KReilly

Hello!! This past weekend I was in Annecy, France with my friend Andromeda to run the half-marathon I told you all about. It was a great race!! The race was along the lake there and it was a great day for running! I finished in 2:05:47 and Andromeda finished in 2:24:59. There were over 7000 runners for the marathon and half-marathon races that day. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to start training for another one!!! Talk to you soon! Kristen... read more

Hello from Mulhouse! I’m down to my last 5 weeks of teaching! During our two week break from Feb 20-March 8, my friend Franzi and I traveled to Istanbul , Athens, Rome, and Venice. It was an awesome trip! We began our adventure in Istanbul on Sunday February 22nd. My friend Cat, from Rosemont, was in Turkey so we were able to meet up with her during our stay. She studied for a year at the university in Istanbul so it was nice to have someone with us who knew the city, language, and good places to eat and drink! The weather wasn't so nice in Istanbul and it rained most of the time we were there, but I ended up buying a pair of rain boots to keep my feet dry! We visited the Blue ... read more

Salut! Last week I wrote you all about cooking an American meal for the family I spend every Sunday with. It was a great success! I made Sloppy Joes, and insisted they use their hands to eat it (which everyone did), cornbread, applesauce, and a shoo-fly pie. They loved it! Pascale invited Marc and his wife over to join us too. Although we ate some American food, it was still a bit French influenced because we had some little appetizers and a Cremant d'Alsace rosé, which is a sparkling wine unique to the region of Alsace. With lunch Jean-Pierre poured us all a glass of wine, which was kind weird since we were eating sloppy joes, but oh well. Also, we sat there eating and talking for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a great afternoon ... read more

Bonjour à tous! Wow, I've been very busy the past few weeks; having fun of course and teaching here and there. Two Sundays ago I had a "galette des rois" with lunch with the family I spend every Sunday with in Mulhouse. The feast of the Epiphany or Kings, on January 6, is celebrated here in France and they eat a "galette des Rois." This is a kind of cake, with a trinket (usually a porcelain figurine of a king) or a bean hidden inside. The person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket becomes "king" or "queen" for a day. Yesterday, Pascale bought "une galette des Rois" for me to try after lunch. Solenne cut the galette into 6 slices and Estelle (without looking), assigned a piece of cake to each person. The ... read more

Hello everyone! What a great few days it’s been. For Thanksgiving my friend Franzi and I decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. We cooked for the other English, German, and Spanish assistants and it was a great success; everyone enjoyed our food. We had chicken (in replace of turkey), stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and apple pie. It was nice to have dinner with friends since I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving. After dinner, I called home on Skype and said hello to everyone who was having dinner at my house. My mom even brought the lap-top into the dining room and had the web-cam on while everyone was eating dessert. It was nice to see everyone even though I couldn't have a piece of that delicious looking pumpkin pie! ... read more