EVERYTHING

OK SO REWIND........normally i wouldnt backtrack this much.. but IT'S IMPORTANT

LAST FRIDAY, Linda and I went to a birthday party. For the Italian Asssistant. In Dragignuan (neighboring town). Now, I don't know how many international birthday parties you've attended lately.... but SERIOUSLY? Italians ( and Spaniards) don't know when to quit it when it comes to parties. 4 A.M., people. We were at the teacher's house who hosted this party for us until 4 A.M.!!! Good food, though =) Finally went back to the Italian's house where she very graciously hosted all 10 of us. Felt like such a rude punk cause I just went staight to the place i was sleeping and laid down.... even though people continued to have a sing-a-long right outside my door until 5:15.

SATURDAY MORNING- woke up at 6:50. So, going on bout 2 hours of sleep, and caught a bus to the train station, bought the first train ticket out of there... only to find out that train was late. LOL. Got to AIX EN PROVENCE an hour later than expected, did a dance (literally) when i stepped off the train because i was SO OVERJOYED TO FINALLY BE IN AIX!!! We met up with Valerie (American assistant from L.A.) Tessa ( New Zealand Assistant) and Ben (British assisant from Oxford) So there were five of us hanging out in Aix on Saturday. It was good times. That night, we stayed at a friend of Valerie's/ a couch surfer's place. For those of you who aren't familiar with couchsurfing, you should check it out. Could potentially be a sketch situation, but also can be very cool. Couchsurfing.com.

SUNDAY- spent all day in Aix again. Mostly soaked in the "city-ness" and enjoyed having actualy stores to shop in. (Aix is alot more commercial than Ste. Maxime). That night, Ludo ( Valerie's friend) drove us out to Marseille so we could ACTUALLY SEE Marseille ( remember we had gone for our medical visit but didnt have enough time to see anything?) Well.. apparently Marseille is really close to Aix, so he drove us out there and gave us the BEST personalized tour of Marseille. He CAN speak English, but didn't while we hung out with him... and thought it was hilarious when three american girls were disputing french grammar rules in FRENCH. After our awesome tour, we came home and watched MISS FRANCE on T.V. I'm not even lying, it was probably one of my top ten cultural experiences I've had since I've been over here. They stand funny when they pose ( the contestants) On facebook, you will see me demonstrating said pose in one of my pictures.

MONDAY- spend the morning and early afternoon in Aix. Saw a cool museum, a cool cathedral, and left to come home to Ste. Maxime around 5 p.m.

TUESDAY-FRIDAY- frantically tried to clean the house, grocery shop, do laundry, and clean blankets all for Erin.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON- went into "town" ( aka St. Raphael... it's a "town" cause it has a train station).... grabbed a coffee with a guy named Rick who is an assistant there ( he's from California somewhere). Took a train into Nice at 4ish, checked into my hotel, and set out to do some more exploring. Nice is having an awesome christmas festival this year. Complete with FERRIS WHEEL, a christmas market, and an ICE SKATING RINK!!! it was pretty awesome! When it got dark out though, I decided to head on back to my hotel. I tried to take a nap while i waited for Erin's train to get there, but that was probably the greatest lost cause of my life. There was no way I could have slept. maybe i slept for 30 minutes. Erin's train came in at 11:14, so i left the hotel at about 10:40 only to find out that his train was running 20 minutes late!!! LONGEST 20 minutes of my life. Erin was so cute though, he called me at 11:14, cause he didnt know his train was late, and asked me if i knew where he was ( he was in Antibes, just one stop away from Nice). When he finally got there, he was starving, so where did i take him for his first meal in France? MC DONALDS!! lol.. it was the only thing open... dont give me too hard of a time!

SATURDAY- I showed him around Nice. We climbed this cool hill with a "castle" on top and got some pretty awesome views of the bay and the city. And we went to the Fine Arts Museum .. saw some Picasso and Rodin. It rained so we actually couldn't do a whole lot. I saw a KFC .. and for those of you who have been following me on Facebook... know that i have been craving Chik Fil A- and KFC seemed liek the next best option... lol so for Erin's THIRD meal in France, we went to a KFC and sat and talked fro like 2 hours. . . discussing who's bank account we were gonna merge to / who's phone company we were gonna use once we get marries. Precious, I know.

SUNDAY, we came home. The train stalled on the tracks. lol I PROMISE the trains really arent as bad as I make them out to sound sometimes. We got ino St. Raphael just in time to buy our train tickets to Rome. Or so we thought. They told us that Erin's pass wouldnt work and , in essence, we we gonna have to pay 3 times as much to get to Rome that what we had originally expected. So, we came home that night, incredibly bummed out. I introduced Erin to Linda.. even though both of them already felt like they knew eachother already cause i talk about both of them to the other all the time.

MONDAY- woke up a bit more optimistic, concocted a not-so-legal-plan to get to Rome, and set off BACK to St. Raphael to buy MY tickets at least. Got those (sorta- not worth explaining what the "sorta" means though). Came home, i cooked a DELCIOUS dinner, and we watched a Charlie Brown Christmas on my computer! (we can't watch normal television here cause Erin doesnt understand a word- I can't figure out how to set up the English subtitles on the tv)

TODAY- went to the highschool together. Taught. They liked Erin... they said he was quiet lol.. but Erin didnt understand half the things they said even when they DID speak in English cause they had such a thick accent. I loved it. I liked that Erin was experiencing something that I loved.. even if he did have to see me in "teacher mode" which was kinda embarassing actually. (for me) We came home of the school bus ( oh yeah!) and stopped by our Christmas market and rewarded ourselves for a fabulous day's work by each buying a chocolate covered apple. They were yummy. Erin's even had sprinkles! Then, we came home and cooked together. We made the same turkey/ham/noodle casserole I cooked for Thanksgiving. We ate about half of it, and now we have the rest for lunch tomorrow when we get home after school. ( cause Wednesdays are always half days at school in France). Tomorrow night, Elena is hosting a "Christmas Dinner" at her house.... so we will be going out there for dinner tomorrow night. Elena speaks English fairly well, and Miguel speaks better than he lets on, so Erin should be fairly comfortable ( I hope!)

Ok well i think that is all. Now, Erin and I are about to make out out itenerary for Rome. We arrive at 6:30p.m. on the 22nd and leaved at 7:15a.m. on the 26th. So we have alot to cram pack in,. so we are making an intenerary to ensure that we utilise our time wisely ( and cause Erin and I are just weird like that and like to be organized!!) Ok well love to all! Gros Bisous!