Ahhhhhhh, La France, if you are not the end of me, I shall feel extremely victorious.
But before I get to that, let me just say that this is the first time I'm ever suffering from jet lag. Oh, well before I even get to that, let me tell you about the flight over here.
Now, when I got my visa last year, I had to buy a round trip ticket to prove that I wasn't going to stay in the country illegally after. So I used the second half of that ticket to get over to the US. Gilles had a round trip ticket from Paris-NYC, and then I just bought a one way from the US to Paris. Well, obviously we bought these all at different times. We ended up being together (and seated next to each other) on the flight from JFK-Reykjavik (Iceland), where our layover was. We arrived in Iceland at around 11:40pm. I looked at my next ticket and the flight wasn't leaving until 7:40am, so, ok, an 8 hour layover. We asked if we could leave the airport, but the security woman said no (well, Gilles could have because he's European but I couldn't) but nothing would have been open anyway really between the hours of midnight and 7am. So we just got some food there (there was almost nothing left because it was all closing) but luckily there was a padded bench with pillows and such on it, so Gilles and I laid down and talked for a while.
At one point, an airport worker came over the loudspeaker and said, "Would the last passenger on the flight to Paris please report to the gate- we are ready to leave." At first, Gilles and I were confused, because our flight wasn't leaving until 7:40 so why would they be calling us at a quarter to 1? They made the announcement 2 more times and I was like, "Well, maybe they're calling a meeting for all the passengers who are leaving later, or maybe something happened" so we decided to go to the gate anyway and see. About halfway there, I saw the board with all the flights and turns out, there was a flight to Paris leaving at 1:05am and I was like, "Ohhhhhhhh there's a passenger on THAT flight who hasn't shown up yet. Ok, it's not us." Just to make sure, I took out my next boarding pass just to make sure and sure enough, it said the flight was leaving at 7:40am. So we turned back towards the comfy bench and pillows but the announcement kept playing. I kept thinking, "But it can't be us.... they keep saying passengeR (singular) and we're traveling together." But we were literally the only two people left in the airport. At 1:07am (remember, the flight was supposed to leave at 1:05), it finally hit me. I exclaimed to Gilles, "Give me your ticket, now!" He handed it over and DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNN HEEEEEEEEEEE was traveling on the flight that was leaving! We didn't even take the time to process what had just happened, but sprinted toward the gate and met the two attendants and said he was that last missing passenger. They were like, "Ummmm, we've been calling you for the last 40 minutes," but the never actually called his name, they just said, "The last passenger" and I explained that we had just assumed we were traveling on the same flight and had only looked at my ticket. The plane had already pulled away from the dock, but it hadn't taken off yet so it came back for Gilles. It all happened so quickly, there was no time to realize what had just happened, because the flight attendants were already pushing him out of the door. I didn't even get an "au revoir;" just a quick kiss and "I'll wait for you there at the airport!" and he was gone.
And there I was, left alone at the airport in Iceland from about 1am until my flight left at 7:40.
Even all the attendants left. There was just one security woman in the entire airport who listened to what happened sympathetically and told me there was a leather couch I could sleep on if I wanted. She even turned off the lights so I could sleep.
I couldn't remember the last time I felt so lonely. I mean, Gilles and I aren't married yet, but we had basically just spent every moment we were awake together for the previous six weeks. All of a sudden, he was gone, and neither of us had been prepared for it. I went over to the leather couch and cried, not really out of panic or stress, but just sad that the circumstances had worked out that way. When I bought my ticket (a couple months after Gilles got his), I just assumed that there would only be one connecting flight from JFK to Reykjavik to Paris, not three (there was another one earlier that morning leaving too, which I tried to see if I could get on but to no avail). I later found out that Gilles had cried too during the plane ride. I love my sentimental man <3
So Gilles arrived in Paris at 7am and then had to wait 6 1/2 hours for me to arrive. I had to wait 6 1/2 hours to get on my plane to meet him, but luckily, I slept for most of it. In the morning I went and got a croissant for breakfast with some money Gilles had left me, and then I boarded. We finally met back up at the airport in Paris but THEN came the challenging part- we had 4 suitcases and 2 carry-ons between the two of us. And, we had an hour and a half voyage to get home. So what did we do? Gilles, the amazing most wonderful man that he is, took the two (overweight) larger suitcases and the two (overweight) carry-ons all by himself, and I just had the two (at the weight limit) smaller suitcases to carry. Holy Smokes. And not only that, but, because we're the crazy kind of people who plan to have 3 weddings in 6 weeks and even plan one in 6 weeks, we decided not to go directly home, but to go to a church out of our way to see our pastor's daughter and another friend get baptized. Not to mention that this church was located at the deepest métro stop with the most amount of stairs (and no escalators either), and then once out of the métro we had to walk up one of the most steep hills in Paris with all our luggage weighing us down. We're crazy. But at the end of it all, we both felt it was well worth it to go, and Pastor Mike gave us a ride home so at least that made life 1000000000000000000000X easier.
Now onto what I started about the jet lag- I don't know if it was the fact to sleep in the airport or what, but I have never had jet lag like this before. Actually, I can't ever remember having jet lag before (or at least that one night of sleeping didn't cure). But we got home from church around 6:30 and I told Gilles I wasn't going to take a nap, I was just going to force myself to stay awake until it was time to go to bed. Famous last words. At 7pm I was OUT, and I didn't wake up until noon the next day (with a terrible headache and neckache, which still haven't gone away). Then last night I couldn't sleep at all... I was tired until we turned off all the lights and then I was wide awake. I've been horribly tired all day today so I'm hoping that at least tonight I'll sleep well!
But onto today. Today, I began the process of trying to renew my visa. The first thing we tried to do was figure out what my social security number is. On every pay stub I've received, in the top corner by my name and address there's been N° S.S. Now the little ° symbol is the equivalent to our #, so it clearly means number, and I just assumed S.S. meant Sécurité Sociale. Except, when I received a letter in the mail asking for my SS number, I realized that the number on my pay stub was only 10 digits long and a normal social security number is 15 digits long. So, off it was to the Social Security office. Luckily, Gilles went with me this time because I am just sick and tired of having French people yell at me and not understand what they're talking about.
So we went. I explain to the lady at the front desk (who was surprisingly, rather kind), my dilemma and she asked if I worked and I said yes but mentioned that it was only part time because I was a student. She looked up to see if I had a social security number, and she couldn't find one so she told me to sit down and that she would call me up when someone could talk to me. I didn't have to wait too long when another woman called us into her office. We re-explained my situation, and she somehow missed the part about me living as a student and couldn't quite figure out how I had been living in the country only working part time. She asked about three times if Gilles and I were married and we both answered "Pas encore" (not yet) all three times so I'm not quite sure what she didn't understand.
Now, since I've been living here, almost everyone I've spoken to has told me that as long as I'm working in France, I'm covered by social security. Period. And this was my THIRD trip to the social security office since I've been in France (fourth if you count the one time I went to accompany Silvia but that wasn't for me). The first time, the woman told me that I could just be under Gilles's social security since I was living (according to the government) in his house. However, he never had the time to go with me last year to put me under (because he worked full time during the hours the SS is open and he couldn't take any days off). I went a second time and they told me that since I worked, all I needed to do was send in these 7,239,048,592,934,809,275,298,304,725,812,374,925,802,983,475,209,854 papers and I'd have my number (and medical insurance). I sent in what she asked me to- never heard from them again.
OK, so third time's a charm, right? Haha not here it isn't. The woman said that contrary to what everyone in this country has told me, I can't just benefit from Social Security because I work. I don't work enough hours to receive Social Security (the problem is, however, that I don't have the right to work enough hours to benefit from Social Security). She said I needed to contact my school and my school is supposed to give me a number and medical insurance as a student. So home we went, and rather than go to the school like I would have last year, Gilles just called them.
The school said that they weren't signed up as part of the public/general regime of Social Security, so they can't give me any kind of medical insurance, and I would need to contact a private insurance company (and basically pay for insurance every month like people do in the States while all the French people get free health care paid by the government). Yeah like I have the money for that- not. But we called the Private Insurance company anyway just to see if they could give me my number. I think one thing I forgot to mention here- Social Security and Medical Insurance are the same thing. As long as you have a social security number, you benefit from the free health care (unless you are Me). The Private Insurance said that no, they couldn't give me a number, and they'd only let me have insurance if I got a number from the Social Security office.
Welcome to life in France.
You go to place A and they tell you to go to B. You go to B and they tell you it's not right at all, you should have gone to C. You get to C and they look at you like you're crazy for even considering to go there in the first place, and tell you you need to go to D. You get to D and they tell you that only A can do what you need done. And every place you go to is going to ask you for different papers justifying you are who you are.
We went back to the Social Security place (this is now my 4th time trying to get a SS number from them), and they tell me that since my visa's expiring in a month, they can't do anything for me. I showed her that I was re-enrolled in the school and that I was going to the Préfecture to get my new visa tomorrow, but it didn't matter. She yelled at me for not having done it in the first place when I first got here. I apologized and told her that no one had told me what I needed to do . She yelled at me again for being "ignorant" because obviously when you change countries there are things that you have to do to be legal. I explained to her that it wasn't my fault- I LITERALLY asked people at my school, asked people at my work (including my boss), asked people at my church, and asked my host family and friends what I needed to do and everyone said I was okay. It's not my fault, because I did ask already what needed to be done all last year and I had been to the Social Security Office three times already and no one had told me the right thing to do. The woman said,, "Well, even so, there are things that you needed to do a year ago already... I mean, I couldn't move to the United States and not do anything" and I didn't say anything but the expression on my face changed so quickly to a "Don't even go there woman" expression that she immediately added, "Well, I mean, I guess things are different in the United States." She then told me that if I was able to renew my visa, I could come back and I would have the same social security number as Gilles and be considered as his spouse. Here in France, unlike the United States, people don't have their own SS numbers until they're independent. For example, all children will have the same SS number as their father until they start working enough hours to have their own Social Security number (Ironically, Gilles's been working long enough to have his own number for years and he didn't go until today too- but because he's french even though he was YEARS late in doing this they gave him his SS number and full coverage medical insurance in 5 minutes. It's just that I'm American and go to quite possibly the only school in Paris that doesn't provide you with student medical care and I don't have the right to work enough hours to get free health care and a social security number like everyone else. France is out to get me). We explained to the woman that Gilles and I weren't married yet, but she said that since I was living in his house (according to the government because I actually haven't lived in his house since November before we started dating), we'd be considered as spouses and until I gained the right to work enough hours to have my own number (which will be after we do get married next July). Just goes to show- France doesn't make any distinction between living together, civil unions, and marriage- if you're in the same house and you're not siblings, it's all the same thing. Gilles even told me today that it's legal to marry your cousin here!
The bigger bummer is that even if I have his SS number, I won't be able to benefit from his medical insurance. So, until we get married, if I get sick, I'll have to pay for it all out of pocket. Last year I spent almost 300€ (about $432.75) with the hopes that one day I would be re-imbursed for it all because health care is supposed to be free here. Little did I know that I would be the one exception who gets nothing. Now not only will I not be re-imbursed for last year, I won't have coverage for this year.
Then Gilles and I had to go into Paris to get my birth certificate officially translated into French. When we had originally contacted the woman, she said it would be done in 2-4 hours. When we gave it to her, she said it would probably take about 2 days to do. Really? There's about 7 little boxes that need to be translated. How in the world could that possibly take 2 days? I could do it myself in about 20 minutes!
OH, AND I forgot to mention all this time, for all I work, the Social Security still takes money out of my paycheck every month. They get to take my money and I dont get anything in return.
Why am I here? Seriously, God, You better have a good reason, because it's not looking like it right now.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Take 2.... whatcha gonna do???
Well folks, after almost a year hiatus, I'm back and willing to give this a second go.
As most of you know, my fiancé Gilles and I spent the past 6 weeks in the US. It was a nice trip- a bummer that we couldn't see all the people we wanted to and do all the things that we wanted to, but thus were the circumstances and I suppose I should be grateful that I got to go at all and I am definitely super happy to have been able to see the friends that I did.
So now, here I am again, for another year (at least) in France. And I have to admit, it's weird being back. Everything feels so normal, but it doesn't feel like home. Granted, being in the US did not feel like being home either, and it DEFINITELY did not feel normal. It just felt absolutely wonderful to be in the most blessed country in the world, but it didn't feel like home, I didn't feel like I could stay there for long. And even though it's where I grew up, the way of life didn't feel normal either because it's so different from life in France. It wasn't home, it wasn't normal, but it felt amazing to be there. Now I'm back in France, and everything around me feels normal, like this is the normal daily life routine that I'm used to running, this is the way I'm used to things being, but it still doesn't feel like home and it definitely doesn't feel good like in the US to be here. Maybe because there's so much uncertainty.
The United States of America is so blessed to have huge supermarkets with anything you could possibly want inside of them. We're blessed to have cars that can bring us directly from door to door without having to depend on public transportation to take you on the most indirect route possible and then make you walk anyway in the pouring rain and below freezing temperatures to get from A to B. We can buy watermelons all year round. In the US, Obama's "Yes We Can" is like the 11th commandment- we have freedom and the sky is the limit.
Last year, I brought that American optimism with me. This was a new frontier for me to discover, an adventure to be had with new lessons to learn and experiences to grow from. This past year has killed that optimism. France (especially Paris) is the world where "No, You Can't and Never Will Be Able To" is the 11th commandment and people keep that pessimism in every aspect of their lives and will do everything to put it into your life too so that you can't spread some sunshine on their rain parade.
So I'm not really sure what to write here. I have no idea what to expect. Right now, I have no job, no income, no apartment, and my visa expires in a month. What am I doing here? I thought I knew, but I guess only time will tell.
As most of you know, my fiancé Gilles and I spent the past 6 weeks in the US. It was a nice trip- a bummer that we couldn't see all the people we wanted to and do all the things that we wanted to, but thus were the circumstances and I suppose I should be grateful that I got to go at all and I am definitely super happy to have been able to see the friends that I did.
So now, here I am again, for another year (at least) in France. And I have to admit, it's weird being back. Everything feels so normal, but it doesn't feel like home. Granted, being in the US did not feel like being home either, and it DEFINITELY did not feel normal. It just felt absolutely wonderful to be in the most blessed country in the world, but it didn't feel like home, I didn't feel like I could stay there for long. And even though it's where I grew up, the way of life didn't feel normal either because it's so different from life in France. It wasn't home, it wasn't normal, but it felt amazing to be there. Now I'm back in France, and everything around me feels normal, like this is the normal daily life routine that I'm used to running, this is the way I'm used to things being, but it still doesn't feel like home and it definitely doesn't feel good like in the US to be here. Maybe because there's so much uncertainty.
The United States of America is so blessed to have huge supermarkets with anything you could possibly want inside of them. We're blessed to have cars that can bring us directly from door to door without having to depend on public transportation to take you on the most indirect route possible and then make you walk anyway in the pouring rain and below freezing temperatures to get from A to B. We can buy watermelons all year round. In the US, Obama's "Yes We Can" is like the 11th commandment- we have freedom and the sky is the limit.
Last year, I brought that American optimism with me. This was a new frontier for me to discover, an adventure to be had with new lessons to learn and experiences to grow from. This past year has killed that optimism. France (especially Paris) is the world where "No, You Can't and Never Will Be Able To" is the 11th commandment and people keep that pessimism in every aspect of their lives and will do everything to put it into your life too so that you can't spread some sunshine on their rain parade.
So I'm not really sure what to write here. I have no idea what to expect. Right now, I have no job, no income, no apartment, and my visa expires in a month. What am I doing here? I thought I knew, but I guess only time will tell.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Joyeux Anniversaire à Moi!!!
Here's to the first of hopefully several French birthdays!
Sometime in July, Yadira and Gilles asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, since I'd be celebrating it here. Now I told them they didn't have to do anything for my birthday because they've already done so much for me. But...... of course, about a week or so before my birthday, Gilles asked me what I wanted to do again. I told him again that I didn't want them to do anything, but he insisted so I told him to just make it a surprise. A few days later, he asked me for a list of my friends that he didn't know, which I reluctantly gave to him. They all ended up being from my church. Now I figured that it would have to be during the weekend, because we all had various different plans on the weekdays. So I knew that either Saturday or Sunday there was going to be some kind of surprise for me. It was ok. I didn't know what, so it would still be a surprise.
That Friday night, I asked JC if he wanted to go to church with me Sunday, since I knew he was looking for a new church. He said sure, and we went on with our conversation. Then he mentioned, "Hey madamoiselle, someone has a birthday coming up soon" and I was like, yeahhhh and he said, "Are you excited for it?" and I was like, "I guess so... I mean I really don't know much, Gilles just told me it would be a surprise." Then JC laughed and was like, "Hahaha I love it.... 'he told me it's a surprise'. Doesn't that kind of ruin it?" and I replied not really because I still didn't know what exactly "it" was. A few more minutes went by and then all of a sudden, JC gasped and stated, "Oh no, Gina, I just remembered- I actually can't go to church with you on Sunday. I'm sorry." and I asked if he had to work that day, and he was like, "Uhhhhhhh, not exactly......." and I gave him a quizzical stare, to which he replied, "You'll see.... it's a surprise." Well, that solved that mystery hahaha.
So I knew that there would be something done for me sometime Sunday after church with my friends from church. The thing is, my friends from church and I always hang out until dinnertime on Sunday. So in my mind there was no way that they were going to be able to leave the same place I was at and go to the same place I was going to without me knowing about it. I figured JC was just going to cook up a nice dinner for us all to enjoy and that would be it. No big deal, nothing special, just a sit down dinner with friends and then they'd leave and that'd be it. So I decided that it would just be most logical (since I already knew that my friends would be coming to our house after church anyway) for us all to go together. So after the service ended, I first went up to my friend Seth and asked him, "Did my friend Gilles send you an e-mail this week?" to which he replied no. I said, "Hmmmm that's weird he should have....." and then our friend Sonia came by and I asked her too if she had gotten an email from Gilles and she also said no. So I said, "Well, he must have just typed in your addresses wrong or maybe it got sent to spam or something, but at any rate, my host family's throwing me a *wink* "surprise" party after church today and you're all invited. I'd really like it if you came." They were both like, "ooo ok that sounds cool." Then our friends Lucas and Clarice came over and I went through the same speil (for those of you who may be confused with this word... it sounds more like sh-peel and it's that word that means you went through the whole thing you just did/said again. Not gonna lie I had to look up how to spell it =p) with them. Finally, Clarice admitted that they had all indeed gotten those emails, it was just that Gilles had said to keep it a surprise so they were all trying to pretend he hadn't. What good friends hehehe! I asked them what time he had told them to come over, and Seth said 5pm. But we still all had to eat lunch, so we went out like we always do and decided to get Falafel at the best place to get Falafel in Paris (near the Marais) and then went and sat down in a park to eat them. Then I led the troop back to the house. We stopped at a store after we got off the train because Gilles had asked them all to bring drinks (normally all the food stores are closed on Sundays, but this one was more like a corner/convenience store so it was open).
When we got to the house, I walked towards our door and saw no one there. I just assumed that JC, Silvia, Yadira, and Gilles were all doing their own things in various places of the house. When I got to the veranda though, everybody jumped out from behind my curtain and yelled SURPRISE!!!!!!! In fact, it was a BIG surprise party! Gilles had also invited all of the friends we had from his church too. There seemed to be about 40-50 people in the house, all there to celebrate my birthday! And of course, Gilles was standing there with a bowl of watermelon waiting to greet me =). I couldn't have been happier! And it was so so cool that my friends all got to meet each other- it was like three worlds (my church, the chinese church, and my family) all coming together. And everyone found someone who spoke their native language (we had conversations going on in chinese, english, spanish, french, brazilian, arabic, you name it, we had it!) Funny story.... I had been talking to my friend Seth when my friend Daniel arrived. Now Seth is from Puerto Rico, so he speaks Spanish and English. Daniel speaks French, some English, and when he introduced himself, Seth asked if Daniel knew any Spanish. Daniel said a few words (meaning that he knows the few words my Spanish-speaking host family has taught him, probably as much Spanish as I know), but Seth took that as meaning, "Yes, I'm fluent in Spanish" and started speaking in Spanish to Daniel. He was literally going off for a good 10 minutes and the whole time poor Daniel was just smiling and nodding with the occasional "Uh huh" or "mmmmm hmmmmm" but I knew he wasn't understanding a single word of what Seth was saying. And I stood next to the both of them laughing the whole time. Poor Daniel.
On the menu, we had lots of watermelon (DUH as if you all couldn't have guessed that already) shish-ka-bobs with duck on them, and then JC made his version of NY Chili hotdogs for the "main course" because it's very american. Hah. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. And then for dessert- Oh la la I had 4 cakes!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it? One had plums, apricots, and peaches in it, another one was one my friend Rachel (who unfortunately couldn't come but took me out to the movies later in the week) made for me since she couldn't come to the party and Yadira and our friend Irénée decorated with frosting and kit kat balls to look like a girl's face, then one that JC made which had an orange taste to it with chocolate covered bananas on top, and then one my friend Seth bought for me which was called "Crème Catalane". PLUS, I got "Happy Birthday" sung to me in 4 different languages (French, English, Spanish, and Chinese)!!!!!!!! It was too cool. Then we danced the Cha Cha Slide, Follow The Leader, and I taught them the Filipino line dance I've learned at various social functions where Ronnie Ani was there to teach it to the song "September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. I thought it wouldn't get any better!
But wait folks, there's more! So then Monday going into Tuesday (Tuesday, August 31st was my real birthday) we all happened to still be up at midnight, so they sang Happy Birthday to me again and lit a candle for me to blow out. Then JC cut up a watermelon so I could start my birthday off on the right foot and he and I reminisced about when we first met 2 years ago and the other members of the Touch the World team until we decided to go to bed. I wasn't sure what to expect for the next day- that was a REAL surprise that I knew absolutely nothing about. I actually couldn't even guess on what to expect because I thought everyone was busy- Gilles had his first day of work, JC was going to visit his grandparents, Silvia had an appointment all day long, and Yadira was going "out". Plus, they had all been teasing me, telling me that they were going to wake me up SUPER SUPER early and to be sure I put on my jogging shoes because they were going to make me run a marathon.
Well they did wake me up, but not super early. I was woken up around 7am to Gilles and Yadira singing Happy Birthday to me. When I opened my eyes, Gilles was standing there with a tray that had Breakfast in Bed prepared for me. They said, "Happy Birthday, here's Breakfast in Bed to our princess!" I decided to eat it at the table that's in my room though instead of in bed, so that Gilles and Yadira could sit down with me. I hurried up and got ready while Gilles cooked and packed a lunch. Turns out, "Out" for Yadira meant going out with me lol. Gilles gave her money for all that we would need throughout the day, and Yadira and I were off. We took the bus to our usual train station, then I waited in the distance as Yadira bought our tickets so I wouldn't know where our final destination was. I didn't look at the ticket when she gave it to me so I wouldn't ruin my own surprise. We had wonderful conversation and I didn't even notice the time passing- we ended up going 3 hours outside of Paris! Where in the world could we be going?!?!
We got to the last train station, and then had to take a bus. It was such a picturesque village! Just like a stereotypical French village you'd see in a movie or a book. People were a lot nicer than they were in Paris too. Cars stop when you'd like to cross the street and smiled at you as they past you by. I took some pictures of the area from the train (they're the first couple photos in the photo blog). And then we finally arrived..... *drumroll please*..... La France Miniature! It's basically the entirety of France in miniature. It's was sooooooooooooooooo cool! When you walk in, it's by the Alps and you can hear a cow mooing and then you see the little mountain village right there. Keep heading south and you get to Marseille, complete with Mediterranean Sea and Lavender, which is native to the area. I even saw some of the same sites that I saw when I was visiting Michelle in Marseille last year, like the "cake churches" which have layers of black and white stone. Each region of France not only had the different sites/buildings, but also items native to the region and music native to the region. It was so so cool. And it was sunny, the weather was just the PERFECT temperature, and it was so wonderful to get to spend time with Yadira since she's studying abroad in Spain this school year and she was going to leave soon after that. We stopped and ate the lunch Gilles had made and packed for us- chicken with mashed potatoes, carrots, and onions, watermelon (he knows me so well =D), and Petits Écoliers (my favorite French cookies..... well.... more like the only thing close to a cookie in France) with white chocolate on top of them- by a pond that had duck families swimming around it. Oh it was just so wonderful! They even have a couple of small rides for children who are young enough and a gift shop. It was truly a special special experience. The only thing that could have made it better was if Gilles, JC, and Silvia could have been there too, but like I said it was very nice to get to have one last time to spend one on one with Yadira. Unfortunately the camera died about halfway through the day so I didn't get to take pictures of about half the things we saw, but trust me, it was awesome. Really awesome. If you're interested, you can take a "virtual tour" on this website.
http://www.franceminiature.fr/visite-virtuelle
We spent about 5 hours in the park, then headed back. Gilles had given Yadira extra money so we went to a shopping mall and I got to pick out a new shirt and sweater =D. I also bought Yadira two DVDs for her birthday because I knew she'd been wanting them and I wasn't going to be there for her birthday, which was on September 10th. Then we went back home and she made me Pesto Pasta (yum yum!!!!!!) while Gilles went to the Video Store and rented Hairspray at my request for us to watch. We also watched "Goodbye Lenin" (a German film I had bought for Yadira) and then we finished with Hairspray. Oh it was such a wonderful wonderful day. Here's to (hopefully) many more!!!! =)
Sometime in July, Yadira and Gilles asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, since I'd be celebrating it here. Now I told them they didn't have to do anything for my birthday because they've already done so much for me. But...... of course, about a week or so before my birthday, Gilles asked me what I wanted to do again. I told him again that I didn't want them to do anything, but he insisted so I told him to just make it a surprise. A few days later, he asked me for a list of my friends that he didn't know, which I reluctantly gave to him. They all ended up being from my church. Now I figured that it would have to be during the weekend, because we all had various different plans on the weekdays. So I knew that either Saturday or Sunday there was going to be some kind of surprise for me. It was ok. I didn't know what, so it would still be a surprise.
That Friday night, I asked JC if he wanted to go to church with me Sunday, since I knew he was looking for a new church. He said sure, and we went on with our conversation. Then he mentioned, "Hey madamoiselle, someone has a birthday coming up soon" and I was like, yeahhhh and he said, "Are you excited for it?" and I was like, "I guess so... I mean I really don't know much, Gilles just told me it would be a surprise." Then JC laughed and was like, "Hahaha I love it.... 'he told me it's a surprise'. Doesn't that kind of ruin it?" and I replied not really because I still didn't know what exactly "it" was. A few more minutes went by and then all of a sudden, JC gasped and stated, "Oh no, Gina, I just remembered- I actually can't go to church with you on Sunday. I'm sorry." and I asked if he had to work that day, and he was like, "Uhhhhhhh, not exactly......." and I gave him a quizzical stare, to which he replied, "You'll see.... it's a surprise." Well, that solved that mystery hahaha.
So I knew that there would be something done for me sometime Sunday after church with my friends from church. The thing is, my friends from church and I always hang out until dinnertime on Sunday. So in my mind there was no way that they were going to be able to leave the same place I was at and go to the same place I was going to without me knowing about it. I figured JC was just going to cook up a nice dinner for us all to enjoy and that would be it. No big deal, nothing special, just a sit down dinner with friends and then they'd leave and that'd be it. So I decided that it would just be most logical (since I already knew that my friends would be coming to our house after church anyway) for us all to go together. So after the service ended, I first went up to my friend Seth and asked him, "Did my friend Gilles send you an e-mail this week?" to which he replied no. I said, "Hmmmm that's weird he should have....." and then our friend Sonia came by and I asked her too if she had gotten an email from Gilles and she also said no. So I said, "Well, he must have just typed in your addresses wrong or maybe it got sent to spam or something, but at any rate, my host family's throwing me a *wink* "surprise" party after church today and you're all invited. I'd really like it if you came." They were both like, "ooo ok that sounds cool." Then our friends Lucas and Clarice came over and I went through the same speil (for those of you who may be confused with this word... it sounds more like sh-peel and it's that word that means you went through the whole thing you just did/said again. Not gonna lie I had to look up how to spell it =p) with them. Finally, Clarice admitted that they had all indeed gotten those emails, it was just that Gilles had said to keep it a surprise so they were all trying to pretend he hadn't. What good friends hehehe! I asked them what time he had told them to come over, and Seth said 5pm. But we still all had to eat lunch, so we went out like we always do and decided to get Falafel at the best place to get Falafel in Paris (near the Marais) and then went and sat down in a park to eat them. Then I led the troop back to the house. We stopped at a store after we got off the train because Gilles had asked them all to bring drinks (normally all the food stores are closed on Sundays, but this one was more like a corner/convenience store so it was open).
When we got to the house, I walked towards our door and saw no one there. I just assumed that JC, Silvia, Yadira, and Gilles were all doing their own things in various places of the house. When I got to the veranda though, everybody jumped out from behind my curtain and yelled SURPRISE!!!!!!! In fact, it was a BIG surprise party! Gilles had also invited all of the friends we had from his church too. There seemed to be about 40-50 people in the house, all there to celebrate my birthday! And of course, Gilles was standing there with a bowl of watermelon waiting to greet me =). I couldn't have been happier! And it was so so cool that my friends all got to meet each other- it was like three worlds (my church, the chinese church, and my family) all coming together. And everyone found someone who spoke their native language (we had conversations going on in chinese, english, spanish, french, brazilian, arabic, you name it, we had it!) Funny story.... I had been talking to my friend Seth when my friend Daniel arrived. Now Seth is from Puerto Rico, so he speaks Spanish and English. Daniel speaks French, some English, and when he introduced himself, Seth asked if Daniel knew any Spanish. Daniel said a few words (meaning that he knows the few words my Spanish-speaking host family has taught him, probably as much Spanish as I know), but Seth took that as meaning, "Yes, I'm fluent in Spanish" and started speaking in Spanish to Daniel. He was literally going off for a good 10 minutes and the whole time poor Daniel was just smiling and nodding with the occasional "Uh huh" or "mmmmm hmmmmm" but I knew he wasn't understanding a single word of what Seth was saying. And I stood next to the both of them laughing the whole time. Poor Daniel.
On the menu, we had lots of watermelon (DUH as if you all couldn't have guessed that already) shish-ka-bobs with duck on them, and then JC made his version of NY Chili hotdogs for the "main course" because it's very american. Hah. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. And then for dessert- Oh la la I had 4 cakes!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it? One had plums, apricots, and peaches in it, another one was one my friend Rachel (who unfortunately couldn't come but took me out to the movies later in the week) made for me since she couldn't come to the party and Yadira and our friend Irénée decorated with frosting and kit kat balls to look like a girl's face, then one that JC made which had an orange taste to it with chocolate covered bananas on top, and then one my friend Seth bought for me which was called "Crème Catalane". PLUS, I got "Happy Birthday" sung to me in 4 different languages (French, English, Spanish, and Chinese)!!!!!!!! It was too cool. Then we danced the Cha Cha Slide, Follow The Leader, and I taught them the Filipino line dance I've learned at various social functions where Ronnie Ani was there to teach it to the song "September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. I thought it wouldn't get any better!
But wait folks, there's more! So then Monday going into Tuesday (Tuesday, August 31st was my real birthday) we all happened to still be up at midnight, so they sang Happy Birthday to me again and lit a candle for me to blow out. Then JC cut up a watermelon so I could start my birthday off on the right foot and he and I reminisced about when we first met 2 years ago and the other members of the Touch the World team until we decided to go to bed. I wasn't sure what to expect for the next day- that was a REAL surprise that I knew absolutely nothing about. I actually couldn't even guess on what to expect because I thought everyone was busy- Gilles had his first day of work, JC was going to visit his grandparents, Silvia had an appointment all day long, and Yadira was going "out". Plus, they had all been teasing me, telling me that they were going to wake me up SUPER SUPER early and to be sure I put on my jogging shoes because they were going to make me run a marathon.
Well they did wake me up, but not super early. I was woken up around 7am to Gilles and Yadira singing Happy Birthday to me. When I opened my eyes, Gilles was standing there with a tray that had Breakfast in Bed prepared for me. They said, "Happy Birthday, here's Breakfast in Bed to our princess!" I decided to eat it at the table that's in my room though instead of in bed, so that Gilles and Yadira could sit down with me. I hurried up and got ready while Gilles cooked and packed a lunch. Turns out, "Out" for Yadira meant going out with me lol. Gilles gave her money for all that we would need throughout the day, and Yadira and I were off. We took the bus to our usual train station, then I waited in the distance as Yadira bought our tickets so I wouldn't know where our final destination was. I didn't look at the ticket when she gave it to me so I wouldn't ruin my own surprise. We had wonderful conversation and I didn't even notice the time passing- we ended up going 3 hours outside of Paris! Where in the world could we be going?!?!
We got to the last train station, and then had to take a bus. It was such a picturesque village! Just like a stereotypical French village you'd see in a movie or a book. People were a lot nicer than they were in Paris too. Cars stop when you'd like to cross the street and smiled at you as they past you by. I took some pictures of the area from the train (they're the first couple photos in the photo blog). And then we finally arrived..... *drumroll please*..... La France Miniature! It's basically the entirety of France in miniature. It's was sooooooooooooooooo cool! When you walk in, it's by the Alps and you can hear a cow mooing and then you see the little mountain village right there. Keep heading south and you get to Marseille, complete with Mediterranean Sea and Lavender, which is native to the area. I even saw some of the same sites that I saw when I was visiting Michelle in Marseille last year, like the "cake churches" which have layers of black and white stone. Each region of France not only had the different sites/buildings, but also items native to the region and music native to the region. It was so so cool. And it was sunny, the weather was just the PERFECT temperature, and it was so wonderful to get to spend time with Yadira since she's studying abroad in Spain this school year and she was going to leave soon after that. We stopped and ate the lunch Gilles had made and packed for us- chicken with mashed potatoes, carrots, and onions, watermelon (he knows me so well =D), and Petits Écoliers (my favorite French cookies..... well.... more like the only thing close to a cookie in France) with white chocolate on top of them- by a pond that had duck families swimming around it. Oh it was just so wonderful! They even have a couple of small rides for children who are young enough and a gift shop. It was truly a special special experience. The only thing that could have made it better was if Gilles, JC, and Silvia could have been there too, but like I said it was very nice to get to have one last time to spend one on one with Yadira. Unfortunately the camera died about halfway through the day so I didn't get to take pictures of about half the things we saw, but trust me, it was awesome. Really awesome. If you're interested, you can take a "virtual tour" on this website.
http://www.franceminiature.fr/visite-virtuelle
We spent about 5 hours in the park, then headed back. Gilles had given Yadira extra money so we went to a shopping mall and I got to pick out a new shirt and sweater =D. I also bought Yadira two DVDs for her birthday because I knew she'd been wanting them and I wasn't going to be there for her birthday, which was on September 10th. Then we went back home and she made me Pesto Pasta (yum yum!!!!!!) while Gilles went to the Video Store and rented Hairspray at my request for us to watch. We also watched "Goodbye Lenin" (a German film I had bought for Yadira) and then we finished with Hairspray. Oh it was such a wonderful wonderful day. Here's to (hopefully) many more!!!! =)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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