Romains

 It has been a crazy past two days! Two days ago I woke up and skyped Spegan with Paul. Then went to my last class for the early week program. Thank goodness because I was getting sooo tired of it. The class just needed more structure and didn't turn out to be what it was supposed to be which was how to live in the culture and what the expectations are for us within the family but it ended up being not picking pronunciations and the prof going off topic a lot. Which is fine but I really would have liked more of the info that was promised instead of trying to figure it out alone. But all is well that ends well.

 After class Julia, Lauren, Sophie, Claire, Kelan and I went to find some lunch and walk around. A few of the girls ended up buying cell phones from Orange for 35 euros for 470 texts and 117 minutes for the three months plus a phone for 30 euros. They also had the option for unlimited text and minutes inside France for 20 euros a month. They seemed confident that they won’t go over but I’m not so sure. To text 5 people where or what time to meet. That will add up pretty fast. But I didn’t say that and since a rep from one of the cell phone places is coming tomorrow (Monday) I decided to just wait and see what would be the best deal. Though I know it would be expensive… I still wish I had the ability to text home. I almost wish that I had splurged for a newer phone and the international plan for 3 months. But… Oh well… I feel like having the ability to text home would ground me a little bit which is why I would want it. I feel sort of disconnected from everyone right now which is, I guess the point but I wish I had more of an anchor to people that I know really care about me? Here everyone is nice but there isn’t any depth yet. But I will wait until the guy comes Monday and see what is up for phones. I have survived a week without one so I could do another.

 For lunch we went to the market and then to a little vendor who sells sandwiches with steak and French fries in them. We had never gotten them before but always wanted to try it. Like every other sandwich we buy it was huge, but also pretty good! We went and ate them in the “Cave” which is the student lounge part of the school. After that I left them in order to go home and pack. Even though I didn’t have much to pack I liked having the extra time. Madame came into my room and asked me what I was wearing that night while I was packing and because I had just been thinking about best P.C. pajamas that wouldn’t be super hot I showed her my pajamas. She looked very displeased and I said does that not work? It being athletic shorts and a t-shirt, and she said “no this won’t work at all”. Then it clicked that she was asking me what I was wearing to the party and I was like oh to the party! I thought you meant to sleep! And we both had a good laugh. I wanted to repaint my toes before the party because my polish had half worn off. I asked Madame where the best place was to get some nail polish real quick and she pointed e towards the Sephora store. I have never been there being a non-makeup person obviously so going there was pretty eventful! Lots of stuff and all very expensive! I got a very small bottle of pink nail polish and it was 4.50 euros so like 6 dollars, for a tiny bottle! But it will last me until I leave I hope so that is what matters? But I should have just walked around more to find another spot but oh well. If I compared prices here to US dollars I would literally never buy anything because everything is really expensive… But I did that and then came home and Paul had a friend over. Oh this is when I skyped my parents. My bad. And then it was time to get in the car to leave! Jean-Claude has a car I guess that they keep in the garage downstairs. It is little like all European cars but it feels big on the inside. I found it pretty interesting that on the back of the car chairs here there is a tray like in airplanes. When I thought about it I decided it was a pretty good idea if you had kids but I think that Americans don’t do it because they want the extra space for storage.

I also noticed here that they have A TON of roundabouts, and that they don’t go very slow in them. Driving in France is a lot like driving in Mexico. No one uses turn signals and they don’t try to drive smoothy it is just go slow go slow without regard to how it feels to passengers. I think some people would have a problem with that but I just accept that it is how the French roll. I really want to change that to that’s how the French baguette. There has got to be a good joke here somewhere… But the trip to Romains to go to the family birthday party was not bad at all. We took the Auto-route which I learned costs money and was very expensive. When I asked if it was cheap Laurence said everything is expensive in France, even if you breathe it costs money! I thought that was pretty funny but then I felt like I should try and not breathe as much. Just kidding! Paul played on Laurence’s phone the whole time and Madame pointed out different cities we were passing and when we entered a new province (not to be confused with Provence!) and she told me what each one was famous for and what number it was for the cars. You can tell where cars are from here by their number on the license plate as each province has a number. Aix has the number 13. We passed a nuclear plant and Madame told me that it is like a crocodile farm over there because of the heat from the nuclear plant I guess that it is a good spot to have them. Madame says they have all different sizes of them and it seems scary! After about two plus hours we arrived in Romains which is (from what I could tell) more like a small town where there isn’t as many shops but there are more houses. There was a beautiful cathedral that we passed that I wish I could have gone inside but it was late and dark so I didn’t get a very good picture. But we went through Romains and about five minutes outside the main city part was the house of Daniel and Christelle. I’m pretty sure that those were their names! And boy was the party kicking already!

 When we walked in we were given champagne and a buffet of assorted crackers and things. There was lots of music and dancing and it was really fun! We drank rose and red wine and champagne and I’m sure that night we went through at least 10 bottles. After crackers and stuff we had vegetable salad and cous cous salad for dinner. After that we had two cakes! One was chocolate and the other strawberries and cream. Guess which I liked better? Oh it was sooo delicious! When I first walked in they were playing American music and I thought it was to make me more comfortable or whatever but they actually knew all the songs that were played! I think that the French must listen to more American songs than we listen to French songs because it seems like a common thing that I hear American music in the streets and such. I asked Jules about it who was the 17 year old guy who went to Houston to work last summer for his uncle, and he said that it is very normal for the French to listen to American music because it is a hit here. He spoke pretty broken English but when we talked we would speak until one of us would not know the word in the other language and then we would say it in the opposite and then stay there until the next word we didn’t know. It worked well because we got to use both languages. He was really nice. We talked about the states, colleges, and stuff like that. He drank beer and I drank wine and then we both decided that we had better switch to water.

 

In attendance we had:

4 enfants: Paul, Matisse, The twins : Leah et Manon

3 Plus grand enfants : Elise, Jules, Me

9 Grands: Christelles and Darcel, Christelles sister and her husband, Their mom, Madame, Laurence and Jean-Claude, Madames Ex-husband
The French sure do know how to have a good time. They are very welcoming and try to include you in whatever is going on which I have found really surprising. I have been treated so well here that it shocks me. I had expected to be mostly ignored for a few weeks before they knew that I wasn’t a weirdo as I have heard they do, but it has been the complete opposite. I feel honored to be treated as one of the family. For Christelle, I put a few bucks in an envelope because she is going to NY to be a nanny for three months. I also gave them a box of Spree candies that I happened to not have eaten on the airplane. They went over pretty well at the party and I was glad that I had them.

At the party the kids are as much kids as those in the US that get bored of the adults and sitting at the table and after a while went to playing Gameboy or on iPads and phones. They played with each other, against each other, by themselves but surrounded by each other. They were always getting yelled at too for running through the house of causing mischief. That is one thing that I have learned, all children are the same universally! I was surprised by how late they were staying up too. I passed out at 1:30 am and they were all still up with no sign of the party dying. I slept in Elise’s room by myself which I told them I could share no problem but they had none of it. I felt bad kicking Elise out and I told her she could sleep in her bed and I would sleep on the air mattress but she was having none of that and she was only 12! She was very excited to have been allowed to wear heels for the first time at the party.  She showed them off but once it came to dancing she said her feet hurt and she went to take them off.  The party was really fun and I was glad that I went instead of going to the coast city this weekend. Especially because it ended up raining! But that is a story for the next day!

I woke up at nine and went into the living room where everyone was having breakfast. I wasn’t the last one up so that was good! I had cereal “Coco Pates” or pretty much coco puffs but in animal print form, and some of the breakfast cake that Madame had made and brought. It was just like a plain sweet cake. Elise had 6 pieces. After I was insisted that I could take a shower, which was amaaaazing and the best shower I’ve had here yet, Christelle, Madame and I went to town to get some things for lunch. When we got to town though it was raining pretty hard and after waiting in the car a few minutes we decided it wasn’t going to stop so we got out. We had one umbrella but I said I’m an Oregonian I will be fine and gave it to Madame. Rain is not a problem for me like I guess it is for them. 

After a ways Christelle said for us to wait for her under cover and she would return shortly with the stuff she needed. We waited and talked with passerbyers about the rain. Which I decided that the French in Villages are much more open to each other than in the city where you never talk to people you don’t really know. Here we talked to a lady with a plastic bag over her hair and families with babies that were protected under plastic stroller covers. It was fun and pretty soon the rain let up. 

After Christelle returned we went to a patisserie to get ANOTHER cake. This time an ice cream cake which I didn’t end up having because I was outside. But that was okay with me because I have had SO MUCH dessert. We walked around town for a bit and went to a bakery to get the two specialties in food of Drome which are a brioche and another sweet bread with Pralines in it. I have discovered that everywhere in France is known for something. Aix is known for art and fountains and calissons which are like little cookies (which I need to try!) and Romains is known for its shoes and the two breads. They were telling me that people from all over France come to Romains to buy shoes, even Paris.

When we got back to the house the adults made lunch and the kids played outside with the snails Elise, Manon, and I had caught that morning. We had lunch which was some kind of meat and potatoes and tomatoes, with again another 10 at least bottles of champagne and wines. It was good and then we had the cheeses. I decided that I really like brie and goat cheeses. They are quite good. We had cheese the night before but I think I forgot to say that. After lunch, we went outside and found Charlotte the tortoise, who likes to eat strawberries exclusively. Sound like anyone else you know?! ;-) And the kids started playing outside because the sun had come out and the adults had kicked them out of the house. 

Elise asked me if I wanted to be a part of the “la grande spectacle” which I said sure to but regretted later. I learned that meant that we were playing pretend and planning a little play for the adults. It was fun but also difficult because they kept giving me lines and I couldn’t remember them for the life of me each time. It was fun though to play with the younger twins. I think Leah liked me and understood that I was shy and didn’t want to have lines. We picked all the flowers in the yard and Leah and I threw them over the princess and prince (Manon and Paul) at their party. I learned Elise was the planner and organizer and didn’t have to have lines. We performed this to the adults and then I thought we were done but NOOOOO we had to do another one!!! By this time the younger kids were bored of this and wanted to go play with the snails or anything else. That didn’t please Elise too much who was having fun telling us what to say and do. She also kept calling me “Kate” because my name is so weird for the French. I was fine with it and understand but Paul kept correcting her which made her self-conscious but I told her she could call me Kate if she wanted. That made her happier.  

By then it was almost 4 and we got ready to leave. Elise was mad we never finished the last play and I told her that we could next time. She liked that. We said good bye to everyone in typical everyone says bye to everyone fashion and got in the car and to go on our way. We all slept on the way home because of the wine, so much food, and having stayed up the night before. It was a great trip and I am so glad that I went. It was a lot of fun and I got to have a really authentic experience. When we got back I started writing this, taking a break to have pasta and a piece of hamburger for dinner. And now it is bed time for bonzos! Once I get all the things up on the blog…