There's hope for us yet...

     Being in a foreign country is hard at times, sometimes more often than not. There are language barriers, different cultural expectations, different rules and sometimes what you think is common sense, is not. I have harped many times about driving over here and about the 'commen sense' mistakes we feel the French make all the time and I am sure they look at us the same. Although, I don't know where it is ever 'common sense' to cut people off and block entire intersections....but I can't go there anymore, my head will explode. But I am sure if you asked the average person who visits or lives in a foreign country what the hardest thing to adjust to is, they would say hands down, the language barrier. Now, we have done pretty well with the language barrier over the years here. Shaun speaks French on a daily basis at practice so he is constantly fine tuning his French (although I am pretty sure what he hears and speaks at practices is not 'proper' nor P.C.). I read and write more so those are the areas that I am 'good' at. Put us together and we're a pretty good team. Often times, we talk with people in French and walk away and then talk it over with each other to make sure we are on the same page as to what was said. Needless to say it's difficult and a bit tiresome. You are constantly trying to gather your thoughts in your head, then switch them to French and then finally make sure you have the correct conjugation. And by the time all that is done and I am ready to spit out what I want to say, the conversation has moved on. Or in extremely slow cases, we are already in our car on the way home and I think to myself,  'Damn, that is what I wanted to say'. So when I saw a few articles circulating about the 'bilingual brain' recently in blogs and this article in the New York Times, I had to take a closer look. Apparently scientists have found that being bilingual, and speaking both languages on a semi-daily basis, benefits the brain in many ways, including holding off Alzheimers for 5-6 years. By having both languages 'active' in your brain, the brain is constantly problem solving and multi-tasking all the while you are observing and concentrating at a high level. Now it's all making sense to me. There are times when I think I can see smoke coming from Shaun's ears and this pretty much confirms it for me. With all that going on in his dome, I am just thankful it hasn't blown right off his neck. So while we still are going to have those times where we are struggling to get exactly what we want to say understood, at least we can take solace in the fact that all this frustration is helping us in the long run. So I guess my 25 minute 'heated conversation' with someone in the management yesterday might have gotten me another 3 months in warding off Alzheimers, I'll take that any day. Who knows, I might even go back for more, after all, it's for my health.

Blessing or a curse...

{Image via Pinterest}

     Bien installé. We find ourselves using these words a lot. Nous sommes bien installés..which translates into we are very comfortable, set-up, or for lack of a better word, installed here. I'm sure some will chalk that up to the fact that Shaun has been in France his entire career. But I can look back and honestly say we were pretty comfortable almost from the get go, from those first few years. And for those of you who look at our pictures and say, 'hell yeah we would be very happy there in the south of France too', we have not always been here, we have also been in the armpits of France....and made the best of it. ( And yes, there are armpits of France too.) But my question is, is this a blessing or a curse? Because at the end of each year, I feel it is a bit of a curse. Now, I am not an optimist, actually I can hardly tolerate those who always see the best of everything. Often times, I just want them to say, "this freakin' sucks' and acknowledge a crappy situation for what it is...only if it is a crappy situation in the first place though. So the reason I bring this up is I can't help but notice the amount of Americans that play overseas and have a countdown to the summer from day 1. (FYI.. that countdown is reaching a fever pitch since we are closing in on the end of the year). And I'm not talking about the countdown because you can't wait to see family or a wedding etc... these are the type of countdowns that are more about leaving something behind than looking forward to something.  We love to go back to the US for the summer to see family and friends like the rest of them but it's not like we are counting down the days for this summer as soon as we get over here in august. That would be a long 10 months if we felt like that. I know we all can't do what we want and there are times that sacrifices need to be made, but I couldn't imagine living the majority of my adult life as getting through 10 months just to be happy for 2. Those who read this and have jobs they dislike but need, I am not talking about you. I am talking about the ones living overseas (actually getting paid to live overseas) either working 5-6 hours a day or their husbands working 5-6 hours a day. The ones that are choosing this job and doing what they love and not taking every advantage of it. I am pretty sure the many Americans with ho-hum jobs that didn't have the luxury of choosing would trade places in an instant. I am not saying being a professional athlete is easy, I have been one and it is never as easy as one who sits behind a desk thinks but what baffles me are the ones who hate the life over here but continue to do it. I have to ask, is this life really that bad? Or is it just more work to make it better? Maybe for some this life really blows, and that stinks. But for others, it's too much work. Fortunately for us, it is neither crappy nor too hard. And that is where I grapple with the question, is bien installé a blessing or a curse? We are blessed to enjoy our life over here and make the best of it. But the flip side is, it makes us a little sad when we have to leave it behind each year. Sometimes I think what is wrong with us for feeling this way? Why aren't we ecstatic to get 'home'? (Again, where is 'home' to us anyways?) Where is our calender with the red X's on it? I wish I could have everything all packed up a month in advance and no food in the fridge so we could leave the morning after our last game. I wish I didn't get that twinge of sadness saying goodbye to the many people we have met at our last game knowing we won't see many ever again. But for us, that only happens when we can't wait to get the hell out of dodge, which to me is no way to live.I would hate to look back in 10 years and see that we only 'got though' our time overseas, we didn't actually enjoy it.  I guess we will take that little bit of sadness at the end of each year for a 10 months of happiness and making the best of the situation anytime. Who knows, I might be more of an optimist than I thought...don't tell anyone.

Springtime

{One of many flowers blooming in out backyard}

   I can't tell you how much we love Spring. Sure, it's hotter in the summer but Spring just feels so right..I don't know why, maybe because it's coming off of winter, who knows. I welcome the longer days, the chirping birds and even the croaking frogs. I walked out front the other night and couldn't believe how loud the frogs were. It almost felt like some exaggeration in a Disney movie. I don't know where they are located and to be honest, I am not sure I want to know because if their croaks are any indication, these are car sized frogs. Funny story, when I first met Shaun and he would 'sleep over', I always used one of those Homedics sleep sound things and my favorite sound to fall asleep to was the frogs. After the 'newness' wore off of our relationship and we were more comfortable with each other, Shaun confessed he hated it and it kept him up at night...so away went the Homedics. So as much as I would like to sleep with our windows open here, I can already see it being a 'no-go'. The grass is growing at an alarming rate and even the turtles have returned in our backyard. For those of you wondering, we don't live out in the sticks nor do we run a funny farm, I promise. We have bbqued non-stop and spent as much time as we can outdoors. Besides, what's the good of having nice weather if you don't take advantage of it? And we also know the ability to be outside lounging in the backyard or taking walks won't last long. In a little over 6 weeks, we will be heading back to Atlanta where it will probably already be high 90's and you have to take cover in anything air-conditioned. And going for a walk? Yeah, maybe at 9 pm. So until then, we will soak up all the non-humidity we can get.

{Crazy tree we saw today on our walk}

{1 of 4 turtles in our backyard...and they are surprisingly friendly}

Parc de la Mediterranee

{View as you enter the park}

       Sometimes I look at our pictures or the blog I am about to post and I can almost hear readers say, ' Didn't we see this before?' But I promise you, these are all different places around us. I am not doubling up, there really are this many great places to explore here. It is a shame the club couldn't get their sh!t together because speaking from experience, there are not many places better than down here in the South. We just have to be thankful that we have had the opportunity to experience it for the last 2 years. I guess it could be worse, we could never of been here at all. But on the other hand, now we will know what we are missing. So, we are trying to take every advantage we can and get out as much as possible before it's over.

     Shaun is back (or I should say almost) since he will start officially practicing on Monday so I am down one travel buddy, sucks, but such is life. Besides, I don't really see him enjoying going to Grasse (perfume capital) and testing out new scents or shopping around for that perfect pair of colored jeans...something tells me it's just not him. So while I had him and the great weather, we headed down this past weekend to the beach for an impromptu walk/hike through the Parc de la Mediterranee. It is this cute, somewhat small, park perched over the sea that we visited once before last winter. With the warm weather and blooming flowers, we figured it was time for a second visit. We took some sandwiches (on a picnic roll folks) and strolled around exploring the little paths that veered off the main one, which led us down to the sea. It is not a terribly strenuous 'hike' but some paths are not for the faint of heart as they are right on the edge of the cliffs (same goes for the 'balance challenged'.) We steered clear of those seeing that Shaun's track record of injuries this year has been unreal. Better safe than sorry we say. I could imagine that call, 'well coach, good news is Shaun's hamstring has healed well, bad news is he had a little setback this weekend at the park by tumbling down the cliffs'. No thank you. Since our walk/hike, it has been a bit grey and gloomy which I am not minding at all, makes me appreciate the sunny days even more. Until the sun makes another appearance, I will happily give my boots and light sweaters one more go around before they get banished to the 'winter box', then it's all sandals and bright colors from there.

{My attempt to show how close to the edge the paths were..pic doesn't do it justice}

Oh, and two more things...

{Image via Frederic Maurel}

     These are the photos I was telling you all about in the last post that were taken by the 'professional' looking guy with the camera. Yep, he sent them!!! (See there are still some honest people in the world).  They are awesome pictures that we will cherish forever, although I am a bit bummed that I decided to wear my biggest baggiest 'boyfriend' jeans that needed to be rolled a zillion times. If I would of known we would of been modeling, I would of went all out. Anywhoo, thanks a million Fred for sending the pics, we will be your models anytime...just a little heads up next time so I can dress accordingly. Oh, and he attached his personal website as well to the photos. Check it out, there are some great pictures on there.

http://fredmaurel.blogspot.fr/

{Yep, you guessed it...Frederic Maurel}

Picnic

{Our view}

     So remember a few posts ago when I said we were in the market for a nice picnic? Oh and also if we were gonna do it, we were gonna do it right, with great food and nice flatware etc.. ? Well, throw that all out the window. Last night Shaun returned home from practice at around 7pm and we made the quick decision to head down to eat dinner at the beach. We grabbed the closest blanket we could find at the house, drove-thru KFC ( I know, the horror...) and did just that, ate at the beach licking our fingers clean since they seem to have an aversion to giving napkins out at KFC. It was really warm yesterday so a light sweatshirt at the end of the night was barely needed and there was no breeze so the water was like glass. We were initially worried when we arrived at the little 'island' when the sign said it was closing at 8 but then we took a look around and realized that there was no way to 'close' the island so we took the gamble. Turns out, we were not alone as we saw a few people doing as we were (minus the KFC). Funny story though, there was a man with a camera set up on a tripod (real professional looking) taking pictures of the sunset and capturing the multiple colors of the sky. So as we just settle in and really dig into our KFC, he comes over and asks us if we would walk over to the other cliff so he could take a picture of our silhouette in the sunset. (I swear this stuff happens to us all the time, not the sunset pictures thing but we definitely have randoms talking to us a lot, asking for directions, help etc.). So after agreeing to do it and him telling us we had to hustle to capture the right lighting, we walked over to the other cliff and posed for a few minutes all the while he yelled out "don't move", and my personal favorite "a little more to your left" Mind you Shaun was already 6 inches from the cliff's edge. I secretly think he was hoping to capture Shaun falling off the cliff. Shaun secretly thought he wanted to steal our KFC, you can see where Shaun's priorities were. Oh to be in the mind of a man. Anyways, we exchanged e-mails and he promised to send us the picture, still nothing yet but I am hoping he will since it was a pretty great picture. We probably spent a little more than an hour eating, talking and enjoying the view. It made me re-think the whole planning process. Sometimes spur of the moment things turn out to be the best. If I could only adopt that philosophy more often...and have napkins in my purse at all times.

Then things got hairy.....



Saint-Tropez and Port Grimaud

{Port in Saint-Tropez}

    
     We are truly blessed with beautiful beaches all along the coastline here in the Cote d'azur. And while we most often go to the beaches in our city, we sometimes like to change things up and head a bit further down the coast. Experience a little 'strange' if you will. So with the warm weather and free weekend, we decided to head to Saint-Tropez for the day. Often associated with Brigitte Bardot and the infamous Paris Hilton's horrible table dancing, Saint-Tropez is a beautiful little beach town where the famous flock to in the summer and call it their 'home base' for their jet setting lifestyle. While I am sure it is fun to be sprayed down by Champagne half naked on the beach while dancing to that Euro-trance they like so much here, I tend to enjoy the more calm time in Saint-Tropez, the off-season. (It's a shame because I think I might of wasted all my good 'table dancing' days on Atlanta. Just think, I could of saved those up and been uber cool rubbing elbows with celebrities in Saint-Tropez). Regardless of when you go, the sherbet colors of the buildings, the beautiful yachts and the small boutiques will not disappoint. We strolled through the port and admired some of the mega-yachts then ordered a sandwich to go and ate on the wall overlooking the water all the while, enjoying the view. If partying and rubbing elbows is your thing, make sure to go in the summer but if you want to enjoy Saint-Tropez for it's non-partying self, I suggest going in the spring when it is warm enough but still not too crowded. Just make sure you order the tarte tropezienne, it is worth every empty calorie...and then some.
 

{Our view while chowing down}

{Tarte Tropezienne...brioche bread with pastry cream filling, powdered sugar....incredible}

     After Saint-Tropez, we drove to the other side of the Golf of Saint-Tropez to a little city called Port Grimaud. I honestly had never heard of it until our trusty friend/local guide Marie told us about it a few weeks ago. Often referred to as a little french Venice, Port Grimaud is a little seaside town built right on the water with canals used instead of streets. We walked pretty much the entire area in 30 minutes so it's small but what an amazing little area none the less. Since it was towards the end of our day, we didn't take the water taxi tour of the area but I definitely plan to do that next time. And there will be a next time.