I have arrived!!!! Hello again (Bonjour encore). I have so much to tell and well since this is the internet so much space to tell it in, but where to begin? I left Tuesday January 4th for 5 months in Aix-en-Provence, France. I flew from Louisville to Philadelphia, where I met up with some IU friends to then fly to Frankfurt, Germany, a 7 hour flight, (where I could not for the life of me figure out how to use the pay phones [sorry mom and dad it took so long to tell you I’d arrived]). The good part about the 7 hour flight from Philly to Frankfurt was the good selection of movies and music to entertain myself while strapped to a little seat in a packed plane for a very long time. The final leg of the journey landed us in Marseille, France. Marseille is a larger city than Aix-en-Provence and by the little glimpse I got of the city, very beautiful. Once arriving we collected all of our luggage (thank god nothing was lost), and headed for the buses. We had to travel by train, bus or taxi into Aix, and taxi being the easiest but most expensive we chose the bus. The bus let us off on the south side of town (as we’d later find out), and keep in mind none of us were familiar with the city and had no clue where we were going. Two of the girls were staying in the hotel reserved for a small group of students on the program, and my roommate Cathy and I had already signed a lease for an apartment. We asked everyone we could find for directions or some clue as to where to go to find our logging, but no luck. We finally stumbled upon the office of tourism, and with much luck our program director, Madame Feral, happened by the office of tourism and stopped us to show us where to go to find our logging. Thank god for that woman. She took Cathy and me to our apartment, which seemed to be on the other side of town going up winding streets and dodging cars and people and dogs while dragging our coffins (suit cases) behind us. We finally arrived and remembered we live on the 4th (le troisième étage). We met our landlady and began the trek up the winding staircase to our apartment. We were so soar and tired after all the traveling and jet lag and lugging 4 huge suitcases up 4 flights of stairs. Our landlady had us sign the lease, showed us around the small apartment (I have included pictures), and then collected our rent and was on her way. It wasn’t till later that night we’d find out she never tested the hot or the heat, but that will come later. The apartment was set up into two separate quarters. One with just a bed and the other with a bed/couch, study desk, and kitchen table; we knew this wouldn’t be a good set up so we spend roughly an hour or more rearranging the furniture in this rather tight apartment (again see pictures). Once the transformation was complete we began the unpacking process. As you’ll notice in the pictures there is only one closet in the entire apartment and two pull our drawers under one of the beds. (Needless to say very little storage.) After a long day of travel and plane food we were starving and set out in the town to forage for food. My first French meal was a fancy grilled cheese sandwich from Pizza Capri that had goat cheese on it. Different but not my cup of tea. We then went to the grocery to get food for the next couple of meals and headed home for much needed sleep (at 7:00 pm).
Day 2
We went on a guided tour, by George, of the city in two small groups. It was an interesting tour. We saw the main parts of town and he pointed out good places to buy groceries and go shopping and neat attractions to come back and visit. Our tour ended at le Fac, where I’ll be taking my classes. I am about a 20 minute walk from campus, but it is through the main part of the town and a rather lovely walk. We ate lunch as a giant group with all the program students at the University cafeteria. The meals a pretty cheap (3 euro) and you get quite a lot of food for the price you pay. I don’t plan to eat lunch here every day, but the days I don’t pack my lunch this cafeteria is a great alternative. We met as a group in le Fac for a meeting to discuss upcoming events and the placement test we’d have the following day. This kind of freaked me out. We didn’t get much time to roam the campus grounds, but from the looks of it the building has a good amount of character. There is graffiti on the walls and unisex bathrooms (with no toilet paper). There are 4 sections of the school housed in one building and several floors in each section. That will be fun to try to figure out on the first day of classes. Later that day we met as a group to buy our cell phones. I’d give you my number to call me and chat, but it would cost us both a lot of money so we’ll stick to the internet. Because there are so many of us on the program it takes forever to get anything done, such as signing up 30 something students for cell phones. We then went to eat at a restaurant called Boca Loca. It’s a Mexican restaurant in France. Yes I know. Apparently the owner traveled to the US, tried Qudoba, and came back to Aix to open his own version of the Mexican restaurant, and they have free wifi, which is come in handy. Much later that night we went out to a bar called la Manoir and Cathy and I shared a cider ale type drink. The drinks here are much more expensive than they are back home, or at least at the bars in Bloomington. The bar was pretty empty and we were all tired so we went home shortly after. We also found out that a shot isn’t a full shot of hard liquor, but actually it’s maybe 1/3 liquor and ¾ tasting syrup. After a long day we were ready for bed.
Day 3
We got up on a school time schedule to head to the campus to take our placement/evaluation tests. We had been told they would cover oral or speaking ability, reading comprehension, and writing and grammar. The night before Cathy and I tried to review for this test, but found out there was really no need. The oral section consisted of about 10 questions that asked scenarios such as, “When you watch French television you can understand what is being said”. We then had to answer if we agree/disagree/or don’t know to this statement. There was no actually conversing for this section, ha! The reading comprehension and writing sections weren’t bad and covered topics of preserving resources and planet sustainability, in which we had to give our opinions on the matter. Not long after the test they had posted the results of which group we had been split into, meaning we’d either have a class on Thursday or Friday with other students in the program (no French students). I am in a group with my friend Jessica and I will have that class every Thursday for the first 11 weeks. After another long meeting in le Fac we went to the bank to set up our bank accounts. This again was a long and tedious process, but needed to be done. My mother and I had done extensive research before coming to France to find the best means to get me the money I’d need throughout the semester. A word for those students traveling in the future get an AAA travel card! Some students on the program just brought American dollars to convert, but you lose money that way because the exchange process is very expensive. Some brought travelers checks, but not many places will accept them and it’s hard to buy them in Euros while still in the states. Some plan to just use a credit card, which works. Some plan to have their parents wire money to their French bank accounts, which gets very expensive over time. The AAA was by far the best choice I made. My landlord has asked us to transfer our monthly rent into his bank account from ours and by having an AAA card and a French bank account that will be super easy.
There were some items Cathy and I chose not to bring with us to France knowing we could just buy them while here. We went to Monoprix (it’s like a target, there are 3 floors, the main floor is clothing and toiletries, the basement is groceries, and the top floor is everything else from bedding to school supplies to I think power tools?) We bought a blow dryer and hair straightener, since we didn’t want to use our power converters and adaptors to use such appliances. Granted I can’t use it back home, but it was worth the investment.
That night we again went out to the bars again and met some nice Frenchmen (Phillip, Javier, Gerome, and Jean-Phillip) who gave us recommendations on what bars and dance clubs to go to. It was fun to be with a lot of the girls in the program, and meet a lot of the girls from Michigan and Wisconsin.
I should explain here before I confuse anyone. The study abroad program I am on consists of about 30 students from 3 different universities studying in Aix for the semester. IU, Michigan, and Wisconsin-Madison. There are students here in Aix that are on the year long program, but at this point in the trip we hadn’t met any of them yet. We are all American or foreign students and might be in each other’s classes, but for the most part we are going to be maybe the only or one of a very few foreign students in our classes. We’ve been told the professors and the university can be rather understanding to the fact that French is not our native language and we’re just here to learn from them. We have been instructed to write « Je ne suis pas francophone » (I am not a native speaker) on the tops of our papers so the professors grading our papers know we’re foreign students, and hopefully grade us a little easier.
Day 4
Cathy and I woke up to go to the open air markets for a little shopping with some of our friends. I will include pictures of these markets. There are 3 main markets in Aix one has only clothing, another has only food and the third has a lot of both. We found the market that has a lot of both. I am on top of my game and already bought Miss Sarah T her souvenir, and found a black wallet to put my food money in to keep my finances separated. The markets have all kinds of products from cooking supplies to purses and shoes and clothing and men’s boxers (?), and scarves and jewelry and books and so much more. The food markets have every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine which are all locally grown by farmers in the Aix and Marseille area. There is all kinds of cheese and breads and some sweet pastry shops and candies stands, and places that sell homemade soaps and spices, and on and on. There is also a flower market in town just two or so blocks from my apartment that sells all kinds of flowers in every color. Les soldes begins Sunday. Les soldes are sales in France that happen twice a year and every clothing shop in France puts whatever products they have in their shops on major sales that go through, I think, three mark downs. So everything is first marked down to around 30 % off and then to 50 % off and finally around 70%. This is the time to shop in France and I am here for the whole sale!!!
Some of my friends have been spending the whole time living out of their suitcases in a hotel, and some have been fortunate to move out into apartments. Two of my friends, Olivia and Marley moved into their apartment this day so Cathy and I stopped by to check out the place and use the free wifi they were getting. The wifi wasn’t working so we went back to Boca Loca to use theirs. At this point I had been able to find some places to use internet to email back home to mom and dad. Right now Cathy and I are waiting for our internet modem to be installed to get wifi in our apartment and every once in a while we can pick up a signal to connect to the internet, but it’s not always reliable.
Cathy and I made our first French dinner, which was actually pretty good given the fact that we had no measuring cups to make couscous. I have included a picture of this. We made sautéed vegetables with couscous, bread and 3 kinds of cheese, and red wine.
We again went out to the bars and met up with some students that are here on the year long program and they were able to show us the free dance clubs to get into and safe places to hang out in groups. We all had so much fun dancing and making new friends with the other people in the program and didn’t get home till very late that night.
Sorry this blog is sooooo long, but I have much to fill you in on and so much excitement to share. As soon as I get reliable wifi set up in the apartment I will let you know and I’d love to skype with as many of you as possible!
Here are some closing observations: 1. There is no grass in Aix, and I know very soon I will miss something as mundane as grass. 2. French men are pushy. 3. The food and wine here really is better than any thing you’ll find in the U.S. but I do miss the convenience that the American food industry offers.
Love you all and catch you up soon!
