The hardest part is saying goodbye...

Mission accomplished!!

I can't express how excited and proud of myself for completing this journey I've set out to do! This experience has been AMAZINGGGGGG!! I've met some wonderful people and my students were simply amazing. There were times it was tiring, but that's all in the job and I would do it all again. The last days in school were emotional, because...well...it was the last time I was going to see my students. They all made little cards, drew pictures, wrote up the whiteboards etc, expressing their gratitude and who didn't do that, made cupcakes or cookies or bought me pastries 😊. My teachers were equally amazing. From the very beginning they were there for me, helping me along the way and they tried their best not to send me the 'hard ears' students, :p, no, but seriously, none of the students I had gave me any trouble. I had to do a lot of talking, but not in the sense of disciplining them, so that was good. Well...I can happily say then that I, Jalasheia, came, saw and conquered and this mission is accomplished!!!

Au revoir Avignon!

I can't believe I'm saying goodbye to Avignon already, I mean I just got here! It wasn't so long ago that I stepped foot in France and already I'm leaving. Avignon is my home away from home. The people there were nice. I mainly lived close to nearly everything, like the shopping stores, supermarkets, etc, so I didn't have far to walk if I had to go anywhere, so that was even better. I've just grown to love there despite the crazy french drivers and their roads I don't think I'll ever understand, lol. I mean the lights are on green for the crosswalk man, for PEDESTRIANS, but somehow you still see cars coming... Thank goodness I made it out alive! Lol, and to think I wanted to rent a bicycle...crazy me! Honestly, despite the crazy drivers, I still enjoyed my time living there. Yesterday as I left there (for good), to come to Paris, I felt extremely sad. I had that same feeling when I left Barbados. All I was saying to myself was 'whyyyyyy', but despite me leaving my 'home', I can say that I've been there, but this isn't the last time. Although my title says 'goodbye Avignon', that's for now, but I meant to say until we meet again, because I have to come back, so it's a 'see you later Avignon' at this moment. The hardest part is really and truly saying goodbye...but I enjoyed every moment of living there and this is only the beginning...!😊

My home!

My home!

1,2,3

The title of this post is 1,2,3 and that my readers, is the number of kisses on the cheeks the french give  as a greeting. Man I never did so much kissing until now, since being here in France. I might go back home kissing people on the cheek, now that I've gotten so used to doing it here, lol. So watch out my friends, I'm not going to give you hugs, I'm going to start giving you the french greeting of 1,2,3 kisses! Another thing they do or rather say is 'cou cou' that's saying hello to your very close friends. I mean they say 'bonjour', but you would know that, that person is a close friend when you hear 'cou cou'. Imagine how surprised I was when I first heard it, because in my mind cou cou is what we eat back home and here it actually means hello. My students were equally surprised during the first weeks of meeting them and me showing them a little Powerpoint presentation I did on Barbados. Let me tell you, when they saw that we eat 'cou cou' they laughed, lol. I had to tell them same word, but totally different meaning, lol. Ya gotta love the french!

Must love dogs...

Another thing the French love more than kissing, is their animals! My goodness, they take their pets everywhere with them! Going to the bank, going shopping, going to a café, going to the supermarket...their dogs are there! Well if they are going to the supermarket then they have to leave their dogs outside, but the point is, they are everywhere!! I've never seen so much dogs all at once, until I came here, lol. It's so crazy that I was thinking I should get a dog too, lol, but I won't, because I'm kind of afraid of dogs...and cats, lol. It's funny because I had a dog... Anyways, most of them are on a leash and you have those few which aren't on any, so I find myself crossing over on the other side of the road to avoid being attacked, since it seems like I look like I want to play, or maybe I look like food, lol. I'll give you a joke about that. One Saturday Rachel and I went sightseeing in Cavaillon (a town close to Avignon), so while walking to go back to like the city centre, we saw a dog, a small dog, looked like one of those ankle biters, lol and worst of all, it wasn't on a leash!! Now Rachel and I stopped because it started barking at us. I was already shaking and I wasn't playing that game with that dog, so I crossed the road, thinking it didn't see me...it did! That thing was charging at me, lol. I screamed so hard, that the dog turned around, lol. I think the dog was more afraid of my screams, lol. Madness!! But if that wasn't enough...I got attacked again, but this time in Lisbon! What is wrong with these dogs?? There I was minding my own business, talking to Rachel and out of the blue, this dog charged at me! What? Do I look like food? I'm not your friend! Smh. I was terrified and of course I screamed out loud. The worse part was that this dog had a muzzle on, so in my opinion it should have been on a leash and to top it off the owner of it was sitting there, talking a load of what I'd call rubbish, before she come and hold her dog... Stupse. Anyways, so that's my experience I had here with dogs. The first one was kind of funny...well everytime I sit and think about it, lol, but the second attack....NO!

French food

Where to start with this...? Mannnn I love french food, especially the crêpes, baguettes, their pastries, something called 'Tartiflette' which is basically potatoes cut into pieces, with bacon and a cheese only for the Tartiflette, then it's baked in the oven. Perfection! My upstairs neighbor made it a time and it had me singing, lol and I mean singing! Yesssss! That was absolutely amazing! I tried making it myself and it came out good, but I preferred his 🙈. Another thing I had was 'Raclette'. This involves cheese, potatoes and ham. I guess you can use whatever you want, but that's what I had. Like the Tartiflette, this recipe calls for a particular cheese or cheeses....yea...we eat a lot of cheese! Look at me saying 'we' like I'm french, lol. Well I lived here for about 8 months so I can say it! :p. This also calls for a 'Raclette maker' for the lack of better words. This recipe real special, I'm going to miss it, well all of the french foods. Anything else I missed?? Well even if I did, forgive me, I just love food on the whole. Not my fault it tastes so good! Oh yea, how can I forget the wine?? I can say that I'm more of a white wine type of lady. No, I don't have it all the time with my meals, but I really do like the wine! I'm thinking of bringing home a bottle or two, because one, it's cheap and two it tastes good and it's cheap 😜. Wine, chocolates, baguettes,....I wish I could bring back everything!