draw me a sheep

As soon as I start to think no one reads this, people ask me when I'm going to post again. "I need reading material," they say. Well I'm glad this is entertaining you, whoever you are.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a success! I mean, we didn't eat til probably 11pm, but we are in France after all. Sweet time with my eclectic, bizarre family here in Albi.

sweet potato pie. had to represent my roots.

we found a turkey. can you believe it???

I am slowly turning into a French creature of habit. Habits can make life monotonous, but they can also make you feel more at home. For example, I think this must be why I bake all the time. Today was the first day in a while that I didn't bake anything. And honestly the only reason I didn't was because I couldn't find rye flour. I asked Micka later though, so now I know where I can get it. Rye bread, you are my next baking challenge.

It turned into true November weather at last a few days ago: grey and cold. But today the sun came back out and it was nearly 60 out. So much for that. Not complaining! It's gonna be cooooolllldddddd soon.

I finally got paid today. Whew. 4 days late. I was starting to worry a bit.You would think it would be impossible for me to use up all the money I made last month, but I did somehow. Oh well.

So Christmas decorations are appearing bit by bit in the streets of Albi, and it is so very charming. Today I saw them putting up little Christmas trees at Place du Vigan. Can't wait til they turn all the lights on! And we are decorating the house this weekend...Francois is going to start hanging up lights outside tomorrow. I really despise the commercialization of Christmas, but I will never say no to Christmas decorations. Admittedly, I love them.


Anecdote: last weekend, Brent and I cooked Thai food for one of his teachers and her friends at her apartment. It was really fun, and they were so nice, but everyone was smoking inside and I was nearly sick because of it. Yikes, I've never reacted so badly to cigarette smoke. My eyes were burning so bad. People really do smoke a ton here...I understand folks who enjoy the occasional cigarette (I dunno, do I actually? I think it's foul) but to smoke nearly an entire pack in one evening? And kids start smoking really young...I see so many of my students standing outside their high school puffing away, and it's shocking when they're 15 or 16.

Anyway. I really like the people I live with. They're kind of nuts. One minute I think they are very formal and traditional, and the next minute Micka is acting like a crazy person, Francois is calling everyone "Maurice" for no reason, and Corinne is in the kitchen showing me how to belly dance. Because she knows how to do that. Things that happen when you grow up in Morocco. Also all of those things have happened in the past 24 hours.

They still think I'm crazy for eating oatmeal every morning. So I guess it goes both ways.

a perfect day for bananabread

coffee and bananabread :)

I guess I have to write a Thanksgiving post. It's more incidental than anything since all I did to celebrate Thanksgiving today was to make banana bread. This was also incidental; I just so happened to have three quickly deteriorating bananas in my room. There comes a time in every banana's life when it is ready to transcend to a state of banana bread.

But really, me and the other Americans (and one Englishman. And one Australian...I think) are having "Thanksgiving dinner" tomorrow night. It was more convenient. And we can do that, since we're in France. I brought it up a few times in my classes this week...which resulted in me explaining that no, Thanksgiving is not an extension of Christmas.

A few days ago, I made a pumpkin pie. I was not going to let this season pass without one. I bought fresh pumpkin from the market on Saturday morning. At first I thought there was no pumpkin here, but turns out French pumpkins just look weird. I had never made pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin before. Shame on me!

The recipe I used claimed to be "the pumpkin pie the pilgrims ate on the first Thanksgiving." Really though, it was pretty killer. It's from a cookbook my momma gave me on pies. Southern pies, to be more precise.

Everyone was skeptical at first. Especially Micka. "But it's a vegetable. Why would you make dessert out of a vegetable?" I assured him it was a good idea. And indeed, he was converted! This is a huge accomplishment that I am very proud of. He doesn't even really like desserts, but he smacked his lips after the last bite of his slice of pumpkin pie...

In other news, the new wine is here! It's called primeur, and there is primeur from basically every wine region in France. It's the wine that was made this past summer, so really new! Well, for wine, at least. So everyone here is excited about the Gaillac Primeur, since Gaillac is right next to Albi and produces a ton of (very good, I think) wine. The most famous primeur is the Beaujolais Nouveau, but I haven't tried it yet. Anyway, the night it came out, everyone went out to celebrate. Brent, Neill and I went to our favorite cafe, and the guy who owns it knows us by now because we go there so often, and he gave us a free round. Sweet man!

Cheers!

failure cookies

Whew, had a rough start this week. I don't even want to get into details really, but basically the administration at Bellevue is completely unorganized, and my students at Rascol are impossible. The students are what really got to me in the end...they are 19-23 years old, yet they act like small children. I finally lost my temper with them, yelled at them in French, and they shut up finally. They seemed shocked, but they were being buffoons. I think I've gotta talk to their teacher about it, because it's really a problem. It doesn't help that they are all boys. Oh my.

Today was kind of better, but then I was supposed to meet up with this lady at her house so we could talk about me giving some English lessons to her two kids, but then I couldn't find their house! They live by the hospital, but from the address she gave me, it seems that they must live inside the hospital, which is just impossible. I walked all around the place but couldn't find it at all. Bahh! So I emailed her saying I was really sorry, but I just really couldn't find the house. So I'm going to try again tomorrow.

So after three days of many failures, feeling pretty run down and worn out, what did I do...? Well I baked cookies, of course.

I should have known better than to make snickerdoodles. They made the house smell like Christmas, and I immediately fell into serious nostalgia. But, needless to say, they were delicious. I have to say, I am proud of my baking feats here in spite of my lack of measuring things and certain crucial ingredients (ex. used apple cider vinegar instead of cream of tartar). They tasted just like mom's. I think Francois ate about ten. At least there's someone around here who will eat the things I bake. And boy does he love sweets. Works for me.

Today started out as a baddd French day. It got better though, by the end. I hung out with Micka in the kitchen while he made dinner. I was trying to explain to him what collard greens are and why it's sad they don't exist here. Sidenote: if you look on the wikipedia page for collard greens, it specifically lists South Carolina as one of five places in the world where people eat them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collard_greens
There's not even a word for them in French. Oh well.

I like hanging out with Micka. He is much more informal with me than Corinne. Concrete example: he uses the "tu", or informal form when talking to me, whereas Corinne still uses "vous." Come on Corinne, I've been living in your house for almost 2 months. Micka has a really bizarre sense of humor that I did not get at first, but now that I do, it's nice to have him around for comic relief. When I first got here, Corinne was explaining to me that it was no use to load the dishwasher because Micka would just move everything around anyway since he's very particular about it, and Micka responded by saying that women can't do anything in a way that is logical. I think I wrote about it on this blog actually. At the time I think I thought he was being serious. Obviously now I know he was joking. Not about the dishwasher though, he really is anal about it. And most things, actually. Sometimes I don't understand how he and Corinne work together as a couple, but I guess opposites attract. I wouldn't say that they are opposites either, really. And he makes her laugh, which is always important.

In other news, the other day, I learned (from Micka, of course) that the best time to buy a round of Camembert is 15 days before the expiration date. Now you know. Also I learned that getting your teeth cleaned is free here. Along with most things that have to do with your health. This is something that still blows my mind, just as it blows Samira's mind that a lot of people in the U.S. don't even have access to healthcare because it's too expensive. She wants to go back to the states, but that is the one thing she's worried about. Well yeah, what the heck? Get with it, USA.

Mi still loves me. This is incredible considering how many times I've kicked her out of my room before I go to sleep. I have to do this or she will sleep on my pillow/on my face. One time she even hissed at me for it. Well, sorry Mi but girl's gotta get some sleep.

on my windowsill, as usual

la ville rose

I need to follow up on my last entry by saying that I did indeed go on a bike ride, and it was great. Brent and I rode bikes to what we call the "America" of Albi, meaning this weird shopping center on the edge of town with various bizarre discount stores. They were all closed when we got there because it was the lunch hour(s), so we decided to keep riding, and we soon found ourselves in the countryside. And it was lovely.

we made some new friends

On Thursday I had to go to Toulouse for a medical visit thing for my visa. Pretty much all they did was take an x-ray of my lungs and then stamp a bunch of papers. So now I am the proud owner of an x-ray of my lungs and a titre de sejour (a little sticker thing in my passeport), which means I'm finally legal! Hooray!!
Since Friday was a holiday, I decided to stay a bit in Toulouse and take advantage of my little trip. I met up with my friend Julia who is an assistant in Toulouse, and we hung out with her French friends and had a great time. It was really nice to be in a big city that has a lot going on. They have a bike rental thing that's part of the public transportation system (like a lot of big cities in Europe), so we rented bikes (which cost 1.50 euro for 24 hours) and rode around Toulouse. So great!

we went to a book market 

I'm kind of sad the weekend is over, but I seriously can't complain. Also, I can't believe this weather. I feel like I keep talking about it, but it's incredible. It's nearly mid-November, and southern France boasts 69 degrees and plenty of sunshine. Il faut en profiter !

I am on the hunt for a pottery studio here. I will not lose hope yet! I will have to look outside Albi, but it's not too hard to get around the Tarn (that's the name of the department). There are plenty of buses and things. Also, I would like to say that I love getting around by bike. This is something I have never done on a regular basis, since I have a car in the U.S. and it is too easy to hop in a car and drive somewhere. It is a wonderful and beautiful thing to ride a bike every day.

perfect day for a bike ride

I would really like it if my positive feelings about my life here were more consistent. I'm not even really sure what exactly makes them vary...I woke up feeling kind of discouraged, but I think today is going to be a good day. For one, the sun is back. I knew that the grey misty weather wasn't the norm when Micka and Corinne were complaining about it and speculating about when it would be sunny again. That was a good sign. It's not even cold here yet. I think it's 70 out today. Like Charleston! Except France.

One thing that I am currently not thrilled about is my laundry. So, I need to do laundry. I have been designated the tiny washing machine (smallest I've ever seen in my life), which is fine. Except that: it is programmed to only work at night because electricity is less expensive at night. Fine, I'm cool with that. The problem right now is that they keep using it, so I haven't been able to do any laundry. I don't understand this, since there is a normal-sized washing machine right next to mine that they could use instead. You can only do one load a day, unless you just stay awake all night waiting for it to be done. And I really have to plan ahead because once I finally wash it, it usually takes a couple of days to dry....bah! The point is, I am out of clean socks. :(

I have to teach one more class this week. In like 30 minutes. It's Wednesday. The reason for this: I teach mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays, I don't teach on Thursdays, and Friday is a holiday. ANOTHER HOLIDAY. But I think after that there are no more til Christmas. Tomorrow I'm going to Toulouse for a thing for my visa. Yep, still doing that stuff. But it will be fun because I have a friend who lives there, and we are going to have ourselves a good time in the city. Oh yes.

i <3 trains

rain=baking

I should be planning my lessons for tomorrow, but I'm just not quite ready to do work yet. The tiny bit of work that I have to do, that is.

Early last week, Micka's cousin and his wife and three kids came to stay with us for a few days. They live near Grenoble and told me I could come stay with them if I ever wanted to go see that region. So nice! It was fun having kids around...I could tell that I was simply fascinating to them, and they weren't sure what to make of me. One afternoon we all went to this tiny village about 30 min outside Albi called Puycelsi. (By "we all" I mean everyone except Francois who had appendicitis and was in the hospital...he's fine now though). Corinne told me I probably couldn't get there by bus, so it was really cool that I got to see it. It's this super old medieval village on top of a big hill surrounded by vineyards and fields of sheep. Seriously. We took the dogs with us and hiked in the hills around the village, then explored a bit. Walks through the hills like that (in autumn!) make me so nostalgic for North Carolina. Fall is pretty beautiful here though...apparently the colors are especially vibrant this year. My favorite are the grapevines which turn all colors, particularly bright yellow. The village itself was so charming...I can't believe people actually live there. I think they speak Occitan, the regional language here. There was even a little pottery studio...why aren't there pottery studios in Albi??? I don't understand!

I am learning new things about the culture here every day. The other day, I discovered that my host family heartily disapproves of my nose ring. Ha, too bad! They think it's a shame. They are super judgemental when it comes to physical appearances, which I've found to be true about most French folks. It really frustrates me, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it besides act like I care more about the way I look. I have to kind of dress up when I teach because otherwise no one respects me. Oh well.

Last night I made dinner with Brent and Samira, which was great because I love Samira and it meant speaking French all night. We were making soup with butternut squash, and she was showing me this spice mix that they use a lot in Morocco...she told me the name of it, and it took me like 10 minutes to get the pronunciation right. I still can't really say it. Man some of the sounds in Arabic are so hard to make! Samira told me that soon she'll teach me the Arabic alphabet. I'm pumped! Speaking of Arabic, this morning I went downstairs and Corinne was just chatting away in Arabic on the phone. Her capacity for language astounds me. She speaks French and Arabic fluently, and also is really good at English and Spanish. Crazy. And she remembers every vocabulary word she's ever learned.

It is a grey day, which means I am probably going to bake cinnamon rolls. Mmm...

toussaint

Okay! Sorry for the lack of entries lately. As most of you probably know, I have been traveling for the past week...now I am back home in Albi, taking some deep breaths and celebrating my last day of vacation by not even leaving my house on this dreary day.

So, my adventures. We hopped on a train before the sun came up last Sunday to go to San Sebastian, in the Spanish Basque country. We stayed there three nights in a youth hostel. I love youth hostels because they are cheap, safe, and you get to meet all kinds of people from everywhere. I met a guy from the Netherlands named Joost...he seemed to know everything about everything. He's in the process of trying to get a job and live in Spain. He claimed to not really speak Spanish, yet he never hesitated to ask random people on the street if he had a question about directions or something. We climbed up to the highest part of San Sebastian with him (the big ol' hill with the giant statue of Jesus at the top). San Sebastian is absurdly beautiful. I was kind of worried it was going to be super touristy...and there are a lot of tourists, but it doesn't necessarily feel overwhelmingly full of them. It's also not exactly tourist season, I guess. But anyway.

new friend Joost

Probably the best thing about San Sebastian is the food. The city has more Michelin stars than Paris. That is dang impressive. Not that I could afford to go somewhere with any Michelin stars. Ha. But we mostly ate pintxos, which are the Basque version of tapas. Basically the way it works is you go to a bar and they have a bunch of pintxos on the bar, and you get a plate and take one or two, order a glass of wine, and when you're done you tell a bartender what you had and he'll add it up at the end. It's kind of an honor system, which is cool. Then you go to another bar and eat their pintxos. Etc. So delicious. And really fun. It's like snacking, for dinner. Or lunch, or whatever. 

pintxo bar

We took a day trip to Bilbao to go to the Guggenheim and explore a bit. It was kind of a dreary day and we almost didn't even find the cool part of town, but we figured it out (based on a bus map...ha, we were really prepared, as you can see). 

Then we headed to Pamplona! It was kind of random that we decided to go there...basically I was looking at a map and said to myself...why aren't we going to Pamplona? So we did. We couch surfed with this lady named Rachel (brief explanation of couch surfing: there is a website/network of folks who are willing to host people who are traveling...for example, on their couch, for free, with the idea that some neat cultural exchange will come of it). She is awesome! It was so nice to hang out with someone Spanish who could show us around and do a bit of translating. And, she lives in this old apartment on the 5th floor (9 flights of stairs...whew!) on the street where they do the running of the bulls. She rents out her balcony to people during the festival in July. That's how great her view is. 

view from Rachel's balcony

And there is this whole network of couch surfing folks in Pamplona who get together on Thursday nights, so I got to meet people from all over and even speak a bit of French with a super nice guy named Nico. And there are some bars on Thursday nights where you can get one pintxo and a glass of wine for 2 euro. So absurd. It is so frustrating how much cheaper everything is in Spain than in France. Even San Sebastian, which is supposedly the most expensive city in Spain, was cheaper than France. Oh well.

 On Thursday we were going to hike up this mountain, but it was raining so Rachel suggested that we go to this little town called Olite where there is a sweet castle. Well that was great, and we would have never thought to do that on our own. Also there was a bit of a hitch with our travel plans that I don't think we could have worked out without her. Our original plan was to take a bus to Bayonne and a train from Bayonne to Foix. We had looked up the bus times and figured it all out. But when we went to buy our bus tickets the day before leaving Pamplona, we found out that there are only buses to Bayonne in the summertime. Nice one, Spain. So we had a few minutes of panic, then realized we could take a bus back to San Sebastian and then another bus from there to Bayonne and still make it on time for our train.I can't believe how lucky we were in Pamplona...what an incredible experience. Absolutely the best part of the trip.

Olite

After saying our goodbyes (more like see you soon...) we headed to Foix. After a long day of traveling, we arrive in this little French town perched on the edge of the Pyrenees. I love mountains!!! There isn't much to do in Foix, but there is a really cool castle on a hill, and we hiked up a mountain, so that was great.

Foix