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).