England

The Week That a Million Things Happened

Hey everyone!  I’ve got a lot to catch you up on today; it’s been a pretty eventful couple of weeks.  I’ll do my best to remember everything that’s happened.  Dijon has had its annual fair going on for the past couple of weeks.  Technically I believe they consider it to be two separate fairs happening right next to one another.  One part has amusement park rides and typical fair foods (candied apples, cotton candy, churros).  I’m not a huge fan of rides, so I didn’t spend too much time in that section, although I did walk around it for a bit just to see what they had to offer.  I think the most unique thing I saw was a large pool of water, where they were putting kids into those massive inflatable balls and letting them try to walk around on top of the water.  The other half of the fair was in celebration of the local cuisine.  We walked around and sampled different kinds of foods and drinks.  The other girls were brave and tried frog’s legs, but I still can’t bring myself to even consider doing that.  Too barbaric.  We did find one thing which I’m pretty sure was a version of the Egg, Meat and Cheese recipe that we use for appetizers, so that was interesting.  We also found a booth that was Quebecois, so the Canadian girls got to chat with people from their homeland for a bit, and I bought a bottle of my favorite maple syrup. 

     Last weekend, I cut a couple of days of classes and went to visit Katie and Helena in Birmingham, England for a bit.  I stayed in Katie’s apartment, and Helena and her boyfriend Ed came over just about every day so we could find cool things to do together.  I got there on November 6^th, the day after Bonfire Day in England (a celebration of Guy Fawkes’s failed attempt to blow up their parliament), just in time to celebrate at the University of Birmingham’s carnival and fireworks night.  We mostly just went for the fireworks since none of us wanted to go on the rides, but the carnival did look really cool.  There were lots of rides, and some people twirling flaming batons.  We grabbed some cotton candy (or candy floss as the Brits call it) and headed over to the grass to watch the fireworks.  They try to choreograph their fireworks display every year, so they had a great music selection going.  The funniest part was when they started shooting up dozens of the fireworks that look like smiley faces in time to ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams.  We tried to squeeze as many super British things into the weekend as possible.  We went out for tea and scones at an adorable little heritage house/gardens.  We ate bangers and mash (aka sausage and mashed potatoes) at a local pub.  We took trains to get anywhere we needed to.  It rained for pretty much all but ten minutes of the time I was there.  We also went to a nearby town called Litchfield, where we toured an amazing gothic-style cathedral.  Unfortunately I only got photographs of the outside since you had to buy a photography permit if you wanted to take photos of the interior, but you’ll have to take my word that it was absolutely breathtaking.  Hands down the most amazing cathedral I’ve ever been in.  To be honest though, I think that the thing I appreciated most about the weekend was just being able to get out of Dijon for a bit, and spend some time in a place that felt more like home.  The Brits are a lot more similar to Americans that the rest of the Europeans; in their style, in their humor, in their food options.  They also have Reese’s, and I even found some Angry Orchard Cider (made in Cincinnatti!), so I was able to eat some of the things I’ve been missing the most.  It was also nice to be able to sleep in a comfortable bed, and take a normal shower for a change. 

     Thursday, the Musée des Beaux Arts had a student night.  They extended their hours until midnight, and there were presentations going on in different rooms throughout the museum.  These ranged from classical music, to art lessons, to gypsy dancing.  My favorite was a couple that were playing guitar to popular movie songs.  They did a wonderful version of the French edition of ‘A Whole New World,’ and then did a duet in which the guy sat behind the girl, and they both strummed the same guitar while doing a mashup of a lot of popular movie theme songs.  They were incredibly talented.  After we finished walking through the museum, we headed over to the ice rink for a late-night skate session, which was really fun.  It’s been a while since I skated with other people that really knew what they were doing, so it was fun to try and match the speed of the hockey-playing Canadians.  I have learned that I should try to rent hockey skates instead of figure skates in the future though.  I trip over the toe pick pretty much every five minutes because I tend to shift my weight the way I would on inline skates when I’m trying to pick up speed or take sharp turns, and that doesn’t tend to work very well in figure skates. 
     Friday night was also a good time.  I let the Canadians talk me into going out in the rain to watch the Duc’s hockey game.  (They’re the local team).  We lost horribly, and their skill level is definitely nowhere near that of the NHL, but it was still nice to be at a hockey game again.  After I got back, I went over to the room of one of the Columbian girls, where a large group was watching the Columbia v. USA soccer game.  After the game, they started showing us clips of the Columbian team dancing (apparently they do it a lot, and it’s pretty funny; definitely worth looking up), which somehow escalated into a late night Salsa and Merengue dance lesson in the basement of the Residence, until we got yelled at for making too much noise after hours.  It was a really good time though, and I think we’re going to try to do it again during the day sometime.  Hopefully that’s just about all of the major things that have happened, I did my best to remember.  Until next time!!!!