Baccarat or Waterford?

Really...you DONT'T have to decide. I love Waterford. My family is Irish and it's a bit of a tradition to register for it when you get married. I only registered for champagne flutes, Lismore Nouveau, but I love them. I love, love, love them. Even if I only have 4. :-/ Gimme a break...I got married in France, people don't carry that stuff over seas people!

Back to Baccarat though. It was beautiful! I don't just mean the crystal either. Cyr and I parked and walked around since we had time before going to the museum. We had time because it (of course) was closed for lunch from 11:30-2. We walked down by a little river and I took this of the town hall.

Across from the town hall was the most modern church I have ever seen in France. A plaque on the door said St. Remy.

The inside was, as you might guess, colored by the light that spilled in through Baccarat crystals that made up the stained glass windows of the church. Here is a shot from behind the font, which was also made in Baccarat though I am not sure it was actual Baccarat crystal.

I really liked it. Cyr spent a while taking some really good photos that he will probably post on his photography site.

So there you go...I finally posted some more pictures!

Fancy Nancy

Dear Continental,

What ever did I do to you? Why hast thow forsaken me?! I am not quite sure what I have done to deserve to always, and by always I mean the last 4 flights to France I have taken, be sat in a seat that has a broken television, but I am sorry. I am truly sorry. Maybe it was that time I accidentally left a 1/2 a dozen used tissues in the thing that holds magazines. I was really sick and I actually just forgot. At least I put them in the barf bag and didn't just let them sick up the Sky Mall! I shudder to think what you would do in revenge for me spreading my germs not just within a bag made for puke, but in the seat back and onto the magazines. I just hope this public display of regret will find it's way to your little, cold, aerodynamically shaped heart and allow me a functioning entertainment system the next time I fly overseas.

Hugs to you Continental,
Susan


Ok, so now that that is out of the way I can get on to talking about our trip! Our flight, other than the 1/2 broken tv, was fine. It must have been our row, Cyr's only got 1/2 the channels too. He actually watched Ice Age II without the sound. There is a man with an imagination I tell you.

When we landed in Paris at 8:30am we marched our sleepy drunk (drunk from no sleep, not really drunk and about to drive) selves to the rental car place. The computer was down, so they couldn't tell us actually what we were going to be charged, but she is sure that it will be the same as on our receipt. Bien sur! Being the risk takers we are we decline the extra insurance and head out to find out little Citroen that will be our part time home while in France.

We then begin to drive to Nancy. I believe Nancy is about 3 hours from Paris. I say "believe" because we hit the road, got into a little morning traffic, then headed out. About an hour into it we needed coffee and a break. We stopped at a little roadside eatery thing. Those of you who have been on French highways will know that there is a gas station and typically a real restaurant thing near by. I get a cheese plate and a coffee, Cyr opted for an apple tart and coffee. I had to use the rest room of course. There I was greeted with the cutest little potty in France! It was right next to the baby changing station and was just for itty-bitty-butts! I took a picture but not sure if you can tell how small it is. You can see the little cleaner by it and those are usually about 2 foot tall. I wanted to put something next to it to show it's size but I wasn't about to put my purse on the ground in the rest room. Ewe, you will just have to use your imagination. Cyr thought I was nuts to take a picture but I just had to. :-)

We then get back on the road.

About an hour and half later I ask him; "how much further?" It says on the GPS but it seems odd we are so far. He taps expertly on the little gps making it blink and hop from screen to screen. How he knows that things so well amazes me. Then I hear; "Aach." then a "mumble, mumble" and maybe a "bordel" thrown in for good measure. Well friends, while we were taking our little break we wanted to be safe so we took the GPS in with us. Somehow it got all tapped about. Well, it had changed routes and was taking us to Lille. We had driven about 45 minutes out of the way. Please remember that this is after a 9 hour plane ride where Cyr got about 3 hours sleep and I didn't sleep at all.

I couldn't be angry, and I wasn't. I was however not a very patient or understanding person by the time we got to Nancy. I mean to tell you that I would have gotten out of the car and physically assaulted someone if they would have gotten in the way of our getting to the hotel.

Once we actually got there it was great. Here is a shot of our hotel room. High, high ceilings with crown molding, check out the door, it's put in at an angle. Odd eh?



The pictures of the room were taken on Day 2 of the trip due to sleepy irritation the day of arrival. I know you are not supposed to, but we fell into bed and had a good 3 or 4 hour nap. It was so tasty...but not as tasty as this:


Beer and fondue. Oh yeah. Welcome to France. Tune in next time for some animal fun!

Back in The States

So...vacation is over. No more waking up late, drinking wine/beer with lunch (or at least not without feeling a little guilty or lushy), marveling at how low the dollar is and how high the prices are, eating in restaurants that are old than my country...but Houston isn't so bad. My family and friends are here to welcome us back!

The last 2 weeks or so was spent traveling through France and visiting friends and family. We mainly stayed in the northeast going to places like Nancy, Baccarat and the Lille/Valencienne area. I have lots of pictures and am going to write the posts and set them up to be posted every other day so you can all see a little bit of where we went.

While we were there our 1st Anniversary passed as well!! October 25th was one year that Cyr and I have been married! We were in Paris and went to dinner at Ciel de Paris which is on the 56th floor of the only sky scraper in Paris; the Tour de Montparnasse. We ate dinner and looked out over Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Right when we sat down, at 9pm because the French do eat late, the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkled like diamonds for it's hourly dance of lights. One of the things that really amazed me was that the lights on the horizon actually twinkled!! I asked Cyr if he saw it too or if it was just the good wine. Apparently the lights really do sparkle! I thought they just made that happen in the movies. Alas...I recommend that you don't take my word for it. Go and check it out yourself.

So...I am logging off for now and going to get my pictures in order to send out our trip highlights!
Thanks for dropping by...

Florida!!

Well, lucky me landed some meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida!! We came over Monday and had an hour to actually go down to the beach, it was so nice. The water is warm, the sand is white and the sun was out. There were also lots of surfers out there as the surf was up pretty good. I played around in the water but after about 10 minutes of being beaten to a pulp I decided to sit on the sand and feel what it's like to relax in the sun. I almost forgot. It was as good as I remembered. The only thing that could have made it better was if Cyr was with me. And I was naturally a size 6 but able to eat and drink whatever I want...

Yesterday we had two meetings. I think they both went well. I didn't say anything stupid and no one asked me to get my head out of my ass (see August 11th post). That's always a good sign isn't it? The second meeting was actually kind of funny. The woman who was meeting us brings us to her office. She tells us she will have work coming up she would like our resources to help out with. I tell her we don't have a contract, she tells me to send her one and we should be able to start in about a month. She ends the conversation and we leave. 15 minutes. No kidding. If this deal closes it will be the fastest deal in the East! She knows our resources so she feels good going directly with us for the work. She's also (as you might be able to tell) a no-nonsense kind of person. Very nice, I think you could even say "friendly" but not into small talk. I like that. You know where you stand.

So today we have the morning free. And today there is a hurricane coming to the area. Just when I thought I could get some fun in! At least we had the hour on Monday, that was good. So now we are trying to get back to H-town prior to the natural disaster that is potentially heading our way makes landfall. Wish us luck!

Are you still there?

Ok...so I have taken a little break. Ok, I flaked. I became, for a while, one of those people that you can't count on. One of those people that says "We should do something for your birthday! I will plan something!" Then 3 months after your birthday that same person says "So, what did you do for your birthday?" I don't want to be that person. So I'm back. Planning your birthday. Really I'm just blogging again...

I have decided to return!! I am going to log my first re-entry into the blogsphere with something I have been promising for a long while; pictures from our Honeymoon in Egypt. Yea!!

I was married last October in France to my wonderful French husband. Then we got transferred back to Houston. We had not taken a vacation, so we packed our things in a container to be put on a boat to sail to Houston. Two days after the container left France, we set off for Egypt for a week. The interesting part for me was that it was through a French tourism agency. It came with tours and guides and everything. Since it was French all the guides spoke French and the people on the boat spoke French. By day 3 I would walk down the hall and people would say; "Ah. Yew ah zee American no? Bonjour!" No kidding...even the staff knew who I was. I would typically manage a shy "Oui. C'est vrai. C'est moi." Translated; "Yes, it's true. That's me." Closest I will ever get to being a rock star.

But no more talking...here are a few pictures. The first one is our boat. Ok, it's not really our boat, but all mostly look the same so I thought I could pass it off as ours. They raft up next to one another about 5 deep and when you get off your boat you have to walk through other boats until you get to the land. Very interesting. It was a little old, but we didn't mind.

Next we have the Philae Temple. Now you know my secret to knowing where the heck the pictures were taken! Seriously...though they really were all different and had unique things about them, I could NEVER remember the names of the places we went.

The temples were so large it was mind blowing. The carvings were also done like 5 inches deep into the stone. It was just crazy! Some even still had color on them, but my cynical self things that things might have been touched up a bit...

Cyr taking a photo...

Arc of the Covenant.

Not really, it's something else but I can not for the life of me remember what. Isn't that awful? Sorry to all you Egyptian artifact buffs.

And here we are next to a huge granit statue. Yea, they had granit. Not found anywhere near where we were...but there they were, these huge statues. I really have a hard time imagining these places being built by mere human hands. I know they took hundreds of years to complete, but it just seems an impossible task.

And here we are, the happy couple...


So to end this post I will tell you 10 things I learned while in Egypt.

1 - The French really do eat everything with a fork and knife. Even even apples (cut with a knife then eat portion), oranges (peel with a knife), and dates (use both knife and fork). Learned on the boat of course.
2 - You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the girl. I ate all the above fruits and other items with my hands.
3 - Don't sit on the high-pressure-suction-toilet when you flush. I never made this mistake after we felt the change in cabin pressure while flushing. That thing was serious.
4 - I thought Cambodia was a poor country. Egypt seems even poorer.
5 - Sometimes it's ok to pay an extra dollar for something. The person selling you things probably needs it more than you do.
6 - You get the best price on things you don't want.
7 - It is hard to travel in Egypt as a single female. I don't mean "not married" I just mean alone. Cyr would walk across the room and 3 men would be on me asking me questions and calling me "Gazelle". I traveled 6 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia all alone and never once felt as uncomfortable as I did in Egypt at times. Not all the time of course, but the markets are harsh.
8 - You have no idea what the term "hard sell" means until you go to Egypt. These people are relentless. You must develop a tough skin and be firm. If you do this you can have one of the best vacations in your life. If you don't you will be angry and frustrated ever time you leave the boat.
9 - It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I can't wait to go back.
10 - If you are scared to go to Egypt don't be. I would suggest going on a river cruise if you are nervous about it because you have the guides that will help you and you can roam around alone if you choose. I encourage you to go and spend your money there. I still have some perfumed oil I wear and get compliments on it every time I do. I also don't think it's a very "kid friendly" place and was always surprised to see tourists with children there.

It was an amazing trip. Next time I want to cross over to Jordan and go to Petra.

Oh, thanks for the emails from you folks out there who check in every now and then. I'm alive and well in Houston. But I'm back in the world of blogging!! Until next time, Assalam o alaikum (Peace be upon you).

A quick week of travel

Many of you out there live away from your families, I know this because I stalk read many of your blogs. Even those of you that might live close to your family and friends can imagine what a trip home is like. Here is a brief overview of how my trips tend to go:

1. Before you leave you need to plan your time home. Who will you see what days? You might book lunches and dinners and movie times. Don't forget the family time.
2. Arrive feeling like you have actually walked to your destination as opposed to flying. While carrying your luggage of course.
   
3. Feel guilty that you have not made arrangements with more people than you have, so you try to blend a few groups together maybe. Or maybe not.
4. Feel bad that you didn't buy gifts for some people because you know just what they would like but it was raining/snowing all week and you didn't have the will power make the time to drive to the big grocery store.
5. Stand in amazement of how we functioned without cell phones once you arrive (because you don't have one). Sometimes I get a throwdown phone for the time I will be there just in case.
6. Make the rounds, wishing you had more time to visit family and just hang out and watch TV, because you actually REALLY like to do just that. Sometimes just being in the same room with family is what I miss the most.
7. Eat LOTS of Mexican food.
   
8. Board the plane home knowing you forgot to buy gifts for people that you should have.
9. Arrive feeling like you not only walked to France, but that that you had to push a cart with other people in it and swim across the Atlantic.

So I know many of you are thinking "oh I wouldn't do that, I would just let people know that I can't see them. Yes, I try to do that too. The problem lies in that I really DO want to see these people that I miss. So here is how my trip went this time:

1. Pack up a few gifts to take but see #1 above. We also packed clothes to leave in Houston because when we move we won't have our things for another 4 or 5 weeks. We plan to take our honeymoon after our things are shipped and leave two suit cases here; one for honeymoon and one for going back to Houston that we will pick up when we return from Egypt. I made a few phone calls and sent one or two emails but didn't plan much (which I am glad).
   
2. See #2 above, although after a good nights sleep it's not that bad when you fly west. Sunday morning we felt pretty good. Until I almost had a heart attack when the front desk lady handed me a note and told me there was a family emergency. Turns out it was a little serious, but my Dad will always tell me nothings wrong and he is fine (yes Dad, I am on to you and will still worry about you). He's at home now though and making a slow comeback.
3. Spent all day, I mean all day, Monday looking at rent houses. We found some we liked and decided to fill out applications for them.
4. Had dinner with my Mom and some friends throughout the week, even got to see my friend Missy, oops, Melissa (she is so grown up now) and her 4 week old baby. Hello there River!!
5. Waited until Thursday to get responses from house folks. Turns out both of the ones we liked found renters that would move in during the month of March. We really need May 1st but would pay for April 1st. We lost both of them.
6. Friday - stress a little about the housing thing but realize we can find a place when we get back. There is a ton of stuff on the market. Besides, maybe we should buy...prices are great and with the tax benefits Obama is talking about it could be good. Still have time to decide.
   
7. Friday night - go the Houston Rodeo Cookoff!! Rodeo is starting and the cookoff was going on . We had tickets to some booths and proceeded to stay out until 1:30AM. Then we ate at IHOP at 2AM. An American tradition...though Cyr didn't eat, maybe it is just an American thing...
8. Saturday - buy $25 Levi's for Cyr and $25 Converse for the beau-frere at Target. In France Levi's are about 100 euro and Converse can be found on sale for 60 euro. Crazy...should have bought some and sold them to my students.
9. I think I ate Mexican food 6 or 7 times. :-)
   
10. See #8 and 9 above.

I'm glad we went and I was able to see my Mom and Dad and Sandy (step Mom) and even my Aunt Mary. But the week was too short and we were so busy. Right now I'm recovering from jet lag and working this week at my Big School and tutoring three days. I need to start worrying about tax stuff and get that all to my cousin...sorry Sally!!

Looks like my days here are numbered. I have a friend coming in from the 12th to the 20th and we are trying to schedule the movers for right after she leaves. Then we will have our honeymoon, come back to France for one day, pick up Duncan and fly to Houston to live in a hotel for a few weeks until we find a place.

Oh...and on the flight back Duncan (cute little black cat) is going to ride in the cabin with us because he so small. I'm a little worried about this. We are going to the vet to get some Kitty Quaaludes to make him sleep, but this will be a 13-15 hour trip for him if you include the train ride from Lille and time to get to the hotel in Houston. I was told to put a shoebox with litter in it in his bag so he could do his business in it if he needed. Anyone out there have to make a long trip with a cat in a bag? I decided this week he is going to take some field trips in it around Lille to practice. I don't want him freaking out too much. Any advice is welcomed, please post a comment if you know of something!

Chinese Translations and Menu Offerings

Cyr is in China this week and sent me a few photos of the signs he has in his hotel room. One of my favorites is this sign by the bathtub:

In case it's hard to read...it says;

Our honorific guests:
For your safey and preventy the wed and slippery floor. Please put the bath curtain into the bathrub when you are washing for avoiding the water spatter out of the bathrub.
At the same. We prepare the nail-clipper for you in the house-keeping.
Thanks for your cooperating.

I also like this one he took of the laundry bag.

It says;

To serve you whole heartdly makes you feel convenient and happy during travel.

Nothing like being served "heartdly". Being the agreeable eater he is he also told me he tried a dish that looked very much like snails that had forked tails. Well, turned out it was duck tongue. Seriously, how many duck tongues would it take to make one meal?! There was also donkey served I believe in the same meal. Such a lucky fella to have all these fun things thrown after him!

He sent me some pictures of menus but they are hard to read so I will just tell you what some of my favorites were;

Steamed Mouse-Shaped Fish (Maybe a children's favorite? Also known as the "Mickey Fish"?)
Crispy Freid Loach (Please don't let that be a typo with the "L")
Sauteed Chicken Feet (no thanks, I like my feet fried)
Jew's Ear with Chrysanthemum (I just can't say anything about this one...)
Flavored Crispy Elbow (after the previous entry I am not sure I want to know what kind of elbow.)
Sauteed Crispy Stomach with Pickled Peppers (Peter Piper's favorite I'm sure, but again...the stomach of what?)
Spicy Ox Spinal Cord (Whew, I just hate the dull flavored spinal cord)
Chicken Stomach with Chili Pot (if this is like Amsterdam "Pot" I might need it to eat the "Chicken Stomach")
Sauteed Duck Lips in Maggie Sauce (So that's why I have never seen a duck's lips! They are all in China being served for dinner! With Maggie apparently...)

I don't think he actually tried any of the above. But in case you are offered, I hear the duck tongue is nothing to spit at. Ha...actually he said it was pretty chewy...

Rozoy Continued...

I have now recovered from my lunch with Mr and Mrs Belly and am ready to post the other pictures from the weekend. Of course today I did meet my friend Irina and her new husband for lunch to talk about how the quest for a carte de sejour is going for them. She is Russian and he is French and they are going through the same process that Cyr and I will go through in November with getting a work permit and a residence card. More on that fun stuff later....

This is the garden she has. It is in a sort of valley I guess you could say. Above the garden floor to the right is a very old church and then further to the back there is a wall remaining from a castle that was there in the 1600's I think. Check out the tree looking thing on the left side of the photo.

Everyone was finding jobs to do, I decided to pull weeds. Once I was done with my wall I asked about the odd tree that looked to have been taken over by ivy. H told me that it was actually a very old water pump that was taken over by plant life. "Oh! Do you want me to try to cut it away?" I asked hopefully. She agreed and my treasure hunt began!! I clipped away and found brick, then on one side I found a pump. It took hours just to uncover one side. After two days of work, this is what was underneath!!


It was amazing! If we could have stayed another day I would have tried to figure out how to reach the top part. Do you remember the really big and tall brown muppet that had the HUGE mouth and would dance during The Muppet Show? I felt like I was cutting his hair. I actually talked to it while I was clipping away. I think it helped. H was so excited too, she said since we cut through the large roots that she was hoping the top part would die and be easier to remove after a few weeks. I don't know about that, the thing looked like an animal ready to spring back to life and devour the pump again, but maybe not.

This is the view from where we were burning some of the brush we cleared. That is the church up top. I just kept getting carried away with the thoughts of a castle being up there next to the church. You can see H and B very small at the bottom of the photo.

So it was a really fun weekend. I typically don't do much gardening other than killing the small plants I buy or people try to give me. Really, unless you hate a plant specifically, don't give it to me. I will kill it. I won't mean to, but it will happen. Plants and Susan are like Lenny and small mice. It's completely unintentional, but it happens. That is why I stick to fresh cut flowers. I know from the moment I pick them out they are going to die. Plus no one expects me to be able to make them live longer than a week so that I look less like the Jeffrey Dahmer of horticulture and more the like the Florence Nightingale of flowers trying to help her patients live as long as possible.

Rozoy Rocks...

So there was no sex trade to sell me off to so feel free to breath the sigh of relief I am sure you have been holding. I'm back and safe and sound! Turns out I didn't even have the right story with the other two guesses either. H, who owns the house and garden now, inherited them from her Grandmother. Her Great Aunt (Grandmother's sister) still lives in the town. She came over and had lunch with us both days. They said she was 97!! She walked over from her house without a cane and seemed to be all together. Man, what a lady...I tried to speak with her a little, she was so sweet and very easy to understand. I think the older generations here are much easier to understand, they speak slow and seem to really enunciate their words.

Here is the house...

It was built in the 18th century. Crazy eh? So about the time the Declaration of Independence was declaring my country a country; they were putting up wall paper. H said that much of the house was built using older materials taken from older houses, so the wood used for the stairs and some of the floors dates back to the early 1700's and maybe 1600's. Nutty. It's just so strange to wrap your mind around the time.

I stayed on the 3rd floor with my Brit friend Karen, there were 6 of us and there were multiple beds in the upper room so we decided to camp out together. Every time my feet would walk down the stairs (barefoot because I am completely aware of my propensity to slide down stairs on my arse when I try to walk down them with socks) I would wonder how many other feet had touched them. They were beautiful. I tried to capture the warmth that the stairs held, but I don't think the pictures do them justice of course. I don't know why I was so captured by the stairs. I loved how smooth they were from the wear of over 200 years of use. If you look at the pictures you might be able to see that in many places the nails showed through and were worn as smooth as the wood that surrounded them. Sometimes I would see a scar in the wood and make up a story of how I thought I was made. Maybe a young girl was trying to carry a tray of food up to third floor for her sick uncle and dropped it. When the tray hit the soft wood on the second floor it scared the wood it's still there today.


The house had a great back yard with a bridge made out of concrete and cave built into the side of the house that kids could play in. When H was a child she and her sister drew buffalo cave drawings on the raw rock and mud walls. You could still see two of them. I would have done the same...


I can't seem to upload anymore photos so I will have to post others tomorrow...I will make sure to include the cave as the first one!

We worked in the garden that she has on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It's about two blocks from the main house. The garden is a lot that backs up to an old church and what used to be a castle with three towers. It is nestled in at the bottom of a slop that the church sits on and where the castle used to be and is in the shape of an L. There were tons of apple trees that were just bursting with fruit. As I type this I am wondering what all I can cook with all the apples I have. I have a few ideas, one of the girls there AS, she is an amazing cook and we had apple tart, apple cake, chicken with apples and even red cabbage and apples made by Karen!

We worked really hard in the garden and ate fantastic food all weekend. It made me wish to live in a simpler time, where people worried about keeping their land and storing enough food to survive the winter, not failing economies and wars in other countries. I know it must have been very hard, but they all had focus. Even if the focus was just to get a crop in. Ah, I have been reading too much Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series. But if you have read the books, I did feel a bit like Claire working in her garden while Jamie (Cyriaque) was off hunting...although Jamie didn't hunt in China (where Cyr currently is) and Claire didn't have a hot shower to go back to. Now that I think about it, 2008 has been one the best years of my life. I think I'll stay...

A weekend trip!!

I received a really nice surprise when I read my emails yesterday. You might recall that I went to my first cocktail party in France about a week ago (sorry...not sure how to link to that dur...) and made some new friends. Well...one of the girls invited me to spend the weekend in Rozoy with a few of the other girls! "H" has a Great Aunt in Rozoy and every year she makes a trip with friends to the property to help clear the garden of weeds. Either that or she inherited the land from the Great Aunt and wants to clear it for herself. Or I could be on my way to being sold into the sex trade. Only time will tell, check in Monday I guess.

The good news is that I know the other girls that are going and I really like them all. As I type this I have my camera battery charging and am thinking of what to pack. I was told to bring sheets and boots. No problem!! I have both of those! Not sure the "boots" are what she meant though, my work boots are brown cowboy boots. I'm sure they look just like hers, or her Great Aunt's. Oh well, as a continuation of the previous post I guess I am just determined to bring my own style to France. "Tex goes a-gardening" might be the next post you read.

I think it's about 2.5 hours away from Lille. I am going to dinner with one of the girls tonight and staying at her place. Tomorrow the group will pick us up at 9am and we will head off to have a quick weekend in the countryside. I'm looking forward to this for a few reasons; 1) I get to see a new part of France, 2) I get to spend time outdoors AND getting exercise, 3) new friends, yeah! Of course I could end up feeling completely awkward, be allergic to everything, have an asthma attack, get eaten by strange French bugs, get a horribly ugly sunburn/tan line and look like a freak at my wedding and generally have a completely awful time while feeling like an outcast. But let's not think of that. Let's focus on those first 3 good things.

A few things German

It's a little after the fact...but here is a short blog about my trip to Munich last week.

I arrived on Monday and my friends picked me up at the airport. From there we went to pick up their little cousin S who is one of the most beautiful children I have ever seen. I think she is 6 years old and has the face of an angel. Once we picked her up from school we did what all good people do while looking after a small child, we went to a beer garden. There we grabbed our huge mugs, washed them in the fountain located by the rack of glasses (my friend promises they are already clean but people just like to wash them off, plus it makes the glass colder for the beer) and take them to be filled with the hoppy goodness that is German lager.

Once our beers have been poured we then saunter over to buy a huge pretzel and two fish on a stick. They still have the heads on them and though I did feel like the pink one was watching me pick away at his insides, they were actually very tasty. The saltyness of the fish and pretzels went perfect with the cold brew. Check it out...
Bordering the beer garden was a fence that had some deer in it. Here is one of the pretzel loving animals. I believed she posed especially nice for this photo and managed to let us all know what she thought of the damn fence. "But thanks for the pretzel." I'm sure she would add.
Once finished with our beers we headed to the city center after dropping S off at her mother's house. One of the first things I saw was this angular fortress-like building. It didn't fit the surroundings, it was strong looking and not inviting. The first word I thought of was "defensive".

Then I saw the doors as we approached.

It's a synagogue my friend told me. Actually it's the Ohel Jakob Synagogue
located where another Jewish place of worship stood but was destroyed in 1938 by the Nazis. It was really a site. So strong. It didn't shout it's message, but instead seemed to quietly and without doubt say, "This is a safe place for all who enter." It was simple, yet very moving. Some people had left prayers between the stones as if it was the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem where many Jews go to mourn the destruction of the first Holy Temple and offer prayers written on paper placed in the cracks of the stones. The symbols on the door represent the 10 commandments I read. Cyr got some much better photos, but of course...they are on his computer or in his camera and not within my reach at the moment.

So alas I leave you with the thought of the Ohel Jakob Synagog. A place that is new but represents something very old. A belief that countless numbers of people died for and that some are still persecuted for today. I hope this building will live up to it's appearance and be a safe and protecting place for those that remember, along with being a reminder of things that should never happen again. To anyone.

Word of the Day

Asfahrt.

Just say it.  Please?  You have to.  Say it out loud!!  Asfahrt.  If you are not smilling right now then something could be wrong.  That is the most fun word!  I see it all the time in Munich.  It means "exit".

Things are good here but if I were the bride I would have freaked out a few times already.  The people she ordered the appetisers from for the vin d'honour took her order, she confirmed Monday, then they called her cell Monday afternoon and told her they could not do it because they had another party.  WHAT??  They confirmed her two weeks ago and that morning!  But problem solved with another place and a fantastic family.  Her sisters are making the food now and I bet it will be fantastic.  

Well, I am going to asfahrt this post and head to get some rest for tomorrow.  Hehe...

Oh...I tried on a traditional Bavarian dress today, with the pushed up boobs and everything!  I looked like I should be bringing very large beers to people.  Promise to post the picture next week.

Gutentag!! (??)

The Braderi was amazing!! I have a bunch of great pictures that I am going to post when I return. But...no new bicycle though...darn it!!

I´m in Munich right now on a short vacation. Some friends of ours are getting married here on Saturday and the bride invited me up early so I could help her out and see the city a bit. So far it has really been a great time, though I do wish Cyr was here. He is at home in Lille being responsible and working.

I will try to post a bit this week if I get a chance, but I might just wait until I return on Monday. Right now I am taking a break and waiting for my friend in an internet cafe. I have already gotten some really cool shots of a beer garden we went to. They had wild life. I mean what else does one need? We had beer, pretzel, grilled fish (with heads still on of course) and deer! Love it...

Good ol' Texas

Well I made it back from Lille all the way to Houston. It was a long trip, but not too bad. Although I did have a Delta flight from Paris to Atlanta and the plane was not exactly new. Example: it had ashtrays in the arm rests. No kidding! The crazy thing was that it also had the little tv's in the back of the seats with a version of on demand movies and things. I say a "version" because they had the movies showing in intervals and you had to time when you started them. I only know this because I read this, I couldn't actually see the movies because the movie part on my little tv was broken. But back to my original thought; wow, they must have updated the seats with the tv's I guess because surely there was never a time when you could smoke on a flight and have your own tv.

I could however get the tv series. I skipped the Friends and Simpsons and watched CSI. It was a really good one, some guy was murdered and the killer made a miniature copy of the entire scene. Even used the vic's (like that use of the word "vic" as in "victim"? I know my stuff eh?) own blood inside the miniature of the room to duplicate the scene. I was involved and was glad it was a two parter because it ate the time. That is until I realized that they were not showing the second part. DAMN DELTA. I watched that stupid show 3 times hoping that maybe by some small miracle that the part II would show. Never happened. I think that might be because the small miracle was that my head did not explode due to the cabin pressure combined with a sinus infection.

When the lovely Delta plane landed (medium sized miracle) in Atlanta the first thing I did was find a place to buy antihistamines and Afrin. This purchase made the flight to Houston a little less painful. Flying west always seems so much easier. I don't sleep on the flight and by the time I get home it's time to go to bed so the next day I wake up and feel relatively normal. Today I had to drive around and do a few errands. I must say, after doing the little driving I have done in France, I am a brave and bad ass driver here now. Especially in my (I know it's cliche, but it does get good gas mileage) 4-runner. I probably won't get hurt, and I have insurance. Watch out all you crazy suburban drivers. I ain't scared...

Damn VAT, Yeah Egypt!!

So I loved my French school, and I am sooooo glad I took it. But it was pretty expensive. One of the ways I was able to talk myself into taking the class was that 150 euro of the price was a VAT tax which is like the national tax here. If you spend a certain about of money and are not a resident you can get the tax back. No problem right?

I go to the secretary at the French school and ask her for a receipt (all this is done in horrible French as they won't speak to you in English). She tells me they will mail me one. Of course it is not this easy, this is after I mime "should I call you next week" and "do I need to write a letter" and then I am able to translate the answer. Well class has ended, I get an envelope from them, and it's not a money receipt, it's a stupid letter saying I took a B1 level French class. UH!! I am so pissed! I want to yell SPEAK ENGLISH LADY!! But I know this is unreasonable, I should be speaking French. I know this, I am trying.

This really would not be such a big deal if I wasn't leaving next Wednesday to go back to the states for a family wedding shower and to pick up my dress for the wedding. I mean, I'm going to be in the airport, right there...and I probably won't be able to do it. 150 euro, that's like $500 American or something right now!! I could be making money on this deal! Well hell, maybe if I keep it a few months the dollar will raise even more and I can profit on this thing even more.

So yes, I will be in the US for a week starting next Wednesday. I plan to keep up my blog this time though. At least a few times a week. I'm having my last fitting for my dress and will pick that up. The wedding isn't until October and of course I am hoping that I will loose so much weight that I will have to find a seamstress here in Lille to take it in because my butt has shrunk to Jennifer Lopez size and firmness, but we will see. It could happen right? I think now I'm more Jennifer Hudson than Lopez, but Cyr seems to like it so I can't complain too much I guess. I love how he tells me "don't loose weight, I love your curves." As if this is really a concern eh? Seriously honey...no need to worry about that. Just show me a Leffe Brune, some L'Os a Moelle (not sure of the spelling) and Maroille and BAM! Curves are back babe...

My family has also planned a wedding shower for me which I think is kind of cool, but I don't live in the US so it might be weird. I'm excited to have the sherbet punch and to see the parts of my family that only come out of the woods for weddings and funerals, but it's not like I can get a toaster as a gift. I can't plug it in here guys, it won't work. So...I registered our honeymoon. Maybe this is tacky, but people keep asking me where I am registered and so now I have an answer. I researched a few places and decided on Travelersjoy.com I set up a site for Cyr and I and I think it's the most practical thing we can do. This way if people feel like they need to give us a gift they can, and it's something that we really want. We are going to Egypt and plan to stay two weeks. YEAH!! I can't wait!! Beach for the first week, desert for the second. Whoohoo!! I hope someone buys the upgrade to the Oberoi Resort....if anyone has any suggestions for Egypt feel free to email or post a comment. Thanks!

Amsterdam and sunny Lille!

Last Friday Cyr and I left for Amsterdam for a short holiday weekend. We drove over, about 3 hours, and it began to rain a bit when we entered the city. It also seemed to be much colder there than in Lille. People talk about how the north of France is cold and rainy, uh...what about Amsterdam!? Maybe it's just my weather karma but I have been there twice, the first was in April of this year and it SNOWED while we were there. This time it was about 50 degrees (10C) and rained off and on the whole weekend. The sun did come out though for a little while each day though. I think people just don't really care much what the weather is like there. I know we didn't! We had a great time! I had never been to an Amsterdam Coffee Shop, so we did that on Friday evening. Everyone talks about this so I had to try it out and wanted to be able to say I had a brownie. I actually had a cookie and a muffin. Pretty tasty, but the whole next day we were super laid back and didn't do much. I think I prefer a good Leffe over the muffin/brownie/cookie thing. Over the weekend we went to the Van Gogh Museum, the Ann Frank house, a photography exhibit and walked around looking at the local artists, having a beer here and there. It was really a great weekend. There was no stress involved and we held hands and smootched all over the city.

We got home last night around 5pm and my bad weather karma must have worn off because it is amazing in Lille today!! It's sunny and 75 degrees (25C)! I had lunch with my friend Marine's aunt and cousin who live here. We sat outside, drank wine and got a suntan over a meal, it was fantastic. They speak broken English and I speak broken French so it was all very entertaining. We actually had two dictionaries on the table and would pick them up to look up words. They were so much fun, I would love to see them both again, I will have to write more about them another time.

I'm actually going to study some French this evening and try to clean the house up a bit. Yes, this is Susan...I am voluntarily going to study and clean. My father might have just fallen out of his chair and broken his other arm after reading this. Maybe I'll just go super crazy and also cook something! Hmmm...maybe that muffin and cookie are still in my system...

Home at last!!

I'm back in Lille...yeah!! Don't get me wrong, I loved my visit home, but a month was just way too long to be away from Cyr. I did get a chance to see almost all of my family and friends though. Somehow it all still seemed rushed, especially at the end. Then again, I am that person who if given 6 weeks to do a project will wait until two days before to begin. Long deadlines are just unrealistic. Just tell me the week before and I will actually work a little everyday. As you can guess, I slacked off up front then had to try to cram everything into the last 4 days. It was nuts but fun.

The trip home was good, PLUS...my Mom came back with me for a nine day visit!! We boarded the plane in Houston and I was a little worried to be honest. I have a friend who flew Air France a few months ago back from Paris and her flight was horrible. So bad that her sister fainted in the aisle it was so hot, crazy eh? So I board and am prepared to live up to the "pushy American" label and do hand to hand combat with the flight attendants if needed. I purchased the tickets with miles and they were assigned seats that were both aisles with me in front and Mom in back of me. I didn't change the seats because I knew we needed to sleep on the flight so that we could fend off the jet lag as much as possible and if she were next to me I would probably talk her ear off. That didn't matter much though...you see we were on a new plane and we each had our own direct tv thing to pick out movies and such. I was 15 minutes into Juno prior to take off! Because of my intense curiosity and need to be entertained I couldn't help but watch a few movies, then they came around with the free wine and it was over. I watched Juno (loved it), 27 Dresses (cute but predictable), The Golden Compass (good time filler but not great) and Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis with English subtitles (I saw this in the theater but it was so good I saw it again. Love it!). So I think I got in about 30 minutes sleep. Mom didn't sleep much either. Without being able to doze off the flight seemed a little long but it was the typical 9 hours and a few minutes. There was some turbulence but the flight was great other than the pilot clicking on to wake us all up and let us know there was turbulence and to fasten our seat belts. Really? Come on man, shut up and let us sleep, if some idiot feels the turbulence and still insists on going to the bathroom he will probably get some bad splash of unknown bacteria and that in itself would be punishment enough.

The only entertaining part was our arrival and trip to Lille. Cyr came down with what I think was strep throat the day before we took off. He was so sick he went to the doctor. He has never been to the doctor since I have known him so this was a sign he was really pretty darn sick. I told him not to worry about picking us up and that we would take the train to Lille and he could pick us up from the train station there. Besides, Mom has never been on a train, you get to see the country side and it's only one hour direct as opposed to a two hour car ride. I guess it would not have been that bad if not for the bags. When I came over I left a lot of my summer clothes (we do so have summer in northern France, stop that!) and wanted to bring them back with me. Mom was good and got all her clothes in one bag, so I took her second carry on and had two of my own. Total we had 3 roller bags, a duffel and two carry ons. Traveling light? Not so much.

Arrival in Paris was quick an easy. Completely opposite of US customs. It took us less than 30 minutes to get our passports stamped and get our luggage. Once we have everything loaded onto a push cart we find our way to the train station in the airport to get tickets to Lille. I cannot thank Charles de Gaul enough for providing free push carts. Brilliant!! In the US they charge for the use (damn capitalism). It took a bit of wrestling but we found the ticket area. Unfortunately there are like 4 places to buy tickets at with multiple windows. There are local tickets, international and I have no clue what else. I decide the information line is shorter that waiting for a ticket in the wrong line so I line up with all the other Americans and find out where I should go. Glad I asked, I was totally eying the wrong lines. After our tickets are purchased we meet an American Army Veteran who is going to Normandy for a reunion. No kidding. This guy was 83 years old and hopping around the airport by himself looking for his train to Lille where he was meeting a friend. Turns out good old Travis was a medic during the war and was at Normandy. I had an uncontrollable urge to hug him, which I did when we parted later that day. Travis was on a first class train (check him out, traveling in style) and was not sure how to locate his train and car and all that good stuff. I felt so cultured knowing how to help him! I got to help someone in France! Actually two people because a girl heard me explaining and asked if I could help her as well. Damn, when I get depressed I should go to the train station and help people find their trains. That's better than therapy. Some unknowing travelers are so nervous and scared when they can't figure things out that when you help them it's as if you have come up with a solution to removing the troops or something.

I get our crew (Mom and Travis) and we wait for our platform to be announced. I check the gate numbers so I know where to head when it pops up. Got it! Number 3! We head to the gate, crap. Stairs. We have 6 pieces of luggage, I can't do stairs. I break into a sweat. French people are rarely on time, but French trains are almost always on time. Feet begin tapping when they are 3 minutes late. I tell Mom to stay up and I will take the bags down. Uhh...I made one trip and then began looking for an elevator. I find one, Travis is watching the one bag I left on the platform. I make Mom practically jog to the elevator and then we wait there huffing. We just waited an hour for the train, please don't let us miss it. After what seems like 20 minutes we get to our platform. By this time I fairly certain that Travis was in fact a disguised drug dealer and has hidden crack, heroin or both in my rolly bag. We arrive on the platform and I see him waiting for us with my bag. I eye him suspiciously but can't see how he could have fit the crack or heroin in my already stuffed bag. We haul our stuff to where car #5 should arrive, I show Travis where his car #1 will be and we wait. The train is 5 minutes late, French toes are tapping. Mom and I plan the attack on the train; she will go on and get the seats, I will toss up the bags and get them stowed. The train arrives, plan goes to hell, I hand up bags to Mom, we get in everyones way but get them all on. We find our seats and the train is pulling away before I can get Cyr's suit stowed. Oh yeah, I also had a suit for Cyr that he had altered. Damn...glad I got the bags on. We then sit and enjoy the ride. We never see Travis again and turns out I am not a drug mule after all. He gave us his card to keep in touch or if we needed to buy/sell property. He sells real estate now to fill his time and seems to be doing really well at it. I mean who wouldn't want to list property with with him or buy something from him? He seems like the most honest man in the world. I mean, your grandfather wouldn't screw you out of an extra 15% would he? Especially a war hero grandfather. I dunno...Travis was traveling first class now that I think of it. Ha...

Here are a few pictures from my last post.
The cutest pregnant woman in the world, my friend Jen in LA in her bikini:

Famous Me:

I'll post pics about Mom's visit next time.
Have a great day!
Love you Dad and will call you later!