Rain, Rain, Go Away...

...it's been a long week, to say the least.

I think it's mostly because of the weather. The cold and rain just will not let up. Spring is not arriving and it's definitely taking a toll on my mood. On Monday I had a bad stomach ache, the first time I've actually felt really sick since I've been here. All week I've been tired and grumpy and most of the time I haven't known why, or cared to find out. So I'm blaming it on the weather.

But despite my crappy mood and the grey skies, I still managed to fit in some fun and good experiences. 

On Wednesday (the start of the non-crappy part of this week) I went to lunch with a girl named Marie. I met her on Sunday when we had our guests over. Her parents want her to improve her English so from now on, every Wednesday that I'm available before I leave (it's actually only 3 more because of all of the vacation time) we're going to get lunch.

This week we went to an Italian restaurant. But beforehand (I was early, as usual) I walked around and took pictures of things I wanted to show everyone back home:

These are pictures of the some of houses from the middle ages here. The ones in the first picture are actually not from the middle ages, but I'm pretty sure the other ones are. They're either original or they're still very old. You can tell because the houses (which are made of wood) are literally bending and warping (look closely). Maybe someday when it isn't crappy out (those photos are unedited and were taken around lunchtime, to give you can idea) I'll find the ones that I know for a fact are from the middle ages and I'll take a picture.

And some pictures from lunch:

Yummy apricot juice and tiramisu!

Today was also a pretty good day! I went to lunch with my friend Tra and her two friends whose names I do not know how to spell. We got kebab! And afterwards we got some coffee.

Also today I taught my English class again. It went pretty well, we did almost everything I had planned and I didn't have any huge issues.

I'm becoming more autonomous with the lesson planning now so I don't think I have to go see Madame Ollivier on Mondays anymore which is a little sad because I really like talking to her. But I can still talk to her for a while before and after class on Thursdays so it's not the end of the world.

And dinner today was deeeeelicious. We had roasted artichoke first and then the main course was pork loin and potatoes. I don't know what Monique put on the potatoes to make them so delicious but mmmmmmmmm. Roasted fingerling potatoes are so good, she makes them a lot, especially on Sundays. I love Sunday lunches here...  Today dinner was especially fancy, we don't eat like this everyday so it was worth writing about.

But something weird I've noticed: for dinner sometimes they eat their cheese with white bread. From an American's point of view, that's just silly. You live in FRANCE! You eat BAGUETTES! Not crappy wonderbread. But don't fret, whenever we have that instead of baguette I don't eat it.