SNOW! I hear it's going to be a good winter!

Can anyone help get me to the mountains this winter? Like anything that comes to mind. I would love to spend the winter riding my snowboard. Just putting that out there into the universe and see if it comes back around. I'm a multi-talented go getter. Come and get me.

sound byte

As I sat there on the moonlit rocky beach listening to the waves trying to pull the pebbles into their arms, I said goodbye for now, to those last days of summer.


I pulled out my iphone and recorded it

Such a fine time, such a happy time!

After a long absence...

It has been an amazing summer, guess I've been too busy having fun to update Mon Amie Kelly. Maybe I'll give a brief summary of my summer... along with my new adventures in France land. If you are reading this and want me to continue, a little encouragement would be awesome...

Spending a weekend in Ardèche

Camping and canoeing this weekend! Stay tuned for my own update! Just a short two and a quarter hour drive from Marseille, I hope to find adventure in Ardèche!

Photo: Jay Broek

The Old French Man

In my mind there is a quintessential old french man. I see them everyday and I know them quite well even if I've never met them. They live a simple life and when I see them out, I know exactly what they are doing. My grandfather was that man. Pépé would wake up at the crack of dawn, for the sole reason of getting to the boulangerie for a couple of fresh baguettes. He would put on his slacks tuck in his collared button-up shirt, slip on his loafers, jacket and chapeau (hat) and be on his way. He'd start up the old Citrôen and back out the driveway thru the gate. He'd head down to Plage de L'Estaque where he'd see the normal folk. Bavard (gossip) a little with the other old men and head back in time for everyone to wake up. Newspaper at hand and two baguettes. I can imagine this is what all the old men wearing hats and slacks with baguettes in hand must be doing in their retirement age.

Mousse de Marseille

I am volunteering at a scuba dive (plongée sous-marine) center where 3 organizations work out of. Two dive clubs and one military group. My job should be pretty straight forward. I basically will be handing out material that the divers will need to explore the underwater world.

Basic gear; mask (masque), fins (palmes), snorkels and the fun stuff; BCD (buoyancy compensator device or in french, "stab"), regulator (detendeur), octopus (or alternate air), bottles (bloc or bouteilles), lead or weight (plomb), and wetsuits (combinaison or combi).

Photo Serge Mercier

Read More! Click below

Guido's pizza pasta!

I learned a few things while working at Guido's when I was 17 and 18. For one, I learned how to twirl pizza dough (thanks Slim), and spread sauce and toppings-with not too much cheese 'cause "that shit's expensive," (thanks Sam). I learned that you need to pop the bubbles on the pizza frequently when it's passing through the oven because then all the toppings slide off. Friendly reminder from the boss, "Kelly! Bubbles!" READ MORE! Click below.

Gift from 6000 miles away

My dear friend Kristina sent me a nice surprise in the mail! Along with some lollipops from my favorite Mexican restaurant she sent a beautiful bracelet that she made. It features my favorite color!

Most recent bracelet by Kristina

Here are photos of the others I have from her! Now I can wear them all together! To see more photos, click on "Read More" below.

Yearbook

Kids in France don't have yearbooks, nor do they take a portrait at the beginning of the year. They don't know the meaning of "Picture Day." Always fun, nerve wracking, unique, and nearly always disappointing. There were always those kids that wore their best Sunday dress or suit and curled or combed back their hair. The girl with the frilly socks with her patent mary-janes. There was always the kid who wore his favorite color t-shirt, even if it was ratty and tattered. The kid who forgot it was picture day all together. That was a travesty, we'd always wonder, "how on Earth could he forget?"

Then there was me, who always wore a headband or forgot to keep my hair out of a pony-tail. Then weeks later when the photos were printed, they would be delivered to our home-room in a plastic envelope with a little plastic window as a sneak preview to the most permanent picture in your history. Some of us would slip it into our backpacks hoping no one would ask to see them, uh humm...me. And if someone did ask, we'd say, "Just have to wait for the yearbook. :p" Secretly dreading that day. Then after a couple days, there is no longer any talk of the magnificent "Picture Day." READ MORE! click on link below.

La mer

The sea took the life of my beloved... maybe I'll find a new love. Yes, it is what you think it is. In a fatal accident by the seashore skipping rocks, he fell in. Blackberry, may you rest in peace.

New addition

I have included a new feature to the blog. Some of my posts are really long, or there are multiple photos so I have included a "Read more" link to take you to the rest of the post. Like this:

Plage du Prophète

looking south. winds have swept up some waves

Google Map

Ski Pra Loup

SAY MARS SAY YE

View from my terrace

March 17th,  2011 (St. Patrick's Day)

On rainy days

The devastation due to the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan and following tsunami has left my heart humbled. We are feeble when compared to the power of the planet.

Hiroshige

Hokusai

choices choices, at least we have them.

Photography is an art that is entirely subjective and objective at the same time. If you know what you want to accomplish sometimes making the best choice possible is difficult. In shopping for a lens and reading reviews, there are always suggestions that begin to lead your focus to a broader or perhaps different perspective making lens choice so frustrating! I begin to think, "yes this is the lens I want to use," then someone makes a good point that makes you have to think about what's truly important to you. I think I'm going to have to rent a couple before I decide on a piece of equipment to invest in.

Countin' the years

Today I returned to the Alps for a day of shredding with friends. I hopped on a charter bus at 4:45 am to get there. Killer deal, totally affordable and convenient. Well, these slopes were covered in those pull lifts. They are called téléski. In all my years snowboarding, I've only been on them twice. It got me thinking "how many years have I been riding?" I counted. 17 years. Holy cow. These téléski lifts were brutal. I'll begin by reminiscing about my first experiences using these.

It was my first day on a snowboard, I was eight. The day before, I had been on skis. But I wanted to snowboard like my brothers, so I insisted. My oldest brother was a lifty at a mountain in our vacation spot, so he was more than happy to teach his baby sister. I remember he took me to the bunny slope and that's where those pull lifts tend to dominate in the states. (Must be why I'm not accustomed to them.) Naturally, I fell off the lift. My bro was behind me on the lift and I remember he ran me over with his board. It hurt, I cried. Honestly, that's one of my few memories of the trials and tribulations of learning.

Téléski lift. Not me, and I didn't take this photo.

Walk

The weather has been so beautiful lately, it has simply been too nice to take the métro. The beautiful sunlight is perfect all day. The sun never really reaches directly over head either. Perfect. I'm finding myself taking easy strolls through the city streets enjoying the quiet happiness. I've been taking long one hour walks home from friend's homes just because, je ne suis pas pressé. (I'm in no hurry).  Everyone seems to be delighted by this shift in weather. Must. Be. Outside. Ciao.

Curious

Just out of curiosity, am I the only person who thinks it's rude for someone to have a conversation with someone else on your facebook status update? I hope I've never done that. Irk.

It's like someone coming to your party and your neighbor saw them and came knocking on your door to talk to them and didn't bring a few beers.

On a more relevant to this blog topic, I had a premonition of how my summer in France is going to be, and it's going to top my best summers I've ever had, even the pre-18 summers. Yep yep. La mer, le soleil, plongée sous-marine, baigner, bronzer.

My little home

I have a little home I share with myself. I've been using boxes as tables for the microwave and the printer. The microwave fell through the box the other day. It was inevitable. I know really glamorous right. Want to hear something even more glamorous? I found an old handmade Tunisian oven in the street and my friend helped me carry it home. It was a really long walk. That thing was heavy. But we got it up to my apartment and it sat on the terrace until I decided to clean it today. I didn't know what it was until I showed a picture to my uncle. My other uncle recognized what it was. It's complete with one of those giant spatulas with a long handle to get pizza out of an oven. I think I scored with this one. I don't plan on using it as an oven. It will make a nice cabinet and surface to place my microwave and toaster oven. Today I went into the garage of my building to toss out my garbage. I noticed a wobbly shelf in the garage left for dead. Tonight, another friend helped me get it into the bachelorette pad. Comfortably nestled in a corner where it can't wobble my shelf resides. Home sweet home.

Poodle

Today I got on the tram to go home from work. It was packed with all of the commuters, it was the end of the work day after all. Rush hour. Packed in like sardines. I was standing in the isle and an old woman was sitting near me with a poodle under the seat. A seat freed up across from her after a few stops. I sat down as there were no old people or people with children around that would need the seat before me. On a side note, people in france are very courteous of pregnant women, people with children and with old people. I always see people standing up immediately after seeing a person, as described above, entering the vessel asking them politely to sit down. I can't say I took much public transportation before moving to france, but I hope it occurs everywhere else this way.

So this lady with the poodle, she knows the tram is impacted and she notices the poodle's paw sticking out from under the seat. She tells him in french in and irritated tone to move his feet, for fear he'll get stepped on. This is very comical, I don't really know why. On another side note, I heard a child on the tramway on the way to work. Every time it paused at one of the stops, I would hear the cutest little voice sitting back to back with me say "ça y est!?" (pronounced Sa yeh, an interjection meaning, "That's it!" and the child meaning "Is this where we're getting off?" The mother would tell the child "No not yet." Ok back to the woman with the poodle. So she begins talking to me, I guess I have a open heart ready to give and receive. I don't know, maybe she was bat-shit, one will never know. But it really brightened my day. To read more, click below.

Break it, in threes.

In memory of the beautiful vase.

I took this picture to show my uncle my sweet find.

Now it rests in peace on this photo.

The easiest way to clear clutter is- wait for it.... break it! It started with the breaking of a drinking glass in the sink after washing. Then chipping one of my soup bowls in the sink after drying. And finally, knocking over my new beautiful vase I found at Emmaus (it's a great second-hand store). I thought good, I'm safe because things usually happen in threes, right? Wrong. I brought out the jar of yummy eggplant and garlic goodness my aunt made for me. I have been savoring it for longer than necessary. Not the kind of treat you want to eat in one sitting, ya know. So, naturally, I set it on the table and, just as naturally, I knocked it over onto the floor. Crushed. I should just get plastic cups.

I sometimes find it difficult

It's sometimes hard to come up with something to blog about. There are some things I think will be great and then I wonder, "Is this too personal?" "Should I be sharing this?" So, sorry if this year has been a little dry with updates. I have been working on some photos and wondering which will grace this blog. Tune in. See you soon.

Z Alpes

I spent New Years in the Alps. A friend has a chalet in a cute little village, and he opened up his home for a nice winter wonderland ski/snowboard trip. We had a really nice time! Here are some photos from my New Years weekend in the French Alps from the villages we passed through, to the slopes we ski/snowboarded on, and the ride home. 

I taught two of my friends how to snowboard. For each it was their first time, so you can imagine the kind of wipeouts I witnessed. One of my friends hurt her tailbone so bad she had to just walk the snowboard down the hill, she traded for skis. My other student on the other hand was very motivated to continue trying. I can't wait to go back and ride my heart out.

Local water hole

Above the clouds. Below, the visibility was 6 meters

Circular rainbow! It was a triple rainbow I think.

Chalet in the Alps

Etching in the snow

Sled dog!

On the drive back to the city

Scooter

My friend asked a favor of me. In fact, it was more of a great offer! It was more my pleasure than a personal favor in my opinion. Her boyfriend left his scooter at the train station when he went out of town, and so she asked me to ride his scooter home from the train station. I would follow her on her motorcycle. Yes guys, she has her own motorcycle, super cool. I was nervous, everyone says how dangerous they are especially in Marseille with crazy drivers and traffic patterns, but I was more excited than scared! The last time I drove was when I was in the States. This was to be an adventure! I have a serious need for speed and I was excited to spread my wings. I tried not to get my hopes up about driving, cause the let down could be so horrific. Oh goodness how I miss driving.

I get to the train station where she is waiting. She does a test run around the parking lot, comes around the bend onto the sidewalk and then says "go ahead now it's your turn, try it." I expect the scooter to be easy, but in fact it was too easy. No gears to be switched, just an accelerator and a pair of handle bar brakes. It was like a toy. I don't know why I expected anything different. Now I understand why those darn scooters are always revved so loudly, they are in risk of stalling if not constantly a livened with fuel. It made it easier to concentrate of the cars around me. It was so cool. I can't wait to do it again! She told me now we can do a ride along the corniche, I can't wait! Sunday here I come!