chicken boobies? can't buy that stuff here!

hello children of the earth.
today was phenomenal. i woke up and brought the kiddies to school and then went for a nice, pensive run, and then i went to the grocery and got veggies because we all know that on the days that the kids eat at cantine, i have a VEGGIE FEAST! i got eggplant, carrots, zucchini, and red pepper. yummmmmmm. i also got yogurt and these really cute shoes. mmm im excited. the little girl already told me they were pretty.

so i got back to the hizzouse and chatted with the housekeeper a bit. i like her. she's really nice. then i showered and napped. then i pulled out my old friend dianna ross and she joined me while i steamed my veggies in soy sauce,..charties style. oh it was bliss. then i hopped on my bike to join my fellow painters to go to van gogh's museum.

i was so happy to be in a car with people i could talk too instead of a bus. all the people complimented me on my french, which was such a compliment because i've really been working hard at it. (ps i have my first french lesson saturday! weeee!) i talked the whole way to st. remy with the people in the car with barely any problems. then we got to the van gogh museum and one of the ladies handed me a ticket. she had bought it for me. i was sooo thankful. that was the nicest thing anyone's done for me here. oh i don't think she realized how much it meant to me. i wanted to give her a big hug, but instead i said thank you a bunch of times. oh it still makes me so happy that someone did that for me.

the artist that was featured was from the provence regions, his name was something esteves. it was such beautiful stuff. i was inspired, so i bought a postcard and tried to do a piece of his art. then after that museum, we went to another, except the owner was a crazy man. the painting teacher rang the bell to the museum, and she was so excited to go to this exhibition because she LOVES the artist. this old guy comes out with a saw in his hand and is like "do you wanna come in?" and she's like yes, we'd like a visit. well basically it would have cost us 12 euro each, when it was advertised for free. so he walked away, with his saw, and the painting lady (kady) is really disheartened, so the other people are asking her what she thinks, what we should do, etc. the old saw man comes back all rough and bothered and gets in her face and is like what's the problem? tell me if you have a problem. meanwhile im hanging back because this crazy guy has a saw. why? i have not the slightest idea. so he is going off on all the people, and all the old people are like, come on, let's go. and they made sure i left because they didn't want me to get yelled at by thec crazy man. and one of the people stayed back and argued. the oldies (old people) were like, "that's a mean frenchman, not the normal. he's rare." aww then we walked away, and i looked at kady, and she was crying. it was so shocking to see. she just wanted to share the beauty of the art with us, and when this guy was so mean, it just crushed her. it was so refreshing to see such a raw expression of emotion. and it was fine. there was no awjwardness. she was sad, so she cried. done.

then we went to a cafe and sat all together, and two of the people in the group got my phone number to invite me over for dinner!!!!! i was so happy! they wanted to buy me something at the cafe, but i was fine. the people in the painting group are amazing. they've adopted me as a little lady! they tell me where to go, what to see, the history, and they compliment me too! i sincerely think that going to painting has been the best decision i've made since i've been here. it's such a testiment to the power of art.

one painting person told me that they rent their house out during the summer, so if you're interested, hollur because he's pretty legit, and he speaks okay english.

then i got my kiddies, got home, and chillaxed. for dinner, we had some kind of meat, and i tried a piece, but there was a bone and i couldn't cut it and when i ate a piece i kept either getting a bone or fat. i think they must hate serving me meat because they know they're wasting their time. i tried looking for chicken breasts at the grocery today, but no such thing exists here. oooh quelle dommage. however, they do have nearly every type of sausage imaginable (except chicken and turkey.....i checked thoroughly). but you know what, you wanna be like the locals, you gotta eat and drink like them. or at least try what they are eating. i've tried everything once!

alright, tomorrow's friday! im going to fontveille. i just picked it because there's a market tomorrow and because it seems cool and there's a direct bus that leaves and comes back with my schedule. yeah!

ciao chickens!
chels