so its already march?! can you believe it, its been over a month since my last blog and for that i am sorry! february went by SO fast, as it usually does with its short 29 days. PLUS for over half of february i was on vacation! i know, the french life is a hard one for me ;). but before i talk about vacation, just before vacation, the teacher i assist most, Céline, was taking some of the students along with another teacher to <<classe de la neige>>, which is basically they all pack up in a bus and head to the mountains to have class there AND learn how to ski! how fun, right? so while she was gone, i took over the english classes for her and it was quite the experience. it actually went fairly well, but i give mad props to teachers. kids are exhausting. and they are there all day, everyday! i was only there for a couple hours each day. wow, they really are some of the heros of the world! but i was asked to teach them all about the UK, which was interesting considering i knew practically nothing about it. but it wasn't difficult, just had to talk about the countries, their capitals, their symbols and how to say "Where do you come from?, I come from ________. I'm _______ (give their nationality). so nothing too strenuous. all in all it was a good experience. i learned i have to be more stern before being fun, and thats always hard for me! and although i was exhausted and frustrated about 80% of the time, the kids are good kids and always fun to be around. plus, i just had to remember that i had a 17 day vacation just around the corner!
vivement les vacances!! LONG LIVE VACATION!! i think that is france's motto. if not, it should be. so to start off my vacation i went to paris to see mon chéri, alex! we were going to celebrate valentine's day a little early since it fell during the middle of the week when he would be working and i would be jetting of to portugal (yeah, i know, portugal, right!? more on that later.) so we did the usual, walking around paris, hanging out in his tiny apartment, watching tv, doing a little window shopping, etc. also, we hung out with alex's friend hadrien and his girlfriend alexandra on sunday and that was fun, and alex hadn't seen hadrien in a long time so he was happy to catch up with him. but i must mention how strangely (well strange for france) cold it was! like MN cold, and its hardly EVER like that in france. so after walking around all day in the freezing, blustery cold we parted ways with hadrien and alexandra with the intentions of meeting up with them later for a drink or something of the sort. but by the time we made it back towards alex's apartment, we knew that we were ready for a night in. so instead of going to a fancy restaurant to celebrate our valentine's day, we snuggled in and ate kebabs (sidenote:kebabs are like gyros and SO FREEGEN DELISH!) that we picked up on the way. it was nice to warm up after a bone chilling day (you'd think i wasn't minnesotan at this point!) and exchange gifts with our bellies full of kebab. i bought alex some cuff links to go with some new work shirts he bought, and he bought me this lovely perfume with a pretty poppy on the bottle. it was a nice relaxing night, all we needed.
so the weekend was over, but i wasn't leaving paris yet! so i got to see alex extra this time around :). but he had to work monday, so i spent all day at the louvre, walking around, seeing my favorite pieces and reading my book surrounded by sculptures. it was a good day, indeed! after a lovely day at the museum, i went to get alex's shirt that was ready for pick up at the store (successful french speaking experience!) and then i went to the grocery store to get the fixings for a yummy nacho/fajita dinner to surprise alex when he got home! i also bought some chocolate and strawberries to make what turned out to be some of the ugliest, but tastiest chocolate covered strawberries. he was very happy to come home to a cooked meal and his girly. :) so we ate and ate until we could eat not more and then went to bed early because i had to be at the shuttle bus station to go to the airport at 7AM, ugh! next stop, oporto, portugal!
so from paris, my friends valeria, aaron and i flew to portugal (for 60 euros roundtrip!). it was about a two hour flight, but there is a one hour time difference so we only lost one hour. i'm not gonna do a day by day recap of what we did, but i will tell you that portugal is beautiful! we went to oporto first and then lisbon, but i have to say that oporto was my favorite. so much to see and do and the view from everywhere is breathtaking. a few highlights of oporto:
1. our hostel: SUPER nice and SUPER clean and SUPER cheap. not to mention the very friendly faculty and the nice big open kitchen to cook dinner and stay on budget!
2. the 2 1/2 hour FREE walking tour: there were some non official tour guides who come around to the hostels offering free walking tours, we thought why not. it was a great way to see the city and learn some history behind it at the same time! and a great opportunity to some picture snapping :)
3. port wine cellar tour: we got to tour the cellar and try port wine, which was a first for me. very yummy, very sugary. much different from the wine in france, but really good. great, educational, and delicious tour!
4. the river/bridges: the views along the river and from the bridges was amazing! the sunsets, impeccable.
here is a little picture tour of our time in oporto (because pictures are worth a thousand words!): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150641525342137.414503.503662136&type=3&l=91c3e9876b
after 3 days in oporto, we boarded the train and headed to lisbon (a nice 3 hour journey!) and upon our arrival we found a beautiful downtown square just along the riverbank with a beautiful view of more bridges! must be a thing down there in portugal ;). some highlights of lisbon:
1. yet again our hostel: we didn't think our hostel could get any better than in oporto, but oh were we wrong! the hostel in lisbon was cool and artsy and quirky, just the way i like all my things to be :). the best part about the hostel was the chef, pedro. oh my good googly goo, if i could hire that man on as my personal chef, i would do it in .02 seconds flat. every night he would cook a 4 course meal (all for the small cost of 9 euros, yeah you heard me NINE euros!) soup, salad, endless wine, main dish and dessert. oh man, we ate to our hearts content. my favorite meal, chickin piri piri. seriously, i have dreams about this stuff.. so damn delish. i bought the piri piri sauce in hopes of trying to replicate it, but have yet to attempt. so good. ok yeah, im done. sorry. :)
2. nice downtown area: fun to walk around, soak in the sun that was beating down on us CONSTANTLY, which was a nice change of pace from the frigidness that was france.
3. met some nice people: francine is brazilian and was traveling with her whole family (mom, dad, sister, brother, sister's friend AND grandparents) to celebrate her grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. they all ate dinner one night at the hostel with us and were super nice. we also met jan, a 50 yr old or so man from holland who was really funny. ate dinner at the hostel with us a couple nights and played cards with us late into the evening. he was a hoot.
4. the belem neighborhood: lots to see here! gardens, cathedral/monastery, art museums, belem tower, some yummy pastries that are super famous but i cant remember the name, etc. a nice place to stroll around. we went twice, it was a good time.
pictures from lisbon:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150641560977137.414514.503662136&type=3&l=124628dc7e
so all in all it was amazing. good sight seeing, great food, and nice company! after 4 days in lisbon, valeria and i took the bus back to oporto where our flight was leaving from, but aaron was going to do a little more traveling in portugal. so after a LONG day of traveling (3 1/2 hours on a bus, 40 minutes on metro to airport, 2 hours in the plane, 1 hour on the shuttle to the city center, another 30 minutes on the metro and FINALLY a short 10 minute walk to our hotel in paris!) we finally made it back to france. val and i spent the night at the hostel and then took early trains back to laval/la roche sur yon. the next 4 days of vacation, i did a whole lot of nothing! laid around in my pajamas, did a little working out, ate dinner with ben and mark every night.. it was lovely.
this week was my first week back to school. it wasn't as hard getting back into as i thought it was going to be. the kids are having a hard time getting back into the grind i think, but that'll come with time. and lets get real, only one month until our next vacation!! i love france :)
i'm leaving to see alex at his parents house tonight and will be there for the weekend. i havent seen him in about three weeks so i'm really looking forward to it, as always! :) we are going to go see the movie 'the artist' and see what all this hype is about. should be fun!
i hope this blog didn't tire you out like it did me! oofda, but you all should know that i miss you like crazy and i am STILL waiting to hear more about all you back home (that goes for you grandmas and grandpas and aunties and cousins! i know you are all reading!) i love you all very very much! talk soon.
XOXO,
france-y pants
p.s. only 59 days 14 hours and 15 minutes until mom and diana arrive!!! can't wait! :) :) :)