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!