Alive but not well

Hi folks!

I´ve been a bit under the weather since Saturday and haven´t felt much like sitting in our cold office and blogging for you, sorry. Now I´m in the computer lab at school, so I´m a bit warmer, but lacking all my pictures to post from San Sebastian.

Hence, I´m writinga note to let you know I am still here, but with a deep cough and runny nose. Alexis was sick last Friday, which is how I caught it. Then, the rest of the family came home from France sick and Alexis was getting better. Louise and Patrick have stayed home for the last two days, yikes. We are a house of ill folks. I feel more tired just being there.

Last week I got my spanish test back and received a 7. It was all because of my past tense conjugation choices, which I´ve been working on and think are getting better, but when I speak it still all goes back to thinking hard and not spitting it out fast enough. But, I feel better about spanish as a whole. I feel like it´s something I will get if I work hard, rather than this big road block in my way.

I took a little tour of SE Navarra with Iñaki and Kim on Saturday. Half way through the chills hit, but I got some pics in I think. OOOhhhh, and, last Thursday we went out to an Arabian restaurant and they had a belly dancer! She was amazing. Luis and Iñaki both got pulled out of the crowd to dance with her, it was hilarious.

We won our game on Sunday night, woo hoo! I scored a little more and feel a bit sheepish for that last blog entry. I just need to keep having fun and let things roll like water off a duck, eh? I´ve got practice tonight and a full weekend with the kids. Emily, the dear, is babysitting for me on Saturday night so I can go to the game.

So, I´m not sure when my next action packed blog will be, I just need to get totally well first. Good luck with the sick season in your neck of the woods. Kisses.

Tempest Storm the math major (ask G.P. Jim)

I played in my first home game on Saturday and we won, yay! I´m still feeling a little strange in games, but it´s getting better. I think I need to get used to the team and them to me...

Ok, the more fun, less positive version: my team doesn´t like to pass to me during games! And, to be fair, it´s not just me, it´s just the post passing in general isn´t great. Rueck, get over here and do some yelling and make up some odd metaphors on the spot please!

[SIDENOTE: My favorite random Scott Rueck on the spot analogy/rhetorical question was when he asked us: "Do you think Jesus would let you just drive to the hoop if you played him one on one? Do you think he would just let you shoot?... No! Jesus would rip your freakin´ throat out!" Now that´s some motivation baby!]

Anyhow, I was told that my defense and rebounding are really going to help the team. This is a wonderful thing, yes. But seriously, isn´t that sort of an oximoron? My defense? My rebounding? Do I do that? I can equate this to someone watching Pamela Anderson (Rock?) act and saying, "Wow, she must be in this movie because she´s so smart." I always thought the jump hook was really all I had in my pocket. Apparently not. I think this will be a good life lesson for me. I´m still a total black hole in practice, don´t worry. I gotta do what the team needs and for the first time in my life, it´s not really what I want to do. But, I think it´s cool that I get to contribute in a new way. A new adventure.

Also, a classic Darby freak out. We were getting hammered inside and this damn girl wouldn´t get off me. So, a well placed elbow to the breastbone and down she went. Oops, not the right moment as we were the only two in the backcourt at the time... :) I got yanked for that one and grumbled my way to the end of the bench, in english. Can you imagine how strange that must have sounded? It´d be like hearing a chinese player get pissed off in the NBA. Sarah came down to the end of the bench and gave me a little calm down speech that I only understood 3 words of: "tranquila" and "no falta." That means, calm down, don´t foul. That´s when I had a moment... "Darb, you´re in Spain playing basketball... that´s awesome." I was pretty calm after that and hope to remain that way. But, sometimes the frustration crawls up my throat and grabs my chest and wants to bust out of my elbow on someone´s face! Tranquila, darb, tranquila.

Half the girls thought we´d lose the game beforehand and we kicked butt. We were up by 20 or so in the 4th and let them back in at the end, but won by 11 or so. Plus, one of the better teams in the league lost and we are now in 2nd place, sweet!

Afterwards, I grabbed my stuff to head home and shower. Kim and Emily were there and I needed to take Kim home I thought. Everyone else was showering at the gym and Yoyo (what I now like to call Yosu) grabbed my arm and in front of a large crowd of people scolded me for not showering. Which would be fine if I could fling it back, but he was talking in Spanish and I´m not quick enough with it yet! So I basically nodded and agreed that I was a dirty American girl and was on my way. The weirdest things stay with me and bother me sometimes.

So, that´s how it went. I´m looking forward to this weekend´s game and will be interested to see if they only want me for my "mind" again. San Sebastian entry to come soon...

All things white

No. 1, Snow: Well, today a piece of Portland was sent to me right here in Pamplona, which I am believing more and more are secret sister cities. It snowed! I came down to eat breakfast before my final and there it was, pouring out of the sky like powdered sugar onto french toast. The ground wasn´t cold enough to hold it too well, but it was gorgeous. Here´s the view and a picture of my skylight when I got home from class...Can you believe that I walk out my front door and see this every day? Well, maybe not with snow, but the basics... wow.

I sat beneath it for a little while and felt snowed in. It was so cozy. Yes, I´m a tad strange, but when do most people ever get the opportunity to feel snowed in? Not this Oregonian.

No. 2, test paper: Now, back to my test this morning. I think I did ok. A big chunk of it was writing and I got a good grade on my little two page book report, so I feel ok about it. I don´t want to say good because that could be a jinx. I was wished "mucha mierda" last night ratehr than good luck. This means "much shit." Here´s the reason... back in the day when people rode horses to get to events (not too long ago in the 3rd world : ), people who worked as actors in the theatre would wish each other much shit because when you have a lot of horses parked outside you have a lot of dookie to clean up and a lot of people in the theatre watching. I think this also works in Darbonics because if you do well at something, I might call you "the shit." Don´t you love language!?

No. 3, bleach: I think that I might slowly be getting poisoned to death. Well, not death, but maybe immunity. Our dishwasher sucks and I think it´s leaving traces of bleach on the glasses. I keep tasting it in my water and smelling it when I take a sip. Blech. But, if I ever get bombed by bleach, or am tortured with drops of bleachwater on the tongue or bleachbalm I know I´ll make it.

The Pain and the Great One

These are the children I live with... or at least, their archetypes.

Memories, in the corner....

...of this office.

Alexis and Louise got some See´s candy suckers for Christmas. There are 4 types to choose from: Butterscotch, vanilla, chocolate and cafe latte. Every chance I get, I ask for one and the sweeties always oblige. Really I´ve only had 2 or 3.

Today, Alexis gave me a cafe latte, which he doesn´t like, and as soon as I popped it in my mouth it made me think of grandma Mary and grandpa Jim´s house. I thought of watching Rugrats on Sunday mornings or Anne of Green Gables. Fried eggs and their famous toast and potatoes suddenly sat on my tongue. Beads and needles sticking out of the couch and the huge guest bed and watching games in the basement and barbeques and the smell of dove soap in the bathroom all came to me.

I couldn´t figure out why for a minute and then I realized... grandma always had See´s cafe latte hard candies in her candy drawer and I used to eat about 10 every time I´d go over there when I was a wee teen (yes, I watched Rugrats when I was a teenageer, shut up). Isn´t that amazing. A familiar taste in my mouth makes all sorts of memories pop up and a whole time in my life jump to the foreground. A warm and fuzzy for sure. There´s something to be said for conditioning. Now, how can I use that on the kids... ; )

1st cooking class

Yesterday was my first cooking class at CitiCan with Kim. Well, it was not what I was expecting. My ideal was I´d walk in to a bunch of squaty, loud, busty older Spanish mamas and a ton of cooking stations with food for us to work with and long chats to (attempt) have. Wrong, oh, wrong.

We´re in a basement kitchen, all white tiles and a large stainless steel cooking station in front of a few rows of desks... yes, desks. Our fancy, but sweet, chef Antonio, stands in front with a tall chef hat on and tells us about what he´s cooking, how to cook it and gives tips on how to cut things. For example, yesterday he told us not to hold a sandwich while you cut it because you might cut through it and into your palm. Big flippin´duh Tony! At the end, we get the recipe and get to taste the food.

Kim and I spent part of the time listening and part of the time discussing trips we want to plan to Morocco and London. The food was good, but not all typically Spanish or anything. Antonio kept trying to get these beans to cook and they just weren´t right for him. I said, open a can and heat the beans up in a pan! (not actually out loud, just in my brain) But, he had to add things and use a fancy pot that took 2 hours. Well, it was almost time to go and he was getting so frustrated with these beans. He grabbed the pot hastily and it tipped all over the stove and the bean goo flew everywhere.

Well, he was in the right place... immediately, two Spanish mamas jumped out of their seats and went to work. They found the paper towels, stopped the bean juice from making it to the floor, cleaned Antonio off with the magic lick the thumb and wipe combo. They fussed and fussed until I think the whole kitchen was cleaner than it had been when he started. It was adorable.

I don´t have my recipes on me, but I´ll post the names for you soon so you can check it out. I´m pondering searching for another cooking class and asking for my money back on this one because it´s just not what I want. I was thinking tortillas and pallea (sp?) and Antonio´s all about coffee custards and frufru beans.

Others... I just wrote an entire two pages in Spanish on some books I read for class. We have our final next week which I have no idea how I´ll study for yet. We´ve got a big game this weekend against a team we are tied for 3rd, I think, in league. Sunday will be my first trip to San Sebastian if all goes well.

Yesterday I had practice which was nice. At one point we were playing a game where if you get the rebound you get points as well as for scoring. So, I got a rebound and everyone sort of stood and looked at me and stopped playing. So, I just tossed the ball into the court because obviously there must be some big reason no one was moving. As soon as I did this my whole team yelled at me, "Darby, no, Leyre no está en tu equipo!" Well, I knew that Leyre was not on my team but no one was even moving. I wish I could have said to them in Spanish, "well, why´d you all stop playing? I figured we were done. I´m not a freakin´ idiot, you´re just lazy and I confused it with being done!" Anyhow, I said this in english, in not so many words, and everyone started laughing. It was weird. I know from now on if practice needs to be lightened (which it almost never does) I´ll just blurt out my true feelings in english and laugh because I could say almost anything and no one would know what I said, except maybe one person there. I wonder if they´ve ever done that to me?

Good times abound and time for a run. Loves and misses!

The bind that ties

I had my first game with the first team on Saturday. It was a 2 hour trip to Getxo, which is just outside of Bilbao. If you wanna check out more on my hoops club, have a looksee, Ardoi Baloncesto.

It was an interesting first go. I haven´t been in an actual seriously comptetive game for a while. Suddenly I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I should own this (I thought), I need to make the people who helped me get this opportunity see it was worth the work they put in, I need to represent America well!!! Ok, Darb calm down. That´s what I needed to hear.

We won our game, but it wasn´t pretty. I had a few theatrical moments that I wasn´t proud of and I was getting frustrated. The last thing I need to do is freak out. I missed some easy layups and made some crappy passes, got yelled at by a few teammates in Spanish and travelled... twice. It didn´t feel good. By the end of the game I was disappointed and embarrassed, not in my team at all, but myself.

I called mom and dad right when I got home and gave themn the low down. They said, Darb don´t be silly and have some fun. Dad said, "Darb, remember, basketball is the bind that ties..." mom and I laughed right away, because of course, he was a bit backwards. Oddly enough, it fit for this situation for the phrase to be backwards. I felt bound by the fact that I thought I should be kicking ass and it tied my hands behind my back and made me play less effectively.

By yesterday afternoon, I felt better. I had given the game more thought, rather than just how I played. We were running plays into the ground, going through one screen and quitting, not really running anything that gave me a good opportunity to score, not scoring from the outside... it was the first game back after Christmas and people were shaking the rust off. I mean the final was 51 to 43, no one was really scoring.

So, on to the next one, which I think is on Sunday. It´s supposed to be a big one. We´re tied with the team and we´ll have to go hard to win. Those are always the games that are the most fun.

Now, I must read a book in Spanish that I´ve been putting off for way too long. Sorry for the short/serious update, but I´ll send some laughs back home soon. Love you!

Whitney the Weige

This entry is a late one. I visited Whit a month ago and now I´m getting some pics up for you. This is Whitney on her favorite street in Bergen. Why is it her favorite?... she doesn´t really know, she just likes it.This is my favorite street in her town. I just liked the colors. Plus, I saw that green car coming and had to get that in the shot too for some extra colorfulness.Let´s see, here are a few more details... I arrived in Bergen after a day of travelling and waiting in airports. I was so glad to see Whit waiting for me when I walked into the main part of the airport. I chatted her ear off about what I was doing and how I was and all about Spain. It felt so strange to tell her these things and not have her actually know how it is here. Hard to explain I guess, you just have to be here to know.

Anyhoo, we went back to her apartment and talked until the wee hours. We took the tram up to the top of Bergen on our first day. Whit has that story and pics in her blog. Here´s the first pic we took together for the trip.Whit had a training session with her little ones that night and I went to watch. She has 5 little girls who she says know english, but really only one does and then she translates for the rest of the team. One of them wore a skirt, one wore hiking boots and wool socks, and all had the manditory messy ponytail for that age group. A snap.It was fun to see Whit work with them. She really thinks through how to get them to have fun and still learn.

Here´s one of my favorite pictures from the trip, Whit with her confused face on.Yuck, I know I´m being so short with all these descriptions, but it was a while ago...

Fast forward to day 2 and we decided to try the salmon we´d heard so much about. Remember the guy who gave us the taste? Well, we bought his salmon and ate it with cheese and crackers for dinner. Delicious! Here´s the before picture.

And here´s the after.As you can see, we attacked it. Beer was a better match for the fish than water... or most any food really ; )

After a movie, some expenssive sushi and a trot over to the aquarium, we were off to Oslo for Whit´s games. Here is Whitney in her travelling outfit.

Holla! Está para mojar pan! This is not an optical illusion folks, Whitney´s legs do actually fit in those jeans.

You already saw her sweet game video. Oslo on our own was a bit traumatic for us, as you can also see in Whit´s blog. Here´s a picture of me imitating one of the statues in Vigeland Park.

Whit has a few more of these. The park was a highlight. The statues are beautiful. Ok, I´m off to practice. By the way, I am officially a jugadora, I can play with the team I practice with now, it´s a for sure thing. Yay!

Catching up...

The most recent news in the Life of Darb is that I can now play with the first team at the club in Zizur! Each new year the board of directors, I guess, goes over old rules and modifies or changes them. The rule keeping me from playing with the good team was stretched enough so that all I have to do is prove I live here and that I take a class at UPNA. I just have to make sure I have the right paperwork to prove I´m a student and it´s a go!

I´m so excited! First game is tomorrow, hopefully, woot woot! Yikes, I need to wash my uni.

Here´s a Christmas picture I took way back when for all of you to enjoy (NOTICE: my winter attire to make things look extra Christmassy)...

That stocking I´m holding says "darby."

Also, a few weeks ago, I learned how to make a Spanish tortilla! They are soooooooo good. At first, I couldn´t tell the difference, but now my tortilla palate is quite mature and I have a favorite spot to go for them. I have a video of this, but can´t get it to upload well to youtube, so this high action shot of me slicing potatoes with this cool tool will have to do for now...

I got signed up for a cooking class with Kim on Wednesdays too, so I´ll be a professional Spanish cook by the time I get home and you will all gain 10 pounds.

Here´s a pregame photo of Alexis and I. We´ve had some epic matches of PIG and HORSE and ALEXIS in the backyard on the 6 foot hoop. He always takes the "prove it" upon himself with the final letter. I love that. And, he usually makes it. He´s a clutch baller...

Here´s an example of the awesome parking in Spain that I captured a few weeks ago. This is actually in quite a large parking lot, but I guess someone really needed to get inside the mall!

This one is a shot taken just before Christmas break. It´s of my Spanish professor (Javier), my Polish friend from class (Magda) and myself. I´m just throwing it in here because it´s a random entry...

I know, I look like crap, but it´s a 9:30 class. I know, that doesn´t seem bad, but remember my newly acquired night-time outting schedule and then look at it again. About right huh?

Last night was another wonderful Thursday night dinner for 6 followed by drinks with Luis and Iñaki. We (mostly they) got so into talking about basketball and what type of offense we might run now that I can play and me drawing up "Triple" for them (dad: it´s just a screen the screener in the middle of the key right?), that we busted out the white board in the middle of the bar. I had to capture it. I like to call it - "Brugal, Beefeater and Baloncesto"...

Honestly, these are some of my favorite times. They remind me of talking about basketball at home with the fam.

Anyhow, I gotta meet Emily for coffee and read a book... in Spanish! So, I hope to update again soon, but as you see, I´ve been a busy girl. I hope everyone at home is well. Give me an update when you can. Loves!

An Ode to Alexis

Alexis is 8 and also a boy. Sometimes, he puts on footie pajamas that are a bit too small for him and get all tight like a tent when zipped up. He does little acrobatic break dance moves and spins around and pauses on the floor, just to make me laugh.

After school everyday he has to take a poop. If you don´t know where Alexis is and you call out his name, usually you´ll here a muffled, high pitched "yes?" from behind a bathroom door. When you ask, "what are you doing?" he´ll shriek back, "pooping!"

Sometimes, Alexis fakes a poop. Yes, he FAKES a poop. There are lots of comic books in the bathroom and he loves to read them. He´ll jump around and hold his butt and say, "ooooh, ugh, I gotta poop, I gotta poop!" He´s realized that no one can deny you a poop. So, we let him go. 15 minutes later, we say, "Alexis, hurry up." And he responds, "I´m pooping."

Catherine has to bust the door open sometimes and Alexis will be sitting on the toilet, seat down, and reading a comic book. When he sees her he screams and she starts yelling at him in French. It´s hilarious.

Once I called him out when Catherine was gone because he was taking so long. I said, "Alexis, hurry up!" He said, "just a sec!" When he came out a few minutes later, I said, "You weren´t really pooping were you?" He said, "Yes!" I said, "No!" he said, "Yes! Then how come it smells so bad?"... : D

He always wants to win. When we play ping pong he always says, "but I´m to small to reach that," or he´ll botch the score. I taught him the "our team is boom, dynamite!" cheer and he sings, "Alexis is boom, dynamite!" all the time. I also taught him the Muhammad Ali quote, "I´m so fast, and you know I´m so pretty." So now, I´ll say the first part and he, in his best husky Ali voice says, "and you know I´m so pretty."

Once Louise was writing with a marker on some paper and the sound of it drove him nuts. All the sudden he yelled, "Louise, stop! Stop, stop, stop!" I said, "Alexis, relax, she can write if she wants," and he eyed her nervously as she put pen back to paper and the noise started again. Again he yelled out, "stop, no, stop!" I said again, "Alexis, she´s just writing," So he yells, with a look of complete desperation on his face, "no, no, mom doesn´t let me!" Apparently, the noise really bugged him. We all started cracking up because of course, Catherine has never said to me, "oh, and Darb, please don´t let Alexis listen to Louise writen with markers on paper."

On Saturday I took the kids ice skating and after about 15 minutes, Alexis skated right up to me and said, "Darby, thank you so much for bringing us here." Like he´d just realized this was the best day of his life or something. My heart smiled.

One of my favorite moments with him of all time occurred about two weeks ago...

We were driving back to Tajonar from school, just the two of us, I don´t remember where Louise was. Alexis asked me to put in a tape that a past au pair had made with Eminem on it. He loves Eminem. I always thought it was because of his older brother Max, but it turns out that´s only part of it.

As the song played, he piped up from the back seat, "Darby..."

"Yes, Alexis," I answered.

"Darby," he continued, "do you know what I asked for for Los Reyes?"

"No Alexis, what do you want?"

"I asked for the Sean Paul CD and the Eminem CD."

"Oh really? I knew you liked Eminem, but Sean Paul too, how come?"

"I just do," he said softly, like there was a bit more to it.

"Do you like to rock out when you hear them? I know I do to my favorite songs."

"Well," he started shyly, "when I hear their songs, I feel like I´m on stage, like it´s a dream and I´m singing on stage like them."

How do you respond to that? I think that´s one of the best things that´s ever come out of his mouth. I just said, "That´s awesome."

He got both CDs for Los Reyes and last night he asked me to sit in his room with him and listened to Sean Paul as he tried to learn the words and rap softly to himself. I think the story of a poor white boy growing up in Detroit trying to make it as a rapper is just as inspirational as a rich French boy trying to rap in another language in Tajonar. We could call the movie "8 Kilometer." Alexis is boom, dynamite!

Felíz Año!

This was without a doubt the best New year´s celebration of my life! It was crazy, pandimonium, out of control, wild, good old fashioned fun. Kim and Emily and I got together before hand at my house for some black eyed peas. I wanted a little of my American tradition to be involved. For those of you back home who don´t know this one, black eyed peas on New Year´s ensures good luck. We had some champagne and Emily painted Kim´s face and we were ready to go. A tradition here is to dress in costume on New Year´s Eve when you go out. So, here we are at about 11:00 Sunday night...I was a "Super Pear" with Iñaki and Irene who were a Super Tomatoe and another Super Pear. It has to do with some joke I´ve been told a couple of times, but still don´t understand. But, the pear part works in english as a joke for me, as Mom and Kev pointed out, because I´m a Super Au Pair, hardy har. Anyhow, we headed over to Iñaki´s to work on my costume and partake in some Spanish traditions.

New Year´s here is more of a family affair and Iñaki, Irene, their mom Dori and their abuela were finishing up a dinner together when we got there. We attempted to chat for a bit, until midnight when twelve gongs could be heard on the TV, similar to something that might happen on Dick Clark´s Rockin´Eve, and we ate one grape with each gong. We had to go fast, but got more good luck for the year by chowing down. Red underwear also helps I´m told.

Irene, Iñaki and I all worked on our costumes and got them ready to go. The result at about 2:30 A.M. was this fabulous fruit basket...

From there, Dori dropped us all off downtown and we were off. It was crazy! Everyone´s your best friend. Here are a bunch of folks we met...

These next two guys were two of whom I seem to always meet on nights out in some form or other. They hear me speaking english and somehow are drawn to me and want to test their lingual skills. I wasn´t so into it... However, these guys were much nicer than one I´d met earlier. A big group of men were dressed as nuns and they´d put balloons up the fronts of their skin-tight habits to look like huge boobs. I decided it´d be a great idea to cop a feel. To my shock and awe, the man I felt up turned around and grabbed my boob too! I was so surprised I didn´t know what to do. It was hilarious. Serves me right for being a pervert. He confessed (pardon the pun) later that he thought I was a man. Pear shaped costumes don´t exactly show off my figure I guess. Anyhow, a hilarious memory.

Just Look at how packed it was in Lo Viejo... wall to wall people all decked out.This is the last bar we attended at 8 A.M. As you can see, the party was still jumping and when we walked outside it was dawning.From there we just roamed around for a little while until we met up with Irene again, trying to find a place to grab breakfast. But, everything was closed. A buddy Irene had brought along had a golden volleyball and we decided it would be a great idea to start playing a game in the street. A few guys in bird costumes walked by and they joined in. Good times.

We were sick of that by about 9 A.M. and mosied down a few blocks to the little snack area. With the booze still wearing off, we decided to dance to the music of the popcorn machine... I have a video of this but it´s taking forever to finalize on YouTube. By 9:30 we were back on the road to Iñaki´s. We were probably 15 minutes away from his house, but it took us like an hour to get there. We danced, we sang, Irene and Iñaki attempted to teach me songs in Spanish... it was great. Here´s the final picture of the last partiers standing on the walk home...

I love this picture because it´s so joyful. We´re all dead tired, have been on our feet all night, it´s freezing cold outside, but we´re still dancing and celebrating.

When we got back to the Mayo abode, Iñaki whipped up some brunch and then we all took naps. Dori invited me to stay for lunch at 3, but there was no way. I thanked her kindly and headed home. I didn´t sleep for the rest of the day because I didn´t want my sleep pattern to be off. I slept from midnight on New Year´s day to 2 on the 2nd. It was marvelous. If I were you, I´d seriously consider coming to Pamplona for New Year´s next year.

If you want to see more pictures, hit up Iñaki´s blog here: http://elqa.livejournal.com/42644.html

I hope you all had happy New Year´s too! I´ve got a scrimmage game thing tonight, but it´s with the good team and we get to wear uniforms. The sad part is I tweaked my ankle yesterday so I´m hoping they have some tape at the game I can do a make shift wrap with. I´ll never forget the many figure eights and stirrups that Karen Hostetter lovingly bestowed upon my ankles. Dar-dar, where are you when I need you my small small friend!?!

Feliz Navidad in France: The Day food

The first thing I ingested on Christmas day was a chocolate truffle followed closely by a glass of champagne. Not a good start. I´m sorry all these Christmas blogs are all drunken, but I was just being polite ; )

I woke up at 11:00, with no time to eat, I got dressed and we went to see a couple properties that Papi, Patrick´s father owns. Yes, I have to call him Papi (pronounced "poppy"). The first was an apartment he´s fixing up for his sister and the second was one that he´s moving into. Both with gorgeous views of the beach. I hope we get to go to La Baule this summer! It´s such a cute beach town.

We arrived at Papi´s girlfriend´s, Michelle (mee-shell), house around 1 and that´s when I had my aforementioned "breakfast." The kids tore into their presents and the adults sat down to lunch. I believe we had 4 glasses set in front of us here, which was not a good sign. I could sense that my liver might be a foie gras on it´s own by the end of the day. Anyhow, champagne glass full and wine bottles open in front of us, we commenced.

Oysters were passed out to all of us in special oyster plates. They are so pretty in their shells. Usually, I don´t like them, but they were fine in France. They were accompanied by a sort of vinegar onion sauce, which made the texture more acceptable to me. Everyone at the table was quite impressed that I ate them, saying usually the au pair´s aren´t too into them. I had my game face on baby!

Next up was some lightly smoked salmon, almost raw, with a creamy dill dipping sauce. I think it had whole peppercorns in it. Very yummy. Along with these two dishjes came different wines of course. And I wanted to try them, but not full glasses! No such luck. To try, means to drink a full portion to these gorgeous people. Had I felt totally comfortable there, this would have been awesome, but not when there was so much silverware and glass near me and my long arms. I drank up nonetheless.

By the next set of plates, actual shell´s filled with scallops and crab in a cream sauce and then breaded, I was having a bit of trouble passing the platters around. Patrick asked me to hand him my champagne glass to be refilled and, though I was staring at his hand and fully focused on making the hand off, I dropped it before he had a good hold of it... he caught it! Sadly, everyone saw it and laughed and cheered. From then on, Patrick decided to hold the platters for me and let me serve myself before passing the food directly on to the person next to me. Damn it, I´m not a lush, just a lightweight!

Though I was a bit embarrassed, at least I didn´t have to talk. I thought I could make it. Once we hit the foie gras and the bread came out, I grabbed like 3 slices and started stuffing my face. I actually liked Michelle´s foie gras better than the day before´s. It tasted like a melt away mint to me, yum.

Just as I seemed to be straightening up a little and refocusing, actually seeing my 4 glasses, rather than 8, I caught the word "vodka" in the air. Michelle got up from the table and left for a second, returning with some Polish vodka. It came in a little fur-lined sleeping bag, which I hoped was all we were looking at. Oh how cute, now put that thing away... please! Nope.

Glass number 5, a shot glass, was placed in front of me. As the bottle was pointed at me, I shrugged and chuckled. At least everyone laughed at this rather than sending me to the kids´ table. Polish vodka all around folks! A piece of grass had been flavoring it for a while, quite interesting. As Patrick held up his glass to cheers me, I attempted to pour some of my vodka into his glass, but he pulled away and laughed. How could he do this to me? He knew I was suffering... maybe he was in the same boat. Down the hatch, zip! Ouch, that burned just a tad. I was hoping I could sneak out with the tiny sleeping bag the vodka came in, it was so cute! But, Michelle had a grip on it.

However, I did get a nice souvenir... there was this flower arrangement on the table that I would try to focus on to steady my brain and hand. I noticed an adorable little knome who lived in it and I knew I had to have it, as my girl Amelie certainly would have. When no one was looking, I reached out and grabbed it out of the flowers and shoved it in my pocket. He´s up in my room now and I´m not quite sure what to do with him. Maybe I´ll take him on my travels and take pics of him just like Miss Poulin did for her dad.

Anyhow, back to France. I believe the next thing we ate was wild duck. Patrick said it was so wild that his dad had to chase it and we should watch out for buckshot still in it... hmm, I don´t really think Papi should be chasing things. It was a bit hard to cut off the bone without using my hands, but I did it. A dry red wine came with this and by now I had 6 glasses in front of me because I couldn´t finish the wine from the earlier dish. My hand was in slow motion as I grabbed various goblets and I was determined not to make loud clinks. Finally, someone brought out the best part of the night... some water! It had gas and I didn´t even care, it was the most refreshing drink of agua that has ever entered my bod. It was like I was on a desert, dehydrated to mirage level and this water was my savior.

After the duck came the cheeses of various types and bread. I guess this is sort of a finale to French meals, the cheese. It always comes before the dessert, which was made up of various mouse-y cakes. One was a chocolate raspberry, one was vanilla orange and one was just sort of sweet and tan colored with a sugary cracker crumbled and rolled within it. Patrick said that last one was quite typical of the area and told me the name, but I don´t remember it. Grandma Mary, does this dessert sound familiar to you? Email me if you know what it is, or anyone else for that matter.

By dessert´s end, I had my legs back under me and didn´t fall asleep at the table or fall over or anything. I think I was tested out at one point though. Catherine asked me to go tell Louise to do something and I thought she must be upstairs because why wouldn´t Catherine just ask her if she was nearby? So I walked upstairs and she was actually downstairs just a room away from us. I hope I at least walked straight when I went to the complete wrong area of the house!

I helped clear the dishes and had one last glass of champagne in the kitchen while the ladies chatted. I couldn´t understand them, but it did feel like home, a familiar situation. When we were done Catherine and I staked out one of the couches and immediately passed out asleep for like an hour. It was hilarious. My chin was on my chest and Catherine was sprawled out over the arm cushion. I really hope someone got a picture of that!

Two hours later, we had a light dinner of salad and some of the leftover cheese and bread.

We kissed everyone 2 times on each cheek and headed out at about midnight. Patrick and Catherine dropped me off at Luic´s house, where I would wait for a day until it was time for Max to give me a ride home. That was one of the most awkward experiences of my life, being somewhere I know no one and can´t speak too well with them. Sadly, I ate skittles for dinner that night. I´m so silly sometimes.

So there you have it, the French Christmas experience. I loved all the food and getting to see all the homes and meet the family. I only wish I spoke French! Los Reyes is this weekend at Patxoula, Catherine and Patrick´s home in France and I´ll be heading up there with Max I think sometime Friday. This is the day of the year they open lots of presents, so it´ll be a fun new experience too. More on that one next week. Lovins!

Feliz Navidad in France: The Eve food

After arriving at Patrick´s brother´s home on Sunday, we headed out to lunch at a local bistro just off the beach. They had all sorts of food from pizza to seafood. I was attempting to try as much French cuisine as I could while there, so I ordered what Catherine ordered. I had an appetizer of medium sized shrimp cooked in a garlic tomato sauce with an oil base. It was delish! The shrimp didn´t taste fishy at all and you know how I love a good garlic mouth.

Next came the main course, which we ate with champagne, naturally. Every time a glass got low, a man came around and refilled it. Mine didn´t get low as I knew more drinking was to come. My lunch was a tuna steak just barely cooked with gray outside edges and a pink center. It was encrusted with black and white sesame seeds and had some odd straw type things laid across it, which I promptly laid across the side of my plate. It came with some cooked veggies. So yummy! The tuna was so tender and the seeds added a nice crunch to it. The veggies were quite fresh, many different types, and had a lovely tomato basil sauce on them. So good.

We topped it off with a little espresso and headed out the door. I still think the coffee in Spain is the best.

The afternoon meant a bit of babysitting for me and some awkwardness followed by a little uncomfortable language barrier. The kids went swimming, so I sat next to the pool and read, to make sure no one slipped and cracked their head open. Alexis and I played some foosball and a bunch of pool after that, which passed the time nicely.

Everyone changed for dinner at around 9:30, before which we had a glass of champagne with grape flavoring, yummo! From here, I didn´t know where to go, what to do, how to stand, sit, nod... Everyone sort of mosied on over to the bar, so I stood around for a while and got a glass of champagne, but everyone was going on in French and I didn´t want to intrude by yelling, "could someone speak english please? Or even Spanish perhaps?" Marie Claire and I (She´s Luic´s wife) actually communicated ok in Spanish. She spoke so slow that I could understand her perfectly. But she was busy setting the table and getting all the food ready. Really, many of them spoke english, but it´s the only time of year they get to be with their family, so I wasn´t really a priority on the get to know you list, which was fine and expected.

After about 5 minutes of standing with the group and looking at people who were talking who took that to mean I understood, I slowly stepped back and became one with the wall and my champagne flute. I missed home. Not bad, but it was there. I decided to hang out with Alexis a little more and play pool until I was called back to be with the adults. They must have thought I assumed I was supposed to be with the kids at all times, which was not the case, I preferred it.

Just as we were called to the table for dinner, I finished my second glass of champagne and decided a few more wouldn´t hurt me. Everyone was taking their sweet time getting to the table and since Catherine is usually my champagne pourer, I took it upon myself to grab the open bottle on the table and get the job done myself. Big mistake. What I poured into my champagne flute was actually a very sweet, very flat white wine. Normally, this would not worry me, but I was in France where I´d been warned that everyone has perfect table manners and ettiquete and if someone noticed that my champagne wasn´t bubbling, I´d be a little embarrassed that I was so desperate for more that I neglected to read the label on what I was pouring.

As everyone took their seats, people started looking at the wine on the table. The one in front of me was the only one with any gone and I was praying no one would put two and two together. We settled in and the first course was served: a mixture of fresh tuna chunks, olive oil, cilantro, lime juice and red pepper I think. It was just sort of in a clump on each plate and we ate it with a fork, so good. Patrick´s nephew, Nathan I think, made it.

On my second bite Nathan´s father offered me some of the sweet wine and I started to blush before I could even answer. I couldn´t understand his words, but the questioning look on his face added to the way he held the bottle at me tipped me off. Thankfully Nathan said something that made him put the bottle down and look the other way, but not before he made a comment that everyone laughed at. Later Nathan said to me he told him I was drinking champagne and his father answered, "but we want her drunk." Nathan´s dad would get his Christmas wish : )

The second course was another little clump... this time white fish with similar other ingredients as the first, but I don´t remember (sorry gramma M). By the time I was done with this one, my glass had been emptied of the sweet wine and refilled with champagne, phew. My other two cups had also been filled with a red wine and another white wine. I had to try everything, remember.

The third course was something I usually don´t like. Just the thought of what it´s made from and how it´s made makes my tummy turn: foie gras. But, this one was deliscious. Patrick´s sister made it and it went great with the wheat toast provided. If I got a large bite by accident, there was just a bit too much richness, but I quite enjoyed it. Plus, there was no way I was gonna say it was gross because typically Americans don´t like it and I wasn´t about to be stereotyped. I liked it though, so no lies. More sweet wine with that puppy.

Next was something a bit more typical to America even. It was a sort of shepherd´s pie made with duck meat on the bottom and mashed potatoes sprinkled with parsley or something green on the top. Really yummy.

It took a while to get the fifth course out because we had to clear the plates and clean them. Sadly, this was the job of all the women, which I find wrong on lots of levels, but I don´t live here and their way is my way while I´m here. Extra sadly, I was a little tipsy when called upon to handle the expensive china and I really had to focus. I took each plate into the kitchen with two hands, watched the floor as I walked and went slowly. Nothing broke or chipped, but I was a little nervous and made a few unnecessary clangs. I tried really hard not to hit anyone in the back of the head with the dishes as I set them back on the table. I think I was successful, but who knows.

The final course was a very tender white fish prepared in a sort of tomato gravy. Simple and tasty. I headed upstairs as soon as I was done eating because I didn´t want to have to clear anymore plates. I needed an english fix as well, so I called KT and we chatted for an hour or so. All in all it was a nice Christmas Eve and a food experience that not many Americans would ever get. I am so appreciative of all the newness that has come my way and the new customs and cultures I am learning about!