I'm beginning to think I am have prophecy powers.

I knew I didn't need to pack. I just didn't. My plane was leaving in two hours but meh! Packing schmacking. I folded letters, cleaned the kitchen, painted my nails, started a new business plan, watched Scandal. Urgency ain't got nothin' on me.

Then I got the email "Your flight has been cancelled. Go to united.com for more information."
First of all. Ummmm thanks for all the help United? If this was my mom receiving that email, she would've FREAKED OUT. Thank God I live in the same city as my airport!
Second of all. I KNEW I didn't need to pack.
Third of all. United.com had zero information. Went to the airport instead.

Flight rerouted to Phoenix for the next day which actually worked quite well for me and my cohorts! Original plan: I fly from 8:15 pm to 3 am (6 am DC time). Megan pick me up, I sleep for many hours, we resume life in the afternoon like normal people.
Better plan: I fly from 5 am to 1 pm. Megan pick me up, we resume life like normal people.

Voila!

So I arrive. Not actually in DC, but Maryland, because Megan is getting her PhD at University of Maryland. We go grocery shopping, oogle at the mall that has to specify when their salons are "American" because the rest are assumed to be African. Megan and I did a quick internet search- in SLO, there are 1.2% African Americans. In College Park, 65%. Needless to say we have like zero African Salons in SLO. Still no Native Americans anywhere.

Megan and I have difficult eating habits. She's vegetarian and survives off quesadillas and grilled cheese. I don't eat bread (or tortillas) or dairy (aka cheese), and tons of meat. Fabbbb. So we arrived at a wonderful conclusion of peach salad and sweet potato fries. CJ came over, ate, and then said we'd have to go to McDonald's after because he was still hungry. Bitch bitch bitch. All he ever does! I guess he's still a growing boy..

We took a walk around the 'hood and somehow avoided the McDonalds (you're welcome CJ's insides).  Meandered in the woods, caught up on our current judgments of all our friends' social situations, avoided judging our own endless transitioning lives, laughed, and MARVELED at fireflies. California may be amazing, but we need more fireflies.

Megan and I have dubbed the theme of this week Necessary But Not Urgent. Also FUN SOCIAL STUFF ALL THE TIME. Tomorrow we are going to make her a new memory box (necessary, but not urgent), go paddle boarding (SUPER NECESSARY. and social and fun.), and I will restructure the Spanish class I teach (necessary, kind of urgent..).
It's gonna be great.

DC Day 1 is done, 9 more to go!! Whoo!

My future telling powers tell me they're all going to BE AMAZING.

Paris is always a good idea- Audrey Heburn

Oh, and how right she is.

Young, broke and...

Carmen's birthday was Thursday, and we've been planning to go to Paris for a while to celebrate. I have been counting down the weeks sine the beginning of January, not only to see Paris, but to see my good friend AK who always lets me crash at his place, and to have a weekend of fabulousness with Carmen!

Before we even left, cherries were being piled on top of our Paris ice cream sundae; it was going to snow (beautiful!) and we had an extra friend with us- WBW, an American guy who works for humanitarian organizations for the most part of the year, and has taken 3 months off to travel Europe. A girlfriend of mine told him I live here in the south of France, and he got to be so lucky as to stay with me the week before Paris. It was so great to show Montpellier off to a tourist (when it wasn't raining), as well as have somebody to share my day to day life with.And great to meet somebody new!- good thing he was funny, kind and easy going or that would've been a long weeekk! (Or, as he put it, he would've just left it we didn't get along lol).

So Paris was set up to be a great trip. 

Little did we know it would be..

FANTASTIQUE!

WBW played paparazzi all weekend, and we got some funny pics on the metro and just walking around.

I thank the Lord for photos, every time I look at them I smile because it's so clear how much fun we're having. Sigh, what a great weekend.

Saturday: 
Biggest Crepes you've ever seen in your life- mine filled with Nutella, coconut and bananas. OMG Heaven.
Thank God it wasn't snowing yet, because there was no place to sit with these huge things. So we just walked around enjoying our 3000 calorie treats. Worth every bit.

The rest of that day was spent buying/fudging costumes for a Superhero party that AK was invited to, and subsequently we were invited to, that night.

I went as "Wonderwoman" (hardly), WBW was.. Sexyman (or whoever anybody guessed he was), Carmen was Catwoman and AK went as Zorro!

French parties are a little.. different. They serve vegetables, for one thing- there was an entire bowl of RADISHES as party treats. I mean, not complaining on my current health food kick (I think I ate the entire bowl of sliced bell peppers).. but radishes? Really?

And they play GOD AWFUL MUSIC. Like nothing to dance to. But they thought it was dance music. They were wrong. so, hate to say it, but we took over the show. Praise the Lord for iPhones- plugged mine in and we were good to go. Were we the only 3 (WBW, Carmen and I- as the Americans.. and then occasionally AK as an American-loving French man) dancing, and I'd like to think we gave the party entertainment. Knowing we'd never see these people again, we just did whatever we wanted. I felt like it was a private party :p Then we did our own little photo shoots (I can't imagine what the French were thinking just watching us take pictures of ourselves for like an hour) for the rest of the night when our music selection was taken over, and made the best of it til we begged AK to leave (it became clear this was a couple's only party, and dancing by yourself can only last so long!)

Sunday:
Sunday morning we let ourselves sleep in a bit, and then to pay for it, we RAN to the American Breakfast place Carmen had heard of before to eat a little bit of home. Of course, once we got there just five minutes before the place closed for breakfast, we found out that they actually serve breakfast all day. Well, that's alright, before the bagels and pancakes (white chocolate, apple and almond pancake?! Best thing EVVERRR!!!) and breakfast burritoes and whatever else we ate, Im sure a little cardio wasn't bad :)

My favorite part of Sunday was Buttes Chaumont. AK told me about it when I came to Paris with MIF in December, and I'm so glad I took hsi advice to go check it out. This place is a huge park with gardens and waterfalls and a huge man mad mountain in the middle. It's the third highest peak in Paris (or something impressive like that). In the snow it was AWESOME. The moat around the island/mountain was frozen, so of course we tested fate and walked/skated on it (in Uggs or whatever shoes we were wearing). I got a little out of hand and tried to do some lovely spins , and I fell on my butt (pic below, mid-fall). Some man swore he heard a crack, WBW dragged me off the ice like a five year old, and AK scolded me for being wreckless. Ah, to be a five foot tall adult.. :p

Random:

Speaking of being a semi-adult, I STILL have lice. Found two huge gross bugs in my hair today.

I just want to crawl home to my mom so she can sit me down and do a RID treatment on my hair like I'm in the first grade again.

Also WBW if you're reading this, sorry I didn't tell you about the lice, I didn't want to freak you out. And I definitely thought I had gotten rid of it.. 

Also, I'm trying to cardio 75k in the next 6 days. Power walking, biking, and elliptical count. Wish me luck!

<3

Lice Strikes

First let me start by saying that eating healthy does wonderful things for your body.
Like make your nails grow so long and beautiful you scratch your eyes out every time you try to take your contacts out. Or make you have to pee every ten minutes because you're so freaking hydrated. Or make your hair so long and thick that getting lice out of it takes three treatments of lice killing spray and two treatments of mayonnaise and hours of combing with a fine tooth comb.
Take the bad with the good.

So for the last THREE weeks I have had a terrible rash over my neck and head. It started the same day I severely burnt my head in the shower by accidentally knocking the faucet into BLAZING HOT and singed my scalp, so I thought it was just healing. Then it started being little bites everywhere. Thought it was lice, then quickly rejected that idea after no one could see anything in my hair. Bed bugs maybe. Spider bites. Allergies to my shampoo all of the sudden? So I rearranged my room, took all the furniture out and swept, mopped, vacuumed.. washed all my sheets (no small feat with no dryer, by the way), etc.
FINALLY I itched my head and came down with one little bastard bug on my finger.
I ran to my fourteen year old, who had lice when I first got here, and she was like "Oui, poux."
Here, apparently, you just stock lice shampoo like normal first aid because it happens so frequently. But HOLY MOLY that treatment burns. And to my despair, I found out that the stinging is the little buggers biting in anger, because the second and third time I did it, the less it stung because I didn't have any bugs left to bite me.
Dad said mayonnaise suffocates them. So I performed a genocide on my head with a weapon of  mayonnaise and kept it in ALL DAY. I mean all day. Through a three hour photo shoot, lunch, a trip to the movies to watch Le Chat Potte ( Puss in Boots ) with the kids, and through dinner. Plus side, my hair was extra soft and luscious after I rinsed out all the mayonnaise and dead lice. (When I told my fourteen year old that I had it in my hair, she said "Oh that's why your hair doesn't look nice today." Thankksss)

Fun fact: Lice can't live outside your head. There is about a 1:1000 chance they will survive even on your pillow. There were studies done where the researches swept 100 classroom floors and found not one louse. Then checked the heads of those kids, and found SEVEN THOUSAND LICE.

Hallelujah because I really didn't want to call my schools and inform them I had probably infected 270 students.

When I tell the kids' dad when he gets back (I had the kids this weekend to myself), he's going to say "Welcome in France" ;)

Blogging was NOT one of my New Year's Resolutions.

Because I knew that would FAIL.
But I will try anyway!
My New Years Resolutions were, in fact, the following:
1. Do 10 miles of cardio a week
2. Cut out bread for the most part, and eat about a zillion times better. (This is actually more specific but that's too long to type out)
3. Actually DO the photo shoots I want to do.

So far, I am doing great with #1, mostly great with #2, and alright with #3. But hey, it's been changing my life and it's only been a month.

I can't believe January's practically over.

Here is all the nitty gritty of the past few months..

Since I posted last time I've been to the following countries:

Monaco
Italy
Slovakia
Slovenia
Hungary
Poland
Germany
Switzerland
Czech Republic
England
Spain
Austria (we just drove through on accident, but I am still going to count it)

I am missing one. But I cannot for the life of me think of what it is.

So, you see, catching up on all those travels would be treacherous.  But I still may do something about it if I feel inspired.
Especially because I don't want to forget all those amazing times- I mean I already have!

I am at a place in my life right now where I am proud of my past, pleased with my present and excited for my future.
What better place is in there in life?

So here's what the future holds for the next few months:
Paris
Mont St. Michel, France
Verbiers, Switzerland
Milan, Italy
Edinburgh, Scotland
Ibiza, Spain

And then several more places in Italy and France when my aunt and uncle come down at the end of May.

So that's a wrap up of travels. Photos shall come soon. I have to be general because it's been so many months giving specifics would take ages and ages.
Which is why people who blog like every week are so cool. Ahem, AW.

But if I have time to build habits anywhere, it's here. I have all the time in the world to do things the right way. Drink my green tea, eat my oatmeal, go to the gym, read my Bible, get 8 hours of sleep, etc, etc. Right now I feel like when I go back to the states I'm REALLY going to miss this year long vacation I'm on right now. But who knows, maybe I will be craving the go go go again by June!

I also commute about 6 hours a week, and on Thursdays and Fridays it's 2 hours each day. So needless to say, my Kindle has been more than life saving and I have read the following books in the past few weeks:
Hunger Games series (Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay)
Tim Tebow's Through My Eyes
Ender's Game
Jay-Z's Decoded
Eragon series (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance)


Grandma would be proud :)

I still love living with the family, the kids are speaking some English, bt only a few phrases I've made the  m say because they repeat them so often. Like "What's for dinner?" or "Can you help me please?" or "Can I borrow a t-shirt?".. but that's about it. It's hard to teach a different language to somebody when you're trying to COMMUNICATE with them, not just teach them.  But I have been gaining more trust with the family, I think, not that I didn't have the lives of the two children on my hands the first weekend I lived here, but I have been called to find out what to buy at the grocery store, been given money to go grocery shopping for the family, and been allowed to make decisions on what the kids are doing after school even when it's the dad's night and they're his responsibility. So I am really loving it.

Teaching is.. bleh. Not even worth mentioning, to be honest. I only work like 6.5 hours a week, and therefore am spending a week at a sleep away camp for the primary schools in March to make up for it (I should be working 12 hrs/week, at least that's how much they're paying me to work). I think in about a year I will forget that I came here to teach English. Psh, I've already forgotten.

Alright, so there's the catch up post, and hopefully I can start posting more often so you can have details!!

This is the possibly the best thing I have ever done. Thank you so much for your support <3

Cassis :D

I told Carmen I wanted to go to St Tropez, and she had the fabulous idea of visiting the Calanques in Cassis, a beach about 2 hours away on the train. Worked out perfectly for me, because Nimes was on the way so I got to visit Audrey, and her and I went together and met Carmen and the other American girl on the way at the train layover. So our plan was, arrive in Cassis, walk about a mile to calanques, hike up the cliff, nap on calanques and read the rest of the day, get tan/burnt, walk back to the train station, go home.

Hiccup numero uno: 

I had my overnight bag with me. Which is like NBD but it’s ROLLY and HEAVY. And I have Nigel. Who is fat. Not only does this make walking the 2 miles up and down curbs and through gravel pathways SUPER annoying and time consuming (and also that’s really bad for my poor wheels!), there is no way I can hike with this thing. So we know hiking is out the window, but we also noticed it would be because this cliff is the HIGHEST IN EUROPE. It’s vertical. Like a million feet. No climbing period.

Hiccup numero dos: 

We have to walk two miles to get to the beach. We thought it’d be a simple like 1 mile walk.. nope- up and down, on or off sidewalk, with rolly polly in the back and it took us 30 minutes. At this point we decide a taxi cab back would be the best bet.

Hiccup numero tres: We.cannot.find.the.beach. Or the calanques. We stop somewhere to eat, all starving and ask the server- how do we get to the calanques? She says you can either take a boat tour or WALK TWO AND A HALF HOURS. No.thank.you. So we’re kinda bumming, but ask her about the beach anyway, she says it’s down to the port, take a right, walk 15 minutes.

Fabulous thing numero uno: We get to the port to look for the beach, and decide we really do want to see the calanques and we should figure it out. So we look around and right away, there’s this little red shack that sells tickets for a boat ride to see the calanques. You can’t hop off and chill at the calanques, but you do get a boat ride to go see three of them for 14 euro. Not bad, not bad at all.

Fabulous thing numero dos: The boat left like 10 minutes after we bought our tickets. How perfectly imperfect would that have been if we arrived right after it left.

Fabulous thing numero tres: The boat ride. We got to sit up front in the open air, and Carmen got to experience her first boat ride. The calanques were beautiful, and definitely set deep into the cliffs and we would’ve taken at least two and a half hours to get there. Good thing we didn’t try.

Fabulous thing numero cuatro: We found the beach. RIGHT by the port. Would’ve been hiccup numero cuatro if we had tried to walk all the way to the beach the server mentioned and found out about this beach on the way back. All the women, topless. Young, old, flirting with boys and drinking wine, talking to neighbors, sleeping, eating, playing with children, it doesn’t matter. Women are topless.

No I didn't get a picture of that.

So I've been in the Mediterranean now a good amount of times.

Dangit I wish I would've written that on my Bucket List before I did it so I could scratch it off.

Crap, what happens when I'm done with my Bucket List?

Other pictures of the Calanques :)

Mini Recap

My first day taking the tram all the way to work, although Fred dropped me off at the tram station so I don’t really have the full effect of leaving from the house, taking the tram for an hour, and bussing to work. But surely it’s not a bad thing if I get to skip that entire process once or twice. So I shall be timing this ride.

In the mean while, let’s recap.

I moved to France.

I moved into a dorm with Rachelle, the girl who randomly spotted me on the train from Paris to Montpellier.

I met Carmen from Chicago, who I hung out with every day.

I went to Nimes to visit Audrey.

Audrey, Carmen, another American girl, and I went to Cassis to visit the Calanques.

I struggled for housing.

I found housing.

I now live in a home with a 13 year old girl, a 10 year old buy and a single dad, who is engaged and likes to spend a lot of time with his fiancée, hence why I am moving in.

So there’s the plot highlights. Now let’s do details.

The past week has been such a blur of transportation and waiting in line and running errands and eating at new places and seeing things right around the corner that you would travel hundreds of miles for. I don’t know how not to be so cliché when I say that Montpellier is like a treasure chest... or a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Like the chocolate pudding pie from my favorite sandwich shop for only one euro- totally gross. But the crepe place in the mall that offers hot chocolate and a crepe for 3 euro? Fabulous. I would be gaining 40 lbs a week if I didn’t make a super delicious salad every other night and if I didn’t walk 400 miles a day.

Surprisingly, the only time my knees hurt are when I’m wearing running shoes? But then my feet feel just fine... on the other hand, when I wear flats, my feet are super sore but my knees are fine. I’ll take the sore feet fo shizzo.

A few random stories:

1.     

1. Met up randomly with another assistant (another “Are you Asia?!”) and we were sitting eating some crepes a La Place De La Comedie (which is like the downtown of Montpellier)… so naturally we’re people watching and commenting as loud as we want because people in France don’t speak English (that’s wrong, they do... and we are going to get caught one day)...and there’s a huge ruckus in the corner with some lady shrieking “Papa! Papa!” and squeezing water over his forehead- he’s DRENCHED in sweat- and trying to shove some sort of fruit down his throat. Anyway, I’m looking past a guy who is looking at the same thing and I asked him what was going on and he started SHOUTING AT ME IN FRENCH! From what I could understand, he told me this is for eating not for looking and something something something and PUT HIS HAND IN MY FACE! I couldn’t believe it! You were looking too! Don’t lie! I just ignored him and kept watching. I would’ve had a retort or seventeen if I could speak that fast. I wasn’t as angry as I was like flabbergasted. Woah, dude, relax. This is France.

2.    

 2. Standing on the tram with a dress on. Violated by a homeless dog. Enough said.

3.    

3.  Sitting on the tramway, a man sits across from me… and now you’re going to have to sit next to somebody on the tram, for sure. That’s fine. But I knew from how he was leaning, elbows on knees, that he was going to try to talk to me. Oh and try he did. My French comprehension isn’t perfect. My French druggie comprehension is about null. My get-out-of-jail-free card is “I don’t speak French, sorry” (which doesn’t work when they hear you speaking French earlier)... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. For sure doesn’t work when they hear you speaking French earlier, or if they speak English, or if they’re drunk or on drugs. So the latter was the case with this man who knew about four words in English. “I love you babeh”. Leaned over and tried to kiss me. A lot. Kissy faces. Carmen bolted and I followed her. Guh-ross. 

More to come, like always.

Last day in French dorm.. new chapter beginning!