The weekend

I slept in till 9 a.m. on Saturday. That was lovely. Then I waited an hour for one of my eleven-year-old host sisters to finish in the bathroom (hmm... some things never change). Unfortunately, when it was my turn, I forgot to make sure that the water was turned back on to full force - as my host mom had cut it off to speed her daughter up. It was just like home when we were without water the few days before I left.

In the afternoon I went to a mosque in Dijon. (My topic for the Oral Expression presentation is the Muslims in France.) The Al-Khir Mosque is a little white building with a green roof, and a little white minaret with a green top, set back from the road in an open space between apartment buildings. It was a sprinkly afternoon. I arrived just as several men were coming out from prayers, including the one who works in the library - I had telephoned him the week before. We were able to fix my interview with the president of the mosque for Monday morning of the next week.

Then I took a nice long walk down a tree-lined street. I like to walk off stress, excitement, and overactive thoughts.

That night I talked to Mommy for a whole hour - of course, it was her afternoon - which was lovely!

Sunday morning around 9:40 I walked to la Place Saint-Michel - Saint Michel, incidentally, is that 'magnificent building' of which I took a photo - for my ride to church. After church I went with some other 'young' people (that is, I think, between 20 and 40) for lunch, which was crepes. There was a nice little griddle in the middle of the table, with exactly 6 little circles for the crepes, perfect for the six of us. Our host kept adding a little batter as we flipped and removed our crepes, which we could fill with things like cheese, ham, dried tomatoes, dried olives, odd little pieces of fish, etc. It was very pleasant. And I met someone else from Iowa! A man from Ottawa (I think) who has been working here around two years for John Deere, and is soon to return.

Sadly, I had to leave right after lunch, but happily it was for a good reason... to meet one of my classmates for a drink in a bar and a violent movie.

Wouldn't it be fun to stop the story there?

Sundays there is not much open. So after we'd bought our tickets (just in case there was a rush later), Tae and I went looking for a place to drink something hot, but the first place we found in ten minutes was a bar. So we went in and had some hot chocolate. The bar was pretty quiet. Nobody was drunk, and it wasn't too smokey. There was a large-screen TV in the back. I think the bars here must be a little different, or maybe Sunday afternoon is the right time to go.

Then we went back for our movie, only to find the line overflowing across the street! Whew, good thing we'd thought ahead. The movie was De battre mon coeur s'est arreté. Mmm, it wasn't quite like the synopsis I read (not to mention the photo was in blue and white, so of course I didn't see the blood on his sleeve). Mostly I was curious to see this actor who had won eight Césars. Better yet, by the time Tae and I got up to the room where this particular movie was showing, the only seats left were in the v-e-r-y front row, about three feet from the screen (well... maybe a little more...).

After that I wound down with a long cold walk.

That's all the weekend, and that's all the time I have free to blog for now. I wish you all a happy Wednesday!