There are Mormons in France?

Today I visited Albi, the place I am going to live, for the second time. It has been quite a busy few days, so I haven't really had time to recount the awesomeness of my time as of yet. Additionally, since my camera finally died today after four years of faithful service, I was sadly unable to record this.

Let me start by saying, I am SO glad I am leaving Toulouse tomorrow. I am so incredibly sick of living out of a suitcase in a hostel. My room faces the street, and there are a few bars at the end of the street. Every night, I hear drunk people making a ruckus in the streets. In the span of me commencing this post, I have heard a recorder being played and a song that basically played with different prononciations of the word chapeau. It has been this way every night for a WEEK. The only way I am able to sleep is by listening to "The Hunger Games" on my ipod. Thankfully, my head teacher offered me a place to stay for the weekend, and, starting monday, I am going to stay in the school lodging until I find an apartment in Albi.

So, back to the sheer awesomeness of my day in Albi. I love this town. Love love love love love it. It is what I dreamed of when I imagined living in a french town. Most of it was built in the 1400's, and everything is super authentic, with paved brick roads and exposed beams everywhere. It used to be a medieval fortress, so everything is extremely fortified. It's on the Tarn River, and there are brick structures that extend all the way to the water, even though most of the village is built high above.

So, today was just a day filled with crazy coincidences. It started when my friend Kat and I went to visit an apartment I was interested in. She is going to live in Albi and was just as excited by it as I was, so she was a good person to explore the town with. As we were waiting to see the apartment, we were sitting on this stoop chatting, and this girl hears us and asks us if we're american. It turns out she is from Cleveland, and is doing a different teaching program in Albi! After that point, she joined our little entourage.

We went to get a beer (in my case, with a shot of grenadine) afterwards, and on our way we see these three guys dressed in garbage bags and covered in paint with their legs tied together coming towards us, begging for something or another. We think its just a prank their friends made them do, until we see another. And another. And another. The whole town is filled with college kids covered in paint and shaving cream and dressed in garbage bags. As we watched from the patio of my new favorite café, they proceeded to have a tug-of-war in the fountain. Apparently it was an orientation for the new university students. The weird part was, in the US if that was going on, everyone would be drunk, but here everyone was completely sober!

Then, as we are walking to our apartment viewing, we see these two guys dressed in white shirts and blacks pants, with name tags pinned to their shirts. They were two mormons from Iowa and Arizona, and they were in Albi doing their missionary work. Their names were, I kid you not, Heywood and Barney. I have no idea how they will survive in France, since they can't drink coffee.

Next, our group makes it over to a two-person apartment viewing. The guy showing it to us starts off by telling us the apartment was built in the 15th century, making it sound as if it were a bad thing. It was beautiful, with two bedrooms, 2 and a half baths, and a big sunny living room. Sadly, it was not furnished, and it literally had nothing but a sink in the kitchen. It's too bad, since it was so pretty, and it was actually in our price range. However, we would have to put so much money into it furnishing it that it would end up being way too expensive.

After that, we lounged by the river. We left once the banks became too clogged with amorous couples, and made our way over to my new favorite restaurant, Chez Yvette.

Chez Yvette is decorated with things such as old portraits, lit up stars, and animal heads wearing hats. There are daisies strewn all across the ceiling. If that wasn't enough to make it awesome, it serves only tapas and wine, and is actually affordable. For three people, we ordered a bottle of wine and four dishes (a local cheese plate, grilled eggplant, serrano ham, and duck breasts with peaches) all for only 32 euros! I have a feeling this will be a regular haunt of mine.

So I am off to carry my suitcases through the dirty streets of Toulouse. What an adventure that will be.

Bises!

So, I'm moving to France next week....

6 days, to be exact.

Speaking french has always made me happy. There is something about the throaty sounds, the liaisons, the overall beauty of the language that appeals to me. French is, quite frankly, fun.

The name of this blog comes from a nickname my french teacher gave me back in sophomore year of high school. For those who know me, they can attest I like to talk. A lot. This is true regardless of what language I may be speaking. As a result, my teacher gave me the nickname "la bavarde": the chatterbox

. This nickname has remained apt, even 6 years after it was originally given to me.

So, next year I am going to be an English teaching assistant in a collège (middle school) and a lycée (high school) in a tiny little town called Gaillac, about 65 km from Toulouse. That's a picture of it to the right. So far, the only thing I can find about this town related to wine. Gaillac produces every sort of wine possible, from red to rosé to sparkling. Hopefully, I'm going to come out of this a wine connoisseur. If I don't, then I obviously will not have drunk nearly enough wine.

Since Gaillac has only 12,000 people (none of whom seem to be people my age), I am going to be living in a town 20 km away called Albi. Albi is the perfect example of the type of little

french town I want to live in. It has 50,000 people and a university, so I would definitely be able to have a social life.

More importantly, Albi is chock-full of awesome french history. It is home to two 13th century buildings, le Palais de la Berbie and the Saint Cécile Cathedral. It is because of these buildings that Albi has been labeled a UNESCO world heritage site, which basically means that it has something worth preserving.

It is also the birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a french artist famous for his posters of the Moulin Rouge. Since Toulouse-Lautrec is one of my favorite artists, I am looking forward to exploring the museum devoted to him in more detail.

Anyway, I need to get on with preparing for my trip: packing, getting insurance straightened out, copious amounts of netflix, etc. Everything you need to have a successful foreign voyage.

À bientôt!