Language School #2

After a month of trying to get into classes at the language school in Cogolin, I finally did it. As stressful as the process has been I have to say that it is definitely not worth the 20 euros a session that I have to pay to go and therefore I'm not sure how long I will keep it up as that drastically cuts into either the spending money I have for weekend fun or the money that I am saving for when Ricky gets here so that we can really see Europe before returning to the States.
Sigma Formation, as this school is called, is actually more of a post-lycee training center. Kind of like community college. They offer a bunch of different classes, including a French language class for foreigners (me). This class is much more diverse than the class in Draguignan. There are a few Asian women and Muslim women, a couple Tunisian gents, two Brits and three other Americans. Yasmin and Julia (the British and German au pairs) also apparently go on Tuesday but they were not there today.
Today I took care of the usual bureaucratic stuff- filling out forms and taking the placement test. The maitresse seemed impressed with my results but again, I am back to starting with passe compose. While it is something that gets me out of the house, I'd rather go to the beach and translate magazine articles. Or sit at home and translate magazine articles. At least that is free. But I said I'd be back next week, so we'll see how it goes. Christine even said this morning that it's not important if I go or not. I really just needed to get the letter from the school for my dossier.
This past weekend, le meteo had forcasted rain all week but that cleared up right away Monday morning. It's been a little foggy still and super dark when I get up, especially with daylight savings time (in France DST started this past Sunday). The bright weather should be sticking around through the end of the weekend which will be wonderful for the activities I have planned ;)

Luisa's birthday

Yet another March 25 birthday girl- Luisa! When she first told me last week, Luisa was planning on doing something Friday night, which doesn't work for me since I have to work Saturday morning and there's no way I would want to drive an hour there and back especially after a night out, not to mention, I'm low on euros since it's the end of the month. But, later in the week, we decided that we could do something Friday morning instead.

After the kids left for school, I had a quick chat with the lovely Ricky Johnston, wrote the cleaning lady a note, and headed off to Saint Aygulf Plage to meet Luisa. We spent a nice morning on the beach, looking at shells and taking jump shots with my camera and then sat down at a beach side restaurant for lunch. Miraculously enough, the menu had really good prices on salads; I got the Salade Paysanne for 4,50 euro and it was delicious! Afterwards, we walked to the market on the other side of town and walked around a bit. We saw some really cute rompers but I didn't have enough money and Luisa didn't want to buy without trying it on, something that is not so easy to do at an open air market. So we hopped across the street to an Italian cafe for some gelato and called it a day.

I wish I could have spent more time since it was her birthday. But we were both a little tired from the sun, and I had to get back to get the kids from school. Still it was a very good day, and next weekend (after I get paid) we are going to Grasse to make perfume! More adventures to come!

Le Cirque

Apparently circuses are really big in France, there have been two here in Cogolin since I arrived and of course, I've been to both of them. Granted, they are rather small in scale, nothing compared to Wringling Bros. But I don't like Wringling Bros. anyways because they are terrible to their animals. These small traveling circuses seem to be very nice to the animals but I still feel bad that they have to stay cooped up a lot of the time. This circus that we went to this past week was the better of the two that I've been to here.
The first one, I went to with Beke and the boys when they were on vacation in February. That one was so tiny, they seriously had two rows of seats, 2 acrobats, a juggler, a goat, two llamas, 3 horses, and 2 clowns. I actually ended up falling asleep at one point.
This last one though, had two separate acrobatic groups, one from Eastern Europe and the other from Cuba, a martial arts group, several solo and duet acrobats, a juggler, and lots and lots of animals (which were of course the best part).

 I always wonder what it would be like to be in a circus. I remember there was a show about clown school or something on Disney Channel for a while, but I never watched it. It seems like such a wayward idea. One that you just wake up and go with one day and then after that there is no looking back. I wonder if these circuses are at all associated with the travelling gypsy groups who, rumor has it, are the most awful trashy sort of people you could ever set eyes upon. After everything I've heard from Nigel and the other au pairs, I'm actually really terrified of them. From squatting to stealing, they are invasive like the most stubborn of weeds, and if you try to do anything to stop them they attack you. The week I arrived in Cogolin, one of the other au pairs' houses got broken into by a gypsy band and they stole her host mom's jewelry which was valued at about 50,000 euros. The really scary thing is they entered through a locked door without breaking it or making much noise and they walked through the entire house, including all the bedrooms where the au pair and the rest of the family were sleeping. I enjoy waking up with the sun shining in through my window, but I am so scared of these gypsy bands that I always close my shutters at night, and open them again when I wake up in the morning. I've also been locking the door from my room to the rest of the house at night which serves two purposes, 1) the kids don't wake me up in the morning (even though I'm always up before they are anyways) and 2) it provides one more barrier between my room and the rest of the house if someone were to break in. It's unfortunate that that is the reality of the gypsy caravans. I remember when I was younger I always thought the idea of gypsies was so cool. Like Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney version of course), and the book Cinnamon, which was always one of my favorites. I remember thinking that I was like Cinnamon, the gypsy girl, and Sophie was like the princess girl. Now that I know the truth though, looking back the prejudices explored in those childhood memories stand out more (how both Esmeralda and Cinnamon were considered outcasts by the greater of society), and now I know where they come from. Fear, like all prejudices right? Personally, I think the French are a bit over the top with all their prejudices and phobias and superstitions and overall day to day behavior. They seem to think it's all justified, but as anyone "of color" will tell you, the racism in France is horrendous. Beke told me a story about how once the au pairs almost didn't get into a club, she thinks because they had the Spanish black au pair with them. But it's really like that everywhere here. As I am not a person of color, I don't experience it. But with my Moorish-Spanish background, I find myself worrying about getting labelled as an Arab almost as much as I worry about getting labelled as an American. I know that's totally silly, and even a bit racist in itself, not to mention something I really don't need to worry about as more and more people tell me that I dress European and my face looks "Latin". But apparently everyone here thinks that all Americans are blond-haired and blue eyed. I'm always explaining how there are people of all types in America and how we eat foods of all types too.
One thing that I'm a little disappointed about right now is that I feel so uninformed about the war in Libya right now, even though I'm practically on the front lines. Granted, I wasn't at home at all the day the war became official and I only found out about it via facebook. For a while I thought that maybe it's because there aren't as many immigrants in Saint Tropez because it's too ritzy, so somehow that makes it less of a big deal here (everyone I talk to except for Nigel and Christine seems uninformed as well). But Nigel was also telling me the other day that it's normal for the French to respond slowly to things like this. Even though war was declared over a week ago, French troops were just deployed a few days ago.
Frustrating as these times are, it only increases the need for human interaction, crossing borders, boundaries and barriers of all kinds. I like to think that what I'm doing here is just the beginning of that for me. Now that University decisions are rolling in, I'm starting to think farther and farther ahead. I got into Tulane (again) and this time around I'm thinking it could be the One. We'll see.
Gros bisous X

Aix, "like eggs?"

This adventure started out as a mission to get out of the rain. After just three days of sunshine, the rain was out to spoil the rest of our weekend, but Luisa and I weren't having it. The night before, just as we were leaving Brasserie des Arts (a usual stopping point on les soirees Saint Tropez that I am convinced that I am allergic to because every time we go there I am deathly ill for a week) it started to pour. The other girls who were with us opted to go home, but Luisa and I decided to walk around looking for another club. We stopped at Chez Maggy for a bit but the night was just too quiet. I suppose once the weather starts warming up, les Tropeziens get kind of Californian in that they don't go out when it's raining. We ended up standing under a shop overhang for 20 minutes until the rain stopped and headed back to the car.
The next morning, the clouds hadn't cleared and there was no way I was going to spend another weekend walking around in the rain. So while Luisa slept, I looked at the weather in the rest of Southern France. The Rain appeared to fade out around Marseille, but since even then I was running short on money and everyone says the only good thing about Marseille is shopping, that was out.
For ages, people have been raving about Aix-en-Provence. It is a big university town (Christine actually went to school there) and the former home of the artist Cezanne. By the time Luisa woke up, I already had our day planned-- we were going to see the Atelier Cezanne (the artist's studio that has been converted into a museum but remains exactly how he left it when he died in 19__), wander around a bit, grab a bite to eat before returning home. Considering that usually, my plans always never go the way I think they are going to, the day actually went pretty smoothly. We did hit a few speed bumps, like when I realized I was almost out of gas but on Sundays you can only get gas if you have a carte bancaire, and when we did get to Aix and finally decided it was time to eat, almost everything was closed because lunch hours were over, but Luisa and I make a really good team and we worked our way around every obstacle. The gas situation for instance was solved by asking a man to let us use his card to buy gas (I paid him in cash of course). And for our extremely late lunch, we ended up going to this boulangerie (pictured below)  where we each got a calzonne, a muffin, and a coke for 7,90 euro.
I love the confidence and energy that is required of me on these outings because of the pickles we get ourselves into. It's wonderful practice for not only my language skills but also for just dealing with problems that arise in everyday life. If I can get myself out of some of these situations in a foreign language, surely I can handle anything that will come my way once I get back to the states. Anyways, here's some pictures from Aix.  I love and miss you all!

Atelier Cezanne-- pictures weren't allowed inside :(

fever

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I was stuck home with the boys because they apparently had a fever. 98.6 F is 37 C but in celcius, temperature is normal up to 37.3. Well the boys both had fevers of 37.4 and therefore couldn't go to school or sport and had to stay home. However, I'm sure a 40 degree fever (104 F) couldn't make these kids stay still much less a 37.4. The amount of destruction they cause is immeasurable. Maybe it's just because they are boys or because they are French (other au pairs seem to agree that French kids are the absolute worst), or because they are French boys but they are just little 110 and 120cm torpedoes that bounce off the walls for hours on end wrecking everything in their path including each other. And of course if one accidentally steps on the others foot (literally and figuratively), that is an automatic excuse to pound the other to smitherines. But honestly I think the worst things they did over the past few days were a) disconnecting the English tele and b)disconnecting the internet. Nigel had to call Sky in order to fix the television, and although most of the time I was able to fix the internet with a few clicks of the mouse, the last time, Wednesday morning, I was not able to do so et alors, the kids couldn't watch their trains on the computer the rest of the day and I didn't have internet until this morning after fiddling around with it for another half hour. I think they finally got that they aren't to touch the livebox after a whole day without the train, camion, and pompier youtube videos that they adore so much. That was actually really unfortunate for me too because it is one activity that keeps them quiet.

Anyways, they were finally able to go back to school today and it finally stopped raining. So I had quite a lovely day to myself. After fixing the internet, I went for a short jog and then spent the rest of the day reading outside and trying to do laundry. Christine actually just knocked on my door about ten minutes ago and told me the laundry machine is broken, which would explain why I had so much trouble today. Luckily they have two, I just can't figure out how to use the other one.

Today is Nigel's birthday and we had what I would consider a nice celebration. Christine and the boys made a cake when they got home from school and then after baths we did presents. He got a shovel, a garden hose, two pencils, a pair of garden shears, and a massage chair. We had steak and asparagus for dinner and Christine made a comment about how I don't eat the flower part. I always seem to do things a little differently than she does. Part of it is the culture, but I think it's also just us. We are both set in our own ways, although I am always trying to adapt, it never occurs to me to do things differently until someone says something about it. But considering that I never even ate asparagus until I got here, I think I can get away with not eating the flowers. Of course after she said that you are supposed to start with the flower, I tried it and from now on I will eat the whole asparagus.

Also today, the boys both came down with ear infections. Christine is taking them to the doctor in the morning, but I sincerely hope that I will not have to watch them again in the afternoon. Tomorrow is going to be the start of an absolutely gorgeous weekend in the greater Saint Tropez area and I was looking forward to spending the day at the beach. Plus there is plenty of thing that I didn't get to do this week because I was home with the kids, like mailing post cards, and registering at the language school, etc. If I do have to stay home tomorrow, I'll probably be in the worst mood. I don't think I'll be able to look at the kids the rest of the weekend. It doesn't help that I feel like it's my fault that they are sick since I'm sure had an ear/sinus infection for a couple weeks. Even worse, I hardly took anything for it, and had to stick it out with the kids while they were on holidays even though I felt like I was going to die any second. Both Thomas and Matthew have at least 4 medicaments that they are taking in addition to their vitamin regimen.

Mais, c'est la vie. Luisa is still coming Saturday and she is staying the night so we will have the whole weekend together again :)

Tsunamis, Edith Piaf and une nouvelle amie

Question: Is it just me or is everything going on with Japan really as catastrophic as it seems? It was just one of those moments. You know, the ones that you don't easily forget. Like 9/11, I think I'll remember the details of when I heard about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan for years to come. The kids had just left for school, and I had just finished my cup of Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea (my last teabag) when I walked into the living room where Nigel was sitting on the coffee table just gaping at the destruction in Sendai. "Gabriella, have you seen this?" he asked me. I hadn't. I stood behind the couch watching as Nigel pointed out various structures-- greenhouses, airports, the train, cars, etc. We were like that for about ten minutes until Nigel realized he was late for work. I told him he could turn off the TV, but after I washed my teacup, I ran back to my room and spent the rest of the morning watching the French reports in my room and gathering what I could from Facebook posts and American news sources online. I don't know why these seem so much more important than other earthquakes and tsunamis. Maybe it's just hard being so far away from home in times of crisis. Maybe it's my interpretation of the French news that makes it seem infinity times worse and closer to home than it actually is. Maybe it's that I've read too many books on 2012, think that if there is a God he looks an awful lot like Antonio Banderes, and therefore think that the end of the great cycle is near. However, I'm taking the Daniel Pinchbeck (minus the shrooms) and Hollywood interpretations of what December 21, 2012 will bring and therefore hope that with the end of the great cycle will be the beginning of an even greater cycle. Though how the Mayans missed that, I have no idea.

Fridays are also the days that Isabelle, the beloved cleaning lady, cleans la bas, so while the California coast was preparing for possible evacuation, I had to evacuate my room for about an hour. Escape route of choice? Leclerc :) I stocked up on chocolate so I would stop sneaking Thomas' and stopped by the CD store to find something to listen to in the car. Now, whenever I get sick of Rihanna, I can just pop L'essentiel Edith Piaf (that I got for 4,99 euro) into the car stereo and be happy.

But of even greater comfort and happiness, through my trials and distress in being so far from home at the moment, is my new friend Luisa. She just arrived in France last Sunday and emailed me sometime during the week asking if I wanted to meet. She is from Germany and her host-family lives in Frejus which is about an hour drive from Cogolin. The drive is really the only downside to our friendship, but I've discovered I actually do like driving here for God knows what reason and so even that doesn't seem so bad. She is so nice, probably one of the nicest people I've met here and we seem to really enjoy each other's company. We ended up hanging out both Saturday and Sunday even though the weather was absolutely terrible and there was absolutely nothing to do in Saint Raphael (a nice little town near Frejus). The rain and wind were so bad those two days, but "it's not where you are, it's who you're with." Luisa does have a car but it doesn't work past 3rd vitesse so she can't drive to Cogolin. However, next weekend is going to be absolutely beautiful and she is going to take the bus to Saint Tropez where we will spend Saturday afternoon. Then we will come back to the house for Pizza, go see a movie in Sainte Maxime, and then go out in Saint Tropez for the evening, probably with the other au pairs here.

I'm just so glad to finally have a good friend here that I feel comfortable with and can relate to. Also, she is teaching me some German! Knife is Messer, fork is Gabel, and spoon is Loffen. She has a GPS that we were using to try and find a movie Theatre and I was able to decipher a few things like Zweihundert meter is 200 meters and links abbieggen is left turn. We did eventually find the movie theatre even though the GPS gave us totally bogus directions, but then there weren't any movies that we wanted to see. Tant pis! I'm so excited for next weekend and also for the rest of my time here. I'm starting to hope it doesn't go by too fast!

two months

It's funny how time seems to crawl by so slowly and then all of a sudden it's March! In two months time I have fallen in and out of love with France so many times it has been hard to keep track of exactly where I stand on the matter. But in the past week, since I've moved into the main house, every day just keeps getting better and better and every day I find myself falling in love with France, specifically Saint Tropez, all over again. If there is a God, it would probably be a good idea for him to send me some kind of sign if there is ever a place more perfect than this; otherwise I would never believe it. Unfortunately, the entire world thinks the same thing and come summer, despite the rumors of how magical the Riviera is between July and August, it might be a good idea to skip town. That actually works out for me since I'm coming home sometime in June. That's only three months from now though and as I've started to feel more at home here, I can't help but think that it is too soon.

Saturday, I went to Saint Tropez by myself for the first time. I was on a mission to buy a swimsuit since it was going to be 15 degrees (60 Fahrenheit) the next day, a sure sign that Spring was on its way. At first I was really nervous, because I was afraid that everything would be too expensive and that I would say the wrong things and instantly be labelled as a foreigner. But finally I got up the courage to go in Kiwi Saint Tropez (a swimsuit shop), and I walked out with a white bandeau bikini with red flowers for only 30 euro! After that, I seemed to find my footing and ventured in some other small boutiques. I'm still semi-terrified of the high-fashion boutiques like Dior and Chanel (Louis Vuitton has a big hulking security guard/bouncer guy who freaks the bejeeezus out of me), but soon enough I might try my fancy there as well (not that I would ever be able to buy anything). But boutiques like Brigitte B. and Manoush (my absolute favorite), are much less intimidating and super cute, although still way out of my price range. At the end of the day, I had the swimsuit from Kiwi, a light rose sweater from The Earth Collection, a bundle of post cards and the March edition of Vogue Paris (for 4 euro! much better deal than the 16$ I spend on each issue at home).

Sunday, 15 degrees and SUN! for Saint Tropez. I decided to take Christine's bike out in the afternoon, mosey through town a bit and then hit the beach for a late lunch (ham sandwich= baguette with ham). It was a delightfully pleasant day. I parked my bike at the port before wandering the more familiar streets. Everyday it seems that there are more and more people in Saint Tropez but it isn't too bad yet. Still, it got to a point where I wanted a bit of isolation. So I made a little game, every time I saw a person, I had to turn down an empty street. Saint Tropez is surprisingly small but that makes it virtually impossible to get lost. But it was actually on one of the more crowded streets that I found a small alley that led to a hidden cove. There was one other family on the beach but there were some rocks that I jumped out on where I sat to have my lunch. It was so warm and peaceful and perfect, I felt like I could have just sat there in the sun forever. When I finished eating, I resumed my meandering through Saint Tropez before deciding it was time to head back. About five minutes into my ride home I changed my mind and decided to stop at another beach for a little bit. I locked the bike, ran down near the water and set my bag down in the sand. It was then that I came up with the brilliant beyond brilliant idea to go swimming, I was wearing my new swimsuit after all. It wasn't too cold, but it still took me about five times running in and out of the water before I finally took the plunge and submerged my body. I didn't get my head wet because even I have enough sense to know it was too cold for that. After drying off in the sun while reading another chapter of the Satanic Verses, I finally made my way back home. I knew the ride back was going to be difficult because on the way to Saint Tropez, in 14th vitesse, I hardly had to touch the pedals on the bike. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but once I got to Cogolin centre ville, I slowed down significantly and struggled the rest of the way back up the hill. I'll get used to it eventually. From now on I think I will ride my bike to Saint Tropez on weekends when I have nothing else to do. I have to drive during the week though since I have to pick up the kids from school.

The kids are finally back in school as of today (thank god). So in addition to the free weekend I had, I now have plenty of free time during the week too. It is significantly colder and windier than it was this weekend, but it's work-time anyways. I have to go register at the language school so Christine and I can finish the documents for my dossier-- for some reason I have to get a new Visa. It's all bureaucratic stuff I'm sure I could get by without, but it's probably better to do things the right way. Anyways, my French keeps getting worse and worse since I hardly speak it at all anymore and the language school will be something to do during the week. Also I might go get a guitar or ukelele from the toy store today, just for kicks. There are just so many things that I want to do, I feel like I'll never have time for all of them. Oh well, I have to start somewhere.

Bisous!

When in Toulon...

GO TO IKEA! True, it's almost exactly the same as all other Ikeas, but everything is in French and euros which of course makes it delightfully more exciting. Also, if you didn't already know this, Ikea is a wonderful place to play cache-cache (hide and seek) or loup (tag). Mothers might not appreciate it so much, but I couldn't help myself and joined in the fun.

So the whole purpose of our little Toulon getaway was to take the kids to the grandparents for the weekend. Apparently I didn't have to come but it was nice to get out of the house and I enjoyed meeting Christine's parents. They were very nice and even though they spoke even faster and thicker than Christine does, I was somehow able to understand them and we had a few good conversations about how tall I am, Christine's child-rearing practices, and the differences between how poverty is expressed in America and France.

The grandparents live really close to the train station so while we were there, the boys wanted to go watch the trains. Unfortunately last week there was an incident where some rail-workers cut the lines for the TGV high speed trains (the TF1 report Thursday night called it "sabotage"), so we only got to see the normal, amtrak-style TER trains. The boys were disappointed but it was still a fun outting.

The kids were supposed to stay witht he grandparents for the whole weekend but at the last minute Christine remembered that Thomas had a birthday party to go to (his girlfriend's) on Saturday afternoon. Christine and I returned to the house Friday afternoon while the kids stayed Friday night and Christine and Nigel went back to pick them up the next day after lunch.  

Carnaval

Sunday, February 27th, I went with Beke and two of the other German au pairs, Pia and Julia (Julia is actually Austrian), to Nice for CARNAVAL! It was really cold but thankfully it didn't rain. We actually ended up leaving early because of how cold it was, not to mention, the parade was really long. But it was a lot of fun, and actually got me really excited about Tulane again. While we were there, the other girls were blabbing on in German, and I developed a whole new life plan. 

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In other news, Beke leaves today and I will be moving down to the main house shortly. I have to get the apartment all cleaned up. I wonder if they brought the car down or if I will have to go up to the house to get it. Hmmmm, I'll have a look in a bit. I'm all packed (if you can call it that- I basically just threw all my dirty clothes, which is all my clothes, into my suit case without folding them and then put everything else in boxes. I've been really excited all weekend but now I am a little nervous. I know it will be fine, but it's just another  adjustment that I am going to have to make. Granted, I think this one will be a lot easier. Now that I know how to drive (I drove to Nice on Sunday by the way), getting around and doing things on my own, of my own accord, will be wonderful. I'm already planning what I am going to do everyday next week once the kids are back in school.