Counting

Counting.

The things I will dearly miss

and the things I will be happy to leave in France.

The excitements of coming "home"

and the sadness of leaving a new found love.

When I left, I wrote about being a "rooted tree"
and in so many ways I feel like I'm straddling the collision of two worlds,

yet again.

This marks the downward spiral of packing and moving,
just as I feel like I'm finally "settled".

Am I ready?

I've not a clue

Presqu'île de Giens

My friend, Vanessa, kindly invited me to spend the week with her family at their home on the Presqu'île de Giens,

No, this was not terrible at all

It was nice to be around "family" dynamics

but it also made me miss and long for my family and community at home

The countdown begins

Faim and Femme

French 101:

Femme--"fem": Woman

Faim--"fay": Hunger

French has this tricky rule about not pronouncing the last letter of words,

but as my roommate says,

C'est l'exception qui confirme la règle

It's the exception that proves the rule

Alors, I thought that "faim" was one of those exceptions--that maybe I should pronounce the "m"--

Alas, it is not.

Lesson learned.

I was talking with Michel, a jewelry vendor, today about my studies and when he asked what I wanted to do with my degree.

*I get this question a lot

I started talking about world "faim" and working for a non-governmental organization.

When he cocked his head to one side with a very quizzical, confused look on his face, I knew I was pronouncing something terribly wrong. I've seen the face many times before--it's part of the language learning process.

I repeated myself--saying "faim" like "fem".

Another quizzical look.

When I was in Spanish classes in highschool, my teacher taught us to circumvent around a word we didn't know and describe what we were trying to say in another manner. Extremely useful when trying to learn a new language.

So, I tried again, instead trying to say something along the lines of "someone eats because they are hungry"--insert circular motions on my stomach and other various descriptions.

After another very puzzled look, I finally wrote down this word I was so desperately trying to say,

Michel just laughed.

Completely convinced I said "someone eats because they have woman", "I have woman", and "eat woman" in approximately 6 various form before realizing my grave mistake,

I couldn't help but laugh as well.

I want some Emily Bayless!

Meet my friend

Emily Bayless


Not only is she smart, sassy, and funny
She's extremely talented and makes awesome ceramic work.

In fact she was asked to be a part of a post-bachelor program in Long Beach

where she will move in a couple of weeks.

Before she moves she wants to sell some of her functional work here

You should check it out

Plus, how can you say "no" to a face like this?

La Journée

Everyday, my roommates ask "So, what did you do today?" as my days seem to be filled with leisure and theirs work.

Alors, here is my "average" day:

First a nice morning trip to the market, where I try to arrive before the tourists other people. If I arrive early enough it allows me more time to chat with some of my "regular" vendors and avoid the massive crowds.


This is usually followed by un café in the Palais de Justice where I sit for a bit and try to read the newspaper, which ends up looking like this after a while:


Until a few days ago, I was able to grab a free paper on the way to the market. I then started having difficulty finding this particular paper, and after 2 days it proceeded to turn into a full on scavenger hunt through the city for this newspaper (I really like this paper, plus it has a suduko puzzle). Alas, after many days of scouring everywhere, I resorted to searching on the internet. For whatever reason, the last issue printed was last week, which explains why I searched high and low with no avail. When I told my roommate, she just matter of factly said,

Well, it's summer.
They probably went on vacation.

Yes, the newspaper stops printing because it's summer
and invariably vacation time.

The rest of my day is usually spent doing a various French lesson/exercise after meandering through these gorgeous streets

They call me a "lady of leisure"

Fromage

Lots of it...

Aisles devoted to it...

And oh my goodness,

It's really, really

Delicious

Watch out for this one though:
It smells...
like dirty socks
like something slimy forgotten in the refrigerator

Hmm..how to adequately describe it's sheer potency

It is the lucky recipient of it's own air-tight container and whoever whoever eats it, does so in the kitchen with the door firmly shut.

But the stinkier the better