elections...

Hey, can you believe it's already close to election time?! How exciting is that? I am really looking forwar to seeing the results of this election.  I can tell you, in my English classes, a lot of the discussions have been based around the upcoming election and the two candidates.  French people are very interested in this election as it has a big effect on their life too.  America is so tied to many other countries in the world and sometimes as Americans we forget how much influence our politics really have.  However, living in a foreign country I am aware of this impact as I see tons of U.S. election coverage on French news everyday.  I can tell you overall who French want to see as the next President of the US and that man's name rhymes with Mama, llama, and Mamba.  I have been watching, thanks to You Tube, all the election debates, Obama's 30 minute commericial, and reading news from the States.  It's weird to not be in my country for this important Presidential race, however, I did already vote.  And that is the most crucial action to take in this whole thing.  Just go out and vote and get your voice heard, no matter who you are voting for.  

The more Americans that vote, the more our voice is heard.  The government will see who the majority of Americans want as President after this election, thus they will see more clearly the desires of the American people.  I have my own strong beliefs about this election as most people now have, and of course I really hope the guy I voted for wins!  (I won't reveal, but maybe some already know.)  Maybe after the election I will post to tell if I am happy or not about the election results.  We'll see, America....

And on to the yucky weather we are having here in Marseille...It's been cold, overcast & rainy for days and it is going to continue through the weekend. Yann is upset because he has 16 days off and he can't go kite boarding. The weather is too bad.  He will kite in the cold wind and rain, that's not the problem.  It's that, when it's too cloudy the wind dies, and no kite boarding for anyone.  Oh well, hopefully things will turn up soon.

Happy Halloween from France!  No one really celebrates it here so I'm not expecting to have any Trick-or-Treaters knock on our door.  But maybe there will be one or two odd French people that dress up and bum around the bars on the Vieux Port.  The section for Halloween in the grocery store consists of some old, tangled up black wigs and some dusty bags of candy.  There is also an absence of carved pumpkins glowing on front porches and of signs for Haunted Houses at the local church or mall.  There are no invitations for Halloween parties in our mailbox and no one will be toilet-papering the neighbour's lawn.  Oh, well...C'est la vie...

I am missing the commercial American holidays of the Fall, as well as the changing leaves, which we don't have here.  I am also missing hiking with my dog, which is what my parents are doing right now in North Carolina.  

Last thing:  Yann and I are having our 1 year anniversary tonight!! (Not of marriage, of course, but of meeting eachother for the first time.)  One year ago tonight, Yann & I locked eyes at the noisy, smokey bar that is called S.K.O.B (Siesta Key Oyster Bar), it was love at first sight. and the days keep getting sweeter & sweeter.   Happy Anniversary, Yannou! xo

Have you seen this movie? (it's good)

I just came home from my first cinema experience in France.  It's not all that much different than going to see a movie in the States.  Except in France the theatre is still faintly perfumed with body odor and old-cheese smell, as Mark so eloquently pointed out. (My dates were Mark & Laila)  So, we saw the movie, Vicky Christina Barcelona, a Woody Allen film and here is my mini review:

I was entertained the whole time; at no point was I annoyed with the film.  I loved the development of the characters, two recently graduated college students, who decide to travel together to Spain to stay with relatives for the summer.  Scarlette Johansson plays the passionate and naive dreamer who falls in lust quickly with a Spanish abstract painter, played by Javier Bardem.  He is a persuasive, smooth talking, lover-taking divorced artist and upon his first meeting with the two women proposes a 'rendezvous a tois', if you catch me here.  The girls end up agreeing to travel with him to his home village of Olviedo.  'Sensible' Vivky, played by Rebecca Hall, is engaged to a man in NYC and is reluctant to go on this mini-journey, but does end up going to keep on eye on her friend, Christina.  

Affairs begin left and right, engagements are nearly called off, hearts ache.  It's a typical Woody Allen exploration into LOVE.  The idea of what love really is, what are the rules of a relationship, what does it mean to stay in a realtionship when the fire of passion has died.  It examines the possibility of being in love with one person and in lust with another at the same time.  It also touches on some necessary emotions if you are making a film about love, which Allen was: jealously, revenge, and forgiveness.  

Enter into the story my favorite, Penelope Cruz, who plays Maria Elena, Bardem's unstable and manic ex-wife, an artist herself, who enters into the movie about half way through.  Penelope makes this movie.  I mean, I know that like Scarlette J. is Woody Allen's muse or something, but really I can't see why.  If you're a person looking for a muse why look to anyone but Penelope Cruz?  She is so beautiful in this movie (as she is in all her movies) and she brings the rage into her arguing scenes.  It must be that hot Spanish blood...(ps: Have you all seen Volver with Penelope Cruz, that came out in 2006? OMG; if you haven't please go out and rent it this weekend, great movie.)  Anyways,  I won't give away too much of her role in Vicky Christina Barcelona.  

A summary= great movie. It was funny, sexy, serious, but not too serious.  Filmed in a beautiful location (in & around Barcelona) and it incorporated Gaudi's architecture into the story so you get to see a lot of that.  The characters in the movie were constantly eating food and drinking tons of good looking wine.  The dialogue was, thankfully, a toned down version of a usual Woody Allen script.  You got the biggest hint of 'typical' Allen in the character Vicky, who plays an uptight-ish college graduate with a dull fiance in New York, whom she is really not sure she is in love with.  Every decision she makes is belabored by lots of groveling and bantering back and forth.  She never seems to work things out and just ends up frustrated.  She can't ever be content with a choice and ends up looking like a person who lives life filled with regrets.   

I assume, Woody Allen's muses are happy to see he's changed his normal routine of filming in NYC, and switching it up to Espana.  Go see it, hope you enjoy it too and I hope you were somewhat amused with my first little attempt at playing a "film critic".

Bon Weekend!

This post is void of pictures and I'm sorry for that

So, I am extremely happy it is Friday, because when a person goes from not working for 5 months straight, to working a full  two weeks teaching english, one gets really knackered.  (To use a cool new word I learned from my British friends)  Thankfully, this Saturday I'm not on the schedule, but I was last week.  Plus, as a teacher it's important to always be energetic and  'present'.  The adults I teach are all professional business people.  Usually, CEO's, engineers, and HR people but also every one in between:  Secretaries, technicians, sales people, ect.  So, they are smart cookies and they mostly have already studied English in school.  Plus, French people are very knowledgeable about grammer particulars.  So, the English teacher better know her verb tenses and have on-point explanations for when to use them.  Whew, I admit, I had to review that stuff when I first was hired.  Luckily, my French husband helped me out by explaining it all to me.  

Anyways, yesterday was a rough day......I had a 'charter out' at 8am, which means I go to the client in their office building.  Usually, the teachers can take public transport to get there, but this time I had to drive the truck because it was pretty far outside the city.  So, I have my directions and my little rolling suitcase with my portable cd player and books and I leave an hour early from my house to get there.  It is only about a 15-20 min. drive so I had brought a book to read in the parking lot, if I was early.  Well, I got off at the right exit but completely missed the street and i couldn't turn around because it was a one way street.  So, I ended up getting back on the highway heading back the direction I came from so I could do the exit again.  Well, long, horrible story short I couldn't find the turn around exit and I ended up all the way back basically at my apartment.  I looked at my watch; 30 minutes to the start of the class.  OK.  So, I get back on the highway, except now there is gridlock traffic.  Finally, I get off at the correct exit, take the correct street, totally miss the address and end up in some entire other area.  Holy crap, now I only have like 15 min. to get there.  

I go into a Tabac to ask directions and the nice man draws me a little map even, still I think he was sending me the wrong way.  The only way I can figure out how to get there is to take this twisty, steep road that is very narrow.  Well, that turns out to be a one way street and even though I am getting dirty looks I plunge down the road anyways.  I get to the business exactly on time, one minute early, in fact and the lessons go off without a hitch.  The students had no idea that 10 minutes prior I had been in my car cursing the French highway gods at the top of my lungs.  

Later that day, I got a 35 Euro parking ticket, stepped in dog poop, and missed an important appointment with an electrician that was going to fix something in our apartment. 

On to Topic #2:

So, we have a little problem in our house.  Apparently, my husband is a Nutella fiend.  The guy can polish off an entire 750 gram jar of the chocolatly-hazelnutty breakfast spread in 2 days flat.  That is roughly 1 lb. 10.5 ounces of pure delight and gooey goodness.  So, here's what's not fair:  I want to make myself a toasted baguette sandwich in the morning before work and smear it with nutritious and energizing butter and Nutella and....all that is left in the bottom of the jar is dried up old crusty chunks of the stuff.  It's such an anti-climax to my morning ritual.  Gettin' all excited for my breakfast as I'm shampooing in the shower, thinking about the toasty heat of the baugette melting the butter with the chocolate into this unbelievable rich and sinful goo.  

And then I realize upon opening the jar that there has been yet another strike by the Nutella Thief of Marseille.  I caught him one day last week, guys, he had a massive soup spoon in one hand, the jar in the other, and a shit-eating grin on his face.  Yet, this wasn't shit smeared on his lower lip; it was Nutella.  And when he really has a stressful day, you know what he does?, (and I'm not lying about this), AND he will kill me when he sees I've written this for the world to see.......he takes a spoon and the jar of Nutella into the shower with him, turns the water on super hot and sits on the floor of the tub and eats Nutella.  Oh my gosh, I love him so much.  

The End.

workin' 9 to 5...finally!

Finally, people.  I have gained legal and gainful employment in the country of France! YES! I began training & working last week and now today will be the start of my first full week.  Already on Tuesday I have a full schedule.  What am I doing you ask...I'm teaching English at a language center.  Thank goodness, my TEFL certificate finally is being put to use.  It's very nice to be working again and i think the job will be exciting and challenging.  And different every day.  So, now I will be able to bring home a little 'bacon' too.  Poor Yann has been supporting the both of us (+ kitty!) for months so I feel good about contributing to the household finally!

Go me!

In other news: Have you seen the SNL skit of Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin? If you haven't,  please, please go directly to Youtube and watch it, because it's hilarious and she does maybe the best impersonation ever.  There are several:  There is one with Katie Couric interviewing her, but my fav is the new one mocking the VP Debate.  So cute. 

So, we fired up the heater for the first time of the season yesterday.  Fall is definitely in the air here in Marseille.  Yesterday was a clear and crisp October day, perfect day for getting coffee on Port and relaxing with a book at a table in the sun.  I'm looking forward to beginning the 'layering process' of dressing for Fall.  Leggings, socks, boots, skirts, long sleeve shirts, sweaters, then the coat and finally a scarf.  Summer is almost too easy to dress for. You don't have to put any thought into it; just roll outa bed and thrown on shorts with some kind of tank top and flip-flops...done. In Winter, however, one has to use her brain to put together a cute and functional outfit for braving the elements.  

Anyway, we will be seeing ya real soon, ok?

Horsin' around

On Saturday we went to the Verdon to go horseback riding.  I had been asking Yann for weeks if he would take me so I was very excited to be going.  We arrived at the horse barn and we got to groom the horses before we rode; It's weird but I think I love grooming the horse more than riding.  I went to horse camp as a kid and for one week each camper was assigned one horse to take care of and ride.  It kind of was the closest I ever came to having my own horse.  And I still remembered how to pick the dirt out of their hooves and use all the different brushes on them.  So, we got our horses lookin' all pretty and we went riding with a little group.  It's weird to ride with all instructions in another language.  Yann and I were in the back so I kept looking to him and asking, "Do I need to know anything important about what the guide is saying??"  

We rode through the woods and on trails that passed ancient farmhouses.  It was beautiful scenery and a pretty & sunny day.  At lunch time we stopped at an old fountain next to one of these ancient farms; It had the date 1869 on the fountain.  The guide explained how last week one man called and had her set up a marriage proposal for his girlfriend.  They rode on the same trail we did and arrived at this romantic fountain and he proposed to her there.

It was feeling very Fall-like, as maybe you can see in the pictures below.  The leaves are starting to fall and become crunchy underfoot.  I love this time of the year.  We had an amazing picnic: of course the French do it right...rosee wine, fresh baguettes, roasted rosemary and herb chicken, carrot salad, and still warm Nutella crepes for dessert.  After the picnic we were all stuffed and we got back on the horses and headed back.  We had a really fun day; and now I can stop bothering Yann to take me horse back riding.  He is so sweet to me; he was a little apprehensive about going because he had only one experience riding and it was a bad one.  He had almost fallen off the horse when it was cantering.  But this time he got over his fear because the guide let us run with the horses.  He felt really comfortable and in control when we were running, so he was really happy about that.

And we were sooo sore the next day...Is that normal when you haven't ridden for 10 years?  I was so shocked because as a kid I rode a lot and I never remember being so sore.  I think it must be because we're gettin' older.  Anyways, pics follow:

Look at my cowboy ride like an expert...

My horse was named Felina and she was a beauty.

Here are some pictures of a pillowcase I embroidered for Laila as a thank you for putting a good word in for me for the job.  I picked all red, yellow, and blues; I think my stitches are improving a little bit from my first project.  Anyways, I think Laila liked it and that what matters most!  My grandma Mary would be proud of me!

Detail of Flower

bloggie makeover

Hey there!  Do you like my new blog facelift?  You can't know how many frustrating hours I spent trying to figure out this simple problem of putting up a pic that I took for a blog header.  Woah.  Computers can be so infuriating, and once I began trying I couldn't walk away until I had accomplished this.  So, I learned something new about blog design!  

And now for our surprise announcement!  ...Allow me to introduce...MOPSY!... 

 We got a kitten!  So, here she is, in all her cuteness.  She is so fierce...she will go from 0-100 mph in seconds.  She is really strong and uses her tiny claws to climb everywhere.  (Including our flesh! Ouch!)  We drove out to the country and picked her up from this crazy cat woman type, who had about 4 huge dogs and millions of little kittens running around.  She came with some fleas and was a little dirty as she was living outside.  But 2 weeks later and she is all spiffed up and looks adorable.  She's gaining weight and growing so fast; she eats like a horse and meows so loud when she is hungry it must wake the neighbors up.

Good News for me:  I FINALLY got my work visa and I am so happy!! I have never been so ready to go to work in my life.  It is really a privilege to work and have a job, I've realized.  When it's taken away from you, then you see how important it is.  Homegirl's gotta make some dough for this family!  So, I began the job search in earnest today and I had an interview that went very well.  In fact, I got an offer, however, I want to weigh out some other options coming my way this week.  Choices are never a bad thing, right?  So, keep your fingers crossed for me and we'll see...

You take care now and we'll see you real soon!  (Hopefully with some good job news!)

Here Yann is being a serious puzzle master.  

We got so into doing this puzzle that we were having visions of black and white puzzle pieces floating around the room.  I hadn't done a puzzle for years; let alone an 1,000 piece puzzle.  We got it at the thrift store and we found it was only missing one white piece. woo-hoo for us...we have patience!

More pics from Provence

Well, I guess it's been a very 'picture-y' week, because I just realized how many pics I've put up for the last 3 posts.  Oh well, I guess France in the summer isn't too hard on the eyes.  Yann & I went to the market in Aix (again!) this morning for veggie shopping and lunch.  We saw the most amazing mushroom vendor: HUGE ceps, chanterelles, morrells, all fresh and covered with wet dirt.  Then we went for lunch at a brasserie that had a plat de jour of entrecote steak with a cep mushroom sauce and pomme frites.  Oh, that was rich and good for only 10 euros.  So, we have had a lazy Saturday afternoon back here in Marseille and tonight we are eating leftovers...lentil soup.  Hope you're having a nice Saturday and check back soon for a little surprise post.  

(and no, i'm not pregnant!)

Look at the roasting chickens below: see the potatoes that they pile up underneath the chicken?  They chicken juices fall onto the potatoes below and cook them; they have an amazing, rich flavor.