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| La Rotonde at night |
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| La Rotonde |
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| A Beautiful Statue near La Rotonde |
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| Hotel de Ville |
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| Hotel de Ville |
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| IEP (Institut d'Etudes Politique) |
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| Language Institute |
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| Cathedrale de Saint Sauveur |
Even though I hoped I wouldn’t, I’m already behind on my blog. So much has happened these last few days and it’s really made me feel worlds better about my decision to study in France. I promise to try and remember everything. :) Also I'm posting this later in the day because my internet wasn't working earlier. Anyway, here goes....
Saturday
On Saturday morning a few of us were going to go into Aix and get coffee and crepes and check out the street market. A few of the veteran ISEP students were going to show me around town because I still hadn’t gotten a chance to do that. But in the end, just Megan and I went into town. We ended up getting me a phone which has been one of the best things since I’ve been here. Being able to communicate with other people about what’s going on or where to meet has been invaluable. And having a phone allowed me to finally get the internet. :) Which, again, has been one of the best things. I was so happy to finally talk to my mom, dad, and girlfriend on the internet in my room in my jammies. After getting the phone, Megan showed me around town and I got to see La Rotunde which is Aix’s most famous fountain. I also found out where the Monoprix (kind of like a Walmart/clothing store mix) and Dia (kind of like Dollar General) were, as well as the bank, bus stops, and post office. After I’d gotten some more necessities for my room (and walked all over town), we were exhausted and we came back to Cuques to take naps. At around 6 or so, I woke up, showered and got ready to go out on the pub crawl.
The pub crawl on Saturday night was for IEP students and so I wanted to go and meet people who were going to be in my classes. A lot of international students here are from European countries, Latin America, the States, and China. So there were a lot of different backgrounds of students. We started out pre-gaming (drinking before going out) in Frances’s room. And then we went out to Chez Mus where the IEP students were beginning the pub crawl. We then headed to Manoir which is a pub and it was really cool but so crowded and loud. My french skills are horrible but in an atmosphere where I could barely hear, they got considerably worse. By this point, I was pretty tipsy. And I decided that I didn’t want to continue with the pub crawl so I met the ISEP students at O’Shannon’s Pub, just right across the street from Manoir. I met Manon who is a really sweet girl from Austria and I drank the most awful drink. It’s called a Monaco and it consists of grenadine and beer. So it was really sweet but also bitter and yeasty. Never again. I also met a couple at O’Shannon’s. The woman, Zelie, is from France but the husband, Andreas, is from Colombia. They met in Australia, fell in love and got married. How romantic! :) They invited me to dinner for Sunday night and I was so excited. At around 1, I decided to come back to Cuques with Megan because I was tired and wanted to skype with Morgan (my girlfriend) and family.
Sunday
After sleeping in until almost 1, I stayed in my room until 4 being lazy. I was so exhausted (jet lag’s still affecting me unfortunately) from the night before and I didn’t really have anything to do until around 6 or so. Megan texted me at around 5 or so and we decided to go in town because we were both so bored. After walking around town for about 2 and a half hours, we met up with Zelie and followed her back to her and Andreas’s apartment. Their apartment was on the very top floor of the building (about 10 flights of stairs) and it was really super tiny. But it was also homey. They had friends and neighbors over and the entire party consisted of 4 French people, 2 Bolivians, 1 Colombian, and 2 Americans. It was a really fun time and the company was great. One of the French guys, Sylvan, is from Cannes and he invited Megan and I to visit him if we were ever in the area. A few of the people were smoking pot (a lot of pot) which is alright but not really my thing. I didn’t feel super uncomfortable though, because they seemed okay that I chose not to participate. Zelie made pasta carbonara (pasta with egg, bacon, and cheese) and it was the most delicious pasta carbonara I’ve ever had. I could’ve eaten it all day long.
At around 9:40 or so, Megan and I left because a few people had invited us to see a movie as well. So we headed on over to the movie theater just in time for it to start at 9:55. We watched Somewhere, which is the new movie directed by Sofia Coppola and it has Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning’s little sister) in it. It was a really slow moving movie and I didn’t particularly enjoy it but it was in English so that was nice. After the movie we headed back to Cuques and I did some tidying up and talked to family back home. Overall it was a really great weekend which is something I wouldn’t have expected last week. I’m really starting to enjoy Aix-en-Provence and the international students here really go out of their way to welcome you to every movie, get together, and event. The kindness of these complete strangers really turned around my week and I’m so grateful for it. Meeting new people may not have been my number one goal while studying abroad but now that I know the amazing people who are studying here, I’m more willing to open my eyes and my heart to new possibilities. I can’t wait to see who will become some of my lifelong friends and I also can’t wait to see what kinds of crazy shenanigans we’ll end up getting into together. :)
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