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!)