Francophile in the West

Holy crap, what a great weekend!! I had a BLAST hanging out with my sis and bro-in-law. They stayed with me at the sorority house on Friday and Saturday nights (I have two extra beds in my room, and it was free for them, wahoo!) and we were having quite a time making fun of "Greek life" and the insane weekend behavior along Greek Row. They tried pizza from Turnpike, we checked out Gasworks Park, Alki Beach, and Greenlake, I introduced them to the deliciousness that is Dick's Hamburgers, and on Sunday morning, we had a magnificent brunch at the Sky City restaurant on top of the Space Needle! Amazing!!! They are so much fun, it was really great to have them in my 'hood for a few days. :) Today was rather productive, too! Work, class, a trip to the laundromat, made risotto for dinner (I'm really tired of salad and pizza from work, since I work through the dinner hours), other work, and now I'm all ready for bed and looking forward a slightly less-busy day tomorro...

I got a third job last week... One of my friends works at a pizza place across from Greenlake and he told me they needed a cashier girl for a few evenings a week, and I thought, "Meh, why not try?" So last Friday, I gave the manager my resume and he gave me a run-down of the place right there and said, "Okay, we'll see you Saturday night!" Whoa, another job! Yay/boo. It's probably a good thing Kris is in Alaska and keeping so busy and will be on a boat for 6-8 weeks because starting tomorrow, I'll basically have no life until at least September. But man oh man, do I need the money. Credit card debt from France is still lingering and fall will be full of traveling. Damn money. We should all go back to trading rice for sheep and crap like that for subsistence. In addition to that, the summer class I'm taking started yesterday and will go for the next four weeks. It's strange to be reading for class again, but at least it's only one class and no...

Well, I'm back in the big city. It's sunny, it's hot, it's Seattle in the summer; I adore this town. I hit up the (slightly early) Bastille Day celebrations at Seattle Center this morning with my friend Nathan. It was actually pretty busy! Lots of great things going on; I tracked down a galette and a couple of delicious macaroons and was able to speak a bit of French with one of the Seattle-Nantes Associations ladies that we met in Nantes. Great success! Speaking of macaroons, my mom found a recipe for them in the newspaper several weeks ago and we decided to try to make them yesterday afternoon before I left town. Indeed, my mother and I made authentic and quite tasty French macaroons (almond-cinnamon-cardamom flavor)! Wow. It was a messy production, but they turned out just perfect. A few things that I observed during my time at home: 1) People always ask me if I've heard such-and-such song and I always say, "No, I don't listen to the radio". That...

I've been having an excellent week being lazy here in Vancouver! I literally forgot all about work; I was supposed to be keeping up with emails for the Campus Visit Program this whole week, but I *just* remembered this morning! So, I recently finished wading through all that chaos. Nice. Hey, at least I remembered eventually. Hmmmm... highlights: Lydia, Eric, my dad, and I went for a hike last Saturday at Horsetail Falls off of Hwy 84 East. It was gorgeous, and a great trek! The weather has been beautiful (and freaking hot!) all week, I'm absolutely loving it after so much rain. I've been baking in the sun in the back yard for about 30 minutes for the past couple of days. One of the best feelings in the world is to have the sun warming your skin. Gotta love that Vitamin D! The Fourth of July was a great time. The fam caught up with my aunt Barb and cousin Jessica and her hubby Matt. We watched the crazy fireworks going on in Portland and at Fort Vancouver from Barb's ba...

The title is a quote from my French host Andre. In English, "The more I know people, the more I love my dog." I thought of that quote randomly this morning, and I still think it's great and so true. Hence, the blog title. Last night, I went to this restaurant/bar/karaoke joint in Greenlake called the Little Red Hen with a couple of friends. I seriously felt like I was back in Texas and was right at home! Haha. Country music karaoke, total dance hall atmosphere, typical blue-collar cowboy types with their hunting camouflage baseball hats and a beer in hand while singing. It was hilarious and lots of fun. OH- My first Yoga class was on Tuesday night! It was awesome!! I woke up yesterday with a rather sore back from all that fantastic deep stretching. I think this class will be just what I need. The instructor is super chill and looks like a scrawny Christian Bale (always a plus) and the class is so relaxed. Definitely going to be a good stress reliever and great new hobby! ...