(no subject)
This has been a great week! Not only because I'm leaving in 6 days, but because the weather has been amazing and even more importantly sarah is here! On friday, we took our lunches down to the Loire river and sat there for about 4 hours just talking. Then, Amy, Sarah and I went to a mexican restaurant that made me wish I'd known about it sooner. We were later joined by Larissa and Matt on a search for gilatti (the best ice cream ever!) which was not successful. We ended up sitting in place plum with second-rate ice cream, but it was still pretty nice!
Today was equally wonderful. We met up at 11 to go to the wine-tasting festival. Randomly we bumped into this guy from the Czech Republic (Karel) that Larissa had met on the train. His french being mostly absent (though we tried to teach him a few things), he joined our pilgrimmage through booth after booth of wines. We broke for lunch and sat in the sun for a while (I have no idea how long) and I learned how to say "Cheers!" in Czech - "Nostravie!" (spelling most definitely incorrect). It's a fun word to say. Some of us went shopping after lunch, but Larissa, Karel, and I stuck it out and continued to taste wine. They tried all the red wines while I tested the rose ones (they're a bit less strong...sometimes more sweet). By about midway through the market area, we were definitely through with wine (this was 6 hours later at 5)... I went home and knew I was tipsy because I held a 15 minute conversation with my host mom about random things (and I did it with a rather good accent too!). The combination of sun + wine left me wanting a nap, and when I woke up and saw myself in the mirror, it was rather obvious I'd been in the son. My left arm is a bright, bright shade of red (and no, my right one is not).
We all met back up for dinner, having decided on a conveniently public, but not normally busy place, to discover that some carnaval was going on and all of Tours had showed up for it. I really didn't think we'd find everyone...especially Karel, but in the end, we did. We ate at a really good indian restaurant and upon seeing my arm after being in the Tours sun for 6 hours all Larissa could say was...and you're going to africa?... Um, yeah. So, she's going to help me find some silly protective hat next week that will prevent my ears from shrivelling up and falling off. Karel ended up being really fun to hang out with - after dinner we walked around in the streets drinking wine straight out of the bottle (no open container restrictions here!) and ended up at the Loire where we just chatted for an hour or so.
I'm sad that Sarah is leaving tomorrow, especially because I didn't get to hang out with her as much as I wanted. I think I didn't have enough just Sarah time - I had to share her with everyone! - and although Karel was fun and interesting, he was distracting for me. Luckily, I will be seeing her again soon and I will be spending some time on her couch and that'll be cool. yay! I thought about holding her hostage, but afterall, she's going to portugal and I wouldn't want her to miss out on that (even though I'm obviously much cooler).
I'm extremely tired now and am going to bed, even though I'm most positive this has been a horrible recounting of a wonderful day. I know more stuff happened...funny stuff, but I'll have to fill in the blanks later...
Today was equally wonderful. We met up at 11 to go to the wine-tasting festival. Randomly we bumped into this guy from the Czech Republic (Karel) that Larissa had met on the train. His french being mostly absent (though we tried to teach him a few things), he joined our pilgrimmage through booth after booth of wines. We broke for lunch and sat in the sun for a while (I have no idea how long) and I learned how to say "Cheers!" in Czech - "Nostravie!" (spelling most definitely incorrect). It's a fun word to say. Some of us went shopping after lunch, but Larissa, Karel, and I stuck it out and continued to taste wine. They tried all the red wines while I tested the rose ones (they're a bit less strong...sometimes more sweet). By about midway through the market area, we were definitely through with wine (this was 6 hours later at 5)... I went home and knew I was tipsy because I held a 15 minute conversation with my host mom about random things (and I did it with a rather good accent too!). The combination of sun + wine left me wanting a nap, and when I woke up and saw myself in the mirror, it was rather obvious I'd been in the son. My left arm is a bright, bright shade of red (and no, my right one is not).
We all met back up for dinner, having decided on a conveniently public, but not normally busy place, to discover that some carnaval was going on and all of Tours had showed up for it. I really didn't think we'd find everyone...especially Karel, but in the end, we did. We ate at a really good indian restaurant and upon seeing my arm after being in the Tours sun for 6 hours all Larissa could say was...and you're going to africa?... Um, yeah. So, she's going to help me find some silly protective hat next week that will prevent my ears from shrivelling up and falling off. Karel ended up being really fun to hang out with - after dinner we walked around in the streets drinking wine straight out of the bottle (no open container restrictions here!) and ended up at the Loire where we just chatted for an hour or so.
I'm sad that Sarah is leaving tomorrow, especially because I didn't get to hang out with her as much as I wanted. I think I didn't have enough just Sarah time - I had to share her with everyone! - and although Karel was fun and interesting, he was distracting for me. Luckily, I will be seeing her again soon and I will be spending some time on her couch and that'll be cool. yay! I thought about holding her hostage, but afterall, she's going to portugal and I wouldn't want her to miss out on that (even though I'm obviously much cooler).
I'm extremely tired now and am going to bed, even though I'm most positive this has been a horrible recounting of a wonderful day. I know more stuff happened...funny stuff, but I'll have to fill in the blanks later...