buying tickets and Linda's Birthday!!!

So even though Linda had a scare on the eve of her birthday, she was able to get through her birthday unscathed and without a trip to the emergency room!

Instead, she and I split two bottles of wine while hanging out with Miguel on the beach. There was also an "olive oil festival" in town that weekend.. and I say "olive oil festival" in parentheses because, unless you consider three tables (two of which did NOT anything to do with olive oil) and a whole bunch of random animals with donkey rides a festival, it was falsely advertised. But that did NOT keep us from celebrating. I baked a "cake"... again note the parenthesis.... and bought candles and we had ourselves a grand time. Although the French are world-renowned for their awesome cuisine, they are a little behind on times in the department of box desserts like brownies and cakes and cookie dough.

Saturday, I went to the laundry mat. I'm telling ya- even if i didnt have any dirty clothes, I would go there anyways all the time lol. I meet the NICEST people there.. and they always give me compliments so I mean, who WOULDNT want to go there? So, I grabbed a cafe creme ( sugary milky coffee) and a croissant and hung out at the laundry mat on saturday. Afterwards, I went to go buy stamps AND then I went and had a copy made of the key I stole from school so no one would know I lost my original copy. ( before anyone freaks out that some important key is circulating around France, it was just to the gate - a tiny insignificant gate that anyone could hop. it's just the principal of the matter. I never lose things- i'm too organized- and I didnt want to tell anyone that I lost it. So I "forgot" to give the key back to the high school until today so that I could make a copy of it this weekend) So yeah, I was pretty productive on Saturday.

Monday was ticket buying day. I have been surfing the internet now for days finding cheap yet legitimate lodging for Erin and me during our "best christmas vacation EVER". For those who are not yet up to speed:
Dec 11- Erin's plane lands in Paris and he figures out how to meet me in Nice (near my house)
Dec 18- last day for me to teach
Dec 21- take night train to Rome
Dec 26- come back to Ste. Maxime/ French Riviera
Dec 30- go to Paris
Jan 3- Erin flies home from Paris and I go home

So we are spending 4 nights in Rome, including Christmas day. Then, we are spending 4 nights in Paris, including New Year's Eve. Probably the best thing that has ever happened to me= 8 days in the two COOLEST cities in Europe with my soon to be husband. Am I not the luckiest girl or what?

Ok ok ok anyways, so I found and reserved our little 1-2 star hotels for us this weekend and then set off on Monday to buy us our train tickets for all of these excursions. Well, I was able to buy the tickets to Paris, but for some reason, Italy is not selling train tickets to Rome yet for any date after Dec 12th. A tiny little voice in my head is trying to tell me not to freak out... but i can't help but think that the lady who helped me was wrong and that they have just SOLD OUT of all their train tickets... =( i hope not.

MY PACKAGE CAME IN YESTERDAY!!!!! But, I was in St. Raphael buying train tickets and i guess Linda was out doing something so no one was there to receive it, so I hav to go to the post office and pick it up today if i can make it in time. I am currently at school. I have two more lessons for today and then i can go home. Hopefully I will be home by 630. I think the post office closes at 7. I can always go get it tomorrow BUT I WANT MY POPCORN NOW!!!!!!! LOL

Also, tomorrow, you should all be saying a prayer for me because I have an appointment to get my hair cut at 330

Love to all!!