A Happy Moment and a Horse

This entry is going to have to be really quick because it's already late and I have to catch a very early train to Lyon. I'm a bit rushed because the dinner with the teachers from Ecole Bourgogne took a lot longer than I expected. I showed up (early!) just before 7:30pm and the rest of the group didn't get there until 7:50pm or so (I asked if people generally show up early, on time, or late, and the response I got was never early but don't be late). And we didn't really start eating until 8:30pm....

Anyway the happy moment came earlier today when I was on my way home from school. My three classes today went really well. The sixth, seventh, and eighth versions of my Halloween-themed lesson were vast improvements on the first few tries. The kids seemed to enjoy it and retain the vocabulary and structures I taught them (I'm sure the candy at the end helped too). Last night I made more squash/pumpkin soup with the left-over ingredients from when I made it earlier this week. My mom sent me a recipe for butternut squash soup, but squashes seem to be less popular here and the only option at the market was something giant resembling a cross between a pumpkin and a squash. Although I asked for courge (squash), I'm pretty postive it was a pumpkin. Anyway, the soup was delicious.

When I got off the bus at Place Flore I decided to stop in the little boulangerie bakery) and get some bread to go with the soup, which I was planning to reheat for lunch. I have bought bread from this boulangerie once before (when I made the stuffed peppers for Steff and me) and I also asked if I could put up one of my flyers by their cash register. The woman working there recognized me as the girl who asked about putting up a flyer, and we started chatting about what I do and why I decided to come to France. She was very curious and friendly and at the end of our conversation (another patron came in), she gave me the demi-baguette for free! I thought it was a really nice gesture. You can bet I'll be going back to that boulangerie more often, just because the woman was so friendly.

Here's a pic of my clean-out-the-cupboard-and-refrigerator-before-vacation lunch:

The red flakes in the middle are crisped ham (they look purple in this picture but I can assure you they weren't). The redish dots in the soup are paprika. The cheese is called sapin (I think that's the name of the cheese, but it might be the brand). Anyway, yum!

As for the horse bit, today was my second riding lesson and it was highly successful. I can attribute this to two factors: 1) this time, I was assigned a mount more suitable to my height and riding ability, 2) I reviewed the terms in my Être Cavalier book before my lesson. We also rode inside (no wind), which made it easier to hear Beatrice and thus follow her directions. Today was dressage, as opposed to jumping, and my mount's name was Nouba. Nouba is a chestnut mare, about 16 hands (average-to-slightly-tall, for those of you who aren't familiar with the terminology), and of a light build. If we were in the US I would say she had some Thoroughbred in her, but I know that isn't the case. She was hugely uncooperative when I tried to take some pictures, but here's one just for an idea:

So not only was Nouba more appropriate for my height, but she was much more responsive than poor little Quenotte. We did lots of bending exercises and she actually collected quite nicely. It was more like riding and less like careening. She didn't have the most comfortable gaits in the world, but I would be perfectly happy to ride her again. She also wasn't very friendly, but again, that didn't stop it from being a good lesson. And based on how saddle-sore I am now, I did a lot more work this week than last. I won't have a lesson next Friday because I will be in Vienna, but I'll pick it back up the week after that. Oh, I forgot to mention, after our lesson we go for a brief walk up past the stadium jumping ring (yes, there's a ring dedicated just to stadium jumping, with elaborate jumps just like at big horse shows). There's a national park, or some kind of protected space just behind the equestrian center, and both times we walked around there for just a few minutes after my lesson. It's absolutely magical! It looks and feels just like an enchanted forest and approaching it on horseback makes me feel like I'm in A Knight's Tale or Lord of the Rings. Too cool!!

Oh, and Quenotte was equally unhelpful when it came to taking pictures, but here are two shots of my mounts, to give you a sense of their respective heights (the stall doors are the same height):



Well tomorrow I'm off to Lyon. Bonne nuit and bisous!