A Bit of This and a Bit of That

Well, there is no particular theme to this post...just a general update on life post-Northern Ireland.

Upon my return, I had a slight scratch in my throat, but I wasn't concerned. I was dehydrated and figured it was just a result of that. Wrong. The next day I was sick in bed with muscle aches, chills, headache, sore throat...all the symptoms of the A flu. Just super. I tried not to panic...I drank as much water as my body could handle and Marco waited on me hand and foot so I could rest as much as possible. Fortunately, the next day I felt a bit better and realized it was just some sort of 24h bug. Somehow I am somewhat disappointed that it wasn't the A flu so I could now be immune from it. Oh, how we always want what we don't get.

Besides that, I set up my bank account and registered for my Tuesday/Thursday evening French classes. With a French cell phone and now a French credit card, people are really going to think I'm French. I like blending in so I quite like that idea. Just they wait until I open my mouth - boy are they in for a treat they don't expect :).

This past weekend was "Les Journees du Patrimoine." That's pretty much just a fancy name for saying 'we normally close these things to the public, but for this weekend we'll let you tour it so you can quench your curiosity.' So, Pascale and I went to as much as we possibly could. We went to a few late night concerts in a few not normally opened gardens, we visited an 18th century apartment, took a late night stroll around the castle, visited the 'Hotel de Ville' (which, by the way, is NOT a hotel...I didn't figure this out until AFTER the tour. I asked Pascale where the 'hotel' part was - she just looked at me and started to laugh. It is actually just the town hall. Go figure!), etc. We also took a boat tour of the Loire (the river that goes through Nantes) - or what I thought was going to be a boat tour. When I think boat, I think of a decent sized piece of floating transportation that can comfortably carry at least 20 people. Nope. Try a wooden gondola with a small motor, steered by a beard sporting, beret wearing, French speaking burly man. I hope the picture amuses you as much as it does me.

It was also Pascale's 50th Birthday on Sunday. I included a picture of that too!

And for today's little anecdote, I am going to talk about French people and their teeth and smoking. Okay- normally I love almost all aspects of France and French culture, but these two things just repulse me, to put it somewhat bluntly. Keep in mind that this is just SOME French people and not all. It's kinda like obesity in the US- it's easy to find but it's not nearly everyone either. So, I walked through a high school yesterday and had to wave through literally hundreds of smoking teenagers. All of these young people killing their bodies before they've even finished growing. You can hardly walk outside without seeing someone smoking. Or you'll see the train conductors running out of the train for the 10 minute wait before they next depart to suck up some more nicotine. Or mom's carrying a baby in one arm and a cigarette in another (fortunately this is much more rare). For a country that prides itself of being 'rational and intellectual,' I find this to be quite contradictory. So, because of the tendency to smoke, and probably the coffee and red wine that is consumed, some French people have not so great of teeth. Not just like a little yellow around the edges, I mean, I have seen teeth on people who have been dead for 10 years that look better than that! Okay, I haven't seen teeth on someone dead for 10 years and that's quite an exaggeration but you get the point. Example: Pascale and I visited a young French couple - probably about 30- the other day. They were both sitting smoking their cigs and drinking their tar-like coffee. And then they opened their mouths. Oh, what a surprise. At 30, they had the teeth of someone of 95 years in the US. They were completely discolored, deteriorated, and brittle looking (this is an extreme example). And the next thing they'll ask me is how I keep my teeth so white. DUH! Do I really need to explain that? Come on France - for the land of fashion, your teeth are way out of style.

Ok. End of harsh words.
I am off to make some tomato pie for dinner!