...and back again

I'm back!  Toussaint vacation was incredibly fun.  I had a great time, and as a bonus, learned a bunch of new words in French - I seriously think my level improved as much in a week as it has in the whole past month.

Anywhoo.  This is going to be a sort of "photo essay" of my trip.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  OK here we go.

Gwenaëlle's party Saturday night:

Definitely a party instrument.

My semi-successful attempt to teach "the itsy-bitsy spider".

Sunday we just kind of kicked around, and headed to Niort on Sunday night.  Being back again really made me think about the fact that last time I was here, the idea of living in France was a pipe dream.  And now I've made it!


Some pictures from a walk we took:

You can't tell from this picture, but I almost fell off.  Daphne can tell I'm falling - she's trying to bail.

Strike a pose!

We played a lot of music this week, and produced a few recordings with a few more in the works for next time.  It was kind of like a music camp.  We thought of calling it "Camp Rock" after that stupid movie (which neither of us like but did serve the purpose of providing an awesome name for our experience), but actually we only had acoustic instruments - Camp Acoustic!

Our recording studio.

Everyone participates!

There were occasional artistic differences.

I also went to my first manif (short for manifestation, or protest).

Gwenaëlle poses in front of our favorite protest sign.  Résistance!!

The Dread Pirate Manif!

This speaks for itself.

 I also got a bit of a driving lesson.  The combination of factors made it a terrifying experience:
1.  I don't really know how to drive a stick shift.  I've done it before, but that's not saying much.
2.  There are roundabouts here, which we don't have.
3.  There was a slight breakdown in communication.  Sample narrative:
Gwenaëlle (in French): "OK, you need to aldkjfakdh."  (at least, that's what I heard.)
Me: (in English):  "What?  Does that mean shift down?"
Gwenaëlle (in French): "I don't know...does that mean aldkjfakdh?"
Me: *panic*
We pulled over to have a vocab lesson and after that it was better.  Good thing Gwenaëlle's English is almost perfect, because this was one of the few times I had to insist on an English moment.  The combination of trying to drive and trying to speak French would have made my brain explode. 

They see me rollin'...they hatin'...

OMG A ROUNDABOUT!!!!!!!

Daphne enjoyed herself on the vacation as well.

She's not at all spoiled.

 I also got to experience French trick-or-treating.  The kids were really into it, but the range of reactions of the adults was mixed.  Some people were expecting it, and had candy ready, but some people looked at us like we were from Mars.  ("Do I have any....candy?  No....why?")

They are so cute!

Un bonbon OR ELSE!

This neighbor kitty followed us all over the neighborhood.  Daphne kept running up to him like, "MOMO?!??!?!"

Would it be a blog post of mine without talking about food?  Of course not.  All the food I ate was delicious, but two meals in particular need further discussion.
1.  Raclette

This is a raclette grill.

You melt pieces of cheese on a special raclette grill, then when they're all melty you pour them over cut up potatoes and meat like ham or salami.  It's pretty much the best thing ever.  I need to figure out how to get a raclette grill home somehow.  "Raclette", by the way, is French for "HOLY YUM."

2.  French Sunday dinner
Gwenaëlle's entire family went over to her Grandmother's house for French Sunday dinner.
The menu:

3 appetizers
Salad
Quiche
Turkey Breast with like...plums and figs. 

White Beans
Green Beans
Cheese
Bread
Apple Tart
Chocolate Cake
Then of course, about a million drink options including wine.
It was kind of like that scene in A Year in Provence where Peter Mayle goes to his first French dinner and the food just keeps coming.  At some point, though, I also managed to have coffee and a piece of candy. When in Rome...

Then, I kid you not, FOUR hours after we finished that, it was dinner time! Dinner? Soup, salad, TWO kinds of quiche, the turkey/beans from lunch, then of course cheese, fruit, and the rest of the apple tart.  I was in a food coma from all the epic tasty food.

Oh and!  Gwenaëlle cut my hair.  I really wanted more layers, and bangs.  I think it turned out really well

Even I was slightly nervous in advance...

...but, success!!

The success of the haircut was met with surprise from almost every member of her family ("hey!  That actually turned out well!")

So to sum up, I had a pretty amazing time!