LA French experience :)

I think I realized a while ago that I'm comfortable enough to travel alone. That was reaffirmed in a mini experience down in Long Beach this weekend. We're traveling with baseball are currently en route on the six hour trip back North. So about my rare French experience....

I've been feeling sick on this trip already, and slept most of Friday off. Skipping breakfast, I grabbed a sandwich for lunch but was still hungry around 2 p.m. before we had to head to the baseball field at 4. On my run the day before, I noticed a café called Crème de la Crêpe, that my family and I had eaten at in Redondo Beach a few years prior. So after my lunch I opted for a snack at this crêpe restaurant.

Initially I just wanted to grab a crêpe to go, but when the (attractive) waiter asked, "Mademoiselle, where would you like to sit?" in a very heavy French accent, I chose to dine in. Enjoying the French chatter between my waiter and the Senegalise cook, I selected a crêpe with Nutella, strawberies, bananas and vanilla ice cream. It was called Zidane and my joke is that it's so good, it's like a headbutt to the face, ha.

After ordering and nearly finishing, my waiter came by and asked how everything was. I couldn't take it any longer, I asked where in France he was from. Shocked that I even cared, he responded, "Rouen, you know where it is?" I nodded my head and proceeded to explain that I studied in Nice in 2005 then taught in Antibes from 2007-08. Shocked even further, he asked how I liked France, where I live now, if I want to go back, etc.

Then he went back and proudly explained to the other waiters, in an excited tone, "Elle a étudié en France," that I studied aborad. They then asked if I spoke French to which I nodded that I understood and called me a "cute American" behind the counter.

After leaving my generous tip (hey I'm on per diem for road trips), I walked out the door and happily proclaimed, "Merci!" in my best accent. He then thanked me in French and also wished me a good day. I wished him the same back in French upon taking my exit. For the first time in my life I could feel eyes following me out of a room. And I kicked myself for not speaking more French to them, or staying a bit longer to chat. But I had to head back in time to catch the bus. Amazingly, my two loves are French culture and baseball. Weird huh?

But I did have a fabulous dessert outing alone, and had the chance to engage in nice conversation with a French man. I could definitely travel alone and meet people along the way while reveling in every moment of it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What I did today....

I went skiing in a pretty big resort in Clusaz with my dad and his co-workers today! It's about 45 minutes from his apartment in Annecy. (And this video is where I, unsuccessfully, tried to spray my dad with powder. Except that I was too concerned with falling on my face and having one ski end up over my head, since this was the first red run of the day.)

It's been about six years since the last time I went skiing falling with Laura in Tahoe. This time definitely didn't turn out like that, probably because I backed off the red and black trails until my very last run of the day.

Lunch was amazing. I had white wine, salad, salmon and a baked potato on a redwood plank instead of a plate. I guess it's a little better than the cafeteria hotdogs, chowder and hamburgers/fries they serve in American lodges. I'm really sad we didn't get any pictures to do this justice, but in France skiing is really unlike what we're used to in the U.S. For example, I noticed on the first time up the lift that there were about six or seven restaurants along the way. And that was only a small, green slope! Imagine how many more must have been up higher. Not to mention the fact that every single one was packed! There were probably more people sitting down eating than there were on the hill.

Not only that, but people take their habitual two-hour lunch, and if you're too into the good life to get back to carving through a snow-covered mountain, why they have "chaises longues" for you to lounge out on the balconies and soak up some sun.

And can we say "Lawsuit waiting to happen"? The second-most common way to get up the mountain is by the "tire-fesses," which is probably my favorite French word, ever. It literally means "butt pull." The device is basically a long rod with a circular seat at the end that you put between your legs. In the up-right standing position, you literally are pulled from the butt-region up the hill.

Ridiculous!

As soon as I can stop being so nervous about falling, I would definitely like to do this again here.

Oh yeah, I also completed my first Sudoku puzzle entirely in pen. Big first in my life since I've been doing them in pencil for the past three years.

Shakespeare Got to Get Paid, Son

If Courtney Randall and Jessica Sanborn read this, the headline's written for them ;)

Point of my story today, boys and girls, IS THAT I FINALLY GOT PAID!!! We're supposedly directly deposited (yeah, that's right I made that a verb) our salaries either on the last day of the month or the last Friday of the month, whichever comes first.

Today actually happens to be neither of those. But since I now have more than 50 Euros in my account, guess where I just went??

I'll give you a hint, it's the biggest grocery store possibly in the world:

Ok, that might have been an exaggeration, but Carrefour certainly puts Costco to shame.

However, the most alarming thing for me today -- while there were many, it's been difficult to pinpoint only one -- was the amount I spent. This junk better last me the next two weeks before I go to California.

Call me crazy if you will, but I just dropped 70 Euros on food. And it only filled two grocery bags... (For those of you not in the know, French grocery bags are like big totes, so it's a bit more than you could fit into two American "paper or plastic" bags.)

I guess I finally let my inhibitions go and picked quality over (monetary) quantity this time. I've always eyed the wines, ripe fruits and veggies and exotic fish every time I go, but instead I tend to squeak by on frozen veggies and chicken or rice/pasta products because they're cheap.

Not today. I guess we're really getting ready for spring, because there was an entire section dedicated just to red berries in the produce aisle! And without even hesitating, I threw THREE cartons of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries into my cart.... mmmm. And in the fish aisle, I tossed in a couple of (de-headed THANK YOU GOD) shrimp and tuna steak! Since I was on a roll, I decided to let myself "splurge" even more and went for some wheat pita shells.

But in my defense, I did buy a couple of other frozen/non-perishable items that could stay on my shelf and freezer for quite awhile. So hopefully this does last me until mid-February.

Another really exciting thing at Carrefour is the ridiculous amount of people there! Usually I go after lunch and the crowds are horrendous. So I figured, hey I'll go at 10 in the morning and avoid the insanity.

Totally wrong.

To make matters worse, I guess today was stocking day, so employees were busy humming about the store on foot, roller-skates (no, not in-lines, actual retro skates), carts, and what I can only manage to describe as mini-buses precariously filled beyond their weight capacity with boxes and crates.

One man was driving a little too recklessly for being indoors, in a zoo nonetheless. He let a few people cross the aisle and I guess got tired of waiting, because as I set foot in the aisle, he zoomed forward completely disregarding me or my life.

He then proceeded to give out this hearty bellow of a laugh (that really freaked me out) and looked me dead in the eye. I kid you not, this is what he said to me:

"Je veux vous écraser."

Translation: I want to CRUSH you. JESUS, who are these people?!?!

...11 DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIA!!

The Day I've Been Waiting For....

Has finally arrived.

Except, judging from my reactions today, you'd never know.

I have this terrible habit of getting overly excitable about EVERYTHING. I always tip my hand and I don't know how to chill out when something big is happening. Actually, scratch that. Even with stupid little nothing events, I still get way too antsy.

So imagine my surprise when I got that letter in the mail yesterday saying I could retrieve my carte de séjour and during the walk to the Police Municipale today, my heart was not thudding in my chest. Normally, I'd be getting increasingly nervous, palms sweaty with anticipation accompanied by quick, shallow breaths. And usually things go horribly wrong.

So maybe that's the key, eh? Don't get over-excited and you won't get let down.

Either way, I went into the office and presented my letter, in addition to the receipt saying my card was on its way. I also took a thousand extra precautions and brought my passport, California identification, a copy of verification of my residence (in case they had my address wrong on the card) and my work contract. Of course, I was insanely over-prepared, but a few extra papers in my backpack really didn't weigh me down any more than usual.

The woman at the counter greeted me quite friendly, something I've never come across in French administration up until this point. That's the kind of person you should have working for your company, someone who genuinely gets excited about every person's ascent to *legal* residency in the country. She must have know what I've gone through to get to this step, because when she finally handed me the card -- less than one minute later seeing as how I was the only person in the building, another shocker in French bureaucracy -- a ridiculous smile overtook her entire face and I get the feeling that she actually meant it.

A little suspicious, I took the card and waited to see if I needed to do anything else, because really that couldn't be it. But it was and I hurried out of there before anything could go wrong.

Then during my walk back, I realized that today was a really gloomy and ugly day. Pretty rare for the week we've been having here in the South of France. And I couldn't help but think, I should be ecstatic despite the glum weather.

But I never once did the proverbial heel click, not even mentally. You know that feeling when you've accomplished something so great, a pat on the back just won't cut it? Yeah, I never even got that sensation.

Peu importe. All that matters is that I officially have a French identification card, even if it only is good for seven more months.... Perhaps I'll post a picture of it later. Or maybe, I'll post a picture of me flipping it off, giving you a sense for how I feel about French administrative hurdles.

So how did I actually celebrate such a feat?! I kept it pretty low-key and cooked myself a really good, healthy meal after a few hours at the gym. (Oh yeah, and I let myself have a candy bar!)

Tonight I chopped up some endives and cabbage for the base of a salad, then threw on some raw onions and radishes. In a lightly-buttered pan, I tossed in some of the onions with balsamic vinegar, honey, walnuts, golden raisins and pears for a sweet dressing. And the main course was easy -- I already had frozen, prepped Alaskan halibut in the papillote style tossed in a bag with veggies and herbs. All I had to do was pop that in the oven for a few minutes and voilà.

What a day.

...12 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!

Young at heart

So just before lunch, I was walking home from my morning classes thinking about my only French "friends" here.

That's when I realized, all my friends are children! Haha, seriously though, I do have American and English friends my age, but the only French people I've had over to my house are my students. Hmmm, am I disillusioned here?? :) Then yesterday I was at the gym where I ran into my American friend Sarah, she had a little girl tagging along and doing exercises with her. When Sarah left to go home, the little girl befriended me and started doing my exercises, asking all kinds of questions about myself. I think being from California makes me really exciting and interesting, even if I'm not that great back in the States... hehe.

My first lesson today consisted of adjectives and opposites, so one exercise was to describe people in the class. Using words they already knew, my students described me as, "alive, tall, THIN!!!!, nice, and good." Wow that did a lot for the self-esteem. And even though I do yell at them all the time, they still think I'm super nice! I imagine it's like chastizing a little puppy or something -- they're too resilient to let it affect their feelings towards me. And I do have a handful of students in every class that clings to me when I enter/exit the classroom, telling me how pretty/cool my jewelry is, how great my perfume smells, etc. But the cutest part is when I arrive at school, all the students in the playground run to me and demand the French bisous -- a kiss on both cheeks. Adorable!

Yet, as I was thinking this, I unlocked the front door to my building and the man who drives me to school every morning was checking his mail and asking about my schedule. I'm waiting for the elevator, when he invites me into his house for tea or coffee with him and his wife, both who are around 68-70ish. I was a bit hesitant to accept, but then I thought, what the hell??? I have nothing to do for the next three hours and this will give me a good chance to practice my French.

Long story short, I ended up staying my entire lunch break! We discussed American politics, world travel and Madagascar, the birthplace of his wife. So we were a very international group comparing three styles of living.

Oh yeah, I also helped cook! We had what he called an "exotic French lunch," complete with stewed lamb, potatoes and Mediterranean olives in olive oil along with a spicy salad of mango, shallots, peppers -- chili peppers and no, they were not red hot, carrots and other exciting spices that made my nose run for hours. For desert I had a clementine orange and he made the three of us traditional thimble-sized cups of Arabic coffee, but with a whole crapload of whipped cream on top. Man it was good, and I'm not usually much of a fan of the small, but very strong French coffees.

Then he drove me back to school for my classes. One was cancelled because the teacher was involved in an accident driving back in the rain. I hope he's alright!!!

But Guy told me I could come back whenever I want for a good, homecooked meal. He wants me to tell my dad that he's taking good care of me in his absence, though he's more of a grandfather-esque figure right now. Honestly though, I'd love to go back because watching him cook was unlike anything I've ever seen. He has a mortar to grind fresh ginger and basically makes his own seasonings. He showed me how to bottle olives in oil with bay leaves and lavendar to make the taste that much better and more Provençal.

Maybe I'll use some of his tricks on my own time. That, or I could always come back for another lunch, since they enjoyed my presence so much. (And it was mutual!)

Joyeuses Fetes!

Lots of traveling going on. And even more picture-taking. But I think even more eating has gone down.

If you're up for the challenge, go to my Picasa Web site to see the five or so new albums I just posted (all beginning with the Christmas ones). There's a lot, so pace yourself.

For the next two days, Aimee and I are off to Switzerland, then we go to Paris for New Year's Eve!!! Can't wait :-)

Oh what fun it is to ride....

Nope, not a one-horse open sleigh. The train. To Cannes.

Aujourd'hui Aimee and I hopped on our last regional train in the PACA region of Southern France. We took it two whole cities to the West where Cannes and all its glory awaited.

Even though yesterday and today were the ugliest weather days here -- my lame over-used joke was, "What is this, the first day of winter or something?" -- I think they were two of the most eventful. I was a little apprehensive about taking the 12:24 p.m. train to Cannes because that meant we'd arrive in the middle of the day. Meaning everything is closed for lunch. However, since it is almost Christmas, every store will be open all day long throughout the weekend, even on Sundays shocking I know, so Frenchies can get in their last-minute shopping. Either way, we were happy campers because we had plenty to do during the lunch hour.

One of the best finds today was the Marche de Noel in Cannes. It was probably the largest I've seen thus far, and we were super close to actually seeing a living creche, or nativity scene. We got inside the building and beheld the French stable with real, live animals, when the booming God-like announcer got in one sentence in French. Something like, "Over 2,000 years ago, God promised to send down a son to forgive all of man's sins." And then the speakers went out. Let there be SILENCE! Technical difficulties exist even in French, who woulda thought??

But the best part of the young weekend happened last night. I finally used the last of my 180 euro gift certificate at Le Brulot in Antibes with Natalie, Kathy and Aimee. After that was done we went down the street a bit more to this Absinthe Bar near the downtown market area. Although I think absinthe tastes like butt and smells like sweaty old man -- super appetizing isn't it? -- the place was a riot! I think it's sort of mandatory to wear stupid 19th century fashionable hats while drinking to the green fairy, which sadly no longer exists. So we got to play the whole bohemian lifestyle thing for a few small hours. I can't really say much more, so take a look at my pictures :)

Limencello shots after dinner. This is what we got when I asked for the bill.
Posters along the walls of the Absinthe Bar.
Check out our AWESOME hats!
Sadly they no longer set fire to the glasses. Apparently water works just as well.
This was probably round 2 of 5 of Musical Hats.

And tomorrow we hit the train for two weeks of non-stop travel across two different countries! Happy Holidays to everyone back at home :) Check back in after New Year's when I'll post stories and pictures from our NYE 2008 adventures on the Champs Elysees!

Changement d'avis

Remember before how I said I didn't think I was cut out to be a teacher, or it's probably not something I want to pursue once I get back to the United States?

Yeah, I've changed my mind.

Christmastime is a very hard time to NOT want to be a teacher. I only had two classes this morning from 8:30 to 10 a.m., but my teachers BOTH shared their boxes of chocolates with me and then the teachers entering school in the salle des maîtres brought holiday goodies to share with me. In both of my morning classes, teachers were bestowed HUGE Lindt boxes of chocolates. My mouth is still watering.

Then I had three afternoon classes. A pair of sisters brought each of their teachers ridiculously over-sized floral bouquets, while the male teachers also received boxes of chocolates and bottles of wine.

Way cooler than the lame #1 teacher pins you guys get in the U.S.

Oh yeah, one of my classes all chipped in money to buy me a package of Ferrero Rocher praline chocolates (see image above) and drew me a huge Joyeux Noël poster. Too cute :)

12 More Days Until France BANS Indoor Smoking! :)

- and -

5 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE!!

It's always nice in Nice.

Even in the early stages days of the winter months. See?

I only had to work half a day today, so that left plenty of time for Aimee and me to hop a train 30 minutes East over to Nice -- my former stomping grounds. I say that because that was the last place I studied abroad and I can navigate the city pretty well (shocking isn't it?).

Well we only planned on spending about a half a day in the city, but the beach was calling our names! Even though it was much too cold to even think about taking off our jackets, let alone plunging right in the crystal clear blue water, we did bring a picnic lunch to the lone sandy spot we could find on the otherwise pebbly beach and spent a good hour just taking everything in. Then we decided to walk off our excess hunger by climbing the hills to Castle Hill, where a beautiful waterfall caps off the skyline.

Then you know, we did the requisite shopping thing. Our excuse? It is Christmastime, after all. So we got to wander Vieux Nice as well as the crazy main part of the downtown area.

Around 5 p.m., we figured might as well stay for dinner since we've made it this long. But the ongoing joke in France is that no one will even think about opening their doors for you until it's after 8 p.m. in any restaurant. Upsetting really. Why do you French people eat so darn late?! So we continued on our wandering path, looking for a cafe or someplace to pass the time.

Finally at 7:15, we stumbled across a really cute little Indian restaurant where we ordered up Indian kir (sparkling white wine with rose and orange syrup), chicken tandoori, garlic naan bread, curry vegetables and potato rice. Oh man it was delicious. And that was probably my first real encounter with Indian food. I'm definitely going back another time! This is what the restaurant looked like from our table:

And here I am near 1 a.m. with absolutely nothing to do. My classes are almost done, it's almost vacation, and as usual, I have Wednesdays off :)

So until the next time, check out my photo album from the day's adventures!

14 More Days Until France BANS Indoor Smoking! :)

- and -

ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE!!

This is just to say...

That I am extremely, dead tired.

After one of the most intense days at work -- first test of the year, I even pulled two and am only giving the boys half credit for talking in the middle of the exam -- I felt like I owed it to myself to do SOMETHING other than go straight home and eat a lot, slash watch mindless French t.v. shows.

Lucky for me, my gym is halfway between my school and the bus stop. So planning ahead this morning, I dressed for the gym and attended all my classes in workout attire. That makes me no different than the P.E. teachers and all the male teachers here. Plus, I'm still on my "I've paid too much for a gym membership AND bus pass this month" kick. So I'm really trying to get my money's worth. Anyways I just got home after nearly 2 hours at the gym and I'm fairly exhausted.

So I'm thinking about hopping in the shower, because I told my roommate I'd wait for her to get home (after 8:30 PM!!) to have dinner. We're making MEXICAN tonight... oh how I miss Mexican food. Anyways, this is my usual dinner hour here, so I don't know what to do with myself.

That's why I'm blogging. If I can't eat, let me at least think about food for a minute or two...

29 More Days Until France BANS Indoor Smoking! :)

- and -

22 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE!!!

Salsa, Santa and Sweat, OH MY!

These last two days have certainly been pleins d'aventures. Starting last night, all the girls met up and shared a few bottles of wine and boxes of Chinese take-out at Kathy and Valentina's new apartment right in the middle of Old Antibes. And WOW is that one of the cutest apartments I've seen here! So not only do they have that going, but it's also right in the middle of everything happening downtown. Good work, girls.

After much stalling last night, we finally made our way out to this salsa dance club/bar in Juan-les-Pins, after Kathy and Natalie's French teacher friends invited them/us out. They went last weekend and told me how intense everyone was with the salsa dancing, and since I have NO IDEA how to do it, I -- again -- had no idea what I was in for.

Let me just say that the highlight of the night probably was taking part in this huge line of people doing some crazy choreographed dance. The thing that kept running through my mind was that one line from the prom scene in Not Another Teen Movie, "I didn't know everyone at this school was a professional dancer." Haha, and then right after that some 1950s songs came on and then everyone busts out SWING DANCING. Fantastic!

Natalie and I were asked by this gay man to salsa and he taught us briefly during one song. I was super nervous about it, but he was hysterical so that made things a little easier. But the point of this story is that this morning I was feeling the burn. Salsa is fantastic exercise, even if I only did dance to three or four songs.

Waking up in their apartment this morning -- did I mention how CUTE it was?! -- Valentina, Kathy and I all got together and made a quasi-American breakfast consisting of fried eggs, toast and jam, Italian coffee to represent Valentina's heritage, and oatmeal. Then we decided to go exploring in their quartier of Antibes. Our mid-morning journey took us to the CHRISTMAS MARCHE that kicked off today, the open-air market, and then Yves Rocher which is pretty much the French equivalent of Bath and Body Works, but much neater.

After that was all done, I said my goodbyes and made my way to the gare routière to purchase my next monthly pass for the city bus since it's finally December, the final month of 2007. Wow, already?! Then I'd been hearing rumors about us already receiving paychecks, so I went to my bank to see if that was true, AND IT TOTALLY IS! Meaning not only do I have 100 percent of my paycheck from November, but also the other 25 percent from October finally!! Needless to say, this month is probably the richest I'll be in France.

Then I came back home around noon only to remember that my roommate said her boyfriend's parents were coming over for lunch, so I see the biggest array of food ready and waiting to go in the kitchen! Oh my, I'm gastronomically in way over my head here. It was another good time. Tomorrow I think Karina and I are going to have another roommate cooking session and make MEXICAN FOOD together, since I purchased a really cheap kit from the international section at Carrefour.

So to end my day, I finally decided to sign up for a gym here in France. I rationalized that decision by a thought process that goes something like this:

"Well, I didn't end up going to Italy today. The train ticket alone would have been 25 Euros. Then I probably would have made a few purchases, including lunch if nothing else. Thus, my total for the day most likely would have been nearly 50 Euros. For one month of gym membership I can pay 43 Euros, plus that will fill up a lot of my down time that I spend eating. And if I'm going to continue eating all these delicious things here in France -- which I'm entitled to do, damnit -- and mentally refuse to give in to buying new, bigger sized clothes, then I better start working out a lot more. And I can't exactly stick to running anymore since I've exhausted all the routes, it gets dark super early, and it's freezing/raining more often than it was at the end of the summer. So it's 43 Euros well spent."

Oh yeah, and did I mention the gym's called Versace Gym and is modeled after Muscle Beach in Los Angeles, because the owner is super obsessed with 1980s beach culture?! Haha, that alone is worth my patronage.

...31 More Days Until France BANS Indoor Smoking! :)

- and -

24 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE!!

My DAD came to visit!!

And I had such a good time! It's been almost two months now since I've seen my family. Usually when I was in college, I'd go a few weeks or something like that. But I never went an entire quarter without at least seeing them once. But basically, I'm going to go that equivalent when my mom and sister fly out in December.

So that was good.

The worst part though -- and by worst I mean best -- was the eating. I have this problem which involves me going out and seeing decently-prices MULTI-course menus. And I order them, then feel obligated to eat it all. Of course at the end I must have my dessert. Yep, whether I can fit it in or not, I need to have it. And right now my stomach hurts so bad from the past three days, haha. But it was good. At least I don't go out to restaurants too often :)

Another neat thing about having my dad and his boss down here was the car! I've been to Antibes, Cannes and Monte-Carlo during this trip by bus and train, but it's been 99% walking for me. So having a car gave us more access to things than I'd have by just foot alone.

So yesterday we got to see Downtown Cannes, the chestnut and horse festival in Cagnes-sur-Mer (although, I didn't see one single horse) and Monte-Carlo in the evening. Maybe Dad will update his side of the story on his blog.... if he can figure it out ;)

I'll post all of the pictures on my PicasaWeb site soon, but until then here are some of my favorites:

November 16th: Dinner at Le Brulot in Old Antibes.

November 17th, The Ritz Carlton in Cannes.

November 17th, Chestnut Festival in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Nougat is probably my favorite candy here!
November 17th, The Casino in Monte-Carlo.

I definitely can't wait until next month (less than one month really!) when the whole family comes out here! It's going to be great :)

But until then, Thursday's Thanksgiving and I'm starting all the preparations for my nine-person dinner party I'm hosting in my little apartment! It's going to be three American girls, one English girl, a Swiss chick (I think), two French men and my French roommate. Come back for pictures and stories about that!

Visible progress!

Day five or six of my diet (sans tricher -- without cheating, no it's not continuous, I haven't cheated during 5 of the last 8 or 9 days).

I am now down to 58 kilos, when once I was at 61!!! That means I've dropped over six lbs! However, I'm going to keep cheating all weekend and then obviously next Thursday.

Only one or two more kilos to go and then I'm happy and fitting nicely into my clothes again :)

And since I'm on the subject of Thursday, I think I'm going to have a six- or seven-person potluck style Thanksgiving at my apartment next week. My mom and I were looking up fun recipes online all day yesterday, so I'm very, very excited about this prospect.

Like I've already said, Carrefour has cranberry sauce and I already have pumpkin soup ready to prepare. I think I'm going to give it some French flair and make some kind of autumn tarte, like of the pumpkin, apple or nut varieties.

Check out some of these recipes I'm looking at:

• Paula Deen's pumpkin cakes (AKA, let's add a pound of BUTTA to that)
• Pear Tart, from the tartelette blog
• Caramelized Nut Tart
• Apple Galette
• Apple Walnut Torte
• Caramel Nut Tart
  

And WHOA on Barry Bonds. The greatest thing about that article on MLB.com is now Dublin, Calif.'s shout out as "that jail cell to hold Bond's former trainer" for three months. Yep, I grew up in that city! We're now famous thanks to MLB.com -- questionable fame albeit, but I'll take it. He's an asshole and deserves whatever punishment he gets. I'm glad someone's finally cracking down on the rampant "under the table" use of illegal substances in the MLB.

Un dimanche à la campagne

Hands down, this past weekend was my best in France -- ok vacation in Tours was great, but this was different and more special.

After already speaking in French and eating food immensely yesterday, today continued on that same theme. But this time I hopped on the train to Toulon where some friends of family friends (confusing, huh?) drove me 30 minutes into the Provence countryside in a little village called Forcalqueiret. There, said family friends have a large eight-bedroom house that's been converted into a hotel. The second Sunday of every month, they invite all their friends over for an insanely large meal, with the principle of bringing friends together to enjoy French culture, gastronomie (of course!), and philosophy.

They'd invited me to the Galère in October, but I was too busy with moving in and sorting my life out to attend. So I picked November to come and I'm really glad I decided to. Interestingly enough, the guest speaker this month -- the philosophy part of the meeting -- was a fairly well-known and published lecturer on the degradation of the French language. Figures that his assigned seat was directly across from mine. A subtle hint on Jean-Claude's part?? But before I ever opened my mouth, he started talking about how foreign words were infiltrating the French language, mainly from the Internet and English vocabulary. I don't think he intended it in a rude way, then again he's French so he probably did, but he's very proud of his country and language and holds firmly to the old-school thought that it's necessary to preserve one's history through language. He actually took to me quite quickly the more I spoke because he's fluent in English, though not a single word was exchanged in English the entire day -- aside from his examples of words infiltrating the language.

One of his friends also latched onto my conversation very quickly because he had plenty of questions about the United States and my opinions on the comparisons between France and the U.S. Oh yeah, did I mention that the age of this group ranged from 55 to 98? So hence a lot of the very proud opinions on display in that room. Again though, they fondly labeled me "la petite Américaine," from which I could detect a hint of compassion in their voices.

Where I'm getting with this though, is the 98 year-old -- my great-aunt Yvonne. This is the fifth time I've visited her in France, however it was the first time I'd seen her in a wheel chair. She was another example of the elder French generation that I remember so vividly who was very proud of herself and her autonomy.

Me and my great-aunt, just after having stuffed our faces with white cake filled with fruit chunks and frosted with a maple-chocolate glaze, mmmmm. The cake was for another member's 80th birthday. To which Jean-Claude joked, "No one is allowed to die until after April 2009" (Yvonne's 100th birthday).

Every time I have to reintroduce myself to her, because she has a hard time remembering my family. She takes to my dad quickly because he's usually the one taking care of her and speaking to her the most. But today was my turn; I looked after her during lunch and tried to get her to speak a little bit when everyone else started having their own side conversations amongst themselves. Yvonne also is a regular attendee at these gatherings and supposedly she'd been a little down over the last few months. When I was leaving, they told me that she looked the happiest since her recent "pouty-period" and when I left to catch my train, she kept looking for me. That's really touching.

Speaking of touching, it really hurt to reintroduce myself this time because after Patrick seemed to have exhausted every connection between us, he finally remembered to tell her that I'm the granddaughter of her sister, Thérèse. Then Yvonne looked a little upset in that older-sister way I know all too well and asked, "How is she? She hasn't written me in a very long time."

I looked at Patrick blankly and was at a loss for words. We've told her time and time again that she passed away but it's a concept that she just hasn't been able to grasp. He could tell that I was kind of shocked by the question and quickly picked up the ball saying, "She's well," looking at me to follow suit. Feebly I replied, "She says to tell you 'hi.'"

And that was it. I even felt my eyes start to sting and well up a little bit during that moment. Even as they're starting to now.

But it was a great time and I can't stress enough how glad I was to have been invited. It's just really making me realize how much I miss my family.

Coincée dans la cuisine

It's funny, now that I'm on a highly-restrictive diet -- ok not highly, just no carbs or starchy foods for two weeks -- I'm getting pretty creative with my veggies and proteins.

For example, last night I purchased tofu for the first time in my life! A little weird opening my "meat" substance from a package, but I cubed it and saved it for a big soup in the works.

First I boiled about a cup of lentils -- which I've never done before -- and waited until almost all the water was soaked up. Then I threw in some chopped up raw veggies and the tofu cubes and let that simmer for a while. It was actually super tasty! And the best part is that there's still about a half a pot left for another meal.

While snacks once consisted of a quarter of a Nutella bottle on cookies and crackers, I've now replaced them with nuts and fruit. Yeah, I can't cut fruit out entirely until I clean out all of my fridge. But basically it's pistachios and clementine oranges, the ones I paid 1,25 Euros for the equivalent a 3 lb. bag, along with a cup of my new latest and greatest discovery -- vanilla nut tea!

And there's been a lot of creativity with eggs and meats. Not so much in the omelet form because we don't have any flat pans here, so more of a frittata-type creation. Basically whatever's left in the fridge goes right in. Today it was the rest of my tomato tuna, tomatoes (naturally), bell peppers and broccoli. Mighty tasty.

Yeah after a while eating salads, meats, soups and eggs is going to get a bit old, but I'm not sticking to the diet 100 percent. Four days a week I'm still eating at the school cantines, just NOT consuming their bread. And I'm not helping myself to seconds on the desserts anymore.

I swear though, when I passed on the bread the first time today all the other teachers looked at me like I had committed murder or something. I was telling my sister earlier today that they pass the bread basket around the table at least five times during the meal: with salad, with the meat, the veggies, with cheese obviously, and then after everything's come around to clean up the leftover juices and chunks on the plate. That sounds totally appetizing doesn't it?

It's an art form though. And I can proudly raise my head high today and say that I refrained five times when the bread passed right under my nose.

Time for my night-cap: Caribbean-infusion tea and a little clementine orange!

Diet continues...

This is that sweet website I was talking about last time, MapMyRun.com's "My Training" section. Since I've been back (I'm not even going to GUESS how much I walked/hiked on vacation) I've run 3.89 miles over the past two days. HOPEFULLY I'M GOING TO GET BACK IN SHAPE!

I'm also getting back on Phase I of the South Beach Diet, however with a little bit of a French flare, because if I'm gaining weight, I know my (already, normally high) blood sugar and cholesterol levels are screaming for help. And since I don't have medical insurance over here yet, I can't actually go to a doctor and verify whether or not that is the case.

I have been cheating a bit though, by eating bran flakes for breakfast either in non-fat milk or non-fat, no sugar added yogurt. I still have about six containers left and need to finish them before the expiration date. In theory, if you stick to the diet completely you should lose about 8-12 pounds in the first week alone. I just want 6-7!!

But I've been making lots of meat and salads, omelets, and tonight I'm excited about whipping up a tofu and lentil soup. Don't judge me, this is just for a few weeks until I get my health back on track to where it should be. Then I'll slowly re-introduce breads, sugars, and fruits into my diet. I'm making a promise though, NOT to go overboard ever again. I think the initial shock of being around so much good food ALL THE TIME really got to me. Kind of like, I need to eat it all before it disappears! Such will NEVER be the case. And all my daily runs/walks are helping a bit too.

In other news, my dad did in fact get the job in France near the Swiss border! That means he'll be six hours away from me until May AND his company will pay to fly my mom out here once a month. Yay visitors! I'll be able to take more trips -- hopefully on his company's dime -- AND be with my family. Those are both really exciting prospects. Now I need to quickly improve my speaking so I can impress him when he gets here.... haha.

Time for Halloween, time for Halloween!

Halloween chez la classe CM1 de M. Cuevlier

I’m beginning to think that my posts are losing their cohesiveness….

Oh well, welcome to my jumbled brain :)

Today I got to experience the first rain here in France. Technically it’s already rained, but I was safely tucked away in the warmth of my large bed. It actually wasn’t much to write home about. This morning the sky was gray and ugly like it’s been the past few days, but the wind chill effect was missing -- which is a good thing in my opinion. Then when I went back to school for lunch, there was a slight drizzle. But I was already wearing a baseball hat and hoodie (I’ll explain later) so nary a drop landed on me. When we had that midnight thunderstorm two weeks ago, there was lightning and fat, heavy drops of water pelting the roof. I want to experience something like that during the day here!

Someone in my building recently got a new pet, because this little gray and white kitten is at the stoop from time to time. Today I saw him again and he’s really playful and loving. I suspect this was the first time he’s ever experienced a “rain storm,” though I’d hardly call it that, because he was crying on the stoop until I came to his rescue. I cuddled and played with him for about five minutes before making my way towards La Tournière for my lunch. But the poor little thing scurried after me, trying to either fit under the protection from my umbrella, or running after me under the shelter of nearby parked cars.

When I finally arrived at the cantine, we had a really delicious and slightly eclectic lunch. It consisted of a fusili pasta salad for the first course -- cold pasta, olive oil, cheese and tomatoes, followed by ratatouille and an omelet for the main course -- not sure why, but EVERYONE here always serves eggs with their ratatouille -- and then fruit-flavored fromage blanc for dessert. I had two ;) framboise and then abricot, raspberry and apricot. As always, I’m immensely enjoying the 2,70 € lunches with which the schools provide me! (And no, it’s not an error, they write 2,70 € instead of our $2.70)

Now here I sit in the salle des maîtres waiting for the bell to ring so I can go to my last classes of the day. In the first two, I’ve already had the kids act out trick-or-treating with much success. Then we played songs like Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Phantom of the Opera, and the Adam’s Family while creating a haunted house-like ambiance in the rooms. This was achieved by turning off all the lights and closing the curtains as well as chanting “OOOOOHHHHH,” from time to time. I can’t believe how simple the activities have been and how amused the children are by them! The boys absolutely adore acting out trick or treating, because their objective is to scream it so loud that it makes the kid opening the door tremble with fear, or jump out in surprise.

After all, that IS the goal of Halloween, right? Bien joué, les gamins. (Well-played, kids).

This afternoon and tomorrow I have my older classes, so I’ve actually assigned them homework which was to make Halloween masks. I’m very interested to see what they come up with. And if there’s time, we’re going to read selections from a book of Monster Poems I found at the médiathèque. :) So that is why I am wearing a baseball hat today. I’m decked out in my David Wright Met’s jersey and my San Francisco All-Star Game baseball cap with braided pigtails underneath. My costume for the kids is a baseball player! Yeah, I figure the bat girl concept would have been lost on them anyhow…

Figures, when I left the apartment this morning, my roommate was shocked with my choice of costume.

“But you’re not a witch or something else scary,” she declared, perplexed.

I see that I still have a lot of explaining to do here regarding American traditions and institutions! I only wish it was appropriate to show pictures of Halloween in Isla Vista to clear things up. Then again, no. I don’t. Tomorrow you’ll get another update on how the older classes and my second school take to the Halloween festivities…

They'll eat you alive!

...is what one of the school directors told me before I began English lessons.

And actually, such was not the case. Here I sit in the salle informatique (computer room) at Ecole La Tournière two days into and complete with my first lesson for both schools.

"What is the date today?" "Where do you come from?" "My name is..." and U.S. geography.

At first it was slightly stressful because none of the teachers here have any clue how English should be taught. Nor did they have anything that resembled a comprehensive schedule for me. So I kind of went from room to room and tried to figure it out. Day 2 went much better. Some teachers are more helpful than others, but I think I've devised a system that will work pretty well.

I'm in charge of teaching the same thing to three different levels, CE2 (third grade), CM1 (fourth) and CM2 (fifth grade).

Of course, the CE2 students have never taken English lessons before, so that's a bit of a struggle. They don't understand my "thick French accent," and when I speak English, the majority of the class is hearing it for the first time. So there's going to be a lot of pictures and songs I feel.

As for the CM classes, they knew everything already! My 45-minute games and plans dissolved after only 20-25. So they had a lot of repetition, but I don't think anyone really seemed to mind. For the second half of the week, I have to plan a lesson with many more, challenging activities for the older students.

As for my schedule it's finally been sorted out and looks something like this:

Monday: 8:30 - 10:00, 1:30 - 4:00

Tuesday: 8:30 - 11:30

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: 8:30 - 10:00, 1:30 - 4:00

Friday: 1:30 - 4:00

Not bad, not bad at all :-)

After lunch at the cantine (cafeteria) in five minutes, I'm making my way back home for some more lesson planning and then some fun! Not sure what that entails exactly, but fun will be had.

POST-LUNCH UPDATE: The food is a completely new experience to me every time. And I thoroughly enjoy it! Today it was fish again, with a tomato-basil salad and chocolate ice cream. Plus tons and tons of bread to clean up the plate with. As for the meal itself, I think I've made a few little friends :-) I think it should be obvious why, but all the little boys in my CM1 class followed me around throughout the lunch period!! So cute. One told me his dad is an English professor and that's why his accent is so good. Another told me he and his dad bought a Mustang in the U.S. and drove from Texas to New York one summer. So all day long he brags about how their car's mileage is just that -- not in metric like everyone else in Europe.

The girls all wanted to grab my hand and show me what games they were playing and then hug me after. My first hugs in France! Adorable :-) Those little moments right there, the ability to be a student's friend and make them excited about learning even if it's just for a minute, make this entire thing worth while.

I'm not going to die!!!

(National French rugby team -- hot I know -- see below for more)

...Today at least.

It seems I can keep up with my "diet" in France as well. I'm worried because with my blood sugar and cholesterol levels so high, they'll spike here in France, but apparently food companies are starting to cater more towards us frail of heart.

In Champion the other day, I found glucose-low jams and snack bars. Sarah told me Silhouette makes milk with 0 percent matière grasse (skim) although I've yet to find any, my roommate has light butter, and I even bought no sugar added yogurt -- French yogurt is better than anything I've ever tasted before -- and bread with flax seeds and Omega-3s!

Someone needs to get on me to stick with these types of products. But the food here is SO GOOD. For example, the bananas come from Martinique and they're much more flavorful than the American bananas. I feel much more relieved about everything now, because I was able to figure a little more out. Like this morning I went downtown to the marché (like a big, huge, daily farmer's market) and FINALLY found some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, along with a big sack of herbes de provence... mmm now I can finally enjoy my salads properly.

But the best thing of all?

I HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT!!! Crédit Agricole was so so SO much easier to deal with than BNP, I got four copies of the R.I.B -- necessary paperwork for my salary and carte de séjour -- and an account with 200€! However, it's still limited because I forgot the one last paper from my roommate. She told me she'd get it to me by next Tuesday, but the appointment's not until Saturday. Until then, I just have to wait in line on the inside to make all of my transactions, but hopefully in two weeks, I'll have my carte bleue (ATM card)!!!

I feel very accomplished already for it only being 11 a.m. The rest of the day's going to be pretty calm, but I'm trying to convinve my friend to come to a bar near the Port of Antibes tonight to watch the France vs. New Zeland match in the Rugby World Cup, which is held in France this year. All the news stations have been abuzz because the French are called "Les Bleus," meaning they ONLY wear blue jerseys. On the other hand, the Kiwis are the all Blacks. So the media's huge worry is that since the two colors are very similar, someone's going to have to wear white. Heaven forbid it would be the French; in their homeland. This is seriously a huge concern to a lot of people, I can't even make this junk up!!

Well, I guess I'll see tonight who's going to be in their color and who's in white...