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.