Getting ready...

OK things are slowly getting under control. Bank thing is squared away. Eurail reservations are made, hostels are booked. We have a place to leave our heavy luggage while we're travelling. I've bought cleaning supplies...the cleaning bit is coming, soon.

Last night, Alan and I went to the Chinese restaurant, and who greets us at the door but Tracy from our French class! Too cool. We exchanged emails and such, hopefully we stay in contact! Lol she hooked us up, the owner offered us glasses of white wine with litchis in them, and saki at the end of the meal.

Rose and Steve left last night for Biarritz, so that's the last I'll see of them until...May! Rose is pretty much definitely comin to the States, harharhar!

OK, putting on some motivating music, and gettin to scrubbin...

Last day

Aaaw who'd've thought, after my first semester here, that I'd actually be sad to see my classes go! Sure, some of the kids were like, "Yessss no more extra English," but others asked for my email address so we could keep in touch. I finished my last class, turned in my keys, and felt like I should go find everyone who I'd gotten to know to say good-bye. But nobody was in the teachers' lounge, and I ended up just checking my locker one last time, walking out to get my bike just like every other day. Not a sense of closure at all.

Alan and I are working on getting our train situation worked out for Europe...Eurail passes are NOT as easy as they sound. Sometimes there are required reservations, sometimes the trains are already booked full. We ended up calling various foreign stations to make reservations, and finally Alan got to break out his German with the Vienna station. We have two legs of our 8ish-leg voyage booked: Amsterdam--Berlin, and Vienna--Venice. Hopefully the others line up so we can make those.

Yesterday I met with my banker to find out about closing my account. To my horror, she tried to take both my checkbook AND my debit card. I explained that I didn't want to close my account right then, as I had to wait for my last paycheck to be deposited...not to mention the fact that I'll be using my French card throughout Europe as we travel. At first, she was like, no, you have to give up all modes of payment before you leave Blois...but for me, that was just not going to work, obviously. I can't NOT have access to my account. So we arranged it that I'll drop the checkbook off on Saturday--won't need that anyway--and then before I leave France on the 3rd May, I'll send her a letter cancelling my account, requesting a wire transfer of my remaining balance to my American account, and I'll tuck the debit card--cut up--into the envelope. Whew.

Going to talk to M. Bride today about setting up my check-out appointment on Tuesday morning. Gotta CLEAN this place somethin fierce...as they say here, it's a "grand bordel"...a huge brothel.

Catchin up!

This posting business gets harder and harder as things get busier. Last week...highlights included a spectacular day in the French countryside, thanks to Thierry and Annick. We drove about an hour out of Blois to Thierry's father's cave (used to store wine, among other things, including a boat--there is no water near this cave--and a lamp--there is no electricity, either). Caves were designated not only as wine storage places, but the places wine was actually made. There was a sort of reservoir where grapes would be dumped and then pressed. The juice flowed down to another part of the cave where they did whatever they do to make it into wine.

We ate outside--sunny but a cold north wind. We had crudites, which basically means raw veggies. Anybody from B-W reading this, I had radishes and butter!!! HAHAHA. We also made steaks and potatoes, and a variety of cheeses: two kinds of chevre, a mountain cheese, and some other type that I can't remember. There was strawberry tarte for dessert.

After lunch, we went to drop off the key to the cave at Thierry's grandmother's house (she is 92 and still going strong...only stopped driving 6 months ago and STILL goes shopping on her bike). Then we went to Lavardin--where Rose and I had gone with her teacher Annick the other weekend--and this time we got to see more than just the "touristy" stuff. One of Thierry's friends owns a cave that was used to house refugees during WWII. They were artists from Paris, and painted part of the cave! Am ashamed to say I forgot my camera. :( The friend and his wife live in a troglodyte home--so they live in the cliffside basically.

Friday, I went to Paris to meet Amanda! Met in the Gare du Nord and made our way back to Blois. Met up with Alan for a drink at the chateau cafe, and of course the dragons of the Maison de la Magie were in action. Seems I miraculously show this to people only when they are seriously jetlagged.

Saturday, we did some shopping in town, then came back to the house to make crepes. Yuuum. Back to town, we went to the Louis XII for drinks, then up to the Temple for a vocal concert. Went to Mehdi's for a barbecue, then to the chateau for the first sound and light show of the season. Wish I'd done that when I first got here...gives a nice rundown of the history of the chateau. Afterwards, we were pretty chilled from sitting on pavement, so warmed up in Ben's Blues Bar. Such a cool place. HAH we're just sitting there quietly in a corner, when some guy comes up to Amanda (who is invariably wearing a B-W hoodie), and asks, "You're from Baldwin-Wallace? I'm a Capital graduate." How many Ohioans does that make in little bitty Blois?!

Alan and I have our Eurail passes! All we have to do now is find hostels. We could go so many places on this pass--from Ireland to Greece, really. We've made a doable yet still impressive list, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Venice, Rome, and Lyon. 15 days, that should do it.

Am hungry for bread, what are the odds a French bakery will be open on Easter Sunday?? Going to find out.

Birm in France!!

Wehell, quite a bit to recount. Lauren got here early on Wednesday...we bee-lined for Blois, crashed, and then made it out to enjoy the weather with a game of frisbee. Thursday and Friday, we hung out in Blois, frequenting cafes and stores quite a bit. Saturday, Alan joined us and we made the trek to Chambord on bike. Was a good day for it, weather was nice; we had a picnic lunch on benches in front of the chateau, then went in to visit. Sunday, Lauren and I headed to Paris for freeee museum day! Yay! Got wrapped up in the Louvre and so that was the only museum we actually got into for free. Also saw the Tour Eiffel and walked by various other things: Notre Dame, the Pantheon... Had a killer dinner at a bistro in the Latin Quarter. Monday, we made our way to the airport, and then I headed back to Blois.

Classes are really winding down. I seriously have 3 more days of teaching left, since next Monday we have off for Easter. AAAH.

Talked to M. Bride's secretary today about getting our housing deposits back. Hopefully that works out smoothly. Also have to settle my bank account here and hear from France Telecom that our internet contract will be terminated without us having to pay for the rest of our 12-month contract. P.S. If you EVER want to cancel an internet contract, this website is a-mazing: http://www.ariase.com/fr/guides/resiliation.html

It basically writes the cancellation letter for you, giving you options to also cancel any automatic bill payment you may have set up, AND writes a nice clause about you having "just cause" for getting out of your contract early. At least for Orange, if you're moving out of range of their services, you are apparently not made to uphold the contract! We'll see, once they reply to my letter.