So East it's Ouest

The smell of fresh cut grass and daffodils is in the air. The days are a tad longer and I have had a few glimpses of this thing called the sun?  I got to visit with Heather over in Belgium and go to the assembly in English (yes!). We've had a lot of visitors (Lucia's family) come this month and last.  Lucia couldn't eat sugar after her surgery so she started eating peanut butter (of course some I brought over), I have now made peanut butter 2 times a week for the past month.  I'm telling they can't get enough of it.  I finally convinced my southerners to come up to visit Lille and yes I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their visit.  They rented a little place in Lille so I got a little vacation with them for a long weekend.  I mean who wouldn't love eating delicious food (cough Michelin cough) , sunny days and a bit of quality vieux Lille markets and shopping?  This is my last month on the job which got me in a reflective mood thinking about how it's gone ov...

  🎼Well thought out letters and Merino wool sweaters       Macintosh apples and French sounding better       My morning coffee and reading 1 Kings       These are a few of my favorite things🎶. Ok so that was just me subconsciously conciously thinking about another newly added favorite thing of mine.   -LILLE  - Oh Lille, is it possible to love a city?  I mean come on it's just a place; a place where jazz is heard in the square and Thai restaurants are flourishing, where bicyclists have no need to fear, the metro is always a step away, trains trains trains, Flemish architecture, art museums, where you can find cilantro at the Wazemmes market, tea rooms and estaminets, Maroille the STINKIEST cheese in FRANCE, people smile at each other, the boutiques are quirky , the title artisanal beer stands for something and hosts not only the international festival of soup but the largest antique/flea market in France once a year. ...

Hello everyone, The news is true, I accepted (and was accepted for) an English teaching assistant position in France.  Here is a link for more info about what I'll be doing.  I decided that since I like vineyards and lavender fields so much I would once again go to... the very northernmost corner of France!  You'll get the joke later on.  I was offered the position in the Nord-pas-de-Calais region right along the border with Belgium.  I've only just recieved the news so ALL the paperwork will follow this summer (visa, work contract, contacting the congregation, apartment, new credit card, health care...etc da di da di da.).  I will begin teaching the 1st of October and finish April 30, so I'll probably leave sometime mid-September.  I'm hoping to land in Lille the capital of the region, some reasons I think Lille would be awesome: 1)  They have the reputation of being friendly  2)  Flemish-language/architecture  3)  ...