The rains finally broke today. I’d set my alarm early to get all my stuff done in town before the heat set in, but I heard the rain coming down on the windowpane, opened the blinds and dozed until it stopped. Nothing better. Of course, the clouds are starting to part again now and I bet it’ll be boiling come lunchtime, but we’ve had a few nice hours.
Today I do have a lot to get done (I’m typing this waiting to see if an email arrives from Google), but it’s been a good weekend.
Sunday was mainly taken up by Saturday’s hangover, watching the extras on the Spinal Tap DVD and eating rasaam, but Saturday was a good night. We started at my place in the early evening and, as the drinks ran out, moved across to a late-night bar and then to my mate Edouard’s house where the drunken antics continued. In all it went on for nearly twelve hours, though I of course spent the last three hours asleep.
Friday was the university’s end of year party, although by now most of the students have already gone home to their own villages/countries and it wasn’t exactly heaving. Still, it was the first time I’ve been clubbing in about a year and you have to do these things from time to time - the important thing is, I didn’t have to pay to get in.
Then there was Thursday, when Tomas and Ed took me to a French restaurant (the first time I’ve actually been to one, since cheeses aside I’m not generally a huge fan of French food, and there are Middle Eastern eateries everywhere) where we had the Frenchest things on the menu.
Snails are actually very nice. I’d tried them once in Belgium, boiled and unseasoned, where they were quite abominable, but here they’re grilled in garlic and herbs. Frogs’ legs, though, I know what the deal with those is now. Normally I don’t eat meat, but I can say that the taste isn’t that special even if it is indeed a bit like chicken. The thing with frogs’ legs isn’t the taste, or the texture, I’m sure of that now.
You probably imagine something green, but I guess it’s been skinned or something because it’s very white, and the big floppy webbed feet have gone leaving just very small skeletal feet. In fact it looks for all the world like a pair of human legs in miniature, like a woman from the waist down. Only it’s edible… sheer brilliance. We also shared a Baeckehoffe (sp?), a hotpot that has spent 24 hours bubbling in Alsatian wine and, of course, some really really nice Alsatian wine.
Tomorrow night, I think I’ll have chips and curry.