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!
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