Hey! So... I'm bad at this.

Crazy church in Toulouse. Didn't have time to figure out what it was exactly.

Greetings!!!

I realize that I've been putting this off for quite awhile, so I'd like to apologize. Looking back on my decision to start a blog, I suddenly remembered that I've never been able to keep a consistent diary in my whole life. I feel that blogging is essentially an online, public diary, so it makes sense why I haven't been successful in keeping this up to date. Procrastination is an incredible thing, eh??

Well, moving on, a lot's been happening. After my last blog post, I continued on in Saint Antonin for a couple of weeks. During that time, friends of Christine's came to visit. They're from Taos: a mother and daughter named Lyn and Prisma. Prisma also went to preschool with me and Shane. I hadn't seen her for about 13 years, so it was fun and interesting to be able to catch up.

With five people in the house, things got a little crazy, but it was nice to have other people from New Mexico to talk with.

During the time they were there, we made a couple little trips to Toulouse, which is the largest city in the Midi-Pyrenées region. Because there are so many universities in the city, the average population is very young. The atmosphere is exhilarating. Protests and marches go on all the time, and the markets are packed and vibrant, containing hundreds of booths selling wares from around the region and around the world. Here are a couple of pictures from my visit to Toulouse:

A delicious ham, egg, and cheese crêpe (my first in France)

Street musicians at a market in Toulouse

One of my favorite things about the city was the delicious food. Besides wonderful crêpes and exotic teas, we had delicious pastries, and the night before Lyn and Prisma left, we went to an awesome tapas bar called La Tantina de Burgos. It was crowded and loud, but I went nuts over all the seafood tapas, and after eleven, the music went up, the lights went down, and people started dancing on the bar and tables. It was pretty wild.

                       

Me on the brink of devouring a squid (deranged look intended)

The next day, before taking the ladies to the airport, we enjoyed a meal at restaurant l'Entrecôte, which serves steak-frites exclusively. The walls were plaid (BRIGHT red, yellow, and green) with dark wood, and the food was fucking excellent!

Christine and I returned to Saint Antonin, where I enjoyed a few more days of quiet and relaxation. 

View from Christine's balcony

One day I took one of her dogs, Leo, on a hike up the side of the cliffs (lining the river valley) to the Roc d'Anglars, which is essentially a lovely, panoramic viewpoint from which you can see the entire valley and surrounding lush, rolling farm hills. Quite lovely. I didn't take my camera because I sort of hate taking pictures of beautiful things rather than just enjoying them in the moment. I can assure you, the forest was magical, what with all of the green stuff dripping off of EVERYTHING. It was great to be able to get away completely by myself in the beautiful nature of southern France.

Last Thursday, I left from Toulouse on a flight to London, where my friend Phoebe is in school. She offered to let me stay with her in her flat for about a week. It's been really great to be with a friend from back home, and although London isn't my favorite place I've ever been, I'm appreciating the experience very much. Not only am I having tons of fun with Phoebe, but it's great to experience such a bustling city with such a wide variety of different cultures.

Roaming about on the streets of London! Phoebe's not good at looking at the camera, but she shares my insanely stoked sentiment.... I promise.

I've done quite a bit of shopping (followed by a certain amount of guilt. London's fucking expensive!), and Phoebe and I have been having fun just catching up and walking around the city. On Saturday we went to Camden Market, which is a huge street market with tons of people and random goods. It was overwhelming, but extremely fun.  Here are a couple pictures. I was way too overwhelmed to take out my camera once we got inside.

Camden Lock. The edges of the market.

Sign professing the world famous market....

Besides slacking on updating my blog, I've been TERRIBLE about taking pictures. Almost all of my memories are going to be in my head. I feel better about leaving Europe without pictures than stopping every three minutes to take pictures of the things I'm seeing.

In an effort to save money, I've been laying pretty low the last couple days and just chilling at Phoebe's flat, cooking and watching funny movies. On Wednesday I'm going to meet up with my aunt, Susan, and my cousin, Ava, who are traveling here for a couple weeks. I'm excited to see them. I'm still enjoying being in Europe immensely. Sorry I haven't been better about blogging. I'm not going to promise any great improvements.... I will try, though.

Ha! Cheers for now,

Grace

                        

Too Much Good Food

Hello, encore! The last few days have been wonderful. On Friday, before going to Caussade, Christine gave me a driving lesson in her car, because unfortunately, I have never had the means to really learn how to drive standard. Her car is a Renault Twingo. I think that Twingo is the most ridiculous name for a car I have ever heard. It sounds to me like a combination of the words twinkle, pringle, and dingo. Anyways, I was O.K. at driving it.... and that's being generous. I think I'll wait until I have a few more lessons under my belt before I attempt to drive in a city, considering that French driving laws seem a little counterintuitive to me.

Once in Caussade, I accompanied Christine at her gym, which has some of the most archaic and rudimentary workout equipment I have ever seen. She's really into calisthenics and weight-lifting, and because I am possibly the most weak human being on earth, her workout EXHAUSTED me. It feels good to be active, though, certainly. I think we're going to do it again tomorrow.

After the gym, we grabbed a ham sandwich on baguette at a boulangerie (delicious), and then shopped for the dinner we prepared that night. Something about France: they have shitty vanilla ice cream. I don't really know why. On the way back to Saint Antonin, we stopped at a lovely viewpoint from which you can see the winding Aveyron river. Here is a terrible representation of that view:

We returned chez Christine and prepared dinner, for which I prepared the dessert: "Katharine Hepburn Brownies." Yohan, the fellow who picked us up from the airport, joined us for the meal. He is a character, to say the least. He makes a joke about every three seconds. A couple funny things he said included the phrase, "Cheers! burger," and the suggestion that instead of Grace (which sounds terrible, in my opinion, in French: "Ghhrrrhhhaaaaahhhssss"), I be called Robert.

Yesterday, we returned to Caussade to pick Shane, Christine's son and my friend, up from the train station. I met Shane in preschool, when I was three years old. Not only were we good friends, I was madly in love with him. Our mothers befriended each other easily, so when I was four, they took us on a trip to Disneyland and Sea World. It was dope. Over the years, we continued sporadic contact through Thanksgiving dinners and birthday parties. When Shane was twelve, Christine decided to leave the United States (~2000... you do the math), and consequently moved to Saint Antonin. I've only seen Shane twice since then, so I was super excited for our reunion. I was pleased to discover that we still get along very well.

Grace and Shane- 1995

Grace and Shane- 2011 (a terrible picture... better to come)

Yesterday afternoon, Shane and I took the dogs for a walk, and I was able to get a pretty good shot of the town from across the river:

Today, I woke up with a bad cough. I hate being sick away from home. I couldn't fall back asleep after seven for the hacking. I managed to pull myself together enough to go with Christine to the Sunday market, which is awesome. There are people packed into the tiny streets buying fresh produce, cheeses, sausages, meats, bread, and of course, wine. Most of the locals bring large water bottles to be filled with wine. We brought two: one for vin rouge supérieur and one for rosé. The man with the "wine van," as I'll call it, also loves to sing, and he obliged us with a love ballad, for which he accompanied himself with a music box.

vin rouge dans une bouteille de l'eau

Singing from the heart.

Since it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, Shane and I decided to go on a hike. We met up with his friend, Henri, and started off up le Chemin de la Croix, or the trail of the cross. Along it were thirteen wooden crosses to represent the stations of the cross, and at the top was "resurrection." From the top, there was also a beautiful view of the entire town and valley surrounding. Unfortunately, it looked pathetic through the camera lens.

"I am the morning star."

This evening, Christine is making green chile stew with chile she brought back from New Mexico. The three of us are all feeling sick in one way or another, and thought some down home comfort food might help. 'Til next time, this is Grapes signing off.

Jetlag and Petits Cafés

Hey there. I've been far too out of it to write anything on this blog.

I left Santa Fe at 6:00 AM on Tuesday morning to drive to Albuquerque (this is after having slept approximately 3 hours the night before). Anyone who doesn't know: they've completely changed the food court at the ABQ airport. Panda Express wtfffff!!!!

Okay, so I got on the flight to Washington and was able to sleep a couple winks in spite of the 7-year-old sitting behind me who kept kicking my seat back and complaining about the flight. In Washington, I had a 4 hour layover, so I spent money and time on an overpriced, airport restaurant meal and then made my way to the smoking area. I wouldn't have thought of it, (okay, that's a lie) but there were signs indicating its location as soon as I got off the plane. As a person who has never ventured into the world of airport smoking lounges, I was horrified. Short story short, it was stinkydirty and depressing.

On the next leg of the flight, from Washington to Munich, I had a window seat, and there was no one sitting next to me. I thought, "How wonderful! I'll be able to sleep!" Nope. Instead, I watched True Grit and Due Date and then tortured myself for the next four hours by tirelessly watching the little map on my seat back that showed our progress. Before we caught up with the sun, I saw the lights of various cities in Ireland and England from above the clouds, which created a very eerie affect. Unfortunately I am a retard, and just accidentally deleted the shitty pictures I tried to take of that. So you don't get to see those shitty pictures. I'll show you other shitty pictures in a moment.

Sleepless, I arrived in Munich and met up with my mother's friend, and my hostess, Christine. We flew to Toulouse, where her friend Yohan picked us up. He is a very funny man. Or rather, he likes making jokes. Unfortunately, I was in no mood seeing as I was tired and cranky and realized I couldn't remember much of the French I learned in high school.

Driving into Saint-Antonin, the town I'm staying in, is beautiful, as the town is set in a valley, and the cliffs on either side are breathtaking. We made it safely to Christine's house, at which point I had to lug my two suitcases (with a combined weight of ~120 lbs.) up to the third floor (le deuxième étage en France). This is the view from my window:

La Rivière Bonnette

 This morning, Thursday morning, Christine was asleep and downstairs, so I kept mostly to myself and napped on and off. Then, we went on a walk around the city. It's quaint, beautiful, and unnervingly quiet. Every time we ran into someone Christine knew, I would try to listen and understand as much as possible. I'm already starting to remember the language. We went to le tabac, where I got a pack of cigarettes (FUMER TUER), the Place de la Halle, or the town center, the tourism office, where I picked up a few maps of the area, and the grocery store, where I discovered that eggs and milk are not refrigerated on the shelves (no need), and that French people eat roast chicken flavored potato chips. We then walked back into town, where we ran into Louis, a kind older gentleman with a mean Marseille-an accent. We then went back to Place de la Halle (which I really just want to call the plaza) and had des petits cafés, which really are very small coffees.

The local Catholic church

Pretty good view of the cliffs

Me with Louis

One of Christine's cats, Jessie. Cats are called mimi for cute. Behind her is the crate (attached via cat door to the outside) in which she and the other cat, who pisses everywhere and has no name, live.

Christine in front of the tourism office. It is a large map of the hiking trails in the area.  Apparently, there are some pretty awesome caves.

After returning chez elle, we walked her dogs, Liza and Leo ( I'll have to take a picture), and then went to dinner with her friend Kate (also une americaine) at a local restaurant (warm goat cheese and honey salads are awesome). Kate is an astrologist, and if I can find out the time of my birth, she's going to make  up an astrological chart for me. 

That's about it! Tomorrow Christine is going to teach me how to drive her little standard car. Wish me luck!

Last Minute Bullshit

I'm really, really tired. I started packing way too late. And then wanted to bring every shirt I own. And then they wouldn't all fit.  And I HATE making decisions. But it's almost all done, and I only have one suitcase full of shoes!

Today was lovely, because I got to spend time saying goodbye to my best friends in Santa Fe right now: Jessie, Sam, and Tessa. I then had a wonderful last (New Mexican) meal at Tomasita's with my Daddy, who gave me an unnecessary amount of free maps from AAA. He asked me all sorts of odd questions about my trip and then serenaded me with la Marseillaise (the French national anthem) quite loudly. I'm definitely going to miss him.

Anyways, I'm out of here tomorrow at 5:30 AM (yayyyyyyy), and then you'll be hearing from me from the other side...... of the Atlantic Ocean. 

One more thing that happened today: in the middle of my semi-frantic efforts to get ready today, I realized that the balance in my checking account was much lower than it should be. This is because the incompetent waiter at Outback Steakhouse (a restaurant I visited for the FIRST TIME EVER yesterday) decided that he would douche it up by charging my card four times. I'm considering taking the restaurant's information to France just so I can try to get this moron fired. I'm probably ranting because that was barely the dumbest shit he pulled. I'm working on letting the whole thing go.....

A picture of me and Tessa chilling at the Cross of the Martyrs yesterday. I was trying to look as badass as she always does, but alas, I ended up just looking super uncomfortable and kind of deranged..... such is life.

What Do They Wear In France?

Welcome to my blog!!!! Don't expect it to be interesting, because you probably don't know me, and even if you do, you've read better, more interesting things on the internet. Admit it. 

Now, as you probably noticed, this blog post has a title. You may be thinking that I have an answer to the question posed in the aforementioned title, but sadly, I do not. In fact, this was the exact question that I asked the woman I will be staying with in France less than two weeks ago. Her reply was, "I don't know.... funny French clothes, mostly." 

Based on this information, I'm having trouble deciding what to pack. If I want to fit in with all the cool kids in France, it appears I'm shit out of luck, for I do not own A SINGLE item of funny French clothing except for the beret my mother gave me last year! Dammit! 

Without any attempt to connect my thoughts, I'd like to explain why, in the description of this blog, I only mentioned France as opposed to all four of the countries I hope to visit. Primarily, I love France. I've been there twice. Loved it. I took French for over four years in high school, despite the fact I live in New Mexico, where a large percentage of the population speaks Spanish. It's always been a dream of mine to return to France and put my knowledge of the language to use. Additionally, my home base while I'm in Europe is a small town in the southern part of the country called Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, where my mother's good friend, Christine, lives, making France the main focus of my journey over seas.

But!!! I hope to be able to take advantage of the transportation systems in Europe and make my way over to Switzerland, down to Barcelona, and up to London while I'm abroad. 

Meanwhile, I'm still in Santa Fe, and the amount of laundry and packing I'm planning on doing tomorrow is daunting. So, I'll sign off, now. But first, here's a picture of my dogs, Georges and Jack. I'm gonna miss these critters.