Wonderful visit!!!

Well, I was finally able to welcome Bernard to my place. It seems I am always at his, though it is true. Not like I really had much of a place last year and it is the first time he has been able to make it over to the East. That's what happens with a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 job. He finally got here on Friday night, almost midnight...stupid mappy made him take a wrong turn and end up lost like 5 minutes from my house. Sitting around waiting is definitely not fun.
So Saturday we had to get up bright and early as the stupid guy was coming to work on the balcony, which is conveniently off my room. So....8h30 up we get. It was a beautifully warm day so we walked into town for the afternoon. I showed him a bit of the city and we went to the Christmas market and some of the shops. We ate some yummy Alsacian food..mmmm. That night we were having raclette at my place with a few friends. It was fun to go out and get all the food and to get all organised for it.
We enjoyed some nice rum punch and little bite size appetizers for the "apéro", before getting into the RACLETTE!!! (see photos in previous post) It was a very enjoyable evening with the beaujolais nouveau and some delicious cake and sparkling wine to top it all off.
Some of us decided we would head to Emma and Davids for schnapps before heading to "Les Salles des Coffres"(club). It was a super warm night out so we didn't take our coats. It was an interesting night that included Bernard finding a native headdress on the floor. He thought it would be fun to put it on, get up on the blocks and dance....he sure did it....even made it on the clubs site.
(photo does not want to upload....sorry)
Sunday we were both pretty exhausted from the late night clubbing that we didn't do too much. Ended up going to the Electricity museum not far from my house. Thay was about it. On Monday we headed up to Strasbourg. It was again a very nice, mild day. And on the way home we stopped in Colmar. It's no good that it gets dark so early. Anyway, I drove a little stick, and even on the highway! YEAH ME!!! I wasn't that bad.
Tuesday we headed off to Bale(Switzerland) as it's only 30 km from here. I drove. I didn't know that you don't have to stop at customs unless they tell you to stop, so I did anyway. Well, perfect...I ended up stalling the car twice infront of the guy and had him ask me if I really had a drivers licence. haha....how embarrassing. I made it into town and to the parking garage, though ended up having to take 3 tickets because I stalled the car and the bar went down. Oh Erin!!! Good for some laughs. We ate some good sausages for lunch and then had a nice apple strudle(thoug it was more pie like) with a great hot chocolate that had tons of whipped cream on top. Before heading back to Mulhouse we made a little detour to Freiburg. We really just checked out the Christmast market, ate Striebel(like funnel cake) and some other German food. It was a nice day and funny that we were actually in 3 countries.
Bernard left yesterday, Wednesday. I had class at 14h00 and that's when he went on his way. Sad to see him leave. We had a really good visit, though it was not long enough. Anyway, I'm going to leave it at this for now...bedtime for me.

Raclette

Mmmmm....cheese and meat......

Good fun!!!! I love raclette!!!!!!

From left to right: Me, Bernard, Cynthia, David, Emma, Becca

Whatelse is new...

Well, I am not very good at keeping this thing upto date this year. Ooops. I don't know why, it's not like I dont have any free time.
So, I started giving private english lessons about 2 weeks ago. The guy is the same age as me. He is a history teacher, though only a supply. It's nice to have a little bit of extra income, though I am going to try and save that all and not spend it.
This weekend Bernard is coming. I can't wait for him to get here....I am so impatient. He wont get here till late Friday night as he working that day and then driving down. Ican't wait to be able to discover a little bit of the area with him. He has never been to Alsace. Plus, the Christmas markets are beginning so that is very exciting. It's been about 3 weeks since we saw each other last. And then we probably wont see each other until my Christmas break. We are going to San Sebastian Spain for New Years Eve, 3 days. That should be lots of fun.
This Saturday Bernard and I decided to have a raclette....so I have invited a few friends over for dinner and some drinks. I think it will be an enjoyable evening. My roomie hasn't had raclette before and I'm always talkinng about it. For those of you don't know it's potatoes with melted cheese and meats (cold cuts). There is a machine, and each person has a little thing to melt their own cheese. Mmmmm....I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. I LOVE RACLETTE!!!
I am going to be going to Lille to see my friends from my highschool exchange in 2.5 weeks. That will be interesting because we have not seen each other in about 4 years. It will be a nice girls weekend.
I am debating different places to visit. Looking for another little vacation. I have 2 weeks off for Christmas, then 2 weeks of class and 2 weeks off. Then 3 weeks of class and 2 weeks off. Then 5 weeks of class and 2 weeks off. I may take an extra week off in April as I will be going home. My sister will have her baby. I have to decide soon so I can ask for that week off. I should think about that this weekend. I also have to really think about what I want to do next year. Claude mentioned to me today about deciding whether or not I will come back next year.
Well, I think I have made up for not writing in forever today. I will try and write more regularily, but no promises. :)

Good weekend away!!

Well, this past weekend I went on a little adventure. I left Thursday night on a train to Paris at 1h30. I met Ashlie and Melissa(her roomate) in Paris to get on the bus to the airport. We were headed to Bratislava....Eurotrip. So we arrived there around noon on Friday. We got on a city bus and headed into the city....the outskirts of the city were a little sketchy, though we did see an IKEA and a huge mall.
We got to the city and headed straight to the hostel to drop off our stuff and then head out to see the city. We didn't have a lot of time to see it as we were headed to Vienna the following day. It was a nice city with lots of nice buildings and a castle. It would have been nice to see more,but time constraints. I tried some typical Slovakian food, and it was really good!!! Found that food was really cheap there, though converting from the Slovakian Crown to the euro was a pain. 35SKK to 1 euro. That evening we went to the store, TESCO(huge place) and bought some booze. I opted for vodka and split the bottle with Melissa. We got 2 litres of OJ with that and it cost us about 210SKK, about 6 euros($8.70CAD)....too many conversions there. haha.
We went back to the hostel and ended up playing a drinking game "I never". It was quite amusing and we all ended up getting pretty drunk. We were getting ready to go out when Melissa was sick. We got her all set up in bed with a bucket and bags beside her and Ashlie and I still went out. (is that mean?). We were going to go to a club though we decided not too....it cost 200SKK =5.50euros...so into town we went. We stopped to get our photo take with a statue, as they were everywhere in town. Some random Slovakian guy took our picture and ended up coming out for a drink with us at the Irish pub. After chatting for a bit he told us that he was looking for women to have sex with....well that sure was NOT us. We finished our drinks, paid and went on our way. He wanted to pay for ours, though we thought it was better for us to pay for his than have him expect something later. Some wierd people out there...
Saturday morning we got up bright and early to get the bus to Vienna. Dropped our stuff at the hostel and off we went. Had little time compared to what there is to see there. We got to see a lot though I think we could have spent another entire day atleast. We didn't do much that night as we were all pretty tired. On Sunday Ashlie and Melissa had to leave to catch a flight, leaving me all alone... :( Haha. I looked around the city a little more before heading back to Brat. I ended up sleeping in the airport that night as my flight was at 6am and it didn't seem worth it to me to get a hostel. It wasn't too bad. A very small airport.
I got home Monday morning. Quite tired, but satisfied with my trip.
Well, that is all the travels for now....need to find another one I think :)

Trick or Treaters

Here are the cute little trick or treaters we got at the house on Halloween. It's not very common here in France to have kids come to the door. I had to take a picutre, and we gave the "Canadian" candy as Bernard didnt have any to give out. They got SweetTarts. They had like little cakes and everything that people had given them. It's like people find whatever they have in their house to give them. Heheh, quite funny!!

Almost the end

Well, the holidays are coming to an end soon....that is no fun. I start back to work on Monday afternoon. I shouldn't complain as my hours are not too bad for the next few weeks. I am sure I will soon start complaining that I have too much free time. I found out that there are some French classes offered at the school and I am going to try and find out if I could sit in on these to improve my French a little. From what I know it's mostly grammer which is good.
I am at Bernards as I write, he is at work. It has been a good week. Saturday we went to the London's Club and I got to see a bunch of people which was nice. Sunday we went for a 16km hike with some friends and then to there place for dinner. Monday not too much, to Bernards sisters for the apéro, Tuesday to his parents for lunch and some friends for dinner(mmmm...raclette). Wednesday we went to Rémi's place. I finally got to meet his cute little family. So great to see him too. I miss having him at the school to chat with.
Today I'm not sure what I am going to do. I really should do some work for my classes...but Im lazy. I dont really have any desire to do so, though Im not really sure what I want to do. hehe
Well, my life is not very exciting at the moment, so I am going to stop here. I hope everyone is well. Talk soon