stuff.

This month of fasting means a lot of time with my French family. Friday night I made pasta (I'll share this delicious and easy recipe with you) and ate with my guy and his dad. Saturday we were off to Forbach to stay the night at his sister's house. Usually, we eat at sunset (a little after 9 - we have a calendar that tells us what time we can start eating and stop eating at sunrise) and then we go to sleep and wake up to eat and then go back to sleep. At his sister's Saturday night, we all stayed up between meals. His family tends to pull all nighters like this (the first night I ever met them, we ate a late dinner and everyone stayed up chatting until well past 3am). Saturday was no different. We ate dinner. It was a totally Moroccan meal - breads, pastries, somosas, quiche, soup, mint tea and then at 1am came a tagine of Moroccan meatballs and more mint tea. His sister had spent the whole day making everything. She joked that it took her an entire day to prepare everything and it was all gone within minutes. She even made little shot glasses of tiramasu for dessert. We didn't get to sleep until after 5am and then slept until 2pm on Sunday.

Last night we ate more of the food his sister had prepared (I don't even think she slept because she was right back to making food on Sunday!) to send back with us. We all drove the 2 hours back and arrived just in time to heat up the food and eat it as his other sister's apartment.

Besides that, life has been pretty boring. Boring is okay sometimes! We eat at night. Catch up on our favorites shows on the internet. Sleep half the day. I've been practicing my French. We try to busy ourselves the best we can.

Most of Europe is "sleeping" during the month of August so it actually works out nicely that the month of fasting is in August this year, but the days are long and hot and that part is not so nice. France, for example, has a law that requires 5 weeks of mandatory vacation time. So a lot of businesses shut down for the first 3 weeks in August. It is better for business owners to do this than to have their employees taking their 5 weeks whenever they want, because most people would take their vacation at very busy times. My favorite bakery isn't even open, and I'm craving their olive bread, pepper bread, and their chocolate bread!

It's 7pm now which means a glass of sparkling water and some food are only two hours away. I've already prepared lemon poppyseed muffins, banana bread, and a big pot of vegetable and lentil soup. The apartment smells so delicious! Time for some exercise!