Nice is Nice!

The cool thing about your car dying when you live in France is that, when you go car shopping, you go to Nice, and you go to Cannes to look at used cars. Hello car shopping; I love you! I will do car shopping anytime when it involves a day trip to these two great cities by the sea and includes a romantic lunch outside at a cafe in the sun, with your used car shopping partner in crime. Mine today happened to be Yann and he made sure we got the job done and had fun. After lunch we strolled around the sidewalks on the beach and jumped aboard old wooden boats for photo ops. We watched the fishermen putter in and out of a tiny port and load up their heavy, fish-laden nets. And we test drove and inspected Volkswagen Passat wagons. Two of them, and we went for the one that came from Italy last week. It`s a year 2000 car in silver with 145,000 kilometers on it. Don`t worry, I will be posting pics of our new addition to the family very soon. Yann will go pick it up next week and bring it back to Marseille; I will also be including a photo montage of our current broke down truck, so as to give her a proper farewell (a goodbye I`m so looking forward to!)

This new car will make living here so much more comfortable and safe. When Yann is gone I have to do a good bit of driving around Marseille for work and errands. Our truck has some major safety issues that were freaking me out and then it just up and died on Sunday. We taped up a À Vendre`sign in the window and pushed it`s dead butt out onto the busy street by our apartment. We also published an ad on a web site that is only for the Volkswagon Caddy trucks, like ours. See, Yann is under the (dis)illusion that his beloved truck is a rare and vintage antique. I think them are some fancy words for `Piece-of-junk, Rust-bucket truck`. But we`ll settle that score when we see how much the selling price is!


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In need of summer!

Here are the things I`m missing about summer days right now...

Fresh Garden Herbs

Hiking in mountains

Fresh cut flowers in a vase

A fresh catch

Ripe, in season fruit

Roses in bloom


And how about you? Are you ready for some warm weather soon??

A photo essay of our day

So, today something rare and surprising happened in Marseille. It was snowing! Like crazy... There is something so magical about seeing snow fall into the ocean. The combination of these two elements meeting is so quiet and peaceful, and today we just had to be outside and watch this weather phenomenon take place. It was a beautiful sight to see the city in a white, cold blanket, people out on their skis on the sidewalks and sledding in the park next door. The sailboats in the harbor were covered with snow and there was even a thin layer of ice forming on the surface of the sea. It was definitely a winter wonderland...















Have you ever seen a palm tree covered in fluffy, white snow??
I never had before today...




Here is Vallon des Auffes, a little cute place right next to where we live. It's a little fishing port, for local fishermen.







Walking down our street...

The first round of wedding pics...

Follow this link if you want to see the first wedding slideshow, done by Abby Liga at Liga Photography in Orlando, Florida. There will be more pics to come as she is still working on editing. Enjoy!

http://www.ligaphotography.com/slideshows/geehanwedding/

Hiking to the Calanques

Yes! Finally, some form of exercise after the excess of the holidays! And, the scenery wasn't too shabby either. It was a cold and clear Marseille afternoon and Malou, Yann, and I took full advantage of the weather and hiked to the Calanque. A Calanque is the name for the rugged coastal lagoons that are all around this area. They are very dramatic and grand and you have to see them in person to appreciate them. It's the most beautiful thing about living in the area.

And it was nice get out in the sunshine before heading back to work today. Uhh..it's soo hard to go back to reality after a 2 week vacation filled with sleeping-in and being lazy. How do you mentally prepare? Well, i tried to go to bed early, but at 1am, I was still wide awake, still suffering from jetlag. So, i hardly slept at all last night, and today I was so out of it with my students. But, luckily, I don't think they even realized, because they too are just coming back from their holiday. In my opinion, the world functions in a haze from January 2nd-6th. But, now I'm home and very satisfied after making green curry for dinner. And yes, I made the curry paste from scratch and yes, it was pretty darn good, if I don't say so myself. And the kitty is over there, crunching on her food. All seems to be falling back into some kind of normalcy.

P.S....Are you still writing 2008 on all your documents, checks, papers, ect. like I am???

A Survey

Things you've already done:bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font
So, copy & paste this onto your blog and tell me all about you!

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to disneyland/world
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped
12. visited paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty
18. grown your own vegetables
19. seen the mona lisa in france
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen niagara falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen michelangelo's david in person
41. sung karaoke
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the sistene chapel in person
50. been to the top of the eiffel tower in paris
51. gone scuba diving or snorkelling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theatre
55. been in a movie
56. visited the great wall of china
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies.
62. gone whale watching
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. donated blood
65. gone sky diving
66. visited a nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a cheque
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square
74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job
76. seen the changing of the guard in london
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the grand canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the alamo in person.
96. swum in the great salt lake.
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee

Happy New Year!!

Hi Everyone!
You thought I abandoned you right? You thought I was just going to leave you with only the Peanuts Christmas Special for the next 4 months. But you should know me better! I was just crazy busy and unable to get to my blog for what seemed like forever. I apologize for my behavior and I resolve in the New Year to do better, and not leave my 3 blog followers hanging! I did try to make time for updating some photos, but I just couldn't get very far without having to put it away.

Anyhoo, I wish you a very very healthy, happy, and prosperous 2009! I hope you achieve all your goals for the year and that you will make the best out of this time. We spent our New Year on a trans-atlantic flight, during which we noticed it had turned midnight at 12:05am. We had no champagne to toast with, so we kissed and feel dead asleep for the next 5 hours. How did you spend your New Year's Eve? Kitty was with us on the plane, in her cat bag, and she did so well. We only heard a small meow from her during take off and landing. We arrived at Frankfurt airport at noon European time and we were so tired and out of it. We went to this German restaurant that we had gone to last time we were there and ordered a huge plate of sausages and saurkraut. We each drank a massive beer and then found a quiet place to sleep before our flight to Marseille. Today we set our alarm to ring at 9:30am and I finally woke up and looked at the clock. Never heard any alarm, because it was 2:15pm! Well, today besides sleeping and recouping we went grocery shopping and cooked a good Brazilian dinner.

The blog entries below are in reverse order: So Christmas first then all the way back to December 13th, when we swent snowboarding before the holidays. Now, I feel like you are pretty much filled in on our lives since the Peanuts Christmas Special was posted. The only thing I have yet to blog about is the wedding, but I am going to wait on that until I have the pictures from Abby. So, enjoy and again I wish you the best year ever!!

Love,
Heather

Christmas Eve

So, here are a few pics of things around the house on Christmas Eve. My mom and I were super busy that day with cooking & cleaning because we were having a big crowd over. In fact, I think it was the biggest crowd to date in our house. We had Yann's parents, my grandpa, the aunts & uncle and my 2 cousins. We were planning on going to the candlelight service at church, but the turkey went into the oven late and that set the schedule of the night back. The night is always ruled by the turkey cooking time. Sometimes, it seems like that is what this holiday is all about...waiting on the damn turkey! But we had a fabulous dinner, compliments to my mom, who was smart and got all the appetizers and cakes done by Morton's Market. Usually, I'm the baker of all desserts but this year was too crazy and I had no time to do that. We had coffee by the fire and opened a few little gifts and that was it. It was a very special Christmas because it was the first Yann & I have spent together and also with both of our families together. Everyone got along great, and the language barrier made for some good laughs. And Yann's parents had a chance to meet my extended family before the wedding ceremony on the 27th of December.

Introducing...Adrielle, Nan & Scotty's baby girl

Look at this little pumpkin head baby! How cute is she? Oh my gosh, she is so cute! As were the words I kept saying over and over when I met her. She is adorable, happy, and looks a lot like her mommy. We spent a night with Nan & Scotty on the way home to Sarasota from Charleston. They live in Fernandina Beach, Florida where Scotty has an AMAZING restaurant called 29 South, named after the address. So, if you are ever in town, you have got to eat there and make sure you order the dessert Doughnuts and Coffee, which is a Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding drizzled with caramel sauce and served a la mode with coffee ice cream. Oh, yeah, and it's as yummy as it sounds.

I was so excited that Nan and Adri were able to make it to or wedding. We sure missed Scotty, but the life of a chef required his presence at his restaurant. We lingered over our delicious dinner at 29 South, and talked about the possibility of them coming to visit us in France in May 09. Scotty hasn't been to France in a few years and he thinks a trip here is due. Well, Yann and I are really hoping for them to come, as we would really try to show them a great time and re-pay them for their kindness at their restaurant. That darn Scotty; the guy is TOO generous. Anyways, Yann & I fell in love with Adri from the start; she is a charmer and we want one just as cute as her!!