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).

Living the Exciting Life

No, that's a lie, I'm totally not. That's partially of my doing because I don't like to go out and youth about on weekend nights, especially when it's 20 degrees. Still.

Saturday
I was going to go to the library with a new friend (yay, social skills!) and get a library card and hang out there. But I woke up sick and Dayquil didn't help. It was one of those days where your whole head feels like it weighs much more than it should. So I had to cancel on her and sit in my room all day and watch Doctor Who. I mean, I love Doctor Who, but I would have rather gone to the library and not been a shut-in all day. Saturday night I went to a little fête at my friend's house--who conveniently lives right behind me. So I figured if I didn't feel well I could just leave and be home in a minute.

But the party turned out to be a pretty fun time. It was hosted by my friend's host brother, so there were a bunch of french youth (20-25 ages?) and then four americans. We had indian food which looked delicious-- I say looked, because I ate rice. But. Then chocolate cake with pears which also looked delicious. We hung out, they talked about politics, I got confused, all the americans sat there with glazed looks, but hey. We made pronunciation errors much to the amusement of all the french. Freaking vowel sounds are so difficult. They're all so close, but if you change it just a tiny bit, it means something totally different! Agh! And it didn't help that my nose was stuffy, so al my vowels sounded even worse. But. It was still fun. I was social for once. (And they said I spoke french well!)

Oh, I did hear a hilarious story from one of the french guys there. He was in the US while he was working for a french airline. He was outside smoking in the designated area. A large american woman came up to him and started yelling at him for smoking, how it was poison, and she goes, "You're french aren't you?" And he says yes. She carries on angrily more about smoking, "Well of course you're french, you're smoking", etc, etc. And then he says, "You're american aren't you?" She says yes. And he goes, "Well obviously," and makes a fat gesture with his arms. We all found it quite amusing. Rude? Maybe. But she was rude first. Good to know that's what distinguishes an american, eh?

Sunday
Homework day! And I had a lack of homework this weekend, so being the nerd I am, I did the homework for Monday and Tuesday already. Winner? Other than that, had some Skype with home folks, ate some good food, read some books, and am going to bed early like the grandmother I am at heart. Too bad I left my knitting at home.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with people about the internship, so wish me luck with that. Hopefully it won't take away too much from my awkward work ethic and lazy time. Oh and fingers crossed that by the end of this week it should be back to normal temperatures! Normal here being 55. Tomorrow is supposed to be 40, so maybe by the end of the week I can stop wearing tights under my jeans everyday. Huzah!

Snow: An Aix-mergency

Things of note today:

- It snowed. Ughhh. This is a very Aix-stopping crisis.
- I had one class. Gotta love Fridays.
- We were supposed to have a walking historical tour around Aix, but they cancelled it because of the snow. And by snow, I really just mean white flurries that melted on the ground. But that was enough to cause a lot of Aix to come to a halting stop. Which is fine with me, because it was about 27 degrees and I did not feel like having an hour and a half walking tour.
- So instead I ate my lunch and many Nutella covered rice cakes, gathered some new friends, and went to Book in Bar. Book in Bar is an english bookstore with delicious tea and awesome smelling pastries--also awesome tasting I'm told. We holed up in there and talked and drank tea for a while.
- Then we went to Crêpes a Gogo which is DELICIOUS. Over 80 kinds of crêpes, affordable, and delicious. And buckwheat. :D We got a banana Nutella crêpe and split it. It was hot and delicious and chocolately and satisfied my week long craving.
- Today at dinner I got corrected in my use of liaisons in reference to words beginning with 'h'. Because I said 'les haricots' and it turns out there is no liaison there. But there is for 'les hôtels' and 'les histoires' but not other words starting with 'h'. And we discussed this and together none of the three of us could discern a rule for when you liaise and when you don't. (Oh, Bonnie...? Can you tell me?)
- I realized how well CMU has prepared me language wise for this program. Snaps for CMU and your high standards.
- I love that dinner is made for me, but hot darn I miss cooking and baking. You don't realize how much you like to do things until you can no longer do them. I looked at food blogs for hours today. Be ready when I come home family-- as soon as I get over jet lag, you will eat whatever food I make. Be ready.
- Going to bed early again, still trying to hold off the plague that has taken over 60% of the school. Wish me luck...



PS. I eat vegetables here like it's summer. Be jealous.

Make Sure You Pronounce the /ss/ Right

Today's high was 40, so we're getting there. Too bad tomorrow is back to 23 with a 100% chance of snow. Oh, and I have another historical walking tour of Aix for an hour and a half. Good. :|

Today in class we had a CHARMING experience with how a slight change in pronunciation can lead to some dramatically different word meanings.
We were once again in the literature class with phonetics built in when a girl in my class came across the word 'baissant', which means to lower, as in lower one's head. However, she made the incredibly unfortunate mistake of pronouncing the /ss/ as [z] instead of [s]. This subtle difference completely changes the word's meaning. She said it and no one noticed until the teacher started his clucking and yelling as he does when one of us makes a big or stupid mistake.
He goes, "Do you know what you said?!"
And we all just looked at him with our big confused eyes and shook our heads. He went over to the board and wrote 'f_ _ _ _ _ g'. I got it after a beat and the whole class started laughing uproariously (that sounds so dumb, but it's true).

Whenever those little language moments happen I always think to myself how stupid it feels because clearly 'f***ing' and 'lowering' don't sound anything alike. Then I feel extra stupid, because the French obviously don't think of it in terms of what the english word is. Duh.
It'd be like someone who learned english as a second language confusing 'fool' and 'full' because there's really only a slightly vowel difference. Then I feel better about the mistakes I make.

In other news, I'm still trying not to get sick.
And I got an email today that I've apparently been placed in an internship. But... I don't actually want it now (don't act surprised mom, you knew that). I'm having a nice time being lazy and hanging around and that requires speaking more french, being more confused, and navigating more cultural things. As well as getting there somehow, doing work, and existing in the cold. :( Boooo.

Yesterday, I had chestnuts in my stir fry. It was so weird and when I asked what it was he told me it was a chestnut, as in obviously it's a chestnut. String beans, lima bean things, mushrooms, spices, and... chestnuts? Okay. It was good, just very weird. And I had to try and explain to them that we don't just chuck chestnuts around in the US like they do here. Roasted ones hanging out on streets, ones in my stir fry, cream of chestnuts as a yogurt, buttery nonsense of chestnuts as a jelly... It's so very weird.

That's all, sorry I'm not very interesting today. Classes were average, I sat in the school cave and did nothing because I've been so freaking productive that I finished all my homework for tomorrow yesterday. And still went to bed at 11PM. So. Hope you're all doing well, my dear readers of which there are about five. And send me some peanut butter. (Because while Nutella on my daily rice cakes is good-- it's no peanut butter.)

Nope, Still Cold.

What has happened in between Monday and Wednesday? Answer: not much.

Remember when I embarrassed myself by confusing the sides of the bise? Well the other day when the same lady came back she goes,"Today we hug, yes?" I laughed and then we hugged. CULTURALLY AWARE! Err... something like that.

Everyone at school is getting sick. I haven't gone out or stayed up late so I thought the devil would skip over me for a cold. But nope, just throughout today alone my throat has gotten tickley and I've started coughing... NOOOO. So I went and found french Airbourne essentially and I eat about 2 oranges a day. Fingers crossed I can ward it off. Early bed for me tonight!

In other news, my teacher--the one who is super linguisticsy--told me that when I was reading out loud that the errors I made were stupid for my level and that I clearly wasn't paying enough attention. But... but...! Unfair. There goes that idea of needing to be humble again so I can get better. Sigh.

The other day I read Elle à Table for my homework. The cooking version of Elle. So that was fun and then I told the class all about how the French are admiring Miami's cuisine. They reported on news and politics, PUH-LEASE, I reported on food. I was going to tell them all about tea and the uses for it and stuff, but I figured Miami might be more interesting for them.

For lunch today, along with my healthy dairy products, I ate rice cakes with Nutella on them. I look so funny sitting in the cave for lunch, taking out an entire jar of Nutella from my lunch bag and then scooping it onto my rice cakes. Whatever, haters gonna hate, and I'm gonna enjoy my inexpensive lunches and Nutella.

Today, I thought I got on the wrong bus, but luckily it took me home, it just went a different route. And thank god, because it's still cold. 20 when I left this morning and 34 when I came home. Unacceptable. It's supposed to be cold until next Tuesday, ugh. My immune system can't hold off that long! I've been wearing tights and leggings under my jeans for about two weeks straight now and generally three sweaters a day. The IAU buildings don't understand the concept of heat, so we wear gloves, coats, and scarves in class. Cheers. Also today, I learned that someone is coming to the house to fix the heaters tomorrow. This means that the heaters have been broken--warm, but not functioning fully. Great. Excuse me while I wear three layers of clothes to bed.

And that's about the most interesting thing that's happened so far.