Quel week-end!

This weekend was full of wonderful meals, spent in the company of good friends and new friends!

On Friday evening, I went to Le Gibet, a restaurant outside of Nogent, for a soiree with the running club. To understand the French, you must understand their meal schedule. A 7:30pm meeting time for dinner seems reasonable, right? Well, the running club's director (my ride) and I arrived at 7:30...and were the first ones there. The others slowly trickled in, we stood around chatting and everytime someone new arrived, of course, the obligatory 2 bises on the cheeks to say Bonsoir. That means it takes about 15 minutes to say hello to everyone! But it is nice to individually greet every person in the room. So around 8:30 or so, we sit down to....the aperitif. Then, the entree (a salad)...then the main course (a beef stew kinda thing with a creamy mushroom risotto side)...then the cheese course (mmm cheese!)...then dessert (galette de roi!)...then coffee. After the meal, sitting around the table talking is quite normal, and by the time we got up to leave, it was already midnight! What a night! On a side note, I met a man who spoke perfect English, due to his being a business man that knows UNC, and Michael Jordan. Crazy to run into someone that is familiar with North Carolina enough to be, oh you're from NC, that's Raleigh right? Crazy!

And then...Saturday was a nice lazy day, went to the market as do all the Nogentaise, then a friend from Chartres came to visit and see the chateau St-Jean, so I showed her around. Then, we both headed back for a Mexican fiesta, sponsored by the wonderful Spanish assistants in Chartres that are from Mexico. They cooked dinner, which was amazing!! Guacamole, pico de gallo, quesadillas, salsa, enchildas with mole sauce (a chocolate/chili sauce which is AMAZING). And of course, all of this was made from scratch! It's been a while since I've had Mexican food since it's near impossible to find in France (especially Nogent) so that was a welcome variation on the French bread and cheese diet.

After all this eating this weekend, it's a good thing I have the running club to go to on Monday night! I'll definitely be needing to keep that up if I hope to fit in my jeans in the future!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well, made it back to Nogent safe and sound on Wed. Jan 6th. After dreading going back to a full day of teaching from 8:30 to 4:30 on Thursday, with jet lag and everything, my prayers were answered as it snowed about 10 inches on Wed night. Even though school was not cancelled, I did not have to go in to my early classes as the teachers couldn’t make it in through the snow. I went to my next class and there was a grand total of….6 students. So we made snowflakes...and colored them...again. Then for my next class, we played Pictionary and hangman since there was 14 students. For some reason, this class just decided to all show up even with the snow. The snow is really pretty, and everything looked so wintery! It’s also quite chilly- below freezing everyday, so the snow hasn’t really been going anywhere. But the gendarmes and snowplows have been hard at work, and now the roads look pretty good and the sidewalks are mostly shoveled. Just lots of piles of snow remaining on the side of the road.