When I last left you, I was looking forward to seeing the movie Sweeney Todd with Christine. But as luck or life would have it, I took the wrong bus and ended up in a neighborhood on the edge of town, far from the center-of-the-city cinema! Lesson well learned: the bus stops beaux arts and marché beaux arts are not one and the same! Thankfully a young french woman was kind enough to help me get my bearings and find a bus which would take me to the cinema, but the whole ordeal took well over an hour. When I finally arrived at the cinema, the woman at the box office thankfully allowed me to exchange the ticket I had purchased earlier that day for a later showing. Really the worst part of it was leaving Christine to see it alone- it was a good movie but definitely bloody and strange.
After a day of rest and repose on Saturday, my host family invited me to accompany them to the birthday dinner of my host dad's sister (so my host aunt?) on Sunday. She lives in a town about an hour away from Besançon, and it was a beautiful drive, with farmland like Iowa but also forested mountains. We arrived for lunch and practically ate until dinner! Please allow me to describe our meal:
First course: paté, cherry tomatoes, pretzels, and pringles, with a very nice white wine.
Second course: a salad cup of croutons, cucumbers, tuna :( , and tomatoes.
Main course: noodles with turkey, and a second variety of very nice white wine.
Cheese course: over half a dozen varieties of the favorite local cheeses, with a lovely red wine.
Dessert course: gateau au chocolat et crème anglaise (chocolate cake with English creme sauce)
Coffee course: fantastic coffee with sugar cubes, a galette de roi (king cake), and beignets (french donuts).
No kidding! But my favorite part of the whole day was the family. Everyone (finally!) gave me the traditional greeting of a kiss on each cheek; and there were a dozen people there besides my immediate host family! I was so pleased. And one of the grandpas (I was seated next to the grandparents) was so funny- always trying to get my attention to say or mime something amusing to get me to laugh or smile. Just like a mischevious little boy!
Overall I found the conversation to be very interesting, what I understood of it, anyway. Most of the time I could catch hold of the topic fairly easily but I didn't grab onto enough details to respond very quickly. I often came up with something to say five minutes after they had moved on to another topic :) oh well. We talked some about the primaries in the US, and I gladly and resoundingly contributed to that topic.
My host dad said he doesn't think Obama is electable because there are too many racists in the US. Whether or not that may be true, it sure pissed me off to hear him say it. My host dad happens to be a big supporter of Gore and Nader, as he is a dedicated environmentalist. The family car even runs on liquid natural gas- I didn't even know that was possible!
The meal finished abruptly when everyone got up from the table and went to put on their coats. Was it time to leave? No, we were all going to go for a walk together. As she lives right next to a creek and a park, it was really lovely. All in all a wonderful day, and a kiss on each cheek when I left, too!
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5 comments:
Wow! Sounds like a great time! And a walk by the creek! :) The host grandpa sounds hilariously cute.
Oh! I love random dinner parties with entertaining dining companions! How fun.
How lucky you are to have such a wonderful host family---and how lucky they are to have such a lovely guest!!!!Since Edwards seems to be fading in the politcal scene, I find myself more of and Obama supporter but I would have to agree with your host dad. If Obama is to make it, I think it will have to be the young people who come out and vote for him in great numbers. Too bad about your bus mix-up, I hope you weren't too frightened or worried. We watched the DVD of "3:10 to Yuma" with Russell Crowe. It was a bit too bloody for me---otherwise a good movie. We went to Iowa City to visit Jon and Magnus yesterday. Magnus was so funny, wanting to show us every toy and game he likes. Then he wanted to play restaurant and made up a menu for his restaurant which he named "Olive Green's". The items on the menu were Peach pie--4 cents, carrots- 9 cents, dog food- 1 cent, lettuce salad with three cheese ranch dressing- 19 cents, etc. He had me fold the paper in half so it would open and then he trimmed all the corners off so it would look nicer. I tried to convince him to raise the prices but he didn't think people could pay more than what he suggested!!!!
Suffice it to say....I continue to bite my tongue, therefore, I am unable to say anything about the CRAZY political comments in your blog today.....
as they say in Texas...
NUFF SAID!!:-)
hugs and misses~
Rene'
I am so happy you are having such a good time...as if you wouldn't. Just out of curiosity, how were the placement exams? How was it organized? Anyway, Beçanson sounds fantastique...à bientôt. P.S. thanks for the postcard.
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