It's my wish to see as much of France as I can before I leave. Today, Andréa took me to La Ciotat where he lived with his mom for a few years. La Ciotat is just like every other Mediterranean town he's shown me with the expensive homes and beautiful views. This place was a little bit more entrancing though...Andréa took me to a park there, Parc du Mugel. It was absolutely gorgeous! And I was told it's even more alluring in the summer-time. There's a bamboo garden, a botanical garden, a view of the ocean, and a humongous rocky hill with cut-outs...Apparently this mass of rock was once a part of an ancient continent...
My favorite part was the steep climb up to the top of the park. Andréa and I mounted hundreds of tiny stone steps up a windy corridor, through what felt like Pandora, until we came to a breath-taking view. It was the Mediterranean ocean and it was magical...I could've sat up there for hours...
Andréa and I got as much as we could out of the park. It's really cliché to say this but it felt so serene. That is, until we left. We were on our way out of La Ciotat when all of a sudden Andréa makes this puzzled sound. I immediately ask because it sounds concerning. I'm immediately irritated when he says "It's my ex-vietnamese girlfriend's mom!" FIRST of all, I already know about your obsession with vietnamese girls. SHUT UP ABOUT IT. SECOND of all, what happened to the past being in the past? I immediately recall the conversation he and I had about Jacob and how he totally shut me down when I started to talk about him. And LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, I don't want to know what your ex's moms or friends or pet rats look like. When you put a face on an ex, you always make them a target. It's accidental, but it's kind of natural to dislike anyone your partner was fond of in the past. I just prefer not to know because I don't want to be biased against anyone just because they dated my boyfriend first, you know? I've become such good friends with girls that have dated my boyfriends in the past. After we break up of course ;-) But the point is, that you shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention to someone. Obviously you're not dating them now, just tell me they're a friend, and leave it at that. If you're not fawning over them, I really won't give a shit :-) Ignorance is really bliss in this case.
I told Andréa it was immature to bring that up, especially since I'll never see her again. But to know that he thought about his ex--even for that second, and had to tell me about it, it annoyed me. He was so mad about the maturity comment that he smacked me on my leg. I thought it was hilarious at first but it kind of hurt. The pain kind of resonated in the same spot for a good 10 minutes. In this 10 minutes, Andréa stopped talking, turned off the music, and started driving like a maniac. He knows I hate it when he drives too fast so he was doing it to piss me off. I was still kind of laughing to myself at this point because he was having such a heavy reaction to my one comment. I tried to turn the music back on, he turned it back off. This was a big deal to him. I honestly couldn't take him seriously so I just looked out the window and combed out all of the wind-blown tangles in my hair. I played with my hair for a good hour before Andréa decided to get over his ego. He put his hand on my knee, I let him, but I continued to ignore him. We got to some town where I continued to ignore him. He stopped the car. We got out and entered a store--Alinéa. What do you know? Another home improvement store like IKEA--he was trying to break me out of my state, but I wasn't even the least bit upset. I was only ignoring him because he was being a brat. He took me upstairs where we got some gourmet coffees and desserts. He was laughing at this point because I'm so good at pretending I'm holding a grudge.
*sigh* My boyfriend is so freakin' hot
My favorite part was the steep climb up to the top of the park. Andréa and I mounted hundreds of tiny stone steps up a windy corridor, through what felt like Pandora, until we came to a breath-taking view. It was the Mediterranean ocean and it was magical...I could've sat up there for hours...
Andréa and I got as much as we could out of the park. It's really cliché to say this but it felt so serene. That is, until we left. We were on our way out of La Ciotat when all of a sudden Andréa makes this puzzled sound. I immediately ask because it sounds concerning. I'm immediately irritated when he says "It's my ex-vietnamese girlfriend's mom!" FIRST of all, I already know about your obsession with vietnamese girls. SHUT UP ABOUT IT. SECOND of all, what happened to the past being in the past? I immediately recall the conversation he and I had about Jacob and how he totally shut me down when I started to talk about him. And LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, I don't want to know what your ex's moms or friends or pet rats look like. When you put a face on an ex, you always make them a target. It's accidental, but it's kind of natural to dislike anyone your partner was fond of in the past. I just prefer not to know because I don't want to be biased against anyone just because they dated my boyfriend first, you know? I've become such good friends with girls that have dated my boyfriends in the past. After we break up of course ;-) But the point is, that you shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention to someone. Obviously you're not dating them now, just tell me they're a friend, and leave it at that. If you're not fawning over them, I really won't give a shit :-) Ignorance is really bliss in this case.
I told Andréa it was immature to bring that up, especially since I'll never see her again. But to know that he thought about his ex--even for that second, and had to tell me about it, it annoyed me. He was so mad about the maturity comment that he smacked me on my leg. I thought it was hilarious at first but it kind of hurt. The pain kind of resonated in the same spot for a good 10 minutes. In this 10 minutes, Andréa stopped talking, turned off the music, and started driving like a maniac. He knows I hate it when he drives too fast so he was doing it to piss me off. I was still kind of laughing to myself at this point because he was having such a heavy reaction to my one comment. I tried to turn the music back on, he turned it back off. This was a big deal to him. I honestly couldn't take him seriously so I just looked out the window and combed out all of the wind-blown tangles in my hair. I played with my hair for a good hour before Andréa decided to get over his ego. He put his hand on my knee, I let him, but I continued to ignore him. We got to some town where I continued to ignore him. He stopped the car. We got out and entered a store--Alinéa. What do you know? Another home improvement store like IKEA--he was trying to break me out of my state, but I wasn't even the least bit upset. I was only ignoring him because he was being a brat. He took me upstairs where we got some gourmet coffees and desserts. He was laughing at this point because I'm so good at pretending I'm holding a grudge.
.JPG)
I was basically doing my own thing in Alinéa. I walked around by myself and took my time to really enjoy all of the pieces. I took advantage of this by throwing myself into a bean bag, refusing to get up, and waiting for Andréa to walk away. I felt like we maybe needed some time apart so this worked out well. He eventually found me in the office chair section, lol. We walked together for a little bit but then separated again. We saw each other again in the kitchen section. The two of us headed downstairs to see the rest of the store. It was here that I found my macaroon silicone templates and we were finally able to leave.
Andréa and I headed back to Aix because Didier's older children were in town visiting. Maman was making sushi and though I had had sushi the previous night, I knew I would enjoy hers much more! There was real fish on it ;-) And trust me, they were fresh! Maman, papa, the triplets, Gregoire, Melanie--Didier's daughter, her boyfriend, Julien--Didier's 2nd son, his girlfriend, Andréa, and I enjoyed a wonderful sushi dinner together. The older kids introduced me to Get 27, a mint liquer that is popular here in France. Little did they know, I've already had my share of Rumpleminze and Ice 101 back in the states ;-) I can't take mint schnapps like I used to. It's probably all of those peppermint patty shots I did in high school and college :-P Dinner was awesome. I felt less bizarre around Didier's older kids this time. I suppose it's because we had the appropriate time to actually speak.
.JPG){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment