Day 5 (Isle sur la Sorgue)

Today we woke up early (a relative term) to repack our stuff and head over to Gill's house, where we will be staying for the rest of the trip. Gill is a native New Zealander who now lives in France. She's a lot of fun and has the most fantastic accent. After settling down at Gills, the rest of the troops arrived looking a lot worse for wear. Lauren and I headed out for lunch while the rest napped. Lunch was fantastic. We pick one of the many little cafes that line the river. I had the Salade provencal (the waitress said it was the best), which came with lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, chicken, and pickled red pepper, and a glass of apricot juice. I'm having a little difficulty with a game I like to call "Catching the waiter's eye". In the US, the wait staff is crawling all over you desperate to earn a good tip and more importantly get you in and out. Here, apart from taking your order and delivering your food, the waiters almost completely ignore you. It's a difficult adjustment and I'm not sure the best way to deal with it. After lunch we walked back to the house to relax a little before we had dinner duties with Lee. I love that we walk everywhere; I wish we could do that in the states. We helped get dinner ready by cutting potatoes and onions and fixing the salad. Lee made a Spanish tamale (which means omelet) with a fresh salad. Ugh! We found out that classes will start at 9AM...and what with 4 of us sharing a bathroom we'll probably have to get up around 7 to make sure everyone will be ready in time. Dinner was a little overwhelming for me...after days of it just being me and Lauren...all those people in one place! I don't know, I felt very suffocated. After diner, a couple of us girls headed to the Red Unicorn, which is the only pub in town. It was fun, I helped the girls order around of drinks then me and Lauren went to go listen to the band. Part way through the night we met a couple of locals and decided to join them. Though my french is far from perfect, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could manage a decent conversation with relative ease. Poor Lauren though, the guys in our group kept saying that she was shy. I explained that that wasn't true but that it was difficult for her not knowing the language. At one point we got invited to go to the disco-tech (the club) for dancing. I politely declined, I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet, but who knows maybe I'll feel a little more comfortable with my french to go a little later in our trip. Tomorrow's a slow day to let everyone adjust, which is nice for us too.

Eating at a river-side cafe

My Provencal Salad