Vacation

I love this city. I know I say it a lot, but every time I say it, I mean it with all my heart. It's quiet enough that I can sleep with my window open at night and not be woken up by traffic and chaos, but it's big enough that there's still lots for me to discover. I'm on 2 glorious weeks of Easter vacation right now, and I think I'll spend the lion's share of it here in Dijon. Here are just a few of the photos I've taken thus far.

This is one of the many churches in the city. Someone once called Dijon "The City of One Hundred Bell Towers". It's so true! I love being downtown at noon on a Sunday. Hearing all the church bells ringing at once is a truly magical thing. 

Ah, the Tramway. How I love and loathe thee. These purple fences are everywhere in the city. They're building a tram system that will be up and functional by summer 2012, but in the meantime traffic circulation is... interesting. Every week something new is blocked off, detours are announced, and a little more progress gets made. Evidently every region has different coloured fences to mark improvements. Mathilde told me that the ones in Burgundy are violet like this because of our history with blackcurrants. Neat, right? I've seen green ones and orange ones elsewhere. I think ours are pretty.

This, I love. Stephane was telling us that these signs are very uncommon. They date back to before the 1830s, before Henry Darcy brought the train to Dijon. Before that, its major stops were Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles. Hence the PLM on this sign. This is on a bridge over which the train passes.

My host family is fantastic. Frédéric did this up a few nights ago. It's cheese that you bake in its wooden box, but you add white wine before you bake it so it makes a kind of fondue. Apparently if you dip something and it falls apart in the cheese, you have to do a sort of dare. They took it easy on me. Evidently this concept also applies to chips and dip.

I'm really starting to love wine. The University offers free workshops on the history of wine and food in the region, and in France in general. I'm not sure what goes on in the food class, but we get to do tastings in the wine class. I was floored by all the different things that can be present in the smell and taste of wine. From fruits to flowers to minerals, spices, and woods, the varieties are staggering. After vacation I'll be doing a red wine tasting. I've learned that you're not necessarily supposed to swallow the wines at a tasting. I got more than a little hammered at this workshop, and felt quite sick afterwards. 

This is the church where we hold our Scout meetings. I have no idea how old it is, but I love it. I'm going to have to do a bit of research. 

I spent the past Saturday with my Cubs. Three of my girls wandering through the park behind the house. 

The superneat playground where we stopped for lunch. 

We were following a trail through the park. Every now and again there were questions and challenges tied to strings on branches and signs. We took a break to build "cadoles", stone houses that shepherds used to build for themselves and their families. The kids (and Etienne, the other leader) got right into it. 

Owen and his cadole. This kid is incredible. He found a single rock to use for the roof (that didn't collapse the house completely), and all his walls were the perfect height! He had no gaps or holes under the roof. He even furnished his cadole with a leaf-covered sofa and television. Such a cutie. 

Lucy and her cadole. She couldn't figure out how to make the roof work, so she added plants and found a way to do a crazy neat stonehenge-type door. If you enlarge the picture you can see it better. It's kind of neat that boys and girls are mixed in the Scout groups here. It has its own set of challenges, but the group dynamic is quite a lot different than my all-girl group back home. 

Doesn't this look just like a Canadian hiking trail? The kids had a blast. For the most part. I loved it.

Prof that yes, we're in France. Vignes behind the boreal-looking forest. I love the contrast. 

I got another care package this morning! I love getting boxes of stuff from home. Clockwise from the top left: recordable DVDs (I currently have more than 2300 pictures on my computer, eek), The Tourist and Tangled (I watched them both twice today), Medicalert bracelet that I have to wear all the time now, adorable bunny pin, Benadryl for spring allergies, sweet leopard-print earbuds, and organic peanut butter! So I can share with Frédéric and Mathilde. It's a little runny, but tastes just fine. It's in the fridge for now. We'll see if that helps.  

This is the adorable little bunny that has already taken up residence on my backpack next to my travelling gecko. They're quite the pair. 

In other news, my dad is way cooler than yours. This was taken last week when he and Mom took the bike up to Calgary to sell it. I have a feeling that driving-and-picture-taking is the next dangerous habit that Oprah will target. I still love this picture. 

I'd just like to take a quick moment to say a huge SALUT!!! to all the members of the EEUDF that are visiting my little blog from the French Scout Blog. J'espère que vous aimez mon petit coin de la francophonie! Frédéric wrote up a little article on me today and posted it there. Check it out if you get a chance. It's all in french, but my anglophone friends and family can use Google Translate if need be. 

I'm loving this vacation thing. This morning I slept in a bit and went to market, ate lunch on the patio in the sun, and watched movies. Next week I'll be at an enormous Scout rally (200+ people) from Tuesday to Saturday. I'll have Sunday and Monday to recover before I have to go back to school. I'm doing as little as possible till then. 

I also signed up to write the DALF. It's a crazy hard diploma that's separate from the diploma that I'll get from the University here. From what I hear, if I pass, it'll look excellent on my resumé. In the meanwhile, it's an enormous source of stress. I do it in two parts. Part I, on a Saturday, is 4 hours of writing. Part II, the following Monday, tests my oral expression. I sit and talk. I'm so nervous, but I'm doing alright in my classes so I'm hoping everything will be fine. Just in case, though, please think happy thoughts for me on the 14th and 16th of May. Until then, I'm going to try not to panic too bad. 

À bientôt!