Mom...we have a ghost

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this is what a came around the corner to...

Caption Please...

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Paris en des Photos

Here on some of my favorite photos from our visit to Paris! I used by canon rebel with my 50 1.8 lens because thats the only equipment I have! I edited most of the photos with a vintage feel, I guess because when I would picture Paris, that is what I imagined! What about you? As you can see below it was very gloomy and cold but the buildings along the water were so beautiful, there were 1000's of cafes and cool bridges. You can see more about our Trip on the previous post.

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The City of Lights...

Last week we traveled up to Paris for for some language learning training. Due to our situation we are not getting traditional schooling to learn French but we were blessed to get some training on how to Use the BareFoot Method and learn a language on your own. We stayed with another family in our company, who lives south of Paris. Sara is a expert in this Method so she had a lot of knowledge to give! Some friends of ours, Jake & Suzanne got to join us as well, it was good to catch up with them and share in our language struggles. I know most of my blogs make it seem as we get to chase animals and explore villages and soak up this beautiful Island, but the bulk of our day and time is tedious language studding. After the few days of learning the new method, we were able to explore Paris because the Perkins let us stay in their home for the weekend. Paris. What? Living overseas, away from family and learning a new language can have its perks! We did all the main sites, The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre Museum, inside the Louvre, Arce de Triomphe and Notre Dame. (you can click on the names for short, boring video clips that we took) The Louvre was huge and beautiful, how did they build castles like this so long ago? And we visited Notre Dame, again a huge church with so many details and carvings. I wish I could have seen the sculptures at work. Then we walked down the 'most famous street in the world' The Champs-Elysées which has The Arc de Triomphe at the end of it. I think this was my favorite part, we got to go the top and see a panoramic view of the City at night. Now I know why they call it the "City of Lights". Gorgeous! Sidenote - the man working the elevator had lived in Longview, Texas, of all places.
Here is everyone working away on Language.

And we celebrated Three Kings Day, or Epiphany. And you eat a delicious Kings Cake with a small toy hidden in side. The tradition is the youngest kids hides under the table and calls out who get what piece, the person who has the toy is King for the day and has to bring the cake to the next meal. (it is celebrated all January)

On the bus....sadie got to ride an airplane, train and bus. Paris has Great public transportation....if you speak French.

Jake & Suzanne

Sadie, did pretty well with all the layers of cloths to block out the chilly winds but she would not keep her gloves on. And after 5 minutes she would be crying because her hands hurt from the cold. So we put Matt's pull over on her where she could keep her hands inside of it. I need to do a post on how picky Sadie can be when it comes to cloths. She has to pick out what she wears now and has a few favorite items that she wears all the time. (She is 2!?!)

We flew on one of the cheap European airlines so luggage was pretty limited. We rigged Matt's Army bag (thanks Leif, Brad & Tera) to double as a backpack for Sadie.

The Arc De Triomphe, my favorite part. I didn't know too much about Paris nor the History be-hide the sites, so it was fun to read about them and learn when they built and why. I didnt realize how big the Arc is....Can you see all the people at the top?

And of course, the cliche picture with Mona Lisa...please excuse the hat hair. :)

The Champs-Elysées with all the Christmas Lights still up.

Exploring the outside of The Louvre.

Sadie was a bit of a wimp, like her mom when it came to the cold snow!

despite the gloomy weather I was able to enjoy some photography (I was in Paris...) I will try ad post those soon.

Sadie's First Snow!

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mom...I cant see

I sat Sadie down to watch a cartoon, while I prepared dinner and when I went to check on her this is what I saw. Maybe I should take her to the optometrist.

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New Friends

A few weeks ago at football practice, Matt met some guys from Egypt who just arrived in Corte to study at the University here. Their University in Egypt has an contact with the one here, some will be here only a few months and some for a few years. They saw the poster for 'Football Americain' and wanted to play. Thankfully they speak English very well! They came that weekend for dinner and cards, we taught them our favorite game (really the only game we know) and they taught us a few...FPO friends, you will now be able to find people playing 'Nertz' in Egypt. We cooked them a Tex-Mex meal with guacamole, which is about the only thing I know how to cook. (Chicken Enchiladas, I got the recipe from my friend Shannon) It was the first time they had guacamole and it is now one of their favorites. I just used a packet for seasoning but I really want a good recipe to give to them, does anyone have one? Please share!

We got to learn a lot about Egypt (I was asleep during that history lesson) and their culture and they brought some yummy Egyptian cookies as a gift. In Egypt you are born into your religion (its on your birth certificate), you do not get to choose (unless you want to switch to Muslim).

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Mom, did you see the Headlines today?

The other day Sadie got into the recycling I had set out, and starting reading the newspaper. Yeah, she reads..you dont remember? It was so funny to come around the corner and see this so I was real quite and just let her do her thing....she got in her little blue chair and just kept reading. Caption Please...

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Christmas & New Years in Corsica

I know it has been a whole month now but I thought I would share since I finally uploaded all of our videos. Christmas was calm around here, we missed family a lot. We were able to skype with them all through he Holidays which helped. We are so lucky to have modern technology! We spent Christmas day with Annette, her father and 2 of her daughters and Christmas evening with Chanti and her husband. We got a wonderful care package from our family and Sadie loved her new purse, her cute Webkinz dog and Alphabet game! Thanks guys!
Here is what Christmas with the family looked like on our side of the world, there were playing Chinese Christmas...


Our supervisors gave us some candy canes from the states which helped us keep some traditions from home, and we handed some out to our friends and Sadie's teachers, with The History of the Candy Cane Attached.

We spent New Years Eve at Annette's, she had a dinner party with Guest from Italy and around Corsica. I went over earlier in the day to help prepare and while the pork was roasting, the large glass pan that it was in broke in-half....almost starting a fire in the oven! It wasn't at the time, but now looking back we have a good laugh. Dinner turned out just fine and very delicious. The appetizers were another story for me, we had our choice or raw salmon, oysters and Pate (the liver of forced feed ducks or other animals). I went for the salmon.


Annette was a great host! And Sadie got to eat with her daughter, Amandine...she thought she was so cool. Amandine lived in the states until she was 7ish, so she speaks pretty good English. She is a really cute, funny girl and taught me how to play some French Cards games!


Short video from dinner:


One of Annette's friends is puppeteer and he was the Entertainment for the night. I didnt know what to expect, but he is very talented! I will have to admit the 'witch' was quite scary, her name was aubergine, Eggplant in English.







Robert (pronounced with out the T) did a great job getting everybody involved and entertained.



And the night ended with everyone going around, saying Bonne Annee with 2 cheek kisses to Everyone! I had to sneak and get a short video...

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