Sunday

Today is Sunday. I'm sitting in the living room enjoying the breeze, its a very nice day today, which is nice, it was quite cold at the beginning of the week. Friday was great. Fridays are generally my favorite day because we eat in town, which is always great, we don't have too many classes, so I'm never as tired, and because I always have this sense of accomplishment by the end of the week, which boosts my spirits/energy. This friday I went to the bakery again, but I had a chicken sandwich, very tasty, and . . . I ordered it for myself. Plus, this week I couldn't resist the chocolate eclairs. I noticed the bakery also has quiche slices, so maybe one week I'll try that. We had quiche for dinner Friday night in fact. It was Isabelle's birthday, so her mother and her mother's husband came to dinner. It was lovely to meet them and the quiche, which was excellent, was followed by little patisseries from the local bakery including several little cakes, one of which was hickory, and some eclairs plus a religieuse, which is like an eclair but round with a little head on top.

I haven't had a chance to take my bike ride/tour of Marchiennes yet, but maybe later today. However, yesterday after my interro, we went to a little restaurant in town and ordered frites and sausage to go. the sausage was very much like a hot dog, only the frites replaced the bun. The frites her, while not the traditional shoe string style, are fried right after you ordered them and retain this wonderful freshness that is quite unavailable when eating a fast food restaurant. While we were waiting for the food, Gilles took me across the street to the brasserie (which is a cafe that serves food as well) to buy a magazine. I chose Grazia, a european magazine, for which I've been seeing ads everywhere. It costs only one euro, comes out weekly, and features fashion, politics, gossip, and a feature on a star every week. This issue features Lilly Allen the up and coming British pop star. It's not the most cultured reading ever but its fun and more importantly its written in colloquial French. Also, this morning I was indeed up early enough, though I slept later this morning (yes!) to go with Gilles to the Bakery to buy bread. He told me that the bakery where he usually goes is closed Sundays, so he goes to one right next to the little brasserie, on the other side of the main square. It was warm and cute, and the women behind the counter were very nice. Alle the pastries looked wonderful, though there were not nearly so many different kinds as the bakery in St. Amand. All in all this weekend is shaping up very nicely!

Last night friends, whom I've met several times, came over for dinner, and we ate mexican. While the burritos were not quite up to Santa Fe standard, as the fixings came for an Old El Paso box, they were definitely passable, and I enjoyed them very much as I have to admit I was already suffering tortilla and chile withdrawals. The sauce on the chicken was actually mildly spicy, which surprised me, and made me very happy! Also, I requested Tortilla chips from Isabelle, who asks me every time she goes to the store if there is anything I want, and to my surprise, as well as hers, I think, she found them! But, the really great part is she also bought gaucamole and salsa, which was very nice of her. She also bought rice cakes and plain yogurt for me, so perhaps I won't be quite as fat as I originally thought. I've been eating so much lately I'm surprised my clothes still fit, but now that all the food is not so new and exciting, I think I'll be able to stop myself from over indulging in innumerous French goodies. Speaking of over indulging. I made my nectarine crumble yesterday, and we ate 15 minutes after it came out of the oven, because the recipe said it was best still hot. It was very good, though a bit too much orange zest. I made it with only nectarines, but the original recipe used rhubarb as well, and I think the flavor would have been more interesting had I done the same, however I didn't have rhubarb, and I didn't want to request too much from Isabelle all at once! Oh I forgot she also found syrup, so next time I make pancakes, they will be fluffy and there will be syrup, so it'll be great! Sarah's English teacher has invited me to dinner some time, as all of her children speak English, as well as her, and she thought it might be nice for me to dine with people to which I could actually speak.

On another note entirely, yesterday was my first Saturday interrogation. It went very well, I think (knock on wood*), the teacher gave me a different question than everybody else, which was very simple, and I could understand the texts easily. The hard part was that we also had to write a piece, not related to the text, which I wasn't expecting, but I wrote it, and while I'm sure it has many grammatical/spelling errors, I think it will suffice. I finished after only 1 hour and 45 minutes or so which was too bad, as it was a three hour test, so I spent the rest of the time sitting with my eyes closed thinking. Other than that it wasn't to bad, and next is English so I won't have to go, yay!

* knock on wood is an expression here too, but here it is touch wood, and there is no rucous noise involved, which I rather liked.

a bientot,

e