So she thought she could France...

After an overnight train from Narbonne, I arrived in Paris on the morning of Monday, May 20th, giant suitcase in hand(s) once more. People watched me with either pity or disdain in their eyes as I traipsed across town (well, from train to metro station to other metro station) during morning rush hour; one man even stopped, told me (in French) "I'd help you if I didn't have to go to work, but I do," and kept going. (Um, merci, I guess?)

I was very fortunate in that Emily, babe that she is, had asked her university friends Julie, Becky, and Louisa (who were doing their year abroad in Paris) if they could let me crash on their couch for a few nights, and they graciously agreed! I would have been thankful anyway, but I was especially thankful as I basically had no money at this point. Euros, dollars, yen, pesos, didn't matter. I was all-around out o' cash. So I was, and remain, very thankful to these three kind souls for their hospitality. Cheers, ladies! I will never forget this. You have a couch in Texas anytime.

Merci beaucoup, les filles de 142 rue Lafayette! ♥

I spent three days in Paris, and left on the fourth. It was gloomy the whole time I was there (maybe France was sad to see me go?), and the first two days it was actually pretty rainy. So, I spent my time taking care of some business (a little bit of final shopping, a little bit of shipping things home, and consolidating the contents of one giant luggage and several totes back to just the one giant luggage before I left). I also got to spend some time with that city I love. I had a gyro in the Quartier Latin, walked along the Seine, stopped at Shakespeare and Company to get a book since it was rainy (Hemingway's A Moveable Feast), strolled around on Île de la Cité, and then did a lot of sitting in cafés, reading, and taking every last opportunity to engage in French conversation.

Fortunately, one of my evenings was also filled with a bit of fun with friends! My friends Michelle (California), Nareh (California), and Mary (England), whom I had met on our bus journey to the Sahara (caaaaaasual), were all in Paris, and so we arranged to meet up!

Okay, story about these first three photos: I first met up with Mary at Bastille, and there were police and police cars everywhere. There was also some stage set up facing the roundabout. We joked that perhaps Beyoncé was about to give a show... to the roundabout. I don't know. It was weird. 

"Creer, c'est se souvenir"

("To create is to remember")
Victor Hugo

I should mention I like people watching.

I mean, look at this little boo! How cute is he? He looks like he's into doing hoodrat stuff with his friends.

Falafel is always a good choice. Especially at l'As du Fallafel.

Michelle, Nareh, moi, Mary

I really want this right now.

I can't remember where we went, but I remember we were the only ones downstairs in the cave.

Apparently.

It was so much fun to see all of these girls again! Yet another instance of meeting fantastic people abroad and then being lucky enough to get the chance to cross paths with them again. It's just nice and warm and fuzzy and fun. We did miss the rest of our #camelcrew (Em, Lottie, Louise, & Ayush), though!

The following day, Wednesday the 22nd of May, I spent walking the streets of my beloved Paris, soaking it in and reflecting on the year I'd had. It's always so nice to return to this beautiful city I love so much. It's even nicer that, since I've done all of the big touristy things, I don't feel like I'm missing anything if I spend time just strolling, drinking tea, reading, and people watching. Which was pretty much all I could afford at that point anyway, so it all worked out.

Galeries Lafayette, bien sûr

Place du Tertre, Montmartre (comme j'adore Montmartre)

I sat at this little café in Montmartre a couple streets off Place du Tertre for quite some time. I had a glass of wine, a nutella crêpe, and wrote my very last postcards of the year. I had a nice long conversation with some women sitting at a table near me. One was Scottish and one was Australian; they'd met many years before and became good friends and tried to take trips together every so often. Lovely! 

Anyway, to this day I remember sitting at that café, talking, and then writing, and thinking. I thought about my year. About who I was. About how I'd changed. About the fact that the following day, I'd be returning to Texas again after nearly nine months. I hoped I'd be employed again, and I wondered where it might be. I wondered what it would be like to see my friends, my family, and my sweet Nolie Mae again. I thought about how things would be so very different once I recommenced my American lifestyle. I thought about the people I'd met and the places I'd been and how so, so very grateful I was for all of the opportunities I'd been afforded that year. How lucky I was, and how surreal it all was. I thought for a long time, and many of those thoughts became the contents of my final post, which, by the way, I'll be posting next. (Yes, this is officially my penultimate SYTYCF post.)

Eventually, I got up, intent on doing a bit more wandering on my last day.

la Rue Foyatier (l'escalier de la butte)

Abbesses

a little Amorino by the Bassin Octagonal

some Tuileries and Louvre

le Musée d'Orsay (fave)

more Louvre

Pont des Arts & l'Institut de France

Paris, je t'aime.

[This is the moment I took my last Euroselfie for the year, which I'll give ya in a minute.]

Final photo of the year. I walked down these stairs to the metro, went home, and didn't leave again until the next morning when I left for good.

I remember Skyping my dad that evening from the girls' couch to talk with him about the arrangements for my arrival the following day, as well as about the job possibilities I was considering. I was so stressed about the interviews and which jobs would truly be open and whether or not anyone would hire me. I was worried about when I'd be able to get back to having a salary and benefits so that I could afford my own place again and earn money to pay off my debts. The real world was rushing back to me, fast; the time had come and it was now the eve of reality. I remember my dad, who is a very rational person (logos over pathos, for sure), saying to me "Katy. You are going to be just fine. You might not get any of these jobs we're talking about, and you will still be okay. You moved to France by yourself and handled yourself. You speak fluent French. You can travel the world by yourself. People will want to hire you. Not just as a teacher. You will be just fine." I remember feeling like I could breathe again when he said that. (Also, spoiler alert? I was and am just fine. It's a funny story how. I'll tell ya all about it sometime.)

The next morning, I set off early for Charles de Gaulle, giant suitcase in hand one last time. (Of course, I had to leave some random stuff like vitamins and socks in order to get it to close. But I did it. Back to one suitcase for my grand return!) I was all smiles and cheer, as I was honestly so excited to go home. The whole year I had never gotten homesick, as I had the mindset that I should value where I was when I was there, because I'd only have a certain many days to live in Europe. But still, in keeping with that same mindset, I woke up on May 23, 2013 excited to go home, and everyone who saw me could tell. 

Facebook status from the morning of May 23rd

I have a lovely story from the airport that morning. When I arrived at the check-in counter, the American Airlines employee was a kind French man, and I was happy to profite from one of my last opportunities to speak French. My luggage, weighing in at 69.5 lbs, was going to incur a $60 overweight fee, which I knew. (70 lbs is the absolute limit.) I had my credit card ready to go, when the following happens (all in French):

AA man: "You know, your French is wonderful. It's really beautiful. You don't have an American accent! How can that be? Are you really American?"

moi: "Wow, thank you so much! Well, I wasn't just visiting, I've lived in the south since September. I was an assistante de langue. But yes, I'm really American."

AA man: "Well, I guess that's why your luggage is so heavy. From all of your books that you used because you were studying French, right?"

moi: (clueless) "No, I wasn't studying... I was working. At a high school. I was teaching. I haven't studied in years."

AA man: "Well, I'm sure your bag is full of so many heavy books from studying our language, and you've done so well! Let me go ask my colleague if perhaps we can waive your luggage fee since your books are so heavy since you are such a good student and speak such beautiful French."

moi: (finally gets the hint)

And yes, he was able to waive the fee. Isn't that so sweet?! What a perfect final interaction to end my time in France. What a dear man. I do love how excited French people get when they hear an American who speaks French. I'm especially glad because you may remember that I was quite broke at this point in my life.

After an uneventful flight, I arrived home in Texas on a hot, sunny afternoon. I was expecting my family to be there, but instead, my best friends surprised me! (My parents had an event of my brother's to attend; he was graduating high school the following Sunday.)

with Amy... do you see that large Sonic Diet Dr Pepper, EZ ice?! 

with Shannon, Maddie, and Belle

with all of my girls! (and my giant suitcase)

These are the same best friends who had thrown me my bon voyage party in September. I wasn't expecting them to be there at the airport, but I was so glad they were! It was perfect. We headed out to meet my family for TexMex (of course), and all was right in the world. Or at least, all was back to my normal. I was exhausted, but I was home. (I also kept thinking, "HAS EVERYTHING ALWAYS BEEN SO BIG?!" Seriously. Everything is huge in the States/Texas. The cars. The roads. The buildings. The sky. The parking lots. HUGE.)

Facebook status from the evening of May 23rd

And that, mes amis, is the end of this particular story. Sometimes I still can't believe it all happened. I'm so grateful. I can't believe this was and is my life. I filled out all the paperwork, met all the people, survived all the strikes, sometimes scavenged for all the food, went all the places, spent all the money, ate all the pastries, and lived all of the adventures.

I thought I could France. And so I did.

Favorite French

I thought I'd include a list of some of the most frequent French phrases I used during my year in southern France. In reality, there were a lot, but at this point (writing 2 1/2 years later), these are the ones that truly stand out. I could kick myself for not writing this particular post that year, but hindsight is 20/20. And, I've had LASIK since this all happened, so my hindsight is probably more like 20/15 at this point.

1. "N'importe quoi"

Literally, "no matter what," this can be used in many different contexts. It can mean "whatever," like we'd use in English, or it can mean anything, everything... it just generally expresses exasperation. 

"L'épicerie est fermée."
"QUOI?! Mais ce n'est pas encore l'heure... n'importe quoi..."

"Les garçons étaient si bêtes aujourd'hui... ils ont fait n'importe quoi!" 

When Narbo hit us with some new oddity, we often exclaimed the ever-useful "n'importe quoi!" It's still one of my first reactions when I hear something ridiculous.

2. "J'en ai marre"

"I've had enough (of whatever we're talking about)!" This one, again, expresses extreme frustration. Quite flexible. If it's not already clear by the conversation what you're referring to, you can say "J'en ai marre de (whatever it is)."

3. "Tiens-moi au courant" and its even more familiar equivalent, "Tiens-moi au jus"

"Tiens-moi au courant" literally means "keep me in the current," but it basically means "keep me updated." You can say it if you've discussed tentative plans and you're asking the other person to follow through. You can include it at the end of a message or email to indicate you'd like to keep in touch or follow through. "Tiens-moi au jus" isn't one I really used often, but I heard it from some of my French friends. The first time I heard it I was like "comment?!," because jus means "juice." Keep me in the juice? I had it explained two different ways to me. The first is that "juice" stands in for "current," because you can say juice for electricity (as in the electric current, which makes sense, because we say that in English). The second is that "juice" is some kind of surfing term, and stands for the current of the ocean. Who knows.

4. "Ça te dit?"

This literally means "That says to you?" but it's more like "That speaks to you?" In the end, it's just asking if something sounds good to you.

"Je pense à voir un film au ciné, ça te dit?"

5. "Il faut profiter!"

Profiter is my favorite French word. We just don't have an equivalent in English. The verb profiter means something between "to make the best/most of," "to take advantage of," "to profit from," "to benefit from." We used this ALL the time. French people use this ALL the time. I feel like it reflects the French perspective that one must make the most of any situation; they appreciate life (food, beauty, free time, etc.) on a much different level than we do as Americans.

"On à la plage vendredi?"
"Oui, il va faire du soleil! Il faut en profiter."

"Je n'ai pas cours cette semaine, alors je vais profiter et aller à la Côte d'Azur."

I actually use profite in my franglais quite frequently, since I love it so much and there's no true English equivalent. You might hear me saying "you gotta profite" or "well, we should probably profite, you know..." I mean really, there's just nothing else that works quite as well. You can use it, too, if you like it! Don't speak French? Don't sweat it. It's pronounced pro-FEET, by the way. Now it's yours!

La vie est belle. Merci d'en profiter!

"Life is beautiful. Thanks for making the most of it!"

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.**

♥

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.*

♥

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.*

♥

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

♥

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.)

♥

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