Home for the Holidays (Part 1)

I know I've been totally MIA while I've been back here in the States... To make it up to you, here are a few photos from the beginning of my visit. I went to Athens for a few days to see friends and to get stuff back/give stuff to Jon post-breakup.

Seeing my friends and visiting my local favorites was amazing and exactly what I needed. I needed to see Jon too and I'm glad that we did, though I have to admit that it's a lot harder being in the same state/country as him and not being together than it was missing him from France. While my trip here has been amazing and I'm so glad I've had the chance to see everyone I have and visit, it has been hard knowing that I originally bought this ticket to see him and spend the holidays with him, but hey, I'm doing the best I can.

Met Alicia and her boyfriend at Jackie O's, a local brew pub for fried pickles and some local delicious beer

Bad for the waistline, but I'd been looking forward to fried pickles from Niffer's (down in Auburn) since we left AU this summer, so at least I got in a good substitute!
Then met Em and Jesse for dinner at LuiLui's (no photos) and after dinner drinks at Casa. These two margaritas represent Em's and my senior year. Every Thursday, we'd go to Casa and get margaritas and catch up. Mine with, hers without salt.


Graffiti on the way to the parking garage... I've wanted a photo of this for years.
I stayed with my pseudo big sis Bethany and her hubs Steve, aren't they fabulous? Steve even wrote me a song about Jon's and my breakup in an attempt to make me smile. He's a sweetie.


On my way out of town, we grabbed breakfast at Casa. This coffee gets it's own picture when you realize how much I'd missed normal American coffee!
Half order of huevos rancheros with homefries
Biscuit with apple butter
Adorably goofing around.

I wish I could have stayed a few more days, but I did get a lot done while I was there AND spent a lot of quality time with B and Steve. It's amazing how large a role food plays in coming home. I don't know about you all, but I came home from France with a list of places I had to eat while I was home.

That said, I'm now trying to get back on the tracking bandwagon since the past few weeks have brought me up to 166, as I found out at WW on Friday. I don't know if I was misreading my scale in France or if my clothing makes that much of a difference or if I really have overindulged that much lately, but it was disappointing, so now that xmas is over, I'm back into tracking and am slowly weaning myself off holiday sugar and chocolate!

More later!

I'm still here.

Ack. It's been a busy week and a half ish. That said, I'm currently posting stateside after a delayed voyage from Paris in this airplane:


It's been an interesting past few days. Went to Athens (where I went to college) to see some old friends and professors and to see/get stuff back/give stuff to Jon, which was heartbreaking and yet really great to see him again. He was my person and I really miss(ed) him and talking to him. Not going to lie, talking to him on the phone for the first time since the break-up was like being punched in the gut or pummeled with a stack of bricks. Not the best feeling. Part of me wishes I didn't have to go back to France so we could maybe, possibly, somehow work things out, but I know even then the chances would be slim. Ulgh. Furthermore, I was really looking forward to spending the holidays with him and his family, so I'm really working hard to quell up some Christmas cheer.

On a positive note, my dad has a treadmill at his apartment complex, so I'm going to go run for the first time in what feels like eons. I'm a wimp, I know... :-/

Then... off to acquire last minute Christmas things. Mad dash.

Christmas Cheer and Thursday Lunch

Today's been a good day--I've been really productive, which has kept me upbeat AND I got to work with my kiddies today. There's something just unbearably adorable about singing "Deck the Halls," "Jingle Bells," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," that just makes it impossible to be really sad during those 8 hours. Have I mentioned how adorable they are lately? I mean just take a look at these photos of our pumpkin pie making endeavor last week that Anita (who teaches my CM1/CM2 class) put up on the school's website:







Seriously. How can they not make you smile? I'm just trying to take it day by day and be as happy and busy as possible and these days spent teaching really help. Furthermore, the mince pie party was a success, though I sadly didn't get any photos of Becca's "pies." They were really more like mince pie cigars since she didn't have any moulds and instead rolled pastry up after putting mince inside. Yummy. I also spent the day after tagging along while Kyle did his Christmas shopping. Avignon is doing it's very best to get me in a Christmas-y mood.




Yes, Avignon had a band of clowns and elves (who were playing brass instruments) meandering through the streets to spread Christmas cheer
We stopped in the Hotel de Ville (city hall) to see the huge "crêche" of Santons. It was immense and gorgeous.
At the Hotel de Ville, they also had a fake table set up demonstrating the 13 desserts of Christmas, a traditional meal for Christmas Eve in Provence. THe number 13 represents Jesus and his 12 apostles.

And last but not least, here are photos from today's delicious lunch at Jean-Yves and Véro's house. Sadly I'll miss next week's lunch, so this is it for me for 2010! New Year's Resolution: take real camera (and not just cameraphone) to future Thursday lunches.

A "velouté" (cream soup) with artichoke and goat cheese, with nuts on top
Shells of seafood (see the plate's shape)... i.e. mussels, scallops, shrimp, and mushrooms in a cheesy, caloric sauce with a side of braised endives
Dark chocolate mousse cake with crystalized oranges
The oranges on some plates we so crystalized that we couldn't get them off the plate... See here how Jean-Yves must use a heavy-duty spatchula to make it happen
Anyway, that's been the past two days around these parts. Now I'm just working on finishing up the supplementary materials for all my grad school apps. I also applied to Wisconsin's French program tonight as well. It's not my first choice, but it's a solid one that was ruled out with Jon due to snow... We'll see. Even applying seems like a step in the "moving on" direction. That said, still keeping my fingers crossed for Atlanta! :)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's scheduled run with Helen!