Gingerbread, or pain d'épice!

Despite my illness, I trekked out to Vitré Monday afternoon to hang out with Caitlin before she left for her Christmas in Norway adventure. We made good spicy chili and cookies! First, her creation of oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, and walnut! Mmmm! Then we found a gingerbread recipe online and tested it out. Caitlin wasn't a fan, but I was! We also had no cookie cutters, so we had to freehand a gingerbread man, horse, tree, star, heart, santa hat, present, etc. I also kept half the dough to make later.

Oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, and walnut cookies! Phew!

Hand cutting the gingerbread shapes!

There was also a shopping run sometime in there so I could find a a last Christmas gift. Apparently, Vitré also blasts music through speakers on every corner, so I was serenaded by Lady Gaga's "Telephone," lol! I stopped by PA's mom's house to say hi to the whole family and share cookies. PA also tried to talk me into going to the doctor the next day... :/ I took the train home to Rennes for a good night's sleep.

I did feel kind of better the next morning, so I did laundry and cleaned up... Then, I noticed my ear hurting, so I went to the doctor that afternoon. Lucky me, I had a sinus infection that had spread to my ear! Tsss... I got five medicines to cure me and felt better by that evening. PA also came back to hang out with me, so it was a cozy evening of watching ninja movies and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

That brings us to Wednesday, which was PA's mom's birthday. We stopped in Leonidas for white Belgian chocolates for her. We took a bus to Saint Gregoire to meet PA's sister Nathalie, Samuel, and the kids for a ride back to Vitré for the birthday evening. I finished off the gingerbread cookie making there using shape ideas from PA and Clémentine, so we ended up with flowers, a star, a man, a sheep, a scooter (Clé's special request), a basketball, a heart, a cat, and some others I can't remember now. Everyone liked them :) We had a lovely veal and potato dinner capped off with gingerbread, a chocolate-strawberry birthday cake, and the white chocolates I had bought! Mmm!

Now, PA and I are back in Rennes to run errands. I'm going to take him to the Mairie (Mayor's building) for the lights show tonight! I'll try to film some of it to share as well! Tomorrow night is a Christmas dinner at one of his aunt's houses in Rennes, and Friday is another at another aunt's house! Lots of presents to come too!

Let me share some of my apartment Christmas decor with you:

Christmas tree surrounded by gifts!

Stockings on the "mantle."

My ornament wall says it all!

The strike and its problems...

I just read this article about the strike conditions in Marseilles: Bad air and bobbing oil tankers in Marseille

I think I mentioned that transportation is at a minimum, but maybe I failed to point out that the port of Marseilles is blocked so oil ships cannot land, hence the gas shortages for cars and buses! I'm just glad the Rennes garbagemen have not decided to strike--a trash buildup would be miserable.

I managed to meet the last English prof at my school today, Aline. She is older and speaks the best English of all of them! I would have sworn she was British! Luckily, I came on the day when a student had baked cookies and they were having tea as a treat. I introduced myself and they told me about their work in graphic design and printing. This is a group of post-bac students (the bac is the final high school exam) who range in age from 19 to 25. Their English wasn't that great, but at least they try.

After that, I hung around to see Catherine. She wanted to make sure I was coming in every day since we hadn't crossed paths in a week. She also arranged for me to take some groups of Laetitia's students this afternoon. PA will be heading to Vitre today for basketball, and I have an assistant dinner party at Caely's tonight. Tomorrow I will head to Vitre myself for a change of scene and to see PA's home basketball game--undefeated so far!

After this afternoon, I have a vacation until November 3rd. My friend Deepa and I might travel a bit locally to work around the strikes. I'll keep you posted!