Encore!

The great thing about being a part of a program like CEA is that not only do they know a lot of help information about Aix and the region, but they set up excursions for everyone in the program.

Thursday night, I went to dinner at a French lady's house.  Her name is Christine, and she loves inviting over CEA students for dinner once a week.  She made what appeared to be a type of quiche for a starter, but she said it was her own creation with spicy mustard, tomatoes, cheese and eggs.  For dinner we had chicken with some sort of olive marinade, and a cheese/zucchini casserole (which was soo good!). For dessert, in French fashion, oranges with cinnamon.  It was really neat to experience another French house and cooking.

This past Friday we visited a regional goat farm, Le Ferme du Bregalon.   It belongs to the family of a CEA intern.  Goat cheese is very popular in Provence and the farm has won some prizes for being some of the best in the region! We rode a bus out through the country, about 20 minutes from Aix to a town called Rognes.  We then walked about another 30-45 minutes to the farm.  The walk was just absolutely lovely.  It was really sunny and warm, a great day to soak up some southern France countryside J  We toured the farm and learned how they make cheese. Then we got to pet the baby goats, which were surprisingly cute. En fin, we tried 3 types of goat cheese, aged four days, one week and two weeks.  Yummm.  I have really grown to love cheese over the past few months.  I had just started to get into good cheese before I left, but recently I like nothing more than just some cheese and a baguette. 

Saturday, we met up with students from CEA Grenoble and went to a winery in Luberon called Château Val Joanis.  Again, just a beautiful and warm day, roughly in the upper 60s or 70s.  First, we had a chance to frolic around the gardens for a little bit. Not a lot of flowers were in bloom, but I loved the chance to be in the garden, the sun and just be a little silly and take pictures.  After, they took us down and gave us a "tour" of the wine cellars, which we really just two rooms with very large metal drums where they make the wine.  There we learned about how they make the wine, how it is different from making wine in the US, and how to spot a good wine in the store.  We then returned to the garden to sit in the sunshine and taste a white, rose, and red wine.  Then we came back to Aix and my host mom made my roommate and I French breakfast for dinner (tartine with a large hot chocolate to dip it in).  Then went out with the gang accompanied by the Grenoble students for the usual Saturday night shenanigans.

 

Then Sunday, got up and went to Cassis with Olivia (my roommate), Selena and two other girls in the program.  Cassis is right along the coast and is really well know for its port and the "calanques" which are massive cliffs/coves formed by the ocean.  We walked around the shore and the town for a little bit, grabbed some lunch and took it down to the beach.  We spent a few hours laying out and sleeping on the beach (I even got a sunburn!) .  The beaches are a little different here;  this one had sand and pebbles but a lot are just pebbles and rocks.  There were quite a few people on the beach, including French children running around and building sand castles, which was fun to watch (French babies are probably the cutest ever, maybe because I'm always so amused at the fact that they speak better French than I do).  There were even sailboats out on the Mediterranean.  After our repose, we went and looked at the calanques which were just gorgeous.  We did not climb up very high, but it is possible to climb up them.

That’s all for this weekend J

The weekend before we also visited a Santon maker (Santon Fouque) here in Aix.  Santons are hand-made clay figurines.  They are a hallmark of Provence.  Originally, the figurines were made to capture the nativity and displayed at Christmas, but have grown to include all different sizes and characters of traditional Provencal life.

 

stole these picture too, because I forgot to bring my camera.

Along with the nativity, "Le Mistral" is very popular character (shown above), and can be found all around the maker's house, including windows and a life-sized one outside!

I had not know too much about this tradition here in Provence and was really glad I got the chance to learn about it.

Well that's it for tonight! Like I promised, many more soon!

Shout out to all of my Ohioans

Recently I was accused of never blogging... and I hate to admit that is very true.
I have kept short journal entries/ beginnings of blog posts which I just never got around to posting.
Here is one which is from the first couple of weeks in Aix:

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Just when I thought I had avoided Ohio winters, I wake up yesterday morning to a covering of snow outside of my window! What happened to being in southern France?

The snow wasnt all that bad; it was really only a light dusting and melted by the afternoon.
Although, this morning my host mom was very concerned with me getting to class ok.  She would not let me leave until she made sure I had a scarf and a hat.  She told me many times to be careful walking to school, to watch the ice and to not fall (I live about a mile from school with about the first third going downhill).  What was most curious to me was were the signs at the bus stops talking about how they might shut down the buses here!
I couldn't help but laugh to myself.  I tried to explain to my host mom that I'm used to walking in many feet of snow that lasts all winter long, but I'm not sure she totally believed me.
Although, I also found out that her reaction is not as extreme as it sounds.  Apparently, this is the first time it has snowed in 5 years, and many people say they can hardly remember the fountain ever freezing over.
So for your viewing pleasure, a picture of historical proportion
 
I stole the image from offline, but its pretty cool.
I guess I didn't avoid winter, but I did get to see the Rotonde and many other fountains frozen over.
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I know its not a lot, but I have made a half-done-with-my-semester resolution: blog more!
So get excited for new posts! I will also post about some past excursions and trips I have taken.

Bonjour Me Amis!

Hello Everyone!


I know I haven't been blogging that much, and I'm not even sure if people are checking that much.  But if you are, je suis très desolée.


The past week and a half has been absolutely ridiculous; it seems like I've been here for a month already!
So I'll just give a little blurb about what I've done each day for the past week.  It might be kinda long so sorry, but I hope you find it a least a little bit interesting and want to read :) 


So I left Tuesday the 17th, out of Cleveland, heading to Chicago.  I had a 4 hour layover in Chicago, which was nice because flying out of Cleveland they ran out of overhead room for carry on luggage and started checking bags/sending them to peoples final destinations (which was 12 hours away for me and I had important stuff in my bag) so I was able to convince the flight attendant to let me just have my bag sent to Chicago :) but then I had to go through security again in Chicago, but it was ok.


Then I had my 8 hour flight from Chicago to Munich, Germany.  It wasn't bad at all; I was originally assigned an aisle seat, but the guy who was going to sit next to me (pretty sure he was some sort of doctor carrying a human organ with him in a red box marked in french so if I translated right it was haha weird) anyway he moved for more room, so I had 2 seats to myself, one next to a window :)


So then to Munich to Marseilles, France and then a bus to Aix-en-Provence which is the city I am living in.  I arrived in Aix around 5pm wed ( approx 11 am Ohio time, putting my travel time around 19 hours and except for 3 rough hours of sleep on the plane I had been up for roughly 27 hours) I was so exhausted.  I met my host mom and my roommate (who is American/from Ohio/in the same program as me).  My host mom doest speak any english and I couldn't comprehend ANYTHING that she was saying to me.  It was terrible! And she seemed really surprised at my lack of french and I felt really out of place and kinda like she was judging me! (dont worry things get better.)


So Thursday we met the other CEA students (CEA is the exchange program I am with). We took a tour around the town, nothing formal, just to see where like grocery stores where, where to exchange money, where the school was, just things like that.


Then Friday we took our placement test for school.  We get placed into classes based on the level of french we know.  So the school is divided into 5 levels, each level having a/b and maybe c groups each being just a little harder:

level 1: beginner

level 2: low intermediate

level 3: high intermediate

level 4: advanced (speaking really well, basically fluent, not a lot of people here)

level 5: superior (they said hardly anyone gets place here because its like regular french university classes).

There was an oral test in the morning and a written test in the afternoon.

My friends and I went out to some bars around here later that night.  It was a lot of fun to get out and explore.  The only thing is that it doesn't seem like a lot of people dance when they are out, which is kind of a bummer (although I heard there is a discotheque around here I just have to find it!)

Saturday we had free! Which my roommate and I spent at a cafe by here called "Cafe Carrefour".  They sort of have ties with CEA and they have free wifi! but I still order a coffee when I come in so it doesn't seem like I'm just using them! haha 

Sunday we had a group trip/excursion to some smaller surrounding towns.  They were absolutely beautiful! The one town had a giant outdoor market that ran through all the town.  So we bought some baguettes, cheese and fruit for lunch. Then we traveled to another town, where the tour guide kept saying "the source of the water was there" which was kind of just an open cave with water in it.  It was supposedly a natural spring you could drink from.  The town was just absolutely gorgeous.  I felt like I was walking through a movie set! There were small houses, mountains everywhere, a stream with crystal clear water, you could see the green moss on the bottom of the stream. Literally my dream town! Ate lunch there, traveled to a few other places-I am not sure of all of the names of the different towns, but there are pictures on my facebook, feel free to check them out!

This is my favorite!

Monday was a savanger hunt through the city.  It was fun, but for some reason my group took forever to do it and didnt finish haha

Tuesday found out our placement in school and met with professors.  And Wed started classes.

so I got placed into level 2 a, which I have mixed feelings about. I was kinda upset at first because coming over here I thought my french was decent, but I'm beginning to realize how terrible I am at actually speaking.  But the thing is I do know a lot of grammar and vocabulary, so I am trying to get moved up because I've talked to people in most of all the other levels and they said they still have a hard time understanding everything.  And I know understanding will come with more practice, so I want to move up because while I am practicing, I want to be learning new grammar and vocab.  But I had a hard time explaining this to my prof, which probably doesn't help my case at all haha

But right now my class schedule is as follows:

Monday: No classes :)

Tuesday: listening lab 9-10; language class 10-12; literature of Provence 12:30-3:30; translation 4-6

Wed: language class from 8:30-11:30; word and imagery 12:30-2:30

Thurs: language class 8:30-11; general literature 12-2; phonetics 2:15-4:15

Fri: language class 8:30-12

so all the classes in black are mandatory and all the classes in red are electives.  So the first 2 weeks you go to all the classes and then after you can pick which electives you want, and essentially just stop going to the ones that you dont want to do.  Which the school recommends picking 3 or taking all 4, but my program really only requires 1 maybe 2. so idk, i think i might just drop one of the lit classes, but I might take all 4 because it doesnt really seem like most of the classes have a lot, if any homework and a couple dont even have finals.

So thas basically all I've done here so far.  Next weekend we are planning on making a trip up to Marseilles because stores are much cheaper than in Aix.  And in France, sales are government controlled and only happen 2-3 times a year.  One of those times being right now!  We are also planning on going to a very old town that has a large market, and its very working class and no one speaks English.  So looking forward to those things.

At first things were much more difficult for me to adjust to than I thought.  Like I said, I am realizing my french is terrible.  Basically someone will talk to me for a 3 hour class and I only understand 1 out of everything 30-50 words spoken haha also my host house didnt have wifi (until today!) so that took getting used to.

Its also been difficult getting used to living in someone else's house and living by their rules.  But I'm getting more used to it now.  The only thing that is really difficult is that my house is a 20-30 walk from town (35 from school) and my house is up a giant hill (not exaggerating, I sweat every time I go up it haha).  Little by little its getting easier, and I'll be super in shape by the time I get back to the US :)  and I get to see really cool stuff on my way to school 

I guess in conclusion, things are taking getting used to, and its just been such a whirlwind of events so far, but I am so excited that I have the opportunity to be here, and really have a lot to look forward to!

Thanks for sticking to the end-ill start posing more now that I have consistent internet access. Love all of you, and miss all of you dearly. 

Blog?

I have thought many times about keeping a blog, but I had never really gotten around to doing it.

SO, what better time to start a blog than when I'm abroad.  I'm kinda bad at keeping journals and would like to remember things that I do while I'm abroad, and then this way everyone can know also.

Getting ready to go has been a hectic mess; every time I think I'm almost done, there is just another application or more paperwork to fill out.  Craziness!
Although, today, things became a little more real for me.  I purchased my ticket! and I am officially just under two months from leaving. I'm super excited, but also really nervous! Its going to be really hard to leave behind what I have here, but I know that I will gain so much from the experience.

More posts to follow when I have more information to share :)

Bon Soir