(playing catch-up with pictures)

Alright, everyone. I promised myself I wouldn't just throw tons of pictures at you all at once anymore, but would instead post them in a timely fashion, little by little. However, as internet time is a bit scarce, here comes a barrage. I'm sure you won't really mind ;) This picture, by the way, is of part of where the Bishop of the cathedral used to live. Now I think it's the headquarters of the Episcopal church in Rodez, or something of the like.

This is at Place de la Cité, and behind those men chilling under the statue is my bank. That's right, I have a bank account now, which means I'll soon have internet!

Voilà the Foyer Sainte Thérèse, which I called home for my first eight days as a resident of Rodez. It was a very nice, inexpensive place to stay, but I'm ever so glad to have my own apartment now!

This is the view out of our kitchen window at 59 rue Béteille. We don't have access to the gardens, but they're nice to look at, and the sun sets this direction and lights up our kitchen and dining rooms quite nicely.

Look at our kitchen! It's big! It's fully equipped! It has a dishwasher! It has a washing machine! It even has a salad spinner, a meat grinder, a food processor, a tart pan, a pressure cooker, a cast-iron pot, a juicer, and a potato masher (among other appliances)! That's what I mean when I say fully equipped. I don't think I need to tell you that I'm pleased as punch about being able to really cook!

This is our salon (ie, living rom). It has a clic-clac, can you find it? Don't know what that is? Neither did I. It's the futon to the left. When you fold it into a bed, you push up (it makes the clic sound) on the seat area, and then let it down (it makes the clac sound). I love how the French never seem to hesitate to name something after the sounds it makes. The fact that we have this means that you should come visit, by the way--because there's somewhere for you to sleep!

This is my room! It's the smaller of the two bedrooms, and has a smaller bed, but I like it very much--it's quite comfy and I especially like the mini-cabinet going on to the side of the bed--perfect for storing books, stationary, small electronics, etc.

OMG KEBAB NEXT TO MY APARTMENT!!! I measured, it's exactly 32 Emilee steps (approximately 20 normal-person steps) from my door. And it's the best I've had so far in Rodez! Of course, if I get tired of kebab or cooking, I can also easily head across the street to the middle-eastern market, or one door down to the Indian restaurant. A couple doors down is a burger place (haven't been yet, but it's always interesting to find burgers in France), and if I'm feeling truly ambitious, I can head up to the end of the block and buy myself one of the nice, gigantic paella pans they have for sale in the window. I've heard that real estate is all about location, but having such a good location (also about 5 minutes on foot from the town center) has made me realize just how true that is.

We went to Toulouse on Wednesday for assistant orientation. This is all I saw of Toulouse (besides one of its high schools) the whole day. No, seriously. Two hours of driving, hours of lectures, then two tired hours back to Rodez as soon as orientation was over. But I shall return!

The night we moved into our apartment, we had all the Rodez language assistants over for dinner (Sandra wasn't there yet.)! It was a delicious extravaganza of salad, soup, wine, and company--the perfect way to break in the new apartment! The funniest part is, I only sent one text message of invitation in the afternoon, and by dinner time, I'd either run into assistants on the street, or they'd already heard about it and showed up! Rodez is not a big town, as I said.

I think the "kitchen-themed" tiles in our kitchen are funny. My favorite is the timer tile.

Today Sandra (the roommate) and I had a special treat--a road trip! We had a married couple of assistants over for dinner last night who live in a smaller town about 30 minutes from Rodez, and they invited us to come with them on a Sunday drive day trip to Conques--a beautiful medieval town in the hills north of Rodez. On the way there, we accidentally discovered the town of Salles la Source, and its awesome waterfall!

We climbed behind it!

This is Adrianne on top of Jacques, their little Renault who lugged five of us around the countryside today.

Look, it's Sandra (my Colombian roommate) and me at the waterfall!

There's a sign at the top of this cliff-like thing that only says "ICI MIEL," meaning "HERE HONEY." We were intrigued and climbed up to find it.

We never did find the honey, but we did find some delicious wild blackberries (as well as some very picturesque views).

Downhill was a little extension of the village, with an old Romanesque church and pretty changing viney leaves.

The sunlight was really beautiful.

In Conques, mimicking the pig. I can be such a ham. Aaaaahahahaha.

Conques!

Adrianne with a pilgrim. Conques is part of a famous pilgrimage to Spain whose name I don't know in English.

Reflection of the cathedral of Conques in a pool full of 20-centime coins.

New friends Adrianne and Jorge :)

The girls: Emily, Adrianne, Emilee, and Sandra.

More soon, I promise. For now, my café is closing! Hope all are well and enjoyed the pictures!