Day 121: Just Another Day on the Farm

30 Decembre 2009 (Day 121)
Today was a very productive day. After having hot chocolate and bread for breakfast Brooke and I went out to the mielry and helped put labels on honey. We brought out my laptop and sang along to oldies. They have lots of different flavors of honey that they make like: creamy, lavender, fruit, hazelnut, honey from the mountains, country, etc. We had a break for lunch around 2 and ate leftover lentils. Brooke and I went back to the honey for a while and then we went out to help with the sheep. We went to the barn and they weren’t there! We got the hay and corn ready for the sheep and then Brooke and I went searching for the sheep. It was a really foggy day, so you couldn’t see the sheep at all! Luckily, they had on their bells, otherwise we wouldn’t have had a chance. The dogs were a lot better at finding the sheep then we were so they scared them to the barn. I had a fun time laughing at Brooke trying to organize the sheep and get them inside. They really are such stupid stupid animals. It took a while to get Jean, the horse in the barn because he didn’t want to go inside.
The kids went to their grandparents, so we had some down time. When they got home, we watched a couple of episodes of Veronica Mars and then had dinner (leftover onion soup and curry, oh boy). We figured out Brooke and my outfits for the Ball. We washed our long sleeve black shirts in the sink and now we are all ready and packed to leave tomorrow morning super early.

Day 120: I'm Julia Child in France!

29 Decembre 2009 (Day 120)
Well, after staying up late (yet again) Brooke and I didn’t get out of bed until around 11:30. I did wake up earlier, but then I went back to bed and had the strangest dream about Pete Caldwell and his family selling burgers and myself and Chris Mitchell eating them…weird! I had some yogurt and baguette for breakfast and then I worked on some PowerPoint presentations to look at with Antoine and the girls. We had some neighbors over for lunch. Nicole is this cute older lady and PehPah (I don’t know what his real name is) is a giant burly man with white hair who is a really fun guy. Brooke and I helped to make a yummy lentil salad. It contained: lentils, grated carrots, onions, and balsamic vinegar. We had rice with a light pork curry that they are going to sell (these are the neighbors with whom the Benard’s work a little bit). There was also a lentil-celery-leek dish that was good as well. The pork was so great though, it wasn’t chewy and super soft. I love their cooking!
We got on the subject of cookies during lunch, so after lunch we made cookies. They wanted to make honey cookies and chocolate chip cookies so I found recipes and translated them. We then went to the giant industrial cooking room next to the little honey factory where they normally cook the meats and stuff. The honey cookies turned out fantastic. Here is the recipe:
HONEY BEE COOKIES
________________________________________
□ 1/2 c. butter, softened
□ 1/2 c. packed brown sugar (we used normal sugar though)
□ 1/2 c. honey
□ 1 egg
□ 1 1/2 c. flour
□ 1/2 tsp. baking soda
□ 1/2 tsp. salt
□ 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
□ 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Beat butter, brown sugar, honey and egg in a medium bowl on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly, until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.
3. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake until set and light brown around edges (surfaces of cookies will appear shiny), 7 to 9 minutes. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then remove from cookie sheet with metal spatula onto a wire rack. Makes 36 cookies.

The children and granddaughter (named Marie) of Nicole came over to the ‘kitchen’. PuhPah was quite serious about this cookie business, so he helped me find all the ingredients, weigh, and mix everything. Afterwards Brooke and Mathilde made some chocolate chip cookies (they have nothing on mine). Mona (a friend), Antoine, and the other daughter (yes, I am nul with names) watched Ice Age 2.
We had dinner around 9pm, with a neighbor who came, Veronica. We had onion soup and leftovers from lunch. We had a discussion about the LDS religion/religions in general. Jean-Claude is very anti-religious (slightly communist, not atheist), and Florence used to be Catholic, so she was more open to the church. Veronica brought some fromage du brebis, that was delicious. Now we are watching Dead Poets Society (in French).

Day 119: We Are Artists

28 Decembre 2009 (Day 119)
Today Brooke and I slept in until around 9:30. I had a lovely warm shower and then had hot chocolate in a bowl (all the kids were doing it) and some bread. Brooke and I did some cleaning. Everyone disappeared until lunchtime so Brooke wrote her paper and I made some flash card games for Antoine, who is ten and super hyper. For lunch we had lentils and this awful white sausage meat stuff made with cognac (a brandy named after the town). The neighbor brought it over, but no one really liked and/or ate it.
After lunch the girls sketched and did some water coloring, Antoine painted, I played the guitar, and Brooke worked on her paper. The girls are great artists. We played lots of English learning games with Antoine. I also pirated some great French music from them. What can I say, cds cost 20 euros here (around 29 $). I helped to make some delicious soup for dinner that we ate after we waited a long time for the parents to come back from the neighbors. Meanwhile we watched two episodes of Veronica Mars and munched on bread, cheese, and fruit.
Did I mention that there is a rock climbing wall? In the living room. It is pretty tight. Brooke and I sleep down in the basement. It is actually fully equipped. They used to rent it out. But it has a mini kitchen/living room, bedroom with two beds, bathroom, shower, and washer.
Now it is almost midnight and we are watching House in French on the telly. What a life!

Day 118: Sheep Are Stupid

27 Decembre 2009 (Day 118)
Today Brooke and I slept in for a while and then we went up and had some bread for breakfast. I had a goute (taste test) with the neighbor and the parents of some pate (like a meat paste sort of thing). They are working on making a new recipe. It wasn’t too bad. Here the Bonnards make spice cake, honey, and do some stuff with meats. We made fries and cooked oysters for lunch. It took a long time, but they were really good. Brooke and I make excellent fries and I really do like oysters. After our late lunch we went out in our muck boots and took down the temporary sheep fencing so it wouldn’t get buried in the snow. It is so beautiful here; the air is fresh, there are mountain-like objects, and we truly live a simple life. It was great to be outside working again. It may be dirty work, and I may be terrible at it, but you just get a real sense of accomplishment when you work on a farm. I also realized how much I just adapt to different lifestyles. When I’m a farmer I like having larger breakfasts and showering in the evenings, as well as going to bed early. When I’m French I can go to bed later, shower in the morning, etc. Maybe that is more of who I am, someone who adapts to whatever situation, not necessarily a farmer, or frenchie, or soccer mom, or business woman- whatever the title may be, but someone who adapts to what life brings (except getting lost. I don’t deal with that well). I do think I am becoming a little less pent up about having things perfectly planned though (apart from how to get to places).
Brooke and I got a tour of some of the farm. We went and fed the sheep and visited the horse. Sheep really are so stupid. They would go running around like crazy. They were also jumping around like mad sheep when we put hay in the troughs. They also have geese and chickens. The honey making area was the most interesting. They have a machine that spins the combs really fast so that the honey comes out and it goes into some piping that puts it in giant vats and they clean it and then make different honey. Some of their honey is really thick and golden, some has crème, and they have another type of honey that they make that is almost white.
We had pumpkin soup for dinner with the usual option of cheese, plain yogurt with sugar, and/or fruit. They watched some army show and I figured out how to get the wifi to work on my computer. Brooke and I ended up staying up very late working on Brooke’s paper.

Day 117: I Follow Murphy's Law, sourtout à Nice

26 Decembre 2009 (Day 117)
Today was the day that I had to say goodbye to England. Since ‘Utah’ was leaving, naturally the snow was leaving and it started to rain on the early morning drive to the airport. It really wasn’t that early, but seeing how late we stay up every night, it was early. I had my favorite toast, clementines, and hot cocoa for breakfast and we all headed into the car to sing along to Elena’s ipod. The drive to Liverpool was very beautiful with the sun getting higher. We said our goodbyes in the parking lot where they dropped me off. It was really sad to leave them.
The airport experience went fine. I was asked if anyone put anything into my bag without my knowledge (to which I wanted very badly to respond sassily…how could you say yes, someone put something in my bag without my knowledge, and since I don’t know that they did that is why I am able to say yes). I got frisked in security yet again. I don’t know what keeps on setting the alarm off. My shoes are rubber, I had on no jewelry and I didn’t even where bobby pins. Oh well. Sadly it wasn’t as amusing as the last time I got frisked with my giant hoodie that had an apple core in it; that was entertaining. I was at the airport so early they didn’t even have the flight terminal for over an hour. It was okay though because I was in THE John Lenin Liverpool airport. He also has a college and some of his suits were in the airport, as well as awesome quotes from The Beatles.
I sat around and read and ate an overpriced (but quite nice) raspberry muffin and a banana with my last few pounds and waited for the board to tell me what terminal I needed to go to. The plane was late coming in, so we didn’t know until very late where to go. There was already a line to the next terminal even though we weren’t leaving for 40 minutes. I don’t see the point of standing in line to get a ‘good seat’ on a two hour flight. It is two hours! So I contently sat and read and was one of the last people on the plane, which I don’t mind at all. I sat by some Turkish guy and a British girl, but we didn’t talk. The pilot did really well taking off and it was probably the best landing I’ve seen. The view in the plane was gorgeous; the mountains to the left and the ocean to the right. The ocean was such a pretty color! The coolest thing was that the runway was right by the ocean. There wasn’t even a fence, you could have walked off the airplane into the ocean!
I didn’t realize the irony of the Murphy’s Law sign that I took a picture of in the Liverpool airport until I arrived in France. I was trying to go quickly so that I could take the bus to the Bonnard’s and save some money. Naturally it took a while for the luggage to come, so I just tried to add everything into the same bag as quickly as possible. During this wild frenzy I managed to lose all my information about how to get to the Bonnard’s. I thought I lost it in the baggage claim area which I already exited so I had to ask three different people to finally get let back inside only to find that my directions weren’t there. I searched in my pockets and bags multiple times, but I couldn’t find the paper so I just tried to remember the directions and not cry (I didn’t, yay for me!). I asked where the cheap bus was and what I thought was the number and got sent off in the wrong direction, then back in the right direction, and then on a bus to get on the cheap bus. I asked the bus driver to let me know when to get off near the train station since I didn’t remember what bus I needed to take to get to the Bonnard’s. The bus driver’s changed, so I asked the new bus driver to tell me when I needed to get off and he said that I missed it! Happily, he stopped traffic in the middle of the road so I could run across the street and catch the bus back. The man on the new bus was very nice and didn’t make me pay again and he let me know when to get off.
I got dropped off at the Gare (train station) SNCF (the wrong gare) so I was smart and went to the tourist information office to ask for directions. I got a map and thought I was doing well, but of course, I got lost. And that is why I don’t like traveling alone. I asked at least (not an exaggeration) five different people how to get to the train station and they all sent me different ways (except the last two). I ran all around Nice searching for that stupid train station! Luckily I found it, grumpy, sweaty, and very stressed, but I found the train, didn’t miss it, and I got a hold of Brooke.
Nice was very pretty though. There were palm trees and Clementine trees, and it was warm. There were hills everywhere and it is not at all what one thinks of when you think of France.
On my way to the stop Puget Theniers I realized I had my laptop which had the directions, address, and phone number. Bless my heart. I read a little on the train ride (after having a lolly and some chocolate to console myself [and I didn’t have lunch]), but mostly I thought and stared out the window a little bit because there was snow! And it was totally an old school train with an annoying horn and we went through tunnels. I like being in Southern France though because the people speak slower, so they are easier to understand. I asked a nice lady in an awful outfit when the stop was and she didn’t let me miss it.  Florence and Brooke came to pick me up from the train stop (not really a station at all) and we went up up up the mountain to her house.
The family is very nice. They have two girls and a little nine-year-old boy. Jean-Claude, the father, asks lots of questions. My favorite was about smoking and that since I’m an American if I like whisky, lol. We had fish and rice with a light curry sauce for dinner. It was so nice to eat healthy (though I still love you England). We had cheese, yogurt, and fruit after dinner and then watched the end of The Simpsons (in French). Afterwards the kids stayed up and we watched an episode of Veronica Mars (which the girls adore) in French as well.

Day 116: Christmas at the Rojas-Rodriguez Home

25 Decembre 2009 (Day 116)
HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Today was Christmas and I slept in the latest I have ever slept in for Christmas. I woke up around 8h30/9h00. Before we opened presents, we sang a song, had a prayer, and read a story about Christmas in the Americas way back when Jesus was born. I thought it was very nice, but it was a mad torture for the kids who were sitting by their pile of neatly wrapped gifts. Once we were done it was a mad dash of opening gifts. Everyone can open them at the same time, so I just watched with the parentals until it died down and then I opened some of my gifts. Yes, they got me gifts! Daniel got me the cutest hair things and Izy bought me a necklace. Elena bought me a hot chocolate mug and some swell body spray that smells like mangos and Mama Ines & Papa Fernando got me candy, a toothbrush, a loofa, a book, British socks, and a scarf. They even got me the bestest pens ever, I love them! Everyone got lots of gifts and was quite pleased. Pretty much everyone (except Daniel) got perfume, lol. At least now we will all smell good.
After opening gifts we had French toast and then played with the new games. The most popular was playing the new games on the Wii. It was quite hilarious to see everyone dancing to the tunes and such. Sam boxed Fernando for Isabel and won, lol. We sat around the table and sang song from Elena’s new guitar book, which was a lot of fun. We sang songs like Tears in Heaven and More Than Words. We had crackers with foie gras, cheese, capers, cavier, etc. for lunch. There were also whole crabs to eat! I tried some, they taste good, but I do not like that you have to get the meat out of their exoskeleton….yuk! Elder Adrian called home around 3 pm and talked to everyone. We watched Twilight (I made fun of it. That movie really is ridiculous) and played more on the Wii.
We had lovely leftovers for dinner. I had my first Yorkshire pudding. Which isn’t pudding. Or a dessert. It is a bread thing that you have with gravy. It is really good though. We had stuffing balls and cream cheese in philo dough as well. We then played the dancing game more. It is so funny to see everyone dancing to the music. We had raspberry trifle for dessert and have just been hanging out doing our own things, like packing. I don’t want to leave tomorrow, I’ve had so much fun here!

Day 115: Christmas Eve Spanish Style

Prefects exist, and not just in Harry Potter!
Just a sample of what we had for Christmas Eve dinner.
Daniel, Christmas crackers, and mussels!

24 Decembre 2009 (Day 115)

Today was another day out on the town. We went around with Commando Fernando to do errands and shopping. I got some peanuts for Brooke and I in Southern France and some Reese’s Pieces for Daniel and me. We had Chorizo (Spanish sausage) sandwiches for lunch and then we watch Harry Potter 5 and got ready for dinner, shining silver, cleaning plates, peeling carrots, and dressing up. I dressed up in my new gray skinny jeans and turquoise cardigan.

Dinner was quite the event! Everyone dressed up and we had a feast! First things first: Christmas Crackers! They are a lot of fun, they have little crowns in them, a joke, and a prize. I got a mini phonebook and a lovely purple crown. There was sparkling grape juice and crackers with things like smoked salmon, anchovies, caviar, foie gras, brie, chili cheese, and olives. We had Isabel’s soup afterwards which was delicious. It was Sam’s first time having celery even though his dad is a chef! Next came the mussels! We had mussels in tomato and in white sauce. The main course was more like a million! For meat there was: a giant salmon, 2 geese, and lamb. They were all really good. Goose tastes like chicken and roast beef mixed, and Mama Ines knows how to cook lamb (with mint). It was the softest lamb I’ve had. For vegetables there was: brussel sprouts with pine nuts and bacon, carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips, and potatoes.

We talked quite a lot after dinner and then we played sports on the Wii and The Brain Academy as well. We all got to bed pretty late. But before bed Daniel left Father Christmas a sweet note with milk and a minced meat pie.

It was a great Christmas Eve. I had a lot of fun.

Day 114: Blackpool

Mari and Elena!
Maid Izy and Sam Hood
English Tea!

23 Decembre 2009 (Day 114)
Today was a nice day. Fernando, Ines, Isabel, Daniel, and I went to the market to get some salmon for Christmas. Afterwards we went shopping. We went to several different shops like pound shops, an entertainment store, and my favorite, Pricemark. Pricemark is like an even more inexpensive H&M. I got a cardigan, my first pair of skinny jeans (eek! But only for 7 pounds), and some shoes for 2 pounds that are really popular in France. I found some presents for Amber and I found some turquoise tights for 50 pence that I am pretty excited about as well.
It was really cold and slushy outside so we went into a fish and chip shop to have lunch. I had my first fish and chips and mushy peas! I had cod fish and it was actually quite good, as were the mushy peas. I definitely couldn’t eat all that fried goodness on a daily basis. Another popular thing here is chips with gravy! My life is average: For twenty years I’ve thought that mince pies have meat. Today I found out some enlightening news. Mince pies are dessert with fruit in them, they do not contain meat. And Yorkshire pudding, it isn’t pudding at all.
After shopping for a while we came back home and Isabel, Elena, and I met up with Sam, Luke, Josh (Luke’s brother), and Michael (a boy who Elena likes). We took the train to Blackpool, the Las Vegas of England. It was alright, but most of the things were closed and my toes were freezing. I was wearing 3 pairs of socks and Elena’s Wellys. Luke the puke was being weird so we kept reminding him about his 30-year-old girlfriend with a child in Colombia. They ate a KFC (I couldn’t do fried foods twice in one day) and then we went and played at an arcade. I didn’t play any games, but I watched Luke spend all his pounds playing Deal or No Deal and some of the boys play racing games. With the tickets they won we bought some candy and a little pirate set for Daniel since he couldn’t come. It has a hook, an eye patch, and a dagger.
Sam came home with us and is sleeping over the next couple of days. We stayed up a little bit eating clementines and talking, but I went to bed when they had hot chocolate. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve day!

Day 113: Preston Temple

Elena, Jess, Daniel, and Luke
Two Best Friends
The Preston Temple (I love the perfect trees!)

22 Decembre 2009 (Day 113)

All of us children slept in today while mama and papa went to the temple. I woke up before the other kids so I had a lovely breakfast to myself listening to music, talking to friends from Utah (no idea why they were up at 3am their time). I had some wicked white hot chocolate, clementines, and toast with blueberry jam and apricot jam. Commando Fernando came and picked up Isabel and I and we all went to do baptisms together at the temple. It felt so much like home to be there (especially the ride there with all the snow). It was a really quiet day at the temple, but it was nice. The workers talked to us a lot. One of them was telling us about her perfect granddaughter, lol. We each got to do twenty names. Their font area was gorgeous! There isn’t the glass around the font so it is just the marble with lights acting like stars above. It is really nice. Apparently President Hinckley served in Preston, so he has a soft spot for the area and took particular attention in the building of this temple. They have one of the few fonts that has 12 full-bodied oxen.

After the temple we came home and played in the snow! Isabel made a lovely snow woman and we all made snow angels. Jess was there and Luke came over. We had a snowball fight and slid on the ice in the road. We got cold so we came inside and played Twister. That didn’t last very long so then we decided to watch Ten Things I Hate About You and eat chocolate and Doritos for lunch (yes, I am terribly healthy here. :P ). Luke the Puke was trying to be a flirt even though he has a girlfriend from Colombia. Who is a single 30-year-old mother. Anywho, Izy got upset sometime and has been shut up for most of the day since. When the parents came home they got mad at Elena because Izy was upset and I got in the middle of a little bit of it and it has just been terribly awkward. They were all yelling at each other in Spanish with me, Luke, and Jess just sitting in the living room having no idea what was going on.

All the friends stayed over for tomato soup, hamburgers and fries. Izy and Elena started laughing which led to crying from laughing then really crying at the dinner table. I have never seen anyone eat a hamburger with tears running down their face. But anyway, after dinner we cleaned up and then I taught Elena some songs on the guitar. We had a lot of fun playing around.

I talked to my family on google chat for a wee while. The family was having a big fight downstairs, so Daniel came up and talked with me online. We had fun talking to them. Afterwards Dan and I had milk and peanut butter cookies and then a teeth brushing party.

My life is average: I’ve been using the girls lotion, only to realize today that it is body wash.

Day 112: Snog Me Senseless

Snog Me Senseless! I really should have bought them, just for the container.
Chorley!
The Fam: Commando Fernando, Isabel, Elena, Daniel, Ines, and Adrian the snowman by day, missionary by night

21 Decembre 2009 (Day 112)
I’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas and I am getting it! It snowed a lot (for England). Therefore after breakfast (I had toast, clementines, and hot cocoa. Daniel had cake and juice.) Daniel, the parents, and I went out to play in the snow. We had snowball fights and made a swell snowman. He had olive eyes and a carrot nose. Elena, Izzie, and I met up with Jess (Elena’s friend) and Joanna (Isabel’s) to do some Christmas shopping in Chorley. We went to a bunch of different stores and checked out different odds and ends. We got hot cocoa that cost an arm and a leg (like 4 US dollars) but it was well good. It was really cold and slushy so we just meandered into different stores until it was time for dentist appointments. My favorite thing that I found were “snog me senseless mints.” Elena and Jess found some pants that they BOTH fit into and we found glasses that looked well good on us. I also love all the cards here. They are all adorable and have them for everything. Christmas cards for: couples, boyfriends, nieces, daughters, sons, girlfriends, grandparents, etc. and they are all super cute.
All 4 people were done in 30 minutes. Here the dentist doesn’t take x-rays or clean your teeth. He just looks at them (which is probably why the English are known for having terrible teeth). We came home and had jacket potatoes. This is an English baked potato that you can have with things like: cheese, cottage cheese, tuna fish and mayo, pinto beans, olives, beef. They were quite good actually.
Afterwards we had a really nice FHE about Christmas. Daniel and I made peanut butter chocolate rice krispies with M&Ms (called Smarties) on top. They are okay, but not as good as scotcheroos. I’ve been looking up helpx places to stay in February and paying attention to 5% of Titanic, which the girls are watching.

Day 111: It's A Wonderful Life

20 Decembre 2009 (Day 111)
It has been snowing a lot for England today! It is so great. We woke up and all went to church. We had a really nice lesson about Joseph Smith in Relief Society. You could feel the spirit really strongly, especially when we were singing the closing hymn, Praise to The Man. Sunday School was by far my favorite. The Primary children put on a nativity program for all of us with costumes and songs. It was fantastic. Daniel sand He Sent His Son as a solo and did really well.
The infamous Sam Ward and his and Isabel’s friend, Luke (the duke of puke), sat by us during sacrament meeting. Luke kept on looking at me, so I winked at him, lol. This apparently got me in trouble because he texted Isabel, “Your friend is fit (British for hot). Ask her if she wants to use the gift of tongues with me.” That was terrible! Luckily Elena said that he is like that with everyone. We had some nice talks about the true meaning of Christmas and stories. We stayed and talked a little bit after church with some ward members.
We had a little snow ball fight (little being pretty much I was the only one throwing snowballs). Sam came for dinner today so we watched Elf (again) while dinner was being prepared. It sure smelled yummy, which it was. We had some pork and potatoes with bread (they don’t really eat vegetables here). We played What If which was really fun. We played some card game after that until everyone got too upset and then we moved on to having dessert, Diam cake! After that lovely dessert we moved on to playing the chimes again. That didn’t last long because the girls were hyper and being sassy to their mum. We then watched The Snowman and It’s A Wonderful Life. The older I get the more I enjoy that film, but not enough to make me cry. We all snuggled on the couch and gave hand massages and did hair. Sam and Isabel did some real snuggling and hand holding though.
After we wrote the Elder some letters with Milky gel pens. Isabel and Elena started writing on each other’s faces and snorting from laughing. Quite the night!

Day 110: ChristmasChurch Party

19 decembre 2009 (Day 110)
It snowed again today. The flakes were so tiny and cute! Today was a pretty mellow day. I had hot chocolate and toast for breakfast and then spent most of the morning trying to get pictures of Ireland up on Facebook. I made peanut butter cookies for everyone (they are a favorite in this house) because they asked me to. They really liked them and we took them to the ward party as well later. We had tuna sandwiches for lunch and then Daniel and I watched Elf while the parents went out to pick up Elena from work and Isabel from the wedding she went to. Daniel and I had fun watching Elf because it made us laugh so much. I didn’t realize how funny that movie was.
We all sang Christmas carols on our way to the ward Christmas party. It was pretty small but it was still fun. We played musical chairs, Father Christmas came, we played some pass the object games and then ate dinner. I was kind of disappointed that they didn’t have lots of stuff, nor “English” stuff, but it was alright. After dinner we had dancing. We did a line dance and I danced with Elena which was fun. There were little kids dancing and older people. The cutest old lady fell while she was dancing! I felt so badly. They had lots of little cute kids there that were fun to dance with and talk to. There was a cute Scotsman who sadly is married. He served a mission in Russia and his brother is marrying Alison Bean, a girl from my high school. The world just keeps getting smaller!
They sang Spanish carols on the way back and then we watched their stake roadshow and ate the French cheese that Isabel brought back. It is kind of weird having Isabel here now, she doesn’t really want to hang out with me much. Elena and I sang a great duo of “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” I love that song (possibly because it reminds me of my roommates that I miss).

Day 109: Hello England

18 decembre 2009 (Day 109)
This morning I woke up around 8am and did my yoga and scripture reading. My hip adductors are still a little sore from my wild hike in Ireland. Hopefully my Christmas break from running (I didn’t bring my shoes because I highly doubted that I would go) will give them ample break to repair.
I ate breakfast with Ines (mother) and Fernando (father). La tostada (toast) and cereal! I am working on learning some Spanish while I am here. After breakfast we went out and did some shopping. Ines and Fernando are really funny. They are one of those couples that one gets mad and the other laughs and that is how they show their affection. Ines was quite mad at Fernando because he poked a hole in a package that she was sending to her son on a mission. Fernando was just laughing. We listened to some great older Christmas music and went into Preston. It is a pretty big city and quite quaint. We went to Toys ‘R Us and Borders. The Borders here is going out of business so everything was really inexpensive. I bought some cards and a little how to learn Italian book. Afterwards we went to Subway and got lunch.
After a turkey sandwich, a cookie, and lemon-lime water we went and picked up Daniel from school. Daniel is 8-years-old and sometimes a little quiet, but he is a really nice cute kid. I taught him how to play the bingo car game and we played that while we went to a couple of grocery stores. We bought pizza for dinner and made that after all of our shopping. We had a lovely (all food is ‘lovely’ or ’nice’ here) salad with it and some root beer, which half of them hate because it tastes like a certain medicine here.
Ines and Fernando had choir practice, so Daniel and I stayed home and watched his favorite movie, Transformers, with popcorn and some of his favorite gummy candy. Elena (16) and her friend Jessica wrapped presents instead of watching the movie with us. Daniel fell asleep during the movie (he’s been sick). After the movie all the girls played Christmas songs with chimes. It was a lot of fun and Fernando played with us once he came back from teaching with the missionaries. After playing Elena and I (Jessica had to go home) had her parents tell us about how they got married. You see, Ines has her heart set on Isabel, her oldest daughter marrying her oldest son’s best friend who is leaving on a mission soon. They both like each other but Isabel doesn’t want to wait for him. It will be fun to see them together. After our lovely story we all went to bed.

Day 108: The Isles of Ireland

17 Decembre 2009 (Day 108)
I met up with the girls for breakfast (luckily I went into the same wash room, I had left my contact solution!) and we had our yummy free breakfast. Bread and jam (we didn’t see the toasters until it was too late; the jam was already on the bread), museli with milk, orange juice, and wheatabix (they are like wheaties in a square that you smash up and add milk and sugar). The girls decided their feet hurt so they weren’t going to come to Howth with me. Howth is a small fisherman’s town about 30 minutes outside of Dublin. I bought a sandwich and fruit and found the train station and went to Howth. On the way I saw a rainbow! It was so cool seeing a rainbow (I actually saw two) in Ireland! It got greener and greener the further out of Dublin we got. Howth is a great fisherman’s town. Being there made me better understand the genetic build of Irish people, as well as their food. It was gorgeous. I took a long walk along the cliffs and looked at the Eye of Ireland (an island) and the waves. It rained a little and was windy, but it was nothing bad. When I was about half-way the trail started getting REALLY muddy. My toes are actually still wet from it. The trail was muddy enough that I decided to cut through the pasture-like cliff side and go down to the path I came up on. It was quite the adventure through the pokeys and almost falling!
I made it down without further incident and walked along the wharf. I found a nice restaurant called Ivan’s so I bought some Fish Chowder in a sourdough bowl. It was very delicious and much better than clam chowder. I took the train back into Dublin and walked back to the hostel going by some other popular monuments that I hadn’t seen (all in all, I didn’t get to see much of Dublin). It started raining with the occasional sleet, so it wasn’t very good for sightseeing. I did go see the outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral again in the light though (it cost 5 euros to go in). I got my bag (the girls had stored it in their locker for me so I didn’t have to take it around since I had already checked out) and went to catch the bus. Now I am sitting in the airport about to board the flight for England!
The flight went well. I ate my chicken sandwich, Irish potato chips (much better than French potato chips), and apple while everyone was standing in line waiting to board (is your seat really that important for a forty minute flight?!). We took off late because it started to hail/sleet so they de-iced the wings. I mostly read on the flight and it wasn’t until we were getting off that the charming cute young businessman who was across the aisle asked me if my shoes were Brooks. This of course led to a running conversation seeing as I am a runner and he does triathlons. We talked all the way to the exit and then my dear bosom Brooks friend left. I was so sad, I was sitting by someone who could have been the perfect husband and I didn’t know until too late. Oh well. Lucky dog is going biking in Wales tomorrow because there are more hills there and it is his day off.
I barely missed the train to go to Chorley by about two minutes (I didn’t know which train to get on so I had to wait in line to ask). It was alright though seeing as the next train was in 30 minutes. I had a nice train ride of about an hour, during which I put my pictures on my laptop. Isabel’s mother came and picked me up at the airport and drove me home. There was snow! It was so great because it really made it feel like Christmas driving in the little town and seeing Christmas lights on houses and snow. The family is super nice. They offered me cookies and cupcakes and hot chocolate (which I refused, how odd for me) and I stayed up a little bit with the parents talking and then we watched the tv for long enough to see that there wasn’t anything good on.
I’m sleeping in Elana’s room. It is a really cute room with pink walls, a light hardwood floor and two twin sized beds with the cutest bedding. It is fun to see her room and all her treasures!

Day 107: Off to Ireland

16 Decembre 2009 (Day 107)

Today I left for Ireland! I woke up, got ready, and made sure that I turned off my lights this time. I was really nervous about going by myself, but I made it all right. On the flight I met a cute two year old named Matthew he speaks French and Irish English. He kept on turning to me, making faces or saying, “Boo!” By the end of the flight he wanted me to hold him and not his mom. I’m sure his mother didn’t mind too much that I held him while she got everything together. He was quite attached to me, so it was sad to see him go.

I made it through customs without a problem and I was in Dublin! I took the 16A bus to my awesomely fabulous Avalon House Hostel in the heart of Dublin. This cute little old lady was crossing the street in front of our double decker bus and we totally ALMOST hit her. It was really close. She was just totally oblivious to the bus, and bless the driver’s heart, he didn’t even honk at her. But we on the top were worried that we might have hit her! I was greeted by a long haired Napoleon Dynamite-esque Frenchie who really liked me because he could speak French to me. He even gave me two suckers when I checked in (he didn’t give the other girls anything). It only cost 8 euros to stay there for the night and it was really nice! I met two non-denominal Christian girls from England (Joanna) and Washington who had met in Hawaii doing missionary work for their church. They were both really nice and I went around with them. They got soup and The Bald Barrista, the café in front of the hostel and I got some hot cocoa. Afterwards we walked around to St. Patrick’s cathedral, which has been added onto since the 11^th century and where Jonathon Swift gave sermons. They still have his pew. I also went and saw Trinity College and saw a glimpse of Christ’s Church, but it was quite dark by the time we got out site seeing. We still went down one of the main streets though and went in to some of the shops to look around. I found some pretty awesome and awful things, including 30 euro gloves that were made of nothing special.

I asked the awesome French receptionist where to go for dinner and he recommended a great place that we went to, The Sheeben Chic. It was this Irish Pub/restaurant that has live music every night and a really cool feel. All the chairs are miss-matched and the décor was really neat. They had paintings on the ceiling, mirrors, and really cool mini antique chandeliers. I got the traditional Irish Stew with potatoes, carrots, barley, and lamb. It was served on a deep plate without much broth, but it was really good. The potatoes were divine! Ireland really does have great potatoes. I decided to splurge and get dessert so I tried the Pannacotta. It was stewed rhubarb with a really nice crème brulee-esque crème/pudding. It was pretty nice, though it left an odd after-feel in my mouth. One of our waiters was really attractive, so he got nicknamed the ‘husband’ he bought Joanna a drink after they kind of forgot about her hamburger.

The two girlies were pooped after dinner so we went back to the hostel. On the way back we stopped in a grocery store and Joanna the Brit told us about all the different candies. I got a *****TRIFLE, like they talk about in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It is rose flavored gumminess coated in chocolate. It was alright, but it is weird tasting things that are rose flavored. I got some gum (it is a lot cheaper in Ireland) and a candy bar that Joanna recommended. We went back to the hostel and I got my bag out of my locker and went to ask for something and my French friend was there. He was playing the guitar and we talked about that for a little bit and then he let me play (after he gave me more candy, twice). I played the one song I still do remember, Viva La Vida. He liked it so much he had me teach it to him. Then he played “Nantes” by Beiruit and taught me how to play it on the guitar and then had me play it with the song blasting around midnight. He told me to go back where I got dinner to listen to his friends play in an awesome band, but by the time I got there they had finished playing so I just went back and went to bed. I didn’t sleep very well because there were people outside shouting and being noisy and they didn’t stop until about 4am and I woke up at 7am.

The Avalon Hostel is really cool. For the 14-bunk mixed sex spacious rooms it is only 10 euros a night. It comes with bedding, a free breakfast, free Irish dancing lessons Tuesday and Thursday nights, free wi-fi, computer access, lockers for rent (1 euro a day), a kitchen, instruments you can borrow to play, you can get a free nights stay if you perform at the café, free showers, and a stellar atmosphere. I really wanted to hang out more at the hostel. It was also awesomely eco-friendly. They solar-panel heat the water, recycle, and do a whole bunch of other things to be eco-awesome. The people in Dublin are super nice. I have had multiple people stop and ask me where I am trying to get to and then they give directions. I love their accents!