Les Aventures de Vacances (The Adventures of Vacation)

My last blog post left off the first Sunday of vacation. The whole next week, Mon-Fri, I didn't have school and also the Mon-Wed of the next week. Les vacances de Toussaint was very nice. I enjoyed my time to sleep late, read, relax, and so on. However, this time was not all spent lounging around.

Monday the event of the day was a walk with my host mom. We drove a little ways out, still in Cavalaire, to a spot where many people go to walk or bike on lovely little afternoons. We drove through an old train tunnel and parked the car. We ended up walking to Rayol, the next town over, but it didn't seem that far. On the way we picked some small red fruits off of a tree. I don't know the name of the delicious, little things we ate, but I see the trees frequently throughout town. We ended up going down to a beach in Rayol that has small rocks instead of sand. These rocks make the water of the Mediterranean the epitome of blue. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was the end of October, and I was able to wade out into the water comfortably. It was sunny and warm. As I looked around at the breathtaking scenery I thought, "This can not be real. I actually live here!"

The next day, I went with Paul, Cara, and Eva to Toulon. The four of us walked around a good bit, did some shopping (I bought a purse that I'm in love with), had lunch, and came home. I spent the night at Cara's. It was my first night away from my French home since I've been here. We had a good night talking and watching movies. Spending the night at Cara's was also good because I got to spend a little more time with her host parents. I think it's going to be quite hard to change host families, but at least the three of us know our other host parents. We won't really have too much of the awkward beginning of living in a stranger's house. Changing families is a good thing too, though. I'll get to experience three different families who have different ways of life.

Mercredi matin was the market in Cavalaire. Cara and I met up with Imogen, and the three of us wandered through the venders. Sometimes one can find wonderful, inexpensive things at the market in Cavalaire. Other times it's just fun to see what all is there. We all three bought the same thing Wednesday morning: apples. They were juicy, crisp apples too. That night was spent hanging out at Paul's. As well as Friday night.

Thursday and Friday I took a first aid/safety class at the gym of Cavalaire. I was there basically all day Thursday, with some time off for lunch, and Friday morning. We went through all the topics of safety: CPR (RCP en francais), burns, cuts, people passing-out and such. Ironically enough I'd use some of this information later on in the vacation. The safety class was a success. Turns out there's not just one emergency number to call in France, like 911 in the states. Oh no, there are four numbers. 18 is for the fire department. 15 for the emergency physicians. 17 for the police. Finally, 112 for all emergencies throughout Europe. So American travelers coming to Europe, when in doubt dial 112.

Now for a more exciting part of the vacation. Saturday, Halloween, I went to Toulon with Paul, yes again. We met up with one of his friends from his Rotary District in New York. She is on an exchange about 30 minutes away from Paris but was down in this area for vacation. The two New Yorkers and I saw the film Le Petit Nicolas. This movie is based on the popular children's book by the same title. I loved the film and picked up on most of it. It was very funny, and hopefully, it will come out on dvd so I can bring a copy home. After the movie, we ate lunch and spent time walking around. That night Paul and I were going to a Halloween party one of our friends was having. Excitedly, we talked about our costumes and what we expected of the night. His friend left with her host mom that evening, and the two of us went to wait at the bus stop for our bus back to Cavalaire. A bus going in the same direction as Cavalaire, about 15 minutes before our bus was scheduled to arrive, pulled up to the stop. Paul told me to pull out the schedule and check the bus number, just to be sure. I called out 7801 and only as the bus pulled away did I see that I had read the wrong line. Our bus, the last bus to Cavalaire for the night, had just pulled away. Oh writing this now brings back how absolutely awful I felt at that moment. We were completely safe and knew our way around so I wasn't worried for our well-beings. I felt awful because I knew one of our host parents was going to have to make the hour and a half drive to come get us. My host parents had neighbors over who were leaving town the next day, and Paul's host parents were working that evening. We both called our parents to tell them what had happened, and we they told us that another bus was scheduled to come. We waited, hopeful that another bus would show up. It didn't. Finally, we went to sit in the crowded McDonald's because it was getting chilly outside. Paul's host dad came and got us. I felt so terrible. I hate feeling like an inconvenience. His host parents and mine assured me that it wasn't a problem. I got back home right around midnight and was so exhausted. We missed the party. Never again will I forget that the last bus to Cavalaire is 8814. Never.

The following day was a dreary one. No sun, a bit of rain, cold. I stayed home and played board games with my host mom for a large part of the afternoon. It was wonderful. It's so good to have a day every now and then when it's cold and dreary to sit around in sweatpants and play games or watch movies. This happiness is multiplied when there is a fire in the fireplace, and there was.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all scheduled for sailing in the afternoon. It turned out to be too windy Monday and Tuesday afternoons... what an oxymoron! So sailing was left just for Wednesday afternoon. At two I went down to the sailing school. Five others were there for sailing. We put on our lifejackets and went over to the beach to the catamarans that we would be sailing. Three boys were together on one and Paul, an 11 year old girl and I were going to be on the other. This was my first experience with sailing. For those of you that don't know what a catamaran is (don't worry, I didn't) it's two pontoons with a trampoline-like material platform in between. When I first saw the thing I leaned over to Paul and asked him where the boat was. It had no substance, just a little mesh thing. First, the three other boys went out and the rest of us rode in the inflatable motor boat (the sailing instructor and the woman who oversees rock climbing at the gym were in the motor boat too). The sailing instructor, Loic, told the boys on the cat what to do while Paul, an experienced sailor of 9 years, explained all the jargon and mechanics of this sport to me. Finally, it was our turn. The wind was slow at first, and we just had the main sail open. Paul did most of the controlling in the beginning. I looked at the scenery and water a lot. After being out a while and getting a feel for things we got to open up the jib, which is the other sail on the boat. The other girl and I controlled the jib. With this and a stronger wind we went substantially faster. At one point, I got to control the tiller, and thus, the direction of the cat. I was not too great with that position. Paul kept shouting, "Leslie, you have to look forward when controlling the boat. Look in front of you!" It was great. As we started heading back for the beach to go in, the wind picked up. Therefore, we started flying through the water. The catamaran was moving mostly on one of the pontoons, and then out of no where the boat flipped completely forward. I landed on the sail in the Med. It was cold, and I had a throbbing pain behind my left ear. Suddenly, the girl on our boat, now in the water, called out sang a.k.a. blood. I moved my hand away and saw that she was right. There was blood; lots of it. I felt a large cut on the back of my ear. At this point only a few things were going through my mind. First, apply pressure to slow the bleeding (thanks first aid class!). Second, all I could think of was that scene in the movie Pineapple Express where the top of Seth Rogan's ear gets shot off. I didn't want to be missing half of my ear like that. Finally, Loic came out to get us, and I climbed in the little motor boat while the other two flipped the catamaran back. We made it back to land where I called my host mom to bring me some dry clothes. After a quick shower and changing, we headed off to the doctor's office. This brought about the second first experience I've ever had: stitches. Yep, seven stitches in the back of my left ear. I got to wear a lovely little bandage and washing my hair without getting my ear wet was fun, but now all is better. It doesn't hurt anymore, and it makes my first sailing experience sound much more exciting!

Then it was back to school. This past weekend went by without too much excitement. The application for Camp DeSoto is up so I'll start filling all that out. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I don't have school. Tomorrow is a ferie for l'Armistice which means that no one works tomorrow and no one has school. J'adore la France. Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We watched the news coverage for that. I really liked the giant dominoes that people all around the world had made that they lined up and pushed down. I also saw on the news that the healthcare reform passed in the House and is now moving on to the Senate. The times they are a changin. On verra.

I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I'll be more diligent so my posts won't be these gigantic blocks of jumbled time frames. Hope all is well with everyone. I'm going to watch Australia with my host parents. Bonne nuit!