Lots of Perpignan Pictures

Perpignan is beautiful as ever! Here is a picture of the quai with my roommate, Amanda. As you can see, the weather has gotten a whole lot colder as she is wearing a sweater and a scarf. By a whole lot colder, I mean it is 55 or 60 degrees in the shade now. Hey, don't laugh! It feels really cold when the temperature drops 20 degrees in one day!

Here is the quai looking the other direction towards Place Arago (north, as opposed to the south). This is near a very pretty group of shopping streets and open air markets, not to mention a really nice public park. The funny thing about this canal that you see in the pictures is that it looks so pretty and groomed, but nobody is allowed down by the water because it is actually (essentially) sewage. Lovely. You needed to know that. Moving on.

Next is a picture of the crazy amount of birds that seem to have manifested on just about every street in Perpignan. There are hundreds and hundreds of birds that fly all around in the trees that line the streets. BE WARY of these birds! They are worse than dogs and have made walking the tree-lined streets an adventure of sorts, that's for sure. We are pretty sure that they are migrating and are leaving soon... let's hope! In the mean time they make loud chirping noises and look cool on power lines.

This picture was taken this past Saturday. Jenny, Hannah, Amanda and I had been to the market and then went wandering around (where we just happened to find the perfect bakery to stop and have a pain au chocolat... pure coincidence, of course) when we ran into Catalina. She told us that there was this little Catalan fair in Place Catalogne, and being the curious culture vultures that we are, we of course needed to check it out (it did not hurt that it was only about 100 yards away). It turns out that people had made all these Catalan structures that were games, sort of. They had moving parts, balls, loops, etc., and people were playing with them and making them work. They were all really brightly painted, and here in this picture you can see some people trying out the gadgets. They were a lot of fun! Here's a video of the gadgets in motion.

The day of the fair was actually pretty eventful! Hannah, Amanda and I went to the Auchon and then we went for dinner at an Indian restaurant which was -so- good. Afterwards we went to Jenny's house to drink some wine. She just took a tour of the vineyards in the area and came back with bottles and bottles. Hannah and I particularly liked this one white wine - it was really sweet and tastes like peaches - and you can see me eagerly pointing at it here (that's Jenny and Amanda, too).

Last of all, I'll leave you with this picture of Hannah and her ginormous banana chip. When we went to the Auchon we found that you could buy banana chips in huge boxes for 1.30, and Hannah and I have been celebrating ever since. Two days later and we need to replenish our supply. Luckily I have Tuesdays off, so that's what I'm doing tomorrow.

Today was my first day back at school, and it went really well. I had to give a presentation on NYC, and I had the kids tell me what they thought of NY. I gave them the basic facts, and then showed them video footage I had taken of NY as well as some photos (the gasps I got when I whipped out a Mac were really delightful). Last off, I had found a list of shows that are taped live in NY and had them each choose a show and present it, meaning what the show was, what the age restrictions were, how you got tickets, etc. It does not sound that great, but the students were -really- into it, so I had fun.