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".

New Friend and Beef Bourguignon

Hey Everyone!

So I'm starting to come to terms with the loss of my hair. It may take some time, but I think I'll get through it.

In other news, I made a friend yesterday! Her name is Magali and she is 8 years old and lives across the street. She was very impressed that I came all the way from LA to live in Toulon. She knows how to say "you are very pretty" in English and made sure to do so every 5 seconds...we got along great :)

Turns out Magali is also a spoiled brat who doesn't leave Marjorie's salon, bothers all the customers, and throws full on temper tantrums complete with kicking and screaming on the floor if she doesn't get her way. She also curses at her mother, the lovely Danielle who gives us delicious fresh bread every day, until she gets her way - which she always does. Marjorie warned me over dinner not to let her come over and play because she doesn't want Gabriele learning that awful behavior. I fully obliged. Who knew?? But I totally see where she's coming from. I wouldn't want my kid learning that either.

So I'm back to no friends for now! hehe but I'm not too concerned. I start school on Monday and I'm sure I'll meet some people there.

PS: I had Beef Bourguignon for dinner last night. SO GOOD. And Marjorie said she's going to show me how to make French bread on Saturday. I'll keep everyone posted!

Also, here is a picture of the view from my bedroom window:


À Bientôt.