Across the Universe

Well first of all, for those of you who haven’t: become a “dedicated reader” of my blog! There’s no need to read it in secret so just press the “follow this blog” button on the left side of the page. It’s nice to know who’s reading! Secondly, I’d like to mention that today marks the official 100 day countdown until LOST and even though I’m counting down, I won’t be watching any new episodes until I come back to Canada so don’t ever say anything about it!

Here in France, Halloween definitely isn’t as obvious as it is in Canada. I know that by now, there would be decorations everywhere at home: in the stores, on the windows, outside houses… but here, you would have to take a wild guess to know it’s Halloween. Of course, with Halloween actually officially becoming a “thing” only about ten years ago, I guess the French are still getting into the hang of things. I’m excited to see how many kids participate and what the costumes are like.

On Tuesday, Catherine had a meeting so I was in charge of the kids and supper (yay for pizza!). After supper, Julien and I played Monopoly and then I talked with Alexia. On Wednesday, Julien and I played Monopoly yet again and then played soccer on the PlayStation. Surprisingly, we each won a game. After lunch, Alexia and I played many games of Speed and then the kids had their activities that they had to go to. During that time, I got a phone call from Camille White (one of the Hillsong ministers) who asked me questions and said she could introduce me to some people my age who attend the church. It was great already feeling so welcome in a church after only going once. But then again, it IS Hillsong so I shouldn’t be surprised.

On Thursday, I was in charge of supper again but this time, I put a bit more time into it. Alexia had guitar so we had to wait until she was done which wasn’t until about eight. While the kids were eating the entrée and I was still in the kitchen working on the main course, Alexia’s guitar teacher surprisingly came into the kitchen and started talking to me – in English! We talked for a while, which was nice and after he left, I was in such a good mood, like when you get an unexpected letter in the mail or you find much-needed chocolate. Being able to have an unexpected normal conversation in English after listening to French all week does that to you. On Friday, I had class again. The girls and I went to a café for lunch and then we had laboratory.

The next morning, I got a message on my cell phone from some very special people and I was so disappointed I missed the phone call cause I was eating breakfast. I listened to the message three times that morning, then recorded it onto my computer where it’ll soon be transferred to my iPod ☺ The family and I left at 9:30 to go to Arras – a city in the very northern part of France. On the way there, we stopped at Catherine’s grandparents’ house. Her grandma is pretty sick so she didn’t say a lot, but she was really cute and the grandpa was just like a grandfather you’d see in the movies. They had a piano so Catherine asked me to play a song and I chose to play a very out-of-tune Clair de Lune. After visiting them, we continued on our way to Arras to Catherine’s mom’s house. The house was so nice and even though her mom didn’t speak any English, she tried her best to make me feel at home. The man that Catherine’s mom is living with was also very nice and he spoke a little bit of English. For lunch, we had lots of quiche and a chicken and for dessert, a homemade apple pie! Everything I ate there was homemade and everything tasted absolutely amazing! That afternoon, they took me downtown and we window-shopped as well as went into a few stores. When leaving the house, Catherine’s mom said to Catherine, “Doesn’t she need something to cover her neck?” (Because they’re all wearing scarves now) and Catherine explained, “No, she’s from Canada. It’s not cold for her.” For supper, we had raclette, which is a bunch of food (potatoes, meat, bread, pickles) and then a big heated device in the centre of the table, which melts your cheese and then you put the melted cheese on the other food. It was really good! The napkins they had said “Our Lovely Blind Date. Name: ___ Number: ___ Call me?? (And with check boxes) Yes, Maybe, and No Way!” Catherine’s mom saw them on sale so she bought them but didn’t know what they said so everyone thought they were pretty amusing. That night, I slept in the same room as the kids so we watched half of She’s the Man. That night was also the night that Daylight Saving Time ended so we went back an hour.

Sunday morning for breakfast, I had a croissant (my first one in France) and it was incredible. Even if you think that the croissants you get from your local bakery at home are delicious, the croissants here probably beat yours times ten (but Curtis, yours follow very close behind). I couldn’t help but take another. After breakfast, the family went to visit Catherine’s aunt and when they came back, we had lunch. We then went to a museum but the next tour wasn’t for an hour so we went back to the house. Alexia and I watched the rest of She’s The Man and then we went back home.

This week, the kids don’t have school so I get today, tomorrow, and Wednesday off. Unfortunately, I still have workshop today so I’ll have to go to that and then hopefully I’ll be able to go to Paris afterwards. I have quite a big list of stuff that I have to see so I’m going to try my hardest to see as much of it as I can. I hope everyone has a great Halloween this week and gets lots of candy; this year will sadly be my first year not trick-or-treating. Hopefully I’ll still be able to somehow get chocolate though...
Across the Universe - Rufus Wainwright