We were off to see the fireworks tonight at Place de l’Etoile. “We” means Sian (with her camera), Xuan and Cathy.

Postcard photographers must have no problems getting good snaps of Strasbourg. Everywhere you turn, you see another perfect vignette. Sorry for the lack of captions, but the wifi in the dorm is a bit shaky. I’m uploading in small batches whenever the connection seems good.

Blink and you might miss it, but it’s locatedin a very nice neighborhood near the Botanic Gardens and the University.

The Rhone River delineates the border between France and Germany and does run along the edge of Strasbourg, but when you are living in the city center, it is not the river you are concerned with. Instead, your world is bounded by the River Ille. Since today was Sunday, and I had my homework under control (I hope), I took a walk along the Ille to see a bit more of Strasbourg than the inside of my dorm and the inside of the Pole Information (where the classes are located).

Almost every night, there’s a lesson to plan or another piece of homework to complete: a language analysis or a phonetics exercise, for example. True story: I had to cross one example off the phonetics chart. The Brits keep using “cat” as an example of the /ae/ sound. But it’s actually the sound in shot or got or hot. The word ‘cat’ is not a helpful cue for us Americans! 🙂

Dinner this evening was green salad and cheese and a simple white wine. Les fromage de France est incroyable. Ask my sister; I was never a huge fan of cheese as a child. But if I had grown up on French cheese… that would have been different, my friends!

In the second photo, Xuan begins working through his lesson for tommorrow’s Teaching Practice.

No, I did not eat here! This one’s for Terri and Gale. The obligatory Domino’s shot from anywhere I travel. Don’t worry Grant Thornton; I’ve already Google mapped the Strasbourg office. I’ll get a photo at some point so that you can check the brand. 🙂

I must admit, the food in the Alsace is not to my taste. Heavy meat and potato dishes seem to be the norm. But I do appreciate a good fruit pie, and I found a heavenly <<tarte de myrtille>>, or blueberry pie, at a local cafe called <<Feuilles d’Artichauts>>.  I think that roughly translate to Artichoke Leaves. I may gain weight on this adventure.

[Apologies for the photo quality. This was taken with my iPhone.]