well, nick and i didn’t get up in time this morning to do the planned souvenir shopping, so he promised we would go this afternoon at 4 when he gets back from class. in the meantime, i am on my own again. i think i will walk over to a park that nick said is very pretty.
it is always rather hard to tell what the weather is like simply by looking out the window, because nick’s window looks out onto the building next to him (within easy throwing distance, probably only 12 or 15 feet). so you have to crane your neck up to see the sky and the roof, but from here it looks like it is a lovely day. i see a snatch of blue sky, and sunshine falling on the side of the tallest roof.
i can’t believe i have to go back to houston soon…two more nights in france, then the long plane flight back. in only 6 days, i’ve gotten pretty used to being here, and as silly as it sounds, i think i may actually understand french better than i did a week ago.
last night nick invited some of his friends from cafe danse over for dinner. we fixed chicken teriyaki for the main course. it was a nice evening, but the group wasn’t very talkative, which is very different from the other two dinners i’ve been to while over here. there were three girls, and one of their boyfriends; nick says sophie was stressed out, and anna was more interested in ian (her boyfriend) than anything else…but whatever, it was still a nice evening.
tonight we are having a different group of his friends over for dinner–the mostly american group, so i will finally be able to hold a conversation during dinner! i’ll be relieved at that, and won’t have to work my brain so hard at translating. there are 5 people coming, and they are all female. typical nick. 😉 i think we are going to fix chicken parmesan. yum.
(1:50 a.m.)
we had a lovely little dinner party tonight…nick and six girls. melissa and miranda are rotary scholars from the united states like nick. christy is a fulbright scholar working at a psychology lab here. stephanie is a french girl who spend a year in england teaching french at a boarding school, and delphine is an air traffic controller here in aix. it was nice because they all spoke english, even stephanie and delphine, so i could finally understand the dinner conversation, and participate! it was a lively group of people, and i enjoyed it. not to mention that the food turned out really well…chicken parmesan, and garlic bread.
i had a nice walk around town this afternoon, including a stroll through a pretty park and a stop at the museum of old aix. it was a pretty dinky museum, only 4 rooms, but in one they had a collection of maps of aix. they gradually got older and older; the oldest was from 1481! wow.
ohmygod!! i totally forgot this story! so this afternoon when nick got back from class we went to a few of the stores around the old town to collect souvenirs for me to take home…things that are unique to aix. we went to a wine store that nick likes to get a bottle of some red wine that is made locally. the man working there spoke english very well and recommended many wines. after i chose one, he was putting it in a bag and i told him “you speak very good english.” he smiled and said “actually, i speak swedish much better than english, i lived in sweden for 8 years.” swedish!! i was meant to find that wine store. it was a sign! (“but you don’t believe in signs…”) sweden!
the other funny story of the day was when nick and i went into the grocery store to buy wine for dinner. we already were carrying 4 baguettes, but when we put 3 bottles of wine down on the counter, the cashier asked “is this all for two??” nick explained that no, we’re not drunks, we were having a dinner party, to which the man replied “as long as you drink good wine, you are never a drunk.” i love the french.