OH YEAH: Pancakes

The craziest/weirdest/made-me-have-a-bunch-of-deep-thoughts type thing happened on Friday.  We didn't have classes because of what's called a journée pédagogique, which I'm preeetty sure is like a teacher convention day or something along those lines ...(?) Anyway there wasn't any school WOO.  Except for a field trip to see the Yves Saint Laurent movie with my art class around 3pm, which basically felt like going to see a movie but finding my whole art class in the theatre, so that doesn't count as school.

So there I was on the cloudy Friday afternoon stopped on my bike at a red light in traffic, about halfway done the route to school, when this scruffy, long-haired, dirty and homeless-looking man rounded the corner that was right next to where I was stopped and headed in a bee-line in my direction.  He was walking, and he didn't speed up or anything, just casually strolled right up to me.

Now, like I've mentioned, I go to school in Roubaix.  It's a long way from the homely suburbs I live in back home with lots of places I wouldn't go alone.  One time Marion (with her long blond hair, kind of rare in Roubaix), Ana and me (two brunettes) were scanning our passes to take the metro from La Grand Place in Roubaix, when a sketchy looking guy said hi to Marion.  When she ignored him (like most of us girls would probably do) and tried to keep walking, he leaned over and spat on her hair.  He spat.  Marion, as is normal, did not love it. Her and I were still trying to get over our shock at what happened when Ana, who lives in Roubaix, gave her shoulders a quick shrug and said "Well, that's Roubaix" like it was about as normal as anything.

So now with that little backstory I shall continue.  Rewind to Siobhan stopped on bike at red light with homeless man walking in my direction.  Because it was Roubaix and and because of situations like the one with Marion and because I'm a female and I was being approached by a strange man I will admit I had a quick surge of fear and tensed up, but I stayed where I was on my bike confident the light would change and give me my getaway if it came to it (may or may not have been a little over-dramatic...) The man walked right up just till he was about a foot away, and did the most unexpected thing.  He pulled out a 50cent coin, balanced it on my gloved hand that was clutching my handlebar, and kept walking, leaving me confused and speechless with 50 cents still balanced on the top of my hand.  He was gone faster than he'd came and I couldn't wrap my head around what had happened fast enough to say thanks before the light changed and I had to quickly slip the coin in my jacket before continuing my route.  Like what?! So that happened.  I still don't get it.  Maybe he's just your regular Joe and had 50 cents too many.  Or maybe he's a billionaire disguised as a man who lives on the streets who likes to confuse and make the day of exchange students all in one go.  The event was meaningless but you can bet your best 50 cents (ha.. ha..) that I spent the rest of my bike ride in deep philosophical thought and analyzation.

So far I've been having another really great weekend.  Last night I went to another Rally with Louise and hung out and danced all night with her and her really cool group of friends.  I also ran into my friend Daria from Russia which was cool because we both kind of fell back on each other and spoke English every time we were all French-ed out (it's not cheating I swear).  Despite another late night I got myself up at the ripe old hour of 8:15am this morning so I could make pancakes for the host family.  Edouard's birthday was on Thursday and he'd made a special request that we have pancakes for breakfast today seen as today is the day chosen to actually celebrate and do presents and all that fun birthday jazz.  So there I was playing some chill tunes and pancake-ing away while the rest of the family slept.  The different family members woke up at different times to the smell of pancakes and arrived upon a legit STACK of pancakes when they came down to the kitchen.  Each one of them reacted differently but with the same level of stoke which was cool. Also did I mention there was real Canadian MAPLE SYRUP.

And that was just breakfast.  For Edouard's birthday lunch Valentine made this delicious salmon followed by a cake called the Merveilleux that is really well known in the Lille area (and probably around France too but I don't know for sure) as basically being the alpha and omega of boss cakes.  We're talking delicious, creamy, chocolatey, meringue-y goodness all whipped up in one dessert of happiness.  Check. It. Out.

photo courtesy of google

All I can say is thank heavens I stay active during the week because these weekends of heavenly indulgence would otherwise have me teetering on the brink of serious weight gain.  But I mean it's delicious so who's complaining.

Happy Sunday! Go eat some chocolate :)