Arles & more

Finally the wind is gone! We have been trying to battle the wind and bike through it. We biked for a few hours but didn't get very far. Riding against the wind, was like riding a resistance bike. Leslie might have fallen over. Hannah and I did stumble across an apple orchard while exploring some more backroads. We brought home 10 apples and made an apple crisp! The smell of apples and cinnamon reminds me so much of fall time and was the perfect ending to a not-so-perfect day for biking.

The other day I decided to bit the bullet and purchase the train reduction card for 50euro. It has already paid off! By buying this card, all of my train tickets are 50% off. We are going to Montpellier this weekend and Gap the following weekend. Yesterday we took the train to Arles. It was only a 20 minute train ride away and it was super cheap with my discount. Arles is famous for its Roman architecture, its arena and it was one of Van Gogh's most visited cities. We walked around the city and saw all of the must-see sites and ate at probably the best boulangerie in town. It's nice that it is so close because we didn't feel bad leaving after about 4 hours. I'm so glad that I can finally mark Arles off the list, Nimes is next!

Place de Van Gogh

Home made soap

Frederick Mistral

Leslie & Hannah

Cycling Adventures Day 1

I've been working three weeks and I have my first two week vacation! I love this country and its work ethics. I have had several conversations about the French work mentality vs the American, and I think my preference is pretty obvious. For the first vacation, Leslie and I decided to go the cheap route and stay in Avignon. We found some sweet bikes that are in great condition on Leboncoin (France's version of Craig's List). We have planned our itinerary for the first week and are planning on biking to villages near Avignon each day. We are staying close to Avignon so we can save money and spend the night in our apartment. Yesterday, we had our first little adventure. We biked to Montfavet which where Laura works and we packed a picnic lunch and ate with Laura at her school. We grabbed a fresh-baked baguette and a pastry at the Boulangerie next to our apartment and bought some cheese, smoked salmon and tomatoes to make sandwiches. Of course, it rained on our way there, but we didn't let it get us down. After we picnic-ed in Montfavet, we biked across the Rhone to a little island and explored the backroads. We ended up way out in the country and came across some sweet sites. I love not-knowing where I am going and finding hidden gems along the way, it makes life so much more enjoyable.

Today we had planned to bike to Pont du Gard, which is this really beautiful aqueduct bridge that I went to when I came in 2007. We stopped by the tourism office on our way out of town and got a cycling map to the site. It's only 26km away so we figured we had this one in the bag. Of course today of all days, the mistral came through. The Mistral is the wind that blows through the south of France. It is a super strong wind and biking against it was much harder than expected, I felt like I was riding a resistance bike! Our late start and the wind put a damper on things.  We biked about half way and decided it would be better to turn around. Even though we didn't make it to our final destination, today wasn't a waste in the slightest. We biked through a little town that has a large equestrian center and we saw several horses. We almost decided to ditch our bikes and steal two horses instead, probably not the best idea. I need to invest in some padded pants or invent some sort of bike seat pillow, it's only been two days and I'm already sore! My legs better look like the profession cyclists after this week!

Crazy Antics

We are never bored or lacking excitement in our apartment...

This is one of our favorite places to meet and "talk things out."

Probably dancing to either "Wahi House" or "Bara Bara Bere Bere"

Practicing our newly discovered ninja moves thanks to P90X

Pre-dinner activies

Soulja Boy dance lesson

Hip-checked

photobombing, it never fails.

my personal favorite.

Another Sunday, another day for photobombing. We all agreed that Asian tourists are the best to photobomb. While they may be the most intelligent, they are not the most socially aware which means they don't realize what is happening around them. We photobombed a giant group of them today. The best part was, that apologized for being in the way of my picture. Little did they know...

TB Free!

Why does it have to be so complicated for Americans to live in different countries??? Among all of the assistants here, us Americans have the most paperwork to fill out and other random necessities to take care of. I guess since the Atlantic Ocean separates us from Europe, we are more likely to have TB??? Today, I had my medical exam where literally all they did was scan my lungs to make sure I didn't have any diseases. I passed, phew! Apparently, my lungs meet French standards. There was one doctor there who had these awesome specs on and when he saw my name he starting talking about Marilyn Monroe. I told him that she was my  mom.

Last night we learned how to be eat dinner like a true French person! We made friends a few weeks ago who promised to show us how to eat properly. They brought over various cheeses, meats, breads and naturally, wine. We are all really nervous at first since we didn't know the proper way to eat. They told us what meats tasted best with what wines and what cheeses paired best too. Dinner lasted for about two hours which is very typical for the French. It was great! I could definitely get used to long meals full of bread and cheese. To show our gratitude, we made a French apple tart. We decided that we will have an American Thanksgiving and show them how Americans fill our plates to the brim and gobble it down in under 5 minutes. 

Fall is in the air

What a glorious weekend it has been. I don't work on Fridays so I had the whole day to myself, it was lovely. I just walked around and went into some different stores looking at clothes (which I'm not allowing myself to buy until my first paycheck). I went into this book store that has discounted books, my search for a french cookbook has begun. I have very high standards for cookbooks...well really just one rule: it must have pictures that make me hungry just looking at them. Of course I spent like 30 minutes broswing and still didn't buy one. But as my momma always said, wait and if you still want it the next day, go get it. I didn't dream about it or regret my decision, so I'll keep looking. Saturday, I researched hiking trails near Avignon and found one in Villenueve-lez-Avignon. We started the day off at the park in Avignon near the Palais des Papes. We knew that we would need some fuel for our long hike so we hit up the Haribo store that has a self serve counter. Haribo is literally the greatest thing ever and I am so sad that we don't have it in the US. It has become my new addiction and we always have 3 different bags in our apartment at all times. However, the self serve counter turned out to be a huge disappointment. 1. the candy was too hard because it sits out all day and 2. it was crazy expensive. A small bag turned out to be 7,5 euro!!! In fact, all three of ours were exactly the same price. I'm convinced the lady has to set to a standard weight and ripped us off. Needless to say we will be buying all of our Haribo at the grocery store. There is a Haribo Factory in Marseille that is on my list of "must-do's". After we got our candy we headed across the Rhone to Villeneuve. We found the trail and started on our way. When I researched the trails there were 3 options: 8k, 15k and 23k. We must have missed the turn for the 8k because the trail we were on seemed to have no end. We turned around and decided to wander through the town for a bit instead. We came across a market just as it was closing (naturally) and browsed the vendors for a bit. By this point we had been walking for 5 hours and decided to was time to head back home.

Another Sunday, which means more photobombing. This weeks goal was to be stealthy. It was kind of cloudy so there weren't as many tourists out as usual but we managed to get a few good ones!

It finally felt like fall today! Fall is my favorite season and for the past few weeks it has been hot! All I've wanted is to see the leaves change colors and wear my scarves! I finally got to today which made me super happy. Tomorrow is one of the assistant's 23 birthday, so 2 of the girls threw her a surprise birthday party. Leslie made a baked mac n' cheese and Laura made a chocolate cake. She had no clue and was so surprised, success!

I have my second week of teaching tomorrow. The director of the school I am teaching at tomorrow sent me the lesson plans. We are working on "The Hungry Caterpillar", so excited!

A Hidden Gem

Leslie and I had the whole day free, so we decided that we couldn't stay cooped up in our apartment all day and we got ourselves out the door before noon! (That's a record for us). There were a few things on our list that we wanted to check out but we set our standards kinda low so we wouldn't be too disappointed with our discoveries. We ended up wandering around Avignon and the surrounding town for 5 hours and it was a blast! I had noticed on our walks around the city walls a set of giant stairs and we decided to start our day off there. The stairs led us to this picturesque, romantic garden behind the Palais des Papes and overlooking the Rhône. Who knew it was there?! (In reality probably a lot of people, but it took us 3 weeks to discover it). We could see out over the city and there was a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance.

 Next on our list was Villeneuve-les-Avignon, a small town just outside of Avignon. We walked there last week but we didn't get too far before we got tired and realized we had to walk all the way back. This time we sucked it up and it was fabulous! Who knew there was such a quaint little town just a mile away! We had to walk a long ways to find the little downtown area but it was so worth it. Along the way we saw some sweet historical sites, including a fort from the 14th century. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and I had so much fun just wandering aimlessly and discovering the town.