Soirée chez des français...un très bon weekend!

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Bonjour à tous!!!

This has been a wonderful weekend! I had class on Thursday and Friday this week. 4 hours of class total, so not too bad! lol. Thursday night I returned to the running club and it was so nice to see everyone again. Jean-Michel, Nicolas, and Yves(I'm finally learning names!) were all there and a new girl who started this week. They were interested in hearing about my break and travels. Jean-Michel is so great because he is always asking me questions and getting me to use my French, even when we are running. Now that it's darker earlier we go to a new park that is lit at night, which is better since we don't meet to run until 6:30pm. I'm not sure how many miles we did but we ran for a good hour before doing a sprint workout. I'm learning a lot of vocabulary for running and it makes it more fun. We did a speed drill called "Trentaine, trentaine." We did two sets of 10 times of 30 seconds jogging and 30 seconds of sprinting at a good pace. I even got the schedule of workouts for the next few weeks which includes ideas for when we run on our own, and it's really great!!! Jean Michel gave me a ride home which he does whenever he can, since I normally would have to take the bus, and after 8pm they aren't as frequent.

Last night I was invited to some friends of Marc for dinner. I had a great time and everyone was very nice. All together there were 12 of us, and we had un grand repas français! (a big French meal). It was wonderful! Another family was invited for dinner. So there was Pascale and Jean-Pierre and their 3 daughters, Aurélie, Selene (I’m not sure how to spell her name) and Estelle. There was another French family and their two kids and finally, Marc and Pascale's sister, Catherine, who was visiting from Paris. We started out with some little appetizers and champagne with cassis to celebrate Aurelie's 18th birthday. For dinner we had chicken and vegetables in a delicious peanut sauce, potatoes, and so on. Then we had salad and cheese after dinner before moving onto a fruit salad and an apple and chocolate cakes. The meal lasted at least 4 hours and I got home around 1am. Very French. Of course we had some vin rouge and a sweeter white wine with dessert. Everyone was so nice and I'm really getting some good practice speaking French now!

This morning, Jean-Pierre picked me up and we went running in a wooded path close to them in Pfaffstatt along with Aurélie, Catherine, and Selene. Marc was telling them I run a lot and so they invited me to come running with them this morning. It was nice to have a change of scenery and get out of Mulhouse for a bit. After our run they insisted I stay for lunch and I've just returned chez moi at 3pm. Pascale and Jean-Pierre have invited me to come for lunch on Saturdays here and there so I can speak English with their daughters. Now I have a French family here in Mulhouse! It's really great for me that I'm meeting more and more French people because then I'm speaking more and more French!! They are very impressed with my French and are very helpful and correct me if I don't say something right...which is exactly what I need!

This week should be pretty easy. I have 3 hours of class on Monday and then we are off again on Tuesday since it's a "jour fériés" and everything, I mean everything will be closed just about. I was talking with Myriam on Friday and she said I might as well go to Germany if I'd like to do something and not be stuck in my apartment all day. So Amy, Gemma, Ross, and I are going to go to Freiburg I think which just over the border in Germany. I normally don't have class on Wednesdays but this week I will be helping Myriam give their "oraux Blancs" (an oral exam) for one of my BTS classes. So I will be in charge of half the class (about 10 students) and they each have 10 minutes with me to talk about an article on cars that I have chosen. I'm a bit nervous and I'm not the one taking the exam! Then Thursday is normal and Friday I won't have class!!! Yay! Then it's back to normal I think the following week. It's really nice that I won't have class next Friday because my next 10km race is next Saturday in Beaune, which I've already told you about so I think I will now take a train earlier than I planned on Friday and go straight to Beaune to pick up my dossier and all! I'm really excited. Supposedly Beaune is a very nice little town right in the heart of the Bourgogne region (Burgundy) home to some good French wine, so I picked a good race to do. Ah les 10km in France are so much fun. I was reading about the race and I think there will be wine tastings all that day in Beaune since it's called the "Semi-marathon de la vente des vins de Beaune." There will be over 3000 runners for the half-marathon and 11km. The race starts and ends in the centre ville and then we'll be running through different wineries around Beaune. I'm so excited!!!

Everything is good at the moment and I'm so happy. Hope all is well back home and as we say in French....

A la prochaine! (Till next time)

Kristen😊

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Comments

[Sherry!]

Wowza
Sounds excellent - I'm glad you're meeting so many people!!!

[val fisher]

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!
So now your drinking my favorite beverage... champagne and cassis. Do they refer to it as a Kir Royale there? Make sure you bring a bottle of the Cassis (or more )home with you.The stuff made in Dijon is awesome and it's remarkably expensive here if you can even find it in the states. I have brought some back from Europe each trip I have made.Then I must savor it until we plan another vacation.

[Laura]

I need to start teaching in France...
You have so many days off! I'm very jealous! So glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself. I can't believe all the running you're doing -- good for you! Talk to you soon! xoxo Laura