Matt's return..and departure?

Matt the Australian came back on business this month, and decided that his two weeks in Bangkok warranted a going-away dinner.

So a group of us joined him two days before his flight, and we had a great Thai food dinner, then Karaoke!!


A few of my song choices included
Big Green Tractor
Fergalicious
Follow Me
..and so on.

Check out our skills!

Au Revoir..for now

Flo didn't have to work on Monday, so we slept in, I spent the morning finishing up my packing, and then we headed into Montpellier to spend a few hours out together before my flight. We'd had a late breakfast..so by this time it was around 4:30ish, and I was hungry for lunch/dinner. But apparently, in France, they only serve real food during breakfast, lunch and dinner hours, which do not include the hours of 2pm to about 7pm. I was starving. And I didn't want just coffee and a croissant, lol. I wanted FOOD. So we walked all over the city center, and finally found a place that would feed us real food upstairs.

So we plopped down by a window, talked and people watched while we ate,

and tried to make the most of our last few hours.


Saying goodbye at the airport was a lot harder than it was in October. I put Fred(I asked for a puppy..and Flo got me one <3) in my shoulder bag, gave Flo a long hug and kiss, and as the tears started welling up, I headed up the escalator to the security check-in. Maybe I'll just move to France next year instead of California.

New Year's Weekend

We spent NYE with Flo's friends, attended a party with several of them, and although I couldn't talk fluently with most of them, they all made me feel very included, and I had an awesome time.



The next morning, 6 of us headed to the beach for a swim! I know what you're thinking..and yes, the water was FREEZING. But the weather outside the water was fantastic, so we dipped in, got some great pics, and staggered out to warm up on the beach. Spent most of the day there, taking in the sun, running around being silly, and relaxing.









This would be Pascal, Steph, and Gaël tossing the round cheese lid(yes, you heard me right) like a frisbee and trying to catch it with their mouths.

This would be Gaël jumping through a hula hoop...like a circus tiger. They all took turns lol

And this would be Gaël shuffling back and forth to be "roped" with the hula hoop...this cracks me up every time I watch it. XD

A Day in Toulouse

Friday of that week I took the train to Toulouse to visit my friend Julien, the French/Cambodian I'd met in Bangkok when he was on a visa run from Malaysia last year.








He showed me all over the city, we explored a few big churches, and then LUNCH! I kid you not, this salad was TO. DIE. FOR. That would be apples and goat cheese on my salad. AMAZING.

Entree? Duck Hearts. That's right. Duck hearts. On a skewer. With a sweet onion jam, a side of baked cauliflower and seasoned potatoes. Mmm.


For dessert? Creme Brulee, of course.

After lunch we headed over to visit two of Julien's friends, Dave and Thommy, and after a cup of coffee, took to the road. They have two motorcycles, but one wasn't working, so Dave and I hopped on the other one while Thommy and Julien took the car.

We drove all over the mountainside, up to the top to overlook the city, and then back into town to have ice cream and milkshakes. Dave offered to take me back to Narbonne on the bike, and I couldn't turn down a free ride like that, so off we went. It ended up being a freezing cold ride, and when we made a pit stop on the way for a bathroom break at a truck stop along the highway, we laughed about how ridiculous an idea it had been. Oh well, it was still an experience, and it's not every day I get to ride on real motorcycles like that.

The following few days..

After Christmas...Flo had to work. Every day. Which was lame. BUT..I survived. I cleaned his apartment from top to bottom, did laundry, watered the plants, and counted the hours til he got home, haha. Monday and Tuesday were a bit long, but Wednesday morning I had my massage at the spa, which couldn't have been better.
On Thursdays he only works in the afternoon, so we spent the morning together, then headed into town for lunch before he had to go in to work. For the afternoon, I walked along the river and explored what Narbonne had to offer.




It was pretty windy that afternoon, so when it started getting a bit too cold, I started walking back to the apt, but decided to go to Carrefour and pick up some things for dinner that evening. It was about time I made dinner, after all. I made mozzarella and tomato ravioli with pesto, salad with homemade dressing(that Flo made), and two delicious wedges of Gouda with some fresh bread. I also picked the wine, and that terrified me. I went with a rosé, as I'm not a huge fan of white and red is a nightmare to choose. To avoid waving my foreigner flag for all the other shoppers to see, I employed the only method I could think of - choosing a wine that had the most bottles missing. It was a little risky, but I took my chances and chose one that had what looked like at least four bottles missing. The result: Amelia-chosen, Flo-approved. :)

Christmas weekend

Flo met me at the airport, and despite my exhaustion I agreed to wander the Montpellier city center for a few hours with him. We stopped first for a cup of coffee, which I desperately needed, then followed a few streets out to..this monument. I forget what it was for/called.

Back in the center plaza, there was a sort of Christmas village/market set up, with little wooden cabin shops filled with all sorts of things, and even a little marching band of elves(well, men dressed as elves) came trotting through while we sipped our hot wine.

We attended the Christmas Eve service that night at 9pm, and although the entire service was in French, I recognized two of the songs(Hark, The Herald Angels Sing and Angels We Have Heard on High) so I just sang along in English. :)

Christmas morning we had blueberry pancakes. I made them...but the first one was a little...under-par.

So I added a little more dough(had way too many blueberries the first time), and they came out MUCH better. :D

Flo did a wonderful job with my gifts -
An amazing spa massage

Hugh Laurie's "Let Them Talk" Special Edition Cd&DvD - LOVE IT.

A box of mouth-watering local chocolates

and a super cool digital picture frame to display all my awesome pics in one place :D
I think he liked his gift too..

We had Christmas dinner at Flo's friend Thibaut's place, along with about 5 or six others. As anticipated, I was the only non-French speaker, and while everyone else carried on, I sat and enjoyed the seemingly endless trays of foie gras and wine. Don't worry, I love his friends, and I still had a great time. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to take pictures that night, I wasn't going to be the annoying foreigner snapping her camera all over the place during dinner. So..yeah. Use your imagination. haha

The Journey

My first flight(2 1/2hrs Bangkok to Guangzhou) was scheduled to leave at 7pm on Dec 23rd - we left an hour late(the plane we needed arrived late at the gate). My layover in Guangzhou was originally 2hrs - by the time we touched down I had exactly 30 minutes. I RAN to the passport control counter, got my stamp(after they found someone to occupy the stamping booth), ran up the escalator to security(and waited for them to find someone to come turn the machines on), and finally got to my gate with maybe ten minutes to spare. Got on the shuttle bus that took me and the other late-arrival passengers to the plane, and we took off.
My second flight(13hrs Guangzhou to Paris) left on time and was relatively uneventful until breakfast came, and by the time the cart had reached my row(which wasn't in the very back either, by the way), they had run out of omelettes. The other option? Spaghetti. Who the heck eats SPAGHETTI for breakfast?! And when deciding on the ratio of omelette to spaghetti, who was the idiot who thought, "You know, we'll probably need lots of spaghetti,"? Sigh..so my "breakfast" consisted of a piece of dragonfruit, a bread roll and a glass of orange juice. >:( Layover in Paris was an hour and 20 minutes(I know, I know, terrible planning), and after quickly acquiring my boarding pass, I thought I was in the clear. Silly me. The line for passport control didn't take too long, but the massive mob of people queued endlessly down the corridor waiting for security made it clear that my stress was not yet to be relieved. I now had 30 minutes until my flight, and the line for security was estimated at 40 minutes. Math isn't particularly my forte, but I knew that wasn't a good sign. The airport staff made me wait another ten minutes before I was deemed "eligible" to proceed to the 'urgent' security line. Finally arrived at my gate with 5 minutes to spare, and once again thought the worst was over. Then they scanned my ticket. "Miss, please stand to the side; you're wait-listed for this flight." I don't know why, and I'll probably never know why, but after protesting for a few seconds, I decided it best to simply do as I was told, and stood to the side sweating bullets until they confirmed that they did have a seat for me.
My third flight(1hr Paris to Montpellier) was great. AirFrance vs China Southern? AF hands down. We were served coffee, juice, croissants, pastries and wine. It was lovely. My bag managed to keep up with my crazy arrival/departure shenanigans, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it being unloaded from the luggage compartment as we were getting off the plane.

It was a LOOOOOONG trip, but well worth it. Stay tuned.