My weekend started on Thursday afternoon. The Lewis and Clark kids had a birthday party for Jill, whose birthday was in late April but we couldn't celebrate until after vacation. Before Jill's birthday party, Kaila, Jill and I went to a rooftop cafe to hang out and enjoy the Strasbourg sunshine before going to Jill's birthday party at our director's apartment!
Friday night was two of the Canadian girls' last night in Strasbourg, so we had a last hurrah for Rachel and Rosanna. It was a lot of fun!
A funny anecdote: Later that night, I was reminded of the charms of French men. We were getting Doners (it was my first Doner since arriving in Strasbourg and it wasn't bad...) and Rosanna and I were sitting near the cathedral and a large group of guys walked past and started hitting on us. Sometimes I am the typical woman who just ignores the advances, but sometimes I throw the disrespect right back in the guy's face. Friday night was one of these nights, so I flicked the guys off. After they walked past, I noticed that one of them had dropped his pants and was mooning us. How charming!
Saturday morning, I went with Nathalie and Astrid to try on hats for Astrid's wedding. It's a tradition in France (and a few other European countries I think) for the women to wear big hats at a wedding. The bigger the hat, the classier you are. Astrid didn't need a hat, since she's the one getting married, but Nathalie, her mom, did. We went to the Chapellerie (specialized hat store) and Astrid and I had fun trying on ridiculous hats while her mom shopped seriously. We had a lot of fun goofing around!
Saturday night was another Canadian goodbye as Ceilidh had to leave on Sunday morning to fly back to Canada. We went out for gelato and hung out.
Sunday I woke up early to go on a hike with my host parents, Axel, and Astrid. We drove to a countryside church and then hiked for 6 miles with other folks from church. We were hiking to a small village in Alsace where we would go to Mass after the hike. We started around 9 AM and hiked for several hours. I was expecting just a relaxing promenade with beautiful views, but I didn't know that it was a religious hike! Before we left, we read the gospel of the day (I think) and then during the hike, different people took turns leading Hail Marys and Our Fathers. This went on for the entire hike. I now know Hail Mary in French. I don't know that it's the same in English. Either way, we eventually arrived at the small church in the village and went to Mass, but I felt like I had just went to Mass when we arrived! The Mass in the village was quiet and there was no music, all singing was a capella. It was nice. :)
After Mass, we came home and had a delicious lunch and I hung out with Astrid in the afternoon and then took a much needed nap before I "tried" to study for exams.
If I had spent my weekend studying for exams, this post wouldn't be nearly as exciting!
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