Kacy tries a Macaroon

This morning I woke up at 7:30 and said no shower I am too tired and slept in until 8. I wanted to sleep in even more. My stomach was not happy this morning so I was glad to have the tums mom sent. I had fruit and skipped my roll because I just wasn’t feeling like food was the answer. I got dressed and pretended to sleep for another ten minutes. Then said I could skip this class I haven’t ever skipped it and I get two free… I could just sleep all day until my night class… But then I decided to get my butt out of bed and go. Mostly just because I knew that I would be getting my test back and I wanted to see what I got on the one I did well on.

I went and it was kind of rainy so I wore my boots. I also brought my computer along to do some homework between classes. My back hurt though from carrying it to school. I should use my backpack when I bring my laptop… That would be smart of me… oops. Oh well. I got there and pretty soon Mary came in and sat by me and complained that her shoulder hurt from bringing her laptop today and I laughed and told her I was just thinking the same thing. We talked with another girl Cooper who was there about what she had heard about our professor and how hard he was of a grader. She had heard this class was one of the hardest the university has. That scared us.

Class started and we got our tests back. I got an A! Win! I was happy. We started talking about the Sacrophages or Sarcophagus in English of Arles. They are kind of cool and it is interesting to see the significance and influence of the different cultures. We moved our second exam to a week later because he originally had it planned on Armistice Day which we don’t have school. So that was cool. After class I walked with Mary to the other building. She went to check her mail and I went down in the cave to edit my paper and hang out. I ran into Cassandra and apologized for sort of ditching her yesterday because we were making tentative day plans but then I got told I was going to lunch and then the walk so that changed quickly but luckily I was able to tell her things had changed. She is starting to try and go jogging everyday to get ready for the Color Run in her state. That’s the 5k run where each K you get pelted with a different color of dust which is maybe paint or chalk or something? The pictures from it look cool but I would fall over and pass out in a white shirt with no colors on it. So I say “go Cassandra” when she tells me she ran for support because running is really not high on the things that “do not cause me pain/ can do them” list.

We talked for a while before she headed off to go fix her paper and then go to class. I stayed and bought a 50 cent hot chocolate from the sketchy espresso machine that was probably some of the best hot chocolate ever. I’m not sure if because it is French or because It was cold and rainy out and I haven’t had hot chocolate since I have been here or what. But it was delicious. I also learned the vending machine only takes 20 cent pieces without eating them. So that is good to know after already losing a few bucks to it. I sat down there a while until Julia came down and sat and sketched for a while. Will, Risa, and Christelle were there too and were being really funny so I joined in on their conversations for a while. Then I went to get lunch at the Chinese place. I got a different chicken this time and liked it better but they use too much sauce or should have asked if I could get plain rice because that’s all I really wanted. It is hard to get plain things here I have observed, which is unfortunate because I like bland and plain things. I know I’m in France and complaining the food isn’t boring enough. First world French Problems. It is a good deal though for 5.50 with a drink. Pretty good.

I went back and ate my two mandarins that I had brought from home. They were delicious and I am glad they are coming into season here. They actually look like little oranges too not like the smooshed down wrinkly ones at home but like real little oranges that are mandarins. They were good. After that I edited my paper and talked to Morgan about it and we both agreed it was harder than writing an analysis because we both hate writing imaginative and creative things. I do on occasion enjoy it but not when I am forced to. I am not really sure mine is following the format he wants because he didn’t give us a clear format so I hope it is fine. I saved it and then went to town to try and send a package. Unfortunately for me though the post office by the school was out of world envelopes so I couldn’t send it. So I went back to school to print my paper. I also printed my History documents for the rest of the lectures because I have learned I will not read them electronically. I have to have the paper in order to take them seriously because I like to highlight as I read. It was a lot of pages but I double sided and it wasn’t really THAT many but probably 45 pages, for the rest of the semester. I see why he wanted us to use it electronically though. When I went to print the printer started spitting out like 20 copies of some girls two page paper over and over again. Finally I figured out how to get it to stop. But that was more wasted paper than anything else.

I went back to the cave to start doing some reading for that class when Christelle asked if I had read my email. Apparently we didn’t have class tonight! Our professor was sick so that means we were free! That was pretty exciting! I was like are you serious? YES! Not that I don’t like that class but given the option to go or have the night free I wonder which I liked the idea of more! I was excited I went to Paul’s (Patisserie) and bought a Macaroon Speculoos flavored. I had never had one before and figured now was a good time to try. TO give my honest opinion, I was unimpressed. For how much people here talk them up I was expecting something a lot more amazing. I mean it was good but the whole time I was thinking, “You know this tastes like speculoos but not as good, I could have bought three packs of speculoos for the price of this and been much happier.” Also it made me really thirsty and I had no water. So then I went home.

When I got home I skyped Dad and saw some of mom before she went to work. Then Madame came home and was like oh are you finished for today, oh no you have class tonight and I was like actually it’s cancelled and she was happy for me. My parents said Bonjour to her, and then they left and Madame left and I watched some Project Runway before heading out to go try a different post office.

The post office I went to is the main post office in town and is next to the tourism building so they are fully equipped with envelopes and boxes and the like. The people there were really nice even though I had to ask three people for help they all seemed to be happy to help me which was a lot nicer than when I went to the other post office. Maybe I will just go there all the time! Also there was.. a change machine! TA DAH!!! WOW! That is a GOOD thing to know about here, let me tell you. They really hate when you don’t give exact change or give them more than a euro over the cost of something. I sent my package after only a bit of confusion remedied by the friendly staff and then went on my merry way. I passed by a store that I had seen before that had Christmas decorations so I went inside to poke. It was a really pretty store. It was like a home goods store with dishes and linens and cool decorations and stuff. It is a good thing I don’t live here or I would have bought so much stuff! It was just pretty and fun to walk around in. they had lots of colored glassware which I have always wanted. I think they are so cool, and I love color.

After walking around that store for a while I went to Monoprix to look for some carrots and some speculoos cookies. I walked around there for a while and found tortillas which are good to know where they are because mom is sending taco seasoning in a package that is coming. I didn’t buy them but I remembered that they were there. I paid and left and came back home to work on homework. Madame came up and started dinner which was TWO croquet monsiuers (grille dcheese with ham) and salad. Madame only had one croquet monsieur and a tomato and salade. But oh man it was too much food. I felt bad not eating it but I forced myself. I have eaten two before when I didn’t snack in the day but because I had it was like man I want to stop. I think I slowed down so much in eating it Madame knows I can’t eat two full ones. But if not, then next time we have them I will tell her I only want one. 

After that I tried to Skype Thad but my internet doesn’t work in my room for some reason so after trying for fifteen minutes I gave up. I went to the living room and Madame was like you look mad did it not work? And I said no that the internet is the opposite of last time where it works in the living room but not in my room as opposed to last time where it only worked in my room and not in the living room. But it was all good. She told me I could call in the living room and I said no I don’t want to be annoying your show and she was like what show I don’t care about this it’s just on I am reading the paper. So I said sure. She told me she doesn’t understand English at all so it wasn’t a big deal to her. I said okay and called Thad. We couldn’t get the video to work tonight but it was good to talk to him anyways.

After that I started writing my blog post and Madame fell asleep watching Castle. It was good and when she woke up we had dessert of apple sauce for me and yogurt for her and Beebow. It was the perfect dessert after a big meal like that. It is almost impossible to get away without a dessert of some kind so it is good that fruits and stuff are considered dessert. We ate some speculoos too.

Tomorrow my lit class starts on the movie for the term which is called “Wings of Desire”. It should be good.

Carro et Sausset-les-Pins

Today was a good day. I woke up naturally at ten and came out to have breakfast. I didn’t bother getting dressed because I just didn’t feel like it and because I had no plans I decided I would just play it by ear. Madame asked how to see messages on her phone so I showed her. I ate a lot of fruit this morning. I had a banana, kiwi, and a mandarin orange. Along with my usual little bread thing with nutella and jam. Madame bought new orange juice so I had that as well. She was also wearing her pajamas still. She told me that Beebow had woke her up at 6 and that she had been napping on the couch since then. We had a quiet morning watching the music video station and she would ask if I knew each artist which of course I didn’t. I did know a few though. And it wasn’t bad to have some Phil Collins for a few minutes!

After that Madame asked if I had any plans and I didn’t I told her she wasn’t very happy with that answer but I told her that I had homework and so did all of my friends. So she took that better. She went to go to the store after a while and then I started doing homework. It was going fine. I learned my monuments class has like next to no homework this week and for my Lit class we are watching a movie so I just have to be reading my book to get ahead. That is nice! So it’s a pretty relaxing week (maybe) before midterms next week. I am not sure how many I will really have because most of my classes had tests last week, so who knows!  I would be very okay with an easy week though! I did my homework for my classes minus my paper by the time she got back. She came in and said we are eating lunch downstairs. And I was like oh I can eat in town and she gave me a weird look so I just said or downstairs. The program doesn’t include lunch so if I eat here I feel like I’m intruding but I guess I am not.

So I said bye crappy paper that I have barely started but is super bad, and followed her downstairs. I put on some jeans first though but I was just sporting my grippy socks which are awesome. It is still nice out so we had lunch out on the terrace. I brought Paul the two sticker books that mom gave me and he thought they were really cool. Laurence told me that we need to all stop giving him gifts because he is mean and that my mother is too nice to be sending them. I just smiled and said okay. But I think that will not be the case…  :-) Paul and I played Connect four and I let him win a lot. After that he showed me some games on his mom’s phone before we sat down for lunch. He went to change out of his Pajamas. Laurence told me that he still has accidents and last night he had to change three times. She told me that she was told NOT to tell me. But I mean all kids do that so I was like eh whatever.

We all sat down and Laurence told me that I eat like a kid because I don’t like tomatoes so Paul and I had pasta and a hamburger patty which they call steak because it is beef. I was fine to be eating like a child because it looked a lot more appetizing to me than the tomato salad. After that was cheese and bread and fruit. It was good! We had good conversation and I was able to keep up. Paul took photos of his Skylanders and Jean-Claude force fed him so that he would actually eat. When we were told our places at the table Paul was to sit by his dad and he was like Nooooo not next to dad! A minutes ago Laurence had told me she sits Paul next to Jean-Claude so he keeps him in line J it was funny. There was a bee and Paul tried to shoo it and touched it but didn’t get stung but he like freaked out. It was kind of funny he was just sort of scared. It was cute though.

After lunch I was going to play with Paul some more but Madame told me to go change and put shoes on for the walk. I said oh to where and she said I don’t know maybe to the sea. So I was like oh okay. So I went upstairs and changed and grabbed a sweatshirt because it gets windy on the sea. I got told not to wear my flip flops because we were going to rocks so I came back up and changed and Madame gave me a little towel to dust off the sand if I took my shoes of in some sand. I said thanks again and went to meet Jean-Claude, Laurence, and Paul. Madame was staying behind because she didn’t want to go out and she had some chores to do she said.

We got in the car and I don’t think we actually knew where we were going exactly. They asked if I had been to Marseille and the port and I said yeah I had and then they asked if I wanted to go there and I said sure. But we didn’t end up going there. On the way Paul kept playing with the window so eventually Jean-Claude locked it which didn’t go over very well. Laurence gave him the books I brought and he had fun for a while. I told him you aren’t supposed to stick the faces on until after you color it and he said I will just color around it. Which makes sense I guess. Then he took the reusable stickers and put one on the window as his mom told him he could. After about 6 on, Jean-Claude saw and got mad and then Paul threw his mom under the bus and she was like no but I showed her the cover of the stickers where it said reusable and saved her. So it was all good. But it was a bit of a scary moment! But it was fine. Paul gave me a sucker. It was strawberry and delicious.

We arrived at a little beach and I had no idea where we were so I had to ask. Turns out we were in Carro which is a little fishing town not too far from Marseille. It was very Non-touristy and cute. They had a little harbor and we walked around. Pal kept looking over the edge to find big fish and Laurence kept telling him to back up and that if he fell in she would be really mad. We saw lots of fish schools both really small like tetras and bigger ones. We walked along the harbor and came across the beach for the harbor. There was a collection of gross things there like about 10 dead fish, a dead crab, and the giant head of a dead tuna. Oh and a bunch of dead fish guts (?) We weren’t really sure what it was but it was gross. Paul found bouncy ball though which delighted him. He started picking up the dead fish and throwing them back in the harbor. It was gross.

We walked around n the coast of the sea and on the pier of the harbor. It was cool and I nice day and pretty. Paul showed me muscle shells with barnacles. I talked to Laurence a bunch about I’m not exactly sure what but she would tell me things and I would forget them not 5 minutes later. She is probably the hardest for me to understand but I try!

After we walked around we went back towards the car making the half circle again and ran into some people playing Petanque. It is the game where you throw the big metal balls to try to get as close to the rubber ball as possible. It is the national sport of France. It looked fun and I talked about it with Laurence and she asked if it existed in the states. I told her no but it looked fun. One of the guys playing was listening and smiled at me and I think was going to ask if I wanted to try but we had to keep walking. But I appreciate his thought J Paul threw the fish back into the harbor again which I was like I am not touching his hands.

When we got back in the car Laurence was like dang it smells like fish in here. And then she was like eww Paul smells like fish! And in my head I was like well duh you let him pick them up and they leaked fish water all over him… But I kept that to myself. But he did stink so we kept a window down. We were driving through another town and Laurence said she wanted Ice cream so we stopped almost immediately at a little place. It was also a harbor and there was a little merry go round. Paul really wanted to ride it and his parents were like that’s for babies but he wanted to anyways so they paid for him for a ride. He got off and was really disappointed that it wasn’t more fun. But his parents were like well we told you! We walked around the harbor before stopping at a restaurant.

It was nice looking and not very crowded so that was cool. We ate outside. We had water and Paul had hot milk, Jean-Claude a coffee, Laurence une golfe (waffle) which I did not know was the word for it with nutella, and I had an ice cream. I don’t know why Laurence didn’t get ice cream when she was craving it but okay! I was like do I pay or no? I offered and they said no. Paul ran around the patio with his ball so it was good there weren’t other people there. His parents were like man this kid and I don’t blame them. He has a lot of energy and doesn’t really listen to them. I feel like they need to have a bit firmer of hand with him but eh not my place. Jean-Claude paid and I learned the city was Sausset-les-pins.

We got back in the car and drove home without too much trouble. The radio started making a weird noise and we all were like what is that so we stopped the car and figured out it was a skipping CD. We were all worried that the radio had stopped working. Paul removed the stickers and Laurence put them back in the book in their places. Paul accidentally ripped one and was pretty upset. We got back and I said thanks for everything a few times. Madame came down and I helped her and Laurence figure out how to find Madame’s email and save the pictures that Laurence had sent. Jean-Claude was like you should have just sent it MMS. We figured it out ant then went upstairs. I started my paper and wrote it I think mostly before dinner. I am not sure if it is really done because it isn’t like specified in length. But I hate the creative pieces because I am bad at dialogues between characters, and especially between different works. I had to try a couple combinations before I could find a pair that worked sort of well. I had 2 angels and 2 devils to choose from.

Madame called Christelle the wife of her son and she sent her some photos so we learned how to save those as well as make alarms. I made a fake one for a minute later so that she would know how to stop it. She said that was smart or else she would have had to wake me up at 6:20 to ask how to shut it off. J It was funny. We had chicken and potatoes as per normal weekends and it was good. After that we had two kinds of oriental cakes which means like India area not oriental like Chinese, from the orient. They were interesting the first was like honey and date sort of cornbread but more grainy and compact and the other was like red and honey filled. It was a lot of sugar to get down but they were both pretty good. I had the cornbread one before a bit earlier this week but I forget when and if I remembered to write it. After dinner we were like where is Beebow? We looked on the microwave, under my bed, behind the couch and the curtains, on her bed and all of his usual places. We didn’t find him. We looked outside even just to be sure we didn’t accidentally lock him out. Nope. We were getting worried so I went to look under my bed. Nope. But then I noticed one of the pillows n my bed had moved and when I went to turn out the light... YEP! There he was! IN my bed!!! I called to Madame and she came and we laughed for like five minutes. It was really funny.

After that we watched a movie called le reine M… something. It was lots of blood and gore and killing people and lots of sex. Like Game of Thrones but in French and more graphic. Definitely rated R if not X. Madame slept most of the time and I wrote this most of the time.

Tomorrow I have class at 9 and I get one my tests back… I am not looking forward to my French test return… Maybe I just won’t look at it… I think that would be the smartest thing. Just don’t even look. I think I might do that.

But I am not sure if I will have pictures up tonight or not. I accidentally closed the window of the photos uploading to the site and it takes a while so we will see. If not I will tomorrow at school! 

Bonne nuit!

Rock Pile

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Light Men and Dirty Soap

This morning I woke up at 8:15 to meet Cassandra to go to the markets at 9:30. I woke up and decided to skip the shower because I am not sure what time is like okay to take them on the weekends. I went and had breakfast and during it Madame came to me with a little micro SD card and asked if I could put it in my computer to see the pictures. I said yeah of course I have an adapter for it but it should have come with one as well when she bought it. She went away and I finished breakfast and she came out and was like is it this thing? And I was like yep. Do you want me to put the photos on your CD? And she was like oh wow you can do that? And I was like yeah it is really easy! So I did that and she was like wow I didn’t know I had that many pictures on it! And I was like yep and you can move them to your new phone too. She thinks I am magic now I swear because I figured out how to do that. She was very happy and I came up with this little gem of Beebow and his mom (who lives downstairs) before he became a meanie cat.

After that I went and met up with Cassandra at the Rotonde. I decided it was cold enough to wear my hoodie which I love! J I also wore my red scarf and felt very fancy. We met up and then walked to the markets. The markets like this are open Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and they have like everything. Lots of clothing and then there is also extra food as well. I bought a lot of gifts today which was good to cross a lot of people off of my list. I only have 12 people left! Unfortunately they are like the hardest people… :-/ But I think it will be good. When you think about how many people I have been able to knock out so far? I think I am doing well! J I found a tiger poster painting thing for Madame that I am hiding for her Christmas present. I think she will like it. I just have to remember that I have it or else I may forget where it is! I also bought a painting poster thing for myself. But I might change my mind and give it to someone else. I dunno! The opportunities are endless! But it was really fun to just look at things. Sometimes we would say HECK no are we going to pay that much for that and then we would just walk by. I also bought myself a 2 Franc coin. They are the old currency of France and it was only a euro and I thought it was cool. So I am happy about that. It was actually my first purchase of the day.

We walked around for probably about two hours looking and poking around. There are a lot of booths. I found some cute hoodies that I was going to buy that said Marseille but then they were actually US Marshall and only the sweatpants were Marseille. So I didn’t do that. It made me kind of sad. Most of the cool looking things here are in English which makes it hard to find cool shirts or anything because they are all US or in English. I want a cool French hoodie but they are really hard to find apparently. But it was still a very successful trip. I had fun.

After the market we went and found lunch at Simply Food. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and tea and a white chocolate mousse with blueberries and speculoos cookies. It was all very good. The tea was nice with the cold. The mousse was also very delicious! After lunch we went to a couple other weird stores including some baby stores. I may or may not have bought something for the Barnetts new baby. The baby stores are really cute here and it was nice to have a reason to go in, because they are some of the nicest laid out stores. We also went to one of the Cathedrals in town and got stuck inside because a couple was christening their baby on the front steps. After that we went home to relax before going to dinner later.

I came home and started to do some homework, first and foremost to get caught up in History. I did most of it but then was like I’m tired of history. Then I got online and talked to Thad before he had to go to work. Madame came up and I helped her set her phone to vibrate and ring together and she thought I was like Steve Jobs or something. She showed me a connect four game that she found at the Red Cross for Paul which I think it like goodwill? So there must be one around here somewhere. I could probably Google it. She told me that on the 19^th they will get internet downstairs so I will have internet that should work through the floor. YAY!!! That is sooner than I thought! Win! 

After that she went grocery shopping. I took a shower. After that I did more history and then finally got through it. I After that I went online to see what was up. I talked to Megan and then Skyped my parents. They seemed in good spirits. Mom and I talked about the cruise ship problems that are going on right now. On the news when I got here was one that had hit the shore and flipped over in the water and just recently one was on fire and one was struck by lightning or something. Mom was telling me about some friends that Grammy knows who had to stay in Monaco for a while because they were on the cruise. But I was in Monaco and it isn’t too shabby of a place to be! There was also one from I think Syria or had people fleeing from Syria and so the boat was way over booked and over capacity by like 5 times and then capsized or something and like 41 people died because there wasn’t enough life boats and lifejackets. I mean you’d think they would learn from Titanic!? After that I said goodbye and went to go meet up for dinner.

I was the first one there and I always feel weird sitting by myself but then luckily Patrick showed up not two minutes later. He was like well it may just be us because I didn’t see if anyone else responded. Then Cassandra showed up and while we were waiting I check with my wifi to see if anyone had responded and Jonathan had so we waited for him. None of us had a preference of where to go so after walking around for a while we ended up going to the 24hour place close to the Rotonde and at the end of my street. It was really good. I had breaded chicken and fries and some sort of vegetable… thing. It was good I think it was carrots and someone said spinach they thought but it looked more like celery but it didn’t taste like it. Jonathan had shrimp salad thing with a frightening shrimp on it, Patrick blindly ordered something that he didn’t know what it was just because it said à la style Provenҫale, and Cassandra had muscles. Patrick and I traded bites and mine was the clear winner. His tasted like what I would imagine wet socks to taste like. The texture was fine but the flavor was just not something that I would want to eat. He seemed to like it though which is good. He is much more adventurous than me.

We got the dessert menu afterward but didn’t get dessert. They had an ice cream with alcohol thing that looked interesting but it was very expensive. Plus then I think it would ruin perfectly good ice cream. But it sounded interesting. We then made the joke that we could go buy some ice cream and a bottle of wine and do the same thing. But we decided it would not be the same and that would be really disgusting. We paid without any trouble such as difficult splitting the tab ourselves with weird change and exchanges going on and then left. Jonathan left but Cassandra wanted a can of beer from somewhere so we set off to find an open convenience store. But then I heard music and was determined to find it. I turned the corner and saw lights moving on a building and being me obviously went to go see what was up. So we went there and on the side of the library were these like people made of stick lights and then with the classical music it made like a little show. We came in at the end of it and stayed to watch it run again.

It was pretty cool and got me all warmed up for the fete des Lumieres in Lyon in December! Speaking of warmed up I also approached Cassidy about the idea of going to the spa together when she is here because I think that might be more fun than going alone and she totally said YES which I wasn’t expecting! So that makes me really excited to have someone to go with! Plus I am excited that I get to go at all!

After that we walked back up towards the school and found a convenience store that was open and Cassandra got her beer. Under the impression that we were going to meet up to climb Mount Sainte Victoire tomorrow, we all decided to call it a night for our early wake up tomorrow. I walked home on the popular streets so as not to be in danger which is nice because all but the last street is totally non-sketch so I feel safe walking home alone. Plus it isn’t too late at 10 so there are still lots of people out. But I be careful and tuck my main card and cash onto my person anyways just to be sure.

I came home and the hallway light was on which was odd so when I went up the stairs I was like this light is going to go off and I’m going to be stuck in the dark. But then Laurence was there smoking out the window in the hallway but she was around the corner and scared the crap out of me! Now I know that she will be there if the light is on. She was like sorry I thought you would know because the light! It was okay though just a little scary after walking the last sketch road home. Paul came out and made fun of his mom for smoking and how it is bad and then she had him go to bed like he was supposed to of twenty minutes ago. I said goodnight and went upstairs. Also I saw her and Jean-Claude walking home today and they didn’t notice me. I think they don’t recognize me out of context of the house. Like this morning Laurence didn’t really recognize me as I was leaving through the main door. Or maybe it is because my hair was down today and I have been wearing it up… Ooooh I bet that is it! Yep. But maybe it was both (though mostly the hair!).

After that I came home and Madame was asleep at the TV but I talked to her for a bit. I looked on Facebook and we decided to move the mountain trip to another day later. Which is okay by me because now I can sleep in and maybe write my paper tomorrow for lit where I have to take one angel and devil from the stories we read and have them have a dialogue. Which is a great assignment if you are into creative writing but I am not… And I don’t really have a good idea of what to say so it is going to be hard… Then we both went to bed and I stayed up and wrote this even though I am not sure I get internet in my room…. But I am so tired I may wait until tomorrow to post it anyways so I can get the video and pictures and everything up. Goodnight!