merci mille fois!

Many, many thanks to everyone who sent birthday cards and birthday emails, left me messages on facebook, or just thought about me yesterday. Even though I had to be away from home on my birthday, I felt very loved. :) I really truly do appreciate it-it really means a lot to have people thinking of you when you're so far from where you'd really like to be that day!

Even though I couldn't be at home, I still had a great weekend in Caen. Although if I had known I had Friday off earlier, I might have arranged to spend my weekend somewhere on the Mediterranean. :) It was a pretty relaxing weekend full of food, good talks, and oh yeah, horse riding! Saturday I went horseback riding with fellow assistants Jen, Jane, Kristina, Kristina's French husband Charlie, and Charlie's friend Etienne (I just found out when spell checking his name that "Etienne" is the French form of Stephen. Weird, no?) I was a little shaky at first, because I am certainly not an equestrian pro, but I did enjoy myself. We actually went out in Ouistreham, and the ride was along the beach there, which is the same one in my pictures from about a month ago (Sword Beach, eh?). I didn't get any pictures this time, but picture me there on horseback. Oh, and my horse's name was Lostique, which I was told roughly translates to "rascal," so that tells you about how he acted for the first half of the ride.

Anyhow, I came back to Carentan yesterday, and this morning I woke up to my doorbell because La Poste was there with my package! Very exciting. I now have more clothes, and some delicious homemade cookies. I'll have to ration them out, since I don't have an oven to make my own here. If anyone wants to follow my wonderful mom's example, you have my address. :)

Well, I guess I'll go do some grocery shopping. I bought myself a French pastry yesterday, so I could have some sort of birthday cake, but I picked in a hurry since the lady was waiting and it turns out that what I thought was chocolate on the bottom was actually prunes. I guess I should have listened when she was telling me what was in it, but I was too busy thinking about chocolate. Story of my life, I tell ya.