southern France

I decided to go out with a bang on my last trip out...I went to southern France and then onto London. I have decided that I really like France since getting to travel there three times during my overall time here. I would love to go back to spend more time there in the future. I enjoyed meeting several NA folks while I was there! How cool! I even got to speak Arabic with them. It made my heart happy for sure. I enjoyed loads of good food, which I didn't post a load of pix of this time, but trust me...it was yummy! Hope you enjoy this post! Thanks for staying tuned.

mio and the city! it was a great view from the cathedral for sure. we took a bus up and then jogged back down. it was fun for sure. welcome to my southern France adventure!

Notre-Dame de la Garde is a basilica located in Marseille, France. This ornate Neo-Byzantine church is situated at the highest natural point in Marseille, a 162 m (532 ft) limestone outcrop on the south side of the Old Port. As well as being a major local landmark, it is the site of a popular annual pilgrimage every Assumption Day (August 15). Local inhabitants commonly refer to it as la bonne mère ("the good mother").Commissioned by Saint Charles Eugene de Mazenod, then bishop of Marseille, and designed by the architect Jacques Henri Esperandieu (1829-1874), the church was built between 1853, when the foundation stone was laid on September 11, and 1864. "The basilica was built in the 19th century in the same style as the Cathedral of Sainte Marie Majeure on the opposite side of the port." The church was built on the site of a 13th century chapel, also dedicated to Our Lady of the Watch, the traditional guardian of seafarers. It shared space atop the hill with a 16th-century fortification established for Francois I, built in 1525, whose own salamander badge is to be found within the present basilica's north porch.The basilica is surmounted by a 60 m (197 ft) belfry topped with a huge statue of the Virgin and Child, visible across much of the city and for miles out at sea. Construction of the basilica took five years and required 170,000 tons of material, including 23 shiploads of marble and porphyry from Italy. The interior is decorated with inlaid marble, mosaics and murals. Many of the walls are covered with hundreds of ex-votos, including paintings, plaques, model boats, war medals and even football shirts given by players and supporters of Olympique de Marseille, the local football team.wikipedia.org

i thought taking a pic of this would help me for my blog...so here you go! enjoy the stats!

inside of the cathedral, the nave. it was quite a hodge podge of items in there. wooden boats hanging down, plaques, trophies, etc. very interesting for sure.

this was a beautiful mural we saw on the way back down from Notre Dame. i just loved it. what do you think? it is of the port and so fabulous. loved this street with the lights hanging up. happy holiday! :)

the Notre Dame de la Major was huge!! seriously. it was right on the water, too. very interesting inside and out.

there were loads of candles in both of the cathedrals we visited. it was interesting. i thought this pic came out really well. the prices of the candles ranged with the type of candle you bought. this was on our way back from the cathedral and in the distance up on the hill is the first Notre Dame we visited. i thought it was a nice shot to get a pic with and thought my mom would be happy to see mio with the city:)


The Palace is has three main parts:*A central building built to commemorate the construction of the canal in Marseille *The East Wing, the musée des Beaux-Arts *The West Wing, the museum of natural history The central feature from the front of the palace is a magnificent fountain. The central part shows four large bulls and three women (one who represents grapes/vines, one who represents wheat/fertility and the central one who represents the Durance river). Behind the women, within the building, is a man made stone grotto decorated with carved stalactites and nymphs. From under the three women, and from the bulls, water pours outward into the secondary basin, and then into the first pond. After the water washes out of the first pond into underground pipes, it comes out into twelve ornate bronze fountains lined alongside a waterfall like structure to the front.

it was so great to be with my lovely friend! she was such a great hostess and it was a pleasure to be able to experience her life in France. lovely. just lovely!



this one is for my sis!
Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. The French and English form bouillabaisse comes from the Provençal Occitan word bolhabaissa, a compound that consists of the two verbs bolhir (to boil) and abaissar (to reduce heat, i.e., simmer).
Bouillabaisse is a fish soup containing various kinds of cooked fish and shellfish and vegetables, flavored with a variety of herbs and spices such as garlic, orange peel, basil, bay leaf, fennel and saffron. There are at least three kinds of fish in a traditional bouillabaisse, typically scorpionfish (fr: rascasse); sea robin (fr: grondin); and European conger (fr: congre); and it can also include gilt-head bream (fr: dorade); turbot; monkfish (fr: lotte or baudroie); mullet; or silver hake (fr: merlan) It also usually includes shellfish and other seafood such as sea urchins (fr: oursins), mussels (fr: moules); small crabs (fr: etrilles); spider crab (fr: araignées de mer) or octopus. More expensive versions may add langoustine. Vegetables such as leeks, onions, tomatoes, celery and potatoes are simmered together with the broth and served with the fish. The broth is traditionally served with a rouille, a mayonnaise made of olive oil, garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper on grilled slices of bread.
What makes a bouillabaisse different from other fish soups is the selection of Provencal herbs and spices in the broth, the use of bony local Mediterranean fish, and the method of serving. In Marseille, the broth is served first in a bowl containing the bread and rouille, with the seafood and vegetables served separately in another bowl or on a platter.
wikipedia.org

The Old Port or Vieux-Port, the main harbour and marina of the city. It is guarded by two massive forts (Fort St Nicolas and Fort Saint Jean) and is one of the main places to eat in the city. Dozens of cafés line the waterfront. The Quai des Belges at the end of the harbour is the site of the daily fish market. Much of the northern quayside area was rebuilt by the architect Fernand Pouillon after its destruction by the Nazis in 1943. wikipedia.org

roctober

october came and went with loads of happenings for sure. we started off with a move as we had a new student come during the month. hope you enjoy this update...

check out the entrance to our new place. i love all the greenery and the complex itself is just nice. it seems like a relatively new building and ended up being literally just a few blocks down from our old place.

one week i got a call from my school asking if i could come in to work extra as they were recruiting for one of our partner airlines. i said sure since it would give me a good idea of what my students go through during the interview/screening process. it was eye-opening to say the least. we were recruiting for Air Emirates and i guess they are like the best airline with a good reputation. first i spent the afternoon calling applicants to do like a pre-screening Eng test over the phone. it tested my Arabic skills for sure and was interesting to learn better phone etiquette. so, after deciding if the applicant's Eng skills were good enough i would either invite or no invite them to the screening/interview stage that would be held at our school. the picture above shows what the room would look like for the first round of the screening process. applicants wore numbers and would come into the room and sit down. they then had to stand up and introduce themselves one by one. this was all done in Eng. the panel would have the list of applicants as shown on the desk above to take notes about their appearance, their Eng level, experience, etc. i felt like i was on American Idol! it was very interesting to say the least. we say loads and loads of applicants...at least a couple hundred over the three days of screening.

then if the applicant made it to the second round they would come back in and would be put into groups to discuss a topic we would give them...again all was in English. from that stage, they went on to take an Eng exam and had a writing test. from there they were widdled down to then do a one-on-one interview. from there, applicants were either asked to go onto Air Emirates' screening down in another city or would be asked to apply again another time.

i was amazed at how much the applicants' looks had a factor in the process. it was hard to see good Eng speakers excused from the process because the didn't have "the look/profile" while seeing those with "the look/profile" advance without great English. i guess i was a lot like the Paula of our panel.

i have to say it really helped me though in figuring out how i could help my students learn better and more of what they needed to know.

so, the picture above is one shot of the city i live in and the city across the river. this pic was taken from our new roof! it has an incredible view to say the least. you can see all over the city and it is just breath-taking. we also hang our laundry out up there, which has been nice for it to dry quickly with full-on sun, but when it rains, there is no cover for the clothes.

in the midst of the move i had a friend come to visit! we managed to see the sites of the city and just enjoyed sharing about our experiences in the Arab world. she is also an Eng teacher, so that was great to talk about as well. she was such a trooper to even help us pack up and move from our old place to the new one!

we ended up doing a majority of our packing the night before the move, which worked since we got it all down and had a huge truck to move everything the next day. fun, fun, fun!


check out my new room and below is a pic of our salon in process. of course, now we are all settled in pretty well to the new place. it is really nice with three bedrooms and two baths. our kitchen is pretty sweet with loads of storage space as well! it has been an interesting transition for sure with a new roommate and then also just being a few blocks from the old place. even though it is close, it is like a whole other world since we have all new people to meet and interact with on a daily basis. a friend, A, and i went fabric shopping in the city across the river (since it is loads cheaper at times) and i wasn't planning to buy fabric to have a jellaba made but i found this blue/green fabric and fell in love! so, i had one made. i had picked up our jellabas from the tailor and when my friend came back in town she was able to pick them up. we of course had to get a photo-shoot in with one of our local friends!

later we were invited to a wedding by our local friend and somehow i got deemed to be the make-up artist. i had fun and laughed cause i know some of you back home would be suprised!

A and i at the wedding. we ended up getting there hours early so we could get a ride from the family whose son was getting married. we passed the time by taking loads of photos and talking around the table. it was a really nice wedding for sure!


not too long after we arrived we began to get antsy just sitting there, so we went outside to check out what was going on out there. group shot of the ladies!




at about 11pm the bride showed up! this grand entrance is very traditional and loads of fun to watch as the men carrying her have like this whole routine they do in bringing her in. she just holds on and waves to all the folks in the room! turns out the RSVPs didn't total out and they were having to add chairs all over the place. it was a par-tay!

the bride and groom! they looked so happy! they were sorta young, with her being maybe 19 and he was like 23. it was fun to watch them though. sweet!



no wedding is complete without dancing!! S and i enjoyed dancing the night away on the dance floor for sure!

one day i went to my lang school and was stoked to find my teacher wearing his AR shirt! i had to grab a photo with him wearing it since, i hadn't gotten a chance to before. go Arkansas!

and of course our trick or treating tradition continued this year. i was the karate kid! we visited four homes and was able to hand out candy from the lovely jack-o-lantern (thanks Hannah and Christina!) it was a lot of fun for sure!

in preparation for our desert trip us girls got all dolled up in sahara-style head scarves. oh, and meet my new roomie in the middle: Christy! we were getting a bit silly at this point with it being close to midnight and we were still packing to leave the next day for our desert trip.

thanks to Lisa for the fannypacks that we were able to wear on our trip down south. turns out that we weren't meant to go to the desert that weekend with loads of sickness going around. stayed tuned as we did eventually make it!above and below are pics from our fannypack fotoshoot. Lisa offered us the opp to be in her Fannypack Calendar, so we had fun getting some shots! both were taken from our roof.

oh what fun October was!

H.ROCK.CITY & del campo scrubs

after Ramadan i took a trip up north to visit some friends that moved up there. i was so excited to have this opp to visit them in their new stomping grounds. i decided to fly up there on the local airline as it was relatively cheap and it saved a whole lot of time traveling up there! cool! check out the footage from the trip...

this is a zoomed in shot of the view from their balcony...not bad, aye? it is a somewhat new city in relation to the age of the buildings as many of the homes and buildings were wiped out in an earthquake in the last century. it was lovely with the backdrop of the sea. it was very hilly and mountainous and gorgeous!

after my friend picked me up from the airport, we met her husband and her other son to go grab some lunch. since we were so close to the sea, i wanted to try out the fish. it was outstanding to say the least. i tried the sole. yummy.

then we walked around the city some going to this amazing park/walking area/soccer complex. had to get this shot for my mom:) it was just soooo beautiful! the rock behind me here is the other side of the rock that i pictured in the first picture of this blog post. we were walking along this newly made walking area/park that they had finished before the king's annual visit.

i was sooo impressed! the soccer fields were really nice and the whole place was just so clean and nicely designed. the boys enjoyed getting to run around a bit. one of the boys and i raced up and down this walkway...he was a fierce competitor:)we made it back to their house and decided to check out these building sets i brought for the boys. i learned that there were actually instructions well into my assembly and had to backtrack a bit. they were great helpers!then we took another walk around their 'hood to their local park. there were so many parks in this city. it was incredible! such great views everywhere, too!!the next day we went to their househelper's home for some couscous. it was really yummy and such a treat to be guests in her family's home. the Samsonator loved the chickens and had to restrain from playing with them (hence the hands behind his back) as he had been found before out in the chicken's coop. it was cute.
the family's home was just outside the city and was perched at the base of this nice hill/mount. we went exploring and roamed around their hill/mount to catch some pretty incredible views! later we found a turtle. the boys loved it!

then we took the scenic drive back to their home, which was crazy cause the inclines and delcines were intense. they have this sweet 4x4, too. it was totally fun! check out the beautiful pic below. my friends said it reminded them a lot of Hawaii. cool!here is a shot of the whole rock and the city. it was so beautiful and just a lot of fun to explore a different part of the country. i was so stoked to find tortillas here! i bought loads of them:)my friend is a nurse and helps with clinics out in the countryside, so i got to join her one day. we woke up before dawn and enjoyed a fabulous drive out into the countryside. the drive was about 4 hours to get to the clinic where we met other nurses and then the drive continued further into the countryside...the views were outstanding along the way! it was such a joy to be able to take in all these gorgeous views. wow.
in the pic above you can see some lines cut into the mountainside...that was the road we came in on to the depths of the countryside. it was totally fun to be 4x4in' it! i taught the local folks how to say yee-haw! i think it was another hour/hour and a half to the actual village in which we worked. so, overall...about 5 or 5 1/2 hours one way. road trip fun!


i was put to work doing whatever i could to help. i worked as a pharmacist putting pills into baggies to hand out, worked the powerpoint that the women watched while waiting, took the ladies' height and weight before being seen, etc. it was a great experience! i loved being able to be there with my friend and meeting some really incredible women.
above is the waiting room. it was busy to say the least. there were local doctors and nurses that were giving immunizations and then our crew was giving ultrasounds to women that were pregnant. it was quite a full day!


here was the room we were working in and the mobile ultrasound machine. cool! we saw just under 40 women in maybe 8 hours or less. it was a neat system and was so interesting to hear the women's stories. cool.

we got a tea and snack break up on top of the clinic. here is my friend and i posing with the mountains in the background. beautiful! the second tallest mountain in the country is there behind us. i was so grateful to have this special time with my friend and to be able to see her work!