I am Living with Professor Trelawney

The lovely lady with whom I am living is Mme Varennes, she is pretty much professor Trelawney with short hair. She's an expressive individual with a lot of patience -probably because she's a retired special ed teacher-, she has three cats -two of them sleep with me at night-, and the best part is she cooks three course dinners. Yesterday, I arrived a few hours before dinner which happens at 8pm sharp! She began with soup -tasty!-, then a salad with a dressing she made, and for the main course she served the best quiche I've ever had in my mouth, ever. After we were finished she brought out dessert which consisted of apple sauce and cookies. Dinner conversation with this woman is funny, her humor is so hilarious and puts you at ease because she knows how to converse with people who aren't completely fluent. She asked me what I'd like for breakfast the next morning and gave me several options, I opted for coffee like a normal person. The next morning I woke up, got ready, and went downstairs to find a bowl and spoon on the table. I sat down and she started to pour the bowl full of coffee. I was not prepared for a bowl of coffee. I can hardly finish an American sized cup of coffee, but I'll tell you it was damn good coffee.
What I find interesting is the daily schedule of meal time because they are more like events you need to prepare for. Breakfast is small and early in the morning, lunch is more like two meals split between the times of 2 and 5pm, and dinner is at 8 every night. When I returned from exploring town -which I will get into more detail later- she immediately began making crepes -today is national Crepe Day- and they were oh so good. For dinner, just a few hours later, Mme sits me down and puts a bowl of mini radishes in front of me with a salt herb blend next to it. Side note: my mother never, ever put radishes on the table so I didn't really know "the right way". I watched her pour the blend on her plate, dip the mini radish, and eat it. I followed suit and it was darn good. Then, she pulled a roast beef out of the oven with herb seasoned potatoes and carrots. I was so. full. But wait! There's more! She appeared out of nowhere with cheese and a baguette -c'est francais-. At this point I can barely sit up straight from all the food and am glad I can change into comfy clothes. So now we're finished right? Nope! She made more crepes. Why was I surprised? It's crepe day so why wouldn't we eat more crepes?
I learned a new word today: Repu, which means I'm so incredibly full I need to unbutton my pants, and so she did. I did not because I was not wearing pants.

Chateau d'Amboise

Navigation in Amboise is a little more arduous than America. At home, we have the convenient grid system where road numbers can direct you east, west, north, or south and it's easy to find your way even without a map. The map of Amboise is as such: place 5 drunk men in one spot, facing different directions, and set them free. There's your map. The only part that makes sense is the road along the river. Even with my map, as I was peregrinating around town, I found myself turned around on several occasions. The town is so small however it's easy to find your way back to where ever you intended to go and it's easy to remember and familiarize yourself. Conveniently, it's less than 15 minutes to my school from home and you can cover the entire town on foot in less than 3 hours, including wandering lost time and curiosity. These things aside being a pedestrian here is really nice, at a cross walk all the cars will stop for you every single time. In Milwaukee, if you want to cross the street, even at a pedestrian crossing, you need to play chicken with traffic and try to get across in one piece. I also have no problem walking alone at any time being female. I did notice that most the people about town were couples; carrying a bag with baguettes peaking out the top, crowding in front of boutiques and cafes. Rarely did I find a single person walking alone, except one old man carrying a basket full of empty. It was so cute. End blog 2.