I am 27

So a week later, Christina, Jed, and I headed to Justin's for a dinner party. We got there on the last bus and Justin made us fresh mussels and we had fresh chocolate and strawberries. Then we took a walk and decided to go to the club La Bama. The catch is that La Bama is a 25 minute walk or a 5 minute car ride. So we hitchhiked. This is something that I would never attempt in America, but is apparently done all the time in southern France. So, we got there and danced to crazy techno music, for a while and then got a ride back to Justin's in a tiny car with two guys and a dog.

The next day we had pizza from the African Queen. She is this interesting older French woman who has a tiny place in St. Affrique (St. Aff). She lived in Israel for a while where she learned Hebrew and met her husband. They moved back to France and now they have this little restaurant shop where you can order homemade food to go. We waited about 30 minutes for 2 pizzas, which were delicious, and were offered tea and conversation while we were waiting. The African Queen, as the woman is locally known, told us a little about herself and also about St. Aff. She said that it's a good place because it used to be a larger place and then started to die. About 5 years ago it was only 4000 people, and now it is growing again. She said it isn't like France at all; there are people from all over France and an international population as well. All in all, I think I like St. Aff more than Millau. It helps that Justin lives right in the middle of this small town, so nothing was ever more than 5 minutes away.

Anyway, Christina and Jed left for Millau Sunday night and I stayed with Justin until Wednesday morning. It was at this point when we all realized that my birthday was Monday; I decided to stay anyway because I wanted to attend Justin's classes with him. I love traveling because you always meet the most interesting people and become instant friends because of sharing a language. Justin took me to all of his classes with him on Monday and Tuesday; he does all of his hours in the first two days of the week which keeps the rest of the week open for traveling. We drank tea on our breaks and bobbed in and out of the rooms for times varying from 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the age of the students, which vary from 5-11. I participated in all of the classes and had a great time with the students and the lessons. The last lessons we did on Tuesday consisted of drawing monsters. I would say to the class in enlish, "The monster has 5 feet," then the kids would deconstruct the sentence and Justin would help them in French if they needed it. It was super fun to watch the kids get excited to draw, understand what I was saying, and then get upset because the monster had 5 feet and three legs. They just couldn't figure this out, no matter how many times we explained it to them.

Then, for my birthday we got a bottle of wine, a bottle of champagne and Justin made us omellettes. We got pastries from the bakery for "cake" and they were chocolatey and delicious. On Tuesday, we basically repeated Monday. We had a really fun time hanging out and talking and walking around St. Aff. I can't belive that I am 27, but I had a lovely birthday, and am looking forward to this coming up weekend when Christina and I will celebrate our birthdays (hers in March 23) together in Montpellier.