Jane Seymour

Yesterday was a day I've been waiting for my whole life. I know, this seems over-dramatic, but hey, I was a theatre major. I'm entitled.

I got to meet a movie star!

Jane Seymour is in town filming a movie at Smith Mountain Lake. She's recently written a book called Among Angels filled with her artwork and little stories and notes about angels.

Her people called my people (i.e. my manager at Barnes and Noble) last week to set up a book signing. It was really short notice but they managed to pull it off brilliantly. There were many more people there than I expected and we were selling her little books like hotcakes.

I was supposed to be working in the cafe so I wasn't sure if I'd even get to see her. As it turns out, they switched me to the cash register and I was working right beside the table she was signing at all night. It was amazing but super distracting.

Whenever there weren't any customers in line, I tried to watch what she was doing. But once she saw me watching and I felt like a stalker, so I tried to do that less.

The first thing everyone was whispering as she walked in was "She is so tiny!" And she is. Not only short but so thin. And gorgeous. She still looks just like Dr. Quinn!

She made a little speech before she started signing about why she wrote the book. Everyone in the store went silent and I think we were all a bit mesmerized by her English accent. It felt wrong to even make the noise of wringing up people's purchases, beeping them through the scanner, and stuffing them in the plastic bags.

I was in a serious state of hyperactivity the whole time she was there (and I crashed big time after she left) . Whenever there was nothing to do I was wiggling or tapping on something or talking non-stop. I'm pretty sure the girl I was working with thinks I'm crazy.

At one point I rang up the books of the woman who apparently drove Jane there. I didn't believe her and I thought she was joking so of course I made a fool out of myself. It turns out she was one of the investors for the movie. Oops.

We had so many excited people come through the line. I had one man with a magazine with her on the cover that he stole from his sister in 1984, tons of Dr. Quinn fans, some guys who loved her as a Bond girl, women who love her jewelry line, and a few reluctant men sacrificing their night for the sake of their wives.

So, by the end of the night, I was desperate for my chance to meet her and suddenly it seemed like it may not happen. She was getting tired, her hand was cramping, and she needed to rest before filming that night from 1am to 5am. Yeah, that's right, 1-5. What could they possibly be filming at the lake from 1-5 at night. Anyway...

I was freaking out. One of my co-workers said, "Just go. They should let you past (the security guards) and I'll cover for you here." So I picked up my book and camera and ran. They put me through the line, my manager pushed me to the front, I threw my camera to the assistant manager, and handed Jane my book. I said "thank you so much" and she said "you're welcome". She signed my book, we flashed our smiles for the camera, and I'm pretty sure as I was sprinting off back to my post, I may have yelled "I love you!!!"

Embarrassing? Maybe. But it's ok. According to my autographed book, she loves me too!

A Happier Stomach

I've been having issues with my stomach since January. Issues like intense, long-lasting, ridiculous pain every few weeks or even every few days.

I went to the doctor in France to try to make it better. He asked if I was stressed (to which I replied "Of course, I'm living in a foreign country.") and then diagnosed this pain as the result of stress. The French are really big on psychosomatic illnesses.

I thought he was right at the time. It seemed to be the only explanation for this otherwise unpredictable thing.

I quit my theatre class (which involved me driving into Marseille during rush hour, convinced each time that that was the day I would die) and lived with the worry that every time anything nerve-wracking would occur, I would be in pain as well.

While I was over there it happened a lot. And it was miserable.

But then I came home. For the first few weeks, and even now, being at home was the least stressful thing I have ever experienced. I literally did nothing for days at a time. It was boring for sure, but not stressful. But still I had days of pain. I decided that this had to be dealt with.

So I went to my doctor. I described what was going on and she said she didn't feel like it was just stress. So we did blood tests and only came up with one slightly unusual thing. So she referred me to a specialist. He asked questions, poked and prodded, and then had me scheduled for a biopsy of my stomach.

I was terrified of the biopsy. The plan was to put me to sleep, stick a camera down my throat, and take out a piece of my stomach. Yikes! I'd never had anesthesia before and I was not looking forward to it.

It turns out that it was fine. Kinda fun actually. I remember parts of that day like they were a dream and that's kind of amusing.

But after all that, they didn't find anything wrong.

So I had an ultrasound. That was fascinating. I got a good look at my kidneys, spleen, and other various organs, but so far, it looks like everything is fine there too.

I am so frustrated! I obviously don't want them to find anything seriously wrong, but I know something is going on and I want to know what it is. But the pains have been a lot less frequent these past few months. What if the French doctor was right and it was just stress, or maybe something about the food, or some other random thing? Did I waste all this time and money on nothing?

A Family Reunion (And Poison Ivy)

Saturday marked only the second time I've been to my mom's mom's mom's side family reunion. This was the Clements reunion, the side where we're all related distantly to Samuel Clemens (i.e. Mark Twain). I can't help bragging about this, no matter how distant the relationship may be.

There I got to see 3 of my 4 cousins on my mom's side of the family. The oldest, Jacob, I hadn't seen in years. He's 15 now and taller than me, which totally weirded me out. I was so excited to see him and his little brothers.

He and I hung out most of the day talking, catching up, and making fun of each other for being old. I also forced him to eat a plum, took pics of him smashing a pinata, and generally attempted to irritate him in any way possible. Isn't family great? At the end, we escaped the reunion and took a walk by the road. He wanted to show me a creek nearby.

Had I known that his plans involved sliding down two vertical, overgrown banks, tramping through jungles of poison ivy, slipping on frog egg covered river rocks, and eventually ending up barefoot (the reason my foot now has a large, possibly infected, stick-induced hole in it), I may have chosen not to wear Birkenstocks and short shorts.

But besides the foot injury and the constellation of pink, itchy, poison ivy bumps covering my legs and arms, and some other random parts of my body that I can't figure out how they got there, we had a fantastic time. It made me feel like a kid again, playing in the creek with my cousin, just like when we were little. I love family reunions.

Now I have to go apply the itch cream. Stupid poison ivy.

My Babies

Meet Ziva.

And Lola.

These are my babies. I've been wanting to get a kitten to live inside with me for so long now. I can't believe it's finally happened. And I didn't just get one. I have two beautiful, energetic, and lovable kittens. They are so perfect!

I adopted them a few days ago from the Franklin County Humane Society. It was so hard to pick out of the twenty adorable kittens running around in there, but in the end they really picked me.

Ziva was all over me from the minute I walked in. She purred and rubbed and followed me everywhere. I had come in with the intention of getting one, but my dad had come along and couldn't bear the idea of leaving her behind. So Ziva was ours.

I found Lola sleeping by herself on the highest point in the room. And she was solid gray, exactly what I was looking for. I picked her up and she started purring so loud. So adorable!

Ziva came home with us that day and quickly became very comfortable hogging my bed. To the annoyance of Ziva, Lola came home two days later after her surgery. Lola spent the next few days locked up whenever I wasn't around to supervise thanks to an unfortunate case of worms. But she's all better now.

Now they love each other. There is occasional wrestling, which Lola always starts and always loses, but I often see them licking each other's heads and purring non stop.

I'm so happy to have them. They give me something to look forward to in my free time and they definitely help with the loneliness that can come from living so far out in the country away from friends.

Thanks to them, I am well on my way to becoming the crazy cat lady that I've always dreamed of being :)

Where the names came from:

Ziva Rhys Aigner- Ziva: girl from the show NCIS; Rhys: looks like a Reese's cup

Lola Quin Aigner- Lola: I like the name; Quin: Tegan and Sara's last name

A Job!

I have a job!!! Finally!

You are now looking at (or reading, or whatever) the newest employee of the Roanoke Tanglewood Barnes and Noble.

My first day of work was Tuesday. Basically I had time to drive home from Tennessee, take a shower, get ready, and drive the 50 minutes to work.

It was a great first day, although I was just stuck in the back filling out paperwork and reading the manual with the other new employee and the assistant manager. We did this for four hours!

I had expected about an hour of paperwork so I wasn't too concerned about the fact that I was hungry before I went in. About two hours in, my sugar had dropped so low that I basically had tunnel vision and I was having trouble focusing on what I was being told. That made things a bit complicated, especially when everyone was in the breakroom eating wonderful-smelling grilled sandwiches from the cafe, but I got through it.

I'm so excited about this job (and the employee discount)! I have always loved Barnes and Noble and it's so cool finding out how it all works. My next day is Friday, when I'm going to learn how to work their search program and go on a scavenger hunt for books in the store. Should be fun!

Tegan and Sara at The Orange Peel

Two days later and my vocal chords are still recovering. During the Tegan and Sara concert at The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC, we screamed and sang at the top of our lungs for over two hours. It was the best concert I have ever been to in my life!

It was a mad scramble to try to get there in time after Valerie and I picked Cristin up after class in JC. We managed to arrive in Asheville only minutes before the concert was set to start. But then we drove around for the next 15 minutes looking for parking.

When we finally found a spot (on a creepy dark street next to a man standing on the sidewalk talking to himself), we hiked back up the road to the venue, hoping not to miss too much.

Then we saw the line of people that was out the door. We sighed in resignation and added ourselves to the line. But happily, the line moved quickly. Tickets were scanned, hands were stamped, and we were through.

We didn't hear music yet so we made a pit stop at the bathroom. That's when the screaming started. I freaked out. "We're missing it!!" I jumped up, ran out of the stall, washed my hands, and started jumping up and down yelling, "Come on, come on, we're missing it!!!" To tell the truth, I'm not even sure if I was done. Valerie will probably never let me forget that, haha.

When we rushed out to the room and saw the stage, we realized that people had just been screaming to try to get them to come out. Hadn't missed anything after all. Shortly after, Tegan and Sara came onstage with their guitars and the whole place went nuts. They first did an acoustic set and the whole audience was singing along from the very first line of Call It Off.

Throughout the first set, they had 2 or 3 Q+A sessions in the intervals where they answered audience questions such as, "What impact do you think Lady Gaga has on people's perception of women musicians?" and my favorite, "In case of a zombie takeover, what would be your survival plan?" to which Sara answered, "I would be dead."

After a 20 minute break, during which Val, Cristin, and I sat on the floor and got stepped on and spilled on while we made comments about people's footwear, they came back out with the full band do to a total rock show. We danced, clapped, sang, and screamed for the next hour and had the best time ever.

If I had one request, it would be that they stand on stools or something, because even though they were on a stage, I still had to stand on my tiptoes the whole time to be able to see their short little selves. But even the fact that my middle toe fell asleep and my arches were breaking, it was so worth it. They were magnificent and funny and being in a room full of people who loved them as much as I do was such a great experience.

It seems we made an impression on them as well. Once they were finished and had left the stage, we couldn't stop cheering. Finally they came back out, surprised to be doing an encore, and played two more songs. That seems normal, but they really don't usually do encores. They loved us, and told us so, and we loved them back.

Later on Twitter (yes, I follow them on Twitter), Tegan posted "Thank you Asheville. I have a serious crush on you. That show rocked my world. #wow"

Something To Do

You may have noticed that my posts have been few and far between over the course of this last month. This is not, as it was in France, a result of being exceptionally busy seeing and doing fantastically wonderful things. On the contrary, my lack of postage is directly correlated to the fact that I have nothing much to write about.

I am bored. At first it was a great feeling. I had nothing to do, nowhere to be, no worries whatsoever. After a month, feeling relaxed has led to feeling pointless.

So, I have become obsessed with hobbies. I jump rope to attempt to stay in shape (Europe has a way of making you fit that nothing in America can compare to), I bake (thus defeating the whole point of jumping rope), I've started playing guitar, I watch movies and read books, I look for jobs, and I scrapbook my year in France (this has become my obsession, although it makes me miss France even more.)

Besides my hobbies, there have been a few fun activities over the last month. Some of these I've already blogged about, but besides those I've gotten to hang out with my family and watch countless episodes of our newest fav NCIS, played putt putt with Valerie and Gwen, played violin in church every week, visited Hannah in Lynchburg after she got home from France, skyped with Camilla, and had a wonderful visit with my college buddies in Tennessee.

So really, looking back over this post, I feel like maybe my month home hasn't been a complete waste of time. It really is so nice to be back with my friends and family. The hard part is being so far away from everyone and attempting to fill my days while seriously missing France and the friends and life I've left behind.

The Zoo

"Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo. I do believe it, I do believe it's true."

I love Simon and Garfunkel. And I love the zoo.

I love sweating under the bamboo canopies, looking at elephants and pretending I'm really in Africa.

I love saying, Hey Mom, look at this! and seeing her cringe when she sees that I'm deviously pointing at a snake.

I love that I can get on my brother's nerves and boss him around all day and in the end he still loves me back.

I love that my dad only takes pictures of animals and flowers unless I do something stupid like get stuck on the back of a huge slippery bronze rhino. Then he takes a picture of me.

I love drifting from air vent to air vent in the aviary in an attempt to cool off while also blocking everyone's path.

And, did I mention I love the zoo?

Tegan and Sara

Friday night was one of the best nights of my life! Valerie, Amy, Cristin, and I got to take a road trip to Raleigh, NC to see Tegan & Sara and Paramore in concert!! I'd been looking forward to this night for months and it absolutely did not disappoint.

It was fantastic to get to see my friends again after all this time of being away. We talked, laughed, ate gyros, sweated in the 105 degree heat, danced, and sang our lungs out. It was magnificent.

And of course the music was fantastic. This was the first night of the Honda Civic Tour and a Swedish band called Kadawatha was up first. Next was New Found Glory.

Then came Tegan & Sara, the reason I wanted to go to this concert. They were so great and I've never enjoyed a concert more than I enjoyed that. They're amazing musicians and so funny when they chat with the audience in between songs. I would've liked to hear more of their banter but they didn't get a really long time onstage. And they're incredibly tiny, which makes them sort of disappear up there if you don't stand on your tiptoes to see them. Haha.

Up last was Paramore. I know a few of their songs and I liked them but I've never been a huge fan. Now I kinda am. They are awesome performers and really energetic. Haley's voice is powerful for such a little person and two of the band did a backflip over each other. Craziness!

So, we had so much fun, we're going to go to another Tegan and Sara concert in August! This will be a smaller venue and it'll be just them so hopefully there will be tons of hilarious stories and sibling pestering (they're twins, by the way). I cannot wait! So be aware, in about a month, there will be another post full to the brim of excitement and exclamation points!!!

The Next Chapter

I'm sitting on our porch swing, typing fast, racing the computer battery before it dies. I see the green hills and the red earth, the birds are splashing in the new bird bath and I'm pretty sure there is a cat or two (or five) napping somewhere nearby. It feels so good to be home.

But of course, the wind whistling over Windswept Farm makes me think of the wicked Mistral, which in turn makes me think of Marseille, and I feel just a little bit sad too.

But it's time to move on. A new chapter has begun. It's off to a nice but slow start. Immediately after I got home, the family and I went up to Richmond for my cousin Jackie's bridal shower. It was lovely but I felt so weird realizing we're now old enough to be getting married. Well, she is. I may be physically older than her but I'm pretty sure her mental/maturity age has always been far above mine.

Since then I've had some time to visit with a few friends and mostly just sit around the house getting hand cramps from filling out too many job applications. I'm simultaneously under- and over-qualified to do almost anything there is to do in this town.

So I've already moved on in my mind. I'm researching apartments, neighborhoods, things to do, theaters, and jobs in big cities as far away as Seattle. My parents aren't thrilled of course but after living in Europe for a year, Franklin County just seems a bit too small. Don't worry. I'll stick around at least long enough to make some money to fund my next adventure (assuming I ever find a job).

And that brings you to me now, sitting on the porch swing, mostly bored but happy to be amongst the familiar. Happy to be home.

A Solo Tour

If the only contact you have with my life is through this blog, you might be worried that I may have been "taken" during my 11 day solo tour of France. This is not the case. I have just been too lazy to write a new post. At least I'm honest. I could have said I've been too busy, but that would just be lying.

div>So, I toured Paris and Bretagne, completely alone! The alone part was a lot less fun than I expected but the sights were amazing. It's funny how some things I saw seemed even more beautiful after I got home and looked through pictures of them. Sometimes it's hard to take in all the beauty that's around us.

And once again, here's a little photo tour, the last one from this year in France. Enjoy!

The first city I visited (after miraculously dragging my two 50 pound suitcases all the way to Paris and dropping off with my host dad's mom) was Rennes, the capital of Bretagne (Brittany). I loved this city! It's smaller than Marseille and Paris but it's so clean and beautiful. The weather was cooler and I adored the colors and designs of the buildings in the downtown area.

Next was St. Malo. This was one of my favorite days of the trip for two reasons. One: St. Malo is gorgeous! The beach is perfect and the architecture of the city reminds me of what I think Bath in England might look like. The combination of the beach and the buildings is a little strange but also enchanting.

Two: This is the only day I wasn't travelling alone. While I did meet some other people to talk to in the evenings in my hostels, this was the only person who actually went sightseeing with me. We met in the hostel in Rennes and discovered we were both going to St. Malo the next day and just decided to go together. She's a French-Canadian teacher from Quebec and I'm sure I wore her out with all my questions about Canada. She was a good sport though and we spoke a weird mix of accented French and English all day. It was great!

The two pictures above are from Roscoff, a small town where you can catch the ferry to Ile de Batz, my next destination. This little place was so pretty. The first picture was a crazy sight to see in real life. I didn't understand until a few days later but apparently the tide was out and all the boats just sit on land until the tide comes back in to make them float. Kind of eerie.

Ile de Batz was another of my favorite destinations. I spent two nights and a full day on the island just relaxing and being calm. During the day, I rented a bike and pedalled all over the island. I read my French novel beside the duck pond, climbed to the top of the lighthouse, got chased off the road by numerous tractors, and paid a visit to the exotic botanical gardens. It was a day of tranquility.

And I ended my year-long French adventure in Paris. I had a wonderful time visiting museums, eating ice cream and macarons,...

...visiting The Thinker...

...and navigating the metro system. I learned a lot about myself, gained confidence, and tested my French speaking abilities on this little trip and it was a perfect end to this magnificent year in France. I can't believe it's already over but I'm quite sure I'll be back. I love it too much to stay away forever!

The Last Day of Alliance Francaise

Believe it or not, this particular Tuesday was the one I had been dreading since almost the beginning of the year. I know it's nerdy, but I was dreading the day I would be done at Alliance Francaise.

School has been my favorite thing about being here. Of course I loved working with the kids and travelling and all of that. That was all like the icing on the cake. But school is what I loved best.

Now, if Hannah was reading this right now (but she doesn't read my blog so we don't have to worry about that) she would be rolling her eyes at this point, the way she always does whenever I start gushing about school. But it's just true and I can't help it.

I love learning the intricacies of the French language. I love seeing the progress I've made throughout the year. I love my international friends, my teacher, the games, the grammar lessons, the movies, the lunch breaks at Paul, and even the building we were in. I love it all.

So Tuesday was the last day. We had so much fun that it made it that much harder to leave. In the morning we listened to music by Benjamin Biolay (le chanteur préféré de ma prof), played Taboo in French (my team won!), and went on a field trip to the African market of Noailles and the graffiti spattered streets of Cours Julien. Then we all ate lunch together, did the bisous, and said au revoir.

This was the second in the line of these unfortunate goodbyes. Leaving is so hard.

Une Colocataire

For this week in limbo between work and vacation, I've been living with Camilla in Cassis. It's been a great way to finish out the year, resting and spending time with my friends before we all leave to go our separate ways.

We've been going on adventures to the nearby beaches, concerts for the annual French 'Fete de la musique', and even so far as visits to Nice and Cannes.

Here's a little photo journey of our adventures so far:

First we spent a lazy afternoon lounging and swimming at the beach in nearby La Ciotat.

Then we did a whirlwind trip of Nice (pictured above) and Cannes all in one day.

And here we are on the red carpet in Cannes!!!

Au Revoir

Goodbyes are hard. You'd think I'd be getting used to them by now but I guess no one ever really does.

The first of this year's goodbyes was sad. How do you really say goodbye to a family you've lived with and kids you've taken care of for 10 months?

It's not like the goodbyes of leaving home to go study abroad for a year. In that case, you know you'll be home soon and most everything will be just as you left it. But this, I have no idea when I'll see again all these people I've come to know and love.

All I can say is, thank goodness for internet and Facebook, and even telephones and letters. In this age of communication, I'm glad France is just a click away.

Mozart l'Opera Rock

Finally, the day I'd been waiting for since February! Camilla and I got to see the French musical Mozart l'Opera Rock on June 13th at the Marseille Dome.

It's the story of Mozart's life with excellent period costumes, exerpts of Mozart's music, and fantastic rock songs (5 of which I have translated into English. The lyrics are just as amazing as the music.)

It was absolutely one of the highlights of my time here in France. I'm attaching a link to the video of my favorite of the songs. It's brilliant!

'Le bien qui fait mal'

A Birthday Party

This day started at 8:00am, two full hours before my alarm was set to go off. It was a text from Camilla. We were planning to go to her house with some friends to celebrate my birthday with a Mexican lunch at 11:30. She was letting me know that one of her kids was sick and she wouldn't be able to do the party, which means we no longer had a location for said party.

So I hauled myself out of bed and started contacting the appropriate people. I texted Hannah and woke her up too. Then I emailed our friend Marinella, who is Italian and doesn't have a French cell phone. Since I couldn't fall back to sleep while waiting for responses to my messages, I went ahead and took a shower and took the laundry off the line.

Finally we decided to have the lunch at my house and I would just pick up the two girls at the train station. I was going to leave at 11:10. By 11 I still hadn't heard back from Marinella, which probably meant she hadn't gotten the email and would end up in Cassis all alone. Then at 11:05 I got a call from Hannah saying she'd missed her bus. So, I raced out of the house to pick up Hannah, hoping to get to the train station quick enough to find Marinella on the train as it came through and get her to get off.

On the way, I got behind every slow, massive truck within a ten mile radius. I was annoyed. Hannah later called my behavior saucy. I called it agitated and pissed off.

Anyway, I got Hannah and got back to the train in time but there was no Marinella. So we walked up and down the platform peering into the windows trying to find her. It felt a little awkward. Then the train pulled away, leaving us alone on the platform.

So we drove to Cassis. And we found Marinella sitting all alone at the train station. And then we drove back to Aubagne. We gave her the grand tour of Aubagne (which lasts about 3 minutes) and went back to the house to make tacos and guacamole.

Finally, we sat down to eat. We were so hungry! I got through one taco. The gate buzzer went off. I set off to find my host dad to tell him some painters were here. He was gone. I met the painters. I tried to figure out if they were actually painters or lunatics out to steal our stuff. They were painters. This made me glad. I left them to do their job. Then host dad got home so I didn't have to worry anymore about unknown painters.

After that everything went just fine. We ate so much it was hard to stand up and since we couldn't stand up, we decided we might as well eat some cookies since we were already at the table. Then we went on a beautiful drive through the countryside, passing terraced gardens, cherry orchards, olive trees, and even two tiny nearby towns.

All in all, after the chaos of the morning, it turned out to be a really nice day. In the end, I dropped Marinella off at the bus, Hannah at her house, and now I am in my room, about to take a nap, which in my opinion, makes any day great.

A Sampling

I generally get annoyed if people wait really long between each post and then apologize each time they enter a new one, but that's what I'm going to do tonight. I haven't been a diligent blogger and I apologize.

I do sort of have an excuse, or two. It is partly due to the fact that I am busy thinking about trying to get everything I've accumulated this year home in a suitcase and a few shipping boxes. It may also have something to do with thinking no one reads this anyway except the Chinese website who keeps leaving inappropriate comments on my posts.

But despite it all, I am back to keep you in the know. The first thing you should know is that it's summertime. I know it's been hot back home for months now but summer just sprang upon us here and it is hot. It's not just muggy, swimming through air kind of hot. No, this hot has to do with the sun. The hot, Mediterranean sun. The sun that scalds your eyeballs and makes you see twinkly stars in the middle of the day. The sun that has turned my practically translucent skin to a toasty, probably unhealthy, brown.

But with scalded eyes and toasty skin comes lounging by the pool and taking refreshing dips in the sea. That makes it all worthwhile. All the flowers around are jealous. They wish they could take dips in the sea. They are unfortunately all dying of heat stroke. At least they didn't have to brave jellyfish infested waters last weekend like I did. Scary!

The other piece of info, which most of you probably know, is that I just had a birthday! Twenty-three years of being alive. I think that's kind of an accomplishment. I celebrated the day before with an aperitif at our neighbor's house and then dinner with my host family. It was lovely! I then celebrated the actual day by going to school (which did make me happy) and then spending the rest of the day by myself, moping about being alone.

But tomorrow, I'm getting a mini party at Camilla's house in Cassis with some buddies and I'm really excited about it. Tacos and guacamole!! Somehow I moved to France and fell in love with Mexican food. Hm. Maybe that's because it's so ridiculously hard to find in a restaurant here.

I've also gotten some encouragement on my French speaking abilities this past week so that makes me really happy. I'm always a novelty in the local McDonalds, which can sometimes be incredibly annoying or sometimes it's great, and this time I had a nice conversation with the man taking my order and he told me I speak good French. That made my day.

Then later my host family told me I was finally mastering the R sound. In my opinion, that is the hardest sound in the realm of human communicative sounds. Well, that is until I heard Camilla's family speak Polish and changed my mind. But still, R is hard.

Finally, today I was able to have a typing conversation with my French teacher from college. We were able to have the whole conversation in French and I was so excited about how much I've learned since I've been here. I definitely have a long way to go but I haven't given up hope.

So, I guess that gets you pretty much up to date. Hopefully it won't take me as long next time to write and hopefully I won't get any more inappropriate comments. (But I doubt it. It's been happening a lot. I should probably reflect a little before posting blog titles with the word "nudity" in them, even if it was completely innocent.)

I'll be stateside in less than a month. So, see you soon!!

Birthdays

We got to celebrate two birthdays this week. Paul turned 7 on Monday and Marie turned 4 on Wednesday. Wow, 7 and 4! It's hard to believe how much they've grown in just the time I've been here.

I wasn't there for Paul's treasure hunt birthday party since I was busy getting lost in Cassis with Valerie, but on Monday night we got to be there for his birthday dinner and presents. That night, we all, including Valerie, gathered on the floor of his bedroom to play his new game "Qui-est?" That's our "Guess Who." I adored that game when I was a kid. It's a bit trickier in French, especially when one of your team members speaks no French, another (me) speaks enough but can't for the life of them figure out if the other team is saying 'blond' or 'white' (those are startlingly similar in French), and the other making the other two play because it is more humorous. Obviously, Paul's team won.

Next was Marie's day. There was a party and for the first half, I was the child wrangler. My job was to keep them upstairs in Marie's room while downstairs was being set up for her treasure hunt. Keeping 6 fidgety 3 and 4 year olds in one room is not as easy as I had anticipated, especially if one is strong-willed and already possesses strong leadership qualities. I had to run down the stairs on a few retrieval missions.

But it was fun and entertaining. I ate way too much sugar and regretted it later on but it was yummy. And what a great opportunity it was to practice out my French. I think I was mostly successful but judging by some of the blank or confused looks, I think some of the kids just thought I was stupid. Hm.

Valerie

Valerie came to see me!

Yep, she flew all the way over here. Amidst volcanic ash, flight delays, and rescheduling, she managed to arrive only 5 hours late. Not too shabby.

We had a blast. The first day in Marseille we checked out Chateau d'If for my third time, climbed the mountains of Iles de Frioul in the middle of the mistral (exceptionally strong wind), watched an old man get attacked by an angry boyfriend for taking inappropriate pictures of the girlfriend, and got attacked ourselves by a giant seagull.

The next day, we spent an entire day sneezing as we strolled down the shady boulevards of Aix-en-Provence, the pollen floating off the trees around us like a sparkling, golden fairy dust. It felt horrible. But the shopping was great. We checked out American Apparel and had a serious 80s flashback. I don't know how many times we caught ourselves saying, "Hey, my mom had that!" We also found toy stores, gelato shops, cafes for hot chocolate, and of course, crepes. I have discovered that having company is not beneficial to my waistline.

Sunday, we had a nice lunch with Camilla and two of her Polish friends in Cassis. Then we walked to the port and had a lovely time sleeping on the rocky beach, listening to two British brothers singing 60s songs, and eating more gelato. When it was time to go home, we went in search of our friends who were going to drop us at the train station. I don't know what it is about Cassis but I always get lost there. It is one of the smallest towns I have ever been to and all roads lead down to the sea and somehow, I still get lost, every single time. Long story short, we didn't find our ride and we walked an hour to the train station arriving exaclty 10 minutes after our train had left. Oh well.

Monday and Tuesday I had school so Valerie was left to fend for herself in Marseille for the morning. The first day seemed to go just fine. She hung out at Vieux Port and did some shopping and still managed to walk all the way to school to meet me for lunch. The next day she went to the park and had some less than pleasant experiences. But she was fine and after it all, we had a crepe picnik in the grass in the middle of the city beside the carousel and it was fun.

And in between all of that, she got to meet my host family, play with the kids, and get very familiar with Aubagne's two good restaurants. It was a relaxed week and I had a lot of fun getting to show her how I've been living this year.

I am now feeling bittersweet about coming home in a little over a month. I will desperately miss things about my life here and I'm sure I will get homesick for this life, but I can hardly wait to come home to a place where I am surrounded by familiar: the language, the sounds, the smells, the food, the faces. I'm ready to be back somewhere that I feel like I fit in. Haha, this is exactly opposite what I was feeling when I left for this crazy adventure. We'll see how long it lasts once I'm stateside.

The Rest

I'm not going to lie. As much fun as I had on vacation with my family, and as much as I love all the pictures (12,600!) and all the memories we've taken from it, I'm ready to move on. I'm doing other things now and have other stories to tell, but I feel like I can't because I'm a bit OCD about order and I can't post about now before I've posted about then. So, once again, I'm going to let pictures mostly speak for themselves and leave it at that.

Cassis: Cap Canaille. We also met up with my friend Camilla and did a boat tour of the calanques (inlets).

Marseille: Chateau d'If (think Count of Monte Cristo). I also took them around to places I go often, like school and my favorite cafes.

Aix-en-Provence: Great shopping and beautiful boulevards and fountains.

Arles: Ancient Roman ruins, like this colosseum.

Les Baux: Medieval walled village on a hill, complete with castle. Here we're watching a trebuchet demonstration.

Bandol: On this day we drove along the coast discovering towns like Le Castellet (another old walled town) and Bandol, a coastal resort area.

Bouillabaise: Special fish soup of Marseille and the surrounding area. We got ours in Cassis.

Pont du Gard: Ancient Roman aqueduct.

Roussillon: Cliffs of ochre.

Gordes: Perfect Provencial town. Featured in movies like A Good Year.

Carmargue: A marsh area where much of the rice and salt of France comes from. There is also a ton of interesting wildlife like pink flamingos, white horses, and black bulls.

So, that was our vacation in a really teeny nutshell. It was fantastic to spend so much time with my family and also to discover that all of these awesome places are so close to me right now.