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.