gaah! there is too much to write! i wish my skills of summarizing were better. alas. i went away for the weekend to le pays basque and it was beautiful and fun and amazing and like a dream. but let's start with today.
tuesday: the weather has been so so gross here. wet and spit rain and crazy wind. non-stop. my walk to school was hilarious; i felt like i was fighting off the universe's urge to turn me and my umbrella into a modern mary poppins. and then school was freezing and smelled like wet dog/pre-teens.
my classes were hilarious. i spent 2 hours helping one of my teachers conduct an oral expression test on going shopping for clothes. i was the sales clerk and since it was a test they all looked like i had a gun to their heads as i asked them how i could help them. i sold them everything from suits to jeans, shirts, dresses and leather jackets. and i wonder how they go shopping cuz they didn't really know how sizes worked. i had students telling me their pant sizes were 38-43! and that their shirt sizes were the same. very odd. but maybe they all just picked numbers they could pronounce in english and didn't care much what they meant in the world of clothes sizes.
each student also said goodbye at the end of the dialogue and it got me thinking because i just stuck with 'thanks, have a nice day' or versions of that. and i noticed how in france au revoir is the norm. it's expected, both client and sales person say it at the end of any kind of transaction and often more than once with repeated merci as well. i rarely hear 'bye' or 'goodbye' in north america. or is it that i just don't remember hearing it?
and now i will cover what i can of the weekend before i get too sleepy:
friday: visited lourdes on our way to le pays basque. it's the off season so lourdes was pretty dead. most of the stores, museums and restaurants were closed. we stopped at one souvenir shop and got bottles in the shape of the virgin to fill with the holy water from la grotte de massabielle or the virgin's cave. lourdes' cave and it's spring is known for its miracle potential. the story goes that a young country girl named bernadette found this cave and the virgin appeared to her several times. and she told her priest but he didn't believe her and told her to 'have the nice lady tell you her name.' but apparently the virgin refused and these visions made bernadette do odd things like eat dirt. and out of the ground she dug up came forth a spring from the nearby river and when a lady with a paralyzed arm stuck it in the water, she was cured. so people got very excited and came to check it out. and then one day the virgin told bernadette that she was 'the immaculate conception' and bernadette memorized this so she could tell the priest who was shocked and believed her cuz bernadette was uneducated and couldn't have come up with those words in that order by herself. and then she became a saint and it became a huge thing and has been ever since. and there have been around 50 'official' miracles or guerisons since 1858.
then we had the most amazing pizza evar. mine was goat cheese, apple and pine nut with regular tomato sauce and mozzarella as well. so creative and delicious. it was huge too and i made myself eat it all cuz i was just that blown away by how good it tasted. and there was also a veggie one with pre roasted veggies on top- red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, olives, etc. and they put salad greens on top of it, which i thought was a most delectable idea.
saturday: biarritz and saint jean de luz. beautiful. the day was sunny and almost hot. we walked around the coast and looked at the cliffs and all the happy surfers- there were a lot. biarritz is known for its waves and surf competitions. the basque houses were pretty cool too, white, red or green borders and woodwork- the colors of the basque flag. the towns were incredibly snooty with very high end stores and restaurants and chocolateries and boulangeries and such. but i really could not get over how gorgeous the ocean was. we tried a gateau basque with cherry filling and it was heaven. so rich- it was like a mix between a snickerdoodle and shortbread with fresh cherry filling. biarritz is also where the surf brands quicksilver and roxy are from. i didn't even know they were french! we checked out their stores but it was the exact same as in the states. a big thing seemed to be linen. there were so many stores selling basque patterned linen and cloth. from what i saw it's primarily stripes. various styles and colors and thicknesses- the most traditional of which were red or green on an off white background. and sometimes there were patterns of the basque cross or chilies. also espadrilles are basque. so i bought a pair!
sunday: we headed to bayonne and walked around looking at the ramparts and the tiny streets. every summer bayonne goes a litte crazy with this giant party called la fete de bayonne. the town hall gives the town permission to let loose and be lawless for a few days. it's pure chaos and madness; just drinking and music and crowds and food and people. and it tends to get a little dangerous as well. since it was way off season, nothing much was going on. but there were still more than a few bars with live music and confetti all over the streets. and people dressed up in costumes. it was almost like they were practicing for the summer- doing a little warm up before the real thing. we got take out italian pasta and sat on the steps of a cathedral and watched the silliness.
monday: we checked out espelette. it's a small town known for one thing: le piment d'espelette which is a chili pepper found only there. it's red, big, around the length of a green pepper and it's fairly thick. one again we were off season so there were no fresh ones to be found. only dried ones and powdered bottles of the stuff. i picked up a bottle or two, but i haven't tried any yet. also, the area we were in is known for foie gras. and other cured meats. so on our way back to beziers we stopped at a farm to get some. there was an angry goose to greet us followed by an adorable old lady. she invited us into her house to choose the various stuffs. i played with her dogs cuz foie gras is gross. she was quite scandalized by the fact that i'm vegetarian and actually tried to convince me that foie gras isn't meat! she was adorable so i assured her i would at least try some and that i would be back for more if i liked it. she does all the duck work herself which i thought was impressive cuz it's gotta be tough.
for those who don't know, foie gras means fat liver. and how they make it is by literally stuffing corn down ducks' throats until they can barely breathe. i don't know why. and then when they're satisfied, they kill them, take their liver and cook it. then they cool it and wrap it in the duck's fat and cool it some more and then stick it in jars. the duck fat preserves the liver and then when you're ready to eat it, you simply stick the jar back in the fridge for a few hours and let the fat solidify so that you can peel it right off the liver. the duck fat is thick and pastel yellow. i used to think that it was eaten too, but it's not.
in between these towns and things we visited others but i'm too tired to write about those as well. it was a very fun trip.
dang it, i'm still not done blogging about normandie!
craving: a strawberry banana smoothie
currently listening to: rapture- iio
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