True Roommately Love

Well! It's been a while since I posted. This past Saturday the sun was shining; it was warm and there wasn't even any wind (well, just a breeze) so Steph and I decided we must take the bikes to Gruissan again. It was so fabulous. We went past Gruissan village all the way to the Mediterranean.


Then we stopped on the way back in Gruissan for a coffee.


It was great. We were almost home and I was fussing with a shirt tied around my waist while I was still riding the bike. Until I crashed onto the gravel path. My skin skidded on the path and the bike landed hard on top of me. Needless to say I was full of gravelly scrapes and cuts and bruises. Thank goodness for Steph though, once we got home (still had to ride the rest of the way home like that) she picked the gravel out of my wounds and bandaged me up. So now I'm recovering. It's been a while since I hurt myself so badly (oh wait- I guess since I broke my toe in November ?!). What's up with me and France and hurting myself. no love....
Anyhow, hopefully we'll do the trip again soon because it is beautiful regardless of my clumsy injuries.

What a handsome guy!

Here is Dad on a bus tour of Valencia. We had a fab time in Valencia. It's a really beautiful vibrant city. The only difficulty we had was finding veggie food. The beach was beautiful too, but it was quite windy and cold the day we went. That didn't stop dad from putting his feet in the water, though!
Recently it's been all about exercise for me. Fitness classes, swimming and biking. Last weekend Steph and I went on a grueling bike ride to Gruissan, a small town near the Mediterranean. It was 28 km and the wind was against us nearly the whole way. I'm feeling much better health-wise though, as you could probably guess.

Holiday photos of London and Berlin now up

Aston has nicely organized (and culled) our pictures from London and Berlin. They're now on his flickr site. Sneak preview:
Beyonce and I gettin' down. ;)

Neat Berlin Aquarium pics

It was a sunny day when we went to the Berlin Zoo. It also was just about -8 degrees out. So as you can imagine, the humid warmth of the aquarium afterwards was so welcome. I love pictures of fish. :)

Marking...is there anything more dreaded by teachers?

It's so sunny today and Steph and I are stuck indoors trying to finish our marking. I made a classic beginner's mistake of testing before the holidays. Plus, I did testing in all my classes which means 230+ tests to mark. Never again! Then I was gone the entire vacation so although all the students figured I ought to have it all finished, I haven't had hardly any time at all. yuck. anyways, here is a view of Berlin.
And here Aston is taking my picture in a fancy restaurant our last night in Berlin. It was so cold...please note my assorted shirts (trying to keep warm).

Update: I know my good friend Stace feels my pain....her msn message: "grading is for suckers! everyone gets a B"

Caught on camera!

Aston claims to be jealous, but look what I caught him doing:

I do believe that is J. Lo's butt he's grabbing! Then, later, arguing with Jerry Springer: "She's the one who went for dinner with Clooney!"
Whereas Steven Spielberg and I had a lovely chat about my future as a movie star:

In case you didn't figure it out yet, Aston and I had a blast visiting Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London. Word to the wise, buy your tickets online; it's way, way cheaper! We got ours from the London Eye website.

When George Clooney asks you for dinner, you don't say no

In front of Trafalgar Square

Aston and I have tons of photos from our trip to London and Berlin. I've also got pictures from Valencia with Dad. I think Aston is trying to organize our photos a bit now and as soon as he posts them to his flickr site, I'll let you know. I'm trying to get back to life as normal in Narbonne. It's tough. I have tons of marking to do that I'm avoiding. It must be done by Thursday though. Dad came to my advanced adults class last night and we had a great conversation about families which was really neat.
Tomorrow one of my teachers who is also a big runner is taking Dad out for a run in La Clape and Steph took him running today so I'm making sure he gets to see what France is like for running too.
I miss home. I can't seem to help it. I just wish Narbonne would start to be warm and 'south of France'-like. Then I could feel happier about being here. When it's just windy and cold I wonder what I'm doing here. At the same time, I'm totally determined to see out my contract, at least to June.

I believe we're just in front of Buckingham Palace here

Ghandi and I

¡hola!

I love Valencia. It´s warm. It´s sunny. It´s bright. We haven´t done much yet, just got in this afternoon. I had another traveling nightmare yesterday. It seems to be my special gift. Tube cancellations= missed train to airport= missed flight= missed train in France etc, etc. Anyway!! I eventually made it to the Toulouse airport and met dad. We are both doing good, despite jetlag (dad) and a cold (me). More news and pictures once I return to Narbonne, after this weekend.