Friday I set out for Strasbourg to finally meet my host family after 3 YEARS! My train ride consisted of watching episodes of RENO 911... which is by far one my favorite shows---HI- LAR-I-OUS! When I arrived I was greeted by Baptiste and who I thought for the first 10 minutes of the car ride back to Gerstheim was his older brother Julian... turns out, it was his younger brother Victor with a hair cut, LOL. The car ride back consisted of trying to decipher American slang. Baptiste recalled when we were in high-school I called somebody "thirsty" and wanted me to explain. Let's just say this was beyond impossible because I don't know how to explain thirsty without using more slang... For example, my first explanation for it was "You're doing too much" but clearly that does not translate well into French. Then I tried putting it into story form... "So there is a guy that really likes this girl and keeps buying her shoes, flowers, clothes, and spending all of his money on her but she doesn't like him at all"---they took that as thirsty meaning you like somebody very much, making my explanations a FAIL so we definitely had a good laugh about this.
Once we made it to the house... the night was set out for Folk Dancing at a bar in Ernstein, a nearby town. Now y'all know my realms of dancing consist of Salsa and Hip Hop... maybe a little quirky modern but Folk Dancing? o_O We got there I got a beer and the people set up to start playing music... Before I knew it MamAnnie (that's what I call my host mom) had me on the dance floor and joining the circle. It was by far one of the best dance experiences I have had! Your feet get to moving and the arm swings and quick turns... We left after about 3 good hours at the place and I was drenched in sweat. Saturday included a breakfast (which I missed because I was beyond tired from Folk Dancing), but I made it down for a great lunch. After that, me, Baptiste, and Victor set out for their boy scout troop that they lead every weekend. This adventure consisted of going in the forest and playing a game, which the instructions I could not understand because they were in French but once I saw the kid start counting down and everybody running into the forest, I understood... We all know black people run and ask questions later, lol! I dashed off and made my way for the furthest tree that I could hide behind, however forgetting that I was still wearing the bright orange Illinois hoodie I have! After a while, I realized I should probably choose to stay a little closer considering they cover their eyes and count down from 10 and thats all the time you have to make it back to them. We played this for about an hour or so, and I probably made it back once, lol.
Once we got back to the house I had to take a nap because I was sooo tired. I awoke and proceeded downstairs to watch TV with the family and enjoy our Franglish conversations from politics, to Japan, to crazy French commercials. For dinner on Saturday, we had a crepe maker and got to personalize our crepes. I'm talking everything from ham and cheese, apricot jelly, to fruits and berries I can not pronounce. By far a tradition I will definitely have with my family... it was one of the best dinners of my life! Every time one of the brothers offered me water saying "You 'thirsty'?" We would all start rolling (another slang term which I probably can not explain... "rolling"--- meaning laughing very much)That night we headed to the movies to see "True Grit" and it was decent. The movie was in english but the man was speaking in complete gibberish so I found myself reading the french subtitles too. BTW, the popcorn/candy packages are so much better than America's.
Sunday consisted of me waking and a little saddened by the fact that it was my last day. We ate some type of special bread they baked which was on point (<---another slang term here) and since Baptiste had to leave around 5 to go back to school we decided to go see Chateau de Frankenburg. It's a castle in the mountains and what was really cool was that I could see Chateau de Koneisburg, which we visited in high school, from there. First we drove up the mountain, but then had to park because you couln't drive the rest of the way. We got out the car (we parked by YAKS!---crazy cool) and Baptiste was pointing out the castle through the trees saying where it was, however I could not see a thing through all of those trees. We damn near hiked a mile and a half to get to the castle ruins. By the time we got there I was sweating and had to unzip my jacket and was about to take off my hoodie, lol. But once we reached the top... the view was AMAZING! Honestly I would take that 1.5 mile hike any day!
After the castle we went to a small little coffee shop just in town and I think I might have introduced the family to cheese cake (which is 10 times better in France... it was so rich and smooth). We dropped Baptiste off, had one more dinner at the house and before I knew it, it was time for me to come back to Paris.
Seeing my host family again was an experience that I was so blessed to have and that I am beyond grateful for. It amazes me how wonderful people can truly be and I love them sooooo much. Merci pour tout!
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