Well it has been a while since we last updated our blog, but due to the start of the semester, illness, and finalizing everything since our move it has been difficult to find time to write a blog entry, or even doing something worthy to write on the blog. So first off Jess has been sick since around week two or so and she was really feeling under the weather. She has since made a full recovery but not without the sickness taking 8 days or so to leave here. After she was feeling better she continued finishing her school schedule and starting to attend her very busy semester. Also during this time we planned and booked our first vacation while in Europe. On Jess' first break from school at the end of February we are going to go to Amsterdam for 4 days. We are traveling by bus as well as train to get there. We also decided to stay in a bit more of a familiar hotel chain, Best Western. We will have blog posts and plenty of pictures coming up from that visit. In addition, we have started making plans for our 1 year wedding anniversary and the weekend trip to Paris we are taking to celebrate! Of course pictures will come with that event as well at the end of March. Another idea I have recently had for writing on the blog is to go to a few history sites and take photos and do some light research on the area and write a post about the historical location and include pictures. I think this will start this week since we will have a little bit of free time.
One of the things we have really enjoyed and have explored quite a bit already is the culinary world here in France. We have really tried to expand what we normally eat and try plenty of new things just in the short time we have been here. This includes new sandwiches and toppings on sandwiches we never thought of. All of the sauces France has to offer for the french fries, and of course fresh seafood. One of our largest forays into the culinary unknown was making our own mussels in a white wine sauce. It was very delicious and quite an experience. We bought the mussels fresh so in order to prepare them we had to de-beard them, scrub them, and let them sit for a few minutes in fresh water in order to filter out the sand and salt from the mussels themselves. It was an exciting experience and one we will get to look back on frequently.
In total, I think our first month here in France has been great. We have had to learn an amazing amount of things as well as had to make a lot of changes to our lifestyles. Overall, we are starting to settle in and have begun to explore our surroundings both by ourselves and with other international students from the university. We went to a gathering a few days past where we won first and second place prizes in a pop culture quiz as well as met some fellow Americans we went out with the following night. I think as time continues we will only become more involved with the community from the school as well as in our neighborhood. Until next time, safe travels!
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