Les souvenirs de Narbonne, Pt. 5: Assistants, Amis, Famille

In September 2012, nine assistants arrived in the city of Narbonne, France. There were three English girls (Charley, Emily, and Lottie), three Spanish girls (Anais, Carmen, and Violeta), one German girl (Dörte), one Canadian guy (Zack), and one American girl (oui, c'est moi).

When nine strangers from two continents are placed in a small-ish town in the south of France, it could go really well or it could go really badly. You're about to see all of the evidence to the former. We were, indeed, the lucky ones.

Not only were we lucky in that we were in good company as assistants, but we also accumulated QUITE the group as we went along! A group of nine became a group of [I don't even know how many] through the addition of roommates, workout friends (clearly via someone else beside me as I do not work out), and about 100 Spanish kinés (physical therapists), among others.

We were a diverse group of (mainly) intruders to our little town (we did have a few native French friends in the mix, too, but they were definitely the minority). We came from different origins and brought with us different languages, cultures, and histories, but we shared a destination for that short year. In all honesty, most of my life has been spent with people whose backgrounds are quite similar to mine. To have spent a year figuring things out, making our way, and just doing life in a brand new place with so many people of such varied perspectives is something I value so much, and it's something that I wish everyone could be fortunate enough to do.

Wish I could figure out who said this (originally) to cite...

On top of being interesting and enriching, it was THE MOST FUN EVER. I'm not kidding. When I was looking through these pictures for this post, it hit me that this was the time period in my life during which I had MOST free time and the LEAST responsibility. Ever. Less than college (I had fun in college, but I also took a challenging course load, finished a year early, and then moved on to quite a challenging grad program), and certainly 7,903,741 times less than being a full-time teacher here in the States. I worked twelve hours a week, and that was it. I had no money to speak of, but I had THE BEST TIME EVER. You've seen the pictures of me traveling the world. Now see what I was up to when I was back home in Narbonne.

And get jealous.

(Even current me is jealous of past me.)

(If you've read the post about all of our favorite places, you'll recognize lots of them here!)

(DISCLAIMER: This is the largest amount of photos I've put in any post. It's long. But it's not wordy. Just see the love, y'all. Or, if you're not into a million photos, sit this one out.)

first night at the Wallabeer

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Zack's birthday

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Dörte's Birthday

Epiphany/Three Kings' Day

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Mardi Gras (English style, with pancakes)

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a string of random things

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I spy notre cher Dobble!****

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Recognize those hands?? Oui, c'est moi.**

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Whatever Zack was selling, I wasn't buying.****

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I think I was saying PLEASE don't touch my kneecap.***

(Katy trivia: I hate kneecaps. No one can touch them. Not even you, person reading this, whoever you are.)

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one of a few international dinners at the Maison Orange

(everyone cooks something from home)

Fresh from the oven, melty gooey cookies were my contribution. (I find that when you can find cookies in France, like at a bakery, they're too hard. I wanted to them show real chocolate chip cookies how they are meant to be enjoyed!)

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It wouldn't be a true international dinner if it didn't eventually turn into a dance party.****

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Sometimes, we went places besides Narbonne...

...like Girona (Spain),

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...Sète (France),

thanks to Lyndsay for this photo!

...l'Abbaye de Fontfroide (France),

...Minerve (France),

...Madrid (Spain),

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thanks to Lyndsay for this one, too!

and again, Lyndsay's :)

again... okay the rest of the Madrid ones are Lyndsay's

...and even all the way to Marrakesh (and beyond!) (Morocco)

(AFRICA, Y'ALL)

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thanks to Michelle for this one!

and this beauty is Michelle's, too :)

Okay, now this is the best part: the last month. Our contracts ended April 30th, but our académie was on vacation starting on the 19th of April, so our last day of work was April 18th. Rather than immediately leaving to go back home or for our end of the year trips (mine was Stockholm/Oslo/Edinburgh/Oxfordshire and Norfolk, England with the girls, all of which I've already blogged), we all decided to stay until the end of April just to be together. Which I kind of love. When I talked to other assistants from other cities, I discovered that most people left fairly quickly to travel after the contract ended. I'm so glad we took our time to profite from each other's company and our little city; we knew that this was the end of something special. This month, April 2013, was one of the best months ever. We did everything we'd always said we wanted to do, and we lived it up. Everything was perfect and fun all of the time. We knew the goodbyes were coming, and we chose to let that push us to live each day as best we could. We saw the world through rose-colored glasses, and coincidentally also with glasses of rosé in hand. 

Narbonne: The last month. On y va!

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Em and I at Gruissan Plage

Em and I both had Fridays off, and we always talked about how we should go to the beach at Gruissan to lay out and read. Well, finally in the last week of work, it got warm enough so that we could go at last!

little beach houses

I may move here. Into this exact little maison à la plage. Bye, y'all.

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and Corentin came later on, too!**

bowling at Espace Liberté (enfin)

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Eric's Birthday

(before heading out from the Maison Orange)*

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daytime dance party****

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thanks to Tamara for this photo,

and this one (tres cakes, because por qué no?!),

and this one! (Also, I love this because this was "A Viva Voz," a Spanish Karaoke game. Please note who is there in the mix. Some Texan girl. Who doesn't speak, let alone sing, Spanish.)

This group photo is courtesy of the birthday boy himself, Eric!

Somewhere along the line, we...

...went wine tasting**

...went to our last RCNM rugby game*

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...went to this party with the kinés**

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 ...celebrated Corentin's birthday...*

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...and took a salsa lesson in the basement of Bota.**

We went to Leucate for the "Mondial du Vent" (world championship of wind), a wind-surfing competition. You may recall that we had ALL OF THE WIND in this region, so that worked out.

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rosé all day errday*

Yup, that is a person flying through the air. I guess that darn wind is good for something.*

And then, thanks to Emily signing us up, we went back a few days later to get a free paddle board lesson. 

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This is when I accidentally became famous on the national news... you know how it is.

later that same night, backyard barbecue at the Maison Orange

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Lottie the vegetarian was not as excited about the meat as I was.*

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The backyard barbecue later turned into a pajama dance party, as these things often do...

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beach day at Port-La-Nouvelle to visit Carmen

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Zack working on his beach bod 2K13 (15 minutes pre-beach, bien sûr)*

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pretending to be athletic... no one is remotely fooled*

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rosé from the cave, the sponsor of our last several weeks*

Please note the Mediterranean with the Pyrenees in the background. What was our life that year?!

last Thursday night: dinner at the Maison Orange then l'Échoppe

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Somehow we got a hold of sparklers?!*

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The man who owned l'Échoppe with his wife; they both tended bar every Thursday and Friday night.*

Dobble alert!*

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last Friday night: dinner at Les Mille Poètes and then to Macar

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This is the only photo of all 5 of us anglophones. And apparently we all decided to wear 50 shades of black and blue, as well as the same jacket.**

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We stayed up all night to see Emily off to her early morning train.*

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This is the last photo of the three of us from that year... and what a photo it is, ha. (It was something like 5am.) Spoiler alert: It's not the last photo of the three of us ever.*

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last Saturday night: Wallabeer then Bota

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rosé all day errday*

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Honestly, I was so fully of happy happy love that night I couldn't go 10 feet without hugging someone.*

Back to the Wallabeer, where it all started!*

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And they're off!***

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You can tell by my shininess here that we finally made it to, of course, Bota for one last Bota Bop!*

This one kills me. (No idea who that guy is.)*

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...and that's all she Bota bopped.*

the last Sunday: last time at the Maison Orange
pizza, some crazy card game with magical characters, a little dance party (I specfically remember us dancing/singing to Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris"), and too many goodbyes

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I'm posting this even though I look a MESS because what I'm holding is important. We decided on a reunion date, and Dörte wrote us all appointment cards on pieces of our pizza boxes so we wouldn't forget.*

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Zack's goodbye at the train station the next morning; we all look a bit messy at this point. Too many goodbyes in a row.*

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And then just like that, I left the Maison Orange for the last time ever.*

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Seriously, too many goodbyes.

As you can see, we truly had something special that year in Narbonne. And the thing is? We knew it. We relished our time with our little multi-cultural, multi-lingual family. It was unlike anything I've ever known: We were all we had. With the exception of our few native friends, we were all far from home, making our own way in a culture that wasn't our own. (Okay, maybe it was a little like my grad school experience that way. But this was more extreme, obviously.) Once we had all really gotten to know each other, if we were doing something, we were generally all doing it. We had a commonality in the French language, where we met each other in the middle and helped each other along. We challenged ourselves together when we tried to express particularly difficult concepts, translating from native language to French. We taught each other words and phrases in our own languages, and laughed together when we butchered the pronunciation. These memories will always bring a smile to my face and wash me with gratitude. We strangers came together that year in the south of France to take it all on: we Dobbled, we danced, we hugged and kissed, we cooked, we traveled, we profite-ed, we laughed, we loved, we lived, and we became a little family, even if just for one year. All of these people will always have a piece of my heart, regardless of how often we talk or see each other. We were all we had, and what we had? Was beautiful.

Facebook status April 24, 2013

Pour tous mes chers "narbonnais," je veux que vous sachiez que je vous aime tous pour toujours. Je vous remercie d'une année inoubliable; nous étions si chanceux et je garderai tous ces souvenirs dans mon cœur jusqu'à la fin. Vous avez tous un canapé chez moi si jamais vous passez par ici. Je vous aime de loin et je vous souhaite tout le meilleur du monde.

Gros bisous du Texas en 2016! J'ai hâte de vous revoir!
(Texas t-shirt and no makeup, in the name of consistency, you know.)

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Because I don't like ending things on goodbye, here: Have this fun video that Anais took of us at the Wallabeer on that last night together. I love watching this video of everyone and remembering what this life was like.

I love these beautiful people. Like I said at the top: See the love, y'all!

ps: Happy Katy is ridiculous, and also oblivious to the video... Sorry.

*Lottie's photo

**Em's photo

***Anais' photo

****Charley's photo