Samedi, 1 Decembre 2012: Creep List Extended

I was able to sleep until 10h00 before Céline woke me up. She was leaving for some errands and wanted to leave Gregoire at home so I gladly got up, drank some coffee, and got back into bed--with Gregoire. He had been crying since his mom left but as soon as I put an episode of Vampire Diaries on he became silent and focused on my computer screen. About 10 minutes in, I felt a bit uneasy because it was just way too quiet. I looked to my right and Gregoire was totally passed out. It was so cute! He must've been pretty comfortable because he slept through his mom coming home. 

We had visitors throughout the day so while Céline was tending to them, I was watching the kids play and changing all of the bedding. Once everyone left, Céline turned the water on for Gregoire's bath. Today was the first time Céline witnessed Gregoire take a bath without crying. I'm trying to make these baths an everyday thing, so hopefully we can make that transition soon.

After putting Gregoire to bed Céline, Didier, and I had some sushi and pan-fried salmon for dinner. I got some messages during this time from Robert. I hadn't met up with him last night like I was supposed to so I guess he was expecting to see me tonight even though I hadn't planned on going anywhere. Here's a little back-story on Robert. He's an english expatriate that's been working in Aix for 8ish years. He messaged me while I had a profile on the dating site. We talked. No romantic interest whatsoever but he seemed like someone cool to hang with. Super friendly guy, very talkative, kids around a lot. He seemed trustworthy so I let him add me on Facebook. I never accept friend requests on FB unless I know someone personally so I was kind of taking an off-step with him. Anyway, he invited me out to drink last night and I went to a friend's party instead even though I already agreed to see him. I know, shame on me, but come on, it's my friend's boyfriend's birthday, she asked me at the last minute, and I haven't seen her in weeks--I'm going to see my friend that I miss. Duh! I told him when I cancelled that I might come out tonight so he messaged me this evening. The conversation went like this...

ROBERT: "Let's get drunk!"

ME: "I was asked to babysit. Gotta stay here til they get back"

ROBERT: "So come out after!"

ME: "Okay. Whenever that is"

ROBERT: "When is it likely to be? I REALLY need to party tonight. believe me!"

ME: "Lol. I'm not stopping you"

ROBERT: "No. Nobody stops me doing what I want, BUT if I'm partying, I want you to be there! We need to meet!"

ME: "It'll happen when it's meant to happen"

ROBERT: "Haha! What makes you think I'm gonna give you more than one chance?! You're cute, but you ain't THAT cute!"

ME: "Lol. I didn't ask you to"

ROBERT: "No. You're just arrogant and think you're better than me, for whatever reason! Or have I got that wrong too?"

ME: "Lol. Are you being serious right now? Cause you're about to cross the border into creepy"

ROBERT: "Haha! Chill out! Not creepy, just honest! :-)"

ME: "Ha, Then you were being serious. Listen, I have a job that goes beyond your usual 9 to 5. I don't see how you think I'm being arrogant by leaving our meeting up to fate. I still don't understand why you're being hostile. Smart move though. You were the only one I trusted but you just earned yourself a spot on the block list. Please understand that unless it's work related, you won't be a priority. Good luck in whatever you do"

ROBERT: "I don't need luck. And your last message pretty much proved your arrogance. All the best in whatever you do."


Seriously, I know I'm confident, but arrogant is an exaggeration. He doesn't know me. He's never met me in person. I thought he was kidding around about giving me another chance to meet up with him, so I joked right back. Then the switch flips and all of a sudden he's mad. Can someone please explain to me?

Vendredi, 30 Novembre 2012: "Combien de Ploofs?"

My day didn't really get started until I picked Gregoire up from the creche. As soon as we got home, I made him some pasta for dinner, put him to bed, and got ready to go out with some friends from my class. There was so much to do tonight. I was going to pre-game with Robert, Sandra asked me to go to a party with her at her gym, Krystle was throwing a birthday party for her boyfriend, and the CEA girls were going to Bar Street. It's so great to know so many people. You're never bored! 

I ended up breaking the pre-gaming plans with Robert so that I could go to the party at DKA, but those plans were foiled when Sandra's husband decided he wanted to keep her all to himself. I ended up going to Krystle and Sebastien's party and I'm so happy I did! I had a great time hanging with my IEFEE girls. I've missed them so much! Krystle and Dana are hilarious! We have such a great time together. Always, ALWAYS!

Krystle had us all write messages to Sebastien on the back of the bathroom door so he could read everything while he No.2's. Ha haha! In the spirit of that, Dana and Krystle decided to write french jokes about pooping on the door. The slang word for that in french is "ploof." Krystle's message to Sebastien as translated into english reads "Sebastien, please don't take so many shits. I use the bathroom too. - Krystle" Dana and I wrote "PLOOF" in obnoxiously large letters on the back of the door. He should have enough to keep him busy in there :-)

After being introduced to everyone at the party, we were presented with food and that involved drinking, that then evolved into just drinking with no food cushion until we ended up playing Just Dance 4 on the Wii. Oy vey...I was absolutely horrible at it but it's fun to look stupid every once in awhile. 

 

At some point, Krystle put me in pigtails and humongous nerd glasses, lol. I looked insanely ridiculous but it was fun to be someone else for an hour or so. We ended up having too much fun and drinking too much so I missed seeing everyone else even though I had planned to meet up with them. I took my last drink around 00h30 so that I could drive home and drop Dana and Lauren off on the way.

Now I'm home and my host parents have left cake on the table :-) Nom nom nom...

Jeudi, 29 Novembre 2012: Devil

I was much more active today in fulfilling my house duties. I sorted through some boxes in the garage and found some clothes that I washed, dried, ironed, and folded for the kids. I also re-organized Gregoire's clothing chest so that I'd know where everything is. The kid's got Burberry in there. He's gonna be stylin' tomorrow ;-) 

Google had also been spayed yesterday so I was on dog watch. She was much less drugged out than my own dog when she had the same surgery. Google spent all day in my room, lying on the doggie bed that I made for her. She didn't eat anything last night, but I decided to entice her today by making her some spaghetti. I mixed the noodles and sauce up with her dry dog food and she scarfed the whole thing down--slowly, but surely. 

I left the house at my usual 17h20. I made Google stay home so that she wouldn't have to maneuver around the kids with her freshly cut belly. I started with Camille as usual. She told me that she got her first kiss today! Victor is apparently a very cute boy that she's liked for a long time. The feeling is obviously mutual because he pulled her aside and stole a kiss. Oh la la!!! How cute. I'd flip out if that was my daughter though, ha haha. I guess I'll have to remind myself when I have my own children that it's innocent. Now, if they start sexting, well, that would be an issue. I find love letters in the girls' pockets all the time. I wonder if Céline found them before I came along or if this is a recent development. The letters are pretty lame, but I'm happy for that. It's the whole elementary "I like you. Do you like me too?" If the notes get beyond that, I'm gonna have to sit the girls down and have a talk with them. They seem to really respect my opinion and I would never want my girls to be hoes. Not that they would be at that age, but I wouldn't want them to get on that route.

We stopped at Léa and Baptiste's school next. Boy, was Baptiste slow or what!!! It took him so long to get his stuff together that I just started walking out. That's key, because as soon as they see you leaving, they stop whatever they're doing so they're not left behind. He was still a pain when he left the classroom though. First he refused to put back the magazines that he was reading--to his teacher's face, and then he took one of the balls and threw it out into the courtyard after everything else had already been put away. He didn't stop there. When we got to the creche, Baptiste started kicking all of the balls around the room while the ittle children were sitting on the floor. One of them could have gotten hit and would have subsequently cried. Good thing I nipped that one in the bud. I grabbed all of the balls in mid-air and kept them out of his reach. He then decided to taunt Gregoire instead of helping him get his coat and shoes on. I swear, whenever you take Baptiste anywhere, it takes twice as long to get stuff done. From now on, I'm making him stay in the car. Good thing I had the girls with me to tell him to stop being an idiot. I wouldn't feel right saying that to him, but the girls can say whatever they want, ha haha.

The car ride back was absolute Hell!!! First Léa was asking for the phone to call her mom for batteries, then she followed that with a million requests/demands as usual, to which I answer with "No!" It takes awhile to stop her but when she figures out that she can't coerce you, she shuts up. In the mean time, Baptiste was taunting Gregoire and making him cry. I had planned on making strawberry shortcake tonight but the kids were annoying me so much that I threatened to take it away. I told them that if they wanted cake that they needed to stop messing with each other and asking useless questions. That didn't deter them one bit and they ended up screaming over each other. Gregoire was bawling, Camille was yelling at Baptiste to get him to leave Gregoire alone, Baptiste was yelling back at Camille telling her that she wasn't the boss, and Léa continued to ask for things like bon bons. I pulled the car to a halting stop before I turned around to the kids in the back seat and said "Vous ne m'entendez pas!!! Pas de gateau pour tous!" This shut them all up super quick. It may also have something to do with my death stare. I hear that works wonders on my customers at Jack Browns. I was serious though. I can't have the kids messing with the lights, hitting each other, and screaming while I'm driving. That's just insanity. I know I've allowed them to get away with a lot but it's time for a little bit of discipline. I would be so embarrassed if these were my kids. They're super sweet and all, but they've got some 'cleaning up' to do. 

We finally got home and I got Gregoire into the bath immediately. I've been perplexed as to why he hates baths so much. I previously tried to bring toys into the tub, that didn't work. The next time, I let him wash himself so that he could control when and how his body was cleaned. This seemed to help a bit. He seemed to enjoy showing everyone that he could bathe himself like a big boy. My breakthrough came today though when I thought about what I'd like if I were taking a bath. The first answer that came to me was bubbles!!! I poured some shower gel into the running water and when Gregoire saw the foam rise, he roared with happiness. He hates having his hair washed but while he's playing with the bubbles, I'm able to shampoo his hair. Kids can be so simple if you actually take the time to think about what's important to them. This evening marks an extremely important milestone--Gregoire's first bath WITHOUT crying!!! It's a miracle!!! According to Céline and Didier, Gregoire has ALWAYS cried during a bath--especially when his hair gets wet. Watch out Super Nanny!!! You've got competition!!! I might be a bit slow, but I'm getting the hang of this!!!

Dinner was low-key tonight since Didier is out of town on business. We had croques-monsieurs!!! It's the most delicious sandwich ever--the real recipe anyway. I remember eating a simpler version in french class back in high school but the authentic stuff is so much better! I could eat this everyday. No, seriously!!!

I helped Léa with some english homework after dinner. The kids were sent to bed soon after because Céline was exhausted. I took that opportunity to retreat to my room to watch a movie. As soon as Céline left the floor, the kids all snuck into my room to see what I was doing. When they saw that I was watching a movie they immediately climbed under the covers with me. I told them it was a horror film and that they'd be scared, but they insisted on staying anyway. 

The movie was called "Devil." It's about 5 people who get stuck in an elevator. Murders ensue and the Devil is apparently behind it. The movie was okay, really not scary at all, but the kids were nervously twitching the entire time and holding onto me for dear life. It also might've been less scary for me because Léa was asking a million questions every minute instead of paying attention. Oy vey! She reminds me of my old friend Kelly Utter who always did that too.

After the movie was over I had to walk Baptiste to the bathroom, ha haha. I had to pee afterward as well, but I guess he forgot I was in there because when I walked out he nearly pissed his pants screaming "Tu me fait peur!" Ha haha. I kicked all of the kids out of my bed so they're all sleeping together in the next room with their door open and the hallway light on. Poor little ones. I warned them though. It may be wrong for me to decide this but I think it's better to expose them to the horror genre now so that they can learn to control their fear. No one likes a wussie...Those people get on my nerves. Besides, I hear they watch horror flicks with their dad all the time so I'm not the only one inflicting psychological damage ;-)

Lundi à Mercredi, 26-28 Novembre 2012: French Guys & Persistence

Because of the rain, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday have been pretty uneventful except for one thing...French boys being all up in my face!!!

I had seen this ad on Facebook for singles in France so I signed up for the site. Though I'm extremely happy with my life here, I feel like something is missing. Since I was 14, I was always the girl with a boyfriend. I really enjoy my alone time and independence, but I also really love that connection that I can feel with a person. I've loved a lot of guys, but I've only been 'in love' a few times. It's still addicting no matter how deep the love is. I can't explain love itself, but it's so necessary for a full life. If you've done nothing else in life, you've got to experience love! It's the most wonderful thing in the world. I'm not saying I wanna get married y'all. I just miss that intense connection with another human being. 

I've been single since April and though I've 'dated' a few guys during my singledom, I still feel incomplete. I'm not saying I need a man to feel whole, but love makes you feel so good about everything in general. I've met a few guys here that aren't really worth mentioning. A few guys at the bars, clubs, and markets. They're all "blech." I am so picky about the guys I want to be romantically involved with, but I feel like you should be. I've had some of the best relationships a girl could have and though I dumped all of them, I experienced some of the best the world of romance has to offer. 

I dated my last 'boyfriend' because I felt sorry for him, and well, you guys know how that turned out. I will never do that again. I kept trying to convince myself that it was wrong of me to not like him because he was such a nice guy, but he was so boring. You can't force yourself to like someone and you can't fake chemistry. That's why I just don't lie. When the french guys ask me "Je te plait?" I tell them how I really feel, and generally, that's a straight up "no." I hate that they always ask that, it's like, 'Do you want the truth? Seriously?' Are their egos that big that they feel they can ask a question like that and not get turned down?

Anyway, back to the site. I signed up just a week ago to see how much better my fishing pond would get, and surprisingly, there were a lot of cute guys on that site that seemed to be intelligent AND in my age range. I didn't message a single person. I was waiting to see who would come to me. Little did I know that within an hour of signing up my inbox would be flooded with messages from your average Joe's to your CEOs. I messaged everyone back to see what they were all about. Most of the guys were very nice, and basically told me everything that I wanted to hear. Girls can totally tune into that though. It's like intuition when you know someone's being fake. I stopped talking to the guys that I felt were insincere. Comments they made just did not match up. 

By the next day, the number of messages had doubled, and the day after, it had tripled. I had no idea there were so many single guys in Aix. Instead of writing everyone back, I started weeding out people I didn't like by ignoring their messages. Somehow, this didn't deter them because they would keep writing anyway, sending me poems and declarations of their feelings--telling me they fell under my spell and stupid crap that you don't say to someone you haven't even met in person. For the guys that I had no interest in who kept writing, I would tell them it was because of their religion or our hobbies clashing. When they didn't accept that as an answer, I would be honest and tell them I wasn't physically attracted or intellectually stimulated by them. Boy, would this piss them off...Instead of letting it go, these guys would throw jibes at me, telling me that I can't treat people like dirt just because I think I'm hot shit. I had one guy tell me that my profile was fake because I had light skin in one picture and was tan in another. Another guy told me that I wasn't really asian--that I'm hispanic and that I only put I was asian on my profile for attention. This is when I started blocking people. 

 After putting some restrictions on my account for those who want to contact me, I started seeing more messages that were more relevant to what I was looking for. The criteria for you to be able to contact me on this site are 1. You must live in France, 2. You must live in my region of France, 3. You must be between the ages of 25 and 35, 4. You have not sent any lewd e-mails to other members (Not sure how the site regulates that...), 5. You have a profile picture, 6. You are not searching for intimate relations. Though I had changed my profile to say that I was only looking for friends, I still allowed guys looking for a relationship or date to contact me.

  After a lot of messaging, I chose to accept invitations from two guys for coffee in broad daylight. They both seemed relatively sane and cool so I met with them, separately. The first one seemed like someone I could really mesh with, really laid back, genuinely smiled, and incredibly intelligent. The second one wasn't as educated, but he was really sweet, pulling out my chair for me and such--you all know I'm really into chivalry. This one was pretty touchy feely though. Most of you know that I like my space. I absolutely HATE public displays of affection unless I'm in a serious relationship, and even then, I'll only allow hand-holding and tongue-less kisses, ha haha. 

I sat with each one for about an hour before I found some excuse to leave because I was bored. When I got home I was shocked...My inbox was full of messages from these guys. They started out pretty innocent like "When will I see you next?" but the messages got increasingly irritating. For one of the guys, he sent one message after the next, within minutes or even seconds from the last asking me why I hadn't replied yet. The other guy messaged me telling me that he wanted to hook up. He sounded so desperate that it grossed me out. I almost puked on my laptop. 

 
I wrote both of the guys back saying that I was no longer interested. When they asked why, I said that our personalities weren't compatible. When they said they couldn't understand, I explained. When they told me that those weren't good enough reasons, I told them I had found someone. When they told me they didn't care, I told them they were getting on my nerves. That's when I found the friend requests on Facebook. That might not seem creepy to anyone, but the only information they had on me was my first name...I ignored the requests but read their messages. After I blocked them, one guy made another profile with a pseudo and tried to add me from that. You all know that I never accept requests from anyone I don't personally know so I subsequently ignored those requests. The messages started piling up in my inbox. I ended up deleting them all because I didn't want to tempt myself to read them. I also didn't want the guys to know that the message had been "seen." One guy, we'll call him Bertie made a total of 3 FB profiles...

Though they've all asked me for my number, I've refused to give it to them until I get to know them better. Thank the Lord or the voice of reason because I don't know what I would do if these loonies were calling or texting me too. I had originally thought it was one of my friends playing a joke on me since they knew I signed up for the site, but no one has fessed up, and my friends would've stopped a long time ago. Besides that, the messages include information that none of my friends know so I'm sure it's not them.

I've heard that European guys are persistent, but this is just ridiculous. I can't believe I dedicated an entire blog post to this but it's just gotten so out of hand. I was complaining about not getting enough attention last week, but DAMN, this is just too much for me.

Good night y'all

Dimanche, 25 Novembre 2012: My First French Photoshoot

Sundays are my most lax day of the week, even if the kids are there. Au pairs typically have Sundays off so I try to sleep in. Surprisingly, this morning I didn't have to try! Gregoire got up late and didn't fuss at all. Thanks kiddo!!! I got my first night of undisturbed rest. 11 whole hours!!! Shocking!!!

After getting myself ready for the day, I ate some leftover lasagna for 'breakfast' as I would be needing a lot of energy today. I was going to my first photo shoot in France! I met some photographers online and they invited me to a group shoot. They have these events every once in awhile where a bunch of models and photographers of all levels get together and build their portfolios. Most of the events are unpaid unless the photographer is able to sell your picture. The money aspect isn't a big deal to me right now. I get to work on my worn out skills, get new pretty pictures, and meet new people! Oh, and practicing my french is another plus!

I am working at a paid shoot in December for a calendar. Hopefully it'll be tasteful. Looking at most portfolios of french photographers, their taste is very unlike mine. I'm more into classy and glamorous shots while most of them post slutty/skanky pictures in their portfolios. I didn't expect that in this country, especially with how modest most french women seem to be. But I guess as one photographer explained to me, people enjoy seeing the taboo here but not living it. 

I picked Kami up around noon for moral support and we headed out of town. We ended up not finding our exit, driving 30 km extra, and doing a huge loop. Though a bit stressed that I was using up so much gas, I still had a great time cruising around the south of France with Kami. We saw such beautiful scenery and heard a lot of good music on the radio. "Summer Jam" by R.I.O. kept coming on and we jammed to it every single time. It is now our song and will forever link us. I will surely think of Kami and that car drive every time I hear it. After about an hour of being lost and taking random routes that we saw listed on MapQuest we made it to our destination, COMPLETELY by accident!

We were greeted by Brian, a model I had met previously and Caty, the director/event planner. They immediately grabbed us to get on location for some shots. I first worked with a photographer named Patrice. Out of all of the photographers, his taste best suits my style. He didn't ask for anything too provocative and he took more close-up shots--glamour, if you will. We ended that session with another photographer, Ludovic. He's on the opposite end of the pole for me. The main picture on his profile page is of a girl wearing a revealing top--with the focus being on her shiny cleavage if that helps paint you a picture.

We all headed to a car garage afterward for some auto-themed photos. Here, I worked with Steph. His style was a bit more rebellious than Patrice's, but more tame than Ludovic's. He took a lot of good shots of me. I spent 80% of the shoot with this photographer. He had some interesting ideas but Kami ended up taking over the directing aspect. She's an extremely creative person and can see things from many different perspectives. He liked her ideas so much that she ended up directing me the rest of the shoot. 

I ended up posing with Brian in a limo with Steph as the prime photographer. He needed more elements so he coerced Kami into sitting for a few pictures. She hates being on the other side of the camera but she is so beautiful. I don't understand why! 

All of the photographers showed me their favorite pictures of me from each session. Though they were decent and the photographers did a great job with lighting and such. I must say, I am really out of practice. My visage is so stern and cold. I really need to work on relaxing my face and expanding my facial expressions. I don't know if I've always been this bad or if I was just too nervous being around a hoard of strangers that were staring at me--probably a combination of both. Whatever reason it is, I want to do better.

After about two hours of posing, using a lot of broken french, learning new french words, and making new friends, Kami and I were ready to go. We found our own way back to Aix without MapQuest and made it home in 20 minutes!!! Next time I'll just use information off of the side of the road. It's better to know how to get somewhere without road by road navigation anyhow. It hones your innate GPS skills!!!

Now that I'm back in Aix, I'm out out my fantasy world. Back to folding laundry and ironing for me! Though I love my host family very much, I am so happy I got a chance to break away from a normal au pair day for once!

Photo from the shoot by Steph

Samedi, 24 Novembre 2012: The Hangover from Hell

I woke up in the middle of the night to Gregoire crying. I was still drunk from the dinner party so I just walked him back to his bed and told him to stop crying. He immediately got back up and followed me back to my room. He was just standing there screaming for his mom and I was so out of it that I just picked him up and put him in the bed between Kami and I. He sniffled for about another minute or so before he passed out. I wasn't sure how Céline and Didier felt about him sleeping in my bed with me but I figured they'd be okay with it as long as it wasn't habitual. Plus, if Gregoire is up screaming then no one can sleep. It was kind of sweet having Gregoire snoring between Kami and I, that is until he hogged Kami's pillow and kicked my boobs. 

Céline came upstairs pretty early this morning. As soon as she opened the hallway door Gregoire woke up screaming for her. The kid isn't a light sleeper but when he wants his mom, he's on alert! Céline grabbed Gregoire so Kami and I were able to sleep undisturbed for a few more hours until the rest of the kids got up. When I woke up for the day I was so hungover that I could hardly move. Even though I had already cleaned up the previous night, I got up to help around the house. I barely made it through a coffee before I felt like I had to vomit. I took this as a cue to get back into bed.

The girls gave me head massages to help me feel better but it just ended up making me feel more sick. Kami put on a few episodes of Dexter's Laboratory while she, Camille, and I were all laying in my bed. We ended up falling alseep to The Sword in the Stone, an old Disney classic. The Italians were knocking out a portion of the ceiling today to make more headroom. There was a ton of noise but Kami and I were out.

Though I was awake around lunch time, I was still dead so I skipped eating. I found some comfort in drinking pickle juice and yogurt. I was able to fold one load of laundry and wash everyone's dishes. I can't stand to just see them sitting there even though I didn't eat. It's disgusting. 

I left the house to pick Baptiste up from soccer practice around 15h45 even though his practice didn't end until 16h15. My gas tank was on empty and I was going to stop for gas on my way to the field. The gas station on the way didn't end up taking cash so I was on edge the rest of the drive to the soccer field and all the way back to the house. We made it to a gas station and I put the 40 euros that Céline had given me earlier into the car. That barely gave me half a tank. Thank goodness I don't pay for gas!!! I wasn't as sick after the gas incident. I probably sweat all of the toxins out of my system while I was panicking. 

I took Kami back to town before dinner so she could get back to her life. I dropped Léa and Camille off with their uncle Romy so they could spend the night at his house. I was originally supposed to work as Romy's au pair before he got a surprise delivery from Germany. 

After I dropped Kami off I had to drive around the Rotunde and through the Cours Mirabeau. I was absolutely taken by the sight! The entire area is decked out in white twinkling lights with the Rotunde itself wearing bold blue lights in place of the water. 

I stopped by a grocery store on the way home to get ingredients for Turkey Devan. I wanted to use the leftover turkey before it went bad so I made a casserole. I tweaked the recipe a bit so I could use other leftovers like mashed potatoes but it still turned out well. Let me tell you though, cheddar is a difficult cheese to find in France. I had to settle for a yellow cheese from Holland that had similar flavor and meltability. The Turkey Devan was a success. We watched Céline Dion's concert in Lyon live on TV while dining. It's a big event in France apparently. I did enjoy it. She's freakin' amazing! 

Three hours later we're all still watching the concert and I'm writing this blog post. I'm a sleepy girl though. Hangovers are exhausting. So I will talk to you all later!!!

Vendredi, 23 Novembre 2012: Thanksgiving Dinner Party

Since my event was today Céline took care of dropping off the triplets. I took Gregoire to the creche and as soon as I got home I started making a wreath. I collected all of the elements from the yard. I made the frame out of dead branches and filled in all of the gaps with various leaves. It turned out fantastic! I'm again surprised. 

  Céline arrived home with Camille soon after I finished. Camille had two of her wisdom teeth extracted today so Céline decided to take the day off from work. Céline had ordered a 9kg turkey for my dinner party. I rubbed it with extra virgin olive oil, freshly cracked pepper, basil, and salt. I then filled the cavity with rosemary, thyme, a couple of wads of butter, and dry white wine. I threw the bird in the oven around noon. Céline and I spent the rest of the day cleaning.

By the time evening came around, I started to get stressed even though everything was finished. I drove to campus to pick Vanessa up from the cuques (dorms). Neither one of us knew the area well enough and there was a huge traffic jam so it took awhile for us to find each other. 

The stress of the "bouteillage" got to me so as soon as we got back, we cracked open a bottle of wine. An hour flew by and my first guests arrive. It was my language prof and her boyfriend. They mingled with my host family while I tried to direct the CEA girls on how to get here. It was a huge ordeal getting those girls in the right place. They got on the bus that I told them to get on but then immediately got off because they asked the wrong questions. I had told them to ask the bus driver if he could take them all the way up my neighborhood instead of just stopping at the bottom. The stops directly by my house are only reached by request. They took the driver's answer of "no" as in they were on the wrong bus...I spent hours making sure they had multiple line/route options to get here just in case and they really didn't use any of the information I gave to them. The only one that paid attention was Maggie. Poor girl. No one listens to her. 

The girls eventually made their way to Meyreuil. They ended up having to walk even further than they were supposed to, but 'shit happens'. The girls were still having trouble finding their way to the house so I got in the car to drive down the hill and see how many people/how much stuff I could fit in my car. I knew they had had a long day so I wanted to help them as much as I could. I had already been drinking for awhile but I literally just drove 3 houses down. When I got to the girls they were all walking separately and it looked like there was a lot of tension between them. Some of the girls gave me attitude but I know that it wasn't anything that I had done so I wasn't worried, though it did irritate me a bit because I basically threw this party for them. I wanted everyone to have a good Thanksgiving especially since I knew they were all feeling really homesick. All of their troubles this evening were basically self-inflicted though and they seemed like they realized this later on. After they ate they seemed to cool off but there was still something weird going on between all of them. Though these girls are college-aged, it seemed like teenage drama to me so I just ignored it and went back to the party. My host parents were concerned about them though and pulled me aside separately to find out what was going on. Céline said the girls looked like they were having a bad time and I started getting stressed that their negative energy would be contagious. Didier came up to me and told me that I should give them more wine, ha haha. I'm glad he found the humor in the situation because it made me feel a lot better and I could see that the girls were relaxing a bit even though they were all congregated on the couch. I was still a bit upset afterward because I was really looking forward to spending time with Danielle, she's kind of my bestie here and I didn't really get to hang with her because she was babysitting the girls. Oh well, you can't have it all.

 

After the CEA girls got settled at the party a hoard of my parents' friends started flooding in as well. The party basically blew up. As soon as the food was put on the table, I put serving utensils in all of the dishes and everyone helped themselves. Though there were a lot of people here, there was also a monstrous amount of food. Everyone brought a dish and at least one bottle of wine so we were all content and drunk. I kept a bottle of wine in hand at all times just to make sure everyones' glasses were filled, socializing at the same time.

Half of the guests were my friends and the other half were Céline and Didier's friends. Such a good mix of people! All of us Americans were able to practice our french. It was such a great time getting to know everyone and learning more of the french language. Around 22h00 the last group from my class showed up. They had driven to Meyrargues because they got the towns mixed up. Ha haha, poor guys. No worries though, there was still plenty of food and drink left for them. 

At one point Céline discovered one of the young girls sang really well and made her give us all a sampling. That evolved into a fashion show with all of the kids. It was pretty entertaining :-) Overall, it was a very good night. The last guests, the group that accidentally went to Meyrargues left around 1h30 which seemed so early for me. I was having such a good time! But alas, you can't party all night long...Unless you're in a big city, ha haha.

My first dinner party was a success!!! In a foreign country no less!!! I'm so happy!!!