Did you notice I added a couple links? One is a comic strip created by Nicholas Gurewitch; it's a little twisted but I think it's funny. I never looked at anything besides the comics before, but today I watched some of his short films. One is called 'The Liars'. It's really good! So, I'm sharing it with you. The website is a little iffy but I watched the film with Quicktime and it worked, no problem. Here is the link. Enjoy!

Some pictures from our Thanksgiving dinner/Dirty Dancing Extravaganza:

Rahel and I doing some last minute prep



Yay! good job.



While others chit chat and drink some wine



Help yourselves!



Wilson gives it the thumbs up; Will and Allison have deep talks



Time to sing along and ponder the translation of "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!"

funny if you studied lit at uni, or if you know a horn honker. or if you are one.

The past few days I've received many lovely emails and even a real letter from some of my dearest friends. This, of course, made me very happy. But then I became nostalgic for my friends and family, and I was quite homesick. I think I know a good cure though....I've invited all my Narbonne friends over tomorrow night for a big dinner. It's the American thanksgiving so seemed like a good day for it. I think Allison was missing Thanksgiving, being away from home and all, which encouraged me but the original reason was to have my girlfriends over to watch 'Dirty Dancing'. Yay we have cable TV now!!! Turns out Dirty Dancing is universal. Rahel loves it (Switzerland), Louise loves it (England), and Caro too (Quebec). What the 2 guys will think of it is another story but I didn't want to exclude them...Out of all the language assistants in Narbonne there is only one guy, Wilson, from Ecuador. The other guy, Will, from England, used to be a language assistant but is working at a private school now. So, usually when we go out, there'll be like 10 girls and 1 guy... It must be hard on them but they don't complain too much!

The weather is getting wintery here. The trees have lost at least half of their leaves and the wind is cold enough to make my eyes water as I'm walking around downtown. Today is Sunday so of course the town is deserted but there's still a couple cafes open so Rahel and I met for a coffee. It's nice to sit and talk...she was telling me about her family. When her father was in his early twenties he did a trip around the world. All her childhood, he would talk and tell stories about his travels. So now her brother has done the same thing. He saved money for 3 years and took a two year trip around the world. He speaks German, French and English. Her family is Swiss-German. Isn't that great? She herself has lived in Costa Rica and Spain as well as France.
There are millions of little birds in Narbonne now. I think they are here for the season. In the sky they look absolutely incredible. It has to be one of the most magical sights I have ever seen. Once they land in the trees it's a different story though. Any idea how much crap millions of little birds produce??? It's like it's raining bird crap if you walk near the trees. The bad news is every time I walk to town I have to walk under the trees. They're lining the boulevard. The smell is absolutely vile as well. I never knew bird crap had a smell but it does. It smells BAD. It's hard to capture what it looks like when they're in the air but here's a
try:

I took a video clip and it's way cooler but I'm not sure if I can put a movie on blogger. Anyone know?

Isn't she so adorable?



Huge congratulations to my good friend Master Choi!!! His lovely wife Dohwa just gave birth to their second daughter, Yooyeon. When I lived in South Korea I studied muay thai (thai kick boxing) at his gym for 5 months. It was a great experience and he and his wife became great friends of mine. I miss you guys!!!

Here we are in Seoul, after one of our guys became the muay thai national champion in his weight category.



Just before I left Sokcho, one last party. Don't worry, the bottle is empty; it's just a joke!



In Korea a website is a must and of course Master Choi has one for his muay thai gym. Unless you can read Korean, you won't understand much but if you do enter the site and click on history, you can listen to the traditional thai music that always plays during a fight. Even to train that music was played. I don't know if I could fight w/o it. ;)

I am so happy. Why you ask? Because finally, I have internet at home. so I can show you this:
This was taken by Rahel just after the haircut in a square in Barcelona. We were having lunch.



This one was when I got home to Narbonne that night.



Although to tell the true it looks more much curly now. After the hairdresser cut my hair she straightened it, but I just haven't taken any photos of myself since then. It's kind of awkward to ask someone to take my picture just to put it on the blog.
It is a totally gorgeous day today. All the rainclouds seem to have blown away and there isn't even any wind! After teaching this morning, all the teachers (including me)from one of my schools went out for lunch. It was very nice. I had salad with eggplant and tomatoes and the main course was salmon. This weekend no major plans but I'm sure I'll meet up with some of my assistant friends at some point. Otalia is off to Paris for the weekend to visit her best friend as well as her amoureux! ;)

Sunday night there was a terrible storm in Narbonne and most of the Mediterranean area of France. There was thunder and lightning and the rain sounded like nails shooting against the window. We don't get much thunder and lightning in the Victoria/Vancouver area so I'm really not used to it. Logically I do realize that the chance of any harm coming to me from a storm is exceedingly slim. But the thunder was booming outside my window like a bomb and each time the lightning flashed I jumped in my bed. I didn't sleep hardly at all that night. Monday morning it was still raining and I had a training day in Carcassonne so Allison, Alina and I took the train in that morning. Around 3:30 the other two girls got a train back to Narbonne. It was still raining a lot. I stayed behind because the train station is better in Carcassone and I wanted to get the train tickets for the Christmas holidays when Aston, my boyfriend, is coming to visit me. We're going to travel around France a bit while he's here. Anyway, I got all our tickets (they're by reservation and it books up during the holidays) and planned on taking the 4:30 train to Narbonne. Except, it never left. By that point the train tracks between Narbonne and Carcassone were totally flooded. I was stuck in Carcassonne. Luckily I knew some language assistants working there and a super nice English girl named Emma put me up for the night. Thanks Emma!!!! :) I was able to go home by noon the next day. Stephanie, an assistant in a nearby village told me she tried to come to Narbonne today and the roads are still flooded. Crazy weather. Let's all those vines are ok under the lakes of water covering them!! In other jessica news my broken toe is doing much better. One more week I'd say. I miss you all and hope every one is well. Please think of my Grandma as she's going in for surgery soon. Get well soon Grandma!!! Love you, jessica.

salut tout le monde! Again a long weekend after tomorrow: life is so rough! ;) My toe is healing although it's quite sore. I stayed off it all day except to teach my class tonight. Tomorrow I teach all day in all my elementary schools. I will be sore, guaranteed. The whole right side of my foot is a lovely shade of purple now and many people have assured me I have green and yellow to look forward to. anyways...

Here's Rahel and Kate early morning on the train headed to Barcelona...



Some musicians were playing in a market; I quite like this photo.



The crowds of people were so unbelieveable. Thousands of people easily I would say. It was totally overwhelming.



A very pretty fountain on a busy roundabout



Some human statues on La Rambla, a main walking street. Barcelona is famous for this.



My name in Spanish....Note I'm turning a little Barcelonian.



Finally my big news: I cut my hair off!! I got my hair cut in a very trendy salon in Barcelona. It's quite short and it's gone totally curly now that my straight perm has been cut off. Unfortunately blogger doesn't seem to want to post any more pictures so I'll put one in next time. :) A bientot!!!

Guess what? I broke my toe. It's quite silly; I was walking through my room without my glasses and my toe caught on the wheel of my suitcase and pulled backwards. However, it does hurt a fair bit and the effort of walking across town to the internet cafe and especially going up and down the 2 flights of winding stairs to my apartment is too much for me for the moment. The good news is I should have internet at home (isn't it a miracle?) in 5-7 days. Then I can post to my heart's content. I just taught my advanced ESL adults class at the community centre which happens to be right next to the internet cafe so that's why I'm here now. Come to think of it, I'll probably be able to come again after my beginners adults class Wednesday. I really want to put up the Barcelona pics etc. I've never broken a bone before and it's a little disconcerting. After taking the x-ray at the hospital I was left to wait for the doctor to return. I was in the room for about an hour, staring the x-ray of my broken toe(all lit up) in the face. ugh. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be all better soon and I'm just taking it easy for now. Did you have nice weekends?

Barcelona, Barcelona!!! What a great city. I ended up going for a little 3 day trip with Rahel and Kate, another English assistant from New Zealand. This wasn't the first visit there for all of us so we didn't do as much cultural stuff although we did see the Sagrada Familia which is quite amazing. Equally amazing, may I say, was the incredible shopping!!!! So much cool stuff and lots of good deals. There are just so many people having so much fun all the time in that city I swear. I'll post some photos next time. I'm totally exhausted right now, in a good way b/c I finally worked all day today. I taught all periods (6 classes in 3 different schools) and then did 2 hours of fitness. Yay I feel healthy! ok enough gloating. To tide you over for the Barcelona pics, the Canal de la Robine in Narbonne at night:


Have great Fridays and talk to you soon~~ Jess