Christmas break feels like a dream. It hardly seems like it happened even though it wasn’t very long ago. The whole trip involved many delays and a lot of snow, which is really not normal. I was late leaving Paris and several days late leaving Charlotte. I had a good time, and enjoyed spending my time doing nothing. Once back in La Rochelle, it was back to the grind almost immediately. I didn’t even get over the jetlag before I was back at work.
A few weeks ago, I went over to a friend’s place and we made home-made quiche Lorraine. Then we ate a galette des rois, or a King Cake, in honor of the epiphany. It’s a French tradition to eat these cakes in January. I’ve had several and they’ve all been delicious. Most of them have almond paste in the middle and they’re made of flaky pastry.
Here’s the quiche:
Beautiful, isn't it? It was delicious, too.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of desserts to show you. Mostly because I forget to take them, and then also because I'm trying not to eat so many. I've been eating a lot of clementines, which are delicious and sweet and cheap. I also bought myself a box of nice chocolates to have one, each day. And at the chocolate shop, I saw Christmas chocolates on sale and couldn't resist:
Isn't he cute? Delicious, too.I anticipate some travel in my future, though I haven't done much in the past month. I've been saving up so that later this year I could do more. I'm also severely tempted to spend some money on a medieval encyclopedia because I really want it and I feel like I would get enormous use out of it. I'm in the process of writing two-ish novels set in the period, and sometimes I have to look up very obscure things.
I'm beginning the process of applying for grad school in France, which takes several steps and can be quite complicated. I have to translate my diploma, my transcript, and my c.v. into French, which is taking me some time. The first two have to be translated by an official certified translator, which makes things harder (and more annoying). Oh well.
Vacation is coming up, the winter one (not to be confused with the Christmas break) in February. I'll be spending some time in Paris and around the region of La Rochelle some more. And I'll need to study up on my French grammar in the next few months as I have to pass the DELF or the DALF sometime soon. It's the test to assess your language abilities so that the universities can be sure you'll be able to take the courses in French. I will admit that the thought of writing a thesis or dissertation in French is intimidating, not to mention reading a lot of French texts. But it will be worth it, and I am capable of it.
I have a hard time concentrating on any one thing for very long, so we'll see how this all goes.
I have to close with a mention of the most devastating piece of news I've received recently: Keith Olbermann's show is gone. A large part of my morning ritual is watching Countdown on my computer while getting ready in the morning, and now thats . . . it's over. It's so sad. What will I do in the mornings without my daily dose of passionate political commentary? Rachel Maddow is good but she's not the same thing.
