class schedule

lundi (Monday)
9h-11h Langue (french)
13h-15h regards sur les medias (looks at the media)

mardi (Tuesday)
14h-16h langue (with lab)

mercredi (wednesday)
14h-16h langue
16h-18h traduction (translation)

vendredi (friday)
10h-13h langue (with lab)
13h-15h histoire d'art

the history of art class is supposed to be amazing because you get to go around the town and look at actual examples which will be awesome. i tried phonetics but the course started in the middle of the class because there are people in it that have been taking it since August and I had no idea what was going on. I also looked into a Prose class and a Greek Mythology class but the professor talked too fast. oh well. I think it's a total of 16 hours so that's good.

melange tropical

It's Thursday. Thursday is a good day I think.

I'm not really sure what I last talked about but I think i'll assume it was the first day of classes. As this week progressed it seemed that the profs continually got easier to understand. On Tuesday and Wednesday I have a different language prof than Mon and Fri and I think she's much cooler than the other woman. I also experience my first lab experience. We went into this room with like 30 cubicles that have headphones and a tape player (kind of.) We sat there and listened to this song for an hour to try and write down what we heard, which was interesting. I did alright I suppose.

The other morning on my way into town I wandered into Cezannes studio. It was really pretty but then I almost got locked in, which was pretty terrifying knowing that I'd have to explain why I was there in French, but the door opened and I left quickly.

Katy and I went to the travel agency to get tickets for Prague for winter break. bad news. A plane ticket is about 1000 euros and the trains won't get us there until 4 days after break starts and we'd have to come back 4 days later. So instead we're looking at going to Vienna with a girl for IAU who is really awesome. Her sister has an apartment there and from Vienna we may try to get to Prague or Amsterdam. Who knows.

Yesterday I tried to explain to this turkish guy why it's a bit sad that Cookie Monster doesn't say "c is for cookies and cookies are for me" anymore in french. he looked at me like "quoi?" I don't think he got it, but who understands sesame street anyways?

I have a pretty dumb cold that keeps me up at night. It's not cool.

In case you didn't get the memo, I didn't write all of those blogs today, I'm not a fiend, I swear. That is what I'd done on my computer so I didn't have to catch up on so much in one day, all I had to do was copy and paste. :)
Anyways, today was the first day of class. It was pretty intense. In order to pick our electives we have to go to the ones that we are interested in and the next week we choose which ones we are going to stick with. I had a language course for 2 hours this morning which was pretty cool, long, but cool. Then I went to a 100 years of Romanesque prose class. We talked about surrealism which is my favorite and I'm really glad that it was the topic of that lesson because I definitely won't be going back. The prof talked way too fast and she drew her q's like p's, her M's like N's and her g's were wack.
After that class we went to Regards sur les medias, which was amazing. It's all about the media and pretty much all we do is read the newspapers, listen to the radio, watch t.v. at home and then bring in something to talk about in class. The entire class is spent discussing what we'd read/heard/saw. Aujourd'hui we talked about a bank robbery, Heath Ledger, sports, and students grading teachers.
Tomorrow I have 3 hours of language and it's going to be rough.
Tonight we have our weekly happy hour and then I'm going to a local church group for a bible study and then project runway (I have to see what's going on with Christian, he's my fave.)
A bientot.

another blog or whatever

Today (1-27-08) was pretty awesome. We had our first excursion to Le Luberon. We drove to Isle de la Sorgue which was about an hour away

There we hung out at the market and walked around for about and hour and a half. The city is known as the Venice of France because it’s surrounded by water, although there are no dashing men on gondolas. It is also famous for its vast variety of antiques.

While I was there I met my first (of hopefully many) French boyfriends HAH. He told me I have beautiful eyes, this being the only thing he said in English I am guessing it was a well rehearsed line. He told me he is in the circus and I got really excited and told him about Circus of the Kids, or at least I tried. Then he asked me the questions of all questions, the one I’ve been waiting to hear my entire life, Voulez-vous acheter des bonbons pour 5 € si je peux vacciner ce chèvre?
(or something like that) which means “would you buy a box of candy for 5 euros so I can vaccinate that goat? You think I’m kidding, I’m not. Apparently he was a gypsy and his tiny goat could die at any second if I didn’t buy a box of honey candy. After being wooed by this charmant Frenchman with sea blue eyes, and seeing the poor soon-to-be-disease- ridden goat sitting on a stand I said “Non, merci. Je dois partir, au revoir.” (no thanks, I have to go bye.)

this is the goat the I refused to vaccinate

Needless to say I was dry-eyed walking away from this wonderful relationship with my newfound French love and hopefully I will never see him again.

Anyways… we left there to go to Fontaine de Vaucluse which is a city that is surrounded by these huge mountains and has a beautiful stream(ish) running through it. They have no idea where the source is and apparently it’s good for kayaking. We had a picnic of bread, camembert, and an assortment of other items on some stairs

After Fontaine we left for Roussillon which is known to be one of the most beautiful places in France. There is something in the soil that turned everything red and the town itself is idyllic, I’m not sure it can really be described in words.

On the way home we stopped at a chateau in the city where Camus lived and died. Being my first chateau I was pretty impressed, but also extremely tired. We didn’t stay long because it wasn’t open and all we could do was walk around outside. The surrounding area looked a lot like the house on A Good Year starring Russell Crowe, which makes sense because it was set in Provence (Aix actually!) Check it out if you want a better visual, plus it has a decent storyline and an awesome soundtrack.

We still have yet to set up a wireless connection from our house and thus these blogs continue to be read only by myself, but I’m thoroughly entertained and that’s all that matters, non?

a list.

Things which are easier to write in a list, thus easier for you to read:

1. I live at the top of the biggest hill in the entire city, by the time I get home I never want to leave again.
2. Chez nous is about 2 minutes away from Cézanne’s studio
3. Monoprix is Aix’s only department store.
4. They listen to a lot of American music here. Today while I was shopping they were playing the Timbaland cd, it made me happy.
5. From the top of the map to the bottom of the map of Aix, it takes only about 15 minutes to walk.
6. There is dog poop all over the streets because there is no law about cleaning it up. Also people take their dogs into stores and everywhere.
7. Paper here isn’t lined like paper in the US, there is about a zillion lines that go every which way.
8. FOR KATIE: I think I saw Jim Sturgess in the Chicago airport, he was carrying a guitar and looking SO good.
9. if anyone wants to send me a box or two of wheat thins it would be greatly appreciated, I’m jonesin.
10. I understand why Europeans don’t shower much. It’s so difficult. They have no shower heads only the attachment kind that you have to hold yourself and the hot water doesn’t stay long and it’s just not easy.

le 1ere blog

Bonjour tout le monde

For all who are concerned (which I’m assuming is all of you considering you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t…) I am alive and well. Right now Habanera from Carmen is blasting downstairs and I’m feeling very classy. I arrived on Wednesday around 12h20 which is 6:20 Kentucky time. It was a decent journey I suppose. I sat next to a man who slightly resembled Arthur Weasley on the way to Munich, he wasn’t very friendly and not a word was spoken the entire 8 hours we shared. When Arthur and I arrived in Germany I was pleasantly surprised at how cool the airport was. From there I took a plane to Marseilles where I met the program directors and some other students. We took a bus to Aix where Anjuli and I were dropped off at our home.

that's Marseille from the plane

My house mother’s name is Madame Marie Françoise Lathaumne and she is wonderful. There is also a French student, Claire, who lives with us. The house is absolutely incredible and aesthetically pleasing. We unpacked our things and rested for a few hours until we had to go to Café Negotiants for a Happy Hour with students from the program. We met some of the fall semester students who were just finishing up their exams and we talked to them. They were kind of downers but I was able to buy a hair straightener for 10 €, which is 15 cheaper than it would be at the store. I know you really care about that…

The next morning we had an orientation where we learned some helpful hints to our new lives in Provence. For example: Never walk home alone after around 1h30 or else something horrible could happen. You could be: 1. thrown in a fountain or 2. have eggs thrown at you. Also, never smile at French boys, you could get pregnant. After the orientation we dispersed until we met up again to take our placement exams. I felt that mine went horribly and that I had shamed every French teacher I’ve ever had. A while later we had a welcome dinner at a morrocan resto, which was awesome. Friday we had a tour around the city. It is so old and beautiful it blew my mind (and still does) and it reminds me of a theme park like Disneyworld probably because I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life.

the most narrow road in the city. translated it means something that has to do with smooshing in your elbows

in centre ville

this is where paul cezanne lived and died. one his studios is on the top floor

The tour ended and we had around an hour to hang out before we had to go on a scavenger hunt around the city. My friend Marisa and I went to Crèpes a gogo which is this on the go critically acclaimed crèpes stop. It was wonderful. We finally made it to the scavenger hunt and walked for 3 more hours, which was ROUGH. We ended up at the CEA office where we received the results from the test the day before. In this program there are 5 tiers (high beginner, low intermediate, high intermediate, advanced, and superior) and in those tiers there are letters a-e. The higher the tier you are the better you are and the higher the letter within the tier, the more advanced you are within your tier (ie: 2e is more advanced than 2a.) Before arriving I assumed I would be in the 2^nd or 3^rd level and so I had those classes equivalences figured out to see what kind of credit I could get for them. When I got my results back I was told I was a 4c which is AWESOME. My friend Marisa is in that with me and we get to choose 2-4 electives (I’m thinking history of art, translation, and 20^th century romantic prose) After that I met up with Katy at O’Shannons to hang out which was awesome because I hadn’t seen her in 7 months.

Today I woke up really late and met up with Katy at the Cours Maribeau for some shopping at the centre ville and more crèpes. We saw an amazing street band whose cd we bought (check them out at www.myspace.com/samenakoa) We went to H&M (YES THEY HAVE IT HERE!) and some other places, I tried not to go too crazy.

I am just now realizing how truly long this is and so I think I will stop. I’m actually in my room right now typing this and saving it to post once I find a place my internet works, my computer is merde (pardon my French) and it won’t pick up wireless anywhere, nor will it load a disc. :-\

À bientôt!

that was for jake.