Weekly update

So how do I want to begin telling you all about this past weekend? Fun times, frustrating times, random times. It all started sat morning when I went to meet Raquel halfway to walk to my house to wait for our ride. It was a rainy morning and it rained until we arrived in Toulon. Our ride came, and I had to go to the corner to direct them and then Romaric came in to help us carry our stuff to the car. Damaris and David were already in the car and the 5 of us drove off to Toulon. We got to Toulon and we come to this campground area. (Keep in mind, they didn’t tell us any details for this weekend. We knew what time we were leaving, we had to bring some sort of food to share and we may play sports. That’s all we knew.) So we stay in this cabin place and there are quite a few people there. We meet lots of new people but there are many awkward moments for Raquel and I because we don’t understand half of what’s going on, and we can’t say anything profound. Haha. Anyways, then a bunch of us go on a hike and we end up down at this beach area which is so beautiful. This is where the randomness/culture shock begins. We head on down and Raquel and I are surrounded by Christelle and Romaric, the biology teacher and pharmacist. They showed us many plants and leaves and stuff and we smelled some leaves. I have no idea what they are so don’t ask. Then we get down to the beach and some people decided to walk in the water.

Then we head back up to the path and some go back and 5 of us go on. So now it’s just the people we had in the car ride to Toulon and we are on a …..Mushroom hike. Yeah you got it. The French can eat mushrooms they find in the woods. So we are with Romaric who is the pharmacist or future pharmacist and he can tell which ones are edible. So we go off in the woods and look at all the nice looking mushrooms. We found some deadly ones. We found old ones. There’s a mushroom called beef tongue. Did you know that? Well I do now. Also we learned some mushrooms have a milky ness inside and some are just chalky. Mushrooms are many different colors. We even found a deadly mushroom and took it back to show everyone. Apparently if you eat it, you die. Sooooooooo there’s my science lesson for the weekend. But it was fun and Damaris, me and Raquel just had to laugh. Romaric kept saying… Il est beau! (Its handsome, or good looking) hahahah. Oh my. Then we head back and just talk for awhile and eventually its time to get dinner out. There were about 30 people and we all ate and talked amongst ourselves. It was a good dinner. Raquel and I sat next to Romaric. He told Raquel to try this meat. She asked what kind. Romaric replies “Tu connais Bambi” (you know Bambi) but think of bambi pronounced “bombie” so she ate deer, later to find out it was raw bambi. Yum Yum. Then Romaric and Etienne lead the bible study part of the night and I understood almost everything they said. Then we broke up into small groups and I was doing so well at understanding. Then we all discussed stuff as a big group and we roasted chestnuts on the fire. I’ve never done that before. They were good. Then we all got ready for bed and slept. Day one was more or less a success. Now on to day 2

So you know that whole detail thing I talked about earlier, like how we didn’t know any details? Well it would have been nice to know that we were actually going to a church and a more or less conservative church so Raquel and I go…in our jeans. It’s no big deal. Just funny how every other girl is wearing a skirt and we are wearing the same jeans we hiked in the day before. Hahaha. Oh well. We know for next time. Church is alright we sang and I understood like half. Then we all went back to the cabin place to eat lunch together. It was good and I was sooo full. Then we went back to church (Raquel when back to Marseille earlier) so I went and it was alright I understood a lot of it…however afterwards everyone was standing around talking and I can’t understand anything because it was so loud. So I just stood around acting like I understood. Then we came home. On the ride back it was a frustrating time for me. I want to understand so badly. I want to be able to communicate. Our friends are so nice to us and patient and we can’t say anything much. I miss profound conversations; I miss people knowing the real Jen Eureka. I can’t be myself in French right now. No funny comebacks (not that mine were funny in English). But it’s a learning experience. So ill learn.

Monday there were still no buses or metro so I had the day off and I decided to go to town and look around. I walked 1 h and 30 min to the open air market and looked around. Then I went to vieux port and I walked around. Then I went to a book store and spent a lot of time there and bought a book. Then I walked to Raquel’s place and took a break from walking. Then I had to walk 1 and a half hours back. Sooo. I left at 9:30 and returned at 8pm. Long day. Then I read and went to bed. Tonight I have bible study and Olivier will pick me up at the school and we will go from there.

So Tuesday was a long day. I had 5 hours of class. I had a couple breaks but I stayed at school for the whole day. I read, I talked to other Profs, and I planned some lessons. Then Theresa and I did laundry together. We will never do laundry again. She’s anal. Enough on that. Then I waited for Olivier to come get me. We went to bible study and had soup, pizza, cheese and apple tarte with ice cream. Yummmm. I had a good time. I understood more then I had anticipated. Or maybe I’m just getting used to not knowing anything. I’m hoping for the first scenario. (Side note: I keep messing up because now I am used to the French keyboard. Oh la la) I got home at 1 and then I had to get up at 7:30 because I had class at 9. Or so I thought

I really had class at10 so I got up a lot earlier than I needed but oh well. I went and taught and I only ended up having one class because the other class had a test and it was cancelled. So it was good. We played a game with candy and then we looked at some funny sentences in English and then we played hangman. Good times for an hour. Then I went to the grocery store for some milk and then I came back, watched some TV, took a nap, and wrote some emails to send out.

Today I heard the strike is going to last through break. That makes me not so happy. So far it’s been 3 weeks of strike with another 2 and a half to look forward to… at least. So I don’t know what I am going to do fore break. I think I may stay around here and just walk a lot. Ill go to Montpellier for a few days. But right now I don’t have tons of money to travel for this break. I need to get paid Haha. But it’ll be good to go to Montpellier to visit friends and then I can just explore around here and maybe go back to isle de frioul to hike one day and maybe see a movie or something. I’m not sure yet. But oh well. I can also work on more lesson plans. I can read some more. Yes.. That’s what ill do.

I can’t believe that the 21st I’ll have been here for 1 month. Time flies by here. I really do enjoy it and even with the strike. I should buy a scooter. Oh yeah there is a lot of wind here lately. The mistral. Today’s not soo bad but yesterday it was sooo windy. The weather is really warm but the wind makes it so cold. Ugh. I guess winter is windy here. But today is warm. Like 22 degrees Celsius.

Have I mentioned how much I love Madame Balletti? She is so nice to me. I love talking to her and I can understand about 90% of what she says. I’ve come a long way with understanding her. She’s so kind and I really really really enjoy her. She makes me feel like I am at home here. She’s always willing to talk and to hang out. I love her. She’s always worried about me and makes sure I eat enough and then the laundry situation the other day with Theresa, she found out and was mad, so she told me she could wash my towel for me with her towels. “Just don’t tell the other girl.” I wish I could bottle her up and carry her around with me. But sometimes I worry about her because she’s old and lately she’s been looking really tired. She says it’s the weather and I hope she’s right. I really don’t want anything to happen to her.

Speaking of weather, there’s a hurricane headed for central Florida. Family members, can you please tell my why you live there??? So tomorrow I need to pull an E.T. and phone home. (I thought this was a clever joke and laughed out loud…feel free to do the same) but hopefully all will be ok. Pray for my family.


Thursday I had 2 classes and they were good. My students were chatty in French and English and I had to tell them to be quiet a few times. Then I met up with Raquel for the afternoon. We went to a bookstore and then we at lunch at a park. It was nice to talk to her and spend time with her. She’s nice. Then I came home and hung out with Madame Balletti for awhile.

While I was out, I saw my students all around town. It’s really funny to see my students and they always say Hi!

Friday I only teach till noon. I don’t know what ill do in the afternoon. I don’t feel like walking but I better get used to it because if I want to do anything in this town for the break, I have to walk a lot! If its nice ill probably go to the park and read for awhile. I don’t know. Its nice and calm there – not that my life is hectic here. Haha. Raquel is leaving for Paris for the weekend so I really don’t know what I’ll do this weekend. Maybe I will go hiking maybe I will read a lot. I just finished Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and I really enjoyed it. I already read Crime and Punishment this past year and so I went and bought The Poor Folk, in French, to read some more of his books. They are really good.

Well anyways, I think this blog is long enough its 3 pages in the word doc. So I hope you have a good week or so till I post again. God Bless!