Chapter 59: Countdown to Vacay

nerd blog post #64

Yowsa! It has been awhile.. I was planning on nerd blogging almost daily this first part of December, as I will be traveling soon, but the week-end slipped away.. And though nothing else on the internet is nearly as interesting, I hope you all were able to somehow amuse yourselves in my nerd blog absence.

Merrill's party Thursday night was really great. With more than twenty-five people crowded into her tiny apartment, the idea of Beer-pong was impossible. All of the lecteurs were there, as well as some of Merrill's neighbours, and many students. It was fun.

Raffi arrived Friday afternoon. I played Suzie Homemaker in the afternoon, making a soup and an apple pie. I've never made either, and didn't have a recipe for either, but they both turned out. We had dinner with Cynthia - her last meal before heading back to the States.

Later that evening, we went over to Foun's place. Her apartment is really cute, decked out with a Canadian flag and with pillows on the floor to sit on. Merrill and her friend came, as well as Cynthia, Lucie, Raffi and the Irish lectrice, Emma. It was nice.. We sipped wine and ate French treats and chatted. Later, we broke out a French pre-teen truth or dare board game called French Kiss. It was pretty hilarious. It made me think of the Dream Phone days with SJC.

Around 2am, Cynthia, Raffi and I booted it home to change and go dancing. Cynthia and I really wanted to, and it was her last night. But after getting ready and flying to the night bar, they weren't letting anyone else in.. So we went home.

Cynthia got me up at the crack of dawn and I walked her to the train station to catch her 6am train. She flew to New York and then has three interviews all over the country before heading back to El Paso for Christmas. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I hadn't thought much about her departure.. It was sad putting her on the train. A reminder of how hard it will be to say goodbye in the Spring. Our lives somehow collided for this school year, and will bounce apart again once it's over.. Cynthia applied to thirteen medical schools and has been invited to eleven interviews already and has been accepted at two schools she interviewed for back in September. It's been fun being a part of such an exciting time for her. She's interviewing at Rochester today, which would be quite close to TO.. I'd love it if she were just across the lake. Anyways, I'll see her January 10th.

Raffi and I went to the market where we bought some fresh veggies and mussels. Then we went to the Christmas market. We had lunch at Hossoen's kebab stand and walked around Rennes (running into another market!) and had a coffee outside. We had sunny and mild days all week-end, which was a treat for Rennes.

The plan was to make moules frites (mussels and fries) for dindins, but after eating an "appetizer" of guacamole, cheeses, baguette, and Armenian wine, we were full.

This week-end was les Transmusicales in Rennes, the biggest music festival in Europe. The town was packed and crazy. People come from all over for the festival, bars are open later, buses run all night, and general debauchery is twenty-four hours long. The only band I'd heard of was Bon Iver, but tickets weren't cheap and I don't really knoooow them... Bands play at concert halls and at bars. The bars are free. So we went to O'Connells and heard a band there. We met Foun and her friend, Claire, there. It was nice.

Yesterday, we went to the beautiful big park here. I had only been once, and hadn't seen most of it. We discovered this huge bird cage that housed dozens of tropical birds. Very pretty. There were love birds, but none as beautiful as DDM. Obvi. There's also a pretty fountain and many gardens..

Then back to the Christmas Market for a treat. We got Churris (called Chichis here) which are apparently well-known, but I'd never tried them. We were going to get chocolate covered pears, but decided to make one instead. (That was a tasty disaster.) What wasn't a disaster, though, were the moules frites. We made two kinds - white wine and curry. Delicious.

Raffi left this morning, and I've already given an exam. This one wasn't too bad as it's a very strong class. Giving good marks is wonderful, and I was able to do a lot of that.

I'm starting to stress about the break now. I leave Wednesday, and won't be back until after Christmas. I feel as though there are a million ends to tie up before I take off. I'll be spending all of my time between now and then getting ready. It's very exciting though. I give credit to my parents for the trips they planned when we were growing up. There's a lot to think about, and they made it look so easy.

I head to Paris on Wednesday afternoon and then to London on Saturday. I'll meet the Birminghamandcheese Hincks then, and head back to B-Ham with them that evening for a visit. On Sunday night, I'll go to Warwick and see where Doctor lives and studies. Monday afternoon we go to Manchester, where we'll spend one night in a hostel before leaving for the Turkish Riviera Tuesday morning. We stay there seven nights, before flying back to Manchester on the 23rd. Then an overnight travel to Liverpool where we catch an early morning flight to Paris on the 24th. We'll spend two nights in Paris, celebrating Christmas (Raffi will join us) and then Steve arrives in the morning of the 26th. We'll spend the day in Paris before coming to Rennes that evening. That's as far as I'll go for now. I'm really looking forward to seeing family and Doctor. It's been such a long time since I've seen a face from home...

I will be nerd blogging all week as my excitement grows. I feel grateful to have so much time off, and to have friends and family to spend time with. It makes the idea of Christmas away from home much easier to handle.

I hope you all enjoyed your week-ends.

Much love,
Hincks.