A Day in Marseille

Today I was not happy to wake up after staying up later than I probably should have last night talking to Thad. But oops. I took a shower which was not very fun because the bathroom was FREEEEEZING and the water didn’t ever get very hot. So that was not fun at all! Beebo kept me company all morning while I got ready and ate breakfast and all that. He was chilling under my bed when I came out of the shower because it was warmer in my room. He was being good today though which was nice. Then I went off to the cave to start my day.THe picture below is me expressing how good people can look while eating :-)

 

I was the first one to the cave because everyone else wasn’t done with class yet. I was chilling and then suddenly everyone was there but not at the same time because everyone went to the bathroom or to their locker or to check the mail. After about ten minutes we were finally all in the same place and decided to go get dinner. We went and ate at the pizza place by the school because it is the best. LaSia and I split a pizza and it was delicious. I really like going to this pizza place because the guy who runs it is super nice and funny. It makes the whole experience better. We ate our pizzas there and then after that headed out in the direction of Sally and LaSia’s house so that they could drop some stuff off. We were all in a really good mood which was nice. I think we all are kind of realizing we don’t have much time left and that we need to make the most of it and each other.

 Jonny split off and was going to meet us at their house because he wanted to drop off his stuff too. We walked the rest of the way to their house and I was already getting a bit cold. I don’t know why but it seems infinitely colder here not because of the temperature which was according to Kristen, colder in Oregon than France today, but because of the wind here. It is not fun at all! But I decided I would try to find a coat in Marseille because things are supposed to be cheaper there. Sally and LaSia don’t live to far from me which is interesting. I would think that I would see them a lot more often but they walk a different path to school than I do. Then we waited for Jonny to get there and went off to the bus station. I used my handy dandy cartreize bus card which gave me a 24h pass for 2 euros. Win!

 We rode the bus to Marseille which took us to the Gare St. Charles which is actually the train station! SO we kind of had to meander our way through town towards the Vieux Port. We followed the car direction signs and eventually got there. We did end up taking some sketch roads though. That was a little creepy. Once we got to the port we came upon the ferris wheel and Christmas chalets that are there for Christmas. The ferris wheel was pretty but I had no desire to go on it. (Fear of Ferris Wheels). We walked around the chalets which were cute and had some nice things but then we stumbled upon a hot beignet chalet! Beignets are sort of like… Doughnuts and Fried bread mixed together? They put apples inside and the inside is doughnuty but it is fried on the outside with sugar all over it. It was deeeeelicious! But also very hot. I also got a water. Sara bought a hat at a chalet which had lots of colorful looking handmade sewn things. She got a gray hat. Of all the colors that they had she chose gray. I was disappointed in her. After that I bought a little gift for my Grandpa and then we walked towards the museum that Jonny had to go to for his class.

 

We all paid a 5 to get in and then discovered that it was actually kind of a boring museum… Or I’m not sure if it really was boring but I was not in a very museumy mood. Before we went into the museum they made us put our water bottles away in our bags. I accidentally photo bombed some guys picture of the museum. And then every time I walked through the main hallway I would make a funny face at the really bored security guard at the end of the hall. I was really hyper and was pretty silly all day. Plus that security guy was bored out of his mind.

Everyone but LaSia and Jonny got pretty bored pretty fast of the museum. At one point we sat down on a bench and noticed that in one of the 45 second long videos that was on loop there was an odd portion where this skinny lady was running out of the water in a bikini, and then she laid on the beach and all the camera shot was a view of her chest and then a really strange face. We laughed at the bizarreness of it intermixed with the rest of the 45 second flm. Then pretty soon a group of guys came up and ogled at the screen for two rotations of it making comments about the lady. It was so guyish that we had to laugh.

Then we all decided that the museum wasn’t going to get any more interesting for us so we left the exhibit to try and go to a café on top of it. It ended up being ridiculously expensive so we decided we would leave Jonny and LaSia a phone to call us when they got done. It was kind of a hassle though because we were giving it to them through the exit door which the security guys didn’t like. But oh well.Then I went outside to dump out my bag because we discovered that the plastic water bottle i bought had cracked and leaked half a bottle of water all over my bag. So that was not so good.

While I was doing that this like 30 year old dude like tried to hit on me. I really hate that. I know some people are like oh you should take that as a compliment. Yeah No. Would you take it as a compliment if some guy who is super older than you just like aproached you and you didn't know him and tried to get personal with you? No. It is just creepy and makes me feel unsafe every time. I hate it. Also I hate getting hit on because it makes me feel like an object not a person, because the only thing they know about you is what you look like. I hate it.

We left and walked down the main road until we found a tea salon that looked pretty empty. I had a tea and everyone else had hot chocolate or coffee. Sally and Sara got steak frites sandwiches. Then pretty soon LaSia called and wanted to know where we were so I told them the directions and they came and met up with us. There was only us and the guy running it in the place and he was nice. There was a movie on which was all watched and made fun of but didn’t actually bother to listen to so it was funny. My tea was really good and made me miss tea. We hung out there for a while and then decided to head out. We all were like dang now we will never know the end of this great movie. Also LaSia has decided on saying “meep” after all of my hiccup-like sounds.

From there we went on in attempting to find a big mall like store that was supposedly unmissable. In the meantime we ran into another Christmas market. This time there was a hot wine vender so I decided to buy one (mostly for something to hold while we walked around to keep my hands warm!) It did smell amazing though! We walked around and looked at the little Santons which are like miniature figurines that you can make towns and nativity scenes from that are ceramic and then had painted. They are CRAZY expensive. But I guess the idea is you buy one thing each year and then by the time you are older you have a good size town. They were a really cute idea but so expensive. A little duck was 6 euros. For a tiny ceramic duck! It was crazy. I thought about buying a nativity set because that would be cool and I don’t have one but then decided I would get one when I got back to the states. Maybe next year because I am getting back so late.

When I did drink the wine it was SOOO delicious! It didn’t feel very alcoholy maybe because it is burned off? So it was just delicious! They put extra spices in it so it is kind of like hot apple cider but not apple but grape. It was reallllllllly good. I want to learn how to make it. It reminded me a lot of that appley drink that we make at the helwigs sometimes that Grandma Dar used to make but I can never remember the name of because it is so weird, but then grape. I liked it A LOT. I got a second cup with everyone else decided to get some. We all huddled and drank it and talked about what to do next. We kept walking after a while of selfies and attempted group shots which Jonny always shied away from.

 

Then we found the mall and I found a coat that I really liked. They told me I looked better in gray than black so I went with that. It was only 65 Euros. I like it and it is big enough that I can wear another sweatshirt under it. Perfect! Also it was the only gray one and my size. WIN! Then we went to a book shop which we were kind of shooed out of after not a very long time. We walked around a Christmasy craft store which was kind of fun. Then after that we went up to another FNAC. There were tons of books there so naturally we ended up in the childrens book section because they are easy to read. I found a liz climo book which I really liked but didn’t buy. She just makes funny cute little comics. Somehow all the girls but Cassandra ended up with a sort of eye spy (word help on that from Thad) ((I could only think of hide and seek)) book where we sat on the floor and played. It was really fun and silly and cute.

Then the store was closing so we left. I bought a pair of gloves at Claires. And we found an ATM on the way out and got out a bit of money to cover the weekend/probably some if not all of the week. Then we walked back down by the port to find food/ see the Ferris wheel. But everything was so expensive we decided to find something on the way back to the bus stop. We didn’t find anything though. The cold weather though was getting to me so I had to walk pretty slow to keep up.

Cassandra noticed/ her ankle started hurting so she fell back with me while the others figured out which direction to go to get back. So we walked slow while they walked fast and eventually we got to the station. We found the bus and all went back to Aix to find some dinner. I left my new gloves on the bus because I am an idiot. I know. I literally had just bought them… I’m stupid. Don’t laugh!

When we got back to Aix we decided to go to Patacrepe which I had never been to but it is a crepe restaurant. I decided to get a burger with pancakes as the buns. It was really good and came with fries. I decided to get the meal thing with a little drink and a crepe for dessert. It was only three euros more than the meal so I was like sure why not. My burger was really good and I at the whole thing. My drink was cute because it was a meal drink so they just give you a bit which was fun. Sara who sat across from me bought a coke but couldn’t finish it so she shared with me so that was cool. We had fun at dinner though. The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty cool. They had cool lights and it reminded me a lot of an American restaurant because it was more streamline in design than most restaurants here. They also had very delicious crepes! I had a strawberry jam one. It was really good. They came with these like marshmallows as garnish which none of us ate because we all found them super gross and far too sweet. I tried just a really really really miniscule piece and it was like BLECH too much flavor for one candy. So needless to say we didn’t eat them. Then after that we decided to call it a night because some of us had to be up early to go to Avignon the next day for school. It was a really fun day in Marseille though. :-) I have great friends.

When I got home Madame wasn’t here even though it was past ten thirty. I was like hmm. Do I go to sleep because I am tired or do I wait up to say Hi. And then once I decided I would go to sleep I was thinking about whether I should lock the door or not. The bottom door was locked I knew and it wouldn’t be a problem for me to lock the door because she has a key but it was a question of is this a normal thing for me to do? Or is it like rude to lock it? And then it was like well if I leave it unlocked she might think I am being unsafe. But if I lock it how will she know if I have already come home or not? Hmmm. I was in the middle of debating that when she came home and we talked for a bit before we both went to bed. She had been downstairs watching Paul while Laurence worked late. 

Then we went to bed because I had to be up early the next day!

Beebow, il a bien détruit la sourire!