Wednesday, February 25, 2009

spring comes early in bretagne.

i know, i know, i know... you're all thinking, where the hell are the exciting stories & vibrant photos from my last little jaunt to morocco? or better yet, 'you've been home a week, and you're telling me you truly haven't had time to tune us all in?!'... well, i did in fact, get back from marrakech & paris & all that jazz almost a week ago, and while i can't say that i've been ridiculously busy, i haven't really felt the urge to write so much... sooo... you're going to just have to wait.

on another note, the skies are blue, the air is fresh, the sun is shining brightly. i can feel my arteries clogging from the best pain au chocolat on the planet... i don't care if your pere owns a boulangerie, or if your grandma makes equally good chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. these are the best, hands-down. any other pain au chocolat tastes like complete crap now. it's loaded with so much butter that it leaks through the wax paper baggie they put it in, for crying out loud... and even though i had to send a student out of class today for rude, disruptive behavior, eating that fresh-this-morning, warm, buttery, flaky, golden, chocolate-filled pastry makes everything okay again. the birds are chirping.

so even though i have mounds of laundry to do, my chore of cleaning the kitchen still not checked off the list, grocery shopping because my cupboards look like old mother hubbard's, a blog that needs some serious updating, and a room that looks like a nuclear fall-out zone, i'm going to make an effort to get out & enjoy the sunshine. the rest can wait. on doit profier de la vie!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

leaving for morocco!

i just thought i'd let you all know that i'll be peace-ing out of little ol' lannion tomorrow night (well, technically tonight) & then heading for marrakech tuesday. i'm stoked.

also, there's force 9 winds here in bretagne tonight. pretty exciting stuff. it'll be nice to see some sunshine!

Friday, February 6, 2009

and yet again, les vacances!

i mentioned i'd get back with people regarding february vacation... we (cuz derek & moi) decided in a matter of ten minutes to go to marrakech for the break, toute de suite! needless to say, we'd both been thinking about it for awhile, as it had been part of our original itinerary, and we're stoked! we'll be traveling to paris & then spending a week in "le perle du sud", directly translated as "pearl of the south"... experiencing the markets & mosques, and hopefully even getting to trek into the atlas mountain range. we shall see...

as far as stuff going on here is concerned...


male making crepes.


bruno did a great job keeping our drinks full!


a breton snowman, i mean, snow-woman! yay, snow!


amy & a galette.


the cause of the food-baby.

i've been laying low a lot lately, a little bit of a cold here & there. i've been eating a lot of crepes/galettes lately. four times in the past two weeks, to be exact. last week, bruno had us over to his place to make our own for a change. good drinks were shared with good friends, and we ate plenty of good food. i tried to make my own galette, but male could sense my struggle & came to the rescue. champignons, creme fraiche, lardons for the galettes & pommes flambees (with the help of a little grand marnier) for the dessert crepes. good times. i went to african dance class again last week, and it's going really well. i pick up on things quickly, but it's still challenging enough (because of the differences in styles alone) to keep me interested. last week i had a "fete" with brittany via skype. it was a good (albeit, long) night. i've been spending quite a bit of time online talking with friends, and it's been therapeutic in a way to catch up with everyone & find out what's going on in other parts of the world. amy & hannah (the assistants from guingamp) surprised me for a visit & i took them out to my favorite creperie. i had the "mother" of all galettes: gratinee chevre, miel, creme fraiche, lardons, & emmental. it was heaven, and a late-term food-baby. i was guilt-tripped into topping it off with a crepe caramel au buerre sale, too, so i'm sure that didn't help matters. we went out for a drink at the bar behind our place, and watched people tango. other than that, i've just been frantically trying to put some things together for our trip & making playlists on deezer.com (the french equivalent of pandora). today, there was a fest deiz at school (like a fest noz, but during the day), with live music and everything-minus-the-breton-beer. the students really got into it & seemed to enjoy themselves. tonight we headed over to the pixie for a goodbye drink with jo, who'll be leaving us for frankfort after the break. i knew that it was going to be a whirlwind after christmas break, but i never knew how fast things would really fly by.

oh, and something else exciting... one of my classes participated in a debate this week (in english), regarding a topic drawn out of a hat... euthanasia. and it worked. pretty exciting to know that i have some students who can pull that off.