A Weekend with an Aussie

Saturday & Sunday, September 24th-25th, 2011

So this past weekend I spent entirely with my friend Becky (the Aussie who I met up with on vacation...) and her amazingly nice host family. The whole thing was a bit weird at first, because all of a sudden Pascale just told me on like Tuesday that I would be going over to Becky's house on Saturday and not coming back until late Sunday. Just because I was staying there for so long, I thought they must have invited me over to do something fun over the weekend with them. But, once I texted Becky, she had no idea why I was coming over either. Don't get me wrong, I definitely had heaps of fun hanging out with Becky, I just didn't exactly understand why I was going over considering neither of us had planned it. I mean, it's a bit weird, having your host parents set up a "play date" for you like when you were little. But it was a really nice and considerate thing for them to do. It was nice having something really fun to do over the weekend and that I didn't have to worry about any of the planning, or working around the bus schedule, or worrying about food and when I was going to eat and if I had cash or not to pay for it (almost no food place here takes credit/debit... and guess who is really bad about carrying around money!!! This girl.). Come to find out, I think Pascale arranged the whole thing for me because she was going to be gone most of the weekend going to car stores and looking for a new one. I think she didn't want me to have to be home all alone on the weekend (I'm not a fan of car shopping unless it is one I know I am going to be driving...) and instead planned a fun alternate thing for me. It really is quite sweet.

When I first got there, Becky and I went for a walk since it was an extremely nice day out. There is this bike path near her house which apparently goes on forever, and we just stayed along that for most of the time. It was nice just getting out of the house and talking with a friend. And I swear that everyone that passed by, whether they were walking or biking, stared at us as if we were aliens for talking in English. It was quite funny. We also walked to the store to pick up some bread and eggs for her host family, and then we made eggs for lunch. It was only the second time that I have had eggs since I got here, and it just reminded me a lot of home and tasted absolutely delicious. But for once, it was a nice reminder. Didn't make me sad, just happy (if that makes any sense... Homesickness is a very strange thing!)

In the evening, becky's host parents told us to get ready because we were going to a friend of theirs to watch a horse show. Turns out it was a pretty big, all day horse jumping competition. The riders compete in three events, grooming, jumping over natural obstacles in the woods, and the regular jumping in the ring. We only caught the very end of it, when they were in the ring. Some people we saw were really good, and watching the competition made me want to buy a horse and ride it 24/7. They are jsut such majestic and strong creatures, I know I am definitely going to have one when I grow up! (If I am rich enough to have the land for it, pay for it and its food, and a person to muck out the stalls... Because I am not too excited about that idea! So yes, I just want to be able to ride horses whenever I want... Haha) When the competition ended, we were looking for Becky's host parents and found them working the little store. They are just such kind people, they would be willing to help out anybody. As everyone was waiting on the scores to be calculated and the awards given out, Becky and I got hungry and ate a delicious meal of fresh pork (straight of the pig, I saw it being cut... Gross.) and frites. By the time we got home, after the awards and then sitting through everyone else eating their meals and then dessert, it was like 11:30 so we just went to bed.

We woke up the next morning to my alarm on my phone that I had forgotten to turn off (Luckily it was set for 9 from the day before... and yes, I DO need an alarm clock for 9. The life of an exchange student is tiring!). We took showers, got ready, and then went to the grocery store with her host mum and sister because she wanted to buy ingredients for a cake. Apparently at home she bakes all of the time, and here she hasn't really gotten the chance to do so. And she had been asking them to buy ingredients for like a month or two, so she figured they wouldn't forget if she were to get them herself!!! :)

After the store we left for their little cabin in the woods that was about an hour away from their house. Becky and I thought that we were going there just for a barbeque with some friends and were told not to eat lunch. But then, the place ends up being an hour away, and it is actually Becky's family's cabin that some friends are just staying in for a holiday. So, there was no food to eat and so Michel and Jane (Becky's host parents...) went to the store to buy some food. Meanwhile, we went on a small hike with their friends to search for wild mushrooms to eat because one of the friends was a mushroom professor (at least according to Michel's semi-sketchy translation...) We were hiking for about an hour or so, still without food. At this point I was both very hungry and my feet hurt because I had borrowed some rain boots to not get my TOMS dirty, and I didn't have any socks so they were rubbing the sides of my feet. So, not the best hike for me, considering i don't even like mushrooms!

We didn't end up eating "lunch" until like 5 that night... As you can guess, I was starving. I had had a bit of the mushroom omelette they had cooked up ( yes, I was hungry enough to eat my least favorite food...), some tarte (pie) that they had bought as well, but decided to serve before cooking the meal, and that's all other than 2 pieces of toast at breakfast time. Needless to say, when the cooked the special cheese and set it down, Becky and I devoured it and the bread we used for dipping.

We got back to their house around 8, where Pascale was waiting to pick me up. We just had chicken enchilada leftovers (I had like half of one because I had only eaten lunch 4 hours earlier...), and then I was so wiped out that I went to bed. It was actually a really fun weekend for me to hang otu with Becky, even if i don't exactly have the best way to describe it...