Happy 2012! I had a good start to the year visiting friends and seeing my boyfriend in Barcelona. It's such a beautiful city. We weren't staying in the center but the area we stayed in had its own cool ambiance. I was pleased because I got to go back to the market off La Rambla with the amazing juice that I had visited last time I was in Barcelona! I was less pleased to discover that in this market they also sell full on goat's heads with eye balls and teeth and all. I was too freaked out to take a picture of it. Sorry bout that.

On January 1st I drove back to Bordeaux in a car share. 6 and a half hours in a small, full, European car after very little sleep was interesting :) It wasn't too bad though. It was nice to sleep through most of it since I badly needed to sleep.

I am now back in Bordeaux and enjoying the fact that it is Galette de Roi season. There is an epiphany tradition in France where everyone brings this certain type of pastry cake to parties and cuts it into slices for everyone to eat but the trick is there is a little porcelain charm baked into the cake that you have to try not to crack your tooth on and if you have the charm in your slice you are the king. You get to wear a crown and you have good luck apparently. You also have to buy the next cake so maybe not such good luck. :p I've been going around the rule of bringing these to parties and just buying slices of them at "Le Chouquet's", the bakery across the street, because they are really just too good.

Not too much to report other than I am really starting to like my teaching job. I think I have graduated from my trial period so the kids don't harass me quite as much as they used to and I can actually make some progress. My new favorite thing to teach is the Macarena with the months of the year inserted as the words. It's a hit.

For a few New Year's Resolutions:
1. I am signing up for a wine class so I can learn a bit more about wine while I'm here!