I Want to Be in America! ... right?

Hello and welcome back for what is likely my last post of my study abroad blog. Thank you all who have been reading, if there are any of you left. Shout out to the random people who have been reading this whole time. Yes, even you. You know who you are, even if I don't.

After a horribly long travel experience making my way from Aix to Pittsburgh, I arrived safe and sound and tired. I've been home for nearly a month and I'm pretty much settled in. Yesterday I finally uploaded the last of my pictures to Facebook. When I got home there was a whirlwind tour of seeing all my friends and family again and it was wonderful. But now that I'm comfortably back home, I find myself missing France and my life there.

I'm sure I'm romanticizing it in my mind, but life there was so different. In France, dinners lasted for at least an hour, here I'm lucky if it reaches a half an hour. Every day there was some sort of strange and new adventure with my new friends, here life is getting a little boring and mundane. (Anyone else relate?) Back in France I saw almost all my friends almost every day, whether we were in school, or the park, or the market, or just sitting around. Here I don't see as many friends nearly as often. Part of that is because we're not in school anymore and everyone's busy, but it's a weird change.

Explaining these things to people who have never been abroad is hard. It's hard to remember that I was in France and I did something so amazing as going away for five months by myself having no idea what would happen. Sometimes I just have to stop and remind myself that it's really cool. (Hey, we all need to compliment ourselves sometimes.) Now whenever I get a little flustered about doing something new and potentially frightening, I remind myself I went abroad for a semester for crying out loud. What could be newer and more frightening?!
I don't want the time I had there and the people I met there to slip away, but who knows when I'll see them again or when I'll be back in France. That fact is so strange, because most times when we leave friends we know we'll see them again soon, over the summer, or back in the school year. But not when you study abroad. Sometimes I forget my time in France actually existed and there are lots of days I just want to go back. I would even go back to my constant state of language confusion. I love being near my friends and family and home, but as everyone always said would happen, I want to go back. But when I think of leaving home for another big adventure I get a little anxious. I definitely need to stay home for at least a little longer.
Going back to my real college, now that will be an adventure.

After those serious reflections I'd like to share with you all my first observations of the good ol' US of A. My first steps in America were in the JFK airport. Oh, you charming airport, you.
- khaki shorts and sneakers-- or worse socks and sandals-- on men
- exercise clothes for non exercise purposes
- hoodies
- top buns on girls, this is a hairstyle I both missed and find heinous
- t shirts, all the t shirts
- giant drinks, who, I beg you who needs a drink that large?! No one. A large coffee in France is smaller than a Starbucks' tall.
- large, everything is large. Cars, bathrooms, sidewalks, buildings, rooms, meals, everything.

France, I miss your classy ways.
That being said, I do love sitting around in basketball shorts.

Reverse culture shock kids, it's hard. I found myself wondering what kind of strange country I live in where people dress like this all the time and eat that much food. It's gotten better, I'm more acclimated to home (as I sit writing in my exercise clothes, even though I have no plans to exercise), but I'll never be able to truly think of all this American culture as normal as I once did.

And last fun fact, my family, my real family here in the US, is housing a kid from France in a few weeks! REVERSE! A teenager from France is just coming to live here and experience the US for a few weeks over the summer. Oh kid, have you got some shocks coming your way.

Merci mes amis and as always, profitez, no matter what country you're in.

It's the Little Things

There are the big things I will miss and not miss. But when you live somewhere you notice the little things as well as the big things. So here are two little lists of the little things.

Things I Will Not Miss:
- the tiny smelly bathrooms at IAU
- RyanAir
- dog poop piles on the streets
- sidewalks big enough for half a person
- pigeons flying at your face
- benches in the cave that have no cushions 
- being confused about which side the bise starts on
- handheld shower heads
- things being closed on Sundays 

Things I Will Miss
- not having to wash my fruit
- the streets smelling like bread
- walking in the middle of the road and not getting run over
- all people of all ages in any place stopping to give the bise to someone they know no matter where they are, even if they're in a car and the other person is walking
- the nonpolluting buses
- the colors of Provence
- casually picking up cheese at the market
- wee tiny dogs all over the place
- the adorable window shutters everywhere, America just doesn't really have them
- euro coins: the one and two euro coins are decidedly the most useful things, it's too bad America's golden dollar idea tanked (the other day, I actually forgot we had a one dollar bill in the US)
- the Provence sun

I think I'm actually more nervous to go back home than I was to come here. Maybe it's because I knew I'd come back home on a very specific date and I don't know when I'll be back here. France was full of unknown things, but that was to be expected. Now home, the place I'm supposed to be the most familiar with, is now strange. When you go abroad, you think that life back home has stopped because you left. Logically, you know that's not what happened, but that's what it feels like. Now everything back home has changed, you just weren't there to see it happen. So in my last few hours I have to remind myself to chill out, because I know everything will be absolutely fine, and instead enjoy my last bit of France!

It's the Final Countdown

BAH DA BUM BUM BAH DUH DUM DUM DUM
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Here I am on my last full Sunday in Aix. Next Sunday around this time I'll be heading to the TGV station to make my way up to Paris to catch a flight the next day. It's unreal. Time has flown while I've been here. It seems I was just arriving, trying to find my other suitcase, getting lost on my walk home, and being totally overwhelmed by French. Now I'll be starting finals week, trying to put everything back in suitcases, starting to say goodbye to the people I've met and places I've gone, and worrying about how much I'm going to struggle speaking in English all the time. (thank you, French syntax)

My friend and I were talking this morning that it's very weird to think of going home. Being here used to feel like a dream and our real life was back in the US. Now it's the other way around. This is our real life and back in the US seems like a dream. I just still can't wrap my brain around the fact that I will be leaving here and going home. That I'll be leaving this beautiful place and all these wonderful people. I can count down everything on two hands now. Seven days in Aix, eight days until I'm home. Seven more dinners with my host family, one more load of laundry. One more day of classes, four more days of school.

But this past week was a wonderful one. Friday and Saturday were super hot, up in the 80s with no cloud cover and I realized that I actually forgot what it felt like to be so hot. Aix does not ease you in, it goes from pleasant in the mid 60s one day to scorching upper 80s the next. I don't know how I handle summer back home.
However, the hot weather meant that out came the shorts, skirts, dresses and color! Our French teacher told us that French people don't really wear shorts unless it's hot or if the girls are trying to be sexy. For most of the students in my program, 65/70 was hot enough for shorts. But apparently not until 80ish are shorts acceptable for the Aixois. And the color. I've gotten so used to the neutrals that when they were walking around sporting bright colors and sundresses (!) I was shocked. Thank goodness they finally think it's hot.

Yesterday we went to the market for what might have been the last time. Stocked up on Provencal things like lavender, herbes, and tiny pottery with sunshines on it. Last night my friends and I cooked a meal at their house. We managed to make a sort of eggplant Parmesan, chicken Parmesan, and spaghetti with homemade sauce. It was a great way to spend our last Friday night all together. Since some people are leaving super early Saturday, it was really our last Friday night. I'm so glad that most of the people I have met live close enough to me that I can go visit them on weekends and keep in touch. (Although I think it's hilarious that my host mom thinks a three hour car drive is far. For me that's pretty close!) 

And now I have to go start working/studying. Five finals in the next five days and one paper. I am not used to this much work anymore.

Election Reflections: with Catharine

As you may or may not know, the French presidential elections just happened yesterday. They are by far the most dramatic event I have ever seen in France, seconded by the presidential debates.

First a little general knowledge: voting in France happens Sunday from 8AMish- 6PM precisely. To vote you take a piece of paper for Hollande and a piece for Sarkozy and an envelope. You go in a little voting booth like in the US and put one paper in the envelope. Then after signing your name and all that stuff, you drop your envelope in a clear box that someone opens and closes. At 6PM they count all the votes and any that are empty, or double stuffed, are invalid. Fun fact, France had 80% participation this year. Impressive compared to the US, no?

So. I went downstairs at 7:55 to watch the grand reveal. And grand it was. They count down to their elections like we count down to New Year's. There were newscasters all over France with the crowds from both parties and the newscasters in the room for France 2 (news channel here). They counted down like crazy. And we have two minutes left. One and half. One. THIRTY SECONDS. Then the news room got dark except for the lit up French flag on the floor. Then on the screen a picture of the Palais de l'Elysée showed up and a red carpet began unrolling from the gates to the front door. Dramatic music. Rolling carpet. It reaches the front door and BAM! Picture of Hollande. I was mildly stunned, I didn't think it would actually happen, but it did.

Afterwards we saw Hollande's supporters jumping up and down and yelling and cheering and crying. They had "FH" painted on their faces and "PS" for the socialist party. It was like a crazy sports event. Soon after we see Sarkozy's supporters. They all have their umbrellas up and all you see is a huge crowd of people covered with umbrellas. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. I can only assume it was umbrellas of defeat? Covering their shameful faces? It was definitely not raining so I guess they were symbolic. And among the crowd of umbrellas there were people waving white surrender flags. Very weird.

Then a little later Sarkozy came out to gave his 'defeat' speech. When he walked out people started booing and yelling-- but mind you, these are his supporters. He gives a nice speech about how he takes responsibility (they boo), how he lost in a democratic election so that's good (they boo), thanks them for their support, all those good things. He also tells them to be good French people and stay united and act proud-- unlike what the opposing party would have done if they had lost. Oh, snarky Sarko. Then they start cheering and yelling "Vive la France" and continue to cry and yell. Then they start singing La Marseillaise and waving French flags and I got some goosebumps because it was kind of creepy and rebellion like.


I didn't get to see Hollande's winning speech, he took forever to show up and I had to study for my test today and get some sleep. Anyways, who knows what this will bring for France. There are good parts and bad parts to it. In the words of the French, on verra.

Hello May, You Got Here Rather Quickly

Err... hello there May! Didn't expect to see you here so quickly. Honestly, it's May already? How did that happen?

This week was nothing special. Did some homework, did some procrastinating, the usual. Yesterday was the best day of the week. I went to the park with a few of my friends and we picnic-ed and then lounged in the park for a few hours. Then that evening I went to my friends' double birthday party and it was a blast. I realized last night how many great friends I really have made here and how much I'm going to miss every one of them.
Sadly, this morning I discovered that yesterday the sun got to me. Usually, I can sit in the sun for hours and nothing happens. I know it's still bad, but I don't change colors. Except this time. The backs of both of my legs are terrifically sunburned. Lobster status. And wearing tight jeans last night did not help that at all. Ouch. :( s

Maybe ready-for-home-ness comes in waves. Because recently I've started feeling ready for home again. I'm still doing just fine here, but it's so hard to motivate myself to finish these last weeks of the semester. I know I'll be home soon surrounded by familiar things and the little things here that get on my nerves start to get on my nerves more. I start counting down the days, how many loads of laundry I have left, how many Wednesday classes, how many more days until I can cook and bake in my own kitchen, use a stand up shower, and sleep on my favorite pillow. It's just the little things that are getting to me all around. I still miss people at home, but I know they'll be there and they'll be waiting in 16 days from now for me to arrive at the airport.

Sixteen days seems so short but so long at the same time. Five more days of classes, four days of finals, and one full weekend left. I keep needing to remind myself to live here and now, I'll be home soon enough. And once I'm home I'm sure I'll want to come back here. And someday I really hope I do. For now I need to finish all this homework in a great blast of productivity so that I have nothing to worry about until finals. So, brb, being productive!

We Are Going to London!

I have safely returned from my adventures in London!

To sum it up: It was awesome.

It was so weird though to be speaking English all the time. Every time I'd go up to a person to ask for help or order something I would start prepping my sentence in French. Nope, that's unnecessary, they speak English. Although, there were so many moments when I could not for the life of me understand what they said. Accents, man. I think I prefer not understanding French, because it feels so silly when you can't understand English, I mean I know it's different, but it is my native language...

London also has so many more American chains than France. Chipotle (!), Starbucks (!!), KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, etc... So weird to see. It was like a cross between New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. And then there are the castles and stuff, that pretty much moves it out of the States.

Anyways.

We got to stay in my friend's friend's apartment and finally got to make our own food (which I missed) and just hang out and talk and watch tv and destress from all that school work we've been doing. Phew, all that work.
But we did actually go out and see London too.

One bus ride, one plane ride, one more bus ride, one tube ride, a switch and another tube ride and I finally arrived in London.
Tuesday I got there late because my flight was delayed by two hours. Almost every flight out of Marseille that day was delayed because the planes weren't arriving, so we couldn't leave because there was no plane to leave on... So from the time I left my house in Aix to the time I found my friends in London, nine hours had passed. That's almost the amount of time I will need to fly back to America. So we just hung out that night because it was already 9PM.

Wednesday was a miserable, miserable, rainy day. We're talking shoes soaked through, wet jeans sticking to your legs kind of rain. And thunder. But we went to Camden Market and walked around. It was really cool, I just wish I had been not so grumpy and wet. Next time I go back it'll be sunny. :)
Then we went to the National Gallery (Free admission! All museums are free admission in London!) to hide from the rain. We appreciated classic art and such until we got too tired to walk and too overwhelmed by art. So much art.
So we found refuge from the pouring rain in a bookstore where we read books and drank hot chocolate and ate flapjacks.

Flapjack pause. These are the new best things ever. They are not pancakes, but kinds of granola bars. Except they have no gluten in general and are made instead with a base of oats, butter, and brown sugar goodness. I will make them and eat them all when I get home. Delicious.

We finally braved the rain and wind to go home and make some Indian food and crash in the warm, dry indoors.
Oh, but that day I did get to see Platform 9 3/4!!

Platform 9 ¾? But, Hagrid, there must be a mistake.
This says Platform 9 ¾. There's no such thing. Is there?

Thursday was thankfully nicer and we were determined to actually see monuments.

 First up was Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. So cool.

Big Ben

So tall!

Westminster Abbey

 Then we headed over to South Kensington to going museum visiting. After lunch at Pret a Manger (where we ate multiple times, so tasty), we headed over to the giant museum of Science and Natural History. It's in what I guess is a giant old castle and it's beautiful. And hugeeee. Huge. We got through only one part of it and were absolutely exhausted. We had to choose what to see, so we chose the dinosaurs and animals, of course.

My favorite bird ever. The dodo bird.

The outside of the museum

After a quick coffee break, because nature is tiring, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Sadly we only had 45 minutes there, because I could have spent all day there. It's enormous and full of art. All kinds of art. And jewelry and paintings and sculptures and everything. Modern art to tilt your head at, old art to marvel over, giant art to stare up at, jewels to awe over, photographs to appreciate, and more! I'm sad we didn't have enough time to see it all. The London museums are fantastic and free. I can't get over it.

Mysterious staircase art I wanted to climb

Giant. Giant giant art. (The room was under construction.)

 After that we wandered around some part of London. We had no idea where we were actually, but the day had turned sunny so we went looking around for a telephone booth. We ran into Harrod's so we had to go in and marvel over just how posh it was. Also, I ate a Cadbury Creme Egg and it wasn't that good, I don't get the hype. I actually kind of didn't like it at all.

Telephone booth found!
I kind of felt like a Doctor Who companion. If only...

We finally decided on a path for our wanderings and went over to Buckingham Palace to ooh and ahh. It is quite shiny and large. But otherwise uneventful. Still, 'twas nice.

Buckingham Palace.
Freaking tourists would not leave my shot.

Then we found a pretty park and walked our tired sad feet to the nearest tube stop to get home.

Pretty park!

All in all, it was a great trip. I hope to go back one day and caper around London some more. I think I'll encourage my brother to study abroad there so I can visit him. :)

The tube!

Saving foreign pedestrians.

And now the end of another week is here. I came from cold and rainy London to a sunny 82 degree Aix-en-Provence. I have a little over three weeks left in my warm and sunny southern France home. I have officially registered for classes back in the US for next fall. And all of a sudden junior year wants to come out of nowhere and make me figure out my life. No thanks.

So for these next few weeks I plan to sit in as many parks as possible and profiter. I know I say it every week, but every week it serves as a good reminder. (And you dear readers at home, don't forget to profiter!) But in between my park sittings, I have to force myself through nine more days of classes and four finals. Sigh, that'll be hard. I have no more desire to do school work.

Well, the next time I get on a plane it will be to go back to my real home. I will never have to deal with the shenanigans of Ryanair or the tiny Marseille airport again. Soon I'll be back in the giant US airports. Weird.

Good luck to all my friends back home with finals coming up, you can do it! I miss you all and can't wait to see you! If you pass, maybe I'll bring you a chocolate croissant!

Happy Spring Break!

Or not if you're me. I spent my first three days of spring break being sick and sitting in bed and not profiting. :( Luckily I'm 99% better now and just in time because... TOMORROW I'M GOING TO LONDON! So excited.

I have honestly no idea what I did this past week. I keep meaning to keep track of it so these last few weeks don't all pass in a blur, but I think I'm too busy doing to blog it all, you know? I do remember a few things, so I'll walk you through the highlights.

First I decided the dramatic tragedy Ruy Blas should actually be reinterpreted as a comedy. Just throwing it out there. (Crap, it looks like someone already did it. Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué, this looks perfect.)

Wednesday night I saw a show at the theater where I intern. It was a show for children. Small children, aged 3 to 10 probably. It was about the creation of the world and how we're now polluting it. Luckily, it was just about at my level of comprehension. It's kind of sad, because I didn't even understand everything they said. Just when I think I'm good at French, a three year old has to come and show me up. Rude.

France has a smell. A certain smell I've never smelled anywhere but in France. I don't know what it comes from. It's not a bakery, it's not cheese, maybe it's a plant? I've smelled it in Tours and in Aix. It's just a magical French smell, come back to haunt me with it's mysterious origins.

The kids at my internship continue to amaze and perplex me in terms of language learning. I'm becoming such a nerd when it comes to this stuff.
First thing, one of the little girls was told to do something and she responded, "Okay, sans problemo." You just spoke three languages in one sentence. I know, it's not like it's a huge feat it was just so funny to me because we always say "no problemo" and it never occurred to me that in France they'd say "sans" instead of "no". SO COOL.
Second thing, it's so interesting to hear kids argue about the gender of certain words. When was the last time you heard kids do that? Probably never because English doesn't really have genders. It made me feel a little better too because they weren't born with this innate knowledge, thus I can learn it too. Right? Right.
The third thing comes from some kids at the park. They were rolling down the hill and before they would roll they'd count "One, two, three!" instead of "Un, deux, trois!". I thought that was so cool. We Americans throw "bonjour", "merci", "hola", "gracias", and whatever else into our normal speech, it makes sense that other language speakers throw in English, but it's weird to hear. Who would have thought.

I think I've run out of wise reflections. There is nothing new to reflect. Except, this weird moment I had where I was just hanging out in my room thinking about how normal it is being here, this room is normal, is mine, and I'm used to it. Then out of nowhere, I was hit by it. This isn't my normal place... I kind of have to struggle to remember what my room at home looks like.
Let's do the usual run through of time I have left:
-one week in London and one weekend in Aix
-four days of classes and a Sunday trip
-five days of classes and one weekend in Aix
-FINALS WEEK... and that Sunday going to Paris to go back to the US.
Umm... When did that happen?

Let me tell you, it's so much fun ordering things online and sending them to my house, because when I get home it'll be like Christmas.

PS. Pittsburghers, don't get snowed in today! Hahahaha snow in April.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Weather themed titles, as per usual. This week was cold and cloudy and rainy for the good part of the week. I was unaware April would be so dreary and I'm a little disappointed. Especially when Pittsburgh seems to have nicer weather than us (sometimes, it did snow and hail there recently, but it's going to be 80 in the upcoming week so...). Fingers crossed next week gets better, my vitamin D store is dropping low.

This week flew by. Monday we had off so I hung around, walked around, went to parks, the usual. The school week passed without incident nor excitement, save for my literature class.
We haven't read out loud in a while and for some reason I seem to have lost all ability to read out loud. I think I made a mistake on every single word and it is hard to be corrected every time you open your mouth and try to say something. After suffering through a horrible butchered reading of some Proust, the class did improve. I sulked for a few minutes and then enjoyed the class again. It's a great class and we all get along and spent most of the class laughing (and learning, of course). Yesterday I wandered around with my friends while they 'interviewed' tattoo parlors to see where they want to get their tattoos. Don't worry, no tattoos for me. Although if I did, I might just get 'il faut profiter', so lyrical sounding, right?
And Friday I had class during which I rocked a presentation with my friend, then sat in the cave being very silly with my friends, came home ate a whole hollow chocolate egg and watched three episodes of Glee. LIVING THE LIFE. Whatever, it was rainy.

As another week comes to a close, I get even more confused about my feelings about France. While in the cave today, someone mentioned we have something like 37 days left. Uh, what? Sorry, did no one inform time we just got here? No, but really I did. I swear. Time has flown. But here's the weird thing, I don't even remember being home. I haven't been home since December and to think about Pittsburgh and what it's like there, what things look like, where I hang out, how to drive places, all the English, all the people (like yinzers), is so weird. I realize that France isn't the place I 'belong', but at the same time it feels like I've always lived here. I know, it doesn't make much sense.
Same goes for the awesome people I've met here. I was slow to make friends, but now that I've made them, I feel like I've known them forever. We've known each other for two months and yet I can't remember hanging out without them. I haven't forgotten my friends from home and in fact I miss them a lot, but my friends here are my normal friends now. A lot of my friends live close by in the US, which is also weird. Because this whole time, we've been close to each other, but only met once we traveled miles across the world to France. These things are blowing my mind.

I have one week left, then spring break, then two weeks, and finals. I can't wrap my mind around how short that is. I might actually be sad and have a minor life crisis when I leave here. Sure, I still want to go home, but...
As my friends and I have decided, if we could just transport our people to France, it would be almost perfect.

Until next week's baffled end of week post, il faut profiter!

Here Come the Easter Bells!

Here in France we have Easter bells as well as an Easter bunny. Here's what happens:

The church bells in France (and Belgium so says the internet) traditionally don't sound from the Thursday to the Saturday before Easter. Well why on earth aren't they ringing? I'll tell you why. They flew to Rome. In Rome they collect candy from the Pope and wrap it up under their wings. Easter morning they fly back to France and open their wings and spread candy joy all over the lawns. Then they go and ring for Easter morning mass.

And you thought an Easter bunny was odd.

PS. Looks like the Easter Bonnie (haha, get it?!) was busy this year! My host family just gave me the Easter candy that my mom had entrusted to them to give me on Easter. I knew she had it in her suitcase when she got to France and I was wondering where it went. And when did she get a chance to give it to them? It's been a while since she's pulled a fast one on me. Tricky, tricky mom.

I'm going out to eat lunch with my extended host family, but when I get back... I'm going to eat ALL THE CANDY. French chocolate is delicious, but there's nothing like Hershey's, Reese's Pieces, Snickers, and a giant hollow chocolate bunny.

Look! Snickers!

 

April Showers Bring May Flowers?

Remember how last week was great and full of sun?
Yeah, well this week was full of clouds, rain, and cold. So naturally all of us Americans who are mostly used to nasty spring weather complained and complained all week long. Because we're in the south of France and we were promised sunshine. The fact that it even rains is a travesty. It was even humid one day. The horror.

This week passed without much special happening. I had some classes, did some internships, ate some chocolate, hung out in the cave, and went walking in the rain.

Wednesday though I got to go on a fun adventure called, "Go to Marseille for Your Medical Visit to Be Able to Stay in the Country". This has been hyped up for weeks. We knew we were going to have to go, all of us with the unfortunate luck to have turned in the OFII or just have gone to the Boston consulate for our visas. I turned in the OFII due to some confusing circumstances, but it's no big deal now. However, I find it very funny that after being in France for three months already they now schedule us to go to Marseille. If I had diseases, they'd be in your country already... Sorry about that. This visit has been talked about and made much more terrifying that it actually is. I'll admit, the thought of having to go to the doctor and speak in French and get an x-ray (oh no, not that!) is kind of scary. I mean, when was the last time you were taught medical jargon in a foreign language?

But to my surprise, everyone there was very nice and not scary government people at all. They even let me keep my x-ray!

Thumbs up for no tuberculosis!

Just kidding, everyone got to keep their x-rays, I'm not that special. The doctor and I did have a nice conversation about going to the beach though instead of sitting in Marseille on a rainy day. So thumbs up, France, you did well that day with the governmental regulations and such. I do wonder though if the fact that I could speak to them in almost entirely French gave me some brownie points. Oh well, il faut profiter, as the French say. Then we trekked home via subway and bus to return to Aix, go grocery shopping, then go home and crash.

REFLECTION TIME!
Guess what? I finally feel comfortable here.
"Finally, Catharine, it only took you three months."
I know, I know, but better late than never, eh? I was walking to school one day just minding my own business and being rather happy and comfortable and in my routine. I actually feel like this is my regular real life now. Then all of a sudden it hit me. This isn't my usual life, I'm going to go back to Pittsburgh and everything will be different. I won't have this time ever again and I need to embrace all of it. This kind of contrasts what I said a few posts ago, but hey, two weeks is a long time. I think it helps that I've made some awesome friends here, the weather is beautiful (normally), classes are going great, and French comes more naturally. I'm still not fluent, not by far, but it's not a struggle.

I spend most of my days hanging out in the sunshine and laughing with my friends. It's going to be so rough going back to CMU where everyone works themselves into the ground. I go to markets and buy fresh fruits and veggies. For dinner someone else cooks for me and feeds me good healthy food without fail. My friend and I were talking yesterday and realized that reverse culture shock might be harder than culture shock.
What do you mean you don't have a bakery on every corner? You don't have multiple markets everyday? It's not sunny without fail? I don't have time to sit in the park and nap? There's only ten kinds of cheese in the grocery store? Chocolate is over two dollars? Dollars?! What's a dollar?! There's less than four kinds of vegetables on my plate? Your date format is month/day/year?

I'm sure all will be fine, but in two weeks my outlook on all of this has completely changed. So my friends, wherever you are, il faut profiter!

PS. Check out my photography class blog, our new photos have been posted! 

Let the Sun Shine

It's been absolutely beautiful in Aix here this week and it makes it even harder to do my homework. (And by this week I actually mean the week of March 26.)

Sunday
I decided it was really quite necessary to leave my house since I spent Saturday doing my homework. So I went to the park with my friend and we had a lovely time reading and accidentally napping in the sunshine. I sure will miss this sunshine when I go home. And the lack of humidity here bumps Aix up quite a few points in my book.

Monday
I got another midterm grade back, woo hoo for As! At my internship I watched the older kids do french improv which was hilarious. And pretty much the same as American improv. 

Tuesday
Got that final A, I'm four for four, woop. Did some classes, some internships, some museums, the usual.

Thursday
I sat in TWO parks on Thursday. One I sat in for a few hours during lunch time with my friends and then one after class with another friend because it was too early and too sunny to go home. More parks than class on Thursday, that's how we do study abroad.

Friday
Today was day one of three days of excursions. I'm going to be exhausted...
Rendez-vous at 8h15 (ugh, so early) to board a bus to go on our way to a little vineyard near a town called Brignole, about 40 minutes away from Aix. We got a tour from two people who worked there who told us about the crops, the reaping, the pressing, the fermenting, all those fun things. When I first walked in the cave, the first thing that I noticed was that cave smelled like my childhood.

Barrels and barrels of aging wine.

"Wait," you might be saying to yourself, "Catharine, why does your childhood smell like a wine cave?"
Well dear reader, it's because my parents have towed me along to many wine tastings throughout my childhood. I didn't taste the wine of course, but the smell is so familiar.
Anyways. In the surrounding grounds there were some bunnies, flowers, gardens, trees, and of course the vineyard bit itself. And the little girl of the vineyard owners was there just hanging out. Um, how cool to grow up in a vineyard! We had a charming wine tasting and I spent a chunk of time playing peek a boo with the little girl from behind a door. I'm always mature, especially at wine tastings. (The wine cave will actually smell like her childhood.)

Pretty view of the vineyard

The actual grape bush/trees, but they're not quite blooming yet.

Then we went to an old Gregorian monastery which was also pretty darn cool. It's not so interesting to look at, but the acoustics in there are incredible. We had a man who is a professional singer and who restores Gregorian chants come sing to us in the church. It was an amazing experience. The way the cathedral was built makes it sound like a whole chorus is singing in perfect harmony when only one person is singing because of the way the echos work. Then we all got to sing with him which was also super cool. Then finally went home and slept.

Saturday
Spent the day in Avignon with my history class. First we saw the Palais des Papes and walked around learning about architecture and stuff. It's pretty empty inside the actual building, but it's still cool.

Inside the big cathedral

 Next we went to the Musée du Petit Palais, which had a bunch of pictures we had to study for our test, I shan't bore you with that. Finally we got to go to the Pont d'Avignon, or the bridge of Avignon.

Le Pont d'Avignon

 And I'm not sure if you know, but there's a song about this bridge that says people dance on it.
 Here's a creepy children's song version to show you: Le Pont d'Avignon

Thus, naturally, we danced on it.

View from the bridge

And here's a carousel of my childhood, or so I'm told.

Sunday
Final day of excursions. This days was with IAU and so all the students went. We loaded up on a bus at 9AM and drove our way to the Luberon! The Luberon is a fancy and rich area about an hour and a half away from Aix. Our first stop was the city of Lourmarin. There was a little chateau there we stopped to see and run around in. Then we saw Albert Camus' grave. With a lizard running on it. That's the important thing to take away from this.

Pretty view in Lourmarin

The cutest dog decided to pose for me

It's just too pretty. I may buy a summer chateau out here at some point.

Next up, we drove to Lacoste. Lacoste is a perched city, so we had to climb an incredible number of stairs to get up to the top to look out over the city below us. We also had one of Marquis de Sade's ruined castles right next to us. Our guide from IAU told us we could go soak in the atmosphere of Sade, err... thanks but no thanks.
We had a nice picnic and then wandered around some foresty area before heading back to down to hop on the bus again.

Just over looking the land. No big deal, right?

Our last stop was the magical land of Roussillon. It used to be a quarry to mine ocher (I think?) so it's bright and brilliant orangey red. We got to hike through there and see the beautiful green trees contrasted against the orange/red ground. Some of the tree trunks are even colored orange from being in that area. So cool.

Looking out over the land

Unreal. Orange everywhere.

After we finished hiking through we got some ice cream, of course. I had some delicious peanut, chocolate, caramel, vanilla, who knows what. It was magical. Happily we all loaded back up on the bus to go back to Aix. And then that night I got to study for my history test on Monday. :(

And that is all for last week! This week will come in a smaller installment. Sorry if I switch tenses all around on you, I started this entry last week and am just finishing it now... Whoops!

We Are Family

I'm back! And excuse the cheesy title. :)

(Psst, see that new link section on the right? It's a link to the blog for my photography class. There you can find my pictures and those of my classmates from each assignment. Updated every two weeks ish.)

Saturday the 10th (woah, long time ago) I finally found my mom and my aunt! After some more shenanigans involving TGV stations, poor communication, poor planning on my part, and my mom thinking the back of the station was the front of it, I finally managed to find them safe and sound in Aix-en-Provence. We spent that weekend hanging around, I showed them the markets and we bought food and sat and had a picnic: goat cheese, emmental, bread, chocolate, Orangina, and macarons. My kind of picnic.
Monday they were left to their own accord as I was busy all day and had to take a midterm. (But I just found out I got an A on that midterm!) They spent the day shopping and we met up for teatime and dinner after finally finding somewhere we all wanted to eat. Tuesday my mom had some meetings at school and I had classes so we all "worked" that day. Then met up for tea and dinner again.
Wednesday we went a-travelling! All three of us booked a trip through the office of tourism in Aix and that morning at 9 hopped in a car with our nice guide and were on our way. Wednesday's trip included a wine tasting in Châteauneuf-du-Pape (fancy!), the city of Avignon, the Pont du Gard (big Roman aqueduct / bridge) , and finally a stop at Tarascon (castle on the Rhône River). 

Modeling in some ruins near Avignon.

GIANT wine bottles at Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

My mommy, my aunt, and me with the Pont d'Avignon in the background

Pont du Gard

Aunt Kath and mom posing at Tarascon

 Thursday I skipped some more class and we went on some more voyages. We had the same guide but were joined by three more other women on our adventures. We went to Arles, Les Baux, Saint-Rémy, and Glanum. Wednesday was warm and sunny, but sadly Thursday was cold and foggy. But we saw the theater and amphitheater in Arles, the monuments in Glanum, sites where Van Gogh painted, and the view from Les Baux--once the fog lifted.

Looking out at Les Baux in the distance

Inside the amphitheater at Arles

Amphitheater in Arles

Mom and Aunt Kath looking majestic on a mountain overlooking Les Baux

Stick fighting outside the mental hospital Van Gogh stayed in

The theater in Arles

Oh yes, there was stick fighting too. Everyone was looking at us like we were a little crazy--including the other people on our tour and the mental hospital workers. Oops. Haters gonna hate, that's why I have my hater blockers. 
Friday was our sad day of departure. :( It was so nice having them here I was really sad to see them go. But we spent our time before that hunting down a new bag and jacket for me, since a wool jacket doesn't seem necessary here anymore. Then we all drove down to the TGV station for hugs, tears, and goodbyes. Sadly, the first train was full I found out later, but they took the later train and got into Paris with no problems for a smooth trip home on Saturday.

That weekend I hung out with my friends and moped around because I was all alone again. Studied for some midterms or something because this Monday started midterms week. Three midterms in one week, oh the horror. It's also been foolishly cold here. 65 is not acceptable with Pittsburgh is 80. Swap, please?

So this week, finally. I took three midterms: french conversation, film, and literature. I think they all went well and I'm not really in any danger of failing this semester. Nothing terribly interesting or of note happened this week. Our student teacher in french class told me I should go out more. I think she thought I was pretty lame because I spend my week nights reading and sleeping. Sometimes I go out on weekends, but I value my sleep, let's be real. Oh, I did book my spring break trip though! I'll be going to London with one of my friends!! (commence singing 'We Are Going to London', that song from Madeline. Does no one know that song but me....?) So I'm super pumped.

Wednesday I hit the two-month-until-home mark and boy am I glad. I've been away from Pittsburgh since the end of December and away from the US since the beginning of January, so my two month away mark was hit a while ago. 
Don't get me wrong, I like being here. It's great and I could never have any experience like this back in the states and I would regret it if I hadn't done it. I wouldn't quite say I'm counting down the days until I get home, but I will be glad when that day comes. I didn't realize how much I like being near my home, my friends, my family, and Pittsburgh. Some people handle being away from home well and this has taught me that I prefer being around familiar things. And that is just that. I've realized that besides people I miss the little things, like my own bed, Starbucks, drinking tea in the morning, my animals creating chaos, sitting in the Baker basement studying and napping, wasting time at the black chairs (holla, SnS), making the food I want for dinner, Gluuteny, oh and understanding everything around you because it's in English.
I have plenty more years in my life to change cities, to go places and whatnot, but for right now, I'll be happy to go home. Most people at school keep yelling at me, telling me not to remind them how little time they have left. And they're right, I need to enjoy the time I spend here. I'm sure I'll miss France once I'm back in the US, but as a French person would say, "Pittsburgh me manque". I've also realized I'll never be French, I'll never speak french like a French person and while I'm here I just have to do my best to adapt and be a non-culturally awkward American in France. And that my dear friends and family, is just that. I hope this update finds you all happy and warm (curse this weather in the south of France!) and I can't wait to see you all!

Don't Worry!

I'll be back soon!
Last week was a crazy busy and fun time with my mom and my aunt, so I obviously didn't take time to blog about it.
And this week is my busy midterms week, three tests in a row starting tomorrow. :( So I'll be back at the end of this week to tell you all about my exciting life.

I Got 99 Problems, All of Them About Travelling.

I write to you all in sadness that my mom and aunt STILL haven't arrived. They were supposed to be here yesterday afternoon. Happily, they're both in Paris now, searching for luggage. Fingers crossed they'll be here before tonight, or I might take a train up to Paris to find them. While we wait, let's review my week. 

I got an A on my film paper, one of four. Excuse me while I gloat a little. Then I found that they have a new tiny gluten free section in Monoprix so I treated myself to a loaf of bread! A LOAF OF BREAD I SAY. For me, this is revolutionary. Sadly though, I found out I can't eat the crêpes from Crêpes-a-Gogo. Their buckwheat crêpes are half buckwheat and half real wheat. Who does that? Come on now.
Then I found out that Daylight Saving Time doesn't start on Sunday in France. In fact... it doesn't start until the 25th. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS. So the time difference will be different for twoish weeks, I'll only be five hours ahead. (that's how that works, right?)

Otherwise, nothing much exciting. Did some homework, watched some Downton Abbey, did some laundry, ate some smelly cheese for lunch, had my horoscope read to me in French, watched Sarkozy argue on TV, and saw some weird weird modern dance.

Sadly, midterms are the next two weeks, so I'm gonna go study (or watch Downton Abbey) and fingers crossed they get here soon!

 

"Winter" Break (part two)

Let's start off by saying that the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. So it's not really a winter break.
And it's kind of unreal being here hanging out and doing nothing, I can't believe it counts as school.

Wednesday
We went to Cassis finally! Except we missed the first bus due to some shenanigans involving the bus being at a different time because it was the work week. So we just sat in a cafe and caught a bus at 12:30. We spent the day in Cassis, but unfortunately--actually more like fortunately-- we spent most of the time eating. We went to a restaurant, but we couldn't figure out how to get the check. Despite the fact that we asked for it twice, it was about forty minutes before we decided to go inside and see that you needed to pay at the counter. I still don't know if they were supposed to bring your check to you. They brought it to other people, so... Oh well. By the time we got out of there, we didn't have enough time to go walk around and see the calanques, so we got ice cream and sat on the beach. What a difficult life.
Oh and then we went to the grocery store to buy apples and candy. M&Ms, a taste of home. (Even though they were actually from Germany. Go figure.)

Pretty nice, right?

Thursday
Took it easy in Aix on Thursday. My friend and I went to the natural history museum in Aix which has dinosaurs that they found in Provence. It was nice, but so small next to the Pittsburgh natural history museum. I guess I realized I'm a little museum spoiled. Still, twas nice.
Oh my gosh, I almost forgot. I had the world's biggest meringue for afternoon tea. It was at least as big as my head. That is where my sweet tooth ends. Sugar overload. 
 
Friday
It was absolutely beautiful on Friday. 65 degrees and sun out the wazoo. So, naturally we had a picnic and sat in the park for five hours. I reread The Hunger Games because the movie comes out in 18 days!! (2 days earlier than the US!) And while I didn't get sunburnt, I don't own any sunscreen (hey mom, want to add that to your to bring list? :) ), so I got a super awesome tan line from rolling up my jeans. Awesome half calf tans are the in fashion right now.

You can see them if you squint. Clearly, I tan hardcore.

I also ate a whole thing of Boursin with crackers-- by myself. A whole container. Along with an apple, peach juice, and some gluten free cookies I found. :)


Saturday
Today involves more hanging around. I need to motivate myself to study a bit for my test on Monday. Instead I watched Psych and read some more books. But since there's no more Psych to watch, I might go do some work now.
And... just SIX DAYS until I see my lovely mom and aunt! :)

I hope you all have a had a lovely week with some sun in the bipolar northeast. For those of you with break in a week, you can do it, I believe in you to make it through next week!!

Winter Break! (part one)

Is not as thrilling as you may hope. Since I am but a poor college student, I decided to stay here in Aix for break instead of jetting off to somewhere exciting. And it's only been about 55 for the past two days, so that's a bummer. (Wow, what a hard life I lead!)

But I had a good weekend!

Saturday
I made new friends! Snaps for me. There were a few other students who stayed here over break so we got together and decided to go do things with life. So Saturday we went out and intended to do the "Steps of Cezanne", but decided we didn't feel like it and went to go explore Marchutz instead. Marchutz is the arts school here and one of the boys is in the program and told us it had a pretty view. So why not. (Oh, but first we got crêpes. Banana and Nutella, soooo good.)
We ended up wandering around Aix, seeing their version of a town fair, walking around a park, exploring some nature paths, and finally ended up at Marchutz. Which does have a beautiful view. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures because there was a cat and I got preoccupied.
Then we went to two girls' homestay and made dinner! Their host mom was out of town and told them they could cook and have people over. So we made grilled veggies, pasta (gluten free!) with red sauce, pesto, or homemade béchamel, and broccoli. For desert two of the girls made a desert their host mom makes which is bread with goat cheese, honey, and herbes de Provence put in the oven and cooked. Soooo good. We hung out and watched a movie and good times were had by all.

Get a load of this ride. Featuring Polamalu, the "Candinals", and the "Soccer Bowl".

Sunday
I went to Nice on Sunday for Carnaval! Look at me, leaving the house! I went with one of my friends who is still here and we sat around on the beach, ate lunch (crepes for me again!), got gelato, ate it on the beach, and then I promptly fell asleep on the beach. Of rocks. I was really tired, needless to say. Then the parade was going to start, so we bought candy and found somewhere to stand. It was a little long, but awesome. The floats are HUGE and crazy detailed. It's incredible to think people actually made them. They were all politically themed too, which meant we didn't understand much.

Soccer man, holding a king? Soccer refs? I'm so lost.

Soccer player with a huge bump on his head, Obama, the Dalai Lama, and the Pope?
I have no idea.

Monday
Went to my internship, found out when I got there it was cancelled because it's winter break. Oh well. So I got my bus ticket for Cassis on Wednesday!! But it's a bummer because my friends hiked up Mont Saint Victoire today, which is the huge mountain nearby. I would have gone except for my internship. That wasn't even a thing as it turns out... And my stupid knee. I think I'm an octogenarian in teenager's body.

Tuesday
Wow, this is probably the lamest day I've had in a while. I read all the poems for my literature class until March 20th. Which happens to be all the rest of the poems (after that it's novels and plays). I then did some more homework, watched three episodes of Downtown Abbey, and... that's about it. My host mom just came in my room and told me she didn't remember I was in the house, she thought I had gone out. Oops... that's awkward. Nope, I've just been being a cave dweller all day... I swear, I do leave the house...

So, off to Cassis tomorrow! And hopefully I'll find something to do with the rest of the week or I'll finish all two seasons of Downton Abbey (thanks for the edit, dad! :) )and all my homework for the semester...

PS. Yesterday for dessert after lunch, I ate "milk of rice over a bed of caramel". It was in one of the little yogurt containers. It was pudding/yogurt, with bits of cooked rice in it, over some liquidy caramel stuff. Oddest thing I've ever eaten in a yogurt container.

HELLO SUMMER

Well, it's not summer actually. Let's be real, it's not even spring. YEAH but it was 65 for the past two days. So, it's summer.

Monday
I started my internship today! I went in and she asked me if I wanted to organize the costume closet. Which I did, of course. So then I organized the costumes closet until she asked me if I like tea. Which I do, of course. We (my boss, the other intern, and I) had tea and cookies. She actually went to the bio next door and bought some gluten free cookies for me!! Then I organized some more and went home. It was a lovely time.

Tuesday
More internship. I finished the closet and then got to watch her teach the little kids theater class. They were rehearsing a play and it was so cute. One of them memorized his monologue and he is stellar. I was so impressed. Also, it's a weird thing to hear little kids singing Lady Gaga songs. Because they know some of the words and the others are just sort of english sounding gibberish. Which is weird, because you hear english noises and try to understand. But you can't because it's just sounds! Mind blown.

Wednesday
Yeah, I have no idea what happened on Wednesday.

Thursday
I got a good grade on my first poetry paper! Woop!
And It was 65 degrees outside. I also ate a delicious crêpe. With spinach, goat cheese, and gruyere. SO GOOD. And found my missing sock in the garden! And then my host mom gave me ice cream for my afternoon snack. Win.

Today!

Our picnic!

We went on a little tour of Aix (again) in my class. Then my friends and I decided that a picnic lunch would be a great idea. So we bought some amazing strawberries from the market and two cheeses--traditional Provençal goat cheese and some beaufort. We got some Orangina from Monoprix and called it a lunch. We found a big park and sat outside and ate our lunch. Afterwards we got macarons, which are so good. Today I tried milk chocolate, red fruits, and rose-litchi (which was kind of odd). The first two were delicious, but the rose-litchi I think was a once taste test. It wasn't bad... It tasted like rose water and just wasn't as good.

And now I'm on break! All next week I have off of school, so tomorrow I'm gonna hang around and Sunday I'm going to Nice for carnival. During the week I might go on some day trips with a few others as well as see the museums and culture in Aix. Yay, culture! Yay, no school! 

Wupdate, Costumes, Nutella, and Romans

Wow, where have I been all week? I'd tell you, but it's really not that interesting. But it's time for a wupdate! (weekly update)

Monday
Today I got my internship! Oooh! It's at a small theater/gallery about five minutes away from school. They run little shows, have theater workshops, have exhibits, and cool stuff like that. They were really impressed that I'd worked on so many shows which I thought was funny, because it was only student theater. But hey. Better than no theater. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet, probably some intern-type work, but that's fine with me. She showed me the costumes room and I felt at home. I've missed messy costumes rooms. And she goes, "Well maybe you can organize it!" I nodded politely while inside going, "YES I WILL ORGANIZE THE HECK OUT OF IT." So I start on Monday, I'll keep you updated. :)
So at the end of my last class on Monday, the classroom started to smell very strongly of natural gas. We all started sniffing around and looking at each other determining that it was indeed a real smell. We asked our teacher and she told us not to worry (!) but we all felt a little uncomfortable. Later that day I learned that it smelled like gas AND the heaters had been broken all day. Jolly good.

Tuesday
Luckily the heat was fixed by Tuesday. Thank goodness, cause the institute was freezing again. The only thing that happened of note on Tuesday was I pronounced a french word ridiculously wrong in literature and I'm now holding a grudge with it. It was the word "aile", which I tried to pronounce like "ail" with an 'e' on the end. Needless it didn't go well and he kept asking me what would make me pronounce it that way. I didn't explain it to him, but I blame it on the 'ail'. Freaking garlic.

I don't think anything of interest happened Wednesday and Thursday. Oh, Thursday I bought two new pairs of shoes! Very important.

Friday
I had one nice and easy class and then I had three and a half hours to pass before we started our historic tour of Aix. So instead of sitting in the cave and going cave-crazy, my two friends and I decided to go walk around in the city and try and get lost. We couldn't actually get lost, which was sad. Because I get lost so easily on my own, but I could not manage to get us lost. But it was an absolutely beautiful day, around 55, finally, so we enjoyed finding new things around the city. It's so small, it's hard to get actually lost.
Then the tour started and lasted a little under two hours. It was pretty interesting, but I'd already heard about 50% of it, because I've been on quite a few tours of Aix already. Still, it's nice to learn about the city and get more information. It's amazing how much history is packed into Aix and how much you can notice if you really take the time to and look up from your pouty scarfed self (no, I never walk around quickly making angry faces wrapped up in winter clothes). I'm looking forward to getting to word-vomit my knowledge to my aunt and mom when they get here-- be ready guys!!

Saturday
And finally today. I woke up at 6:30--oh the horror-- to go to Arles and Glanum today, sites of Roman, Greek, and Gaulois historic ruins and fun things like that. We went to the museum at Arles first, some some ruins, rocks, sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?), mosaics, and such. Twas quite nice. Then we went into the city and saw the ancient Roman theater, amphitheater, and a church in a romanesque style. They were astounding, it's incredible to think ancient civilizations built these monumental buildings. Pictures will be up on Facebook later.
Glanum is less cool to look at, but just as interesting. There are two ancient monuments, a cenotaph and an arch as the entrance to the city. Then there's the ruins of the city, which had been underground for years. Thousands of years. They were partly dug up-- more than half the city is still covered--and it's so cool to look at the city that used to be standing and how it changed hands so many times and how that changed the styles of building, etc. Oh, I feel so cultured.
Then we went to Monoprix and bought chocolate. And goat cheese, so it's healthy. Well, and a new jar of Nutella. I ate a decently sized jar of Nutella in a week and a half. Because what doesn't go with Nutella...? Almost nothing, actually... I forget how good it is and every time I eat it I remember...

This is how I feel about Nutella.

And this is how it disappears.

Hopefully this jar will last two weeks. Maybe two and a half. It's also 2 euro something. A jar of Skippy a quarter size of this jar was 4 euros (see mom, you do need to bring me peanut butter!).

And everyone's favorites... Observations!

- My host family thought that only NYC had skyscrapers! I was amazed, but then I remembered that in Aix there are NO skyscrapers and hardly any in France in general. When I told them my dad works on the 30 somethingth floor of a building and it's not even the top floor they were astounded. It's so interesting to see these culture shocks just in recounting cities. 

- I watch One Tree Hill in french. It's called Les Frères Scotts. 

- There's a french idiomatic expression, "casser la baraque" or for a rough translation "to break the house". You say it if you go to a really good concert, or someone succeeds at something, etc. Essentially I associate it with "raise the roof" and it's so amusing to me that the expressions are similar. 

- They say "franchement" here. Which means "honestly". And it's used in the same way. So funny to me.

- On the commercials for food, there's a tiny bar at the bottom, like a health warning. They say things like, "Make sure you eat a balanced day, with fruits and vegetables" or "A healthy lifestyle involves exercise". And then it refers you to a site about healthy eating. It's so weird, because I've never seen anything like that in the US.

Pacem (pax maybe?) from the Roman empire (which was really quite rude, actually).