3 Month Mark

It's official - I am a resident of France. I have officially been here longer than 3 months, the limit one can stay as a tourist without having to obtain a visa. I have a french bank account, a french social security number, a french phone number, and a french health insurance card! I live here. I live in France.

"What did you do after you graduated college?"

"Oh, I just lived in France for a while..."

I take the bus. I walk around the shops. I run errands. I talk to strangers in a foreign language and people ask me where my accent is from. I speak another language on a daily basis. I hang out with my amazing European friends. I much on cheese and eat baguettes every day. I wear stripes and a baret and smoke cigarettes (kidding about the last one, of course).

I live in France.

The past three months have been such an amazing adventure and experience. Being TRULY away from home for the first time in my life - living somewhere other than LA. Not being able to run home whenever I felt like it. I've definitely felt the repercussions of that in the form of homesickness, but I also now get to call France home as well.

If you haven't heard, I will be coming back to LA for 2 weeks in January to visit. Then I'll be going back to France. I'll be going home to France? LA is my vacation? It's a weird concept to wrap my mind around... but I can't wait.

When I first booked the ticket, I felt a huge relief. I will admit, I am homesick. But as the date approaches, I find myself realizing that I will miss France and all it comes with. Two weeks will be the perfect amount of time. A nice refresher to refuel on family time and feed on the familiar (literally feed, I am so sick of eating nothing but French food).

After a hard bought of homesickness around Thanksgiving, I'm finally falling into the groove of things here. Last weekend, for example, was amazing. After work Saturday, I spent a cozy night watching movies with friends. Sunday morning, Giulia, my Italian friend, picked me up and we picked up Steph - who lives in Le Beausset. It's a tiny village up in the mountains north of Toulon. It was such a gorgeous drive - total french country-side. From there, we went to go visit Mary, a fellow American, in her town of Belgentier. It was even farther and smaller than Steph's village, but well worth the trip. It was quaint and very French, which I was thankful for. It was my first time meeting Mary, who is from Boston, and it was SO nice having another American around!!! You would not believe how much trouble me and Steph have communicating some times haha British English and American English are two completely different languages. So it was fun to compare them both all afternoon. Mary showed us around for a bit:

Pretty river running under the bridge in town.

HILARIOUS cat that sat in a flower pot and stared at us the whole time we walked around town.

*Fun Fact: Behind the cat is a giant sequoia tree that some American came and planted. I forgot to take a picture of it though...

view of the quaint little streets

park.

After walking around a bit, Mary drove us up to Sollies - a town east of where we were that overlooked the villages below. Amazing views:

There was also some neat castle thing behind us:

Afterwards we went back into town and had a coffee at one of 2 bars in the village (both located right next to each other). We ended up staying and chatting for almost 3 hours, much to the entertainment of the rest of the patrons I can imagine. Before leaving a random BASEBALL TEAM walked in for drinks. Weird for several reasons. 1) Baseball is basically non-existant in France. 2) Of all cities to find baseball, why in a tiny town in the countryside?? Regardless, it was an entertaining way to end our evening :)

Instead of going home, I went over to Steph's house to hang out. I really missed that, just hanging out a friend's house. Since we all live with the families we work for, most of our free time is spent blowing off steam at a bar or restaurant...so it's rare to just hang out and watch TV - which is exactly what I did at Steph's. We ate cheese, and homemade bread, and salad, and fruit, and sweet potato while watching some hilarious British sitcoms courtesy of Steph :)

It was a perfectly simple weekend.

Now enjoy a video of the view pictured above. Soundtrack provided by the lovely Edith Piaf and cameo by the lovlier Steph Wood.

Lyon: Part Deux

Lyon last weekend was wonderful!! It was nice, because last time I went to visit Mallory in Lyon we saw all the tourist stuff...so this weekend was more laid back. My train was a bit delayed Saturday night and I was pretty hungry when I got there, so we went straight to McDonalds (known to the French as McDo - pronounced "mac-doe"). I know what you're thinking, but Mickey D's doesn't have the same bad reputation here as it does in the states. I was actually really curious to see what all the fuss is about...it's actually semi-respectable here. I guess more like a California Pizza Kitchen?? Hard to explain. Anyways, it was the only thing that was open and I was starving so we went in. In case you have never seen the movie Pulp Fiction, please watch the following clip (around the 1:00 mark) to guess what I ordered off the menu.

Yes, it is really called a Royale with Cheese. And yes, they really do eat everything with mayo. And no, it wasn't all that disgusting. Not my first choice, though...

Mallory's Thanksgiving package that her parents sent her didn't arrive until after Thanksgiving, so we had some extra supplies and decided to make another mini one - Thanksgiving Light, if you will. We went to a pretty open air market on the river to get fresh veggies and a roasted chicken (a well deserved short cut/alternative to the turkey). It was really cold, but super pretty. Even though it had stopped snowing the day before, everything was still snow capped. Everyone was bundled and there were christmas decorations everywhere. It was magical :)

Here are the very few pictures I managed to take before my fingers froze from taking my gloves off:

That last one is the view from Mallory's apartment window. After walking around the shop and making a pitstop at Starbucks to refuel, me, Mal, and her friend Jess went back to Mal's place and whipped up dinner. A couple friends came by, we ate and listened to music, and by the end everyone was really sleepy - that's how you know you did Thanksgiving right.

The next day, Mallory had work so I slept in. On her break we went to Starbucks yet again, and after I walked around Lyon for a bit while Mal went back to work. I finally got myself some warm and cozy winter clothes! Oh how sunshine-y LA jaded me into thinking temperatures below 50 don't really exist... That night Mal, Jess, and I got dinner at L'epicerie - a cozy little restaurant that serves a variety of tartines. Mine was brie with honey and almonds, yum. We also had the joy of drinking some vin chaud while we waited for our table. This translates literally as "hot wine", and is just that - with some mulled spices mixed in, like a combination of wine and hot apple cider. Surprisingly delicious :) After dinner, we grabbed a drink at the James - Mal's local spot - then headed home.

This week in Lyon was the Fête Des Lumières - basically a festival of lights once a year to thank Mary for protecting the city back in 1643 from the plague. The whole city is lit up and everyone puts candles in their windowsills. Unfortunately, I left the day before the festival started...BUT I did get a sneak peak of the cathedral at night before I left:

The week since then has been pretty mellow...just workin' and going to school. I'll keep you all posted if anything exciting happens, but do keep in mind that I spend most of my time in the house with the baby! I generally measure how well my day went based on how many diapers I had to change. Some days are magnificent, others are...well...shitty.

Happy Friday!

December

Happy December!!

I made it through Thanksgiving...barely haha Thursday I spent most of the day working and talking to friends and family. It was a bit rough knowing everyone was together and I was stuck on the other side of the world during a truly American holiday. I hit my homesickness peak, to say the least. That Sunday, however, I completed my first solo Thanksgiving dinner! I made everything on my list and finished it on time too! My friend Steph came over to help me with the preparations. I ended up having to make a chicken instead of a turkey...but other than that everything was delicious!! Apparently, the grocery stores here don't sell whole turkeys until Christmas time. I would have had to order one from the butcher about a week in advance, plus they're really expensive and I wasn't feeding that many people. But fear not - the chicken and stuffing was delicious! It was the first time me or Steph had stuffed anything...so it was quite the comical experience. Out of everything (chicken, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread, green bean casserole, peas, carrots, corn, garlic mashed potatoes, lemon pepper zucchini, and sweet potato fries) my one pride and joy was my homemade pumpkin pie! It was my first time making it, and I gotta say: it was way better than any store bought pie I've ever had. I made enough dough and filling for two, so we got to eat pumpkin pie for the rest of the week! No complaints here.

The dinner was well received, aside from the fact that some of the dishes got cold by the time I got around to putting everything on the table and getting everyone sat and organized. It was really interesting sharing Thanksgiving with people who have never experienced it before. Traditional dishes and all. And who says Americans have no culture? ;)

After Thanksgiving, I felt a lot better. Not only was it delicious, but it actually felt like a real Thanksgiving! Even if it was 3 days late. I don't think Christmas will be too bad either. Today I went to the little Christmas market in town they have set up in the plaza with the baby. Everything was red and white and green and best of all - they were playing Christmas carols in English! Feels just like Christmas at home.

In other news, it has been FREEZING over here!! Granted, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California (aka the Sunshine State) - but still. This morning it was 33˚F and earlier this week IT SNOWED. SNOW!!!! ok ok...it was only for like 15 minutes in the early morning and it didn't stick or anything...but for me this is huge. I had to buy a turtleneck out of necessity yesterday.

Tonight after work I'll be hopping on the train to Lyon to visit Mallory again! It's been snowing over there all week so we shall see how I survive. Hopefully I can find a nice winter coat to buy, because lord knows I did not adequately pack for this kind of weather.

I'll let everyone know how my trip to Lyon goes on Tuesday when I come back!

In the meantime, be jealous of my delicious pumpkin pie...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The happiest of Thankgivings to everyone out there!!! Words cannot express how homesick it makes me to be away for this holiday. I always figured it would be Christmas that got me, but Christmas exists here - so it's not so bad. But seeing everyone's status updates and pictures on facebook about Thanksgiving makes me miss the comforts of home so much!!!

Momma Blanca sent me an AMAZING Thanksgiving care package, so everyone cross your fingers that I don't botch Thanksgiving dinner when I try this weekend. I will keep you posted!

Thankful for every single one of my friends and family :)

French Kissing

Bizou = kiss; little kiss, kisses

The concept of the kiss in french is a bit strange for me to grasp. Mostly in terms of vocabulary, but also in practice (I mean in a friendly way, so relax all male relatives out there...ahem...dad).

I cannot seem to get a hang of this one-kiss-per-cheek-when-saying-hello thing in France. It's not the kissing total strangers on the cheek thing that's weird...after all I come from a big Mexican family where a kiss on the cheek is how we say hello. It's the TWO kisses that gets me. Personally, I'm a hugger. I go in for a friendly hug. If I don't know you that well, you might get the one-armed hug. But in general, I go straight for the hug. Big mistake here. Why? Because while I'm going in for a hug out of habit, a french person is going for a kiss on the cheek...so by the time I realize my mistake and try to correct myself, the french person is now fumbling to hug me back to be polite...which results in an awkward dance that nobody enjoys. What's even worse, is that even when I do remember to go for the kiss on the cheek, I always hesitate because I never know which side to start out on. Even BIGGER mistake. Why? Because if the other person is going for the same side, I end up kissing someone (sometimes a person I am meeting for the first time) right on the mouth. This almost happened to me twice today alone (luckily it was while saying goodbye to my friends). This is why I prefer the far less complicated one-kiss-on-only-one-cheek that I am accustomed to.

I'm used to kissing family members and relatives, sometimes close friends, on the cheek when saying hello or goodbye. But here is customary to do it (one per cheek) to everyone - friends, relatives, family, even people you are introduced to for the first time (unless it's in a business setting, I would assume). This is SUPER strange for me to see out and about. Coming from an American "macho man" culture, it is totally bizarre to be walking through the mall and see two manly 20-something-year-old guys run into each other and give "bizous" on the cheek instead of the classic "what's up man" head nod, a high five, or informal handshake to maintain personal space. Totally blew my mind the first time I saw it. If you saw two American guys, who weren't related, come up to each other and give a kiss on each cheek in LA, it's probably because you're in West Hollywood.

The other concept that's difficult for me to completely understand is the vocabulary of the word "kiss" itself. Bizou is the familiar word for "kiss" or "little kiss". It's what you say when you hang up the phone or end a text...like saying "kisses!". However, the actual word for a kiss as a noun is baiser. BUT, beware, because the second you use baiser as a verb and conjugate it as an action, it takes on the meaning "to fuck" (pardon my french...hahahahaha). The correct word for the VERB of kissing, or "to kiss" is embrasser. This is confusing for us English speakers because it sounds like our word for "embrace" - as in to hug. Well that is because it does, as well, mean "to hug" - further complicating things. So in a conversation, if worded the wrong way, you could say that you f*cked your neighbor instead of kissed...or accidentally ask someone for a kiss instead of a hug. I guess the safest route would be to use the phrase donner un baiser à... which means "to give a kiss to..." But still, the whole thing confuses me.

I remember when I first got here my host mom, totally amused by the English term "French Kissing" asked me at the dinner table "if I had every french kissed before, but REALLY french kissed, as in with tongue" (which she then acted out for me, in case I didn't know what she was talking about). Her husband, clearly mortified, told her to stop - that of course I knew what french kissing was. She responded with "Well how am I supposed to know???". I just about died laughing.

So...in case you had any trouble visualizing my awkwardness in cheek kissing vs. hugging situations, please enjoy the following clip from Just Friends starring Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart:

Biz!!

New Country, New Hair

Bangs.

Turkey Day

I have yet again fallen behind on telling you all about my fun weekend I mentioned a few posts back, but I have been very busy planning what I'm going to do for Thanksgiving dinner!! My momma has been nice enough to offer to send me a care package of ingredients that won't be available to me over here.

Here is the menu I have planned so far:

-Turkey and stuffing (of course)

-Mashed potatoes and gravy

-Green bean casserole

-Cranberry sauce

-Sweet potato fries

-Lemon pepper zucchini

-Deviled eggs

-Bread Rolls

-Corn Bread

-Pumpkin pie

-Apple cider

Now I need your help: AM I FORGETTING ANYTHING???

If you see that I'm forgetting something crucial or painfully obvious from the traditional Thanksgiving meal, please let me know in the comments section! :)

Thanks in advance!!

2 Month Mark

2 months down, 10 more to go!

Today officially marks 2 months since I landed in France. Doesn't it feel like I just posted something like this yesterday? Déja vu? Nope, you read right. 2 months have passed.

This is officially the longest I have every been away from home. And I'm feeling it. Halloween was rough, but Thanksgiving and Christmas will be even rougher. Especially since a) Thanksgiving doesn't exist here and b) my host mom announced there will be no Christmas tree this year because Gabriele is going through that phase where everything must be touched, eaten, or broken by her very hands. It really is incredible how much damage such a small person can cause.

In case you don't know, Christmas is just about my favorite holiday. Well, I love the entire "holiday season" - from Halloween to New Years, everything about it. But something about Christmas...I always go all out with lights and decorations, I listen to Christmas music year round, I make my own ornaments, I wear red and green, I simply LOVE Christmas. And Christmas without my family is just going to be so so so difficult.

But as Gloria Gaynor (and later Selena and later Me at a karaoke bar on my birthday) once said, "I Will Survive". I have made some great friends here and I have my 2 weeks vacation in January to look forward to! I'm thinking of doing Paris, Lyon, Blois, and hopefully Luxembourg.

Plus, I'm planning on cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my international friends! Me being the only American, it will be a completely new experience for everyone...which could be really fun. It would be my first time making the turkey though...any suggestions?? And as far as Christmas goes, I think I'll just have to put up a little tree in my room. It was bad enough the year my mom got a fake tree for our house, but NO TREE??? I simply cannot have it.

New Years Eve I will be working and New Years Day I will be driving to Paris.

But don't worry, I WILL survive the holidays.

Placeholder

I didn't have time to do a proper post about my fab weekend, so in the meantime...I'm posting a video I took in Lyon last weekend when visiting Mallory. It's a view of the city from the cathedral on top of the hill. Enjoy :)

How To Make My Day 101

SEND ME MAIL.

Seriously, even the tiniest little postcard or a simple letter in an envelope means more to me than you could imagine. I am shamelessly asking for mail.

Lately, I've been quite spoiled. Let's recap:

After Johnny's awesome cards, I got an AMAZING care package from my friend Clark Barbieri :) It consisted of a box of brownie mix, 3 seasons of Scrubs on DVD (did I mention my frustration for not being able to watch anything in English?? I'll get into that later), a special Chuck collector's mug (our favorite show), and OVER A DOZEN DIDDY RIESE COOKIES!! If you have never tried Diddy Riese and you live in LA, get your butt over to Westwood right now and try some, they're amazing. Clark even went through the trouble of individually wrapping each cookie in 2 layers of cellophane and tin foil. It was incredible!!!

A little bit after, I received a much needed care package from my momma. You see, there isn't much of a "fall", in the American sense, here in France. First of all, there are no pumpkins. Well, maybe like 2...but nothing like the pumpkin patches on every corner and in front of every super market in the states. Needless to say, there is nothing pumpkin flavored either. No Halloween decorations, no jack-o-lanters, no pumpkin pie, no isles filled with candy at the supermarket...you get the idea. So my momma sent me: a pumpkin scented candle, a mini pumpkin, a picture of the whole family circa 1994 dressed in costume in a "Happy Halloween" frame, a plastic jack-o-lantern picture holder with a picture of David's latest football portrait, a gigantic can of pumpkin with 2 cans of concentrated milk to make pumpkin pie (!!!), tostadas to make ceviche (lack of Mexican food in France), and a stationary set. Needless to say, that took care of the Autumn blues right quick :) and my room smells like pumpkin!!

Then came the super secret package...My host mom came home one day with a large box that wasn't from the USPS with no sender noted. I hadn't been expecting anything so I had no idea what it was or who it was from. It turned out to be 3 deliciously scented fancy pants Dayna Decker candles! We searched all over the inside and outside of the box looking for a sender. I had no idea who would send me such a nice surprise! Finally, hidden in the top corner of an invoice, I saw the name of my friend Clark Smith :) He had meant for it to be a complete surprise, but I figured it out! haha it was a lovely surprise, nonetheless.

jWhen me and my cousin, Alyssa, were little, we used to write in little journals with sparkly pens for 1 week at a time, and then mail the journals to each other and switch off. Before I left for France, I found the journals and me and Alyssa went through them - laughing at our adorable 11 year old narratives ("My mom wouldn't take me to the mall today and now I'm mad"). So about a week ago, I received a package from Alyssa containing a brand new (grown up, I may add) journal. We decided to bring back our journal writing tradition since Alyssa is in her last year at UCSB and I'm doing my year in France - so it's a big year for the both of us. I couldn't be happier to read about everything that's going on in her life and I'm excited to share mine with her as well.

When I got home from Lyon, I had an envelope waiting for me on the kitchen table. It was from my friend Madisson, whom I met in high school and have been lucky enough to stay in touch with (for the most part). This was a nice change of pace because it was a good ol' fashioned hand-written letter - 5 pages long :) Me and Madisson haven't seen each other in a while or been able to catch up on our lives, so it was incredibly nice to hear from him. Of course I love my care packages, but there's nothing like the intimacy of a hand written letter - especially in the days of e-mail, facebook, and well...blogging :) Looks like me being in France has given me a really good excuse to rekindle old friendships and really push to keep in touch with everyone.

Today I had the lovely surprise of a postcard from my friend Léa! Léa is also living in France, in a town called Blois, working as a teaching assistant (like Mallory does in Lyon). In case anyone didn't know, I collect postcards from all over...and they're one of my favorite things to receive (and send!) in the mail. Even though Léa is in the same country as me, it's nice to get something from someone without them feeling so far away. In other words, ALL mail is welcome :)

So in case you couldn't tell from the length of this post, mail makes my day. In any length, shape, or form. From post cards to packages - it all means more to me than anyone could know. Don't know what to send? Send me ANYTHING! Postcards are cheap AND add to my collection! You don't even have to write anything on it, just send it to my address with a heart and your name :) Send me a mix CD! I can't download any music, and my itunes bill is getting out of hand. Send me ANY english language movie - perhaps your favorite? It's rare to find things in English here. The French love watching things in, you guessed it, French. They do voice-overs on pretty much everything. So movies are welcome as well. Pictures too! Pictures of anything!! I can't stress it enough, ANYTHING will suffice. If you don't already have my address, e-mail me at mhernandez25@gmail.com or contact me on facebook and I'll message it to you. If you want it to be a surprise...well...get creative?? haha Perhaps ask one of my friends on facebook or my mom for my address. I don't want to just post my address on the internet for obvious reasons.

And with that I'll leave you with one of my favorite videos from a time before the internet when people were SO excited about getting mail, they just had to sing about it:

Working Backwards: Nice

I know I'm working a bit out of order here, but before I go on to tell you about my weekend in Nice from 3 weeks ago, let me just tell everyone that I just had an AMAZING weekend here with my friends :) but more on that later...

So the weekend of October 23rd, me and a group of about ten of us all went to Nice for the weekend! I had work Saturday afternoon as did a couple of my friends, so we left Sunday afternoon and stayed until Tuesday morning. Even though it was stormy/rainy the entire time we were there, the city is still absolutely beautiful!! Here are some shots from the train ride along the coast:

Beautiful. We arrived in Nice in the early evening and walked straight to the apartment we were staying at - which ended up being RIGHT in the middle of the city. For the whole weekend we didn't have to worry about driving, buses, or any sort of public transportation - we were so close to everything we simply walked everywhere. It was grand.

That night we just got settled and went out for dinner at a place called "Buffalo Grill" which I think was American cuisine?? haha I kid. Burgers and fries and haricots verts. I ordered the California Burger and was really confused when it didn't come with avocado...but that's besides the point. Afterwards, we headed to an Irish pub just around the corner - thankful to find anything that was open on a Sunday (revert to previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about). And just our luck - Sundays was karaoke night!! Needless to say, it was a fun night. We had a couple drinks and sang the night away :) Cue the silly karaoke slideshow:

The next day, my German friends Thuy, Sophia, Christopher, Markus, and I went to explore the city. We grabbed some lunch at a nice little French place and I had my first real French Onion Soup. I gotta say though...the one Mallory made for me back in the states was waaayyy better :) haha but then again this was only one restaurant in all of France. I'll have to give it another try soon.

After lunch we took a walk down to the coast. There is this giant round citadel type thing that you can climb up with a great view of the city and a park on top, so we went ahead and did that. BEAUTIFUL. By the end of that climb we were pretty beat, so we walked back into town, had a cup of hot chocolate and a crepe, and went back to the apartment for a nap. That night we took it easy and went out for dinner at a pizza place. Apparently it is totally normal to crack an egg over your pizza here...buuuuuut considering I can't anything less than scrambled, it wasn't really my cup of tea. Thankfully, my friend Steph took the more oeuf-y side. After that, we headed back and watched a movie and went to bed - all 10 of us crammed in a 1 bedroom apartment, in true euro-traveler fashion!

And now, for the pictures that make you jealous of my life. Enjoy:

Working Backwards: Lyon

Welcome Back...to me! So half of my absence is not my fault, the internet has been down over here for a while and we just barely got up and running again. The other half...well...laziness :)

I have so many things to catch everybody up on! But because I've gotten to do so many cool things lately, I'm going to start with the most recent/fresh in my memory and move backwards. I hope nobody minds :)

This past weekend I went to Lyon to finally visit Mallory!! I was supposed to leave Saturday night (the 30th) around 7:15, and get there just in time for a round of drinks with Mal. My host mom, however, had to run an errand before dropping me off at the train station and I ended up missing my train :/ Marjorie felt so bad she bought me the first ticket for Sunday morning - very sweet of her considering that Sunday train tickets are much more expensive than Saturday tickets (although any ticket would have been expensive since the past 2 weeks have been vacation here in France for a national holiday). So I was on the train bright and early Sunday morning! I arrived in Lyon and Mallory picked me up from the train station.

First stop: Starbucks. Now in case you don't know this about me, I love my coffee - and I especially love my Starbucks. Ask any barista in my local area back home, since most know me by name. In fact, I love my coffee so much that it started giving me tummy aches and making me shaky. Turns out that third latte isn't always a good idea...Anyways, I decided to give it up and I haven't had any coffee since I got to France, which has been rough. I finally caved on the way home from my weekend in Nice, but I still hadn't had that familiar taste of a Starbucks iced soy chai latte. So that was exactly what I did when I got into Lyon, which was a miracle considering that EVERYTHING in France is closed on Sundays. And I do mean, everything. Grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, retail stores, you name it - it's closed. Except, of course, good ol' American Starbucks. It was magical.

From there, we went back to Mallory's apartment (which is super cute, by the way) and relaxed for a bit. We made some pasta, sautéed some veggies, and watched some Modern Family for the better part of the afternoon (did I mention everything is closed on Sundays??). Afterwards, we got dressed and ready for our night out. Halloween isn't something that is really celebrated in France...I mean, there are a few people who dress up...but in comparison to the states - it's NOTHING. But just because France doesn't know how to do Halloween right, doesn't mean me and Mallory don't! We layered every piece of black clothing we had (it's pretty chilly in Lyon), donned some kitty ears, busted out the eyeliner, and voilà - black cats.

We took the metro to a different part of town, had an amazing dinner at an adorable french restaurant, and then headed to Mal's favorite Irish pub - the St. James. We weren't sure if it was even going to be open, but since Halloween is, after all, an Irish holiday to begin with, it was alive and PACKED with festive people. Me and Mal had a blast, so much in fact, that we accidentally missed our last metro and had to walk home 3 miles in the rain...hehehe whoops! Worth it.

The next day, we did some shopping, and then walked around all of Lyon. Mal took me to the Fourviere Cathedral which was absolutely STUNNING! Not only was the church itself beautiful, but it's also situated on top of a hill which overlooks the entire city. The inside was amazing too, but I couldn't take any pictures because mass was going on. Afterwards, we headed to the Roman ruins that are also in Lyon, below the cathedral. Now this was amazing to me for 2 reasons:

1) Roman ruins. That one is pretty self explanatory. Anything that has managed to make it since 57 BC is pretty darn impressive in my book.

2) THE TREES WERE ORANGE, YELLOW, AND RED!! Sometimes all at the same time!! Ok ok...I'm not crazy. I am fully aware that real fall trees exist in cities other than Los Angeles. But growing up in a tiny green coastal town my whole life, you don't see much of it. Especially like this. I was very impressed.

So autumn colors + Roman ruins = lots of pictures...and me taking a leaf home with me :)

That night we went back to the St. James with some of Mallory's friends and had an amazing time. It was fun meeting new people in a different city.

Tuesday morning I went home for work that afternoon, and now here I am! OH also, I got a haircut today, but I'll post pictures of that later (don't worry, it's just my bangs :] ).

And tomorrow, my Nice post...

MIA

Sorry everyone!! I've been an absolutely terrible blogger. Yes, I am alive. Yes, I am healthy. Yes, I am having fun :)

The internet is down at my house right now so I can only check my email on my crappy little French cell...and that's about it :/ I'm at an internet café right now, but I can't stay for long. I will post a big, long, picture-packed post as soon as the internet is up and running again! In the meantime, be patient :)

PS: no internet = no skype, no skype = no phone calls, unfortunately.

1 Month Mark

1 month down, 11 more to go!

October 12th officially marked one month since I landed in France. Crazy to think that a whole month has gone by, right?? After a few more weeks, it will be the longest I've ever consecutively been away from home/LA...second to my 5 week trip to Peru in 2007.

I suppose things are finally starting to sink in. I definitely planned this trip without thinking about the time or distance, on purpose of course. The last thing I wanted to do was psych myself out and end up being too afraid to go. But now that I'm here, the distance has definitely become a reality - especially when talking to the other au pairs. For everyone else, home is usually at maximum 2 hours away...either by plane or train. The other girls get to go home for Christmas, call their families in the same time zone, not have to worry about exchange rates in currency (for the most part). It never occurred to me when I left that I would be the most foreign one here...well, as far as distance goes.

I suppose a little bit of homesickness has been seeping through. But then I think about it, and I think about how amazing it is that I'm here. I made it! I'm living the dream. I eat brie with my dinner every night. What more could a girl ask for?

I definitely expected this around the first month. I was mentally prepared to face homesickness. Really, I just have to make it through the holidays and then I'll be fine. Starting the first week of January, I have 2 weeks vacation! And it'll be off to Paris for me :)

Maybe I need some kind of change to distract me...I have been feeling the itch for something different lately...perhaps a new haircut? Piercing? Tattoo? All of the above?? I'll keep you posted. After all, when in Rome...

I do want to give a big THANK YOU to my big brother, Johnny for sending me mail :) I was so pleased to receive not only a Halloween card, but a Congratulations card for my graduation (in June) and a Happy Birthday card for my belated birthday (in August)! Better late than never, right Johnny?? Especially since he is the ONLY ONE SO FAR to have sent me anything!!!

(Hint hint, my loyal readers...)

Ok that's a lie...Mallory sent me something too, but she LIVES in France and she's already come to visit me so really it's just no competition. Plus it just sounds more dramatic to say that Johnny is the only one to have sent me anything.

Even a simple postcard is greatly appreciated! Did I mention I collect those??? Photos would be grand too...

I will leave you with a picture of the gigantic wheel of brie that is the ongoing joke over here because my host family has to replenish it every week...because of me :)

Feeling a bit better...

Feeling better, finally!! Not completely recovered, of course...but better nonetheless. I couldn't go to the doctor on Thursday because it just happens to be the only day of out the week that they close (just my luck). So instead, I skipped school on Friday and rested all afternoon. Luckily, during the week I don't start watching the baby until 2...and she naps from 2-5, so I just nap when she does :)

I just went to the doctor this morning, as Marjorie insisted, and he pretty much told me what I already knew - I have a cold. I was a little confused...he wrote up a prescription for a bunch of stuff that's available over-the-counter in the states. But the whole visit only cost 27 euros, and most of that is reimbursed...so I guess that's just how free healthcare works. Why not go to the doctor for a cold? He gave me the french equivalent of afrin, sudafed, some kind of antihistamine, cough syrup, and vicks vaporub. It's all helping A LOT. I can finally breath through both nostrils at the same time, which is awesome. Tomorrow and Monday are my days off, and Marjorie says I'm not going to school Monday either so I have plenty of rest ahead of me!

Turns out being sick here hasn't been so bad after all. The first day of having a cold actually made me really home sick! I wasn't looking forward to being miserable for a week with nobody to baby me, but Marjorie has been amazing. Olivier (her husband) left this week for 5 months, so it's just us girls in the house. Thursday night, Marjorie made me soup for dinner and pulled out the sofa bed. She made me cookies and hot cocoa and the three of us had a girls night in the living room watching a movie :) Not so bad at all...

Obviously, I haven't left the house all week...so there are no exciting France updates. Just my boring ol' health. I've been slipping into nyquil induced comas at night (SO glad I brought that with me from the states!!) so excuse me if I haven't answered your late night calls...my bad! I promise I'll catch up next week.

Miss you all!!

Aix and a Cold

Ok...I am well aware that I've fallen into the bad habit of starting my posts with apologies, but this time I really have a good excuse! I caught a bad cold on Monday and I've been miserably sick since then. Marjorie is closing the salon for the afternoon and taking me to the doctor later today. So with that said, I'm NOT sorry for the lack of posts lately ;)

This past weekend, though, was a lot of fun! Saturday night I went out with some of the other au pairs. They happen to be going out in my neck of the woods, so I lucked out with having a ride (we all live in different parts of the neighborhood, and I'm the only one without a car). They picked me up Saturday night and we went out to a bar downtown and after to a club called "La Plage". It's fun having so many different nationalities all hanging out together. It was like the beginning of a bad joke:

"So an American, British, Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, and German girl walk into a bar..."

But we had a BLAST! I haven't been out since I got here, so I was excited to finally leave the house. The girls are a lot of fun too, thank god they asked me to go out with them. However, nothing makes me feel more foreign than going to a bar in France. It's surreal.

Sunday afternoon 4 of us took a mini road trip to Aix-En-Provence, which is a town about an hour north from Toulon. It was BEAUTIFUL! Kudos to Steph (my lovely British friend) for organizing the trip. Aix is the city where Paul Cézanne lived and painted, so that was pretty cool for me to see, as an art history major.

Pictures from our lovely day in Aix:

Monday I had school and ended up coming home straight after because it was raining, unfortunately. But because it was my day off and I didn't have to work until 2 the next day, I went out with a few of my friends that night. I took the bus to Thuy's house, had dinner with her host family, and from there met up with Judit and Daisy and went to my friend Sophia's place. Thuy and Sophia are German, Judit is Hungarian, and Daisy is Dutch. We're a bit of a multicultural bunch. Anyway, we went to a friend's house and had some drinks and laughs there for a bit. I ended up spending the night at Sophia's house. Thing is, Sophia lives in the hotel that her host parents own and operate. Usually, she has her own room in the hotel...but right now it's being remodeled for about a week or so. Temporarily, they're put her up in a room above the hotel...as in on the roof. The view is amazing, of course:

However, the room was also very, very cold...and as I was sleeping in the spare bed, I only had one blanket. Needless to say, I woke up not feeling so hot. Every since then, this cold has made me pretty useless this week. Hopefully I'll feel better soon enough...I'm starting to go a bit stir crazy.

I'll let you all know how things go at the doctor's, but for now it's time I slip into another daze of cold medicine and Disney movies...

Horse House or Whore's House?

The past few days have been fun, lots of work and some school. As far as food updates go, last night I ate duck, pheasant, and hare. Apparently there is a difference between a rabbit and a hare. I always thought that one is used in fables and raced tortoises while the other does not, but apparently there's also a difference in size and speed. Hare's are much larger and can be hunted. The reason I know this is because Olivier's mom and er...boyfriend, Patrick, are visiting this weekend and Patrick is a hunter. Looks like I've come a long way from my vegetarian ways...

Also, I have almost completely finished the wheel of brie the Bon's bought for me last week. Whooooops...

Now, for the past week or so I have been taking the baby out for walks along our street for some fresh air. When Olivier took me around the first time, he explained that this old house was once, a very long time ago, either a "horse house" or a "whore's house". For the life of me, I could not understand his accent and I was too embarrassed to ask him to clarify. So, I will let you, my readers, be the judge:

Horse House or Whore's House?

Mallory Came to Visit!

Sorry for making everybody wait so long!! I actually had a very eventful weekend...which meant that I would need to write a lengthy post...which meant, of course, that I would put it off until Wednesday night :)

My college roommate (that's weird to say...makes me feel old) and very dear friend Mallory came to visit me this past weekend! For those of you who don't know, Mallory is teaching English through the French Embassy in Lyon, about 3 hours north of where I am. Since she doesn't start until next week, she came down south to see me in Toulon. I went to the train station Saturday afternoon to pick her up, and while I was perusing the postcard section of the gift shop, Mallory snuck up behind me and surprised me with a big hug :) I was so happy to see her that I cried, naturally (yes I know...you're all dying of shock). But really, it felt so good to see a familiar face in person that I just couldn't help it. We went out for lunch, got some macarons, and proceeded to walk around the Centre Ville for a bit. It was my first time exploring the town without my host family, so I was pretty excited! Mal had her suitcase with her, and the big open air market had mostly gone home for the day...so we took the bus home pretty early in the evening.

Here are some pictures from Saturday:

The train station


The plaza outside the train station


MALLY!!!

The next day we went back to the Centre Ville so that we could see the open air market, which only happens in the mornings. I was really excited because I was able to find my way around without getting lost :) I'm a local! haha Walking through the town was beautiful, as usual:






Then we came across my highlight of the day: A classy old French man wearing a fedora, a white scarf, a nice jacket...and a GOLD DOLLAR CHAIN. Kudos to Mallory for her extra sneaky camera shot:


After wandering around for a bit, we headed to the port to grab some crepes! As you can see from the photo, we are mere feet from the ocean :) Or Sea, I should say...Mediterranean Sea, that is...


We walked around the shops for a bit. Because we are right by the largest and oldest military harbor in France, everything has a nautical theme...as you can see:





Afterwards, we still had some time to kill...so we headed back to the center part of town. Here's a shot of the plaza:


To end our afternoon out on the town, we decided to go see a movie. We settled on seeing Ben Affleck's "The Town"...not knowing whether or not it was going to be in French...but figuring we would be fine either way. Turns out the movie was ENTIRELY in French. We understood the main plot points of the movie, but after walking out we couldn't decide if we knew what was going on because we were actually understanding the French...or just because we were watching the movie itself. Like if we had watched it in complete silence, would we have understood any less?? Not sure. But I think it was probably a good movie :)

On Monday I had school, so Mallory hung out and waited for me in the meantime. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch by the beach with a friend from class. It ended up being a bit chilly and extremely windy - for the first and only time since I've been here - so we unfortunately had to forego our beach plans :( We spent a cozy afternoon at home and I dropped Mal back off at the train station after. I have to admit, I felt a bit lonely after she left.

The entire experience was really interesting for me. Of course it goes without saying that I was SO HAPPY to have a familiar face around...especially to speak English with face to face! But a few things happened that I didn't quite expect.

1) I actually felt like a tourist and a foreigner for the first time in the 2 weeks that I've been here. To me, this is my new home. I MOVED here. I was never in "vacation" mode, so to speak. So it was a strange experience to feel like a foreigner. It was a bit of a reality check.

2) I actually felt like a part of the family with my host family. When Mallory joined us for dinner, my host parents would make jokes with me and tell stories to Mallory about all of us living together. I felt like I was part of the entertaining of guests, not being entertained. I felt like part of the family, and that was fun and unexpected.

So it was a fun weekend all around :) This week has been mostly dedicated to work...so we'll see what this coming weekend has to offer. I'll keep you all posted!!

Talking the Talk

My apologies for my absence for the past two days. Tuesday marked the day that I start watching the baby solo, and it's been tiring to say the least. Lucky for me, she's teething - bad. Which means a cranky baby who doesn't sleep well. Which means I don't get my usual break to blog during her nap time. Which means I'm pooped at the end of the day. Which means I veg out in my room with a good ol' American movie and a book with my phone on silent. So again, my most sincere apologies to e-mails and phone calls I've neglected. I've been pooped and quite honestly have no updates to inform you of.

INSTEAD I've decided to entertain you with my experiences with learning French while here. The Bon's claim my French is very good, and alway tell me how impressed they are. I started feeling pretty cocky until I went to the supermarket and some lady in line behind me turned to me to express her discontent with how long the line was, and I pretty much froze - standing there muttering something like "oui oui..." with a confused expression on my face. It was really just the equivalent of "Can you believe this line? Sheesh!" and I must have looked terrified. Reality check.

With that said, here are some other funny things I've noticed about the French language:
-The French word for one's boyfriend or girlfriend is "petit ami". This literally translates to "little friend". This means that in every day conversation you have the opportunity to say "Say hello to my little friend", just like Scarface, and it would be totally normal. Gets me every time.
-When I first got here, Marjorie and her mom kept calling the baby a "vilaine fille" whenever she would misbehave. I thought it was hilarious! Like a villain in a comic book or something...what a great alternative to saying "bad girl". So much more dramatic: "VILLAIN!!" I looked it up. It just means naughty.
-In French, the verb for sleep is "dormir" - the same as in Spanish. And as a lot of you know, in Spanish when your mom wants you to go to bed she says "Mimis" (for the -mi in dormir). But in French, they say "Dodo" (for the do- in dormir). That struck me as funny since it's the same exact verb...
-The Bon's and I communicate through 3 means: 1) I actually understand what they're saying 2) We look it up together on the computer 3) An impromptu game of "I can't understand you" charades. So naturally when we were strolling through downtown and I wanted to know if graffiti was pretty common, I started acting out the action of "graffiti" like a mime in the middle of the street. Turns out it's the same word in French.

So that's that. I started getting pretty discouraged with my French, but then I think about how much I've learned in the small 11 days that I've been here and I feel better.

In other news, there is a strike going on in France right now because the government is trying to raise the age for retirement from 60 to 67. My french professor once told me that there are 2 national sports in France: soccer and protesting. They protest EVERYTHING. Right now, the protestors include anyone in public service - including the post office. So, if anyone has sent me any letters, they might be a bit delayed. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).

ALSO! My friend Léa arrived in France as did my (old) roommate Mallory!!! And my friend Lauren arrives in Paris tomorrow (Yes, I have friends). It's so nice to have people to talk to in my time zone. Mallory will be visiting me this weekend too!!!!! Definitely looking forward to seeing a familiar face :) You can check out Mallory's blog HERE!

À Bientôt.

SUPER IMPORTANT!!!

Hey everyone!! I know a lot of you have been asking for my address (GREATLY APPRECIATED) but I just wanted to let you know that if you send me any mail, you absolutely HAVE to cross the 7 on the address or else I might not get it :( My host family just let me know today when I almost didn't get a package from my parents. (but I did, thanks mom and dad!!) If you don't cross the 7, they might think it's a 1 and send it back to you, which we don't want!!

More updates soon!! ...probably about food :)

A Day of Firsts

Today was a day of many firsts. Most importantly, my first day of school!! Actually...no, I take it back. MOST importantly, today I had my first macaron!! Well, my first 2 actually. Yummmm....

Introducing, my new favorite desert:



I know what you're thinking, and yes it is absolutely crazy that I've never had a macaron before. BUT I'm so glad I had my first one in France :) Marjorie said she's going to teach me how to make them later. THANK GOD!

Now for my next first: RAW BEEF. Yet again, I know what you're thinking: "You're telling me you went from being a vegetarian for 3 years to eating raw beef for dinner??" Dad, hold your comments to the very end please! But I figured, when in Rome right?? For those of you who don't know (neither did I) it's an Italian dish called Carpaccio and it consists of very thinly sliced raw meat. Whoa. Ok, granted, I didn't finish my plate or anything...but I did give it a fair try! Marjorie and Olivier were very proud. It actually wasn't too bad, but I couldn't get over the fact that it was raw. I had french fries, cheese, and homemade bread for the rest of my dinner. By the way they feed me here, it looks like I might have to bust out my running shoes after all. Anyone out there want want to mail me a yoga mat??

And last but not least, my first day of school! It went really well! There are about 4 other au pairs around my age in my class and I'm told that there are a few more that weren't there today. 3 were from Germany, and one was from Manchester, England. I think the others are from Hungary and Peru but I'm not sure since they didn't come to class today. They were all so nice! Even though some of them spoke English, the only common language we all had between us was French - so we all spoke our broken French to each other. It was great :) Oh ya, the class! It's a bit hard, but we all move at our own pace so it's not so bad. The instructor is super nice, so that's a plus. There's also a bunch of people in the class who aren't au pairs, of course. I met a girl from Madagascar, and I sat next to a guy from Columbia who was really nice. Hopefully I can practice my spanish with him so I don't forget it (don't worry, Grandma!).

So that's it for today! Thanks again to everyone for your e-mails and messages! Your words of encouragement mean a lot to me :) Today was a super busy day, so if I haven't gotten back to you yet, I promise I will soon!

Mediterranean

IMPORTANT:
The Bon's would like me to inform everyone that THE FRENCH DO NOT HATE AMERICANS. They don't even mildly dislike us. In fact, they weren't shocked to find out that we think so. I told them how it's not only common belief that the French don't like us, but that Americans are often told to pretend to be Canadian abroad just in case. Their jaws nearly dropped. They said they like Americans very much, it's why they play so many of our TV shows! They said that they may not agree with the war in Iraq but it's absolutely not a reflection on their opinion of all the American people. They said America and France are like an old married couple - they may fight from time to time and annoy each other, but really they love each other. So there you have it.

Anyway, I didn't go dancing last night unfortunately. Not quite sure what happened, but Marjorie didn't bring it up again and I was pretty pooped anyways so I didn't remind her. There's always next week :) Instead, we sat around the table for 2 hours talking about which American TV shows are/were popular in France. It boggles my mind, they know and love Happy Days, Bewitched, Dallas, Chips, Little House on the Prairie, and a billion more but they have never even HEARD of I Love Lucy??????? Madness. Olivier said he used to watch Saved By the Bell when he was young and thought it was "super cool".

Oh yes, for dinner we had fajitas! Haha and not too bad, if I do say so myself! Granted, not quite like home, but not bad! I introduced them to tapatio, for which I think they'll be eternally grateful. They seemed to like it.

Today, Olivier's aunt came into town for a visit. She's a chic older French woman who lives by Cannes. She took us all out to eat at this fancy restaurant by the beach called La Vague D'Or. I had cream of artichoke, followed by gigantic shrimp in a yummy sauce, and melon sorbet for dessert. But that wasn't the best part...the best part of it all was the VIEW. I snapped like 20 pictures of the same thing, but I couldn't help myself. Marjorie told me to go dip my feet in the water to see how it compared to the Pacific and let me tell you, it doesn't. It was like BATH water. I know, I know...you all feel really bad for me right now. Well for now, enjoy the slideshow!



PS: I have my first day of school tomorrow! Big update to follow :)

Centre Ville

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone that has been reading here! I'm so glad people have been enjoying it - it makes me feel a lot more connected to everyone back home :)

Yesterday wasn't too exciting...Michelle (Marjorie's mom) left in the morning which was a bummer...but Olivier came back and pretty much did my work for me! See, Olivier works for the French navy and has to stay at the naval base from Monday through Friday. Needless to say, Gabriele wanted nothing to do with me once she saw her papa. Anyways, for dinner we had steaks with a cheese sauce that is illegal in the US! Rebel cheese! Not really, it's just not pasteurized. Olivier also made us a plum tarte for dessert that was delicious.

This morning was exciting!! Olivier took me to the Centre Ville, which is like the Old Town of Toulon. It was BEAUTIFUL! As we were driving in, Olivier told me "It's not very pretty because ...something something... World War II" (language barrier). I thought "are you kidding me??". This was the "France" I've been waiting for. Anything with a visible history is pretty damn amazing if you ask me. I took some nifty pictures on my iPhone and not my regular camera because...well...I spent $200 on it and feel it needs to be used all the time.

The Centre Ville also has an incredible "marché en plein air" - open air market. It was like a farmer's market on crack. So many amazing smells, foods, fruits...EVERYTHING. Sadly, I don't think the french have the same concept of "free samples"...We only walked through so I'll have to go back and spend a few hours trying everything. I snapped a quick picture, but it doesn't do it justice. I'll take better ones next time!

We walked through the rest of the town and I was fascinated. Olivier got a kick out of me stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures of all the streets, sidewalks, people, street lamps, pigeons, etc. "You do not have this in Los Angeles??" Pigeons? Yes. Tiny French side streets? No.

Eventually I had to stop taking pictures because I was holding up traffic and people kept bumping into me. I don't think Toulon is used to having any tourists...

I did manage to get a few of the Opera House and the Marine Arsenal where Olivier works as well as the port. It truly is a harbor city.

Funny things I've noticed:
1) So we parked downtown and had to walk through the mall to get to the outside. EVERYONE in the mall has these rolly bag things that they carry with them. It was like I was back in elementary school when rolly backpacks were super cool. I guess it's because they walk everywhere and need a way to carry their groceries and such back on the bus or walk home. Oh ya, the supermarket is also a part of the mall. I sneakily (or perhaps not so sneakily) took a picture of this lady's:

2) The escalators are flat! Ok...maybe this exists somewhere in the states but I've never seen it and I thought it was SUPER cool:

3) Not sure if I mentioned this before, but "westerns" are really cool in France. I actually learned that in my French class. This proves to be true since there are several of these floating around the house:


Well, that's it for now. I can't believe it's already been a week! OH...tonight my neighbor might be taking me dancing! Not Magali, but her older brother haha and since I'm in no position to turn away friends (plus I LOVE dancing), I think I might just join him. More pictures to come!

For now, please enjoy the slideshow of my trip to the "Centre Ville".