Last night Agnès took me to a salsa party that included dinner. I met several of her acqaintances (and got kissed on both cheeks a gajillion times) and generally had a good time. The guests came from two or three "amateur" salsa groups, so Agnès didn't know everyone, but there were enoug people that she knew to make it fun for me too. Her friend Virginia, a Spanish woman who now lives here in Albi, was very warm and fun and funny... she helped me when their instructor led a lesson in the "cha cha cha" and the meringue. Other than the lessons (that most people participated in) I didn't dance at all. I was pretty tired still from the flight and the sleep deprivation, but mostly I was nervous and embarrassed to try. They called themselves amateurs, but most of them had been dancing for years. I think by "amateur" they meant not-professional rather than beginner. I was introduced to one guy, Thiebauld, who had just finished his first course in salsa, and I thought hey, great, here's another beginner... ohmigod, he was so advanced compared to me! But I had fun nonetheless.

And then came the dinner. Four men carried in this HUMUNGOUS GIGANTIC pan (it must have been three or four feet in diameter) full of a Spanish seafood dish made with pasta (similar to spaghetti noodles) and some kind of brown sauce (tasty) and a whole passel of different kinds of seafood and meats. I think it was called something like fauede, but I can't remember. Anyway, it had chicken and veal and pork and mussels and scallops and squid tubes and whole entire (antennae and eyeballs and everything) shrimps. I was very brave. I tried, I really tried. I pried open the little leggy bits to get out the meat (after watching someone else do it) but at some point I had to give up. Luckily there were two other women at my table who also didn't eat their entire servings (which were HUGE), so I didn't look out of place with my squidly bits and my second crawdad tucked on the side of my plate with the last of the noodles.

I have been eating so much bread and pasta and potatoes... Thank goodness tonight Agnès made a dish that was mostly vegetables, and we had fruit for dessert...

Also today Agnès took me and Ariana (the exchange student staying in her house these three weeks) to Cordes-sur-Ciel, a village built in 1222. It was built on a high hill, with tiny cobblestone streets and tall ramparts and several iron gates you have to pass through as you climb. Excellent for defense against one's enemies, and for building up one's glutes and quads and hamstrings. I'll probably be sore tomorrow! Also good for working off a lunch of veal and potatoes in tomato sauce. Normally, veal is not something I would eat, but I am a guest in her home....

The other thing that I'm really enjoying is practicing my French so much. I speak a little bit of English with Agnès, and also with Ariana, but mostly I speak French. And listen hard when people are talking, especially Elsa and Laurent, Agnès' kids (ages 20 and 16, respectively), to try to improve what I know.

I can't think of anything else to say at the moment, so I think I'll stop here. Hope you all are having fun wherever you are! Vous me manquez, tous!