Swimming in the Sea and My Experience of French Baking

July 5^th

Francois (Claire Marie’s younger brother, age 21) and I went to Port de Capbreton to pick Claire Marie and her cousins up. At this village we waited by looking at the fish market and going on the board walk.

In the evening we (Claire Marie, Francois, and I) had Mojitos, and Claire and Francois smoked a water pipe while I blew bubbles. It was really cool though when Francois combined the two and had smoke bubbles which released smoke when they popped!!! Claire Marie’s grandmother wasn’t very approving of her grandchildren’s activities but she enjoyed chasing the bubbles as much as I did!

July 6^th

Today, Claire Marie took me out on a small excursion to a little village called Espelette, a village known for drying chili peppers and hanging them out on building façades. At the village we walked around the church and by a river, it was a great walk because it had some elevation up the winding roads and alley ways.

Back at the house, Claire Marie checked the computer for her results of whether she would be in the master’s program or not. Fingers crossed we checked and she got in to La Rochelle!!! The news brought screams of delight as she was one out of 18 students to be accepted into La Rochelle out of 150+ students who applied. We heard similar sounds from Francois’s room where he passed his grades and A levels with top marks! The whole house was in celebration!

Going into St. Pée sur Nivelle, Claire Marie took me shopping in the only clothing store in town. The store was so cute along with all the items of clothing there were within it. I ended up doing something quite unusual for when I travel and that is to actually buy something for myself. I had shoppers luck with an adorable skirt that was on sale for €12. Even more reason to celebrate today!

As the afternoon progressed Claire took me with her siblings to go to the beach and body surf in the waves. This beach was way different than St Jean de Luz, and the waves were absolutely huge! I guess this beach is also known for strong rip currents too. I ended up chickening out since I had my contacts on and didn’t want to lose them. I watched as they jumped in the waves. I guess at one point Claire’s youngest brother, Baudouin, had issues with the strength of the tides that a life guard had to help him to shore. We decided to dry off and head back after that and once again we were in the car with windows down, music loud, singing/dancing in the car, and sunshine beaming in without a care in the world.

Back at the house, Claire Marie’s mum asked me to make a cake and when I told her I didn’t know from the top of my head she asked me what is needed for a cake. I listed off eggs, flour, baking powder/soda, sugar, salt, water, etc. From that, Claire Marie’s mum told me “ok great, let’s make it” and I was worried since I had no clue what the proportions were, luckily she looked up a recipe for me to follow and with the help of Claire Marie and Francois, we made a cake. It looked great going into the oven. Pleased, we continued getting ready for the dinner that night since it was going to be a big celebration with the grandparents and cousins coming over for dessert. Finally the cake was ready for inspection and pulling it out of the oven it looked nothing like it did in the picture online. Claire Marie told me that the oven doesn’t bake evenly as I looked at our sad concoction. At the table we transitioned from dinner to dessert as we added more chairs and brought out the champagne flutes out. Finally Claire Marie’s mum brought out the cake introducing it as ‘Adrian’s cake’. The reaction from Claire Marie’s grandpa was priceless as he kept going on and on joking in French about how horrible the cake was not realising that I could understand ~85% of what he was saying. Then he turned to me and in English complemented me saying something like ‘what a lovely cake’. I felt like I was slapped across the face for how different his reaction was in English vs. French that I started to respond back in French “I know what you said” but stopped myself halfway figuring it isn’t polite to say that to my host family and decided to respond instead with a simple “merci”. It was funny though because afterwards when everyone was having seconds Claire Marie's mother teased him saying that since he didn't think it looked good he was not allowed on the seconds.  The whole scene was just funny, someday hopefully my French can work like a super power for me, who knows?

Anyways I am having a fabulous time and really have to thank Claire Marie and her family for such a fantastic time, I am enjoying every minute of it!!!

xx

La vie est belle en France

*Sorry that these blogs are super late, but I figured I would post them better late than never.

4th of July

Today has been amazing! I awoke around 9:30am and joined Claire Marie for breakfast which consisted of bread with butter and fresh jam, yogurt, orange juice, and a kiwi. Yesterday, Claire Marie and I went on a hike in the nearby mountains and then we joined her mum to the grocery store where we bought food for dinner.
Immediately when we got back, Claire Marie’s Mum put me to work in cleaning the lettuce for a salad. I was happy that I could be useful because I couldn’t figure out what else I could possibly have done at the time instead. Claire Marie put on the water for the noodles and her two brothers helped cut and prepare the food too. Dinner was excellent with a salad which I had with a boiled egg, bow tie pasta with cheese and herbed salt, and bread with goat cheese and honey- yum!! Oh and how could I forget saucisson!! For dessert we had pear with ice cream and melted chocolate on it topped with rum raisins.
After dinner, we went to a festival in St. Pée sur Nivelle where there was traditional dance to traditional music. I was ready to join in but all of the steps were called out in Basque- a regional language that even Claire Marie could not understand. Despite not dancing, we were able to enjoy the music which was kind of similar to folk dance but with accordions and other neat instruments too!
Ok back to today, so we dropped Claire Marie off to the train station at 1 pm today where she will be going to La Rochelle for an interview at the university. Each year in France, students have to reapply to the school since the education is free. Claire was pretty stressed at the time and I don’t blame her one bit. I met her friend Alexander who also went to Southampton, he showed me around for an hour and we went into the church that King Louis XIV was married in. I was quite surprised at how small the church was for a royal wedding of a king that was known for grandeur when in comparison with Prince William and Kate’s royal wedding in England last year.
After the church, Alexander and I parted ways and I went to the beach where I sun bathed (I know unlike me, right?). An hour or so later I decided to go swimming in the azul blue green sea. The water was so warm and lovely! I tried body surfing on a wave- accidentally choosing the one that was from the few high tide waves coming in and it curled!! Next thing I know I am doing summersaults in the water and completely submerged- so much for trying to be like all the elegant French beach going women. So I decided to swim some more to discretely remove the sand from my bathing suit that had managed to find every nook and cranny in my garment as well as on me (belly button, ears, eyebrows, nothing was sand free it seemed). I dried off in the sunshine and decided to head off to the village around 4pm to buy postcards only to realize that I left my €20 in my jeans pocket back at the house. Wandering through the village was none the less wonderful and I slowly headed back to the train station where I was waiting for Claire Marie’s brother, Francois, to pick me up at 5pm. While waiting at the train station a French bum came and asked if I had any money. Honestly I replied, “no” to him, the man began to have a conversation with me in French about the weather and other things, I suppose to warm me up to the idea of giving him money. After a while when I finally failed in comprehending something he said, he asked if I was English, much to his surprise I told him I was American. He continued the conversation in French and eventually asked if I had a cigarette for him, which again I had to disappoint and he shook my hand and when on his merry way.
Francois was a little late in picking me up as we cruised down the road listening to various pop songs with the windows rolled down. Dinner was once again delectable and Claire Marie’s Mom treated me to a Basque treat that is half way between yogurt and cheese- it was delicious! Then she showed me her office in the house.  
Claire Marie’s mum is a midwife, so she taught me how to make a harness/carrier for an infant:
First take the middle of a shawl like piece of fabric, crumple it and wrap in the front crossing at your back, then bring the ends over the shoulders, tuck it into the band at your front crossing it again this time in front of you and tie it to your side or behind you. It was fun and she had me practice it with a plastic baby doll and took a picture so I could worry my mom! She also taught me a lot about the human body and other useful information. It was a really fun evening as she spoke in broken English to me and I would respond in (broken (?)) French back. I really appreciated how she tried to have me speak in French while I am here because after taking French for roughly 5 years I was finally being able to put that skill to use.
La vie est belle!

A Week of Summer Solitude

30th of June

This week the majority of my friends I made this year are off to Falmouth for a third year course requirement for those majoring in oceanography or marine biology; and my friends that are still around Southampton are tied up with studying for life changing exams or have work - which gives me the perfect amount of time to get things done and ready for France next week and ultimately get ready for the big move home to Sammamish.

Yesterday I managed to finally get a ticket home, which I will be flying back on the 29th of July.

Since Rich and everyone left around Tuesday, I have been an exercise-oholic and going for many walks. I discovered an aerobics class at the gym through my friend, Hannah, where the instructor has such a fast pace class you end up practically hobbling your way back home after each session. I feel absolutely marvelous with all my happy endorphins!

Today I learned a very important lesson that will stick with me for the rest of my life:

Do-it yourself bikini waxing is never a good idea.

Ah well hopefully the bruising goes down by the time I am sporting my bikini on the beaches in southern France next week!

Working the Fields in Chichester

21^st of June

Just came back from spending a day and a half in Chichester with Rich and his mum. Yesterday Rich and I went straight to work in the garden for approximately 5 hours. During that time, Rich cut down the tall grass and thistles with a strimmer while I raked up the cuttings into mounds (or what Rich calls strimples). By the end of the day, I had raked up 49 strimples and had received lovely sunburns on both of my shoulders. In the evening Phil made us dinner and treated us to a cider for our hard work.  

Today, I woke up from my solid sleep in the cabin with a slight ache in my lower back. At the house Rich’s mum, Helen, made us waffles with cooked cherries and pure Canadian maple syrup (which I have been craving within the first month of setting foot in this country). On our way back to Chichester, Rich lead us to our train back to Southampton, or so we thought. After a good 20 or 30 minutes on the train there was an announcement that the train was terminating early. Rich then went to figure out if we were on the right train to begin with- the answer was no!

Luckily the train terminated early and we were able to catch a train to St. Deny’s station after 20 minutes of waiting. Taking a longer journey home, once at St. Deny's we trotted back home two blocks from the station  in the rain. It has been a fabulous past few days.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

16^th of June

This week has been one goodbye after another.

On Monday, I finally managed to skype with my mum after about two months of not really being able to get a hold of her. I was so excited to finally talk with her as she told me that she had lots to catch me up on. Unfortunately one of my biggest fears while studying abroad came true when my mom informed me that my Grandma Doris passed away during the time of my exams in May. The past month I was planning on calling my grandma through skype but never really got around to it as I wasn’t able to reach my parents for the phone number- now I will never be able to. I always have looked forward to receiving packages from my grandma, because she sent the most random things to show that she was thinking of me. One of the last things she sent me was a slow cooker that needed an international adapter to function in the UK; she wasn’t planning on me bringing it back to the states but thought I could use it on my year abroad. Along with the slow cooker were two boxes of tea, one of which I discovered some of the teas were already tested/tasted for approval, it is kind of hard finding herbal teas in Southampton so it really hit the spot and made me feel at home. My housemates were great in being there for me and trying to cheer me up, we ended up watching Kinky Boots (one of my favourite films) to keep my mind off of things. 

On Wednesday, my housemate, Alec, pretty much spent his last night with us before he moves out. On the plus side of things though, I will be able to see him a few more times before I leave home so it wasn’t quite yet time for goodbyes. 

Yesterday I went with Rich to visit his friend who he calls Scatty and her new Labrador puppy named Occy to walk in Brockenhurst. It was quite refreshing as I haven’t been out too much since Ireland. Later that night I went to The Hobbit to spend time with my University of Washington compadre, Ashley, during her last night in the UK. It was a good night in being able to see a good gathering of friends and enjoy each other’s presence. This morning, Matt, Naomi, and I, went early to the bus station to surprise Ashley. While waiting Sami (my other UW compadre) coincidentally was at the station to buy a bus ticket for the airport for when she heads home on Monday. 

I still need to get my plane ticket home and will hopefully do so within the next few days,  but it really is sad parting with Ashley and Sami as it reminds me the reality that I will be heading back soon as well.

It has been a bit of a rough week but hopefully once we encounter some summer weather, aka sun, then it will help me look on the brighter side of life as I finish my time here in the UK.

Kilmainhan Gaol and Our Last Day in Ireland

5^th of June

Woke up and beat the masses to breakfast, turns out that the masses never showed up. Then around 10:45 am I ended up going on my run, 4^th country in Europe!! 

After that I watched part of the Diamond Jubilee with Chris in the T.V. lounge area while Sami and Logan napped. When we couldn’t spend any more of our day in the youth hostel we woke up the two sleeping beauties and headed off to see the prison, Kilmainhan Gaol. The tour was so engrossing the stories of the prisoners were just fascinating. During its time when it was a working prison it didn’t take much to be arrested, even 5 year olds were being arrested for stealing a piece of bread. Around the turn of the twentieth century prisoners were being fed and had a roof over their heads meanwhile outside of prison people were suffering from the potato famine and being kicked out of their homes – in other words prison wasn’t looking so bad as an option. People would purposely commit crimes in order to get in jail. There were political rebellions happening during the beginnings of the twentieth century resulting in public hangings. The people who were executed at this time had some interesting stories. For instance, Joseph Plunkett and Mary Plunkett were married one day before Joseph was to be shot by firing squad.

After the museum, we went to the most gorgeous gardens that I have seen (in Ireland possibly even including Europe). The gardens were outside of the Royal Hospital/ Modern Art Museum. It had statues and a fountain. Hedges bordered the walkways that formed a symmetrical pattern through the estate. Sami said it looked like it came out of Alice and Wonderland. We had lunch around 3pm in a pub across from the prison, and after getting a few more souvenirs we headed back where Chris made us BBQ chicken and pasta with peas. I went and pre-packed my bag for the early leave the next morning and joined Sami, Chris, and Logan for one last evening out on the town in Dublin.  

The Cliffs of Moher

4^th of June

After a restless night, I rolled my weary body out of bed at 5:30am. We went into town at 6 am where the guys got some McDonald breakfasts. Broke (for the moment, need to change some more currency), I opted out of McDonalds, but I munched on my bag of apples and pretzels. Aboard the bus a 16 year old boy from Spain named, José, sat next to me. I started talking to him and next thing I know I spent the next hour and a half struggling to understand his broken English as he told me about some Spanish T.V. show. I figured with a couple hours bus ride I wanted to help him with his English. 

Then we finally made it to our first stop at a town called Galway. In Galway I learned about The King Head, where King Charles I was killed by two men from Galway. Also there was a family, the Lynch family, who kept order in the town and Mr. Lynch was the mayor. At one point the son of the mayor killed a Spanish boy who was staying with the family because both boys were in love with the same girl. The son was given the death penalty but he was very popular and well liked that there was a mob of townspeople present for his release. As mayor’s son he was allowed to stay his last night with his dad. The mayor knew that the mob would have his son free the next day, but to maintain order he called his son to a tall story of the house and hung him. That is where the term lynching came from, as well as the term lynch mob. After this tragic event the pope gave Mr. Lynch some prayer beads in thanks for maintaining order. 

Then we went to a church which only had three sides covered with clocks and windows, the plain fourth wall was faced to the common people where the saying, “they didn’t have the time” originated. From there we went to Jane Eyre square and headed off to our next destination. 

After a long bus ride we stopped at an interesting geological spot with rugged sedimentary rocks.

We then took a lunch break at a pub and off we went to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher has been nominated as one of the natural wonders of the world and the cliffs span an impressive two kilometres long and 200 metres high. The Cliffs of Moher have also been featured in many films, most notably in ‘The Princess Bride’ as the Cliffs of Insanity. There we had an hour and a half to explore the Cliffs. We first followed the trails to the left which went a good distance with protective stone barriers. Then we reached a point where it said not to pass, but like a good many handful of tourists we ignored the sign and went on to the unprotected path. There if you went to the edge you could fall of the cliff that is over 200 metres high!!! I took over 200 pictures easily and Chris worried Sami and me by going right to the edge of the cliff. The cliffs were breathtakingly gorgeous. Then we went to the other side of the paths where there was O’Brian’s Tower. At the visitor’s center the building looked like it came from Teletubbies. 

Piled in the car again we went to a 5,800 year old Poulnabrone Dulmen, Ballyalban Fairy Fort which was a tomb in essence. After the ancient tomb we were once again on a three hour bus ride back to Dublin. 

On the walk back to the hostel I caught a man trying to pickpocket Sami but since I made eye contact and kind of stared him down (same with Chris) he gave up though he did try to take her purse!! 

(*If you are trying to picture what the cliffs look like, the background picture for my blog is of the Cliffs of Moher)