Super-Duper Wacky n' Tacky Euro Adventure

Mêlée : Scrum (rugby).

Six nations start today!

Aléatoire: random

...that I had lost something at the hotel we were staying on Sat? Well, actually, that was a bit inaccurate. I had in fact lost 5 things. These things were of varying importance, ranging from kinda important to I will have to pay some money becuase I lost this item to I will in fact lose money because I have lost this item. So the good news: They have all of it! Yay! And they're sending it right over by the mail. And I did all the sleuthing on my lonesome, en Francais! I don't even want to think what kind if nightmares this would have posed in Russia.

Hopefully a ski trip weekend after next!

There are whispers of going to Munich and then back to Moscow for Spring Break. We will see if these get any louder.

Oh man, things are sure looking up. Or down. Hill that is! Oh how I make myself laugh sometimes.

Happy birthday celebrations for Andrew.
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Or this time.
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The oldest church in Paris (that's saying something!) The St. Germain church.
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TGV. No, not the train. Tequila Gin Vodka. Tu en veut?
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like this time
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Now more serious
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All laughs now
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You could barely feel the rain when Des busts out this fab umbrella and starts voguing in the middle of the street.
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Tim can be a bit patronizing at times.
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I take my birthday celebrating seriously.
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Maybe she's a camera ho'?
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No one is a bigger camera ho' than me.
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that I was going to be away for the weekend? Whoops.

So this weekend the Stanford in Paris kids were in Normandy! The great land of ancient conquerors and even more ancient buildings! So as usual, I have tons of pictures, but of course, none of the means with which to post them, so hold on for that.

Well, it definitely wasn't St Pete like last quarter, but the area defninitely has a certain charm. And I can't say that I didn't learn a TON of information and history from our guide that, again, was great, but just had a problem with learning when to actually stop talking. Oh sorry, was that mean? Anyway, let's see, where did we go and what did we do?

*Got up WAY too early for a Friday morning.
*Toured the beautiful Mont Saint Michel in the not so beautiful weather.
*Asked the locals what there was to do at night in Mont Saint Michel.
*Got laughed at.
*Tried to get to the D-Day landing beaches on Sat. Morning.
*Got Snowed out of that idea.
*Learned way too much about WWII at the museum in Caen. Actually, this place was genuinely interesting, I gotta say. But the only parts they had translated into Russian were these small exhibits on the siege of Leningrad and the battle of Stalingrad. Boo. You gotta respect Russian's role in the war more than that.
*Finally made it to the Omaha landing beach, the site of the American invasion. Eh, it's just a beach really. Not even any memorials or plaques to read. Mix that with January weather, aint so fun.
*Went to the American cemetary where the buried all the soldiers who died in France during WWII. Lord, that place was way too big.
*Ended up in Bayeux Saturday night and they actually did have ONE bar open for us to chill at. Oh yeah, I also think I paid $9 for a beer. Ouch.
*Sampled Calvados, the regional drink specialty that is best described as a "apple cognac."
*Had a surprisingly good time at the chateau we were staying at Sat night.
*Waking up not so fun.
*Lost some things in the rush out of the hotel.
*Saw a rug.
*Ok, it's not just a rug, it's actually a rediculously long tapestry depicting William the Conqueror's conquest (go figure) of England. So I was being a smart ass and, out of the choices for English and French for the audio guide of the rug, I mean tapestry, I chose Russian. The lady thought I was kidding, but I wasn't. So I demanded a Russian version, and she had to oblige, as it was one of the available languages. I gotta admit though, it must have been weird. Oh well. So yeah, I didn't understand a thing about the rug except the numbers and this part: "Vot, Normmandski atakuyet." Brilliant.
*Saw a really old church that was very beautiful in it's own right. I just kept thinking of my dad and family trips to Mexico for some reason.

And then we came back tired, hungry, cranky, but intellectually satisfied. Yummy