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.