Thursday December 24th - France
Bus: Depart Montmorillon at 8:01pm
Arrival in Poitiers at 8:53pm
Train: Depart Poitiers at 10:08pm
*overnight train
Friday December 25th - Madrid, Spain
Train: Arrival in Madrid at 9:10am
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Saturday December 26th - Madrid, Spain
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Sunday December 27th - Madrid, Spain
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Monday December 28th - Madrid, Spain
Train: Departs Madrid at 10:50pm
*overnight train
Tuesday December 29th - Barcelona, Spain
Train: Arrives in Barcelona at 7:36am
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Wednesday December 30th - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Thursday December 31th - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Friday January 1st - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Saturday January 2nd - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Sunday January 3rd - Road Trip
*We will be leaving Barcelona and driving back to Angouleme in Beto's camping car. I don't know how long of a drive it'll be. I'll either take a train back to Montmorillon in the evening or Monday morning depending on at what hour we arrive.
* In Madrid I will be with my roommate Leidy and her Colombian friend who is flying in from Germany. Gloria also might be meeting up with us there.
*In Barcelona I will be staying in Beto's camping car along with about 7 other people. Unfortunately there are no camping areas around Barcelona, so we won't have hookups for the car. So we are planning on parking the car by a beach or the olympic stadium, because they have free public showers and bathrooms. I also have a bunch of other friends arriving whom I will be meeting up with too.
*I will have my cell phone with me, if you need to get a hold of me. I will also try to check my email every couple of days and update my blog like usual.
If you have any questions please post a comment on this page or send me an email. LoveYa!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
December Pictures
Leidy's first snow
A snowy Montmorillon
Sudoko player machine. A present from the grandparents
A snowy Montmorillon
A snowy Montmorillon
A snowy Montmorillon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Beto and me at Cinq Sens
Beto and me at Cinq Sens
Picture of part of the group in Angouleme
December
The first weekend of December (4th-7th) was spent in Angouleme visiting friends. My former spanish roommate Gloria took a train from Madrid, Spain to Angouleme for the weekend to see everyone. Some of our other friends from last year came to visit too, so there was a huge reunion in Angouleme. I arrived Friday evening and stayed the weekend at Misty's apartment, so that's where my fun began. Upon arriving at Misty's we quickly headed to the market to buy some food and alcohol for the weekend. Friday night was suppose to be the "pre-game" night and Saturday night the huge blowout party night. But we didn't exactly follow that plan. Everyone started drinking early and hard Friday night as we all got together and discussed what we did over the summer. We visited a bunch of our "old haunts" from last year, like Kennedy's Pub, Cinq Sens, L'Havana Bar and ended the night at "la Moon" dance club. It was a long night (we arrived home around 6am). Everyone ended up sleeping in Saturday. In the evening a group of us went to a Pizzeria that I'd never visited before. It was really cool because the pizza is super long (about 4 feet long and one foot wide) and with really different types of toppings (how often do you eat potatoes and salmon on your pizza?). We ended up going out again after the dinner to Cinq Sens, L'Havana and La Moon, but everyone was still pretty hungover and broke from the night before so we didn't drink that much. We did dance at La Moon dance club until around 3:30 am though. Sunday was a "chillaxin" day. Misty and me cleaned the apartment a little, made some cookies and in the evening all the girls came over and we had a large slumber party in the living room. Monday morning Nalleli and me took Gloria to the train station to see her off and then headed into town to do some shopping. I was suppose to catch a train back to Montmorillon in the evening, but Nalleli talked me into staying for another night (I'm not quite sure why, because she had a dinner meeting with some professors so we didn't really get to hangout much more). Since Nalleli had dinner plans already I met up with the boys (Beto, Fabien and Benoir) and we all went to "le Souris Vert" (the green mouse) for some drinks while we waited for Nalleli. I took a train Tuesday morning back to Montmorillon because I had class at 4pm. It was a really fun weekend and I'm looking forward to more like it. Pamela (from Scotland) and Celine (from Switzerland) are already discussing when our next reunion in Angouleme will be, since they weren't able to join us for the last one (sounds like probably the end of January or the beginning of February).
The second weekend of December (11-13th) was the "Marche de Noel" (Christmas Market). So we spent Saturday wandering around the different markets and booths, looking at things and trying free samples. We ended up buying ostrich sausage, pear cider and escargot pate. All of it was absolutely delicious. I also bought some books on the history of Montmorillon to aid me in my research for writing my book. There's a carnival in town for the festivities too, but no "fun/adult" rides (boring).
My weekdays consisted of reading, preparing lesson plans, cooking (potato salad = failure; Crab salad = success), teaching, researching info for my book, etc. I received a couple of care packages in the mail (thanks you guys! they were all awesome and very thoughtful) and it snowed for a few days causing some of my classes to be canceled (YES!!). It was Leidy's first time ever seeing snow. The last week before the start of vacation was the 15th - 18th, but all my classes were cancelled from Tuesday on so I ended up teaching on Monday only in Chauvigny (so my vacation actually started Monday evening). Wednesday the 16th I had to go into Poitiers for the day to visit the Immigration office and finish all my paperwork. A stupid pain in my butt, but it is all finished and taken care of so there's no more paperwork for me to do (yeah!).
Yesterday(22nd) Leidy and me were invited to lunch at a co-worker's house. We went and had a wonderful time. They were so hospitable. Jean-Pierre is a librarian in our school and his wife Deborah is an art teacher in the school. They have two children a 13 year old boy and a 5 year old girl who were also pleasant and polite. We started the meal off by having a bottle of white wine (Jean-Pierre is from Bordeaux so he is a wine expert and he explained to us all about wine) and pate (I don't actually like pate, but I ate it anyways to be polite...I almost threw up...I really, really don't like pate). For the main course we had a potato dish that is similar to our scalloped potatoes and some dried ham and a bottle of red wine (with another explanation of how the wine, was made, why they chose that wine for the meal, where its made, etc). French tradition with wine has always amused me. During a typical meal you will go through many bottles of wine, depending on how many courses you eat. Each course requires a different type/flavor of wine to bring out the best flavor of the food. This can also make for a very long meal, because a new course will not be brought out until the bottle is finished. After the main course we had apple tart (similar to apple pie) and a coffee (it's traditional to drink coffee after a meal to help the digestion, in fact they call it a "digestif"). Then we moved to the living room to chat. We ended up chatting for a long time. They are very nice, open-minded people, so the conversation was excellent. We had some tea and cookies before returning home. We'd been at their house for 5 hours. My how time flys.
Anyways, we leave tomorrow evening for Madrid so I've just been getting everything ready for that trip. I'll post my itinerary a little later. LoveYa.
The second weekend of December (11-13th) was the "Marche de Noel" (Christmas Market). So we spent Saturday wandering around the different markets and booths, looking at things and trying free samples. We ended up buying ostrich sausage, pear cider and escargot pate. All of it was absolutely delicious. I also bought some books on the history of Montmorillon to aid me in my research for writing my book. There's a carnival in town for the festivities too, but no "fun/adult" rides (boring).
My weekdays consisted of reading, preparing lesson plans, cooking (potato salad = failure; Crab salad = success), teaching, researching info for my book, etc. I received a couple of care packages in the mail (thanks you guys! they were all awesome and very thoughtful) and it snowed for a few days causing some of my classes to be canceled (YES!!). It was Leidy's first time ever seeing snow. The last week before the start of vacation was the 15th - 18th, but all my classes were cancelled from Tuesday on so I ended up teaching on Monday only in Chauvigny (so my vacation actually started Monday evening). Wednesday the 16th I had to go into Poitiers for the day to visit the Immigration office and finish all my paperwork. A stupid pain in my butt, but it is all finished and taken care of so there's no more paperwork for me to do (yeah!).
Yesterday(22nd) Leidy and me were invited to lunch at a co-worker's house. We went and had a wonderful time. They were so hospitable. Jean-Pierre is a librarian in our school and his wife Deborah is an art teacher in the school. They have two children a 13 year old boy and a 5 year old girl who were also pleasant and polite. We started the meal off by having a bottle of white wine (Jean-Pierre is from Bordeaux so he is a wine expert and he explained to us all about wine) and pate (I don't actually like pate, but I ate it anyways to be polite...I almost threw up...I really, really don't like pate). For the main course we had a potato dish that is similar to our scalloped potatoes and some dried ham and a bottle of red wine (with another explanation of how the wine, was made, why they chose that wine for the meal, where its made, etc). French tradition with wine has always amused me. During a typical meal you will go through many bottles of wine, depending on how many courses you eat. Each course requires a different type/flavor of wine to bring out the best flavor of the food. This can also make for a very long meal, because a new course will not be brought out until the bottle is finished. After the main course we had apple tart (similar to apple pie) and a coffee (it's traditional to drink coffee after a meal to help the digestion, in fact they call it a "digestif"). Then we moved to the living room to chat. We ended up chatting for a long time. They are very nice, open-minded people, so the conversation was excellent. We had some tea and cookies before returning home. We'd been at their house for 5 hours. My how time flys.
Anyways, we leave tomorrow evening for Madrid so I've just been getting everything ready for that trip. I'll post my itinerary a little later. LoveYa.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Month of November
Sorry for the long delay between posts. Basically I haven't written anything about what I've been up to since I arrived back from my excursion to northern Europe, so here's the 411 on November.
During the weekdays
I've explained before that Montmorillon is a very small town, so there is not much going on and there isn't much to do. So my weekdays all seem about the same. They are filled with teaching, preparing lesson plans, grocery shopping, watching tv, reading, wandering around the town exploring and running basic errands. I've been living very cheaply this month, because I spent all my money for the month on my trip to Norway and Sweden...oops.
Cooking
I've started cooking regularly because its something to do to fill my evenings. Don't get me wrong, I still suck at cooking and all my food tastes horrible, but occasionally I prepare something that is eatable. Leidy's mom owns a catering/restaurant business in Columbia so she's been instructing me on how to prepare different types of food. If it wasn't for Leidy I'd be eating really unhealthily and probably only sandwiches, but she's always cooking up something delicious and we always share what we prepare (I think I'm getting the better end of the deal, because my food is awful). So I've been eating lots of Columbian food specialties.
Writing a book
I've also began writing a book/novel to fill my free time. I never saw myself as a novelist writer (maybe a travel writer, but not a novelist writer), but I got an idea for a book stuck in my head and the more I've tried to ignore it the more it develops in my head and consumes my thoughts. So I decided it was necessary to write it out so it gets out of my head before I go crazy (I hope this isn't how all writers feel). In order to start writing my novel I've had to do a lot of research like "how to write a book". I've never written a book before so I had to research how to start and what to do, hints and tips, etc. I've also been doing historical research like studying up on the history of my town because that's where the book takes place. Studying life in medieval times, studying the history and legends surrounding old documents and scrolls, the history of the old buildings in Montmorillon, black market trading, etc. Its like a huge research project.
Weekends
The weekends in Montmorillon are a little more interesting. Leidy and me usually go to the cinema in town and watch whatever movie is showing, our friends come to visit from different towns, and we go out to the bars or have a dinner and a movie night and Sundays tend to be the day we thoroughly clean our apartment after a trip to the "Salon de The". Yes, it is a bit boring sometimes and not nearly as fun as last year, but I'm saving a lot more money, by not shopping and going to clubs all the time . And we do have a good time organizing little excursions like picnics by the river and concerts at the bars.
Tea Room / Salon de The
Leidy and me have started a tradition of visiting our local "Salon de The" (Tea Room) every Sunday for tea and cake (Marie Antoinette would be proud). Its a charming little place that's located at the entrance to the "Medieval City". There's a terrace to drink your tea on that overlooks the Gartemps River and gives a perfect view of the medieval city (but since its fall/winter we tend to stay inside where its warm). The inside is filled with plush, dainty, comfortable couches and armchairs. Doilies on tables and a cat that lounges around and will plop down on your lap for the duration of your stay. Needless to say its very girly and feminine and owned by a very chic, friendly british lady with a horrible english accent on her french. The proprietress is always organizing little events at the cafe, including a speed dating night that she insists that we go to (we agreed we'd go simply because its a great way to practice our french and meet new people).
Visitors
We had two friends visit us in November. The first one was a mexican spanish assistant during the weekend of the 13th-15th. Saturday night we all went to "Le Buvard Pub" and watched the band "Las Vargas" play again. I really enjoy going to their concerts, because the music is very good (50s rock) and they have a following that always dress-up and dance like they are at a sock hop. So we spent the night twisting (dancing) the night away and then went star gazing in the large soccer field next to our apartment. The weekend of the 20th-23rd Nalleli came to visit (Nalleli is one of the assistants from last year from Angouleme). We had a blast together. We started the weekend off with a mission. "Twilight 2: New Moon" was playing at the cinema in Poitiers in ENGLISH (not french), so we made it our mission to watch the movie in Poitiers. You see last year in Scotland Nalleli and me watched the first Twilight movie together and we took an oath to see the second Twilight together in english too, even if it meant flying to London for a weekend. But since it was playing in Poitiers in English, it wasn't necessary to fly to London (saving us a lot of time and money). Unfortunately our first two attempts were foiled. We originally planned on going Friday night, but Nalleli realized she had to give a tutoring lesson Saturday morning so her arrival in Poitiers was delayed until Saturday (attempt 1: FAILURE). We both arrived on Saturday afternoon ready to see the movie, but then realized that there wasn't a bus that would take us back to Montmorillon if we stayed to watch the whole movie. I tried to find a friend that we could stay the night with in Poitiers but to no avail, so we ended up missing the movie again (attempt 2: FAILURE). Finally Sunday we caught a bus into Poitiers and watched the movie (attempt 3: SUCCESS), I guess the third time is the charm. Stupid bus schedule. We were literally running from the bus station to the cinema to make it to the movie in time. The movie was even more horrible then the first one (Nalleli and me both thought it was extremely amusing that we knew the movie would be awful like the first one, but it was absolutely worth all the trouble we went through to see it), we giggled and made fun of the movie the entire way through it and left the theater laughing at all the work we went through to see such a terrible movie. Nalleli stayed until Monday and went to work with me in Chauvigny and we walked around the old castle ruins between my classes before she caught a bus back to Angouleme. We had a great weekend together. We even slumber partied, because even though we have an extra bedroom and bed she decided we should slumber party so we took the mattresses off the beds and stayed up gossiping and watching movies like little pre-teens.
Beaujolais Party
The Saturday after Thanksgiving (28th), Leidy and me decided to have our own little Beaujolais Party. Beaujolais is a type of very sweet, cheap, awful wine. Its a french tradition to throw Beaujolais parties during the month of November, but since we don't know very many french people we didn't get any invites to the parties this year :( . So we decided to throw our own. It was kind of an impromtu party because we'd walked to HyperU to buy groceries (which is on the opposite side of town) and I'd seen some beaujolais and explained the holiday to Leidy, pretty soon we'd bought a couple of bottles, along with a bunch of different types of cheese and sausage for an "apero" (apero=appetizer and wine party). We stopped for some fresh baguettes on the way home to accompany our cheese, sausage and wine. We started on our drinking and celebrating right away and pretty soon had finished a couple of bottles of wine between us, so we headed out the door to a bar that was having a band play. Unfortunately we arrived late (11pm and the show started at 9pm), so the band was just finishing up. But that was okay, because nobody was there and they were playing modern country like Leann Rimes, so I could definitely do without having to listen to that. So we finished our beers before heading to our favorite bar "Le Buvard Pub". Its located in the heart of the Medieval City, below the old Cathedral. We sat in the back area which is really cool because its like a cave, because the walls are made of rock/stone (the building is built into a cliff, so the back wall is actually the stone cliff). We had a few more beers before calling it a night and stumbling and singing our way back home. For it being just the two of us all the time, we sure do have a lot of fun when we go out.
So that basically sums up what I did during the month of November. I'll write again...soon??? We'll see ;)
During the weekdays
I've explained before that Montmorillon is a very small town, so there is not much going on and there isn't much to do. So my weekdays all seem about the same. They are filled with teaching, preparing lesson plans, grocery shopping, watching tv, reading, wandering around the town exploring and running basic errands. I've been living very cheaply this month, because I spent all my money for the month on my trip to Norway and Sweden...oops.
Cooking
I've started cooking regularly because its something to do to fill my evenings. Don't get me wrong, I still suck at cooking and all my food tastes horrible, but occasionally I prepare something that is eatable. Leidy's mom owns a catering/restaurant business in Columbia so she's been instructing me on how to prepare different types of food. If it wasn't for Leidy I'd be eating really unhealthily and probably only sandwiches, but she's always cooking up something delicious and we always share what we prepare (I think I'm getting the better end of the deal, because my food is awful). So I've been eating lots of Columbian food specialties.
Writing a book
I've also began writing a book/novel to fill my free time. I never saw myself as a novelist writer (maybe a travel writer, but not a novelist writer), but I got an idea for a book stuck in my head and the more I've tried to ignore it the more it develops in my head and consumes my thoughts. So I decided it was necessary to write it out so it gets out of my head before I go crazy (I hope this isn't how all writers feel). In order to start writing my novel I've had to do a lot of research like "how to write a book". I've never written a book before so I had to research how to start and what to do, hints and tips, etc. I've also been doing historical research like studying up on the history of my town because that's where the book takes place. Studying life in medieval times, studying the history and legends surrounding old documents and scrolls, the history of the old buildings in Montmorillon, black market trading, etc. Its like a huge research project.
Weekends
The weekends in Montmorillon are a little more interesting. Leidy and me usually go to the cinema in town and watch whatever movie is showing, our friends come to visit from different towns, and we go out to the bars or have a dinner and a movie night and Sundays tend to be the day we thoroughly clean our apartment after a trip to the "Salon de The". Yes, it is a bit boring sometimes and not nearly as fun as last year, but I'm saving a lot more money, by not shopping and going to clubs all the time . And we do have a good time organizing little excursions like picnics by the river and concerts at the bars.
Tea Room / Salon de The
Leidy and me have started a tradition of visiting our local "Salon de The" (Tea Room) every Sunday for tea and cake (Marie Antoinette would be proud). Its a charming little place that's located at the entrance to the "Medieval City". There's a terrace to drink your tea on that overlooks the Gartemps River and gives a perfect view of the medieval city (but since its fall/winter we tend to stay inside where its warm). The inside is filled with plush, dainty, comfortable couches and armchairs. Doilies on tables and a cat that lounges around and will plop down on your lap for the duration of your stay. Needless to say its very girly and feminine and owned by a very chic, friendly british lady with a horrible english accent on her french. The proprietress is always organizing little events at the cafe, including a speed dating night that she insists that we go to (we agreed we'd go simply because its a great way to practice our french and meet new people).
Visitors
We had two friends visit us in November. The first one was a mexican spanish assistant during the weekend of the 13th-15th. Saturday night we all went to "Le Buvard Pub" and watched the band "Las Vargas" play again. I really enjoy going to their concerts, because the music is very good (50s rock) and they have a following that always dress-up and dance like they are at a sock hop. So we spent the night twisting (dancing) the night away and then went star gazing in the large soccer field next to our apartment. The weekend of the 20th-23rd Nalleli came to visit (Nalleli is one of the assistants from last year from Angouleme). We had a blast together. We started the weekend off with a mission. "Twilight 2: New Moon" was playing at the cinema in Poitiers in ENGLISH (not french), so we made it our mission to watch the movie in Poitiers. You see last year in Scotland Nalleli and me watched the first Twilight movie together and we took an oath to see the second Twilight together in english too, even if it meant flying to London for a weekend. But since it was playing in Poitiers in English, it wasn't necessary to fly to London (saving us a lot of time and money). Unfortunately our first two attempts were foiled. We originally planned on going Friday night, but Nalleli realized she had to give a tutoring lesson Saturday morning so her arrival in Poitiers was delayed until Saturday (attempt 1: FAILURE). We both arrived on Saturday afternoon ready to see the movie, but then realized that there wasn't a bus that would take us back to Montmorillon if we stayed to watch the whole movie. I tried to find a friend that we could stay the night with in Poitiers but to no avail, so we ended up missing the movie again (attempt 2: FAILURE). Finally Sunday we caught a bus into Poitiers and watched the movie (attempt 3: SUCCESS), I guess the third time is the charm. Stupid bus schedule. We were literally running from the bus station to the cinema to make it to the movie in time. The movie was even more horrible then the first one (Nalleli and me both thought it was extremely amusing that we knew the movie would be awful like the first one, but it was absolutely worth all the trouble we went through to see it), we giggled and made fun of the movie the entire way through it and left the theater laughing at all the work we went through to see such a terrible movie. Nalleli stayed until Monday and went to work with me in Chauvigny and we walked around the old castle ruins between my classes before she caught a bus back to Angouleme. We had a great weekend together. We even slumber partied, because even though we have an extra bedroom and bed she decided we should slumber party so we took the mattresses off the beds and stayed up gossiping and watching movies like little pre-teens.
Beaujolais Party
The Saturday after Thanksgiving (28th), Leidy and me decided to have our own little Beaujolais Party. Beaujolais is a type of very sweet, cheap, awful wine. Its a french tradition to throw Beaujolais parties during the month of November, but since we don't know very many french people we didn't get any invites to the parties this year :( . So we decided to throw our own. It was kind of an impromtu party because we'd walked to HyperU to buy groceries (which is on the opposite side of town) and I'd seen some beaujolais and explained the holiday to Leidy, pretty soon we'd bought a couple of bottles, along with a bunch of different types of cheese and sausage for an "apero" (apero=appetizer and wine party). We stopped for some fresh baguettes on the way home to accompany our cheese, sausage and wine. We started on our drinking and celebrating right away and pretty soon had finished a couple of bottles of wine between us, so we headed out the door to a bar that was having a band play. Unfortunately we arrived late (11pm and the show started at 9pm), so the band was just finishing up. But that was okay, because nobody was there and they were playing modern country like Leann Rimes, so I could definitely do without having to listen to that. So we finished our beers before heading to our favorite bar "Le Buvard Pub". Its located in the heart of the Medieval City, below the old Cathedral. We sat in the back area which is really cool because its like a cave, because the walls are made of rock/stone (the building is built into a cliff, so the back wall is actually the stone cliff). We had a few more beers before calling it a night and stumbling and singing our way back home. For it being just the two of us all the time, we sure do have a lot of fun when we go out.
So that basically sums up what I did during the month of November. I'll write again...soon??? We'll see ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
