Like A Kid Again

Today was a good day. I've become much more comfortable with the area around my house so I decided to take a jog around the park with our little dog. It was amazing. No one uses leashes here so I was free to jog as fast and far as I liked, knowing that if Russie decided sniffing was more important she could catch up in a moment or so. Much less stressful than having my feet yanked from under me like the few times I had my dog on a leash back home.

Anyway, back to the amazing run. The wind here is quite strong due to a valley just north of us that condenses it, and was perfectly at my back. I felt as though if I only dared to jump as high and far as I possibly could, that I would then remember how to fly and be carried away like in the dreams I had when I was a kid. I don't think I've ever run so fast! I've been in such a good mood from the experience that I couldn't resist writing about it here.

This adventure has been full of firsts (mostly food related) and I'm glad to say there's been another. I've found a tea that I like, or rather, a tisane! I was never fond of tea back home, even the sweet tea that my family adores so much. I know, I'm a poor excuse of a southerner. But Catherine has a huge collection of teas made right here in Provence! I'm greatly enjoying testing a new one every few days or so. My favorite is a homemade tisane that Antonia's mother sent over from Germany. It's beautiful and made of meadow flowers. Spring is so close and I cannot wait.

Yesterday morning, our whole house went out to see War Horse in french. I understood less than half of the words, but the film was simply magnificent. We loved it. It showed wonderful insight to the people involved in world war I on both sides, a real humanitarian piece. Intensely thought-provoking though. See it if you can.

On an unrelated note, I had my first test this morning. Encompassing a little of everything, I found it both challenging and long. I feel good, though. We'll see!

My class schedule has changed a bit. I'll no longer have my precious three day weekend for traveling. My adventures will have to be mostly limited to southern France, which is beautiful anyway. I do have a four day weekend in April, though, along with spring break so I'll try to plan as much as I can for then.

I want to see Belgium very desperately. Home to the U.N. and one of the most unique modern political party systems in the world. In fact, Belgium is one of very few nations whose parties' affiliates directly correspond to a region. The country is very divided and infinitely entertaining.

Finally, I made another friend, well a few more friends, but this one wrote the following first impression of my character:

"The other new American, Carly, seems very nice, too, but shy, and she already lives with another American that she came with, so, the way I see it, she's not as desperate for friends as Theresa and I are. She seems content to mingle with the other students without the need to bond with any of them."

I do tend to observe more than engage, like my father and grandfather before me. It's a good thing. I miss very little :)

And so, I have little other news to tell. I won't be in Paris for couple more weeks, March 9th, but I'll be sure to take too many pictures per usual.

Let the Adventure Begin!

Bonjour all! Since the weather has been positively beautiful this past week (highs in mid 50s), I've lots to tell you.

On Wednesday our class was canceled! Still unsure of the reasons behind it, but grateful anyhow. I received the news via email followed by another email from the older American gentleman in our class inviting everyone to meet him and his wife at a cafe in town to practice french together. I was fully prepared to sleep in and laze the day away reading, but Jean jumped at the opportunity and I'm very glad I chose to follow along.

Even though we were late due to a delayed bus, we were also the first to arrive. Jeff explained this was because it is a custom in France to show up 15 minutes late. Being early is actually considered rude and an imposition on your host. Interesting. I settled in with some hot chocolate and we had a great time learning about Jeff and his wife, their travels across Europe, and the french movies they had seen. Others filed later: a Spaniard named Cristina and a Swedish girl that I really like named Hanna.

The place smelled strongly of coffee and made me miss my job back home, something I wasn't expecting to miss here, but it seems I've grown very attached to the place and my quirky coworkers.

Then, after an hour or so of pondering life's great mysteries and cultural significances of being on time, Jeff and Kate led us around an indoor organic farmers market. It was amazing! An endless array of fresh vegetables, cheeses, meat, fruits, cheese, fish, wine, candy, bread, and a million other things we didn't get to. I struggled to justify spending all of my savings on Spanish strawberries because they were so incredible, and my favorite, but in the end I refrained. My main objection was transporting them all to Catherine's house. Oh strawberries...

Once we had all parted ways, Jean and I made it our mission to find a tiny movie theater Catherine had been doting on all week, but it proved to be pretty difficult. Thanks to the kindness of french strangers yet again, we quickly figured out we had walked large circles around the place for about an hour.

I still count it as a success though and it was more than worth the searching because we had Antonia meet us there later that same day to see L'Artiste. It was a pretty awesome movie, I cannot explain how much I loved it and the old church-turned-cinema building it was in. The Artist is a black and white film set in the 30's about a declining actor's struggle. It's also a mute film, so the characters don't talk, but the music more than makes up for it. Amazing. The whole time I could only think about how much my father would love it. So get on that, Dad.

Yesterday, Mme Catherine began the tedious process of clearing out her kitchen in preparation for new wallpaper. Her close friend Valery came to help, a truly fascinating character, and we all had fun piling nick knacks into the living room. More than a few tiny treasures were broken in the process, but Catherine insists that it's no big deal. She says she has too many already, which is true, and throwing out a few won't hurt her. Ah well. After a nice cheese and pasta dinner with chocolate ice cream, we all settled down in Jean's room to watch Despicable Me in french. I bought it the other day when I saw it on sale and Mme Catherine LOVED it. Her favorite is Wall-E so I reckoned she would.

We met up with some of the other girls from Stetson on Thursday and I got to check out where they live in town, and even though their homes are close to school and very nice, I feel as if Jean and I got the best deal. I'm so grateful to have such amazing housemates! Even the one who likes to sleep draped across my throat (PonPon).

Also, Jean, Antonia, and myself are planning a trip to Paris for a weekend! In about three weeks we'll take the train there and explore all of the famous attractions as well as a few little-known ones. I'm very excited! This gives me something to look forward to other than going home, haha.

I'm supposed to Skype with my Nanny in a few hours too! I'm very very excited for that, I miss her so much!! She doesn't have internet out in the woods where she lives, but Dad and Maureen are supposed to take her to dinner and let her Skype from our house. I love my little southern grandmother so so much. She's funny, kind, overflowing with both good advice and good memories, and also never fails to brighten my day.

And now, tons of pictures! These are mostly from Jean and I's cinema searching. I love the huge trees scattered throughout downtown. I can't wait to see them in the spring.

Jeff and his wife Kate are in this one:

This is the organic market, it's decorated with a plant pallet that is rumored to be covered in flowers in spring, I'll be sure to return and see for myself.

Avignon's post office:

Russie at the park:

My new desk decorations, colorings from my neice and nephew along with Sonia's letter.

Thanks for reading!

Some Pictures

These are from my birthday last week, and a few from Catherine's birthday, which we celebrated today.

Excitement from Home

Today I received the most wonderful package from the most beautiful Sonia. In it, I discovered two fabulous pictures drawn by my niece and nephew, a kind letter, my beloved mint oreos, and some very fashionable/warm scarves. I've said it before, and I'll say it again now: she's brilliant.

(Shipping is very expensive though, and they will charge me a hefty tax when it's delivered, so everyone should relinquish that sudden desire to mail me things that I know is now plaguing you.)

Also, I'm planning on learning to skateboard over the summer. Justin has a beautiful little board already picked out for me and I'm so excited about it! It makes me want to get home all the sooner.

I'm still enjoying France, though. Much has happened in only one week! I've started classes and I'm really enjoying them. I'm with the same group of students in every class and they couldn't be more diverse! We have students from China, Japan, Colombia, Canada, Venezuela, Spain, Mexico, Ukraine, Sweden, and Germany. All in one class to learn french; it's pretty amazing. Everyone has been very nice, but I really like the girls from China and Japan. They're very enthusiastic and bubbly about everything. We're going to be good friends if I can only master the correct pronunciation of their names, haha.

Jean and I have mastered the art of catching buses now. Never again will we be lost in Avignon, elsewhere maybe, but not here. We've been trying some different cafes in town for lunch and well, some are good and some are bad. We haven't had any bad service, which surprised me, because the waiters/waitresses here don't get tips like in the US, it's added to your bill automatically, so they really don't have to be nice.

In one cafe, it was very cold so I ordered the soup and country salad, but when it came out it looked really terrible. She called it vegetable soup, but it was more of a vegetable paste. An awful green color too, but I forced myself to eat it and just as I had thought it wasn't very good. Still, I've been eating everything anyone puts in front of me to be polite, so I tried my best to finish it anyway. I didn't even make it halfway! But the waitress was so nice and so concerned that I couldn't tell her I didn't like it. So I lied to her and told her I was sick so I couldn't eat much, but she grew very concerned and proceeded to name off a list of things I could do to feel better faster.

(The main one was to drink very very hot water mixed with lemon juice, honey, and a capful of whiskey.)

Then chef came out and shook our hands, which has happened to us more than once, so I had to lie to him too and he also was concerned for me and told me which pharmacy wouldn't overcharge me. They were so incredibly nice that I felt very guilty for lying, but also glad I hadn't sent it back.

The food at home has been very good though! that night after the horrible soup incident, Catherine announced we were having vegetable soup for dinner with a cheese quiche and I was dreading it, because I could not lie to her about being sick, she's already in "mother hen" mode and would fuss over me, but her version was amazing and much more soup-like. She even made me a little hamburger the other night! She's so sweet. And recently we've had sliced salami on the table with dinner, which is obviously for my benefit since I'm the only one who eats meat. I'm so thankful to be around such wonderful company. I had expected snobbishness and disdain for the US, but maybe that only applies to big cities like Paris. Though they show great disdain for Nicholas Sarkozy, so maybe he won't get re-elected afterall.

I am enjoying myself here, but am also anxious to get home. I miss everybody and it's freaking cold here. Not at all like Florida, though there are palm trees. Small ones. It's really not that bad, this weekend there is a storm, but I'll be inside so I'm not worried. By Tuesday we should be back into the 40s again.

I do have a three day weekend every week, but I'm not planning on traveling much until it warms up a bit. I'm in no hurry. Right now I'm thinking Paris and Marseille in France and then Germany and Belgium outside of France. Who knows?

Il neige!

The last couple of days have gone by so fast!

Jean and I have seen far more of Avignon than we had anticipated because we've now taken the wrong bus several times in the opposite direction of our intentions. It's an easy system to manage, I think it's just that we're still figuring out where everything is and very little is familiar, so we end up saying, "I think this looks wrong, but...let's go with it anyway because I have no idea." Still, I think we're experts now.

And the city is beautiful! A very old and medieval wall surrounds the downtown and the University, and the buildings are also designed very intricately.

But it has also been very cold, so I haven't enjoyed being outside very much yet. We had a high of 39 today with lots of wind, so when I left this morning it was around 20! The day before last it even snowed a bit. I miss Florida's February, a good 75 would be perfect right about now. My host mother decided my jacket from home was not warm enough and bundled me up with a large poofy ski coat for the last few days, so I've been warm enough. I felt bad, though, so I bought a new jacket yesterday and it's working out good. I got a wonderful deal on it too because almost every single store in Avignon has sales until Feb. 14. The local government decides when the shops are allowed to have sales and it's prime discount time right now. That's one way to regulate your local economy I suppose!

Mme Catherine is so very nice and takes such good care of me, but is also trying to make me a vegetarian. Everyone who knows me also knows of my great love for hamburgers, but I haven't told her that, haha. She cooks me breakfast and dinner, so I eat meat when I'm in town for lunch. Her food is always very good, though. So far I've had a greens and cheese quiche, yogurt with jam in it, a creamy meringue dessert, lots of bread, cereal, pasta topped with cooked onions, and a homemade vegetable pizza. Everything tastes a bit funny to me, but I believe it's because of the lack of preservatives in french food. My taste buds are not used to everything being so fresh and organic.

I've seen very few overweight people since I landed in Paris too, and I think it may be because they eat so healthy here. They do love pastries and rich sweets, but only eat them in very small portions and the same with very fatty foods. I guess it helps that they walk so much too and I've seen tons of people riding bikes, even though it's so cold.

In other news, I turned twenty-one today. I had almost forgotten about it, but I had to get a sports physical this morning and the doctor remarked on my date of birth. Jean discovered it this afternoon and immediately set to collaborating with Mme Catherine and Antonia. They scolded me for not telling them sooner so they could buy more gifts and celebrate elaborately, but I had a wonderful time anyway.

Antonia set about baking me the most delicious chocolate cake, and Mme Catherine gave me Voltaire's Candide en francais. We were just discussing our studies and favorite authors the night before, so it was perfect. She also gave me a package of the finest salt in France. I haven't opened it yet, but I expect it's amazing. She told me it's very common to gift high quality spices in France as they are very practical and greatly appreciated. If they can use it, they love it and especially so when they can show it off in their meals at dinner parties.

I have my first class early tomorrow morning for three hours. Then another three hour class soon after. I'm very intimidated by the length as I've only had one three hour class at Stetson and it was brutal but only met once per week. these classes will be three or four times a week! They say this is normal for European classes, so I guess I'll get used to it. I'm sure I'll be fine if the subjects are interesting enough. My placement test went well and I'm in the level that I wanted! It's an intermediate/advanced class and only three of us, including Jean, scored into it. The other four are one level below us, so I'm a little bummed that I won't see them as often, but also pleased with myself for doing well.

I really miss my family a lot, and my wonderful boyfriend too, but I just keep telling myself that I'll be home soon and to enjoy it. My amazing sister-in-law is sending me a package soon with pictures from my niece and nephew and my favorite mint oreos, so that helps.

I miss my pets way more here than I do when I'm at Stetson because their doppelgangers are always around to remind me of them. PonPon, the cat, has taken a liking to napping on my stomach and she fusses at me if I don't cover her with the blanket. I guess spoiled pets are universal! Still Mme Catherine tells me "there is no need for the homesick" because her house is also my house, so I'll be fine with such nice people around me all of the time.

More pictures to come soon!