Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

I am almost too original with the titles, hein?

[and almost too careless...]

My dear Prof. Schram came to spend a couple weeks in France. Last Thursday, Sarah and I spent most of the afternoon with her. We walked around Dijon and drank coffee and hot chocolate and enjoyed lots of talking and catching up. Brian (the George Fox student with our study abroad program) joined us for supper... which was absolutely delicious. I ate escargots for the first time. They looked horrible, little pieces of gray stuff in green liquid in shells. Everyone else had a good laugh at my face. The green liquid was actually butter with... garlic and some kind of green herb, and the snails were delicious, as long as I didn't think about eating snails. That was just the entrée. The main dish was a kind of fish with a mustard cream sauce and rice and some vegetables, and dessert was a chocolate cake with layers of chocolate mousse set on a little sea of creamy sauce and Chantilly... you know I'm just describing all this for Mommy's sake, don't you?

Probably too much rich food, because I didn't sleep much that night. The next morning Prof. Schram and I had some one-on-one time over hot chocolate in a café, which was very pleasant and - what should I say - re-enforcing? Then she walked to the university with me to attend the Grammar class with Sarah and me.

Saturday morning I did homework and said au revoir to Prof. Schram. While I was cleaning up my dishes from lunch, Mme. Josianne (my host mom) asked if I had another name. No, just my middle name, which is Louise. Ahhh! Louise! She and M. Albert much preferred Louise... the sound in French and the stereotype behind the name are apparently more gentle and suited to me - according to them. So now I am Louise. The droll part is that the meaning behind the names is quite the opposite!

Saturday afternoon I went to the museum, taking my own sweet time, as usual, till the demonstration against the CPE started and disrupted my museum atmosphere. Oh well, I would never have finished that day anyway. I got some pictures of that one, as you see from the previous post. Incidentally, my professor mentioned yesterday that it was a national syndicat which came to Dijon to demonstrate. So I guess it was on the national news. I didn't catch it, though I listen to the radio almost every day.

And there were two other demonstrations, one later that evening and one yesterday when I was returning from class, but I'm not sure what they were about. Not the CPE, I think.

Then I went to see a movie, and stupidly forgot my culture card, so I couldn't get the student rate of 3,50 euros, so I took a long walk instead, which was very pleasant because spring is finally here.

And now I'm running out of time again, so I'll have to explain about Sunday and the 137.5 miles per hour tomorrow.

Hopefully you can't dredge up too many errors in this un-proofread post. A demain.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, les escargots....

My high school French teacher made them for us. The texture was somewhat akin to rubber, which is why they drown them in buttery garlic sauce.

If I'm not mistaken, the snails are simply told they are just going for a quick dip in the Seine, and then voilà! they are poor little gastropods being presented on a plate to unfeeling humanity.

It is all very sad, really.

As to the name change, I can only say, "Comment excellent!"

Your father picked out "Sharon," and I picked out "Louise." *blushes modestly*

Be sure to tell your host parents that little nugget of information. Daddy sorta liked "Karen," but he said it sounded too harsh, and "Sharon" sounded softer...heh...

"Long live Louise!"

I am so very glad you had good visiting time with Prof Schram. Having known her brother in college, I have the highest regard for their entire family.

We await with only slight trepidation your further divulgence concerning the excessive speed...

Sharon said...

Some people might not like long comments, but I love 'em. :)

It's funny that a name can be soft in English but harder in French. Well, too bad, I like both names. Even if I didn't, I would never want to change either, simply because you and Daddy chose them.