Oodle doodle!

Hello from a turkey and mashed potato crowded world. I have infested little allée Victor Hugo with cranberry sauce and the rest of the 9 plat meal that we did on Sunday. Nadine said that I can get married now because I planned and had a sucessfull dinner party...well it was at lunch and I heard that the grandma is sick now...just kidding! I learned that pecans and cranberries only grow in North America, so the pecan pie turned into a walbut pie, and it was very delicious.

So everything since last Monday have been pretty good....the weather was warmer, so soccer wasn't as painful when the coach shoots the ball right at your thigh, when you are wearing shorts. It actually rained on the Thursday practice, which made things interesting since the fields are synthetic so instead of coming out with grass stains, you have tiny black pieces of rubber in/on/all over your cleats and socks. Liza and I started our pre-pre-triathalon training on Wednesday, with a 2 hour swim at the pool, she's such a good coach, she had me busy the whole time. We were going to go for a 20km bike ride of Friday, to celebrate 3 months in France, but we unable to secure bikes for financial reasons, but that's ok, we went on a little adventure anyway. Saturday was spent grocery shopping in the morning, then preparing things in the afternoon, then in the evening I had my band concert. Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, that's like 40 musicians wearing bright yellow blazers in a church thats at least 300 years old. And I thought Edison's band uniforms were funny. We played at the appropriate times during the mass, then afterwards we had our little concert. We played nice jolly little festive tunes, and when we played "He's got the whole world in his hands" everyone got up and clapped and sang along. It was pretty cool. I was put in the back next to the drums and right in front of a big plant...so if you know how a french horn is, the plant was the lucky one who got the main sound from me. Afterwards was the dinner. At first I was skeptical about going, since most of the teenagers in the band weren't overly friendly to me, but it I'm glad I went. A sax player that's the same age as me saved me a spot next to her at the table and we talked the whole time. Everyone was super nice and the dinner was good too. They had like a disco ball and someone played DJ music so everyone (and I mean everyone) danced crazy at the end. I'm sure the amount of alcohol there had something to do with it, but it was pretty funny seeing the director and all the members, most of whom are older than 45, let loose and go crazy and dance. Sunday was filled with cooking, until 1pm when everyone came over. 10 people, the 3 grandmas, and then Nadine's brother and his wife and 2 daughters. I finally met my host cousin, who is 18 too! They are in the picture. All the food turned out good. But with 3 entrées, people didn't have room for the turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing...so many leftovers! But it was fun. Nadine and I make a good team. Then last night we went to the movies and saw Un Jour sur Terre (one day on earht), the breathtaking BBC documentary about the Earth (surprise surprise). They had a clip of the same field of flowers over like 8 months, but sped it up so you could see it grow. They also had tons of polar bear footage...them swimming in lakes in the summers..not good. Killer whales were also highlighted...I have a little different vision of Shamu now.

They unveiled in Toulouse last week the rent-a-bike system, when you can rent for fairly cheaply one of the cool red bikes and any of the many bike rack thingys, then return it wherever you want. It's free for the frist half an hour, then only 1 euro for the half day or hour. But the marketing strategy is interesting. The machines only take Visa cards, no cash or coins, and you have to have a minimun of 150€ on your card to get a bike, 300€ for 2 people, incase you steal it, so that limits a lot of who can use them.

I can't think of anything else to write... not much analyzing going into my head right now. But here's a joke... why didn't the French pigeon cross the road? Because he was on strike!!
Lots of Love,
Liz