“Alban cried when Anouk was born. Jean too, actually. Just like at the end of Rocky.” Emilie The idea of Alban crying is… odd. I’m not sure he actually cried at the end of Rocky or if Emilie just teases him about it.
(I blew the seeds off dandelion head.)
Anouk: But, Rebecca, you’re supposed to make a wish!
Me: I did. I just didn’t say it out loud. I said it in my head, because if you heard it, it wouldn’t come true.
Anouk: Well, you could have told me to cover my ears. Like this. Cover your ears, and I’m going to make a wish.
Jean started calling me Re…ca right before I left. I thought if my life were a movie, he’d say “Rebecca” as I was leaving, but that didn’t happen. He got close enough.
One of the schools gave me a book of Corrèze and signed it. Anouk and Jean were there too. Jean can’t write yet so he signed by drawing a snail. The principal presented it to me over a glass of champagne in the school kitchen. (I’m not likely to forget this, but I thought I’d write it anyway.)
The amount of alcohol in the school refrigerators in general. How often are these people sober?
In another school once they had rabbit guts in the fridge. I assume it was something one of the teachers brought to share with everyone for lunch. Something like she brought the whole rabbit and the guts were left in the fridge. I never would have noticed. But a couple of kids came into the break room just to tell me that there were rabbit guts in the refrigerator and show them to me so I would know how disgusting they were.
The looks Isabelle and I exchanged when Emilie said she was fatter than her and talking about how she was going to lose the kilo (2.2 lbs, I believe) she gained.
I told Emilie that Seth told me to say thank you for making sure I was okay, and that it was a relief to him at the beginning that I was with good people. She nodded and said, “We didn’t eat you. We’re not cannibals.”
Anouk: (after at least 2 months in) And this, Rebecca, is the bathroom.
Me: Oh, really? I thought it was the…
Emilie: You thought it was the kitchen?
Me: Yes. Because, you see, we eat in the bathtub in the US.
Anouk: Mom, did you hear? Rebecca said they eat in the bathtub!
At a bar once with Meg, a guy came over and first tried to impress me with his English. That didn’t work. He then tried to impress me with his knowledge of US geography. Kentucky is next to Brasil. That almost worked (sarcasm). Everyone’s reactions to this story later were priceless. Maria was amazed and Emilie said that when she first saw me she thought I must be Brazilian or Spanish because of my dark coloring.
Me: The last Harry Potter movie came out on my birthday.
Shannon: I’m sorry if this is weird, but is your birthday July 15th?
On Easter Sunday, we had an unplanned party, and it was one of the best parties I’ve ever been to.
Whenever I would pick Jean up, he always put his hand around the celtic necklace I wear and said “Beau… collier, ca. Beau, collier.” Translation/filling in the sentence blanks: Your necklace is beautiful, Rebecca. Funny how after the first time he did that, a student told me he thought my necklace was pretty and then one of the Spanish guys commented on how it fit me well. (Isn’t that generally why people wear jewelry?)
Emilie picked up a leaf once and put it in her hair. It was an amazing hair accessory.
All the plays on words we (mostly Kaitie and Elli) would come up with, and Maria’s famous expression “C’est pas logique: c’est la France.” It’s not logical: it’s France.
Of course, there are thousands more, but then I’d be writing a never-ending list…
lafeedeslivres 