This blog is not really in time. I started it about a week ago but never posted it because it wasn’t finished. Now all the dates I am talking about are a bit wrong, but you’ll hopefully understand.

what did the chicken say to the librarian?
"book, book, book".

I’ve been back at school a week and a day, and it’s fallen into a slightly different pattern then what it was before the holidays. This is because I now read during class which is a good thing short term as it passes the day quickly, but a bad thing long term because I am probably not going to develop my French as quickly. This all started while shopping solo the other day. I ventured into a book store looking for something that would help me progress with my language and also an English version on the text “Candide” that we are studying in French (this is because my French teacher is the only one who cares that I sit there and learn nothing). So, in this bookshop works a really handsome guy and I asked for his help (and when I say really handsome, he actually wasn’t REALLY handsome, but he was my cup of tea you know?)! I walked up to him and in my slight hesitation to start trying to speak French, I drew in a quick breath through closed teeth making an interesting slurp noise. This he also did in a mocking gesture – oh those Frenchmen, so romantic. I started by asking “parlez-vous Anglais? (Do you speak English)”, and his reply was “a petit peu (a little bit) ”. He sounded slightly disappointed that I was going to speak English so in an awkward and drawn out manner I tried to ask for what I was looking for in French! “avez-vous (have you )... une livre (a book)... pour moi (for me) ... a parle francais (to speak french)”. Re-cap: “ have you a book for me to speak French”. It wasn’t the greatest sentence of all time but with a laugh he looked up and said “what?”  I then explained my need in English and he assisted me to the language section where a new woman took over and attended to my needs. With a look over my shoulder I gave him a broad smile and a double thumbs up. Again he mocked me and did it back again. The ‘English’ section consisted of only 2 book cases within the whole book shop (I was a little disappointed with this limited selection). One had learning books which were all jumbled in with French ones too, and another book case with popular English books.  They had series such as twilight (Danika pulls a repulsive face), the millennium trilogy (i.e. the girl with the dragon tattoo) but I have already read these, and they had Harry Potter! In Australia I only ever got to number 3 (the prisoner of Azkaban), but I lost is somewhere halfway through. Unfortunately it was an Alstonville high school book and to this day and I am still not officially signed out of school because I never replaced it.  Mum, you might have to chase that up... love you.

So here in Aix, on a warm Sunday afternoon, I purchased number 3 and 4 or the potter collection so I could once again continue on the magic and dangerous journey of Harry Potter and his friends. Actually let me get the sequence of events in their proper order. The first time I went into the book shop and got helped by the babe, he showed me to the English section specialising in learning French. And in the presence of him I completely forgot to look for a book to read just for pleasure. I ended up not getting any learning book because they were expensive and I couldn’t make up my mind, and five steps outside the shop it hit me that I needed to go back in. Hmmm. Danika always cripples at the knees (metaphorically) in these slightly challenging situations her brain over-thinks tiny things, thus ridiculous decisions are reached.. That is her weakness and other then that Danika is perfect, obviously. So I went and got lunch at my new favourite shop called ‘simply food’ which sells wonderfully weird salads, pastas, curries, wraps, toasties, yoghurt and muesli and just lots healthy stuff. The girls at the counter are starting to treat me like a regular, too. After that I braved it and returned to the bookshop, but without being seen by him which was both a good thing and a bad. I got the harry potter books and left; again without being seen (I decided it was now a bad thing now).

Can I just say, I have become a really fast reader ... or just sadly have too much time on my hands... because I have finished both the HP books! It makes lessons at school actually fly by – pretty amazing. Maybe Harry’s working some of his magic for me. My French teacher has been the only one to comment on it out of all the teachers by saying “ahh Danika, what is it you read? Harry Potter? That’s for little kids isn’t it?” ouch Madame! But yes, yes it is.

I bravely returned to the book shop yesterday YET AGAIN when I was shopping with my friend Sam but the guy wasn’t there.  I bought some more books which were Possibly a little more advanced. I got “My Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle and also “My Life in France” by Julia Child. It is this book that got rewritten and turned into a movie called “Julie and Julia” which I love! So they will be fun to read. And speaking of cooking, I made dinner the other night for only Julie, Jean and myself because Anne and Charles were at Pourcieux (the other country house).  I made a cheese, bacon and tomato quiche but had enough egg and cream liquid to throw together a frittata thing afterwards with more bacon, carrot and peas. I was kind of freaking out that they wouldn’t like it, but they did so it was all good!

Tragedy of the week: ..........

Jean broke his nose during a football match in Lyon on Sunday a week ago. Not just the cartilage, but the whole damn thing – bone and all. He had to get a big plaster cast over his face leaving holes for his eyes, and things inserted up his nostrils to keep everything straight. He has gotten that removed now and is back at school !

poor Jean...

                                                                                                                                                                               I think it is becoming a bit of a ritual for me to spend Wednesday afternoon with Sam in Aix. We hang out and do a bit of shopping and we found this really cute little Mexican place called “la Boca Loca” and the food they sell is tex-mex, which is the Texan equivalent of Mexican cuisine. Both sam’s parents are Mexican so she has a very superior knowledge of what Mexican food is, and she thinks this attempt is worthy of eating! It really is delicious. I had a burrito with beans, guacamole, rice, chicken, cheese and a little bice of spicy-spicy! then we went to H & M, a huge clothing store with cheap and fashionable clothes. I thought I had to be back home by six because we were going to meet my 2^nd host family. But when I got there and was wondering why we weren’t going, Anne said that it was on Friday. Grrr, this is one example of how information changes when you swap it from one language to the next. This was a bit of an impact on my weekend plans for my birthday!

this is a mexican card came that was in th tex-mex shop!

roses from my lovelies. you truely made my day very special indeed!

As most of you know it was my 18^th birthday on the 17^th of March (Saturday) and it was also Saint Patrick’s Day. My birthday proved to be a day of mixed emotions for me, as not everything was running smoothly here. I won’t go into details, but the love sent my way from Australia by family and friends really helped to make my day special for me. I got roses for my auntie Dan, Uncle Mick and the Kids which were of all different colours, and some lovely red roses from my beautiful friend Hannah and her equally beautiful family. Over the last week I got two parcels too! One from Kat, which had vegemite <3 and CD’s, and the other was sent from my mumzy. I wasn’t allowed to open it until my birthday so I hid it under my bed to forget the temptation. On Thursday night I skyped with mum and we agreed it would be a clever idea to open my parcel in the company or her and my step dad Jeffy! It had some bunting made by the ladies from the Rous mill hall crew, A book called “tarab – travels with my guitar” and also a beautiful stone necklace. Unfortunately I haven’t even worn the necklace yet because when I took it out to put it on, the metal connecter has decided to go walk about... and I have no idea where it has fallen off. This is a crying shame, but I will fix it as soon as I can. I’ve been told by people that more parcels are on the way, but I am worried that I haven’t been giving people the whole address. I live in an apartment block and so I’ve been thinking that you’d have to include my name first, and then mention M. et Mme. Mazel so the post man could get the right apartment... I don’t know if this is the case. Or, what if I’m not at home? What does the postman do with the parcel because he can’t leave it there! Someone tell me everything is going to be ok!

So your all wondering what I did for my birthday right?! Well, about 5 days before my birthday I asked permission from my family to go out on Friday night to celebrate with my friend Sam. We organised for Sam to stay the night and everything was looking good. Then unfortunately the day of meeting my second family was swapped to the same night. We agreed that I could go out after the meeting, because it wasn’t meant to go for too long. Sam ended up coming with us to meet the family which was good because she’s like my translator haha. my family are really awesome and so is their house and their GIANT DOG! i honestly am so excited to take a picture and show you. they have 2 dogs, a cat and a rabbit. So when we got home we went out and got some Mexican and met up with a couple of other American girls who are also studying here in Aix and they are really lovely. I initially met Darrien in the stairwell of my apartment thinking she was the American girl living up stairs. She wasn’t and it was pure coincidence that she was American too! Anyway I got her number and that’s how that happened!  

Kim and the girls at La boca loca!

And then Saturday on my actually birthday, I awoke at 8 with Sam on a matrass on the floor beside me. I turned on my computer and did a lot of skyping for the next hour or two with my family and friends in Australia. First I skyped with my daddddddy, then with Giselle and then with my Auntie Danielle and the kids.  At about 10:30 Sam and I headed out for something to eat but Julie and Jean didn’t want to come L ahh well. So I got a waffle because my cousin Monty told me I HAD to try it. He described it with chocolate sauce and ice-cream but those luxuries weren’t available at this little stand, so I got nutella! Then we sat on a park bench and talk while eating. After we had finished we went shopping at H & M before Sam had to catch her bus home at noon. In the stop two hands grabbed me by the shoulder and squealed “happy birthday” with a glorious American accent in my ear. It was Kim and her girls!! I was so happy to see them and seeing as I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the day, she invited me out to lunch! We called around to check if that was ok with my family, and guess where she said she was talking me... “so, I know this great little ‘tex-mex’ place just down the street if you feel like Mexican?” honestly, I could eat that stuff for breakfast lunch and tea. Even though the food was great, we were sitting outside at a tiny little terrace table on the street and I am pretty sure there was a dead something-or-rather down the drain... it was subtle enough that we didn’t bother moving, but if the gentle breeze stopped a-blowin’, it was gross. Then a DJ randomly set up outside a shop so Kim dared me to go dance. I said I would if she did to. So, while her daughter was recording on Kim’s iphone we went and made complete fools of ourselves (which Kim said later was something that the French NEVER do). Then we went shopping in a huge shopping complex out of town and got a mcflurry (2^nd McDonalds experience here) AND THEY DON’T HAVE OREO! They have caramel (called daimes or something) and some a nut mixture, and they had m&m’s with nuts which was the closest thing to home. YUM! Kim and Terri were already coming to the BBq for my birthday that night, so I stayed with Kim and went with her and the girls because it worked out easier for everyone. I wore my new outfit that I bought that day (cool top and a bloody denim jacket – I say ‘bloody’ out of frustration because I have one in Australia and I didn’t BLOODY bring it. Or my awesome leather jacket - I am a fool). I showered and dressed at Kim’s which was probably more fun than it should have been. We had music blaring through the house and all the girls and I were dancing like monkeys! And off we went in their huge 4x4 jeep.

i love these kids! singing into a giant champaigne bottle is class!

 The whole way in the car we were rocking out to some music I guess never an influence to me as a youngin’. We were listening to the rolling stones, Fleetwood Mac, Dixie chicks, the eagle’s etc, but I was surprised at how many I did manage to know. Mum raised me with Carol king, Tracy Chapman, Diana Ross etc, but they so great too that I m definitely not complaining.  I was always under the impression that the rolling stones was the equivalent of Metallica or kiss, but that ARE AWESOME! Now that I have lots of time to think here, I have decided to make a mental list of my living conditions when I move back to Australia and live in my own house. It’s going to be so good. It’s all about ambiance and mood and creating a feel within the space you dwell. Thus, I plan to have music from all era’s playing so I can be always dancing. I am going to eat so much fruit!! Fruit all day and night, bebeh. And I’m going to buy that fruit from the city markets (I plan to live in a city – hopefully Melbourne). So there we are so far.  The dinner was really... delicious, along with the assortment of beverages. We started with belinies (I have no idea how to spell it but they are little miniature pancakes) that went with a seafood dipping sauce that Charles made. There was also cut up baguette to go with this ridiculously fatty pig spread that is probably catastrophic for your heart but delicious for your taste buds.  Jean, Julie and tom were in charge of the BBq and when I went out there to see how it was going, the wind was sparying sparks everywhere from the over-crowded fire. After a few minutes the kindling had dwindled and the coals were red hot. A Metal crate sat over top and you could adjust the high to suit the cooking temperature you wanted. It was pretty clever. So on went the sausages and then off they came (a little black I’d say. I’ve been reading that Julia child book and she is teaching me to be a little more critical of what I am putting in my mouth). But they were heaps yummy haha. Somewhere in between cooking and actually eating, we had a toast with some champers and then we tucked in.

For desert there was an ice cream cake with pear in it and sponge and it had my name on top “joyeux anniversarie Danika” as well as a pipe thing stuck in the centre that shot a stream of sparks up 2 feet into the air! T’was super cool. I tried to snap a photo but we’d already half cut it up by the time I thought of it! Oh well, next time I turn 18! Oh wait...... that only happens once!!! L

 

Sunday was a bludge days of just chilling out in my room and playing a bit of guitar. I finally fixed my guitar so I am really happy about that. I took it to a music shop in Aix and the man re-positioned the neck for only 20 euro. He had my guitar for a week though so that was a bit difficult! I also checked out the possibility of getting a loop pedal so I can do harmonies on the spot! How cool would that be. And the shop has a few to choose from. They’re probably overly expensive so I’ll do a bit of ‘investigationing’ (new word by Danika) online to see if I can find a better deal.

So, tonight is the 20/03/2012 and it’s all happening here in France. I went to another rotary meeting because A) I get to be more involved in rotary and B) I get to eat some classy-arsed cuisine like a real lady. I actually love rotary. It’s so funny to go and just observe (as I don’t understand anything really). While the chairman Madame Morrell was doing the introductory speech to the club, a very old man at my table was tapping his cutlery together; obviously unaware that is was extremely loud and distracting. Then the old man next to him starts tapping his knife against the base of his wine glass! I met my councillor tonight, too. He’s actually completely opposite to what I pictured. He’s a young Italian lawyer born and raised in Marseille and he speaks very good English. I sat next to him at dinner and I’m going to go with him to Marseille to get pizza because it’s apparently letter then any pizza I will find in Aix. His girlfriend was there too and she is also really lovely. They live in a house only 5 minutes walk from the Mediterranean and he said I can call/email/visit whenever I want! For dinner we had a starter of ... I can’t remember the French name but it was cheese (im guessing goats cheese because I’m an expert and all now) on little square pieces of toast with ham and a petit salade vertre (little green salad). It was simple but delicious as the cheese was warm and gooey and really flavoursome. Then the main meal was grilled salmon and blieu (I think – which is a white flesh fish) with polenta aux oliviers (polenta with olives). YUMMY! I know its not the best meal “La Pigonnet” has produced but I sure as hell liked it. This book I am reading about Julia child is opening my eyes to how to taste a meal. It’s such a great book as she is talking about the place I live (Provence), what she did with her time, and what she was cooking. I wither want to buy her cook book and also start taking French cooking lessons here. Mum found me a site that lists all the tourism and there is a wine tasting course, a cooking course...there are so many things to do! I’m going to get a French tutor to help me with my language because I have birthday money!!

On the 24^th of this month I am going to a party with my 2^nd host sister which is exciting! And on the 29^th I am heading to Annecy, a beautiful French town on the east boarder of France to a large rotary conference with all the other French exchange students for 2 days. I am really excited about this because I get to meet up with friends I made on the trip here and also students from my club at home! I am going to catch the train there. Then on the first of April I am changing families.  

I am very tired and it’s off to school tomorrow! I am going to move up a level soon to premier which is the equivalent of year 11 in Australia and I am also going out for lunch with my 2^nd host sister and her friend.

lots of love xxx

Danika