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?