Parks

France (and a lot of Europe I've been told...yet to test it!) has a love of nature and green space and parks!  I feel like as we've walked the streets of Brest there's a park every 3-5 blocks or so in any given direction.  Which is fantastic.  It's very natural for people to snuggle (kinda took me by surprise), walk their dogs, read a book, lay on the grass, or people watch.  I found myself wanting a plaid blanket, a baguette, and a bottle of wine or a block of cheese!  But today was Day 1 as an American tourist in Brest.  


I didn't want to look super out of place so I tried to fit in best I could...tried to not smile at everyone (this takes a LOT when you are a naturally smiley person!), crossed at zebra locations (crosswalks!)...without waiting for the drivers to give you a wave...they don't!, didn't say hi to everyone I passed, restrained myself from asking to pet every dog I passed (harder task than one might think!), kept my head forward and pretended like I knew where I was going/what I was doing!  


I did bring some school work to do while on holiday (a girl's gotta work sometimes).  Dave laughed when he saw a huge Child Development book in my suitcase...I got a "really? You may have to carry that on the plane if it makes your bag to heavy"...good thing my bag was under the weight limit so the book got checked!  The reason I brought it is that I'm teaching CD again and haven't in a few years...plus it's a brand new textbook so I wanted to give it a good reading before I taught it...and it wouldn't hurt to update some powerpoints.  Now if you know me at all...you realize that I'll probably open the book a total of like 3 times all summer!  :)  But it's the thought that counts!  Right???  I also brought my new plan-book for next year!  And that's like my favorite part of summer...updating my plan book, color-coding it by subject, writing in holidays/half days/days off/etc, decorating the breaks, and so on.  

So I wanted to feel French so I gathered the CD book, the plan book, my Crayola doodle markers, colored pens, and headed to the park!  Which was a brilliant plan...until, about after 1.5 hours, it started DOWN POURING out of no where!!!!  AHHHH!!!  And here's me...trying to keep everything dry...under a cropped shrug (which doesn't even close!)...it was comical to say the least!  I was able to save the newly color-coded plan-book from running and the CD book from having the slick pages all stick together.  Then there was my outward appearance...and I wish I had a camera...as I know I looked crazy...due to the looks from others!  :)  I was trying to keep everything covered under my shrug, my hair soaking wet/sticking to the sides of my face/bangs in my eyes...causing the mascara to run from my eyes (thank goodness I left the sunglasses on...could have been the cause of some looks!), the fronts of my pants a different color...front=wet; back=dry!  Oh, I'm sure I was a sight to see!  :)  But whateve! It was a fun day!  The rain only lasted about 45 minutes and then it was just chilly.  I remained inside and read for the remained of the day!  I have a feeling my "books read in 2011 list will grow substantially this summer...seriously considering a nook...even though I have a LOVE for the feel of a book in my hand...the smell, the satisfaction of turning down a page to mark your place, closing the book and seeing how far you've read, etc. it does make much more sense to have an e-reader during all this traveling...much smaller/lighter/easier to pack!  


Back to France...Dave and I met Dave's boss for dinner at Fruitas del Mar (Fruits of the Sea) which is NOT a restaurant featuring fruits!  It's seafood people!  And I stepped out of my comfort zone and seeing that it's a COSTAL town I opted for a salmon fettucini...which was FANTASTIC!!!  The actual fruit dessert though was the BEST part!  I would go back for dessert ANY TIME!  :)  It was great fun...nice conversation.  The only downfall is that dinner in France typically doesn't begin until like 8...which means we were finished around 9:40 (21:40 Europe time).  It's difficult to want to go to sleep right after a filling meal...so we found a few BBC channels (english speaking) and watched Law and Order!  I was in heaven!  Seriously...with Dave watching Law and Order...what are the chances!?!?!?!  Hehehe!!!!