Robert

Sunday, March 9 Rob arrived at the Lycée Kléber tram stop at precisely 7:18 p.m. I nearly laid him out when I tackled him. “So happy together” started playing somewhere in the distance, MGM style. Everything was stars and bunny rabbits. Fed Robert the finest cuisine available in France: the döner kebab.

Monday, March 10 Bought train tickets for our Saturday trip to Baden-Baden, toured the city a bit, went up the cathedral, and had dinner at a snazzy restaurant. Yum.

Tuesday, March 11 Window shopping. Robert discovered French “man-pons” and was horrified.
Wednesday, March 12 Bought Robert a spiffy blazer, watched American Gangster, and loitered at the tavern. Dinner at the creperie.

Thursday, March 13 Dragged Robert to my History lecture. Poor boy… 2,5 hours of nonstop fun. We made up for it later tho, when we met Lindsay at the café at Broglie for pastries and coffee. That night, was family dinner… Robert was thoroughly enjoyed by the Frenchies, and he in turn was happy to meet the infamous Aspirateur (French word for vacuum. My host sister-in-law and I make fun of her husband, Christoph, by calling him “Vacuum” because she says he has a mania for vacuuming), and of course the host mother herself, Irène. Good times were had by all.

Friday, March 14 Robert is given the grand tour of Strasbourg via a canal boat tour. He also discovers how annoying German school children are, as we were surrounded on all sides by a grade school class on a field trip. They really liked kicking the seat and shrieking. Mexican for dinner.

Saturday, March 15 Baden Baden (‘nough said… jk). Saturday Robert treated us to a full out spa day at one of the fanciest spa resorts in Germany, Baden Baden (which translates to Bath Bath). We had rose oil peals, massages, and got to enjoy the hot springs, and fancy restaurant. In a word, amazing.

Sunday, March 16 Sunday was spent in the Orangerie, frolicking. Pretty fun, considering the weather decided to turn cold and nasty. Robert enjoyed the monkeys immensely.

Monday, March 17 Robert left (awwwww!) to go home. I think we really freaked out the airline employees, we were crying so much :P But no worries… only 60 more days and counting, darlin’!

Two months and counting

Having just received a reprimand from Aunt Mary for my laxity in keeping up with my blog last month, I have come here to repent.

March was as fun-filled a month as I could have ever wished for. Robert visited for 10 days (see separate post), I traveled around Alsace with my school group, got to drink real live champagne from Champagne, saw a bunch of plazas, fountains, and really old buildings, and generally just had fun.

Classes are still kicking my butt, but have learned to take it in stride, especially since the recent revelation that international students’ grades here in French universities are pretty much a joke. This was great news for me, and leaves my schedule much freer, a real blessing since I have holidays to plan, and yachting excursions to discuss with Skip and Biff*

Actually, the holiday planning comment isn’t completely in jest, as I’m leaving for Spain this Friday. Back to see the Sanchez-Marí familia, friends, acquaintances and all that good stuff. I’ll pop by Barcelona, Lisbon and Granada on my way to Valencia and Alicante. Then it’s back home to Stras to prepare for finals. This break comes at a nice time– I’m just to the point where I’m getting ready to come back, and what with a two week vacation in Spain and Portugal, it’s not like I’ll be sitting on my thumbs and counting the days until I return. As I remember it, there’s an old adage that goes something like “time flies when you’re spending lots of time in Spanish hostels and visiting the Alhambra…”

Some changes have been made to my end of the semester plans: the Eurotrip is being postponed for a year in favour of a more speedy return home, and also in hopes that the $ will get its ducks in a row and that in a year’s time we’ll get more € for our greenbacks. Another perk of waiting a year, is company: at this point it was looking like a solo journey for this summer, but Robert has expressed interest in going next summer, so we’re planning on doing it “ensemble”. Should make for a few good stories ;)

Another highlight of the month of May was: another visit. This time from the beloved childhood friend, Laura Morris! (Say hi to everyone, Laura…) Alas (and alack) she could only stay for about 24 hours during which we ate many a doner kebab, introduced Laura to cheep Alsatian wine, went to Germany to buy train tickets, saw the Cathedral, and went to a party by random invitation from our new friends Hamza and Charlie. “Huzzah” was also said many times. Huzzah! Now all I have to do is work in a visit to Prague and we’ll be even.

So that’s about it… hope you all are doing well at home! Miss you, write soon, and get the 1st marked on your calender.

Love,
Martha

*note sarcasm