Bliss

(my mommy took this lovely photo at the market in Lyon)

I am so happy today. 

Perhaps it is because I have loads of work to avoid, perhaps it is because I started the day with a giant bowl of lemon tea with lavender honey, perhaps it is because it is the perfect temperature outside and I am wearing my new sandals with the big green fabric flowers on them. 

Perhaps there is something in the water.

Nonetheless, I have made quite a day of it. I bought chocolate chip cookies at the corner bakery and handed them out to friends and staff at the American Center. I bought cheery yellow flowers to go on my bureau. I bought three tiny macarons from a woman named Caroline who told me I spoke lovely French, and a hunk of strong cheese wrapped in paper from a pretty girl with tangled blond hair at the market. I have a sack of olives in a spicy pepper oil waiting to be snacked on in the fridge. I have walked (and occasionally skipped) around town today smiling at strangers, which is like shouting to the world that I'm an American. I could not be happier.

Last night I went out with friends to a smoky hookah bar on a side street where you take your shoes off and lounge around on giant floor pillows. We drank caramel vanilla tea and had chocolate fondue, and I had real conversations with some of the kids in my program for the first time, which made me a bit sad to be leaving so soon. Afterward a few of us went to Pizza Capri for melty mozzarella pizza with spicy oil on top, and ate them sitting on a bench along the Cours Mirabeau. 

Spring has sprung and I don't know whether this explosion of glee is because the air smells like jasmine or because I'm excited to see everyone I love again. Either way, it should be a lovely final two weeks.

I'm alive, I swear.

(Tulip fields in Holland!)

Hello darling family and friends, 

I'm back! I had a wonderful two weeks of vacation, and arrived back at home late Saturday night to discover the internet was broken and I had no way of telling anyone of my lovely vacation. Right now I am sitting in Quick, which is a sketchy French burger chain, taking advantage of their free wifi and trying to avoid the eyes of the creepy guys sitting one table over. 

I only have about two weeks left here in France, which is pretty weird but really nice. For awhile, especially right after Matt left, I was so homesick and my time here seemed interminable. Having only two weeks left is really nice, since I can really enjoy the town and the last few days of living in France and then go home to my family. It helps that I came back to sun and flowers and greenery, and so I've been throwing caution and cultural assimilation to the wind and strolling around town smiling at strangers all week. 

As for my vacation, I could not have asked for a better two weeks, and it was really nice to get out of Aix. The first week I spent with my mom, and we went to Lyon, Amsterdam, and Brussels, ate delicious food, shopped, and had a lovely time. The second week I spent in Sorrento with friends, and made day trips to Positano, Pompei, and Capri. It was an amazing and lovely and pasta-filled week, and I will post more eventually, promise. 

Tonight I am having friends over for dinner, since my host mom is gone, and tomorrow I'm going to a BALL!

Seriously. 

I am trying to save money, since I have a non-paying internship this summer and will be poor for awhile (Greenpeace, though! I'm so excited!). I just transferred some of my savings over to checking because I had exactly $5.03 in my account (pretty sad), and the tickets are 22 euros, so I hesitated at first...but then I realized that it would be really really dumb to waste my second to last weekend in France sitting in bed watching The Office (sooo good though) and that perhaps going to a ball in France is well worth the extra babysitting hours. 

Anyway, I must dash home to meet my friends, but I would LOVE to hear from you all. My inbox is full of requests from deposed Nigerian kings and updates on the NHL (yay Hurricanes!), but sadly empty of updates from the US. Pretty please?

An Evening Well-Spent?

My mom is coming to visit tomorrow, so I busied myself this afternoon with various chores & whatnot. I folded and put away my laundry, washed my sheets, organized my dresser so as to appear I do not live with makeup constantly scattered across my room. 

This evening I sent résumés and cover letters to various organizations in search of a summer internship (know anyone?). I took a measly hour to have tomato and feta salad and a glass of rosé with my host mom. 

I dabbled in homework, sent some emails, finally buckled down around midnight and got some work done. The cat played with a lilac petal on the floor, dashed around the bed a bit, purred. 

Then I smelled something horrible, and searched the room for a bit until I found that he had pooped in the freshly-cleaned sheets of my bed. I ran to the bathroom to grab some toilet paper, and as I reached for the doorknob I heard retching sounds from across the room, and turned just in time to watch Vanille the Calico vomit all over the freshly cleaned floor. 

Catherine was still up in the living room, heard me laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, and came to survey the scene. That is how we ended up giggling in my room at four AM, unsuccessfully trying to find another set of sheets to fit my bed, while Capucine yelled at us from the next room to shut up.

And I still haven't finished my homework. 

The (sometimes risqué) wisdom of French women

Tonight at dinner I learned the following things from my French mom:

1. I need to buy more sexy underwear. I guess she does my laundry, so she's allowed to have an opinion on it, but I worked at Victoria's Secret & had a killer discount for awhile, so I'm hardly wearing Bridget Jones-style control top underthings all the time. (NB: When you work at VS, you are not allowed to say "underwear." True story.) Nonetheless, apparently that je ne sais quoi starts at the very bottom, with satin and lace.

2. I should wear my hair down all the time. Instead of thinking "I look like I just dug my way out of prison with a spork" when I look in the mirror, I should think "I look like Brigitte Bardot in 'And God Created Woman,' and am equally sexy if not more." Also, should not part hair. Instead, let it flop casually over to one side.

3. I should wear a tiny bit of makeup every day. 

4. Live it up while you're young. You will never be this pretty or um, perky, again. 

5. Talk often about the person you love, it gives you a glow and makes your eyes light up. 

6. Seriously, real men just don't do telephones. Give it up. 

7. Also, boys who buy you flowers in a country whose language they don't speak, or for that matter, who fly halfway around the world to see you, should be kept around. These are the good ones. (Needless to say, she really liked Matt.)

8. You will remember three hour dinners and cafés and conversation in twenty years. You will not remember your grades, or the homework you didn't do. Just let it go once in awhile. 

Tonight was lovely, and just what I needed. 

Paris!

It was lovely. Our favorite part was lounging around in the gardens of Versailles. Also good was eating an entire box of 18 Ladurée macarons. Worth it. I am sleepy, so this will have to suffice for today. I *promise* to write more later. 

 

In other news, my mom is coming to visit for spring break! I cannot wait. 

Caramel Tea and Oscar Wilde.

I wrote a friend an email today, and realized just how full of complaints I have been lately. I am homesick, they have no Mexican food here (please: if you love me, you will send me salsa. Or even better, a burrito, packed in dry ice.), no one sends me letters.*

And then I realized...I am in Provence, studying nothing remotely related to science, surrounded by cafés and cobblestones and living in a town with more than one papeterie. 

I have nothing to complain about. 

So I decided to have a Lovely Day. I slept in, made pesto for lunch, went to the library with Arielle, and got fries from a sidewalk stand. 

There is a bookstore in Aix, Book in Bar, that has become a little haven for all us English speakers. So today, in pursuit of my Lovely Day, I went to Book in Bar, ordered a pot of Caramel Tea (delicious), and did all my homework before 3pm. I have pretty significant ADD, so even doing my homework is a triumph, but completing it during daylight hours? Unheard of. 

I walked out around five with a book of Oscar Wilde quotations and a bit of a stomachache. Four cups of tea will do that to you. 

*This is a genuine complaint. I share a mailbox with A. Adams, who has gotten three packages and six letters in the past three weeks. Every time I look in the mailbox, my heart does a little flutter to see that it's full, and then a horrible plummet when I realize it's, yet again, for Ashlee. 

Back soon...

I promise. At which point I will have updates on Paris, Matt's visit, and the tragic goodbye when I got all weepy and runny nosed in the Marseilles airport. And the bus. And my Société Française class. 

Homesickness has been quietly settling in lately, but it hit me like a wall of bricks when Matt left.

Also, they don't have real tortilla chips and salsa. How am I supposed to fill the void created by my absent boyfriend without the most delicious of all food pairings?!

This is what Matt has done since he arrived:

Jet lag, you know. Tomorrow night we leave for Paris!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

On my way home tonight, I heard a car horn that played "Dixie," and I got a bit wistful for NC. If you live there, enjoy the barbecue and delicious Mexican food while you've got it!

Bizarre

I got followed today. This person just started talking to me on the street, because (coincidentally?) we had been going the same way for a bit. He told me I walked fast, and had an athlete's legs, and I was mildly creeped out but just answered his questions since he seemed like he was just trying to be friendly. He asked where I was from, and said he thought I looked German or Norwegian (what?!) but not American. I just sort of nodded, and walked kinda fast, and then veered off at the American Center instead of going home. He followed me into the courtyard.

"Do you want to grab a coffee?"

"No, thanks. I have to study."

And I booked it inside. Claire, the 20-something adorable secretary, was frowning when I walked in. 

"Who was that?"

"I don't know. He just started talking to me on the street. He wanted me to get coffee, and I said I had to study."

"Good. Stay here for awhile, okay?"

So I hung out for about twenty minutes, until Claire was sure he had gone. It wasn't the scariest experience of my life, but I kind of wonder if he would have followed me all the way home. 

Nothing can bother me today, though, because in two days I get to see this one:

And another six days after that until we get to see this one:

I am so excited! 

Triumph!

Good things today:

1. I am so happy with my volunteer position! These kids are the best, so funny and sweet, and the teachers are so cheerful and have the greatest rapport with their students. Today, we talked about boys and journal keeping at recess and drew oompa-loompas in class. I think I might request more hours with a class of little kids too, because this has been one of my favorite parts of the program. Mandatory coloring and girltalk? I'm so there. 

It's so great watching these kids make discoveries...today I was working with Salomé, whom I adore, and she was having trouble making change in one project that practices money skills. We started counting on fingers aloud, and I explained that it was just subtraction. At first she had to hold her hands up and work her way through it--10, cashier takes 1, 2, 3, 4, I get back 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...but within ten minutes, she was doing it all in her head and beaming from ear to ear...I was so proud! There is also Pierre-Nicolas, who every week writes me a list of all the words he knows in both French and English--all of which he's learned from playing video games. It's pretty impressive, and he knows a lot of words in English that I don't know in French. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, this class is amazing.

2. Only one more exam!

3. New language partner! Last one is never available, because he's a lawyer and is a real grown up, so Claire (the lovely, incredibly cool secretary at the AUCP) gave me another. Her name is Anne Sophie, and she is adorable and sweet and down to earth, and promises not to hit on me.

and possibly best of all...

4. Today when I went to my travail bénévole at College St. Joseph, there was a group of teenage girls sitting on the steps, looking way more together than I have ever been in my life. The class was still outside, and on my way back out to find them, the girls on the steps stopped me:

"Hi, we LOVE your sunglasses!"

"Oh hi! Thanks so much!"

"You're English!?" (French people can usually tell the difference between Brits and Americans when they speak French...and apparently I have a British accent?)

"Oh no, actually, I'm American. I'm studying here for the semester."

"You are AMERICAN? Mais non! You look like a French girl! We thought you were French because you are dressed like an Aixoise!"

And then I got all dorky and "Omigosh, thanks so much! That is so flattering!" and lost whatever cool points my giant sunglasses (which one of my students says make me look like a fly. Thanks, Pierre-Nicolas!) earned me. 

But still...FRENCH TEENAGERS thought I was fashionable. Sweet. 

Want mail?

I have a small addiction to office supplies, craft materials, and pretty papers. I discovered Michel, a papeterie here in Aix, on Valentine's Day, and now it is a running joke with my friends about how often I go there. I find it very calming and cheery, because they have paper and envelopes and notebooks in every color, jars stuffed with the best pens ever, and as I recently found out, a whole second floor I did not know was there that is dedicated to things like colorful ribbons and heart-shaped felt stickers.

I could go on about this for ages, but I really ought to study for my exam tomorrow, so I will get to the point: I have an overload of letter writing supplies and not enough people to write letters to! So send me an email (click on About Me, to the right) with your address, and I will write you a letter or postcard...because really, who doesn't like to get mail?

(this includes you,  miel et cannelle readers!)

Today in pictures.

Today I woke up to this:

Had this for lunch:


Checked out my local library with Arielle,
And am now having a hard time following my own advice.

PS: Mini blackboards and chalk are cheaper than post-its! What?!

Starry-Eyed Again

This is how I feel about Aix right now:



(via first milk)

It's inconvenient, really, because it's just starting to get warm and I'm just falling in love with the city again, and it's midterms week! Bother.

Also, Julie Andrews? Still as awesome as she was when I was five.

Malentendus?

In my Written & Oral Expression class, we rotate through the roster giving mini-presentations in class. As part of this, we choose a section of vocabulary from our thesaurus and present a few words from our composition to the class. 

A couple weeks ago, I made the mistake of using "ça me fait venir" in a composition, which, as you can see in the above photo IS IN OUR THESAURUS. (For those of you who don't speak French, let me refer you to translate.google.com, for a general idea of what I said.)

My very dignified, very French professor, Jean-Michel, came up to me as I was writing this on the board. "Leela," (this was all in French) "Leela, are you sure that is what you want to say?"

I start giggling immediately, because I had wondered about the literal translation...but I showed him where it was in the book. "No no no. That is not what that means. I do not think this is what you want to say."

And then...the worst part.  I tend not to think before I speak, and I tend to have a bit of a verbal diarrhea problem...which is why my immediate response to my very proper, old-fashioned, Aixois prof was...

"I don't know, they were REALLY good eggs!"

(I turned bright red after I said it, practically ran to my seat, and then alternated between being mortified and laughing hysterically for the rest of the class.)

It was Legen-wait for it-DARY.

Last night I made French friends! 

We ran into some other people's language partners at Le Pet't Bistro Saturday night, and it might have been my favorite evening yet. 

Two of the guys we were hanging out with are obsessed with the TV show How I Met Your Mother (which, PS, me too...it is way underrated), and when they found out I go to college in Minnesota, they got SO EXCITED because one of the characters is from there. 

When I told them mon copain is Minnesotan, they had a slew of questions, including:

Is he really tall? (Yes)

Does he wear purple and yellow all zee time? (No)

Do lots of people in Minnesota wear purple? (Only because of the Vikings)

Does he like to feesh a lot? (Yes)

Does he feesh for zee walleyes?! (Yes, among other things.)

Does he play zee feeshing video games? (Not that I know of)

And then I got told I look like this girl, which is completely false but she's a knockout so I'll take it. 

I was walked most of the way home by an entourage of six French engineering students, who were not even slightly sketchy, and we talked about Alain Robert, the French Spiderman.

All in all, a successful evening. 

(AND I even got invited to a costume party, which I can't go to since I'll be in Paris. Bummer.)

Ah, Roast Lamb Sundays...

I have decided that rather than studying for midterms next week, my priority today is planning Matt and I's trip to Paris. 

My host mom tells me we must do a boat tour of the Seine, so I headed on over to the Bateaux Mouches website, where this description made me laugh:

Every Saturday, Sunday and on public holidays,
the Bateaux-Mouches® propose a convivial

and relaxed lunch with accordion music.

It is like a pleasant melody which reminds you

of Sunday family lunches over roast lamb,
children’s laughter and heated discussions…

I mean, my Sunday lunches typically consist of turkey sandwiches and stale gummi bears, but I guess that's kinda the same...

I've always been bad at following directions...

 (image via Le Love)

I am sick, and the doctor told me to stay in bed for two days. 

In my family, you don't stay in bed for two days unless you are near death. 

Here are some things I busied myself with:

Marveling at this dress made out of phone book pages.

Wishing I knew where I could buy supplies to make such wonderful things as this.

Watching The Office and other TV shows online.

Napping. Lots.

Remembering how much I used to love poetry in general, and this poem in particular.

Wishing I had someone to bring me chicken noodle soup.

But finally, around two-thirty today, I got so bored that even going to class seemed a better option than staying in bed any longer, so I packed my purse full of the five different medicines I've been prescribed and trotted off to the AUCP. I'm only good at being sick when I'm faking.

As long as my down comforter is there...

Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.

As for me? Narnia.

Or, if it has to be real, my cozy little corner in Nourse 101, with all five of my pillows and the window open. 

tuesday blues

I'm homesick. I miss pancakes with butter and fake syrup, and American television, and snow, and most of all, speaking English. There are a hundred little interactions every day, and they all have to be done in French. 

I miss people smiling at you on the street and chatting in the checkout line. 

I miss it being socially acceptable to stop someone and pet their dog.

I miss grilled cheese sandwiches made with Kraft singles. 

I miss having profs with office hours, even if I never really go.

I miss seeing bright colors everywhere, instead of just black and grey. 

I miss Minnesota in the wintertime, and the way Carleton looks at midnight when it's snowing. 

I miss wearing hoodies all the time, and eating two eggs sunny side up every day for breakfast. 

I miss the people and places I love. 

But mostly, I just want to chat and laugh and tease and crack jokes and be snarky and bitch and argue and rant in English, whenever I want, with the words I love.