A Tai Chi morning and a pretty darn magnificent weekend!

This morning, Wales, China and I met up in the kitchen, each adorned by our respective work out gear (China looks like a model for Adidas or some other classy line, Wales has on a fuzzy scarf and the trusty American is sporting baggy sweats and a hoodie – with the hood up). Then we trotted our-little-selves out into the middle of the high school courtyard in a drizzle of rain where China led us through some Tai Chi warm up exercises and started us off on a routine. We must have looked magnificent – the red-headed Welsh girl, China looking super classy with each move and me – doing my best to follow her movements without losing my balance. It was awesome.

FLASH back to last Friday. Lap swim with Wales and another American assistant, where I managed to alternate crawl-breast just about every other length. Then, geared with the money from our roomies and hungry bellies, we ordered some pizzas, hopped over to the supermarket to pick up salad ingredients and dessert supplies (sending 3 hungry anglophones to the supermarket post workout proved to be a dangerous endeavor!). Weighed down with our purchases, we picked up the pizzas and headed home where our other favorite foreigners were waiting for us for a night of over-eating, laughing, and WAY TOO MUCH dessert.



It was magnificent. During our glorious meal, it started snowing out… which made me feel a bit unsure of our morning plans to jet off to Mont Saint Michel…

When Saturday morning rolled around, the ground had a light dusting of snow, and we were off – MONT SAINT MICHEL, or bust. It was wild, we ended up driving through a little bit of a snowstorm for maybe 45 minutes or so, and then THERE WAS SUN- glorious blue skies and aggressive rays of suns, fighting off the chill from the cold winter air. It was splendid. We wound through ancient French towns (attracting quite a few stares as the driver is on the other side of Wales’ car). At one point, we were in need of a bathroom break, thus we ventured around a charming little town called Domfont where we found a toilet right by the Cathedral, on top of a big hill on which the city is built.

Armed with baguettes, cheese, jam, fruit and all sorts of random snacks (including left over pizza), we arrived at Mont Saint Michel and it was GLORIOUS. A picnic quickly ensued (although Wales and I had enjoyed elevensies during the drive) and we were off, exploring. As France is all about education, we had free entrance (as “educators”) to the old Abbey – which was AMAZING. Loads of stairs later, we wound our way through ancient architecture, rooms with more history than I can possibly imagine, all the while taking in incredible views overlooking the sea and soaking up as much vitamin D producing sunshine as possible.







Once we had our fill of this magical place, we were back in the car, winding our way through small towns in search of an open café – which proved quite difficult, and the café we ended up in had the French version of “Super-Nanny” playing on the TV – it was weird to be enjoying my warm beverage and hear children having temper tantrums in French in the background, AH France, at times, you amaze me. We had aspirations of finding a Creperie for dinner, but our efforts proved to be fruitless and we made our way back home. After a bakery stop, I was fairly certain the trunk had not been properly closed following the deposit of baked goods – it was like the wind was whistling in my ear. Although everyone scoffed at me as the crazy American, Wales pulled over, and sure enough, I was right! Victory is sweet. We returned home for a leek and mushroom omelet (sort of like a crepe, right?).

On Sunday, Wales and I were up and off to the pool. The weather was AMAZING. I could not help myself, I went for a run. I spent most of Sunday afternoon feeling completely exhausted.

In other news, our vacation plans are shaping up nicely! Germany and I have reserved our trains to and from Italy (yes, we reserved a bit late, so we must transfer 5 times and spend 22 hours getting to Rome – ADVENTURE here we come). We have a hostel in Rome, reservations for our ferry from Bari to Patras and then Patras to Ancona… and WIDE EYES. We will probably spend this weekend filling in the blanks on our travel plans – hostels in Greece and plans for Florence, Venice and the likes. It’s the story of an American and a German who speak French and are off to Italy and Greece.

As for the rest of today – LSAT prep, laundry, grocery shopping, lap swim, Taco and Chinese cauliflower dinner (that’s globalization for you) AND… DANCE CLASS. Yes, I started my day with Tai Chi and shall end it trying to be graceful and likely tripping over my banana boat feet. When in France with a bunch of adventurous friends, that’s how it goes!