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...
The picture with the kitty looks like something from a calendar!
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