welcome to blog world!

Hi Everyone! So, i feel like I've been so bad at being in touch with friends about the current and exciting things going on for me.  It looks like it's gonna be a good year for old Heather.  You know me, if you're reading this, and you know I'm always dreaming up some crazy and bizarre plan.  But this time it feels like a solid, well thought out decision...I"M MOVING TO FRANCE!!! Yeah! Ok, so now I have to explain how this exciting news came to be. ( I know Annie S. is like, "What?! Heather, you're Crazy!")  Well, long story short...I've been in Sarasota since October.  I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of moving back to my hometown and living with my parents.  But it's actually been pretty fun overall.  I've been working full time here and keeping busy with old friends, who I am so thankful to finally catch up with.  Plus, I've gotten the chance to hang out with my very elderly grandfather, which means a lot to me.  Anyhoo, during the week of Halloween I was at a favorite bar with Kate, Keely, and some other friends, and guess who I should meet? The love of my life!  Ha! Those of you who are completely annoyed with my ease of falling madly in love, I understand, you don't have to read on.  But if you bear with me, I can tell you that this one is REALLY special!  A bar is definitely the last place I expected to find someone I really love, but it happened.  So, his name is Yann Gehan and he is French but he grew up in Brazil, because of his father's job.  He is 26 years old, almost 27 and he is the sweetest, most attentive, and loving boy I know.  I'm soooo happy that I was at the bar that evening, and I'm very indebted to Kate Daniels for calling him and his friend over to talk with us.  It pays off to have a friend that  is not shy and will pretty much talk to anybody.  So, we hang out the entire week he is here in Sarasota for kite surfing.  Besides all the strange coincidences, his parents bought a condo in Sarasota a mile from the house I grew up in! So, he leaves to go back to France for work and I am so sad.  By the way, he is a merchant marine, if you were curious.  And I'm hoping that we will keep in touch, and email once in a while.  The day he arrives back home we are calling each other, emailing, and going on video Skype nonstop.  So, at one point I decide I need to go visit him after Christmas.  So, on December 26th to January 7th I was in Marseille, France having the best New Year's of my life and spending it with the person I am so in love with.  So, there it is, in a nutshell.  I just wish you guys could meet him, although some of you already have and some of you are going to meet him soon! He is flying into Sarasota on February 20th and we will be heading up to North Carolina, to Asheville to visit some best friends who I miss so much and Black Mountain, so he can meet Will the Thrill, and his wonderful and amazing parents, Annie and Dan.  After Asheville, we'll be back in Sarasota for 6 days and then on March 4th we have our plane tickets already purchased (including Rascal's ticket!!) to head back to Marseille!! OMG! I can't believe how cool this is! I am currently working on attaining a work visa and I will be getting my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foriegn Language) certificate in Tampa this month, so that I may get a job teaching English there.  Yann went to talk with the headmaster of this amazing bilingual school in Marseille, and to our surprise she is very interested in speaking with me about a possible position.  I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but this would be the coolest place to work.  I really agree with their teaching philosophy and it's a small private school founded by a young couple with 3 children.  I've also been getting my passport renewed, Rascal's International Vet Certificate ready, and yesterday I sent my Curriculum Vitae out to the headmaster at that school.  Yann's apartment is very cute and is nice but his lease is up soon and he wants to search for something bigger with a yard or terrace for Rascal.  So, he's on a mission to find us a cool place.  Marseille is a beautiful seaside city; it's the second largest city in France, after Paris.  It's old and charming and parts of it look so beautiful, they appear fake as if from a movie set.  Surrounding the town are beautiful, huge, craggy mountains that you can hike for hours in.  People love to go sailing there, as the weather is almost perfect all year round, and so the harbor is full of men cleaning their sailboats while their dogs are running around.  It's such a cool place and everyone I met there was amazing and friendly.  Let's not even discuss the fact that on every corner, you can get a hot, crusty, fresh baugette from the oven, or maybe a chocolate croissant still gooey and melted in the middle or a single espresso perfectly pulled with whipped cream on top. The cheese sections stretch for miles in the grocery stores, and every dinner is accompanied with fantastic French wines.   We spent five days snowboarding in in Alps and had a perfectly cozy and warm ski apartment, next to the base of the mountain.  His four best friends came with and although I was a bit apprenhesive about spending my romantic French vacation with all the guys, it actually was soooo much more fun.  They cooked really good French dinners everynight, and good thing I was snowboarding like mad everyday, because we were eating like crazy people.  After snowboarding one day we went to the little village and ate the best crepes I've ever had, with a bottle of cold, sparkling apple cider.  I had a chocolate and banana crepe with toasted almonds, whipped cream, and vanilla ice cream.  Yes, I packed on a few pounds on this trip. :)  After spending the New Year's up in the mountains, we came back, and Yann showed me around Southern France.  We went to the outdoor farmers markets in Aix-en-Provence, which was so fantastic, even though it is winter there and it was a little chilly.  We drove to the little villages by the sea, just a half hour outside Marseille and you feel like you're in a different world.  One of my favorites was Cassis, you should Google it.  I'm trying to convince my mom and dad they need an apartment there.  But of course, there are down sides to France too, the Euro is way stronger than the dollar right now, so when i switched my money to Euros I was sad!  And gas it literally $8 a gallon there.  So, needless to say, it's real expensive.  But, I'm so excited to make this big move and of course I need to learn French.  My mom and I are signed up for classes that begin next week, and when I'm in Marseille I plan to take French as well.  So, far, all I can really say is, "The black cat eats on the wall." so, I guess that will only take me so far.  Well, I think for my first post this is a lot of info, so I'll go now, but put my blog on your favorites so you can check in on me.  Send a link to our friends if you know they might like to check my blog and leave me comments so i feel cool. it's gonna be blogilicious, i promise.   love you!