Long Time No Write, Yall!

So my keyboard is still broken, so please pardon the lack of apostrophes and probable misspellings. I should have had a new one BUT in true French postal system fashion, they lost it and so now I must wait… sighhhhh, la vie française…

HAPPY (day after) THANKSGIVING!!!! I trust that all of you ate a piece of pie for me! Haha… Actually  I am excited because today I am baking a pumpkin pie, and tomorrow hopefully a bomb-diggity T-Giving dinner. YAY AMERICA! Yesterday at school I tried to teach some of the older kids about Thanksgiving but Im not sure the whole <count your blessings and appreciate all the good things in your life> part about the holiday translated into French well haha. One kid was like <so basically you just hang out with your family and eat super awesome food for 3 days AND you dont have to go to school???? COOL! Im moving to America>  That sentiment was echoed by the rest of the class which was cool but I dont think they reallllly get it haha oh well! The teacher was then like <its sad, Meaghan doesnt get to go home for the holiday! Imagine missing Christmas with your family…> which produced a collective gasp from the class, and one kid raising his hand with a weird look on his face. Turns out that kid thought I took a plane home to America each night then flew back the next day. Hes 12. I feel bad because I couldnt stop laughing, but it was just too funny.

Yesterday at school was just an all around funny day… I think it was because I had on my lucky sweater! Good/funny/interesting things always happen to me when i wear it.

Thats not what it actually looks like but is def just as magical. Although, I do have to say that I think I would look baller in this sweater. Anyways, back to school… like I said it was a crazy day, all the teachers were telling me random stories (ex one guy was telling me stories about his hs years… hes def like 60. He also felt the need to explain what a dictionary is to me… WHY???), and acting like crazies. Case in point, I had my aviators on during recess and I know they are supa fly (duh) and everyone here wants them because they make you into a veritable supa star instantly… like this

Tom Cruise was inspired by me, and I wasnt even born yet BOOM! Anyways this teacher sees my stunna shades and comes over and goes <Meaghan dont move, your sunglasses are perfect for me to fix my hair in… How do I look? Wait dont answer, I know I look good> To give you an idea, this teach pretty much looks like Ron Burgundy

Love of scotch not included

And finally the last crazy story from school yesterday is that a kid brought a porno magazine to school. Not joking at all, it fo realz happened! Hahaha so funny!

Who knew so many bizarre things could happen in 3 hours?? At the other school I work at on Tuesdays, one of the teachers felt the need to have me <act out rain> by pouring water on me while my eyes were closed. YUP. I almost dropped an F bomb when she did that, but dont worry I didnt pull a Ralphie in A Christmas Story… (fuuuuuuuuuuuddddddgggggeeeeee only I didnt say fudge). All the teach said to me was <OH I have an idea, close your eyes> and then she poured water on my head and cackled. Sighhhhhh… crazies I tell you!

In other news I tried to learn how to drive stick on Wednesday! Unfortunately I failed epically. My copain has a SUPER nice Mercedes ande he offered to teach me and Stephanie how to drive. However by the end of the afternoon he was so frustrated with us stalling out like 600x that he told us he knows a good driving school where we could learn… so much for subtlety lolz.

Grenoble last weekend was super fun! I love that city! While out I heard some awesome muzac you should def chk out if you want some european jamz in yo life!!!

If you have sensitive ears, skip that one… But these next two are fine!!

And finally if you need a good laugh, watch this video it is an all time fav!

Thats as much typing as I can do for now… Skype me peeps!!!!!

Meaghan

Montelimar weekend in pix!

So my keyboard is still barely functional so I thought I would post pix from my weekend in Montelimar which is the closest city with a train and it is an hr away haha… life!

Montelimar X-Files capitol of France...

yes we ate there, haha crazies

nougat museum! sugar OD was inevitable. also this pic is weird if u look close! haha

nougat, made fresh daily by creepy bee people!

bee in a plane... WTF

the most awk chair ever

petting zoo in the park!

So I realize I do not have any pix of the city just random things from the trip. Well my friends, I am quite partial to Nyons and how darn cute it is so Montelimar just fails to compare. Also it rains there alot, bleh.

broke my keyboard… sadness!

Hey ya’lll I broke my keyboard so no new posts for a while! I will put up some pics soon!

It’s OK, we do this in America

If you’ve never been to France, well one in my opinion that needs to change, and two you are seriously missing out on the comic relief that is French people dancing. When I studied abroad I went to the disco once and I ended up with some great photos of the French people in the background, like this:

He's got moves illegal in most countries

Just to illustrate what I’m talking about further, watch this video I found on youtube…

Alright so moral of the story is here is that French people dancing is one of my most favorite things. On Friday, Stephanie and I decided to go out after going to a game night with some weird old people (I’m talking Dungeons and Dragons) who all smelled like b.o. and/or alcohol. When we arrive at our favorite place, La Ruelle, we run into the son of one of the English teachers at the high school who is super nice. Anyways everyone is having a good time talking and dancing bla bla bla being social butterflies when around 2am I decide that it is time for me to start dancing. I inform the DJ that he needs to start playing some good music so I can get my groove on. The logic that I was deluding myself with was that French people are funny dancers so therefore I will look awesome doing whatever I want to do.

Generally when I start thinking along those lines, I embarass myself. A lot. Beer in hand I’m on the dancefloor grooving (I’m talking about busting out the snaps, some crazy arm movements, basically things that are generally embarassing and socially unacceptable) having a blast, yelling ” AUX ÉTATS-UNIS, ON FAIT ÇA!” translated to, “don’t worry, in the US we do this.” Awesome logic, except that its simply not true. My belief in that I was super embarassing was confirmed when I walked in last night and the bartender said, “you are a really good dancer” and then walked away laughing.

Ever heard the song, “I Can’t Dance” by LMFAO? Well listen to it because thats basically what went down on Friday night…Although this song is LMFAO so if you have sensitve ears I will tell you to maybe skip out on this one. 

Other than embarassing myself with my awesome dance moves, or lack there of, not a whole lot has been going on here soooooo FOOD UPDATE!!!!! yayyyyyy food!!!

I’m calling my 8 months here my cultivation of cooking gourmand on a stove. That doesn’t really  make sense but you know what I mean. Anyways I don’t have an oven so basically everything I make is made on the stove. I was pretty scared at first but now I’m pretty sure I’m about to Iron Chef level of awesomeness on stove cooking. My favorite meal that I’ve been making is Coq au Vin and it is super awesome. I have also eaten some other awesome things while here. In Marseille I had bouillabaisse which is a regional specialty: seafood soup. Basically they take a bunch of fish and shellfish and throw it in a pot and are like here it is ya’ll! It was heavenly. I love seafood so it was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life.

Another regional specialty, in Nyons, is the olives. I eat so many olives all the time. I can’t not buy them! If you can, look for Nyons Black Olives back in the states. They are like 80000x better than any other olives eva so get on it. In fact, I’m going to snack on some I bought today while I finish this post.

YUMMMMMMMMMMM

Our olive oil is also famous and pretty good, I went olive oil/olive tasting the other day at our town’s co-op. By that I mean I suspiciously loitered around the olive bowls at the co-op eating as many as possible before the workers got mad at me. Anyways we are SUPER famous for our wine here. Not Nyons specifically but this area. Cotes du Rhône is the type of wine made here and it is awesome. Before I came to this part of the country I did not like red wine. Merlot, and Burgundies were just too heavy for me. However, I am a total red wine convert and am madly in love with Cotes du Rhône wine. This is my favorite:

Wine makes everything better. Except a hangover.

This one was made here in town or like somewhere near here. Also I have been eating quite a bit of pastries and bread here. The bread is divine and I don’t know how I’m going to survive without it when I get back to America. The pastries are also baller. France has the best pastries eva hands down. This was a rose macarron with raspberry filling and cream filling and raspberries. Describing it in werdz does not do it justice:

Jealous?

I felt guilty eating it. THAT GOOD.

Well that sounds about it! This coming weekend I’m going to visit Mika in Montelimar, where she lives about an hour away by car. Its signifigantly bigger than Nyons so hopefully it will fulfill all of my hopez and dreamz. Actually, I’m just excited because it has an Irish pub and a movie theatre that is playing Contaigon. The weekend after that I am going to Grenoble to hang out with some girls that I know so yayyy for travel and friends!!!!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Grand Bis

Meaghan

Halloween is over… you know what that means!

Thats right people, as of November 1st it is officially acceptable (according to me and anyone else obsessed with the holiday season) to start listening to Christmas music! My beliefs have been officially confirmed by the fact that Kinder has officially released their Christmas products for sale in the grocery stores.

For those not in the know, Kinder is a chocolate company in Europe that is da bomb. All their chocolate is amazing, and I don’t even like chocolate. That good.  Also another sign from the heavens that it is completely socially acceptable to listen to holiday music is that not only did Justin Bieber release an album on Nov. 1, but Michael Buble did too. Call me crazy or weird or schwatevz, I don’t care because I’ve been listening to both on repeat. And it is awesome.

Anyways break is over starting tomorrow. I’m pretty happy about that since I need some direction in my life. However, I don’t work on Fridays so I just have to work for 3 hours tomorrow afternoon and then I am free. Did I ever mention that my job is awesome? WOOP WOOP.

The end of my break was supa fun. I went to Marseille for a few days with Stephanie and Mika. Everyone in town kept telling us that we were for SURE going to get mugged/robbed/murdered while in Marseille because I guess its kind of dangerous. But then again, pretty much any other city in the world is more dangerous than Nyons haha except for maybe Mayberry. Anyways, since I’m a little bit of a crazy person, I felt the need to knit myself a money belt for my credit card and ca$h money.

Don't even think about tryna steal my moniez! I have these bad boiz

Don’t pretend like you don’t wish you had a sweet money belt that was custom made by me! Actually if anyone wants one I’ll knit you one for 5 euros/dollars. Ok enough with the shameless self promotion… It worked out pretty awesome aside from the fact that it made me look like I was pregnant in most of my pictures. Case in point, me with the Barbapapa section I found in a store:

Is that a Barbapapa under my shirt or just an awesome money belt?????

So needless to say I looked a little funky in all my pictures because of my super nifty money belt. However I don’t know anyone who has made themselves a money belt before so I still think its awesome. Zing.

Marseille itself was really cool. I really liked it. It was very beautiful and had some really awesome restaurants. We met some other assistants staying at the hostel we were at so it was fun to hang out with them. All in all I think it was a good trip!

I'm on a boat and its going fast and I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan

At any minute "Eye of the Tiger" is going to start playing...

I had my toez in the water, but I did not have my a$$ in the sand as Zac Brown band would say haha

Also in Marseille I’d like to point out that I found something so elusive and rare in France that I had to make it a Kodak moment. Can you guess what it is? I’ll give you a hint, it is rarer than a unicorn…

MIND BLOWINGLY AWESOME

If you guessed an old man with a mullet you are my new favorite person! Definitely one of my most favorite pictures from France ever. Thank you French Mullet-Man for absolutely making my day everytime I look at this!!

Well thats about it round these parts… I’ll do a food blog this weekend 🙂

PEACE YA’LL

Meaghan