Last weekend again

So I don;t seem to be very good at keeping up with the blog. It is once again Wednesday and I have not written anything about last weekend. Well, it started Friday afternoon when I went to the spa with the USAC group. It wasn't too spa-like, no massage or nails or anything like that. Basically a couple of warm swimming pools with jets in them (like huge jacuzzis) and some saunas. It was nice, though, very relaxing. Afterwards we went to Robina's (resident director) house for dinner and to stay the night. She lives on a farm with 10,000 ducks, the smallest of which were very cute! Hilda loved them and after being initially scared, held one. Robina has a beautiful old house that has been recently renovated. Our dinner was excellent. Of course, we had fois gras and duck confit, but many other wonderful things as well. We brought a bottle of Ron Zacapa Centenario which went over pretty well. It was a long meal (as is typical here) and we didn't finish before 11pm. Conversation was almost all in French and as I got more tired it became more difficult to understand, but all in all, I got the idea of what was going on. Some of the French professors were there too which was fun. It is nice to get to know people outside of the normal context in which you know them. Hilda was going for attention as usual but mostly well behaved. Robina's kids are wonderful and they help to keep Hilda in line a bit. She didn't want to eat her dinner, of course, but eventuallyl she was convinced to have at least some (I mean, duck confit, come on, kid!!!).

Saturday was an excursion with USAC to Bayonne and Biarritz. We started out in Bayonne on a city tour. It is a beautiful Basque city, I wish that we would have had more time there! It is a walled city and also has amazing chocolate. Apparently it is where chocolate was first introduced to Europe. After a lovely Basque lunch, we went to Biarritz. Hillda was able to fall asleep on the bus between the two (just about 20 minutes) and continued to sleep about a full hour so the first bit in Biarritz was me on the bus with sleeping Hilda on my lap. Never fear, I was still able to knit! Once she woke up, we went to a little beach south of the main beach and played a bit in the small waves. The main beach at Biarritz has quite large waves so we were happy to have found this little spot. The weather was not really great, so we sat on the beach for a while then went to the Ocean Museum just in time for the feeding of the seals. The museum was half acquarium and half museum. Hilda enjoyed the animals much more than the museum exhibits, and she would not believe me that the underwater viewing of the seals was of the same seals that we had seen from above.

On Sunday, in Pau, there is an extremely limited bus schedule and no busses come to Bizanos where we live. In the afternoon, we hiked into town and hung out a bit. Hilda played in her favorite fountain, we rode the funicular, I had a lovely (3 Euro!!!!) cup of tea. Nothing too exciting.

Last weeekend cont.

This is Hilda dancing on the beach with her ice cream on Saturday.

On Sunday we went hiking in the mountains with Robina, the USAC resident director, and her family. We were near the village of Castet near, but not in, the high Pyranees. We were hiking at about only 1000m above sea level which was perfect for us. Hilda was mostly a sport about hiking, but had a few meltdowns and we ended up carrying her more than we had hoped. All in all it was a great day. We had a lovely picnic, a French picnic with a tablecloth, wine and real wine glasses, a cheese course, salad, basque octopus, etc. Yummy! And we sat and ate and chatted for at least 1 1/2 hours. The kids played football and hide and go seek and didn't seem to mind that despite being bilingual they did not have a common language (Robina's kids speak French and German). The photo is of Hilda, Robina and I walking after lunch in the mountains. It was cool to be so close to the big mountains with their snowy peaks and yet, we were able to walk among the free-range cows with their big cowbells around their necks. Hilda loved listening for the cows and trying to figure out where they were.

Monday I went to the new Almodovar film during Hilda's nap (the first one in 3 days) and then we went to the Cite des Abeilles (Bee city). I couldn't resist an insect city, right? It was fun although we never found the queen bee in the hives, maybe she was on holiday? We had a honey tasting and looked at all of the different kinds of man-made hives through the ages. Then we went to Mounin (not exactly spelled like that) where we saw a gothic cathedral with a 40 meter bell tower and then to Lescasse which is on one of the Camino de Santiago trails.

Last Weekend

Well, it is Thursday already but I can't not talk about last weekend. It was great! We rented a car and did three different day trips. Three, you ask? Well, yes, Monday was a holdiay (Pentecost) so we had a three day weekend.
On Saturday, we went to La Rhune which is an overlook in the Pyranees on the border with Spain. We took a little wooden train up to the top of the mountain and could see to the coast and all around. It was beautiful. Hilda wasn't really impressed with the train or the view but there were some goats and sheep roaming around at the top and that was enough for her to think that it was pretty cool!

This photo is Hilda and Vinicio looking at Spain.

After taking the train back down (and seeing free range little horses) we went to Saint-Jean de Luz, a little Basque beach town which is very close to the Spanish border as well. The water was very cold, but we had a good time anyway. Our host family was nice enough to lend us a big umbrella which helped because it was really hot and sunny. Hilda loved running around in the sand and digging, of course.

Second day of class...

So, today, the 2nd day of class, I was late again. No bus strikes this time, just me not realizing that the bus in this neighborhood only comes every half hour. So, I was 6 minutes late for class. I am beginning to get the reputation of being the late one which is so ironic since I am at work at 7:35 on most days. Class did seem a lot longer, though, being there for the full 3 1/2 hrs. At any rate, that is going pretty well. I had a rather embarassing verb conjugation situation at the board today. A verb I had never heard of (and now can't remember, should have written that down) that has three roots and I got them all wrong (and in the present tens, yikes!) AND no one in the class jumped in to help which I am assuming is because they didn't have a clue either, at least I hope that is why.
This afternoon has been my first at home and it was great. Hilda took a nap, I worked on planning a trip for this weekend, Vinicio helped Claude (host dad) in the yard building an above-ground swimming pool out of cement blocks!?!? I am wondering how this this is going to hold water and not fall over. I doubt I'll get to see that before we leave.
Anyway, all is well. Hilda is getting used to things (and not acting up quite as much as when we first arrived), Vinicio and Claude seem to be getting along well building and repairing things and I am just fine.

OK, so I just wrote a decent-sized post that was erased. I guess I hit the self-destruct button. So now I have to decide if I want to write what I already wrote once. And I am noticing that this doesn't automatically correct spelling.....hmmmmm. Well, we are in Pau now. The weather has been crap since yesterday, I think that Vinicio is happy that I made him bring a jacket (which he didn't think he needed). Today was the first day of class. Class was fine, really great, actually. The problem is that I was a bit more than an hour late. Why, you ask? Well, there is a bus strike today in France (apparently not just here in Pau but there didn't seem to be any news about striking bus drivers on the TV so either it is only in Pau or an entire country without busses is not news). And my class started at 8:30am (earlier than it will be for the rest of the summer). So, I left my house at 7:30 sharp to walk to class. Well, I got going the wrong way, didn't figure it out for anout 40 minutes, had to call my host mom to bail me out, but she had to take the kids to school (which is why she didn't just give me a ride today in the first place). I sat for about 15 minutes in a far-off parking lot, she brought me downtown (not all the way to the University because she had many things to do) and assured me that there WOULD be a bus at some point. And, in fact, eventually a bus did come and I did make it to class. So, on the first day of class the study abroad advisor was an hour late. Great professionalism, non? AND I am the one who should be able to navigate cultural cues and foreign situations with ease. Well, I did get there and I was able to tell my host mam where I was over the phone in French (after being lost for 40 minutes). All in all, a learning experience, not one I hope to repeat.

Liz

Getting ready to go

In true Liz and Vinicio form we are overly unprepared for leaving home in less than 24 hours. We have managed to figure out a housesitter and lawn mower, still missing packing and shopping for whatever we need (which is unknown because we haven't gotten to that yet). I am thinking that we will just push through as late as necessary tonight and then be extra tired for sleeping on the flight. Hilda has picked out the clothes that she wants to bring which is a wildly random batch. We'll see how much I care when we are actually packing.

I am going to be bold and set a goal of blogging every other day while we are gone. Let's see how that works out! Of course, now that I've actually published that it is more of a challenge. Bring it on blogging, I am ready for anything!