Friday: another mime class! Yes, and what could be better than a beautiful day in a French park pretending to walk like Barbra Stanwick. I'm not sure Valentine enjoyed it but I did. We all had to walk back and worth like the femme fatal in a 1940's noir film, then a police officer, and finally a sport player. After that we all headed to the heart of Avignon and took shelter in an air conditioned grocery store where we took more time than necessary to buy our lunch. We sat in a the square by a carousel and eventually three of my American group members and I bought tickets and climbed on. We sat in one of this teacups that you can spin and I was tempted to punch my fellow teacup rider when she wouldn't stop spinning it. When the ride was over and we'd all regained our equilibrium the whole group walked down to the main avenue in Avignon to watch the parade. The parade officially starts off the Avignon Theatre Festival and it was spectacular. All the plays, of which there are thousands, dress up as characters or creatures from their show and walk in the parade handing out flyers; I collected at least fifty flyer during the parade. There were teams of drummers, people n stilts dressed as giant bugs, princes and princesses, gorillas, and even a giant wolf on a motorbike. It was a lot of fun but I couldn't stay for the whole thing because I goes on for almost three hours and it was about 90 degrees out. So after an hour Valentine and I returned home, took cold showers, and collapsed on the couch for some good French reality TV, which makes abut as much sense to me as American reality TV.
Saturday: Valentine woke up with a cold so I spent the first half of the day just catching up on my sleep and talking to Alice, my orders host sister, who I quit like. When Valentine I eventually felt better we went swimming at her friends house. At the request of the friends mother we hiked up a nearby hill and collected wild thyme. On the way down the hill I noticed lots of little white things clinging to the weeds and grass. So I stopped and bent down to have a closer look. To my amazement I realized they were tiny white spiral shells, containing very tune snails, and there were hundreds of them in the grass. This might not seem that exciting to most people bu I love snails and had to resist the temptation to take home a bouquet of snail filled grass.
Today: I might have forgotten to mention that on Friday Valentine and Alice's uncle and his friend arrived, I was little nervous at meeting more people who I had troubl to communicate with. But like the rest of the Daries family the uncle and his friend were very nice, and like Alice and her father they spoke English. So if all else fails I can ask for a translation. This morning we all ate breakfast on the houses roof top terrace which has a spectacular view of the Palais des Papes and surrounding country side. Then Alice and I had a music exchange. Our tastes in music are more similar than mine and Valentine's so I really enjoyed this. Alice and I made a cake and talked about movies, then I went over to my friend Asher's hous to use his pool because it was a scorchingly hot day. In the evening the mily took me to a play about mentally challenged boy who loves to drum. Got a little lost in the dialogue but over all it was very good. I'm having fun over all, and my host family is amazing.
Sincerely,
Drama Queen
P.S. I can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier but while I was in Paris I came with in spitting distance of Emma Thompson! The Emma Thompson, as in the amazingly talented British actress. It was near the Arc de Triomphe, a larg section of sidewalk was roped of and a small crowd had gathered. I worked my way to the front and was delighted to see Emma Thompson conversing with a beautiful French woman who must have been the star of the movie. I think Ms. Thompson was doing some sort of off screen function, maybe directions or producing, either way she looked fabulous and I only wish I could have talked to her.
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