Coucou à tous!
It's been a while and after this post I've got to gather all my recipes for my Thanksgiving dinner, so let's make it short and sweet.
I'm loving life. I may detest certain things here (like my bank, ahem!) but overall I am very happy. You know you're happy when the kids chant, "Kahtee Perry," and you smile. You know you're happy when you spend all of your money on food and occasional train tickets. You know you're happy when you can smile on a rainy day and finally understand all of the jokes during lunchtime.
In short, I had a great past weekend and to start it all off, I started the celebration early with the Beaujolais Nouveau. The funny thing I've been told is that we are celebrating the worst wine in France. I still drank it anyways. In essence, Beaujolais is the first wine to be harvested and hence is released the earliest...the third Thursday of November. A more drunk (well depending on the family) and less fattening Thanksgiving celebration if you dare to compare. Anyways, Nawel, Elodie, and I went early to watch our co-worker, Gaétan, play in his band. Conveniently enough, they are called "les mauvaises graines" (the bad seeds). Dressed in leaves and shining with energy, the twenty-plus group performed for over two hours, with and without the rain.
Then, Friday I headed down to Marseille to visit Julie. The most amazing thing, we both agreed, was the fact that we were able to stay in contact for over six years (and haven't seen each other since we were 16 and 17). We caught up on life, joked about my sister's incomprehensible English, and celebrated her boyfriend's, Nicolas, birthday. It was a very quick visit but I am proud to say that I was able to understand her ridiculously fast French. I ate delicious croque-monsieurs, learned how to prepare a French birthday party, and found out mayo is a lot more delicious when hand-made.
One of the most interesting facts Julie told me was how scared the French Kings were of the Marseille people. Louis XIV had the canons in the fortresses built so that they pointed in towards the city, rather than out towards the sea, in case the people revolted and got out of hand. Furthermore, during the French Revolution, the Marseille soldiers chanted their home town song when marching towards Paris...this song is now the national anthem.
I saw the sea, heard the seagulls cry every morning, and watched the mountains and countryside fly by on my train ride home. All in all, I'm a very happy, grateful girl right now.
It's been a while and after this post I've got to gather all my recipes for my Thanksgiving dinner, so let's make it short and sweet.
I'm loving life. I may detest certain things here (like my bank, ahem!) but overall I am very happy. You know you're happy when the kids chant, "Kahtee Perry," and you smile. You know you're happy when you spend all of your money on food and occasional train tickets. You know you're happy when you can smile on a rainy day and finally understand all of the jokes during lunchtime.
In short, I had a great past weekend and to start it all off, I started the celebration early with the Beaujolais Nouveau. The funny thing I've been told is that we are celebrating the worst wine in France. I still drank it anyways. In essence, Beaujolais is the first wine to be harvested and hence is released the earliest...the third Thursday of November. A more drunk (well depending on the family) and less fattening Thanksgiving celebration if you dare to compare. Anyways, Nawel, Elodie, and I went early to watch our co-worker, Gaétan, play in his band. Conveniently enough, they are called "les mauvaises graines" (the bad seeds). Dressed in leaves and shining with energy, the twenty-plus group performed for over two hours, with and without the rain.
(Like Times Square before Midnight!)
(Les Mauvaise Graines)
( Me, Nawel, and Elodie huddling in the rain)
( Gaétan getting interviewed on live TV.)
Then, Friday I headed down to Marseille to visit Julie. The most amazing thing, we both agreed, was the fact that we were able to stay in contact for over six years (and haven't seen each other since we were 16 and 17). We caught up on life, joked about my sister's incomprehensible English, and celebrated her boyfriend's, Nicolas, birthday. It was a very quick visit but I am proud to say that I was able to understand her ridiculously fast French. I ate delicious croque-monsieurs, learned how to prepare a French birthday party, and found out mayo is a lot more delicious when hand-made.
(One of Julie's cats, Liko.)
(Out on the islands while the boys went fishing)
(Marseille from a distance.)
(Forts from WWII.)
(Jesus rays.)
(The vacation home Louis XIV had built and then never visited.)
(Notre Dame)
(And another rainbow on the train ride home).
One of the most interesting facts Julie told me was how scared the French Kings were of the Marseille people. Louis XIV had the canons in the fortresses built so that they pointed in towards the city, rather than out towards the sea, in case the people revolted and got out of hand. Furthermore, during the French Revolution, the Marseille soldiers chanted their home town song when marching towards Paris...this song is now the national anthem.
I saw the sea, heard the seagulls cry every morning, and watched the mountains and countryside fly by on my train ride home. All in all, I'm a very happy, grateful girl right now.
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