testing my SL button!

good weekend

I ended up having a pretty good weekend, despite my little, annoying sickness. Friday night, we went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner and then we went to the theatre. My salad was so-so, but the other girls' lasagna and pizza were to die for!! Romeo et Juliette was quite interesting to say the least. We had pretty good seats, but it was unbelievably hot in the theatre. The dance was a kind of contemporary ballet, definitely not your typical classical ballet. They had some unique costumes and they made it very ouvertly sexual. Like I said, it was interesting, but I really enjoyed it overall.
Saturday morning, we woke up super early to catch a bus to Uzès to go to a market. The market was cool.. lots of yummy smelling and locally produced fruits, veggies, honey (lavendar honey is AMAZING!), olive oil, spices, soaps, etc. The clothes/jewelry were kinda boring but it was neat just walking around looking at and smelling everything.
After leaving we headed to the Pont du Gard which was a huge touristy attraction, but I really, really enjoyed it and would love to go back someday! There'll be photos later, but it was this huge Roman bridge that went over a river. We sat by the river for a few hours and just read and relaxed.. it was very nice.
Sunday. Yesterday was the French Mother's day. Natalie picked me up around 10 in the morning and we drove to a little village nearby to get fruit and veggies for the week. She likes to get her produce directly from the farmers because she said it's not too expensive, it's organic and it tastes better. I agree :) She got some really yummy cherries, some asparagus, tomatoes, zucchini, and the best cantalope/melon thing I've ever tasted! For lunch we went to her best friend's house where we had a HUGE meal! It was really good, but I wasn't feeling all that great :(
Around 5ish, we (me, Natalie, Salomé and Jules) went to Natalie's mother and stepfather's house for tea. They really have the coolest house ever. If we go again I'm definitely taking more pictures of the inside. After tea, we drove Salomé back to her dad's, which is about an 45 minutes away and I was completely exhausted (and feeling yucky) so after our quick, light dinner (of fresh, yummy fruit and veggies!) I passed out!
It's raining this morning.. but I'm feeling okay so far. I'm excited about my last week of France.. I hope I start feeling 100percent so I can enjoy it to the fullest.

I miss you all and love you!! Hopefully there'll be pics up later!

un peu malade :(

I'm telling you, being sick in France should just not be allowed!! I don't think it's very fair at all. On the bright side, I'm not super sick or throwing up or anything like that! On the not-so bright side, I have no clue what's wrong with me? My symptoms include just generally feeling crappy and not sleeping very well through the night. I also have a mild sore throat that isn't bad enough to worry about (I did buy some sore throat logenzes which help though). But other than that, I don't have any real symptoms?? I don't get it. Advil helps, but temporarily.. I know EXACTLY when that 4-6 hour span is through because I start feeling crappy again. I wish I could put into words, much less French words, how I feel so I could get medicine from the pharmacy that could actually fix the problem rather than just mask it for 4-6 hours.
I'm just hoping it will go away very soon.
Other than that things are going well here. Didn't have class today so Sharon and I met up for lunch and then a little bit of shopping. For lunch I had a yummy crepe with ham, egg and cheese. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy much of anything while I'm here since the dollar is so weak (and I don't have much money to begin with). Everything that I see that seems like it's in my price range is usually OUT of my 'dollar' price range or cheaply made. For example, I'll see a top for 20 euros and think, "Hey that's cute!" ...until I realize that after it's changed into dollars and then has the international fees added, it's almost a 35-40 dollar top. Not quite as cute anymore. Most of the clothes/shoes here aren't much different from the clothes/shoes in the states anyway. So there's really no use for me to waste the money.
We're going to see Roméo & Juliette at the Theatre tonight! I think it's actually a ballet rather an opera too, which makes me pretty happy :) Before the ballet we're going out to eat at this little Italian restaurant that's supposed to be really good. Then tomorrow we're heading out really early in the morning to take a bus to an open air market place and then the Pont du Garde. I really hope I feel better tomorrow.. :)

Love you and miss you all!

mardi

Today, the Montevallo group did the touristy stuff in Avignon...
Toured the Palais des Papes and walked along the 'infamous' Pont d'Avignon (bridge) that apparently had a song written about it? I don't know?
It was pretty cool, interesting.. but unfortuntaly I haven't been feeling well since last night. I think I've been eating way too much dairy products, cheeses and such and even though I've been taking lactose pills, my body has just had TOOO much. On top of that, I felt like I had a fever and sore throat all night while I slept. So now I'm quite tired seeing as I didn't sleep well all night. Luckily I haven't been feeling fever-y any more, but my stomach is still bothering me.
I picked up Jules from school/daycare today because his grandparents weren't able to watch him today.. now we're watching Harry Potter 4 in French (with English subtitles, of course!).
We have Friday off of school this week so we can travel if we want. Joy, Sharon and I decided just to stay around Avignon and the surrounding cities for the weekend in order to save money. Friday night we're going to see Romeo and Juliet at the Opera!! Student tickets are half price here, so we got the best section seats for only 18 euros! I don't think I've ever seen an opera, so it should be neat! Especially since it's a story that I already know and understand. The opera house here is gorgeous too! Then Saturday we're taking a bus to the Pont du Garde, apparently it's supposed to be really awesome? So I think we'll have a good time even though we're not traveling to Paris or Italy like some of the others.
Well, I should get started on my homework. I'm getting sick of this school stuff and I'm definitely ready for a two month break from classes and homework throughout the summer.

I love you guys and miss you!

Cloitre de Saint Trophime in Arles

isn't it Hogwarts-y?? :)

saintes maries de la mer

I went to the beach with "ma famille française" yesterday: Natalie, Salomé (13 years old), Jules (5 years) and also Natalie's best friend, Caroline (who happens to be Rosie's French-mom, one of the students from my school). We went to the little city of Saintes Maries de la Mer and wow, it was absolutely gorgeous! The drive there was amazing too! The French countryside is breathtaking... I saw a bunch of wild white horses and wild flamingos! And all the vineyards and rice farms and the mountains! Ah! I loved it.
After the beach we had to drop off Salomé at her dad's place. Natalie only sees her one out of every two weekends. I was sad to see her go because she's so sweet and I got along with her really well.
Saturday, my group went on a 'fieldtrip' to the city of Arles. Unfortunately it rained most of the day, but after it stopped raining it ended up being alright. We went to a really cute little restaurant to eat lunch and escape the rain. After we ate we took a tour of this really awesome old church that reminded us all of Hogwarts :) I might have to put those pics up too after I get done with this. That night (Saturday night), me, Natalie, Salomé, Jules, Natalie's sister in-law and her young kids had a crepe party for dinner! It was so fun and I'm definitely buying a crepe maker when I get home.. hopefully I'll be able to find a crepe maker ;)






This is Natalie's parents' house... my new favorite house ever! It's small, chic and modern and has a beautiful garden! Loved it!

pictures!! they're random and way out of order...