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.

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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...