when raquel and i were returning from seeing the movie the other night, we come into the dark lobby of the apartment building and i see something in the corner but it was dark (we turned the light on to take this picture) and i almost had a heart attack becuase i thought it was a person...but it was this... the next day, we saw this same headless santa sitting next to a garbage can down the road. im just thankful i didnt see him walking there. 

Vero. heres a funny story. the french say Pure (pronounced pure ray) and this means mashed in english. so if you forget somethign yuo say pure! and so she started saying mashed. so we were in ruth lise's car when all of a sudden we here a big MASHED. hahah maybe you have to be here! 

sylvestre.  

damaris and romaric 

this was one of my christmas gifts. its a comfoter. isnt it wonderful and a perfect gift? 

this was at the christmas party last week with our tuesday night bible study. from left to right we have olivier, damaris, anne lise, i dont know that guys name, and ruth lise 

this is when we were making christmas cookies 

this is foie gras. to make this, the french stuff a duck full of food to kill it. then they eat it. its like pate. this is a common food during the holiday season. i tried it. its not too bad. 

Christmas

Merry Christmas. I survived my first Christmas away from all family members and it was good. Saturday morning I got up and went to church. It was changed to Saturday morning so people could stay with their families on Christmas. It was a nice service. We got to sing Christmas songs too. Then I went back to my house to deliver a gift to my boss for mme Balletti. After that I decided to go visit Ruth Lise at the Christian book store. It started out well. I got to the bus stop to wait a bus and I see none. I wait patiently and after 25 min, I decide to take the next bus no matter what bus it is, and then figure out where to go from each bus. One takes me basically to the book store. One takes me to a metro and then the book store is near and finally one takes me to one metro and then I need to take another metro. Which one comes? The last one. The one that will take the longest and most effort. Oh well, I take it and finally get to the bookstore. Then Ruth Lise and I talked for a bit and figured out what we needed to get done for the evening (we were having our mini Christmas Eve party.) Then we went back to her house (the car this time) and gathered all the things we needed, and headed to the church. We got there and Marie Christine and ari were there and we decorated and cooked and waited for xuelian and her friend to come. They came and we played some games and ate and more games and more food. Then the 2 Chinese girls left around 10pm and the 4 of us stayed and talked and played taboo. We decided to start cleaning up around 1:30. The best part was…Ruth Lise let me dive home…

So I learned how to drive stick shift cars my junior year because of Pete, and even when I did drive, I never drove far and usually he was with me and there weren’t many cars. But this time…I drove across the city. A good half hour trip. They have rond points which are not in the US. It’s a circle you have to drive around and get off. Like an intersection but round. They aren’t easy. And also the traffic lights are not above you, they are to the side of you. But no worries, I got us safely home! And I never even stalled!

I stayed at Ruth lise’s place since we were spending Christmas day together as well. We woke up at 11:10 and had to leave by 11:40. We didn’t move to fast. We went to pick up David, then we went to Olivier’s family’s house. It was a really nice time. We got there and ate a few snacks and talked. Then we moved to the dinner table. There were 10 of us. Olivier, his parents, his 2 sisters and 1 brother, the friend of his brother and then us 3. Dinner was turkey, carrots, chestnuts, salad, and potatoes. It was really good. And I ATE MUSHROOMS. They were raw and on the salad and I just didn’t feel like being rude so I sucked it up and ate it. Hey if I can eat raw octopus in Japan, I think I can eat mushrooms. I didn’t talk much because it’s really challenging sometimes. It takes a lot of effort to understand normal meal conversation. I can understand most, but I can’t add anything. It’s frustrating and I just want to be myself, but its also hard because I get nervous and am afraid to speak sometimes in front of a lot of people. Oh well. After dinner we played games.

The girls played boggle. I actually scored 2 points. (The winner had 40-but hey I was happy I didn’t have 0) then we all played cranium. We had the 3 teams, the black haired, the brown haired and the blonds. Everyone thought us blonds would lose…but we were winner most of the game, but then the browns won. Oh well. We had fun! Then we watched a comedian and hung out till it was time to leave. It was really nice of Olivier’s family to welcome us in when they don’t even really know us (I met them one time)

So it was a good Christmas. I hope you all had a good Christmas also!

haha

yesterday was a fun day. i had gone to bed around 3 am wednesday night so i attempted to sleep in yesterday. i woke up to Mme Balletti yelling "Jennifer!!!" so i ignored her and rolled over. then i woke up and went to her and she just wanted to know if i was there... yes i am....SLEEPING! oh well. i got up and played some freecell. haha then i slowely got ready to go to R squared's apartment. but as i was leaving, mme balletti asked if i would help her pick out some gifts for her grandsons.... so i went with her to the store.. 1 store, 3 sweaters, how bad can it be...well let me tell you.

we go to the store. keep in mind mme balletti is 80 years old. we quickly find the gifts, and we head to the cashier to pay. this is where the fun starts. mme balletti decides to ask all the random questions in the world. but she doesnt speak french that clearly. she speaks her language of french italian which i know understand for the most part. so the cashier blankly looks at her and tells her she doesnt understand. so there i translate. then mme balletti wants the gifts wrapped. the store does gift wrapping, but right now there is no tape (remember this is france, so even if there is a store 2 feet away that sells tape, they arent going to go buy tape) But mme balletti wont take no for an answer. she searches the store for the person who wraps the gifts, finally finding someone... and they wrap her gifts... STAPLING the wrapping paper. then she forgot which gifts were which. ....then we head out and we are walking away when i check her receipt... they over charged her. so i tell her this and she doesnt understand.. so we go back into the store that we left 5 min ago leaving everyone in an uproar (my explaining doesnt do justice to the real events) i go back in and tell mme balletti that ill handle it. so i do but then after the problem is fixed, mme balletti wants to talk to everyone in the store.. "this is the girl that lives with me." "Shes american" "know what her name is? the same name as a famous french singer... Jennifer." so they play along and talk to me. somewhat embarassing, but mme balletti is so cute and grandma like. ive never been around 80 year olds before. in the US we just shove them in nursing homes.

so i leave her a few hours later and head to r squared's apartment. then we hang out for awhile and then we meet some friends and go to see chronicles of narnia. it was asuper movie and i recocmmend it a lot. it was the best book to movie movie ive ever seen. so go see it. read the books too. man o man. and the people in the movie were exactly what i imagined in my head. it was great.

today i have lots of stuff to do... have to plan the christmas eve get together for some of the chinese... hopefully they come. and i have to clean, and i have to do misc things around town... then i will spend the night at Ruth lise's place. Sunday i am going to Olivier's family's house with david and ruth lise. should be fun, if his family is funny like him, im sure a great time will be had by all!

So untill after christmas. Merry Christmas! Have fun! I miss you my friends.

sunday

so yesterdqy was a great day. I went to church and it was a christmas carol service so we sang and worshipped and had a great christmas message. many of my friends were there and i met some new people. natacha was there also!!!

after the service we had an aperitif time and just snacked and talked to people. then the young people of the church went to the apartment of friends and we talked and had an american lunch/dinner (hamburgers and french fries) they told me not to judge it, but you know what? it was the same thing. it was super delicious. then we had a bible study and talked. it was a super day. i love my church, my friends and fun times. then i got home about 6 pm and decided to stay in for the night. i studied japanese for 2 hours and read and played solitare. it was good.

now i am at r squared's place and dont know what ill do today.

Have a good day!

dont yell at me

ok.... so dont yell at me people.. but tonight we may or may not have celebrated christmas. ok so we did. it was approximately 12:15 and we were having a semi lousy night/day and we decided that we would open 1 christmas present. but only 1. so we did it. we opened our gift. but however, this turned into us opening 2 gifts, and then we just splurged and opened all our gifts. we just coulndt wait.

but i did get a comforter and a comforter cover thats pink and orange and red. so i am excited to use it tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dont feel bad becuase we still have small gifts to give to each other and open. but now its 1:30 and we are wired!!! we are too excited to sleep.

ok well i am off to go study japanese... (i bought a learn japanese book and i study like 2 hours a day now ) and then go to bed...

merry christmas!

i called the north pole

You know, my parents and society told me santa isnt real. i beg to differ. tonight i called Santa at the north pole. I dialed *101 from vonage and heres what i got...: "Ho Ho Ho, You've reached santa here at the north pole. I cant answer the phone right now becuase i am with the elves in the workshop finishing up all the toys for you good boys and girls. Ho Ho Ho. So leave me a message"

I reply (in a little girl voice) Hi santa, i want lots of toys. ive been a good girl. i want nice toys and a doll with blond hair. thanks. bye"

then no joke, the phone rang 1 min later and i yelled "Its Santa!!!!!!!!!!!!" but it wasnt. it was raquels dad...



tonight i went ice skating. or i attempted to. i finished work, and took the bus to r squared and dropped off my stuff, i left to go find my friends at the ice skating place and i got lost. i was confised on were to go and my friend said it was right by the little red buildings for the christmas market....(side note, marseille is filled with little red buildings for the chirstmas market) so i asked a lot of people for help. some answered some didnt. so finally i make it there and only to find that they stopped letting people in becuase it was late. so i just hung out for a few min and talked to my freinds across the fence. ill get there next time!

tonight i stay at R squareds becuase of my ice skating attempt, i missed all but one bus, and if i was goign to wait here for 1 hour, i might as well just stay here.

i miss efficiency sometimes. but i have a good go with the flow attitude right now, but i know whenever i go back to the US, i am goign to be amazed with how effecient things are. also today i relalized i no longer remember the US ring tone for a phone....weird.

this is why french people dont talk about their professions.

This is why french people dont talk about their professions. The other day, rachel and i were out walking around town when we came upon this guy. he holds these cats and balances them for hours. he does this for fun, he doesnt make a living off of this. but there is a sign below him that talks about how he is the father of 3 kids. if you were his kid, how would you describe your fathers profession? "oh my dad, he plays with cats." "he wears pink pants and feeds cats on his shoulders" no, i hope for their sake, noone asks them. Its a good this french peoeple dont talk about their profession.

P.S. if you give him money, you can pet the cats or take a picture.

i love my job...

so here i am in the teachers lounge. i came in today at 9, to zork, you know i have a class, only to find that there was the math class in my classroom and there was a room change... the kicker is... noone told me/ so i ran around for 10 min looking for my students, and i didnt find them. so i figured, it wasnt my fault, what can i do. so i gave up. i asked the other professors, noone knows anything: I think this means i can give up.

so that makes a total of 10 hours i work this week. i love my job.

yesterday i went to a super good asian restaurant for lunch with R squqred and it was gooooood. but the dessert i ordered was not. i ordered gingebre. i thought it must be cookie like. no it was peices of ginger. so i tried it. its gross. oh well. then for the evening i went to my chinese friends place and they cooked me chinese food for dinner then we had a bible study.

today i am hopefully going to clean my room. the housing situqtion isnt super. madam balletti is crazy. she gets mad that we arent there often and the other night when we had 2 people over for dinner from 6 to 7:30 she was made that we had a party and so many people came and we were loud. my feelings are that we pqy 800 euros to live in a place. its bad enough we cant have ppl spend the night, and now we cant have people come at all. then she told theresa last night that we have to pay ,oney for HER cleaning lady for christmas. i dont think so;

well i need to go talk to a prof about the fact that i wasnt informed about the classroom change.

life is good!

and so we eat again

I am about to go to to my 3rd dinner party of the week tonight. I am trying to eat small amounts... today i wentrunning with renault. He asked me if i wanted to go do a little sport. by little sport, i was thinking a little jog.... was i ever wrong...

you are lucky i am still alive to write this. I will preface this with the fact i havent run consistently or much since i got to france...also renault is in stinking good shape.

so we jogged to the park.. i was feeling good. we started our jog. i was going fine for about 10 min. then we started going on hills and faster and faster. at this point i think ok, im feeling this, but how long can it last? so we continue for another 10 min. at this point i am ready to go home. but then he says ...stairs... so we go to the stairs at the park that have 3 sets of 8 or so. we run up them 5 times in a row. im tired. then he says, jump every 2 steps 3 times in a row. ok after this i am really ready to go home. but he sees the machines and we go to leg stuff. i am ok, then i am supposed to do 50 arm curl things... i successfully do...25. then i think...ok we haveto be close to being done..right?

no. we go to 30 pushups.... i do them...i guess you could say i attempted them. i went like halfway down. then we do like 30 sit ups. then he looks at me and says 10 min on the rowing machine...

i do 5 min. barely. we have already been at it for 1 hour. i am out of shape and i am with stinking arnold schwarzenegger. he tells me to come on...as we continue on, i sadly look behind me at the park entrance. we go to the basket ball hoops where there is a pull up bar. yes you heard me right. a chin up bar. in front of like 30 people playing basket ball, i dangle despretly. unable to pull myself up.. i think this means, i dont have to do it....NO. silly me. renault helps me this time and i do 20 pull ups.

at this point, we start heading in the direction of the exit.. i get excited but we stop... time to do 100 sit ups- double time. (i am used to being the one in better shape when i work out with my friends... yeah i am def not the one in shape one now)

renault looks at me and tells me we are going to do some sprints. (can it get worse?) so we go to the straight away and start doing sprints. i am left in the dust. thats ok. ive realized that maybe there are people that can run fast, but you know what? it takes talent to eat as many sugar cubes as i can without getting sick (note:i have stopped eating them)

we walk back home and i crawl up the steps to R squareds apartment. some how, ive managed to get myself into this all over again friday.

have a good day!

vieux port at sunset. yes this is the town i live in... 

Dog crossing? no really i have no idea what this sign is for, but rachel and i had a good laugh...  

do you have chickens in your park? we do... and roosters. and there is an island in the park that has chickens and a cat. we cant figure out how the cat got there.. but at least he wont starve... 

this was last weekend when we went (window) shopping. there were so many people becuase the strike was over so people could come to town and shop. this road is a pedetrian road so look how many people there are! 

miao miao and me 

i forget the boys name, then alix, then aurelien and nicolas 

it was really cool there.  

Hiking on sunday. this is xuelian, alix, miao miao and ele. 

arent they cute? 

The group that came over! Fun times! 

Renault is getting in on the cookie baking action! 

yum! the first time they ever made chocolate chip cookies. i think its illegal if you dont lick the beaters... 

rachel and me at place castellane (this is like 2 min walking from their apartement. the christmas decorations are up!! 

rachel jen raquel and patricia around the christmas tree! 

Merry Christmas from rachel jen and raquel (go ahead, make it your desktop!) 

xuelian, miao miao, renault, me and rachel. renault is taking an english test that raquel gave to her students last week 

rachel, me, xuelian, miao miao before we make cookies