE9bpzzvMut2GJvev3Tun2-kQkAECi7s/s200/commons+bell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130096370400222210" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxWrU-r83U8JmPFbCFD1UWkAqn0rF1E3-fcOgsmN0bjcWPi81CrhELr-Cv5ZhBlaCxVnW_usPeHBPpGLfxIIRxJ_coBCbq7D8N_UR3PH5b7v5BkzSXDwMk0mtaDmcJgT4HnNnCWUGeDk/s1600-h/n5702653_36574372_3144.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxWrU-r83U8JmPFbCFD1UWkAqn0rF1E3-fcOgsmN0bjcWPi81CrhELr-Cv5ZhBlaCxVnW_usPeHBPpGLfxIIRxJ_coBCbq7D8N_UR3PH5b7v5BkzSXDwMk0mtaDmcJgT4HnNnCWUGeDk/s200/n5702653_36574372_3144.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130096975990610978" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was forbidden to take pictures of the Book of Kells so the ones up there are from the Internet to show you what it looks like. Before getting to Trinity all I knew was that the Book of Kells was a famous illuminated manuscript so I'll tell you what I learned to make it more interesting. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the 4 Gospels created in the 9th century by monks in Scotland and brought to Kells, Ireland for safekeeping (the Vikings were beginning to raid the monasteries of the British Isles around this time). Apparently there are several theories about the origin of the Book of Kells but that is the one we were told at Trinity. The Book had a beautiful gold and gem-encrusted cover and therefore was quite valuable. Eventually it was stolen but it is hypothesized that the thief was so frightened once he realized he'd stolen a copy of the Gospels that he hid it in a field. (He wasn't too religious to take the priceless cover, however.) The farmer who owned the field eventually found it and returned it to the Church where it stayed until they turned it over to Trinity for proper preservation. It was extremely beautiful in person and so were the other illuminated manuscripts on display there.<br />After Trinity we had a delicious "cooked Irish breakfast" (it was 2pm but we weren't complaining about details) and then headed over to Christ Church Cathedral, which I was surprised to find out seeing as we were in Ireland, was a Protestant Cathedral. This is because, until the 1800s it was illegal to have Catholic Churches on major roads. So, although like every other 1000 year old Church, it started out Catholic; the English changed it to Anglican after the Reformation, and it remained that way. The only Catholic churches are on smaller roads. St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin is also Protestant for the same reason. Here is Christ Church:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ4WsySr_IPPgS54MJflVMH046hxoZfZW-tG7tNYjximLtb6vpY77C1vEHcu7PHlgnwinSQFqzNiTiGt6kD8FM250Zocg07TnsfqOZSKgKRXK1HRW0mgVdAAVTcHQLfNKdSsRIrSk52K4/s1600-h/Christ+Church.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ4WsySr_IPPgS54MJflVMH046hxoZfZW-tG7tNYjximLtb6vpY77C1vEHcu7PHlgnwinSQFqzNiTiGt6kD8FM250Zocg07TnsfqOZSKgKRXK1HRW0mgVdAAVTcHQLfNKdSsRIrSk52K4/s200/Christ+Church.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130099162128964690" border="0" /></a><br />After the Cathedral we went to Dublin Castle where we learned a ton about the history of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England. I'll spare you the gory details (pun intended) since I'm sure you know that it's a long story and would turn this into even more of a history lesson. One cool thing we learned, though, was about the Irish flag. The orange strip is for the Loyalists who wanted to remain a part of the UK, the green strip is for the Nationalists who wanted to separate from the UK and the white in between represents peace between these two groups. This picture is of Dublin Castle:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJrY9-avsGg465dyz9wgAEIMt9b0QEkWv9QlzyLHyVWUeBZydl9lcc-QdAbDcW3WMJTWwmK37C9UIHUKWuw3qnwE3yv1Tnoj49SoydiPZuutzfd1MtAshTYHQxZou7ecUl_Tq56zls3ic/s1600-h/dublin+castle.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJrY9-avsGg465dyz9wgAEIMt9b0QEkWv9QlzyLHyVWUeBZydl9lcc-QdAbDcW3WMJTWwmK37C9UIHUKWuw3qnwE3yv1Tnoj49SoydiPZuutzfd1MtAshTYHQxZou7ecUl_Tq56zls3ic/s200/dublin+castle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130099857913666658" border="0" /></a><br />That night we went back to the same bar as the night before and after it closed we were making out way to (ahem) another bar when a drunken (probably) homeless woman, clutching a beer (in a glass!!) approached me and asked for a Euro so she could by another drink. I had to laugh, although I appreciated her honesty, and decline, telling her I needed my money for my own beers. She then told me I had ugly teeth and an ugly smile. At least I have teeth, lady.<br />This is the approximate location of our encounter with the drunk:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLfINQ1ZB3lAirJT8_6S_UUq540FIAW3cukmTckEighwqWyWlWFKZl9FsRDZrX_khKtRv805xBN-N8UJtxPYpyH3F0Qy6mvjsAIAkLIhGNuV_7iKsQiP0PrpErPrf8eQNZwEZi8Y6OXj8/s1600-h/dublin+at+night.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLfINQ1ZB3lAirJT8_6S_UUq540FIAW3cukmTckEighwqWyWlWFKZl9FsRDZrX_khKtRv805xBN-N8UJtxPYpyH3F0Qy6mvjsAIAkLIhGNuV_7iKsQiP0PrpErPrf8eQNZwEZi8Y6OXj8/s200/dublin+at+night.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130100678252420210" border="0" /></a><br />The next day we made our way to County Cork where we stayed in Cobh (cove). Cobh is a beautiful fishing village with the steepest hill in Ireland with beautiful, brightly colored houses along the road. Its called the Deck of Cards.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUCOarac7lax5WXlbKOv6uW55BnQTHWkS4imqoMPup_68JSTvAKmERGi25qQzPv8yWIL-3opYqleEfCLnI8MEcGuepPcLhFSDhGHk3E1cPYJ3C4RTJWL7C8W-t-wgaqAgaxHT2rnMDA7Y/s1600-h/deck+of+cards.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUCOarac7lax5WXlbKOv6uW55BnQTHWkS4imqoMPup_68JSTvAKmERGi25qQzPv8yWIL-3opYqleEfCLnI8MEcGuepPcLhFSDhGHk3E1cPYJ3C4RTJWL7C8W-t-wgaqAgaxHT2rnMDA7Y/s200/deck+of+cards.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130098715452365890" border="0" /></a><br />Cobh was also the last port of call for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Ti</span><span style="font-style: italic;">tanic</span> and town where the very first person to be checked in on Ellis Island came from. Cobh also had a beautiful Cathedral which was Catholic, because it was built after the law passed allowing big, Catholic churches on main roads.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEMipbAMsieb5wRYs0Kcw5k3-wZ2zVvUbaii3jIYL3rpCfvLhw7_7DLH6HpkuqeF132q02Kz2bwc0Zq9jwdi_rD__sv_Xzc6bs25CxCVnUcsITDfIk7NW_TuSz5d9M_DQ3E56olYd__c/s1600-h/cobh+cathedral.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEMipbAMsieb5wRYs0Kcw5k3-wZ2zVvUbaii3jIYL3rpCfvLhw7_7DLH6HpkuqeF132q02Kz2bwc0Zq9jwdi_rD__sv_Xzc6bs25CxCVnUcsITDfIk7NW_TuSz5d9M_DQ3E56olYd__c/s200/cobh+cathedral.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130101885138230402" border="0" /></a><br />We looked around Cork City a little bit, too. It's a really cute city and it felt more Irish then Dublin, which is so international. Here it is!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQi2u1DNAazLh23trRn7LUIyC0t-7-sSlGepBUsQnHsAx5vBIyVngxTkJ3wjjF41X6QBB6pJ0c-ytZiDwdvN99guu0gafzI4X0i0l5_WweF8X58AertM5D-sGYZHbPWvKM8Bkrc_9KJ_Y/s1600-h/cork.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQi2u1DNAazLh23trRn7LUIyC0t-7-sSlGepBUsQnHsAx5vBIyVngxTkJ3wjjF41X6QBB6pJ0c-ytZiDwdvN99guu0gafzI4X0i0l5_WweF8X58AertM5D-sGYZHbPWvKM8Bkrc_9KJ_Y/s200/cork.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130102413419207826" border="0" /></a><br />Most importantly though, we saw Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2hLFr3yktiyuWjoBgjafpw8rVAXZLpZe9RBZ44pYAJcSZL20bPnbdLZjhNUZVAB8ClDaUpPT9P2djetQ2BlmJYiI1YTI0MO-YGiXM7odNcjTrTwupXN2Kd_oiAfs3TjJrSmuVdmmGxFo/s1600-h/DSCN0778.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 208px; height: 155px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2hLFr3yktiyuWjoBgjafpw8rVAXZLpZe9RBZ44pYAJcSZL20bPnbdLZjhNUZVAB8ClDaUpPT9P2djetQ2BlmJYiI1YTI0MO-YGiXM7odNcjTrTwupXN2Kd_oiAfs3TjJrSmuVdmmGxFo/s200/DSCN0778.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128649095270488722" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcINirdhBNIt2q5Roym5FB241cKeIkoX9xTZXOk_pEh3VPMY-u3G2oz3IH7lUczcE673pRhu2a7novfOCTJuf2JRY7xrlwbjk0dV8HCy7wiipRgS_5d8aqgP79pYOWVGnGKXoRELV1BT8/s1600-h/DSCN0783.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcINirdhBNIt2q5Roym5FB241cKeIkoX9xTZXOk_pEh3VPMY-u3G2oz3IH7lUczcE673pRhu2a7novfOCTJuf2JRY7xrlwbjk0dV8HCy7wiipRgS_5d8aqgP79pYOWVGnGKXoRELV1BT8/s200/DSCN0783.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128649301428918946" border="0" /></a><br />The picture to the left is Blarney Castle and the one on the right is the view from the top. They really aren't kidding when they say Ireland is green! Apparently, since we've kissed the Blarney Stone, Sophia and I now have the gift of eloquence!<br /><br />The picture is of me kissing the stone.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxBHevrsanaNyEkVRmvEOVdkYE61bQ0XN_QUonj_g8FzKjBNdLgqUpV80HoqfuiNVWh5S9PIaWIPcq17SLnMx7uPbW7_tgHsF_WQh47nudZopLG7FBgpqcVUjcucBNs1ABQYz9mK8c78/s1600-h/blarney.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxBHevrsanaNyEkVRmvEOVdkYE61bQ0XN_QUonj_g8FzKjBNdLgqUpV80HoqfuiNVWh5S9PIaWIPcq17SLnMx7uPbW7_tgHsF_WQh47nudZopLG7FBgpqcVUjcucBNs1ABQYz9mK8c78/s200/blarney.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130097903703546930" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After visiting Blarney we headed back to Dublin in time to take a Halloween Ghost tour of the city led by Zazimus the blind street poet. Here he is:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivl3Dap5CFjzA8fP_euMxXoquyYXv_ywRo9CdDTi8cn3gBVzilsstsZkm6t9K9ZzL6UrFIPWJFlgEhp9ZivJXCAnbn36XhqvQQHPALlnIh3fJCCwFDUtTkTGdcihc6HQUmLAvP5k86An0/s1600-h/zazimus.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivl3Dap5CFjzA8fP_euMxXoquyYXv_ywRo9CdDTi8cn3gBVzilsstsZkm6t9K9ZzL6UrFIPWJFlgEhp9ZivJXCAnbn36XhqvQQHPALlnIh3fJCCwFDUtTkTGdcihc6HQUmLAvP5k86An0/s200/zazimus.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130103139268680866" border="0" /></a><br />We heard ghost stories about Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Audoen's Church (built in 1190!!) and the medieval city walls. It was really fun, pretty cheesy but a little spooky at the end, especially when we were in the graveyard at St. Audeon's. I'll just tell one ghost story:<br />The Church was going broke so they decided to rent out the crypt of Christ Church to whomever wanted it. The man who took them up on the deal starting running a brothel (I'm serious) out of the crypt. However, he had to close it during the winter months because it got so cold and damp down there. On the last night of the season he had a huge party at the crypt and at last call he threw everyone out. When he came back the next Spring he found the skeleton of a British officer with his sword drawn, surrounded by the skeletons of rats. The officer had been too drunk to realize it was last call and was locked in all winter with the rats who ATE HIM ALIVE before eventually starving to death themselves. The moral of the story is don't go to brothels, especially one in the basement of a church.<br /><br />We flew out of Dublin the next day. We stayed two nights in Rennes with some friends from St. Brieuc and Rennes to celebrate Halloween and prolong the vacation (esp. because we all got paid on Friday!) and now I'm back in St. Brieuc having a post-vacation vacation!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-52121363691620277332007-10-25T02:23:00.000-07:002007-10-25T02:50:11.050-07:00This week has been fairly eventful. Last Friday my roommate, Maud, had 2 friends visiting from Brest. They were really fun and outgoing, corrected my pidgin French and got really excited to try to speak to me in English. Unfortunately, Maud usually goes home to Brest for the weekends so this was one of her few Friday nights in St. Brieuc. Probably the funniest part of the night was when we decided to go home around 2 and got a ride home from one of our friends who lives outside town and always drives (sober, don't get worried). Maud and her friends were going to go to this <span style="font-style: italic;">discothèque</span> in town but decided not to at the last minute, after we had already filled the car. They said they didn't mind walking home so we left in the car. After dropping off one assistant we headed in my direction only to see Maud and her friends <span style="font-style: italic;">faisaient le stop</span> (hitch hiking) on our street. Of course, we picked them up and took them home but they were really surprised when they saw it was us in the car! It was pretty funny.<br /> One Tuesday night, I met my friend Jessica in a bar called Le Piano Bleu where they often have live music. Unfortunately, the music was truely terrible that night. Really cheesy. There was one singer and one keyboard but because they were using a synthesizer it sounded like they had a whole orchestra behind them. To make matters worse, the singer heard us speaking English and announced to the whole room that there were some beautiful Americans in the room. She also tried to speak to us in English. This made it really hard to leave when we wanted to because as soon as we got up she announced that we were leaving and said how sad she was. It was pretty annoying and made us think about how inappropriate that would be at home. Imagine some Spanish people came into a bar in Plymouth Meeting and the singer started saying. "Hola! Look everyone! Spanish people!" It would be so rude! Anyway, things like that happen all the time here and we often feel like we're on display. After that though, we met Maud and some of her friends from IUFM (teacher training college you attend after getting your Bachelor's Degree) at one of our favorite bars, O'Kenny (NOT O'Kenny's, I made that mistake only once). They were really fun and we had a great time. They all have to take a music class so they can work on music with the kids and so they were singing the songs they had learned in English to me. It was really funny to hear French voices singing spirituals! <br /> I've also been wanting to go to the movies here but ALL the American movies are dubbed here. They almost never use sub-titles. However, this nice teacher just left me a schedule of movies in the <span style="font-style: italic;">version originale</span> in my mail box! November is Documentary Month in his film club and so I can see Murderball in the original English if I want. I ahve been wanted to see it so I think I will.<br /> Tonight, Sophia is coming to stay so we can take the train tomorrow to Nantes to catch our plane to Ireland!! I'm getting really excited to get there!<br /><br /><br />p.s. I'm still <span style="font-style: italic;">sans</span> Internet <span style="font-style: italic;">chez moi!</span>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-16222855628180838272007-10-18T06:32:00.001-07:002007-10-19T04:20:43.740-07:00My new roommate!I have a new roommate! She sleeps in the same room as me but she's usually awake eating all night and sleeps all day. She's a mosquito! I would tell you her name but the things I call her aren't fit to publish. Last night she bit me on the end of my nose. I had never experienced the urge to mortally wound another creature until last night when I sat in bed, half asleep, at 4am waiting for her to fly by so I could kill her. Tomorrow one of my fellow teachers is going to give me a <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">truc</span> that emits some kind of sound only mosquitos can hear and keeps them away (supposedly). I really hope it works since she especially likes to bite my face and there's only so much that makeup can cover!<br /><br />Other than that (and the lack of Internet) my new house is wonderful and my roommates are <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">très sympa</span>! It's SO nice to have a kitchen. <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">La Dolce Vegan</span> is getting a work out (especially since I discovered that sweet potatoes and squash are available at the market and that international and tofu type foods are available at the organic food store).Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-31763098457643273652007-10-16T05:05:00.000-07:002007-10-18T06:45:09.986-07:00I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write in a while. We still don't have the Internet hooked up in my house and since I only work 3 days a week, Thursday through Monday I am basically without Internet.<br /><br />This weekend was the semi-final for the Rugby World Cup and, unfortunately, France lost to England. I think the loss was especially painful because England and France have such a long standing rivalry. I also watched the other semi-final in which a very scrappy Argentinian team was badly beaten by South Africa. (A non-Anglophone country has never won the Rugby World Cup.) Argentina's team was really adorable, though, and they all cried during their national anthem (that was before they lost, so they are just an emotional group I guess).<br /><br />In other news, yesterday I was in Rennes for my medical appt. (which all non-EU citizens must have to make sure we don't have tuberculosis or something). The appt. itself was uneventful but it was fun being back in Rennes (although, the nurse who checked my eyes did tell me I had the vision of a pilot!!). We ate lunch at a really good <span style="font-style: italic;">cr</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">êperie</span> in the Place Sainte Anne where I had a ratatouille and egg </span><span style="font-style: italic;">cr</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">êpe. </span>After that, we did a little shopping and headed home.<br /><br />My classes have been going fairly well. Some better than others, of course, but for the most part, well. I did have one girl not understand the word "Paris", which was alarming since she'd been studying English for 4 years, but I have also had some students whose levels were surprisingly good.<br /><br />Also, Sophia and I are going to Ireland for our Toussaint vacation!! Dublin and Cork! It should be very exciting.<br /><br />Hopefully, someday before I leave France I'll have the internet in my very own home and I'll be able to load pictures. <span style="font-style: italic;">On verra. . .</span><br /><br /><br /></span>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-571738920798513050.post-11117605742042688092007-10-09T06:20:00.000-07:002007-10-09T06:42:19.365-07:00Rugby!This weekend was the rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the French team (Les Bleus). I had to put aside my love of New Zealand for a night and root for France mostly for my own safety but also because they were the home team and the under dogs. We watched the match at a bar called L'Atalante where they had an outdoor projection screen set up. It was really exciting and intense and it was only the quarter finals! Rugby is fairly easy to follow if you're a fan of American football. If you see a guy running really fast to his end with the ball/kick it really far to his end that means that they're going to score a goal (don't say touchdown or the French boy next to you who speaks perfect English will laugh at you). They even have an extra point kick after they score a "touchdown" (except its really 2 extra points). Don't ask me to explain why they sometimes pick each other up by the shorts. I'll never get that. Probably the coolest part of the game was at the beginning when they were trying to initimidate each other and the All Blacks did a Maori war dance that I remembered from my time in New Zealand. In any event Les Bleus <span style="font-style: italic;">a gagné</span> so everyone went wild and sang the Marseillaise and chanted "<span style="font-style: italic;">Allez Les Bleus</span>!" It was very exciting. <br /><br />In other news, 2 of my new found friends had birthdays recently which were both really fun. And Sophia was here this weekend which was also really fun and will hopefully be happening a lot. Yesterday I moved into my sweet new pad and got my room (sort of) set up. Today I'm going to try to cook dinner in my new kitchen! <br /><br />I guess that's it for now. I'll add pictures when the wifi gets worked out in my new place (this weekend supposedly). In the mean time Sophia's been able to add lots so check her blog for those! I'm so amped for Saturdays rugby match against <span style="font-style: italic;">Angleterre</span>!! I'll keep you posted on the results!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741444587468876591noreply@blogger.com0