And the winner is....

What was the best part of my trip?!

Brace yourself here....

Bakersfield.

I know, I know, I even surprised myself on that one! Don't get me wrong, it was so great to see and do everything in all those cities, but hands down I had such a blast with Lisa, her family and brother's friends. Whoever said there's nothing to do in Bakersfield was so wrong. Instead of telling, I'll just post some photos from our crazy adventures.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. We actually opened a bottle of wine with a POWER DRILL.

(UPDATED) Hi, make up your mind....

Maryann et moi, holding our beers.

Alright, you've heard me rant and rave about how much I miss home and don't want to stay in France forever. After this weekend, I finally feel like I'm finding my place here. Maybe that sentiment has to do with the recent acquisition of my long-stay residency card, but I doubt it. I think I'm getting more attached because I'm finally going back to the U.S. for a little bit.

Figures...

And now for a brief explanation of this weekend's events: My classes at Juan-Gare FINALLY behaved, all of them, for the first time in the five months I've been here!! I actually gave a damn Friday and got all dressed up because I was not going to the gym after class. When my students saw me, they all told me, "Comme vous êtes belle aujourd'hui!" I honestly hope that was not the reason they paid attention. Especially my CM2 boys, who last time in very vulgar French said something about my chest which I did not want to think too hard about translating.

Anyways after class, I waited for the train in the direction of Marseille, hopped on and took it 20 minutes to Cannes. Then I quickly figured out the bus and took it up to Le Cannet where I met Maryann and Elizabeth. After a brief stop at Casino, we had all we needed to make a big assistants' dinner for about six of us. Bellies full, we then hopped back on the bus towards downtown Cannes (I believe it may have been La Croisette) where I FINALLY enjoyed my first move in France! Well, I'm not sure how much I really enjoyed it per-se, but we did see Sweeney Todd in English. I will admit it was very different and I'm kind of weak when it comes to blood and gore, but it was well done. Maybe it was the wine in me that thought so.... I'm not so sure if wine dinners before the movie theater is such a good idea.


Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub nearby and Maryann and I ordered a Monaco and Demi-Pêche -- light beers with cherry and peach syrup, respectively. You can probably guess WHAT provoked this idea, but we all decided to hurry back to Maryann's and took the 12:30 bus to her place in the middle of a downpour accompanied by thunder/lightning on a mission to make a dark chocolate orange cake from scratch. It was DELISH and I was probably the only one who fell promptly asleep around 3 a.m.

Saturday was pretty lazy -- gosh I wonder why -- but the morning started off well with freshly-cooked French Bread and maple syrup, followed by a big chili lunch with the rest of the chocolate cake. Then I boarded the 3 p.m. train back to Antibes and hit up the gym. Today was pretty lazy again, but Maryann returned the favor when she came to visit me here and I made a reallllly yummy summer salad. I think I'll have to post the recipe later!

But I've been thinking a lot about what I want/should do when I get home. None of the job "offers"/suggestions/thoughts I initially had seem like they're going to be working out. Because of that, I've begun to think more about this whole "travel" thing.

And, though I'll explain more in the future, I'm seriously entertaining the idea of teaching English in a Spanish-speaking country for a (very) short amount of time. Not like what I'm doing here, but possibly on an island or in Central/South America, just until the end of the summer.

Ah, I doubt it'll happen, but it sounds like a neat idea.

Ask me next week what I want to do with my life -- I bet it'll be the eighteenth different response you'll get from me. My flavor of the week if you will...

Goodbye January

I think I may have written a similar post in November.

Either way, today's the LAST day of January and I don't really have anything exciting to say other than I GO HOME IN TEN DAYS!!! That in itself is enough, I think. (For me, the writer at least). It'll have been FIVE months since the last time I was home, in California, the United States, so let's hope I don't get any reverse culture shock in there. Either way, I'm ecstatic about going home for over a week! Please come and visit me :)

Presumably, you, the reader, want more from my post than just that.

Well, then call me a push-over.

In preparation for the unit tests I'll be giving out this/next week, I'm going to post a complete list of everything I've taught my students thus far:

UNIT ONE (October, November):

-Cultural Activity: American names, U.S. geography
-My name is/What is your name?
-Where are you from?
-Family/"I have"
Cultural Activities: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas
-Pets
-Colors
-How are you
-Weather
-Days of the week


UNIT TWO (December, January):

-Body parts/Face
-Adjectives
-Numbers/How old are you?
-Months/When's your birthday?
-Verb Conjugations, yep I'm teaching them how to conjugate: Motion verbs to go with body parts (i.e., to clap, to jump, to touch which leads to a game of SIMON SAYS), to be, to have, to make
-Food/Verbs: to like, to love, to hate
-Clothes
-Cultural Activity: Movies/songs in English after the test
-Cultural Activity: Valentine's Day, though I think this will be for after the vacation, when I'll have conversation hearts from the United States to share in class!!

All things considered, I think the progress here is spectacular, considering how their last English assistant left the program quite a few months early and consequently canceled all English classes during the third and final trimester.

Whatever, it's almost the weekend and I'm going to Cannes to see Sweeny Todd in English! Wish me luck in my first cinematic experience in France :)

...TEN DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIA!!!

Mid-week break again!

So I think the weeks during Trimester 2 will be passing quite quickly, because we pretty much have a break every month this time around. In less than three weeks our winter break will be rolling in for two weeks of vacation! Then exactly five weeks after that, we get our spring break in April.

Until then, I feel like I'm settling back into my old routines (plus some new and improved ones) here. Today my mom went back to the United States, so it's back to being just my dad and me in France. However, we're about seven hours apart, so that means that no really big or exciting weekends are coming my way for a while. Well, not until I go back to the United States in less than a month, which I'm suuuuuper excited about!

But back to me settling in: I recently found someone online who lives here in Antibes and needs a babysitter for her five month old daughter once a week. Today was the second time I watched her and it's AMAZING how much new babies change from week to week. She'll be six months at the end of January, and already she's holding a sitting position by herself -- something she could only do with assistance last Tuesday.

And while last time was a bit rough, seeing as how it was my very first baby experience, today went much better. She slept quite a bit, so I had some free time to read (in French of course) and now that she can sit on her own, she relies on me less to occupy her time. Still, she is quite needy, but less so than the last time.

Basically what I'm doing is freeing up her parents' Tuesdays, so her mother runs errands and relaxes around the house to cook a good dinner or something. I suppose she hasn't really done that in over five months. But since she stays in the house for part of the time I'm there, we get to talking quite a bit. And though I'm using English, she's helping me out a great deal with the city and getting around. So much so, that she said the next time they go on a weekend day-trip, they'd like to take me along! Exciting!!

And another exciting prospect is talking more and more to my roommate than ever before. We're getting pretty friendly now, and she wants to go skiing one weekend before the season ends in the Alps, about an hour from here. So hopefully in February when I get my next paycheck I'll be ready to rock.

As for my latest adventure, the teachers at my school in Juan-les-Pins decided on tonight for our big outing together. I guess the tradition is that every year all the teachers go out to celebrate the new year and congratulate themselves on the previous one. This is the first time they've extended the invite to the language assistants, so I will be accompanying them to Cannes, where supposedly we're getting a four-course Moroccan meal complete with belly dancing displays for about 30 Euros.

Pas mal. Pas mal du tout!

Update as promised

I bet you're curious about my two big events today, huh?

Well, the "date" was cool. Again, I offered to pay, but was turned down. Instead, I got a three-course meal and probably three extra pounds ;-) for free! This time, there is such a thing as a free lunch, booyah!

And I got to practice my French for about three hours. It's starting to get better, I'm totally comfortable cracking jokes left and right now. Actually, this guy I think likes to talk more than anyone I know, Lisa, so I got to practice my listening skills a bit. We're going out again Thursday because supposedly that's a big bar night for "working people" in Juan-les-Pins. I guess that means I'm going to be meeting quite a few more French people in the next few days. That'll bring my total for the month to well over 12. Let's see how many I actually keep in touch with and start to hang out with...

And regarding the dentist, I am quite proud of myself.

After only about 30 euros, I've gone and seen the dentist, learned some alternative techniques to help alleviate my pain, as well as a bag full of prescribed goodies that I picked up from the pharmacie.

Ok, at first it doesn't seem worth it that I dropped 21 euros for my consultation at the dentist, only to have him tell me I need a special toothpaste and mouth wash for sensitive teeth. However, he also put some product on the problem area and told me specifically how I should brush my teeth to stop the gums from receding any further -- so that's helpful. Then again, the dentist told me that once I receive my social security card, I should be fully reimbursed for the visit -- SCORE!

He also gave me the name of a very specific toothpaste that's just for this problem, however, I could have easily figured that out at the pharmacie. But he also told me that after one month if this is still a problem, I'll have to come back so he can put a tooth-colored substance on the area (a patch if you will) to protect my tooth's roots from further deterioration.

Oh but the best part about all this was I was 100% able to convey what I wanted in French. Using dental jargon! That's pretty exciting. So it goes without saying that I completely understood everything he had to say to me.

Actually no, the best part wasn't that. When he first saw me, he said, "Wow, your teeth are so straight! And do you whiten them often?"

No, actually that's just U.S. dentistry for you.

I'll finish this post off with his final recommendation to me.

"Even if this does work out and you don't need the patch or surgery, I want to give you some further advice. You should go to the dentist regularly because even if you don't think you have any problems, you still need to check in from time to time."

...Duh! I guess he must be used to telling every patient that here, because most people I've spoken with don't go to the dentist every six months, yikes!

Curious about my "date"?

I'm going to start off by saying tonight falls under my list of top 10 best nights in my life! Nothing spectacular happened, but it was just one of those nights when everything seemed to be going right and was carefree and totally fun.

It started out with me waiting in the main center square in the dark, getting hit on by a man missing two teeth. I'm probably going to take what he said with a grain of salt, but it was definitely the most vulgar attempt I've received over here -- and trust me, there have been a few. The translation is as follows: "I just wanted to tell you that you're fucking charming." Ok, not so bad, but interesting nonetheless...

Anyways Ludo finally showed up, I'm guessing he's of Italian origins but has lived in Lyon his whole life with his parents, and took me somewhere to chat. He wants to brush up on his English because he's going to an international master's school in Newcastle, England to study renewable energy in the field of solar power. Yikes, I can barely say that in English and it's my native language.

Anyways, he took me to his favorite bar in Antibes and paid for my coffee -- weak, I know I should have gotten something more exciting but it was cold! We talked for a good hour, mostly in French because he grew very tired of speaking in English. However, I was starting to struggle with thinking in French the entire time, but it came out to be a neat mix.

Then he looks at his watch and asks if I want to go to his friend's house, where there'd be a party that's kind of like a barbecue, but not. I think the word he was looking for was a "potluck." But it happened to be the neatest grouping of people I've ever been around.

Thrown in this tiny two-room flat overlooking the entire Cape of Antibes -- breathtaking views -- were over 10 French citizens, the homeowner's brother and his Spanish fiancée, a Bulgarian friend from the international master's program, and someone's Greek cousin who was neither big, nor fat. Oh yeah and me, "la petite Transatlantique," as they liked to call me, aka the sole non-EU member. Each person brought something exceptionally tasty and that means I officially abandoned my diet for the weekend. I'll have to dive back in headfirst tomorrow...

Anyways, no more stalling. Here's what I ate:

Quiche Lorraine, French bread and sausage, provençal olives, pasta and ratatouille -- like the movie, someone explained to me in English. Yes I know what ratatouille is. Jessica Sanborn, if you're reading this start laughing hysterically right now, because the next item on my plate was a taste of MOUSSAKA (which is basically eggplant with lamb and cheese on top) and boy was it delicious, Greek salad with feta cheese, tarte tatin -- it's probably the closest thing the French have to apple pie -- bottles of wine and cider, and finally Chinese pastries with a soy-coconut nougat filling.

I don't know where I put all that food, but dang it was good.

Then we spent the next three hours talking, joking and playing a type of taboo-charades game. So not only do I struggle through the language -- though I wasn't alone in this international gathering -- but I don't know French pop culture, so I basically could only answer two questions that were catered towards me and my knowledge of American personalities.

As for the speaking part, Ludo said his goal was to get me to speak French the entire time. And I did! I also was quite proud because I understood close to everything being said.... not including the 30 minutes in the middle of the meal when I realized four drinks was too much and calmed down for a bit. I was told by many of the guys there that I had traces of an accent, but not an American one. Oh and "not to generalize," (that's always a good start to a sentence) but they said I was the best French-speaking American they'd ever met, because "Americans are lazy when it comes to languages." Big plus for my confidence! However, I think they were just being nice, because I think my accent and speaking capacities are still subpar. Though, I was told on multiple occasions NOT to ever lose my American accent, because that's all part of my charm. Again, that's the eighth time someone's called me charming over here! What is it with you Frenchies??

But the most exciting part was speaking -- in French -- with a very attractive French boy who studied abroad in Texas about Californian politics and beer pong. Yes in that order. We even held a mini demonstration of cider pong for those not in the know. Talk about strange; I never thought I'd be playing beer cider pong in France.

Well the night certainly went well, seeing as how I ate that much and didn't pay a cent. I was invited to come back again and Ludo told me to call him soon so we could go out to have some one-on-one time and sortir again. I think it's just to practice speaking, but I still haven't quite figured out his intentions.

But I'm not complaining!!