1) Katherine Morrow (our friend who is studying in Spain currently and who will be my roommate next semester) is staying with us for a few days. She got in last night (Wednesday) and will be here until early Saturday morning. Today we went to marché with her. We mostly just wandered around and looked at things. Sara got lost a few times (#typical). Katherine bought some really nice soaps (I will be buying some next week).
2) Today was the Christmas party in the class I work with. There was soooooo much food (of course I ate way too much of it). Highlights include: 3 bags of clementines (very popular among our American group - some people eat multiple clems per day - it's a problem), lots of chocolate things, some really good chocolate chip and walnut cookies (I ate approximately four), an actual pumpkin pie, and my personal favorite, pancakes. In 2 packs. In a larger bag. As in you can buy premade pancakes at a store somewhere in France, and eat them throughout the week. Strange. Also I was perusing their English textbook and ran across this gem - just a typical conversation
Alice: My favorite singer is Beyonce. She's fantastic! She's got hair and a nose. And she's got eyes.
Bill: I don't like Beyonce. I prefer Robbie Williams. He's cool. He's got a face, a nose, and eyes.
Alice: And his hair?
Bill: He's got hair!
So aside from the obvious question (who is Robbie Williams?) this conversation is quite intriguing. Apparently facial features are quite important for french people - as far as being a fan goes.
Another great thing about the party was that I got tons of Christmas cards!! Due to an unfortunate miscommunication, 95% of the cards were written to Maggy (a few to Magy, and one to Magie - which means magic in French). If you want to be technical about it, only one card was written to me, Maggie. But I'll take them all anyway. One card had an origami dinosaur on it! One card had an old candy wrapper taped to the back of it. To be fair, said candy wrapper had Santa on it - so it was still within the Christmas decoration realm. They were all great.
3) Rue Mignet is actually disaster zone. Rue Mignet (if we have not already mentioned) is the road that leads directly to the street we live on. Meaning we have to walk on Rue Mignet all the time (when either leaving or returning home). The city of Aix has been doing construction on Rue Mignet ever since we got here to repair the pipes that run under the road. Practically speaking this means that throughout the semester there have been various GIANT ABYSSES along the road. There are barriers which block people from falling into the giant caverns (I imagine that if you fell, it would go something like this). These barriers also decrease the actual walking space by about 90% - so you are constantly having to force your way through the tiny paths that you can actually walk through. Very difficult.
4) We got an unexpected visitor. No, sadly the mouse has not resurfaced. I'm talking about St. Nicholas. He came Tuesday night and filled our shoes with candy. It was excellent!
5) Today (thanks to the lovely folks at phrase-a-week email service) I learned the expression "weasel words". It means "ambiguous or quibbling speech". How does it relate to weasels you ask, well here is the answer. People say that (that phrase is an example of weasel words) weasels suck egg shells - to get the egg out. Thus a statement that is considered weasel words is one that has had all the life sucked out of it - meaning a statement that is added to make something sound more substantiated but is in fact worthless. All you really need to know is that Shakespeare sort of coined it. So there. You are welcome.
Overheard in the Berge
"Today I was browsing tree houses online..." - Emily Gall (aka our resident lemur)
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| Classic Rue Mignet |
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| Entering the maze: note, it changes everyday |
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| the alley of death |
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| the abyss |
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| St. Nicholas came!!!!! (L-R Sara, Maggie, Emily) |
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| mon dinosaur from Julian (a student) |
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