Bonjour France!

Well we have been here in Provence for almost entire week. Kate is here and Miah, Dwain, and their baby. We are staying at the the Miller's home in Lambesc due their generous hospitality and kindness to lend me their house again.

The comfort of hanging out in a welcoming home for breakfast and dinner and sometimes all day is quite relaxing. And cooking at home, doing laundry, relaxing on the patio, walking to the bakery - all comforting and enjoyable.

Thus far I have been to Camagrue - to see salt beds, pink flamingos, black bulls, white horses and the only cowboys in Europe; saw the Grand Canyon of Europe - largest gorge in Europe; Pont du Gard - an aquaduct; St. Remy - where there was a great market on top of the great shopping; Arles; Avignon; the castle of Tarascon, small towns and many caves (wine vineyards); the market here in Lambesc. I still need to go to Les Baux and Aix (both places I went while I was here in August).

I am on my second book, have played some games, drank wine, practiced my French, ate croissants and bread and looked for a job.

So that is what I have been doing on my spring break! Not too bad eh?

Kelly and Ben's Visit

An empty airport!

Well Kelly and Ben endured planes, ferries, trains, buses, strikes, pick pocketers, BO, ruins, sunsets, and more! What a Greek Adventure they had!First, all buses, taxis and the entire Athen's Airport was on strike the day they were to arrive (March 11). That said fortunately they got on a flight which landed at 12:30 am on Thursday night where I met them at the airport.
Friday and Saturday were packed full of tourist destinations here in Athens. They weather was chilly but sunny. We hit the Acropolis, National Archaeologist Museum, the Plaka, Kolonaki, Lykavittos Hill, Monastraki Flea Market, Panormou Laki, Ancient Agora and other places.

Then they flew to Santorini and spent 3.5 days there - beautiful sunsets, seeing the sights from their AV. Then took a ferry to Naxos and had a great time there driving around to pottery places, cheese places and eating a lot of Greek food and fresh fish! Then took the ferry back to Pireaus on Friday.

They were suppose to fly out Saturday afternoon but British Airways went on strike! So they had to leave earlier on a different airlines on Saturday morning.

It was a great visit. And of course realized after they left we only took one photo of the 3 of us. I will post that when they send it to me! Thanks for visiting Kelly and Ben!

Meat-Mud-Music and Mayhem

Well the past few days have been busy and different all in one! Saturday, my friend Christy and I went to the neighborhood where I first stayed (in the hotel when I first arrived) to check out the laki. These are street markets which sell fruits, vegetables, dried fish, nuts, and olives. Then there are stands that sell clothes, purses, knick-knacks, paper towels, TP, towels, sheets, etc. So we walked around there for a while then went downtown to Central Market. I didn't realize that this daily Central Market was ONLY fish and meats. It was kind of digusting - actually it was quite gross all the dead animals hanging, the loud chopping of meat, things that came from animals which I had never seen, men with their white butcher coats on with blood all over it - horror film more like it!!

It was beautiful weather on Saturday but that changed come Sunday. I didn't leave my apartment nor my pajamas! It was about 50 degrees, cold and rainy.

However on Monday the sky was really weird. Looked rain, felt like rain but when you looked upon your clothes and the cars, it was raining mud. Yes mud. Mud from the Sahara Desert - and the sky was yellow - should have taken a photo. It was quite freaky.

Monday night I went downtown to Mega Music Hall to see a similar medical presentation which I attended last year - this one was honoring Florence Nightingale - a hundred years past her death. Stone Ridge's parent Dr. Cynda Rushton was the keynote speaker. It was good to see her yet it was brief. there were a lot of presentations, and some musical numbers - a brass quintet and a duet of violinist and pianist.

I had heard that the Greeks may have another strike on Thursday. So I did some searching and had heard that all metro and taxis were going to strike on thursday. My sister Kelly and brother-in-law Ben are to fly into Athens this Thursday. Being proactive I am raking my brain to figure out if I need to hire a private taxi or what begging measures would I have to go to to get someone to drive me out there. So I call the airport to see if taxis would continue to go from the airport- yet before I could ask that the lady informs me that the airport (the entire airport) would be on strike for 24 hours - meaning no flights departing NOR arriving for 24 hours - midnight Wed. to midnight Thursday. This caused mayhem in my and my sister's plans.

I do have to quietly chuckle though - Welcome to Greece Kelly and Ben!!!!!

My Play-by-Play of the Men's Hockey Game = Stress!!!!

Okay now this is my play-by-play experience of the men's hockey game tonight! As mentioned earlier I couldn't get the Olympics videos to play on my computer....... I was reading a great page turner book and therefore stayed up to finish it tonight. As I am about to go to sleep I think well a good hour of the hockey game has been played let me go turn my computer back on and just see what the score is. It is the end of the second period 2-1 Canada.

I desparately start clicking on all these buttons to see once again if I can watch it on ctv.ca but no luck. I try channelsurfing.net one more time and click on something which downloads and all of a sudden I AM watching the hockey game! Blinmeny - after all this time - 2 weeks and on the last friggin' night I CAN watch the Olympics. At this point, I think well I have to watch this.

As many of you know my internet is a tad slow and freezes a lot. So while I am watching it the screen freezes but the commentaries can still be heard as their voices become higher as exciting things are happening in the game and I am left screaming at my computer screen to unfreeze. Then I have some R-rated popups coming along accompanied by some home-boy rap music - I am sure it came with the downloading the Olympics.

As my clock is reaching 12.30 am and I am thinking oh good 24 more seconds and I can go to bed. BUT NO, USA scores and now it is tied!!!! Overtime? Unbelieveable!

Ah but it gets better! 4 mins of the OT period has gone by and my internet connection fails. Yep, I have to log on again - by the time I get on it 4 more minutes have passed...... and just as I begin to get connected.... He shoots and he SCORES!!!!!!!

CANADA HAS WON THE GOLD!!!!!
So although I have missed the entire Olympic games, my head will be happy to hit the pillow (as it is 1.20 am) with sweet dreams and a happy heart that Canada's Men and Women's hockey team have won the gold.

I am proud to be a Canadian!

Bunco or Bride-to-Be?

Well let's see.... what have I been up to? Well it's February so I am a tad in hibernation.... but the weather here has not been the typical February blues weather that all of you in North America are experiencing... the past few days have been about 65 degrees - so no complaining here!

Unfortunately I am unable to watch any video from the Olympics on my computer at home - though I have been following it and read every day what has been happpening. So it's the BIG hockey game tonight.......Go Canada!!!!! Not only will it be fantastic if they win but this is hockey night in Canada! And then Canada would break the record of earning 14 gold medals in one Olympic Games!!!!!


Last night my friend Miah and I hosted a surprise engagement party for our good friend Kate. We masked it as our girls' monthly Bunco night - and boy was she surprised! The whole "American" gang was here - babies and all!

Here is dwain reading the letter Carten (Kate's fiance who lives in the US) wrote to her.

It was a fun time by all! We are all moving into different directions as our two year contracts are up this spring. Dwain and Miah will be staying here (as well as the "newbies" - those hired this year - Christy, Lacey, Eli and Therese) - Miah won't be working at ACS though - she will take care of Harper - the Kuniks got a sweet jobs in Dubai, the Levitts don't know what they will be doing as of yet; Kate will be following Carten whereever he ends up for grad school; Lindsey will be heading back to the states (Georgia) and for me? I still don't know - of course I will let you know as soon as I have any ideas!

This afternoon I went with my new cooperating teacher Irene to preview an interactive movie about our Earth, climate, natural disasters, etc. There were 4 short films - one with 3D glasses, one with incorporating lights and music to describe natural things like wind and rain - then I guy on the screen encouraged the kids to make noise with their bodies and get up and dance. The third movie was an interactive quiz game - this was move difficult to follow along as it was written all in Greek and my friend only had 8 seconds to translate - so didn't like that one so much and the last one had seats that moved, water that sprayed on us, cold air - so while we were going over waterfalls we got misted and stuff. Pretty cool!

Kelly and Ben are to arrive in 2 weeks - I sure hope the weather stays warm and sunny!

Long Weekend

US = President's Day
Canada = Family Day
Greece = Clean Monday - go fly a kite!

Today is the day in Greece that you are suppose to cleanse (I don't know your body or kitchen)of fattening foods before Lent begins tomorrow-well something like that. And people are suppose to fly a kite - it was perfect weather for flying a kite, maybe even a little too windy - but I wouldn't really know because I have not left my apartment all day.

I have been busying researching schools and countries, cleaning, cleaning, baking and more cleaning! But in a good way - oh ya and marking papers!

Yesterday (Sunday) I treated myself (since it was Valentine's Day) to a full body Swedish massage at the spa. it was lovely and relaxing.

Saturday I did errands and putsed areound the house. Friday night friends and I went out for southwestern (Santa Fe) fare. Really good food.

I was disappointed that I didn't have the opportunity to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I am keeping up on the news and hopefully will figure out how to watch some of it on my computer.

Glad it is Tuesday already tomorrow!

A few notes on life right now!

Well - not much has happened in the past 3 weeks but thought I should update my blog! I will work/think backwards...... last night (Monday) a bunch of us got together to watch the Super Bowl. My friend had paid for the post-season games online so we watched it last night. Everyone brought food, there was some gambling, he projected it through a LCD projector onto a large wall - great fun by all! (even though most of us knew who won the game!)

Kate, Miah, Dwain, their baby and I will all be going to my friend's home in Provence for spring break. This is the same house Suzanne and I went to this summer. We are all quite excited!

OH - I joined a gym! It's basically right across the street from me. It has been there the whole time I have lived here - but it is more encouraging to join/go when all my friends are going as well!

I still don't have a job for next year but I am working on sending out my resume and such. It's a full time job looking for a full time job and right now I have a full time job!

Well I would love to have a snow day (like all those folks in the mid-Atlantic area) but I don't think it snows when it is 60 degrees!

So just checking in with everyone.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Happy Birthday Wendy!
hello Bachner!
hello Librot!