Marbles and not Shorts

I woke up yet again to the lovely sound of construction. I tried the ear plug thing but my ear was bothering me so I finally just gave up around ten and woke up. I took a shower and did some interneting and then watched Beebow chase a fly. Then I began to realize I was going to spend all day in the apartment if I didn’t so something about it. So I texted Cassandra and asked if she wanted to do some errands with me. She was bored too so we met at the school and started off. I went to the post office to mail moms card and it was surprisingly not very expensive! I was very impressed. There was some confusion on the envelope though because the girl helping me had given me an envelope that was prepaid for in France mail but because I was going international when I took it up to the guy he was like uhhhhh okay she gave you the wrong one but it’s okay I will just meet the difference. And so I got this like piece of paper sized envelope which was a lot bigger than I needed. But whatever we all figured it out in the end!

After the post office we went in search of some clear nail polish. All the top coats here we learned are mat. So I bought a base to use as a base and top coat. I learned the beauty store is waaaaay cheaper than Sephora too, 2-3 euros for nail polish instead of 5 for a tiny bottle. Lesson learned! After that we went to Monoprix for lunch. I got the 3 chicken wrap box thing and a Dr. Pepper. I took one bite of the first chicken wrap and gave it to Cassandra to try. It definitely tasted like fish. I turned over the package and learned that that particular wrap has anchovies in it! Oh jooooy. Luckily I was bad and spit it out. But the other two were fish free so I let Cassandra have that one. The other two were really good as was my Dr.Pepper! I bought a little Starbucks coffee thing for cheaps for tomorrow morning when I have to meet the bus at 8am. After that we went in search of some shorts and went to some interesting places. We tried Gap, H&M, some other clothes places and finally American Apparel. I had never been to an American apparel store but it is definitely an interesting store. We found lots of leotards and bizarre clothing including a poncho which we definitely tried on. Overall shorts were a bust but I found a pair of sunglasses that I figure I should have for the trip to the beach tomorrow. We sat down in a café for a soda before going our separate ways as it was getting closer to 6 and looking like it was going to rain soon. We had a fun day though walking around and I had fun getting to know her better.

When I came home I skyped my parents for the second time since I have been here and talked with them a bit until Thad came on and my parents had to leave to go to work and I started talking to Thad. After that Madam came in with Paul and told me when I was done to come downstairs. When Thad went to lunch I went downstairs and Paul showed me how to play his Skylanders game on his 3DS. It is like a game where you buy these little monster dude figurines and then with this little platform they light up and then sync to your Gameboy. It was pretty cool but definitely geared more towards younger kids. Paul sat on my lap while he played and it was pretty… nice feeling. I feel like he trusts me which is cool and he definitely likes me which is cool. I haven’t had a lot of exposure to younger kids in my life so it is cool to have that now. He shows me his games and asks me to play with him. Madame got a really cute picture but her phone is so basic I don’t think there would be a way for me to get it off even if I asked her if I could have a copy. It was really cute though.

After that he started making Mii’s which are little character dudes. He made an ugly one and a pretty one and he was having a good time. Pretty soon Laurence came home and we talked for a while. Madame told me that if I ever come back to France I should call her up and I can stay with her no problem but that I should come back between April and September because that is when it is nicest. That was very nice of her though J After a while we went back downstairs and were getting ready to start dinner stuff when Paul came down with some marbles and wanted to show them to me. Then Laurence came down so Madame pulled out some appetizer things and opened the bottle of rose that I bought at the winery a few weeks ago. I played marbles with Paul (he cheated a lot) and we played with those until we came back to the living room and Paul got really hyper and started pulling out all of Madames cat figurines and stuffed animals and being a seven year old kid. I talked with Laurence and Madame. We looked through an old photo album of Madames and I learned that she lived in Algeria until she was eleven and her family moved here. Her dad was Greek and her mom Algerian. That explains why she has a bit darker of skin.
 

We talked for about an hour and then Paul and Laurence went downstairs and we stayed and had Chicken nuggets (with a fork) and cubed like hashbrown potatoes. Quick and easy tonight. We are getting into a good routine Madame and I. She starts dinner and I help set the table. While she is finishing up I pour us both water and turn the tv so we can see it while we eat. That is really common her I learned. We talk about the show and usually it is the news or the zoo nursery show depending on if we remember the zoo show is on that night and what time it is. I finish dinner first and wait for her to finish and then she waits for me until I’m done with cheese. We both are just faster at the other even though we have the same amount. After that we eat an ice cream bar either right then (sometimes a fruit) or wait a bit because we are both full from dinner. Usually I go skype after dinner but not always.

Then we watch some sort of tv (tonight is Master chef) and then after about 45 minutes Madame is asleep. I usually just watch tv and finish my journal until she either decides to go to bed or I fake being tired so I can use the internet and then she decides to go to bed.

Tonight I asked when it is too late for me to skype and she looked at me like I was crazy. I told her that other students had been told by their families not to call their parents or people after a certain hour because it was too loud. She said she really doesn’t care as long as I’m not screaming or being loud but just talking in a regular tone it is fine whenever. So that was a good thing to ask.

I’m glad that I went out today because I could have easily enjoyed my day reading my book but that wouldn’t really be taking full advantage of the fact that I am in France… But I had a fun day even if I didn’t really “do” anything. It was fun to hang out with Paul and to talk with Madame and Laurence.

Beebow just attacked Madames hand while she was sleeping. She was not very happy… Also 40 fountains supposedly but I don’t believe it. I’m sure that there are ore and they aren’t counting the little ones. There are two on my street alone. Maybe I will have to go on a fountain hunt.

Also shout out to my mom who's birthday it now is! Love you!

Monument Revolutionaire

This morning I woke up around ten and went and took a shower. I had breakfast and made myself a PB&J to take with me to school. I got there early and read a little of my Game of Thrones book. After a while I went outside to meet my class. Today we went on a little trip to the monument of Joseph Sec. It is one of only 5 monuments from the French revolution that still exists. The other three are in paris and there is another one in Nantes. The last one is here in Aix! It is a small little monument with a sort of garden like thing on the inside.

Pretty much during the revolution everyone wanted to trash everything that had to do with French history before the revolution. Some people like Joseph Sec didn’t really like that idea. He made this monument and made it a sort of mausoleum but without his body so that people wouldn’t mess with it. It is super cool and has sculptures and such. On the outside it has three plaques.  The middle one just kind of says what it is. The one on the left says something like : Leaving cruel slavery, I have no other master but myself, But my liberty I have no other use of but to obey the law. The one on the right says something along the lines of: I will prefer to die for these laws more than to abolish them. Basically at this time because every other country was attacking France this was France saying hey we are free from the king now but we are going to follow the laws we made, and we’d rather die fighting you than to break them and be a part of your country. Basically, France has it’s own laws and they will fight to keep them.
 

The monument itself was pretty cool. We stood outside talking about the different parts. In the middle there is a statue of a man with horns. My professor asked us who we thought it was and because of the horns we assumed the devil. But we learned that it was Moses and that he has horns because somewhere in translation someone mis-translated halo to be horns. Quite a bad mix up to be honest! But that’s why in a lot of famous paintings and such of Moses he has horns. On each side of him were statues of women but I don’t really know their significance or if they had one. On the very top of the monument was lady Justice with a scale. On the other side of the main wall of the monument is Jesus with a lamb. The significance of the statues is that the front and back are the old and new Testaments of the Bible and Lady Justice being on top is the French saying that Justice will win over the king who was supposedly chosen by God himself and ruled by divine right. It was pretty cool to see the monument even from just the outside.

We went inside and it was pretty much just a little garden with some more statues. We learned that the statues there were fake and that the real ones are in the museum in town. This is the museum I have already been to but I think that I need to go back later because there is so much I have heard about that I didn’t see. I think because there is a temporary exhibition there now so once that is over they will put back their regular stuff.

Inside we learned that the statues were of Noah, some random girl (he didn’t really say), David with Goliaths head, Judith nailing the guy in the head, Solomon, a Prophetess, and Aaron Mose’s brother. They were all really cool looking even if they were replicas. Right after the French revolution people started to realize that they needed to have their cultural heritage guarded so the people stopped wrecking everything. 

Another interesting story where the French were trashing stuff was when King Henry the 4^th was removed from his tomb. Pretty much the revolutionaries dumped the body in the sewers but some crazy guy like kept the head and now it has resurfaced and it’s a big deal. There are DNA tests going on and such but I wonder how they can do that if the rest of the body is gone. I guess probably by using his lineage and finding people that were descendents from him? Though how they would really know 100% I question because his descendents would only have half his DNA each time, and after 10 generations that wouldn’t be a lot left… But I guess it must work somehow.

 

I also learned that the French wanted to create their own calendar and forget the Christian calendar. The wanted it to be separate so on the middle plaque it says “the fourth year of liberty 1792” So they were trying to use the new calendar and the Christian calendar. They soon learned that the new calendar wasn’t going to work.

The whole little trip was really cool and I got to learn a lot of things about the French revolution that I wouldn’t have learned from reading a book. I want to find out who the other statues are that were in the garden and also when the other statues were moved. The ones on the top and front of the monument are the real ones from that time which makes me wonder why they didn’t move those ones as well. Perhaps because it would be too much work? I don’t know.   

My literature class was a bit dull today. Instead of having a big discussion we had like little talks on different parts of the text. I enjoy the longer discussions much better though. But it wasn’t bad. We are almost done with Paradise Lost.

After class I went to the FNAC (aka best buy +books and other things) store to find a birthday card for my mom. I wandered around for a while and bought a lemon and sugar crepe. It was surprisingly delicious! I was pleasantly surprised. After that I went back to the school to read for a while before meeting Cassandra for Happy Hour. Kelan, Julia, and Patrick ended up joining us as well because Kelan saw me outside the school so I invited him, who saw Julia so he invited her and Cassandra had class with Patrick so she invited him and it was fun! We went and sat and talked about lots of different things. Julia left to go skype her parents and the four of use kept sitting and talking for another hour. After that Kelan, Patrick, and I went back to the monument so we could show Kelan but it was closed by then. It was really cool though.

I came back home and wrote moms card and then I decided to try and write to my French professors in French. And I was doing fine until I wanted to know how many fountains there are in Aix exactly. Madame came home and we tried to find the answer on the internet. That didn’t work so we consulted her dictionaries for Aix but that didn’t say either. I learned she doesn’t have a book for Aix (Christmas Present? Oui.) so tomorrow my mission is to find that out. I probably will go to the office de toursime and see if they know and if not go to the library. I really want to know though because there are so many and I want to know the exact number because I am curious like that! Aix is called the city of a thousand fountains but I bet it has a few less. After that we had dinner and then watched Men in Black. Paul came up to say hi and I forgot to do la bise or kisses so he was like standing there and I was like what until Madame was like bisous and I was like oh! I didn’t know that was a thing that I was supposed to do! But I guess I am!

Also a fun little fact: after the Storming of the Bastille some businessmen sold stones from the building and one of them ended up here in Aix in this like random building. But the people who bought the building after the guy who bought it dies didn’t know it was historic so they had it engraved with “Toilettes” and used it as a sign for the bathrooms. Oops! But after they found out it was too late. My professor said not many Aix people know about it but because the building is under construction or something we couldn’t go see it.

Also I can’t remember if I put this in my last post or not but I learned that the construction next has been going on for 2 years! Blech! It shows no sign of stopping either!

                                                                                                                                       

Lost Teeth and Pokemon

Today (I feel like I start every post with that) I almost didn’t go to class because yesterday Paul dropped my phone aka my alarm clock, and I didn’t set the date correctly so my phone though it was Friday and didn’t need to wake me up. So it was very lucky that I happened to wake up twenty minutes after my alarm. But now that I think about it I probably would have woken up at eight with the work next door. Today being Wednesday was laundry day! Which I love because then I can tell how long my week has felt in comparison to last time laundry was done. This week seemed very short I think because the weekend was so busy. So now that is my goal! Keep the weekends busy! This isn’t very hard considering how many weekends I am doing something with the school or for a class or going somewhere on my own/ with other people.  A lot of these trips are like day trips in fact all but two so far are day trips.

Before I went to class Paul came up and announced an showed us all his first lost tooth. (Good thing I’m not you Megan!) He was very excited which got me wondering about the tooth fairy and whether that exists here. I went to class and it was good. We are learning about the Oppidum d’Entremont which is an ancient civilization that existed just north of here 300-100 years B.C. which is pretty crazy! We are going to the site next Wednesday to see it so that is pretty cool. Tomorrow I am going…. Somewhere French Revolution related in Aix for my European history class, so that is pretty neat. I don’t have homework tonight which is nice too!

After class a girl named Mary and I went to go track down something to eat. She had never been to the crepe place so we tried to go there but they weren’t open yet. So we went to a pizza place. It was alright not my favorite. Mary is really nice but she likes to always talk in French which I am totally fine with doing but the way she talks she elevated and drops her voice a loooot, to the point that it is kind of obnoxious? But she is nice in smaller doses. We also went to the ATM and this one was super nice (not) and gave me a 50 which no one likes to break. But I needed some more money in order to pay George the trip guy for Saint Tropez on Saturday! I’m kind of excited for that as Madame has told me it is super nice. No one from my usual gang is going but I think Cassandra said she was and it is good to branch out. J After hanging with Mary for a bit I came back home and Madame seemed surprised to see me. I think she thought I was going to be gone all day but I have a pretty long break so I wonder if I’m not supposed to come home? Or if it matters? I researched a bunch for Paris and Lyon. My plan for fall break is to go on the trip with George to Barcelona, Spain for the four days and then come back and the next day go to meet Grace (my Oregon Crusader friend) in Paris. And then I will have Sunday to recoop before school the next day! It seems like it wont be… THAT expensive about 30ish euros to each place on the train and then another 40 back plus about 80-150 for 4 or 3 nights total. So I feel like for what I am doing that really isn’t that bad. And I mean while it is money how often am I really ever going to get this good of a chance to go to Paris? Or to Lyon? Like never so I might as well do it. And it isn’t like I am staying in the most swanky hotels I’m going with the cheap hotel that has a shower ( YES I am already looking forward to them) and saying how often am I really going to be sitting around in the hotel? Mmm probably not long unless I am sleeping! SO that’s my plan! Also I have heard that like to get into the museums and stuff I can get in free or way cheaper with my Student ID card and a copy of my student visa. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!

Madame was filling out a complaint card for the bus. And had one from last week as well, I didn’t ask her what the problem was as I figured that it was prying. I also learned that she does Laurence and Jean-Clauds family laundry on Wednesdays too not just ours. So it seems like even when she doesn’t work she works. I asked her today if she likes the job she has and she said she does. She is very knowledgeable about parts of France but other than the South she hasn’t really been to very many other parts. She just watches a lot of informative TV shows.

I went and paid George and then went to my Translation class. I asked my teacher what “Mon petit brouillette” means as Madame says it all the time to Bee bow. MY professor didn’t know so she told me to ask Madame or write down how it is spelled. I think she said it just means like face or something. She laughed when I asked her what it meant. I don’t think it is a real word but like something she sort of made up.

When I got home no one was home so I started doing more research about trains now that I knew that Cassidy is flying into Marseille not Lyon. It’s actually going to be fun to ride the train together and be cheaper overall. I have to wait for my new visa card to get here though before I book the hotels and trains. I have noticed my English is getting worse since I have been here. Today I wrote overloud instead of overload and didn’t realize it until like five minutes later. Also my grammar as well is getting worse as is my spelling. I think this must be a good thing though because my brain is switching modes and is going more French.

Pretty soon Paul came up and wanted to go through the pokemon tumblr that he went through yesterday. I need to find some more kid friendly blogs to follow for him. I feel like this isn’t going to be a onetime thing. Pretty soon Madame came upstairs and started cooking and Paul went back downstairs. Tonight we had mashed potatoes and sausage and wine and fromage and these like appetizers which is like some type of meat on bread with a pickle coin on top. Strange but they taste alright. I don’t particularly like them but they aren’t bad. Madame made them last night and asked if I like them and I said yeah so then she made them again tonight. I hope it isn’t becoming a thing…  After dinner I went and talked to Thad a bit. Then I came out and started writing my journal but that was like two hours ago because the tv shows keep sparking my interest. But it has been a nice day where I did some things but also didn’t do too much. J

Fun things!

Today I woke up slowly as I love to do on Tuesdays and took a shower, got dressed, made my bed, and ate some breakfast. I made my lunch and threw it in my bag and then went to class. I was there early as per usual so I tried to do a bit of homework and research into hostels in Paris. I think it is actually cheaper for Grace and me to get a super budget hotel than to stay in a hostel. Which I think is a bit strange but I am rolling with it. I haven’t booked anything yet because we both need to look at transportation there but I think that it is a done deal and we WILL be going. I need to see if it is cheaper for me to leave from Barcelona and go a day earlier than Grace or if it is better to come back from Barcelona on the bus and leave the same day as her. We shall see.

My classes were cool today. I got more info on the French Revolution and learned that July 14^th isn’t the day of the Storming of the Bastille but is actually the day of the fete de la federation which was like this huge party that was in France after Louis the 16^th pretty much became the prisoner of the people and had to do whatever the Third Estate said. But I guess that each year the news people tell everyone that this was the day of the Storming of the Bastille, but it was not! So that is funny. Also the story of how Louis and Marie Antoinette tried to leave France to go to Austria but got caught is a funny story. They got caught near the border because the King was hungry and was dressed as a bourgeois but he ordered like the most expensive stuff on the menu. And then some other guy in the Inn noticed he had the same profile as the guy on the coins. So I thought that was pretty funny. 

For lunch I ate my delicious PB&J. Now I weigh 305285 pounds. ;-) Actually I was looking at the nutrition facts between PB and Nutella and the difference is that PB has more calories (barely) but a ton more protein and less fat. So I think that it is actually better for you. But anyways then it was time for World Literature. We talked a bunch about Satan as we are reading Paradise Lost. It is always interesting and I was able to finish the bible phrase about how it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. I felt pretty proud of myself. After that I walked into the hallway and ran into Kelan who told me that him and Julia were going to go to Happy hour at 5 if I wanted to wait and join them. I said sure why not since I had nowhere to be. So I figured I would go read in the school for the next hour and a half. 

On the way back to the school I passed a sign to an exposition of paintings that I had passed a few times but hadn’t explored. I figured why the heck not now? So I went down the steps into this like gallery room. It was just one lady there and I said Hi which you are supposed to do all the time whenever you go somewhere. The lady who was probably a bit on the older side came over and started talking to me! Which was a bit strange but nice. She asked where I was from and stuff we probably talked for ten minutes and then she asked if I would stay here while she ran to the bathroom and guard the stuff. I said of course! And she left. I wasn’t supposed to take photos but I figure it wouldn’t hurt for my blog so I quickly snapped a few of the room and went on looking at the paintings. She came back and kept talking to me as I made my way around the room looking and talking about what I liked in each one. She asked my favorite and I said so far that one but I really liked them all, which I did as they were all really colorful and probably took a lot of work. I learned about half way through that they were HER paintings!!!! I thought she was just the one in charge of them! The artists name was Paule Romas so I thought that was a guy’s name! Kacy fails! But she was super nice. She complained that it was cold and I told her Oregon is much colder so this was still warm for me. Also that it rains all the time in Oregon. When we went through all the paintings another lady came in who was from Belgium and so we talked with her a bit as well. They were both VERY nice. I went to leave but noticed she had some posters with her art on them so I figured that would be fun to get a poster to remember how nice these ladies were to me. And when I went to pay she would NOT take my money! I tried everything! She signed my poster and then told me to hang up “a bit of sunshine” in my room at home so that I would have some when it rained. J I was very happy and thanked her many times before happily departing on my way with good faith that people can always be nice to one another even if they are from drastically different worlds. 

I went back and started reading but sooner than I thought Kelan came down looking for me so that we could go. Julia soon joined and I retold them the story of what had happened. I told them that they should go check out the paintings because they were so pretty! And it is free! We went down to Happy hour where Kelan and I split the tab on two “Sex in Aix”s which I think is just like a sex on the beach? It was like coconut, orange juice, and strawberry? I think? I don’t really know but it was very good! We talked about problems we had run into with our hosts or what interesting things we had learned. Kelan talked about how he has the opportunity to stage manage for a reading in November but it is also the week his parents are coming to visit. So he wanted to know what we thought he should do. 

After that I went back home and was doing a bit of homework when Paul came in with a balloon. Of course then he wanted to know if I would play with him. So we did that for probably about half an hour until he got bored and wanted to play on my ipod. He thinks it is a phone but I have told him like 5 times that it isn’t. Today he said why do you have two phones? Meaning my Ipod and my phone so I told him again. For dinner we had lasagna which was very good. I ended up eating a lot of it as I was pretty hungry. After that I introduced Paul to one of my Pokemon Tumblr followers and he scrolled endlessly through it telling me who has genders and who doesn’t and which cards he has. I think he is pretty excited for the new game.
 

He then left and I got online. I had jokingly to Cassidy told her she could join me in going to the Fete de Lumieres in December. I thought it was totally a crazy idea. When I got back to my computer we started talking details and where she could stay in Aix. I started trying to find cheap hostels or hotels or something. I went out to talk to Madame to see what she would say if I said I had a friend who was coming to visit in December because I didn’t want to ask if she could stay here since our program like forbids it. But she was like yeah if she wants to sleep with you I have no problem with that it would save her lots of money. And I was like are you really sure like six times and she was like Yeah of course! So I went and told Cassidy and she said that her coming here might actually happen and then all of a sudden she had a ticket to come on December 5-15! YAY!!!!! Oh my goodness I am so excited!!!!!! Someone is coming to visit and see where I live and everything!!!!  I am pumped :-D!!!!! We are going to Lyon first and then after that back here and she can get lost in the city and everything!!! I’m sure she will have a blast! And I know I am looking forward to it!!!

Grocery Shopping

Compared to my last uneventful day today was REALLY uneventful. Did the usual morning thing and then went to class. After that I went to the Monoprix to get some lunch foods that I can start to take with me to school so I don’t cost as much to eat each day. I ended up spending 30 Euros to get everything which was 1 spiral notebook, pencil case, tiny jar of PB, jelly, bread, Oreos, some pretzels, goldfish, a PowerAde, sandwich bags, a uncle bens rice pouch (microwavable) and some bananas! It really wasn’t a lot but I think once I don’t have to spend over 4 Euros on a tiny peanut butter it will start to be cheaper. It was kind of cool to see all the different things that they had and next time I need some food I want to go to the super market stores that are outside of town just to walk around for a bit. I would have to take the bus though but meh. I think that is an experience all in itself. After I made myself the first PB&J since I did OC, I started in on the homework. I read for a few hours and then decided that I was done. I finished all the homework for tomorrow so I figure I’m probably fine.

When Madame got home I asked her where she would want me to keep the food I bought and she started trying to figure out why I was buying breakfast food (in her opinion) since that was her job. I explained it was for lunch though and then it was all good. I showed her my PB because she asked what I bought and she told me it was bad for my health and was going to make me fat. I just laughed it off because most of us Americans are getting that same thing from all our hosts about peanut butter. She cleared me a shelf though and it was good. 

Then I went to my translation class which really doesn’t seem very hard yet. It is difficult in that you need to understand both languages but the professor is really nice and because it is a translation class we get a mix of French and English which I really like. It’s nice to make comparisons of the two. Also no one in the class but me knew what agates were. So I had to explain. The class is really nice though and there are only ten of us in it so it is intimate, just how I like my French classes!

I got home and uploaded the rest of my pictures onto Facebook and discovered my second French album had been set so that only I could view the pictures. Whoopsie that won’t work! So I changed it. For dinner we had the rest of the chicken and diced potato fry hash brown things. They were god and so was the cheese. After that I went and Skyped my beau before getting a facebook message from my friend Grace from Oregon Crusaders who is currently studying in Denmark wondering when I was free some weekend to go to Paris. It turns out that she is free during my fall break so we are going to try and see if we can make that work! Because that would be awesome!!!

After that I talked to Madame a lot about holiday sad traditions and where I wanted to go and she told me where the best place is to go and at what time of the year. It was a fun conversation which included Beebow being a dork.

After that I put my blog up and went to sleep J

Marseille

Today I woke up around 9:30 to meet everyone to try and go to a museum before the school trip to Marseille. I had breakfast and talked to Madame who asked if I had heard the big rain storm last night. I told her I had even though I hadn't because I'm used to it but I had noticed it had rained. I got dressed and did my thing and donned on my raincoat. Before I left though Madame told me to change my coat because it was going to get nice again. On my way to meet everyone it rained though but it was no biggie. We met at the Cézanne statue as per usual. Sophie and Lauren went to go check out the market while I waited with Julia for Kelan. I guess that we weren't going to the museum because we found out that it wasn't actually in Aix... Oops. Julia and I talked about going to Italy one weekend because she can't go during fall break when the other girls are going because she is going to meet her boyfriend in Amsterdam. I told her that I would love to go to a Italy with her some weekend so she is going to send me which weekends she is free! Yay! A travel buddy! 

Kelan never showed so we went to find Sophie and Lauren but ran into Kelan first. We eventually all met up and decided because the market wasn't as great as per the rain, that we would get lunch at a cafe before going to meet the bus. I got a Panini and a cherry coke but then ran to monoprix really fast to buy some q-tips so that I could break my other fifty bill. I got back and Claire had joined us. After lunch Sophie, Lauren,  and Claire went to find a fruit bread. Kelan, Julia, and I stopped and watched some belly dancing people dance. It was pretty cool. By that time it was about noon and time to head to the buses. We had the nice bus this time which had very nice seats.

I will be the first to admit that this day was not as fun and nice of a trip as yesterday. Not because of the location, but because my ear tricking hurt and the stupid bus guide lady kept going on and on and on and on. Not about like the places we were going but with like the most basic of French culture that any moron who has ever taken French would know. And I know you are thinking but Kacy not everyone has as much French experience as you. But this is false! We are on the advanced French bus! Which means everyone already knows that not a ton of French people dive because the piece we is expensive. We already know that French eat dinner later than Americans. We already know that Marseille is the fifth largest city in France. You really don't need to say it 6 times! And no I'm not exaggerating but I was counting!!! She yelled at us for talking within the first ten minutes because she said she was you g to talk for 20 minutes and then we would have time to talk amongst ourselves but then she never Shut Up! And she was on the overhead talking SO loudly that you could’t tune her out!!! It was ridiculous! We had to listen to her annoying voice the whole hour there and half hour in between locations and almost all of the time back! Everyone was just talking about how she needed to just shut up. She really did do a number to the experience of the trip. It would have been a lot more fun if she had talked for five minutes about where we were going and then sat down and stopped talking. That really would have taken the trip from a 6 to a solid 9. It was ridiculous. Okay end rant. But I'm still annoyed and my ear just feels word now.

When we got to Marseille the first view was to the sea where there were about 6 cruise ships docked. They looked really cool. We drove through the commerce district of the city in order to get to the centre ville. When we got there we drove around the marina in the center city to get up the hill to the Notre-Dame de la guard. It is a huge and beautiful cathedral that looks over the entire city. 

When we got off the buses we hiked up part of the hill more and everyone got out their cameras (which our lovely bus guide had told us not to take out and only to take pictures with our eyes because someone might try and steal our cameras.) to take pictures. We all ignored the bus guide just as we tried to do the way there. How could you not take pictures of this because it was so gorgeous. We walked up the hill and then up a bunch of steps to get to the entrance. It was sooooo windy! Being right on the sea and being on the hill the wind was very strong and very crazy.

 

I got some pictures and then headed into the “Crypte” It was actually really cool in there. I made an offering of a euro in order to light a candle which I can now say that I did! Though I don’t know if you are only supposed to do that if you are catholic? Oh well. But inside the little hall there was the choir practicing singing so I got a little video clip of that. I also got a bunch of pictures. Next I left the crypte and went to the main hall. It was goooorgeous. There was a big boat theme because of it being on the coast and such and it being such a large commerce town even like a really long time ago. There were lots of paintings of boats on the sea as well as boats hanging from the ceiling. The tiles as well had a lot of waves and boats. The hall was very gold and red. I think that the gold was really cool and though I didn’t really find out I think that it was real. I took a bunch of pictures there and then on my way out I noticed they were letting some people up some side stairs so I followed them and got to go up on top of the cathedral, like above the main hall where the windows were. It was really windy up there! The view was amazing though and after looking out on the city we got to go in the hall and be really close to the ceiling so we could see the work up close. It was super cool. Then it was up on the roof on the other side and then back down. As per usual it seems I bought a few post cards in the gift shop. I can’t decide if I am really going to send them or if I am just going to keep them? They are cool though, and probably the cheapest thing you can buy at the gift shops. It was a really cool experience to go to this cathedral because it was so old and decorated so nicely. It’s hard to believe that things that beautiful exist all the time and not just when we are there to see them.

When we got back on the bus (after getting yelled at by our bus guide not to walk in the road because cars might be coming after we looked and there were no cars coming) and the headed back down to the Centre ville. We got let out to do whatever for two hours. The weekend was le jour patrimoine which means from what I gathered that all the French museums and stuff are open and free across the country for just this weekend. So naturally everyone and their mom and chat are going to the museums. They told us we could and my group went and tried but it was an hour long wait just to get in so we decided not to. We walked around Fort Saint-Jean which was the area around the museum. This museum is also brand new this year which didn’t help us with the crowd control situation. Fort Saint-Jean I really don’t know much about and was going to Google but my internet is so crappy tonight there is no way. It was pretty cool looking though and very old. 

Oh also from the Cathedral you could see Chateau d’If which is where they put Edmond Dantes in the count of Mote-Cristo for all you literary folk. Kelan and I really wanted to go there by boat but we didn’t have enough time. We were sad.

After walking around the fort we decided to go get a drink at a café. We wandered around the marina until we found one and then sat down. The place was a little busy and there was only one waiter so I took a while. I ordered tea but he mixed up how many of what (because he never wrote it down) and so I ended up with hot chocolate which is fine but I really had wanted tea! Oh well another day. I took it and it was good. Apparently Kelan owed me money from last night doing the bill at dinner so I didn’t have to pay for it anyways. It is very difficult to do paying of the bills here. They don’t do split tabs so you need to have exact change all the time and every time it just becomes a big headache for everyone to figure out. And then once everyone takes care of their own money and figuring out that they did it right we have to redo it all again to make sure that we have enough total and no one did math wrong. It is a bit of a nightmare which is why Kelan bought my drink. I had forgotten so I was like oh okay whatever. 

After that the girls wanted Crepes so we went to the first crepe place and she said she was out of batter. So we went to the second which was obnoxiously expensive and then to a third where they had enough batter for three crepes but that was all. I kind of wanted one but not really so I just decided to pass. The other girls went back to the expensive crepe place and got them after we cleaned out the third. Kelan had a PB&J and I was super jealous but I hadn’t bought sandwich stuff yet because I was waiting for PB to arrive in a package from my mom that I thought was in the mail. We sat on some steps and just kind of chilled. We didn’t have a very high key day just because we all had headaches from the bus ride and all the stairs and stuff at the cathedral had kind of wore us out. Also we were pretty mentally tired from taking it all in. I would say that Marseille is nice-ish but by no means my favorite French town. The cathedral was the highlight and awesome but the city itself was one that could be missed. Nice was way nicer and fun with more things to see and was also a lot friendlier. The people in Marseille were a bit rude.

When we got back I was walking back thinking about getting a crepe when Daniel walked up behind me to walk with me. We tried to go to “crepe a gogo” but they were closed because it was a Sunday. Darn. Maybe tomorrow after sandwich stuff shopping? But I was just ready to get home considering I still had homework. I got home and started uploading pictures from the last two days but my internet started crapping out every two minutes and I gave up. Madame says that it is because of the storms in France right now. Madame bought a rotisserie chicken and olive oil and some kind of spice potatoes for dinner. It was pretty good. I like chicken. I spilled a glass of water on accident all over the floor. I was not happy about that but she said it was no big deal. I got back to homework after dinner or tried to anyways but because it was online I needed internet and whenever I had it the site would not go where it was supposed to but rather to someplace else. I got very frustrated. Luckily I have the number of a guy in the class named Patrick who I texted and he told me 1) where to go to on the site 2) how to find the answers 3) that it only takes about five minutes to do. So looks like I will just go to class early tomorrow in order to make sure I have the homework done. I think that means no Skype time though… 

But the internet thing really put me on edge. Also I found out mom hadn’t sent my package yet like I thought so I had been climbing 3 flights of stairs everyday to check my mail when there was no reason to… -.-‘ Oh well. I’m grateful she is sending one at all with how much international boxes cost. I find it ridiculous.
 

So today I have not been in the best mood but I feel like understandably so. I am really exhausted mostly and wish I had a weekend to recoup. But I don’t because that was my weekend. Oops. They made the time go fast though having the trips. I just wish I could go on a trip that didn’t feel so rushed or disorganized. Because it is one thing to not have a plan and go with the flow, but it is another thing to have a plan and then not follow it because you can’t get organized. 

Goodnight. Here’s to hoping I can even get text up on the blog tonight!

Nice and Eze

(What a clever title! I am so good! (though it is pronounced like niece!))

Today I woke up at the lovely hour of 6:20 and was shocked that I wasn't in a hospital. I had this horrible dream that I was driving to Astoria but the drive was like all these huge cliffs and then like this speeding car and police came up behind me and the fast car hit me and we got in like this huge crash. I was still alive but like I blacked out when the police got to me because they had to arrest the other driver first. And the dream felt so real that I thought I was waking up to be in a hospital but instead was in some strange room. Then I had one of those freak outs because I didn't know where I was. But then I was like oh yeah I'm in France. Waking up here is difficult for me because it isn't the same set-up as my rooms at home so often at first I don't recognize it.

But I woke up and had a quick breakfast before heading out to meet the bus at 7:30 to go to spend the day in Nice. I got some money for the day/ weekend/week out of a different machine and it was mean and have me a two fifties instead of smaller bills. Big bills here suck because no one ever wants to take them. A 20 is like already bad but a fifty is like oh man not so good to have. But I rolled with it and took note of that machine bing not so good and then went to find the buses. I had a bit of trouble finding the hotel but luckily I had left myself lots of extra time to get there so as not to be left behind. After some confusion of who was on what bus and which bus was which number we got on. My bus is for the advanced French students so all our information stuff is in French. Kelan is my bus buddy we decided for these trips. We got on the bus and though I tried to keep my eyes out the window I couldn't help but fall asleep for part of the way. We stopped at a gas station rest stop and we all went to the bathroom and got snacks. I bought a little Starbucks frappuccino thing to tie me over for the day and break one of my fifties. Then it was back on the bus!

We passed by Nice and went instead to Eze which is a smaller town where we toured a perfume factory. Sounded like a cool idea but it was really difficult to hear our tour guide in the small space talking in French when the other groups were being loud and another tour guide was speaking English. It was difficult to keep the mind in French mode and she was being so quiet and the English lady too fuzzed to really hear anything. We got to sample some different like pure extracts like lemon, rose, strawberry (my favorite), coffee, lavender, and chocolate. That was probably the funniest part of the tour as well as seeing how they use the molds to make the soaps. The gift shop was kind of cool but everything was pretty expensive and I really didn't care about buying perfume. We only had an hour total in Eze including the slow and mandatory perfume tour. Kelan and I ditched the gift shop in order to try and get to the town to take a few pictures. We took the way the bus lady told us but it most definitely didn't go to town but to a little look out into the valley where you could see the Mediterranean. We took some pictures and then were sad that we had to go back. We waited around for people to be done in the gift shop and then got back on the bus to go to Nice.

On the way there our bus guide prattled on for far too long about nothing in particular and repeats herself way too many times that everyone just tuned her out. We all were also vey distracted by the beautiful city and coast out our windows. When we got off the bus we had to follow our bus guide to the meeting place in front of a statue of a naked guy who was vey nicely done but he was not nearly as exciting as the beach. The bus lady held us there for too long saying the same things she had already said before letting us leave. By that time we had about an hour to do whatever before we could meet back to go either on a walking tour of some parts of the city or up the side of the cliff called a chateau that had some ruins and waterfalls. We walked a bit before we found a place where we could buy some sandwiches that we could then take to the beach. I bought a piece of strange pizza and a slice if apple pie which was very cheap. I also ran down and bought a few postcards before the rest of the group got their food. Kelan and I quickly wolfed our food don because we both really wanted to go in be Mediterranean  I swim. The other girl wanted to sunbathe so we left all oh stuff with them and then went and jumps in. The other girls complained that I was too cold but I thought it was really warm, warmer than Oregon and warmer than swimming pools that I am used to! A bunch of other IAU kids soon joined us and it was a lot of fun. The water is so blue that it is unbelievable. It is also supppper salty. I accidentally engulfed some water and thought I was going to throw up from all the salt. It is nice bought because the salt helps you float so you don't really need to swim very much to stay above water. The shore was really pebbly but once you got in the water and couldn't ouch bottom it was awesome. There were waves by they acted more like softly not like breaking waves in Oregon and you would float up with them which was pretty fun. I really enjoyed myself and it was a really amazing experience. I want to do it again!

Eventually I got out and we went to track down some ice cream before meeting back at the naked guy to climb the over three hundred stairs. We didn't actually count but that number was thrown out. When I counted it was well over that but I eventually lost interest and lost track. We found an ice cream place and by the time we all got ours we had to run to meet at the guy. I got chocolate in a cone and it was super delicious. 10/10, would buy again. After meeting up we walked to the entrance and started climbing. It really is like super high up there. But the views were breath-taking!

My vocal cords gave me a bit of trouble when his creepy guy clearly checked me out when I passed him while he was on the phone and after words he stood up and started to follow me. I quickly went two stairs at a time and ran to catch up with the others who really weren't far ahead but I wanted to be safe.  But other than that they didn't get too uncomfortable. The waterfalls were kind of cool and it was nice to get a little spray after climbing so much. We sat down near the top for a while to just take it all in before we had to go back down to leave.

Kelan and I quickly ran to the top where we found another awesome view and a really good deal of 7 postcards for 2 euros. So of course I bought some more. I haven't actually sent any yet though... Oops. I figure they will be expensive to send. Though beside the point there were a ton of postcards with like half naked girls on the or random kittens. That was pretty bizarre. But we went back down and then went to the naked guy to meet everyone to leave. I was like super thirsty but because we had to be there at a certain time we didn't stop. Long story short, our bus guide told us the wrong spot and time. So we met earlier than we had to and then walked to a location five minutes away to meet everyone else. But because there were multiple meeting places it was pretty much a crap shoot and no one knew what was going on. We didn't leave until 5:15, which was very obnoxious because I was sooo thirsty.

We stopped luckily about 30 minutes down the road at a real rest sop to use the bathrooms really quickly. Kelan took my water bottle to the bathroom but then I decided to go as well and we both discovered that the sinks here were so short it was impossible to get water in the bottle. Luckily after waiting for the buses to be sure they had everyone (a 20 minute process even though only 15 people got off the three buses) the bus guide asked if anyone wanted to buy a bottle of water for a euro from the bus. This is actually. Really good price and I definitely jumped at the chance! The bus ride back was beautiful or is rather since I am writing this on the bus currently. I told Madame that I was going out for dinner tonight with friends because I only have 6 dinners a week. But the plan is to go home and de-salt with a shower first before re-meeting up.

We ended up going to the 24 hour restaurant which has a lot of seafood. Luckily they have other things as well so I ended up going for something that had chicken in it which ended up being fries and chicken baked in crumb or something? It was very good! Kelan is living with a girl from Sweden who came with us to dinner and she was really nice. I spent a lot of time talking to her because she was on the end and everyone was kind of ignoring her. She was really nice though! After dinner we went to an Irish pub for a drink and I tried a Tequila Sunrise which was pretty good. I liked the orange juice/grenadine part more than the tequila but it wasn’t too bad. A little spendy for my tastes but it was good. My ear has still been hurting so after one drink I decided to leave and Kelan and the Swedish girl seemed glad to have a reason to leave because they were getting bored, so they walked me home. Apparently there is like a new gang in Aix? Apparently? And also the other night this one girl got mugged from IAU 10 minutes from her house after the guy who was walking with her left. So they are really cracking down on us to be sure and have a buddy and not carry a lot of important stuff on us at night and to take taxi’s even if we live close. I live five minutes from that bar so it wasn’t a long ways for them to walk me home, and the street I walk takes a little bit longer but is much more populated. 

I feel like this doesn’t like accurately depict how crazy and cool my day was but I had a pretty great day. I am really glad that I got to go on this trip.