no more france now, but the trip continues since i dunno where i'm gonna end up in a few months.

and i am in hull at my mom's aunt's place with her fambly.

and it's a lazy sunday morning. the brats are watching tv and this awful cartoon called fish hooks came on. a few weeks ago, i said something about how ridiculous this show is cuz it's a bunch of poorly animated fish yelling about ridiculousness. it's not funny and it's really sad. so today when it began, ananya switched the channel saying "i don't wanna watch a show with animated fish" and she channel surfed for a few minutes, looking to see if i was paying attention. then she couldn't find anything else she wanted to watch so she put it right back onto the yelling fish. hahahahahaha.

this is what one of the fish just said "and i learned that crocheting is a fun leisure activity for fish of any gender!" ugh.

and there's also a tv show on the disney channel about an indian girl named indra: it's called how to be indie. and it's plain awful. every terrible stereotype people have about south asian people is in it. along with terribly fake 'indian' accents for her parents while she sounds like she's never spoken anything but disney 'american'. i remember years ago thinking that the disney channel needed more than east asians and black people to make their shows diverse. this is not what i had in mind. i haven't seen them go all crazy stereotype on east asians before. they do for black people with the way they speak, that's so raven was over the top as usual. so maybe this is to be expected. it's just quite sad. quite quite sad. and a teeny bit insulting.

and that's kinda all i have to say.

craving: my acceptance letters already!
currently listening to: a sad girl montage on a disney channel original movie

step up fast, and be the first girl to make me throw this cash!

galoonds. and i can say things like that cuz i know nobody reads this. :)

i am in a very good mood. today was a very good day. and now i will refrain from using the word 'good' in the rest of this post. shocking, i know... can she do it??

i'll work backwards, it's my favorite way to work.

i just got home after a lovely but strange dinner with gladys. we had fun discussing our various travels and alcoholic experiences. she gave me an excellent-sounding sangria recipe, score! we had some yummy red wine, fauberges i think it's called, but google keeps asking me if i meant auberge which of course, i do not. silly google. and the main course was an assortment of things: tomatoes and boiled egg, sliced on top of a bed of a sort of pilaf with radish and apple, surrounded by an achar (to be pronounced a-shar and in a french accent) of cabbage, beans, ginger and lots of turmeric and oil. yet another one of gladys' island things. i'm pretty sure it's meant to resemble pickle, but it's very mild and resembles instead, a curry that we'd eat with rasam or sambar or dosa or idli or what have you. and since the plate was large, it was all i could eat, so no dessert or anything else. except more wine.

and before we ate, i had come over to help gladys clean her house. she has a cleaning lady come once a week but this week she's off at her daughter's wedding. so gladys said she'd pay for my hard work and i jumped at the chance. it was a bit like cleaning peters road upstairs. or downstairs for that matter, they're about the same. i vacuumed and mopped 2 large bedrooms and the kitchen and the bathroom and a large living room. and before that i scrubbed and cleaned the bathroom and shower. and it took me quite a while cuz while gladys has in a cleaning lady once a week, the house sure didn't look like one that's used to the care of a cleaning lady. so i assume that she employs a rather lazy cleaning lady. i made her shower sparkle and she was very pleased.

before that i took my entrance exam to the qualifying program for the masters in translation at york university. it was hard. there was an article in french about what a crappy job stephen harper's doing (did?) in canada. and all the mess he's made and the reputation he's lost with the international community. and i don't know anything about canadian politics. to me, its' always been a bit of an oxymoron. especially after having spent 5 years in the usofa where politics invades one's life and makes one considerably ashamed to be living where one is. so i have never really paid attention to what the (seemingly) sweet canadians are up to. so i had a few long answer questions to answer in french and a summary of the article and an essay in english. i had 4 hours to do this and used every minute. the essay question was annoying (as they usually are): stephen harper's administration has imposed different values on canadians; what are values you think are key to guiding canada in this increasingly globalizing world? or something like that, better worded. and i dunno for the life of me what the values any country should embody, let alone canada. so i made some stuff up and mentioned the first nations people and the french and was it was rather silly, now that i think of it. what does 'value' mean anyway? heh heh.

and before this exam i praticed the keyboard shortcuts to make french accents cuz i thought that the exam would block all other windows somehow and so i wouldn't have access to word to correct my french. and before that i had an incredibly unhealthy brunch of a chocolate croissant and a regular croissant while watching an episode of 'keeping up appearances.' and before that i went out to get the croissants but all the bakeries i usually go to were closed, so i went to one i've never been to before. and i took their last regular croissant and their last chocolate croissant. hooray. and before that i was asleep.

in other news, i love how i can NEVER skip buy you a drank when it comes up on my itunes shuffle. :) as a result my play count on that one song is 14 while others are at 2 or 3. how does this play count thing work anywhoo?

craving: some friends to chat with in person, not online
currently listening to: party rock anthem-lmfao

if i share with you my story, won't you share your dollar with me?

i've been told my blog aint "juicy" enough. bahahahahaha.

woke up this morning to gladys calling me from her stairwell at 8:30. last night the internet and phone decided to quit on her and consequently me. so we had a drink and chilled till i sensed that they were sleepy and she told me she would call and get it fixed in the morning. i didn't know it would involve me too lol.

she got on with customer service then passed the phone to me. the guy talked me through it as easy as canned peas are disgusting. in next to no time the internet and phone were running again. gladys felt bad that she woke me so she gave me a breakfast on her balcony. i had some chocolate milk and muesli with peach yogurt. and then i was so full that i didn't feel like going back to bed.

as i was doing what i do when i get up, gladys came down and asked me if i liked mozzarella. i said i like any and all cheeses and she then said that i would be having lunch with her and jean pierre. yay! no cooking for me! but it was odd that this all depended on me liking mozzarella.

lunch was a sort of paella with fava beans. it was bland but she had a homemade chili sauce that was vair yummy. and we started with a salad of tomatoes and mozzarella. hence this morning's cheese question. we chatted about my life story (again) and i think they got it this time. gladys also ran me through a bunch of things she'd like to get done before i leave. the vacationers she's renting the place to for the summer get here the day i leave! gladys doesn't waste time. good for her! :)

so i got my paper work ready to head to the caf or caisse d'allocations familiales which is french social security helping people with low incomes out with rent. yes, i should have done this 8 months ago. i just kept putting it off and time got away. lamesauce excuses i know. i got everything together, headed to the caf, waited for my number to ping up on the board, was told to wait some more, waited for another number to ping up on the board, then explained my whole story to a kind french man only to have him tell me that they switched the system in january and that i don't get any money. apparently last year they would allow for people to come in and apply for aid and they would consider previous months' rent. they stopped this in january of this year. (insert groans of frustration and forehead smack). i kicked myself all the way home and have been doing so ever since.

but hey, now at least i know, for next time.

and then around 9pm i had a craving for cake for dinner. (dontcha just love being an adult?) so i made one, getting rid of the last of my flour and sugar. i improved on my last lemon cake by adding more oil and yogurt and the zest of another lemon to this one. it's heavenly. and my house smells like it which makes me want to eat more and this is not good.

craving: a swimming pool
currently listening to: i need a dollar- aloe blacc

straight buzzin' robitussin

wow. i haven't blogged in forever ever.

today was a hot hot day. i'm back in serignan after vee and i strutted and swaggered around the south of france, madrid and paris.

gladys invited me to a lunch she had today with around 11 of her close friends. they were all old adorable couples who had been together for over 35 years. so cute. the menu and point of the meal was to barbecue or have a grillade and in france they loooove to barbecue sardines. they even have a word for a sardine barbecue: sardinade. i have mentioned to gladys a couple of times how much i adore grilled veggies and so when she told me she'd figure something out for me to eat, i hinted it again.

alas, no grilled veggies for me. we started with a wicked homemade rum punch and des samosas (italicized cuz it calls for a french accent). gladys is from reunion so she has a few island influences in her cooking. des samosas only resembled samosas because they were triangular. other than that everything from dough to filling was different. the dough was more of a pastry dough and very crunchy, so it reminded me of the street onion samosas that are super greasy and heaven. she made me 2 large ones and, i kid you not, they were dripping with oil. she had placed a paper towel on the plate to soak up the oil, as you do when you fry food, and it was completely soaked through. i ate one and it was yummy, filled with red peppers and onions and some spices. but the entire time i could already feel my pores saturating and the acne ready to burst out on my face. half way through there was so much oil streaming down my fingers i needed to stop and wipe them clean.

initially i didn't want to take a bunch of paper towels and soak all the oil up, in case it seemed rude or odd or something, cuz i had 12 aged french people watching me, but for the second i did just that. less oil running down my hand but still.

then we continued appetizers or des entrees and had melon avec jambon or cantaloupe with ham. minus the ham for me. and i adore cantaloupe so i was happy and it was yummmy. then gladys put the sardines to grill. i disappeared for a bit cuz it was boiling outside and the smell of fish cooking sometimes is a smell that makes my tummy not like me so much.

i came back when they were done and watched them all eat and tell me what i was missing. each person had around 10 of them, eaten quickly, though to me it seemed a waste cuz so much of the poor animal went uneaten. though i believe a few of the old men ate the heads whole which produced a noise similar to when i bit into my samosa. they ate them with a lemon: i found it very interesting. everyone got his own lemon, and cut it as they wished and applied as much juice as they desired and then they used the remains of the lemon to clean their greasy fish hands! a good idea in my head; waste not.

what followed was a pasteque or watermelon. everyone got a large slice and it was meant to help with the digestion of the sardines. the french are big on finding things to add to their meal to help them digest better. this meal had 3 such things.

after the watermelon we had dessert: creme anglaise with a slice of a very plain white cake. the creme was hommade and yummy with real vanilla. but it was a very heavy dessert for such a hot day. to the dessert was eau petillant or sparkling water. they had a discussion over whether the bubbles were natural or gas produced and i was lost cuz i don't see how water can be naturally bubbly.

following dessert was of course, coffee. and everyone who had any, had two cups. and everyone who didn't, had a very sweet, imitation-rocher chocolate that was thoroughly melted from the afternoon's heat. and passed around were gomme d'acacia or fruit flavored gummy candies, meant to help with digestion. at this point i really thought they were kidding but everyone (save me) took one and ate it with much seriousness. i had a look at the packet and they looked like normal fruit gummy candies to me. no mention of any digestive powers whatsoever.

the old folk then began to argue about which card game to play and i excused myself into the shade of my room.

the meal took up the majority of my day. and i like it when that happens!

craving: to switch bodies with rihanna for the duration of the summer
currently listening to: bass down low- dev feat. cataracs

and where´s that soggy plain?

saturday morning and it´s raining.

yesterday was a lot of walking. so was the day before. my feet are tired. but that´s pretty much all we do so it´s not gonna change.

thursday: free walking tour of madrid for 3 hours. it was a lot of info and history and im sure i got things all muddled up. we found out how tapas were invented and why and learned a lot of other quirks and curiosities of the city.

madrid reminds me a lot of london, it has a lot of the same things going on. there is a lot of diversity- mostly from all the tourists and it´s a large city with lot´s to see and do and eat. it´s incredibly clean. cleaner than any other city i´ve been to in france! the spanish people are very sweet but vee and i look kinda like them so they keep thinking that we speak spanish. and so when i ask for directions like, ¨donde esta la puetro del sol?¨ they answer in spanish and i just go off of their hand guestures.

spanish people are really diverse looking. i can´t look at someone here and say, ¨oh, i know that person is spanish for sure,¨until i hear them speak. everywhere we look we keep thinking that we´re looking at indians, until we hear them start speaking spanish. their babies look different from the adults who lok different from the youth. and i like it- makes for a colorful bunch of really interesting faces.

we got to go to a salsa bar and that was alot of fun. i danced with old, large men who really knew what they were doing. they twirled me around so fast i barely touched the floor!

we also tried some veggie paella yesterday and it was severely disappointing. awful actually. the rice part was al dente and i dont really like my rice that way and there were too few veggies plus it was bland and unflavorful. and i know those are the same thing but the sentiment needs reiterating, that´s how bad this paella was. and we paid 3 euro for a tiny tapas plate of it. it was in this really cool indoor food market with a bunch of tapas stalls. it was so cool and quite expensive. it was packed with the madrid lunch crowd and everyone stood and ate from tiny plates of random meats and seafood. i think we even saw turtle feet! we started at that for a looong time trying to figure out what it was and it was so scary, they go for around 18 euro per 100 grams. the desserts looked so so yummy and they had stuff from everywhere, not just spanish stuff. they looked really carefully prepared and i dunno if this is because i was overwhelmed by all the colors and food, but it did look better than desserts do in bakeries in france.

vee and i particularly suck at taking photos this trip. we´ve taken very few even though there´s a lot to photograph. hopefully this will change.

my favorite bit of everyday has been to go to the puerta del sol with our falafel dinners and sit at a fountain next to everyone else who´s sitting at the fountain, and eat and people watch. yesterday we sat behind one of those metallic spray painted buskers who stand frozen on a box and have people take pics with them. it was so fun to watch the expressions of people who stared at this guy, cuz they didn´t know we were watching. and nearly everyone who gave him some money, creeped up to the can and dropped it in and stepped back quickly! as if he would jump at them suddenly or something! there was also a stormtrooper shooting at people with a gun that made noise, vert from ernie and bert, dora the explorer and minnie mouse walking around and scaring children. i really enjoyed myself but it got chilly soon so we headed back to the hostel. people watching is fun!

today we´re heading to the reina sofia museum since it´s raining. i don´t know anything about art but on our tour we were told of a bunch of interesting paintings that we can find in the museum so we´re gonna check those out.

craving: hot apple cider
currently listening to: this keyboard and mumbles of different languages and accents.

me gustas la manana

holaaaa!

in espagne now and had an interesting time getting here. spent yesterday climbing up a hill to get to the cathedrale de la bonne mere and there were stairs and strairs and stairs. this was in marseille and it was a lovely day. vee and i had our ridiculous arguments and discussions of what to eat next and that ñmade the climb go by a lot faster.

fast forwarding now to when we got to the airport which was a good 3 hours before we actually needed to board, i was worried that the shuttle would not get us there in time, traffic and other things but apparently there wasn´t anything to worry about and vee was right. but we were, sorry, i was very pooped and glad to just sit in the airport for a few hours before getting on the plane. if only it were that easy.

before we left serignan i made sure to check every inch of the ryanair site for cain baggage restrictions and i didn´t see anything, i repeat, anything, about liquids. i even asked vee to check and she didn´t see anything either. so we show up at the airport, one piece of baggage each, a backpack, and its stuffed to the seams with everything we will need this week including toiletries. so we get through check in and into the security line where lo and behold, we´re screwed cuz of the liquids and toiletries restrictions. i was sooooo angry. and upset. and there was that annoying part of my brain in that i-told-you-so whisper saying "what did you expect?" we did try and run our stuff through, and i will give props to the lady manning the screens; she was very sweeet in explaining that the limits pere bottle size had to be respected. she told us to decide whether the cost of checking a bag in would be worth all the toiletries and so we headed back out to decide what to do.

vee took charge and was analyzing cost benefits and whatnot but i was no help since i could not for the life of me remember what i had paid for any of the stuff. useless aren´t i? so we finally decided to chuck all the stuff and buy new toiletries and as i was on my way to the garbage can with the heavy bag of expensive products, a lady stopped me and asked if i could speak french. i said i did and she wanted to know why we came out after we went in, and she was worried cuz she sent her daughter through with our group and was wondering if she would be sent out too or something. a sweet lady. and so i explained and she sympathized and was kind, then i asked her if she wanted our stuff and she said sure! so i was happy that at least all of it wouldn´t be wasted. then she said something like, "oh you girls probably paid a lot for all this" and i think my upsetness showed on my face and so she said she would pay us for it! and i didn´t say anything and then she handed me a 20 euro bill! and so we thanked her profusely and i felt a little better.

a word to the kind french lady at the airport: we are sorry for completely ripping you off. most of the stuff was nearly empty and all of it was used. plus a lot of it leaked. you are a kind soul and i will never forget you. i hope you still use what you can of it so there will be less wastage in the world. vee still thinks that there was a lof of stuff that she could use but i think french ladies are more picky than they seem.

so we had an uneventful flight and manipulated the metro successfully, vee more than me, i still have several questions about words and directions. this is why i am not alone yay yay.

and today is cinqo de mayo and we just had breakfast at cat´s hostel, our new home for the next 7 days. we will now dress and go in search of toiletries before hopefully catching a free tour of madrid. viva SPAIN.

craving: more sleep in a quiet room
currently listening to. mumbles of different languages and typing

hey, teacher, leave those kids alone.

huzzah!

so vee's here. and she has been for 3 days. and we've not done much yet but the plans are in motion. sort of.

today i am throwing a lunch for all us assistants as a final goodbye thing. and it's here in my place. i had planned it to be an outdoor lunch in the sun and then we would have headed to the beach to lounge and maybe even swim.

but it's raining today.

so vee and i have cooked and cleared and we'll do it indoors.

the menu is biryani (that resembles sambar satham but it doesn't taste like sambar satham), raita and a guac-salad thing. the food's all pretty much ready. i'm going to add the avocado last minute so that it doesn't turn brown (vee's idea, she's convinced it will even though i've only seen it happen with guac that's a day old at least.)

vee's in charge of the raita and she isn't adding the yogurt until the very last minute cuz she doesn't like there to be too much absorbing. i would like it to be clear that i like absorbing, i like it a lot.

and i stopped with the above sentence because people arrived on time, something i wasn't expecting. and so now, i continue...

it was a lot of fun, there were 12 of us in total and more than enough food to go around. we played charades and ate and ate and ate. everyone loved the biryani. and the raita and the guac. there were delectable mini coconut cupcakes with pink cream cheese frosting and passion fruit frosting made by jules. beccs brought a box of wine cuz we're classy like that, there was pink schwepps, iced tea and my mint lemonade. colleen made an awesome chick pea salad that was spicy and really complemented the dishes we made. there were cookies and carrot sticks and bread (of course). and we ate and ate some more.

then people trickled out and vee and i got down to cleaning up.

and these are short, nondescript sentences cuz i'm sleepy. and my hands are dry from all the dish washing.

craving: a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice
currently listening to: hummm of the computer, my typing and vee's loud sleep-breathing