Number 44 - WOOT!

I found this picture on boston.com and I think it so groovy.

Way to go Obama! Way to go America! Let's do this together!

Now I...I know I'm not in Kansas

How can I explain? The past few weeks have been a strange delicious stew of all things new. Alex and I are learning how to live together for the first time ever in a one room apartment in the middle of France. We joke a lot about this being our practice for retirement. 

I go to work in the morning, come home for lunch and a clean house, we take walks through the country side and stay in cooking and playing pinochle in the evenings. On one of our walks, we met a sweet dog named Tina and her owner Bruno. 

I gave Alex the puppy eyes that said I want a dog, and then Bruno picked up on this offered her to us for free and on the spot. He explained that his house was for sale and that he couldn't afford to have a dog around. We exchanged numbers in order to "think about it." Alex also thought that it might be worth it to ask Bruno if he would rent out his house while it was on the market. This might be a solution to finding lodging for all the Minnesota traffic on it's way here.

He had me write a note to Bruno, explaining that Alex doesn't speak French, but I do, and can we rent your house? Well, about 20 text messages later, we realized that Bruno had in fact "fallen in love" with me, and figure the hand written note from me explaining my boyfriend's linguistic inability was an invitation to a hot and steamy affair with a foreign girl. No thanks, Bruno. We said no to the dog and the house and to giving our phone numbers to strangers.

We had to put this geriatric lifestyle on hold for an afternoon of drinking at the pub:

The care packages I receive are so amazing, I can't express my thanks enough. The latest little box of goodies was from my girls, Bri and Laura, and included my favorite shampoo, peanut butter (a HOT commodity), and in protest of my nasty instant coffee, a French press and some good ol' Starbucks coffee. 

Overwhelmed by familiar tastes and smells from home, I've been thinking of you two every time I have a cup of real coffee, or, as Alex has dubbed it, "crack." It might have something to do with how I behave shortly after having ingested it, but I can't be too sure.

Kendra and I finally had our chance to watch Vicky, Christina, Barcelona, which happened to be about two girlfriends escaping their oppressive natal society for fantasies of being free-thinking ex-pats living in Europe. I can't wait to go to Barcelona.

Inspired by the art of the movie and the emotions that easily flowed with scotch, we embarked upon our own painting...

Sharing laughter and tears with my significant others, Kendra and Alex, and we all had a night of "art therapy."

It was very therapeutic.

I even think Kendra and Alex are starting to like each other.

In other news, my mom, Gabe, and Olivia are coming to visit! They will be here for almost the whole month of April, and I am so excited! I'm busy preparing for my brother Nicky's arrival in February, their arrival, all the while enjoying my quaint little life here.

When I first got to Gueret, I met an American woman in the post office who had invited Kendra and me to her house for dinner a few times, but it never seemed to work out. I knew that she owned a B&B, and so, in my search for accommodation for my family, I called her up to ask. She then informed me that it was her husband's 50th birthday and would we all like to join them in celebrating with a lamb dinner? Without hesitation I said yes on behalf of all three of us.

She picked us up in La Souterraine, and off we went to the vet to pick up a 3 day old lamb who Norma, our host was trying to resuccitate after its mother dried up and couldn't feed it anymore. We all thought about the fact that we were on our way to feast on lamb while simultaneously saving another's life. I was in the passenger's seat, holding the baby on the way to the chateau.

Dinner was a whirlwind of meeting people, eating amazing food, and holding on to our heads as they tried to spin right off. The chateau was not only enormous, but absolutely gorgeous and picturesque. They restored the entire thing themselves and the love can be seen in every single detail. The dinner guests were equally beautiful and interesting, and as we arrived home around 1:30 in the morning, Kendra turned around and posed the question, "What just happened?!"

This little one was breaking hearts all night. He posed in Alex's hat for a good 10 minutes.

kendra in her element.

Back in Gueret, life is quiet. I appreciate noticing in my body and mind how exhausting it can be to be a social butterfly. I'm energized by the experiences, and grateful for the pause.

I'm not in Kansas anymore...

After three and a half months of not seeing each other, Alex and I finally got to reunite in Paris on the first! He missed his connecting flight from Dublin to Paris, and so I anxiously spent the morning with Kendra, her role being calming my nerves and teaching me a few more chords on her guitar. Thanks, K. We also stopped by to pay respects to the dearly departed resting in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

We spent three delicious days in Paris, soaking in each other the views from our apartment. I failed as a tour guide as we spent most of the time catching up. Our final day was a complete flop as we attempted to make up for lost time, scrambling this way and that to complete the few errands we had to do. We ended up missing our train, after running all over the city in search of a MoneyGram and running up 6 flights of stairs to return the keys to our apartment. Oy. We weathered it well and in good humor, after all there is not much that can bring you down from cloud nine.

Our first night in Guéret was funny. Kendra missed her bus and thus all three of us climbed into my double bed and attempted to sleep. I think Kendra and I had more fun than Alex, as he had the least amount of room at the edge of the bed. We stayed up late bonding over Flight of the Conchords... Pamplemousse.

The next night, Alex and I went on a late night walk around the Courtille. He took some beautiful pictures and we stayed warm by running halfway around the thing. We started to do the obstacle course, but quickly got bored with it.

All leading up to this was my lovely English vacation starting at the dog farm... 

I went to my Aunt Jo and Uncle Marc's house outside of Manningtree, UK. They breed enormous Italian mastiffs, Cane Corsos, of which they have 13 at the moment. The second I arrived from the airport, it was time to eat some delicious food cooked by Auntie Jo, and then off to mate the dogs. What?!

What a lucky girl, you're thinking, but here's the kicker, I got to do it twice! If you know anything about dog breeding you know that they really like to spoon afterwards and for quite a while.

Grandma and Grandpa came from Minnesota, and it was really nice to have some family from home. They made Christmas feel like it's supposed to.

The rest of Christmas was a mix of relaxing walks in the country, sitting by the fireplace, hectic family gatherings and huge feasts brought to you by Jamie Oliver and some other celebrity chef whose name reminds me of jell-o. We gave the Christmas turkey a bath and I also enjoyed proper Christmas pudding for the first time.

My cousin was given a California King snake from Santa and he named it Flossy.

Uncle Marc gave us an astounding rendition of an Avril Lavigne song. All of us huddled into the lounge for most of the night singing karaoke, and I kicked his butt when we sang Fernando by ABBA.

The 27th, I trained into London to find my Kendra. We checked into an awesome hostel down the block from the British Museum. We went exploring, found a Thai restaurant, interrogated the movie theatre across the street about why they weren't playing Vicky Christina Barcelona (to which the clerk responded by saying "Are you speaking Spanish?), and decided to scrap it all and go fishing in Leicester Square.

The first night in London was rudely interrupted by some drunk "emo boy" breaking into our room at 2:00 am, asking us if we had seen a phone charger. I was so livid, I charged upstairs after him and found out that he was a drunk who had outworn his welcome at the hostel and had in fact stolen the key to try and find an empty bed. I liked the hostel too much to let that slip by, and told the big New Zealanders the next morning. They reacted like overprotective big brothers, and Kendra and I were appeased.

We went wandering all over the city, attempted to watch the changing of the guards, but decided it was too boring. I made the mistake of making my opinion public, and some offended American lady went off on me. "Nobody watches you walk around because you don't do anything special. They do." Kendra and I marched off à la beefeaters. I hope she enjoyed her show.

Now, my dear friend Kendra's last name is Goostrey and in England there is a tiny little town called Goostrey and to it we went! I booked us a room at the most darling B&B, and we hopped a train from London to go experience Cheshire charm.
It was cold and cute and we spent an entire day in bed reading one book a piece. There is an absolutely huge satellite dish in the back yard of the farm we stayed on, call the Jodrell Bank Observatory

The picture opportunities in the town were limited, so we got creative.

Breakfast was beautiful and properly English. I had black pudding the second morning we were there and enjoyed it all.

Now, back in Guéret, with my man, and my girl. I returned to work on Monday, and have to say I missed my new home, missed my students and missed the calm of not traveling. Alex and I spent a few nights with Kendra in her school, learned how to play Pinochle and put on a play.

Much more to come, I feel at home and happy!

Happy New Year!