Robots, Warmth, Birthdays and Cooking!

Wow, it is already the end of January.....this long month that I usually dread has been pretty great.  For me January is usually a really cold month - full of darkness and -40 temperatures and the January blues.  While I did escape the really cold temperatures of January here in Strasbourg, I have to admit that I was unable to escape the blues completely.....
I had a hard time leaving the UK, which feels more like home to me than France, and then Dave went back to school and I missed having him all to myself like I did during the Christmas break!  And I started really missing my family and friends back in Winnipeg....so all that culminated in a few days of blues :(
Thankfully, though, it passed and looking back over the month it has been a great January!

Dave's workload when he returned to school did not gradually build up but started right where he left off.... on his first day back I came home from babysitting at 8 expecting him to be in the apartment.  He was not there, so by 9 I texted him to see where he was.  Turns out the students were given a group assignment their first day back and Dave and his team were at school until after 10 that first day and until midnight the second night working on it!  Thankfully for Dave it was an assignment that he enjoyed - building a robot - but I was a little bummed to have to share my husband with ISU again!  At the end of the week I went to ISU to see the robotics competition, where each group had to test their robot's abilities against the other groups, and it was actually really cool!

The "gold digger" robot!

So while Dave returned to school and his crazy routine, I returned to babysitting and tutoring my little French girls and Indian little boys!  I was happy to get back to my usual routine after over two weeks of traveling and being lazy, so it was good to see them again and do something productive with my days.  I can't say enough how thankful I am that I have these things to keep me busy and give structure to my week, not to mention provide some much needed income!  I am the type of person who needs to wake up in the morning and know I have somewhere to go that day....without it I end up lounging around in my pajamas all day and not leaving the house!  And even if most days I do not start until the late afternoon, at least that motivates me to get up early enough to get some other chores and errands done before going to work (although I must admit the first few weeks back I was sleeping in really late each day and had no motivation to get up early!).

Aside from our usual routines, this month has been filled with lots of birthday celebrations and cooking with friends!  Unfortunately I did not document every birthday and every dinner with friends with photos, which I do regret now.  But I will share what I do have...

Dave came home from grocery shopping one day with two little chickens to roast....so I left him to prepare and cook the chickens and I made the easier side dishes.  It was an arrangement that worked out really well as Dave is gifted in the kitchen with meat and I prefer just to eat it!  So we had a lovely dinner of chickens, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn!  And as you can see from the last chicken picture, we had no trouble finishing our meal!

About a week later, Michele, a friend who goes to ISU came over to watch Grey's Anatomy with me (she and another student at ISU are fellow fans, so we try and watch it together!) and we decided to make lunch together rather than going out to eat.  It was a great idea as our meal turned out fantastic!!!  Michele had found Thai red curry paste on one of her grocery shopping trips so she brought it over, along with coconut milk, egg plant, zucchini and noodles - we added some other veggies and created a very yummy, but very spicy, red curry dish!  It was sooo good - I wish I had taken a picture of its beauty but I did not :(  Good job to Michele and Heather!

After eating our lunch and watching Grey's we decided to make a cake for our friend Dave, whose birthday party was that night.  So we got two chocolate cakes from the grocery store downstairs, cherry jam, and whip cream and made him a black forest cake!  It was another success!  The picture is below, when I write about Dave's birthday....

One day another friend from ISU, Julia, and I were talking about cooking and we decided to get together one night to cook.  We realized that we both liked cooking ethnic food, so we decided to join forces to make a tasty dish.  So we chose a Friday night to get together and invited some people over to eat!  Julia cannot eat gluten and she and one of our guests are vegan...so that needed to be taken into consideration when deciding what we should cook.  I had a lot of fun looking up recipes online that would be good for everyone to eat at our dinner (for those that know me well, you know how much I love reading recipes and looking at recipe books!).  In the end we chose a Moroccan stew that was both gluten free and vegan - and wow!  I will definitely be making it again for myself, and I am not allergic to gluten, nor am I a vegan, but it was just so good!  It had the coolest mixture of ingredients in it - apricots, honey, toasted almonds, ginger, spinach leaves, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cilantro, fresh lemon, etc...I actually laid some of them out before starting to cook because the ingredients themselves looked so beautiful:

And the finished product was both beautiful and tasty - we all really enjoyed our dinner of stew, bread, and salad (thanks to Mark for bringing the wonderful greens!).  Thankfully we made a really big batch of stew, so I had left overs the next day!

Our latest cooking adventure happened last weekend with our friend Sunny - who brought back some Indian food and spices from Canada when he was home for Christmas.  He brought us these butter chicken spice mixes so one night we had him over to our house and we decided to make Indian food!

Thankfully Sunny was there to coach us on the best way to bring together the right flavours for the dishes we were making - butter chicken and dahl.  In the end our butter chicken turned into chicken curry as I forgot to buy the cream to add to the sauce as it was simmering (oops!) but the result was still amazing!  Our spicy chicken curry - over rice, with a side of dahl - accompanied by naan and butter chicken (purchased  by Sunny from the Indian restaurant below our apartment where he is always welcomed with open arms) was so good!  It was a fantastic meal and we had such a great evening visiting with Sunny!

I have always loved going out for dinner with people...I love trying new restaurants and also returning again and again to my favorite places to have the same dishes that I always have.  But this year Dave and I have stopped eating out as much as we used to.  Mostly, it is a matter of not being able to justify spending that much money on food - when you do not really have an income and are paying tuition, high rent, etc it is just not economical for us to eat out very often!  And also, for me, I have really started to enjoy having people over and cooking with them or for them.  I love having people over to our apartment, it makes our apartment feel much more like home when friends are coming in and out.  And it is nice to be able to spend an evening relaxing in our home and eating home cooked food together while talking and sharing a bottle of wine!  And with me having more free time than I ever have had, it has also been a good opportunity to try cooking new things, particularly ethnic dishes that I have loved so much but only ever eaten while at a restaurant because I was so hesitant to make it on my own.  So I wanted to blog about these dinners because yes, they have been a good part of our last month, but also because they have become a really fun and important part of my life in France.

The month of January has also been full of birthdays and birthday celebrations.  First of all, it was my mom's birthday on January 20th - so Happy Birthday to my mom!!!!  I was sorry to not be close by to celebrate with her - but mom, I was thinking of you all day!

The first ISU birthday that we celebrated was Diana's!  She chose to start out the evening at the Bunny Bar, Strasbourg's very own karaoke bar!  Unfortunately that night Dave was not feeling so great, so he stayed home and had a coma-like sleep, and I went out to celebrate.  It was such a great night and the karaoke bar was so fun! 

 The Birthday Girl!

 Backstreet Boys!

And not only was there singing - there was dancing too!  One regular patron of the bar seemed to have a preference for Micheal Jackson songs and dance moves - he particularly liked to dance and be the center of  attention.  However, Nihar, one of our ISU group was a much more talented dancer and when Billie Jean came on, there is only one word to describe what happened:  dance off!  The funniest thing was that Nihar and the other guy were wearing similar outfits: jeans with blue and white plaid shirts!

PS: Nihar, you totally won the dance off

The next birthday celebration was Dave Mac's.  This is the other Canadian Dave, who is also an engineer, and is also from Ontario.  This is who the cake Michele and I made was for.....  the funny thing was that a couple of hours before we were going to go to Dave's house for his birthday Michele and I were trying to whip the whip cream for the cake....and Dave dropped by our apartment.  But the cake was supposed to be a surprise - so we ran into our bedroom with the bowl of cream and the whisker and tried to do it discreetly in the bedroom but we kept laughing and it was not so discreet!  So when we brought the cake over a couple of hours later I do not think he was that surprised!

After dinner and cake everyone went to Molly Malone's Irish pub for drinks - it was a really cute pub with a really great atmosphere and nicely crowded so it felt "cozy" - at least that is how I would describe it.  Like usual the night did not end there, but continued for a few more hours after I went home!  I tend to go to the beginning of parties, stay for a couple of hours and then head home around midnight - while the party continues for a few more hours!  This is what happened for the next party we had - Mark's birthday from ISU.  We met up at ISU for a couple of hours and then Mark wanted to dance for his birthday, so the group headed out to a club in the city...I was so looking forward to going dancing that night too, but unfortunately I was beginning to get sick, so I went home early, like usual, while everyone else went to the club.

One Saturday night Dave and I were also invited to a birthday party for Violetta, a friend from church.  Dave was in the midst of working on an assignment so he spent his Saturday at ISU and I went to the party solo.  Violetta's house was too far for me to walk to , so I took a bus to her place and ended up in a part of Strasbourg I had never been to before.  It was a really fun night to celebrate with Violetta, visit with friends from church and to meet new people that Violetta works with at the Court.  And there was also a lot of food!Unfortunately, after the party when I went to catch my bus home at midnight I found out that the particular bus line serving that part of the city stopped operating at 11pm.  Thankfully, other friends, Aaron and Lei, drove me home before they drove back to their home in Germany!

The last birthday party I went to (yesterday) was unlike the others I have written about.  It was for Augustine, the little girl I babysit.  She invited me to celebrate her 8th birthday with her and her friends at the bowling alley!  So there I was, a 27 year old English speaker and 7 little French speaking girls - bowling with the "bumpers" up - and I still did not win!  It was so cute and so fun - and I was really touched that Augustine wanted me to be there.  So we bowled and then had candy and ice cream and sang Happy Birthday and opened presents (I got Augustine a diary with a lock and an invisible ink pen - thanks to Zahira for helping me pick it out!).  I very much enjoyed being a participant at a little girl's birthday again!

January in Strasbourg has also had some remarkably warm days!  There were about 2 weeks in the beginning of the month that the temperatures were in the positives and the sun was shining most days.  It was glorious!  I got out my bike again and started cycling around the city.  I started running again, only needing to wear a single layer of clothes!  And as much as possible, I tried to be outside during the daylight hours - this was a very different winter experience than what I am used to!

It has turned a bit cooler again, today it was about -2, but all things considered, I cannot complain!  I know at home it has been in the -30s....so I will gladly take this Strasbourg "winter".  I am thinking I will be able to continue to use my bike from now on....even when it snows it has not stayed for too long, and in the last month the streets have been clear of ice, so biking is not dangerous like it seemed to be in November and December.  So I am enjoying the weather and looking forward to an even warmer spring!

The last week I have been sick with a few different things - I think I had a flu at the beginning, then I had pink eye, and now I have a cold.....so it has been a little rough on my end - health wise, but Dave has escaped getting sick so far, so I am very glad.  I can afford to lay in bed all day in my pj's...he cannot!

Dave and have a few fun things coming up in the next couple of months....I have two weeks off from babysitting and tutoring at the end of February when the kids have school holidays, so I am planning a trip to Morocco with Maite, a friend here who is a teacher and obviously has the same holidays.  So if all goes according to plan we will be in Morocco for a week! 

In the beginning of March our friend, Stephen, from Winnipeg is coming to visit and will be here for about 6 days.  I am very much looking forward to having a guest to show around Strasbourg and its surrounding areas!

And then in mid March Dave has a week break and is going to Russia with a professor and some classmates to visit significant historical landmarks and sites of the Russian space industry.  So we are each taking a trip soon, although not together :(  His week off does not fall on my two weeks off, so we will each take advantage of our free time but it will be sad to be apart. It is a great opportunity for Dave to travel to Russian with his Russian professor and I am so looking forward to seeing Morocco with Maite!

Dave will be doing his internship in Germany with the European Space Agency.  He will begin around mid-May and continue there until August.  When Dave leaves for Germany I am planning on returning home to Winnipeg and hopefully securing an articling position somewhere in Canada where Dave can work too.  We both have no idea what will happen in the next months, or even where we will end up living.  Now that my time here is winding down the reality of our unknown future has hit me pretty hard.  I had so hoped that before moving to France I would have gotten an articling job and would have a place to work at lined up when I came back to Canada.  That would have made things a lot easier.....

However, I am learning (the hard way) that when life is not easy, your faith has the opportunity to grow...if you let it. To me, finding a place to live in a city where we can both work seems so unlikely, given our situation.  Finding somewhere where we can both work at a place we enjoy seems impossible.  Dave and I have spent countless hours talking and thinking about where we could go that could possibly work out, and we have not come up with any real answers or possible solutions. 
So now, in my state of seeing no answers and no solutions on my own - I turn to the God I believe in and love and acknowledge that I cannot do anything in my own strength, and ask him to bring things together and work things out.... because only he can take what I see as impossible and make it real and living and vibrant.  What he brings may not be the future I would have planned on my own or the way I envisaged it, but I have to remember that I never planned on meeting a man like Dave and getting married, and moving to France for a year and not working in law after graduation.  And you know what? What he planned for me was better than what I had planned for myself.  So I look ahead with a lot of questions, a bit of trembling, but hopefully an openness in my faith that allows me to be blessed with the full richness of life.  I know there will be many moments in the coming months where my faith is stretched and strained with doubts, worries, setbacks and feelings of hopelessness - but it is in those moments of life I know I am truly weak and need to look to the one who is Strong.

Thank you to everyone who reads the blog, who emails, who drops a line on Facebook, etc.  Dave and I are so fortunate to have so many great people in our lives! For those in Winnipeg - I am so looking forward to seeing you in a few more months!  To those who have become friends here in France - I am dreading saying goodbye to you, but hope it will not be a goodbye forever!

Love Heather

Christmas & New Years in Europe

Dave and I returned a few days ago from our trip to the UK for Christmas break.  While most of Europe was fighting with snow and bad weather, many flights were cancelled and airports closed.  Thankfully, we were able to start our vacation without any delays and fly from France to Scotland on Dec. 20th....for us it was like our own Christmas miracle as many of our friends here were not so fortunate!

We arrived in Scotland in the evening and got through customs without too much difficulty.  Our customs officer had an extremely thick Scottish accent and while I could understand most of his questions, at one point I totally misinterpreted what he was saying.....
He asked Dave and I where we were living and I replied France.  To this I thought he said, "well you shouldn't"....and believing he was just making a dig at France I smiled and said nothing.  He then looked up at us expectantly as if he were waiting for a response.  After a few seconds of starting stupidly back at him he repeated what he had said...only this time he said it slower and it was "are you students?"  Yikes....so the customs man was not joking with us, he was just trying to figure out why two Canadians were living in France!
After that small miscommunication we did not have too many other blunders trying to understand the Scots....all around we found them to be the most lovely people and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Scotland.

We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express just off the Royal Mile - it was the perfect location for us to explore "old town" and we were able to walk the majority of places we wanted to explore.  When we arrived at our hotel it was about 9pm and we needed to eat!  Thankfully there was a pub a five minute walk from our hotel and we decided to try it out.  The Tron turned out to be a really great find....we had burgers and chips and Dave had a beer for about 8 pounds.  We liked the atmosphere and the food and of course the proximity to our hotel!  After dinner we up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle - it was deserted at that time of night so we got an interesting glimpse at the castle at night - under a huge moon and a clear Edinburgh sky.  Definitely an experience I will not soon forget. After our walk we went back to our hotel and went to bed, wanting to get a good nights sleep before our first full day in Edinburgh!

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel - complete with sausages (they are the best in the UK for some reason!) - and then set out to visit the interior of Edinburgh Castle by daylight.  We spent about 3 hours there, learning about the Castle's history, Scotland's history and the military importance of the "rock".  Also, the castle sits on a summit of an old volcano and the views of Edinburgh from its grounds are fantastic.  It was my second time at the Castle but I was not in the least bored during my second visit...if anything I learned more and my interest and fascination with Scottish history was renewed.

After visiting the castle we made our way down the Royal Mile - visiting some other sights and shops that line the famous street.  We went to a Tartan mill, bought some souvenirs and then wound our way down to the Princes Street Christmas market - where my favorite booth sold different kinds of hats!  I tried on many, and convinced Dave to try on one as well (he would not buy it though, even though I thought it was fantastic)!

That night we had booked a ghost tour of Edinburgh - so we bundled up and set out to spend a couple of hours wandering the dark streets and caverns of Edinburgh.  There was a full moon, 12 attendees and a guide in a black cape!  We heard stories about public executions, grave robbers and ghosts as we walked in and around the royal mile.  Afterwards we went into the city's underground vaults and walked from room to room by candlelight hearing about the history that took place there.  It was a fun night....Dave did not find it scary but I got a little spooked and stuck close to the group!

The next day we took a bus to Glasgow.  We had planned on doing a highland tour but the one we booked was cancelled because of vehicle trouble.  It was too late to book another one, so we decided to use the day to visit Glasgow instead.  It was only an hour and a half drive from Edinburgh to Glasgow, so Dave and I sat in the front of the bus and watched as we drove across the countryside to Glasgow.  We spent the day walking around downtown, shopping and looking around.  In the evening we went to the Lighthouse, Glasgow's architecture museum and climbed to the top for a lookout over the city.  It was beautiful - unfortunately my camera did not capture it well, so no pics :(  Glasgow was a nice city, with a totally different feel to it than Edinburgh....however I do not think we had enough time in Glasgow to do it justice, but it was a good day trip - especially to do some shopping!

Unfortunately Dave started to get sick the day we went to Glasgow, so we returned to Edinburgh around 7pm, picked up subway for dinner and went directly to our hotel for the night.  We watched a movie and some British TV and Dave went to bed early hoping he would feel better the next day after a good sleep.  He woke up feeling a little bit worse, the main things being a head cold and lack of energy.  So we decided to do a bus tour of Edinburgh - that way he could sit while at the same time seeing and learning about Edinburgh.  We bought tickets for a hop-on, hop-off tour and spent the first hour and a half doing the whole circuit and listening to the tour commentary before getting off anywhere.  We went through Grassmarket, Cowgate, around the University of Edinburgh, down the Royal Mile, to Holyrood Castle, the Scottish Parliament, out to the Salisbury Crags, up the Calton Hill, down Princes Street and around New Town.  It was a good way to see some highlights of the city in a short time, especially with Dave being too sick to do much walking.  After doing the whole tour once through, we got off the bus to do some looking around on our own and to visit some sites up close.

After doing our sightseeing Dave was wiped out and went back to the hotel to lay down.  I decided to do some looking around Princes street and visit some of the stores I used to shop at when I lived in the UK.  It was fun to have a look around Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer`s and Bhs....by the time I was done my browsing night had fallen.  I walked down Princes Street to get some pictures of the Christmas fair in the park and then went back to the hotel and to Dave with Thai take out for dinner!

The next morning we headed to the airport to fly to Cardiff, Wales.  It was Christmas eve and we were excited to be staying in Cardiff with family friends over Christmas.  When we arrived in Cardiff we were picked up by Adrian.  Adrian was my grade 5 exchange teacher from Wales and his wife Joanne exchanged teaching jobs with my cousin Gerry....so in the years that had passed we had kept in touch and they had kindly invited us to spend Christmas with them and their two sons Jamie and Ben.  We arrived back at their house from the airport to a wonderful meal of cheese fondue, roast leg of lamb, potatoes and vegetables!  It was so good - and nothing beats a wonderful home cooked meal when you have been eating out for a week!  After dinner we watched rugby on TV because we were going to a rugby game on Boxing day and Dave and I did not know the rules!  And then I was introduced to Top Gear - a BBC car show....all I can say is that I am not at all interested in cars, but this is a fantastic show!  If you have never seen it, check it out.

The next morning was Christmas!  And with two boys in the house it was an exciting morning! Poor Dave was still not feeling well, so he slept in and I went into the living room to see the boys open their presents!  Christmas is so much more fun when you have kids around - Jamie and Ben were excitedly tearing through their presents, opening a PS3, games, cricket gear, trading cards!  It was indeed a good Christmas morning!  Even Dave and I received a present - Osprey scarves - the Ospreys being the rugby team we were going to see!

After breakfast Adrian, Jamie, Ben and I headed out to church. Joanne had already gone to get ready to play in worship and Dave stayed home to rest.  We walked about 20 minutes to church, down into the valley, across the river and into the village where the church was.  We passed under Castle Coch on our walk and also saw some horses!  It was a sunny, clear beautiful morning!  I felt very thankful and very blessed.

After church we returned home and Joanne started preparing Christmas dinner - wow!  We had turkey and ham and potatoes and stuffing and yorkshire pudding and cauliflower with cheese sauce and sausages....so good!  And then, later that night we had chocolate and christmas pudding!!!  With cream on top!  It was amazing - I was one happy girl.  Here is a pic of the chocolate pudding on fire:

The next day was Rugby game day - the game did not start until 4 though, so we all went down to the Cardiff bay to look around.  It is an area similar to the Forks in Winnipeg as it has historical significance and has been redone.  It was particularly significant as a shipping post for the mining and steel industry in Wales, and as one of the southwestern port in the UK that was instrumental in WWII.  Thankfully Joanne knew her history so Dave and I learned a lot from her as we walked around the Bay.  Then we departed for the Rugby game!

We drove to Swansea from Cardiff - about an hour drive - to get to the stadium...Adrian found a parking spot and pulled in....and then we were approached and told the game was cancelled!  Noooo!  Apparently it got too cold the night before and the plumbing pipes froze....so there was no working plumping for the game.  And it was a 20 some odd thousand sold out game.....so there really needed to be working toilet facilities.  Of course we were all disappointed - Dave and I were wearing our Ospry scarves and were so excited.  But I think Adrian took it the worst :)
So we headed back home and spent the evening eating stew and yorkshire puddings and relaxing.  For both Dave and I our time in Cardiff was wonderful.  It was so good to be able to spend Christmas with a family and not in some hotel all by ourselves.  It was also great to see the Dinsmores again and catch up with them.  And for Dave, it was a great place to recuperate and get rid of his cold - as he got wonderful sleep-filled nights and was fed amazing, hearty and healthy food - just what his body needed!  Thank you Adrian, Joanne, Jamie & Ben!

The next morning we took a bus to London - we left Cardiff around 10:30 and got to London after 2....  we arrived at Victoria Coach Station and then took the tube to West Kensington to find our hostel.  We found it without too much difficulty, the hostel was only a 5-10 minute walk from the tube station.  Upon checking in and getting our keys we headed up to our 4 bed, mixed dorm room (London is very expensive so I booked us in this cheaper room for the two nights we were there instead of a private room).  Dave opened the door and standing in the middle of the room on a yoga mat was a man in his underwear - apparently doing yoga!  This was our first introduction to Julian - our roommate for the next two days.  He turned out to be a really nice guy and both Dave and I liked him....I was just more comfortable once he put on some clothes!

We left the hostel after dropping off our stuff.  It was already getting dark so we decided to just do some walking around by ourselves.  We went to our tube station and waited for the tube for 15 minutes....something was wrong because you never have to wait that long.   Then we learned that the station to the east of us was having signalling difficulties so there were no tubes coming through.....so we had to find an alternative way of getting to where we wanted to to go or wait it out.  We decided to start walking in the direction of Victoria Station and look for a place to stop for dinner on our way.  I was craving Indian food, so when we saw a restaurant with the word "masala" in the name I dragged Dave inside!  We had a lovely dinner of butter chicken for him and chicken korma for me, plus samosas!  After dinner we wandered along for a little while longer and came upon Earl's Court tube station....and this time the tubes were coming through!  So we decided to make our way to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben and go from there.  That evening we walked around Parliament, West Minister Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Covent Gardens.  It was beautiful to see these building by night, but we knew we would be back the next day to see them in daylight too.

The following day we got up early to take a tour of London on another hop-on, hop-off bus.  This time we had a tour guide providing commentary and we did the full tour circuit first to hear everything he had to say.   Once again it was really interesting and a good way of learning about London.  We went over the Tower Bridge, to the Tower of London, the Embankment, St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park and Speakers Corner, down Oxford Street, down Fleet Street, etc - plus to all the places we had been the night before. 

We got off the bus at the Sherlock Holmes Pub and ate lunch there - for me it was shepherds pie and for Dave bangers & mash.  I think this inspired Dave to find more Sherlock sights - so he went down Bakers street to find some other Sherlock inspired gems (and I did some shopping).

We then went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour - in the former area of Whitechapel where the killings took place.  I had not known very much about Jack the Ripper so for me the tour was very educational.  It was not like a "ghost tour" where the tour guide sought to spook you, but more of a focus was on describing what happened and discussing some theories about who the killer could have been.  However, as the tour went on it became dark and we were taken through some shadowy alleyways and told some pretty gruesome stuff - so you did get a feeling of what kind of horror gripped that part of London during that time....and due to the background given on the women murdered (prostitutes and alcoholics) it became even more sad to me that these women were killed because they were in the wrong place with the wrong company out of desperation.

After the tour it was pretty late, so we went back to our hostel for the night.  The next day we needed to catch our bus to Gatwick airport at 5am, so we knew it was going to be an early morning.  We woke up at 4, got dressed and checked out and walked to our bus stop.  Thankfully everything went smoothly and we caught our bus on time and got our plane back to France.  It was an uneventful trip home - however one thing happened on the plane that has become a vivid memory for both Dave and I.  We were seated already and a man in front of us hoisted his suitcase into the overhead compartment and in doing so hit another man already seated - apparently in the eye.  He apologized profusely and asked if the man was okay - to which he replied - "no actually, I am not okay, you need to be careful".  He then left to the bathroom to check his eye out and upon returning the man who hit him proceeded to ask after him again and apologize - and he got the same response each time, "no actually, I am not alright, you need to be careful".  The man was obviously fine - it was not the most pleasant thing to happen, but it was by no a means catastrophic injury.  And the poor man kept apologizing and asking if he could do anything.  So Dave and I rolled our eyes at each other and in the last few days we have reenacted the moment for each other on mulitple occasions!

When we got home for the first couple of days we just slept, did laundry and hung out around the apartment.  But we did manage to climb out of our laziness and celebrate New Years.  The other Dave from ISU hosted a party at his apartment for all the other ISU students who were in town, so a group of about 12 of us celebrated New Years together.  We played games, drank, snacked and rung in the new year with sparklers, confetti and champagne.  We ended up staying out until 5am - and I only made it that long because at one point everyone but Dave and I went to a club for a few hours to dance and I had a nap before they returned!  But it was a very fun night and a good way to bring in the new year with new friends!

On New Years day Dave and I slept in quite late (obviously) and then Dave made roast chickens in the oven - and I made the accompaniments.  It was our first roast and it turned out superbly!  Dave is a very good cook!

I cannot believe that it is 2011.  The past year has been so full of changes I now wonder what the new year will bring....  the only sure thing is that I am sure it will surprise us!

Heather & Dave