Thursday, May 27

Cooking with the Seniors

I volunteered to give up several (3) of my prep periods today to teach the seniors a "cooking in college" lesson. We made spaghetti with home made marinara and meatballs as well as these Orange Cheesecake Brownies (they deserve their own link because they were so very good).

I had a blast, it was funny to see who was comfortable in the kitchen - the boys who just dove in, mixing up the meatballs with their hands, there was another who I had to teach how to wash a dish (seriously). There was one girl who was all about the baking (me at a young age, I'm sure) and the others who just sat around watching.

It was a really nice day over all.

And it inspired me... I came home and made a lemon cake.

Coming soon, senior celebration night and graduation and the after-party that teachers are invited to at the Hard Rock. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, May 25

Baltic Sunset


Baltic Sunset
Originally uploaded by Traveling Em

Just got back from chaperoning girls tennis in Riga. It was beautiful! We were about 500 meters from the beach. I walked for an hour every morning. Graduation is coming this weekend, the year is flying by.

Not sure if I'm ready for all of this to be over.

Saturday, May 1

Southern France in Pictures - Week 1

This is Mazamet, the town we based out of on our extended spring break holiday. The first day we were there, there was a flower show.

Mazamet

Here are my parents. Mom bought dried lavender, that's what's in the bag.
Mazamet

After that, we went to Carcasonne
Carcasonne

The next day to Castres
Castres

It was Monday, so everything was closed including the Goya museum, but we got to see the gardens:
Musee Goya

But since it was all closed we headed to Minerve (where we loved and bought 6 bottles of the 4 euro wine!)
Minerve

Then we had a day or two of chilling in Mazamet. We played cards and the neighborhood cats hung out.
3 cats in a window

Albi with it's incredible cathedral:
Albi Cathedral

Full of delicately carved limestone:
Intricat limestone carving

And then back to Mazamet, home of a giant preying mantis.
Preying Mantis!

More photos on flickr.

Karaoke!

You know how normally when you watch karaoke, there are people on stage and as you watch you end up in a shudder, muscles twitching as you struggle for control. Attempting to contain your facial expression (an impossible feat for me) while the person on stage desperately tries to be Whitney Houston. But then there is a person who gets up an knocks your socks off. One who makes the whole crowd go silent, then start tapping their feet and with an occasional "Yeah!" whistle or finger snap.

Bree is in the second category of people. We were in Mazamet. I know you've never heard of it. It's a small French town, near Castres and Carcassonne (more than just a board game, people!) There are 3 pubs in town and the one closest to our B&B, La Paix, has Sunday night karaoke. Bree started with "Hush" by Bjork and well, everyone hushed and listened to her belt it out. I don't know why I was taking photos instead of videoing!

But here she is singing:

Karaoke!