Success Tastes like Banana Pie.

On Fridays I usually go spend some time with the California girls. Their mom, Marianne, has quickly become my best friend here, and one of my all-time role models. Her life has been filled with dramatic adventures, like putting herself through law school, moving to the US and learning English fluently, starting her own business here (with her husband of course), and raising 3 amazing girls. Somehow she does all this with grace, extreme patience, beauty...and with a level head on her shoulders. On top of all this, she is an INCREDIBLE cook, and lucky for me she has offered to teach me a thing or two :-)

The first thing we tackled was a banana pie, all made from scratch. I wish we could have filmed our time in the kitchen that day, because it was just a hilarious cliche. I was such a clumsy mess that at one point, ALL the girls, even 6 year old Marie, were at my side trying to give pointers. Apparently in French schools, they teach you to cook as early as elementary school...the way they introduce fractions is with a cake recipe!

Anyway it was the best thing I've ever tasted and it was one of the best moments of my life.

"Do you need help??"

LOL 

Ok so not the most beautiful looking pie...but mmm was it good! Marie's touch was the little random squares on top haha.

After that, the weekend was for Charlotte, Richard's niece, who turned 2. I can't really explain how I felt about the chaos that is a 2 year old's birthday party. All I can say is that when we got back, I required immediate skype-therapy from my loved ones back in the US. Children are scary!  

Then...amazingly this week...I worked!!! My American friend Erin got like six new jobs all at the same time and started giving me her left-overs. Twice this week, I spent 6 hours a day teaching English to this rich German man who owns a beach clothing chain and some restaruants. I snuck a few pictures of his apartment...complete with a pool in the living room...to show everyone how amazing it is if you're rich.

Then today, Richard arranged for me to go out on a whale watching boat ride! It was lead by Stefan, our scuba dive guy (and the only person I feel safe enough to go into this shark-infested ocean with!) We didn't end up seeing any whales...but we followed a pod of dolphins for a while and it was amazing. They apparently like to surf the waves, and they also travel in big groups. It was pretty amusing to watch...every time a wave started forming, I'd look inside it and see like 7 dolphins just under the surface, coming straight for us! Then suddenly they are on the other side of the boat, doing flips and somersaults...one dolphin jumped up and did some kind of crazy double back flip...I awarded him ten points. It felt SO GOOD to be out in the sun, riding the waves. It makes you feel so small...especially when you look out away from the island and you just see waves...until at some point far far away, they turn into the bottom of the sky. After that, we saw a giant turtle, and then did some snorkeling. For some reason, Stefan chose to snorkel at the beach by my house...the one that has a red flag with a shark on it that means no swimming. I believe it might be the beach with the most shark attacks on the island. But the visibilty was incredible and I still have all my arms and legs so we're good.

dolphins!

Ok so maybe it isn't so scary to imagine settling down here, after all.