Half way point

Hello again my dear friends and family,
Much has happened this week and I am so excited to share photos and stories detailing my past week.  To start off I gave to in class presentations this week (in French).  One was for my history of France class on the topic of laicite (separation of church and state in France), and the other one was for my History of the Industrial Revolution.  I think both presentations went well and I guess I'll see when I get my grades back at the end of the semester, which by the way is coming up so soon!  I have about 3-4 weeks of classes and then a week or two long session of final exams, of which I only have two exams to take, and then I'm done!  It's crazy how fast the semester has gone compared to the semester in Indiana, but it has seemed forever long for me.  I think I'm to the point where I'd like to say "been there, done that, experienced it, let's move on".
I did not go to volunteering this week at the elementary school because they were having a carnival at the school this Wednesday and canceled the tutoring sessions.  I did go to my family dinner and boy what a meal we had.  First off I did my english lesson with the kids per usual and played some board games in english with the youngest to work on her elementary level voacb words.  The older girl didn't have any english homework to do for this week so we just chatted about traveling and our favorite places we have visited in the world and where we'd like to travel some day.  I really like her and we get along very well.  The older boy did not want to do an english lesson for the second week in a row.  Not sure what that is all about, but o well.  I played Pictionary with the kids while we waited for dinner.  We were supposed to play in english to finish out the lesson, but they reverted to French, which is natural and helped me to work on my French vocab recall skills.
For dinner we had a very nice green salad with all kinds of vegetables and avocado and olives and... we had some kind of "raw" fish egg and onion appetizer in bread crumbs.  The mom asked me to just try it for her and so I let her put some on my plate, but when she went in the kitchen to grab some napkins all the kids dumped theirs back on the serving dish and told me to do the same.  So I did.  I was not about to eat fish eggs, fish pate is one thing but a no go on the fish eggs.  I did try one of the onions and could just taste the fishy smell and was totally grossed out.  For the main course she had made a curried rice and pea mixture and then baked an entire fish whole.  She tried to offer me the head, eye balls intact, but I politely declined and select a piece from the middle.  They put this hot creme on their fish and it was actually pretty good!  Scales still intact but pretty good.  I asked her what kind of fish this was cause I didn't think I'd ever tried it before and she told me she had no clue.  Great.  Just great.  But it was good!  For dessert we had fresh fruit with ice cream.  After dinner the youngest girl likes to quiz her brother and sister over the vocab words I teach her from that days lesson.  Of course they already know most of the words, but she loves to stump them or when they get one wrong.  After dinner she likes to hang around me and whisper about the vocab quiz she gives her siblings, it's really cute.  I get to pick the topic for the night and she quizzes them on the words.  Every night at 9:30 she goes to bed, but has to have her brother or sister stand in the bathroom with her while she brushes her teeth.  Hey, I can remember being freaked out like that before bed time too so I totally get it.  I watched tv for a little bit with the brother and we chatted about the tv program we were watching in french.  Every night when I leave their house to catch the 10:05 bus home he walks me to the bus stop and waits with me till the bus comes to make sure I'm safe.  It's so cute.  We chatted about my trip to Turkey (which is in about a week and a half) cause he is currently studying Turkey and parts of the Middle East in his geography class.
Thursday during my methodology course (my favorite class!) we received another graded assignment and I got yet another 6, which in the American grading system a C.  Not ok with me and never before in my academic career of studying French or anything have I received grades like this, so I really doubt I'm all of a sudden lower grades worse than I've ever been in one class.  I tried to talk with my professor after class to get more specifics of what is wrong with my writing and how I can improve it and if I can meet with him to work one on one.  His response was that I should work with a French student to write my papers (to me that's cheating and not worth the risk), and then he told me that he doesn't have time with his busy teaching schedule to meet with me.  Great so how do you constitute yourself as an educator?  Cause right now you're educating me to be a slacker.  Must be the French culture I have to blend into as an uncultured American student.  So that night I right our program directors an email voicing my concerns about my grade and the class in general.  They asked me to come in the next day to the office to discuss my concerns and comments.  So the wonderful program directors I have are willing to meet with me once a week to review the papers I have gotten back, which they both agreed are not C worth papers, and at the end of the semester they are going to recollect our work and personally regrade everything.  Seems like a lot of work, but you go for it if it means I can get the grade I deserve.  They are pretty fed up with this guy too, and pretty embarrassed because apparently he's never treated a program class like this.  I hate to say this but academics is more of a game of strategy then a game of learning from a text book.  So I two can play this game:  challenge accepted M. Santacroce.
I have found this really great website to watch new release movies online for free outside of the US!  So this is my new obsession when I am not doing homework, and sometimes when I should be doing homework (mom and dad don't read that last little bit).  I really miss having a tv or a radio to create background noise and having something to visually stimulate me.  I am such an american and at first I was ashamed to admit all the silly things about the US I miss, but after being in France for 3 months and taking it all in, I am so PROUD to be an American and so ready to get back to that wonderful country I call home.
We are in the process of scheduling fall classes, which is one of my favorite points in the semester, my other is the first day of a class each semester to see who all is in your class and read through the syllabus.  Then I just muddle through from there and count down the days till the first break, typical.  I am currently going to enroll in a full load of classes to round out my two majors and minor and will have just a couple required classes to take in the spring, but should be able to make a pretty easy spring semester class line up.  Right now I'm looking at taking a French literature class, a French history class, a European Immigration class, and a conversational Arabic class.  I'm still waiting for the international studies department to post their courses for the fall to pick out one more class.
This weekend I went on two trips around southern France.  Saturday I went to St. Paul de Vence and Antibes with the program students and directors, this is a prepaid trip through my program fee.  We left at 8 am, which made for an early wake up call.  The bus ride was about two and a half hours to get to Vence, but it was so worth it.  Might be my favorite little village in France.  We first went to a modern art museum.  I love art, but modern art isn't my forte, and we couldn't take pictures so we didn't stay too long.  Next we walked down the hill to enter the main city and I fell in love with this little city and it's winding cobble stone "streets" which were more like sidewalks.  I had packed a lunch for the day knowing it would just be cheaper and I could eat whenever I got hungry.  Cathy and I ate lunch on a rock ledge overlooking the valley below the city.    It was a perfect day with gorgeous weather and lots of sun.  St. Paul is also where Chagall, the artist, was buried but we couldn't find his grave.  We bought gelato at a small ice cream shop and browsed through the shops till we had to head back to the bus to go to Antibes.


Antibes is a small city right on the coast of the Mediterranean Ocean.  It was about an hour bus ride to get from St. Paul de Vence to Antibes.  We were given the option upon arrival to either visit a Picasso museum or just go to the beach and stroll the city.  I picked the beach.  I went with a friend of mine, Josh.  He luckily had a blanket with him so we sat in the sand and made a castle fort out of rocks and used chess pieces from his chess set he carries EVERYWHERE with him to be the king and queen and knights of the castle.  Ya we let our imaginations go.  Once we were done with the castle we walked down to the water to skip rocks.  I had learned how to before but was never very good at it.  I get two rocks to skip three times, I was pretty proud, and then I threw a rock down the length of the beach and completely missed the water.  Josh gave me a hard time over that one.  Cathy and our other friend Bri went to the museum first and then met up with us at the beach so we played around for a little bit longer and then went to explore the city.  We didn't find too much to do but we were also limited on time.  So with about 5 minutes to spare Josh bought a sandwich and we made our way back to the bus, late because of Josh and his sandwich.  I was so tired on the trip back I slept most of the way.

 








Today I went with George, a tour guide that takes travel groups on trips to different cities in southern France for only 25 euro.  We went to St. Marie, a little cliff city that might rival St. Paul for my favorite little village and Les Gorges, the grand canyon of Europe, but with water.  We left Aix around 8:30 and it was yet another 2 and a half hour bus ride to St. Marie.  France had their daylight savings time change this morning at 2 am so I lost an hour of sleep and was already pretty worn out from the day before.  Our first stop wasn't on the itinerary but George knew there wouldn't be many places to get lunch in St. Marie so we stopped in a small town that had a Sunday produce market to buy lunch.  I had packed my own lunch and snacks and was covered, but did not plan ahead enough to bring an umbrella.  Luckily I could buy one at the market for 5 euro.  I went to a small cafe with my friends Josh and Kevin to get a coffee to help wake us up for the day.  We also found this really need creek/river that was a kayak training course and there were people practicing.  St. Marie is a very very old mountain city in Souther France situated towards the southern base of the alps and is built into the cliffs and mountains.  It was a windy road to get up to the city on very narrow streets.  Unfortunately it rained most of the day but the view was so pretty at times it didn't matter that everything was cold and wet.  I went with my two friends Lindsey and Kevin to explore the waterfalls while the rest of the group climbed part of the mountain to check out an old church.  I did see a couple picnicing in a gratto to get away from the rain and they even brought wine glasses with them.  In all the souvenir shops were chine with finely painted images and names.  Apparently it's a special type of china that has been a tradition and icon for this small cliff village who started painting this china for Kind Francois I of France way back when.  There wasn't a whole lot to do in the actual town just a couple cafes and souvenir shops, but the view could consume hours of time just taking it all inWe then got back on the bus to head to Les Gorges.

By the time we got to Les Gorges it was pouring down rain and very cold.  George told us we could get off the bus if we wanted to in order to take photos, but we could stay on the bus if we wanted.  I of course got off, didn't come all this way for nothing!  The gorge and calanques (streams of water) were gorgeous my photos don't do the color of the water justice.  It was breath taking to see it winding through the mountains in such a bright aqua blue color.  We did not stay long indeed and ended up returning to Aix about 2 hours ahead of schedule, but no one really wanted to be in the rain.  On the way back from Les Gorges to Aix we passed through the lavender fields of Provence.  They most unfortunately are not in bloom nor will they be till mid June, so that one thing I will not get to see.  

Well everyone, I have had one heck of a weekend and have another busy week ahead of me so I am going to cut this entry short without any observations on French society and culture, but will be sure to have plenty to say next week.  Th-th-that's all folks!

It's a mashup

Hello again after a long while of silence on my end.  Sorry about that.
For this weeks blog I think I will encompass everything that has been happening for the past 2 weeks since my vacation with my mom, rather than make two very boring posts you'll have to trudge through I'll save us all and make it one long one.

So once my mother took off to return home to the US I spent the next couple of days trying to catch up on sleep and let my foot heal.  I had my first French test in my sociolinguistics test and at the time thought it went pretty well.  I had studied a lot for it and felt really prepared.  I got a decently average grade, and am chalking it up to being not used to the French academic system.  It's just scary to think that there are only 2 or 3 grades taken for each class and that makes up our semester grade.   I went to volunteer this week with my friend Augusta.  We really weren't in the mood to go, but knew that the school was depending on us to be there for the study period in the middle of the school day.  When we got to the school and found the correct classroom, there were no students that needed help with English homework.  Great... so we hung out for the required hour and spoke to the principal of the school for a while.  He speaks French and Arabic so he taught me so cool word games in Arabic, such as palindromes.  After my volunteer session this week I went to my host families apartment for dinner.  I got to their apartment 30 minutes late because the bus system was very behind schedule.  When I finally arrived to their front door of the building the mom and youngest daughter were leaving for an orthodontists appointment so I did a long review with the twins over their English homework and then they showed me photos from the vacation in Spain.   I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post, but there is a girl I know who has graduated from IU but went on the Aix-en-Provence study abroad program a couple years ago.  I first met her because she lived in the same dorm I did freshman year.  The year I was a freshman she was in France studying, but she lived in the global village the year before and after my freshman year so through mutual friends in the dorms we met.  She was the first host student of my current host family.  When my host family was on vacation in Spain they ended up meeting up with her in Madrid, where she is currently living and working as an English teacher.  When I first heard that they knew Carmen my world became very small and it was weird to make this connection.  When the mom and daughter returned from their appointment they told me the news that the boy and youngest girl will have to get braces in a couple weeks, so that was the topic of the night.  They were all shocked to hear I had never worn braces.  Sorry guys, it's true.  For dinner the mom served mini cheese quiche like tarts and this incredibly disgusting fish pate on little pancakes.  I like fish don't get me wrong, but I'm gonna need it to be cooked before I can eat it.  Minced up raw fish on little pancakes is one thing I will not continue to eat in the states.  We had a green salad as always and for the main course she had a rice and chicken with vegetables type mixture seasoned with middle eastern flavors.  It was very good but some of the chicken was questionable to me.  For dessert we had fresh strawberries and kiwi with creme and ice cream.
Speaking of food!  This week I tried a new recipe.  It is called strawberry stuffed french toast and it was sooooo good.  This I will continue to eat in the US.

Of course we are continuing to have problems with our methodology professor.  This past week we were assigned to write an introduction given the topic of logic of history (ya I'm not really even sure what that means...)  I had a couple technical writing questions and just wanted to clarify some parts of the assignment, so as I have been trained to do at IU I emailed my professor with my questions about the assignment.  I never got a response back.  I told my program director about this situation and she told me to forward the email I sent to M. Santacroce to her to have on record and just my best with what understanding I have of the assignment.  Apparently the program directors are planning to recollect all of our papers and regrade them at the end of the semester, more work for you but whateva!  I get to class this past Thursday and our professor informs us that he did receive various emails from us students about uncertainty of the requirements of the assignment and told us that our emails are not of importance to him and he sometimes doesn't read them, so we shouldn't email him anymore because he won't be responding.  He then tells us that in France the student teacher relation in conducted solely in the classroom and never by email or meetings outside of class.  BS I'm meeting with another professor tomorrow to review over my Linguistics test.  I think the program directors would like to fire this man, but know that they have already paid him the teaching fee and can't... darn it!

This past week I had a final exam, I know, it seems a little soon, but I already have classes that are ending in about 3 or 4 weeks and then the official final exams and I have a month left to travel and soak it all in and THEN I get to come back to the US.  (Finally...)

This week I did not go to my volunteer because the girl i volunteer with had her boyfriend visiting and couldn't go therefore by default I couldn't go.  Sweet!  This past week during family dinner I finally met the dad of my host family.  Apparently he doesn't usually come home till Thursdays to stay for the weekend, but this week he got to come home a little early.  He didn't get home till 9pm though so I did my usual English lesson with the kids.  I played guess who with the youngest daughter to review colors and basic vocabulary.  She beat me... I helped the older two kids write a murder mystery for their English class and we talked for a little while about the differences between American and French high school systems to practice their English.  For dinner we ate this ground beef egg roll type thing, not sure what it was but it was deep fried and good.  We of course had a green salad again.  For the main course we had this rice/pasta dish with a choice of chicken or steak.  It was very good and may be my favorite dinner so far.  For dessert we had chocolate cake with strawberries and creme.  When the dad came home I said hello and the typical French fashion with bisous (kisses on both cheeks) and he went straight to his room to put his pjs on and came back to eat dinner.  He wore this dress night gown type garb, which I presume to be very culture for him, but a little uncomfortable for me.  He is definitely not French and you can tell.  Their household is run as a middle eastern rigid home rather than a French household.  The mom offered him some of the deep fried ground beef egg rolls and he proceeded to tell her he will not be eating those and to make him something else, and she did.  Ok now if I were the wife here, he would have eaten the whole plate full and learned to like it.  He shoveled his food into his mouth rather than eating it in bites from his fork, talked with his mouth full, and didn't give much regard to speak to me in French but rather wanted to practice his English.  After dinner I usually sit around the dinner table and chat with the mom and the kids before having to catch my bus, but this time the dad was done eating therefore he would go watch tv and burp offensively.  Let's just say it's a good thing he usually has to work in Paris on Wednesday nights.  

This past weekend my roommate Cathy and I went to a sports recreation field to play soccer and frisbee with some of our other friends on the program, but went to this carnival that has been going on in Aix for a couple weeks.  We met up with some French friends of our friend Alexa.  We ate deep fried churros and walked around and watched people play stupid carnival games and considered going on a ride until we saw how expensive it was.  4 euro to go through the fun house: that is not fun.   Cathy and Alexa ended up going for a round in the bumper cars and I got to hold everyone's stuff.  Our friends never ended up showing up with the sports equipment to play soccer or frisbee so we decided to go home.

I have a couple big trips coming up soon!! This coming weekend I'm going on a prepaid program trip to a couple cities in southern France.  In two weeks I take off for Turkey, and am super excited for that trip!!!  Finally, Cathy and I are in the finally stages of planning our next big trip to Germany and Austria for a week.  We'll start out in Colmar, a fairytale like city Disney used for inspiration in their films.  It is located in the northern Alsace Lorrain region and right on Germany's border.  From there we will take an over night train to Munich and spend a day or two in Munich and from there we will go to Salzburg, where we plan to take the Sound of Music tour and check out Mozart's home.  Next we're going to Vienna, Austria for about 2 and a half days.  Next we're spending a day in Dresden, Germany and then about 2 or 3 days in Berlin.  It is going to be a very busy trip and we're doing a lot but I have always wanted to visit Germany so I'm glad we're going to make it so action packed.  In Europe there are travel companies that offer really great discounts and passes to make travel cheap for students so we are getting a Eurorail pass that allows us unlimited travel on the rail lines for about a week in all three countries for one flat rate.  We'll be staying in hostels, which are much cheaper than hotels and meant for student backpackers like us.  So all in all it sounds like we're doing a lot and would be very expensive but all things considered it really won't be that bad.  Granted I haven't budgeted for food and German beer, but we'll worry about that when the time comes.

I have a busy start to my week with two in class presentations, but the rest of my week is open and free, which will make for a nice change.  We are in the process of signing up for fall classes so I can focus on that instead of actual school work.

That's all for now folks! until next Sunday!

The riches of Southern France

The morning of our last day in Paris my mom and I had to get up pretty early to finish packing and catch our train to Nice, France.  We took another TGV and originally when I looked at the tickets I thought it was only a 4 hour trip like our trip from Aix to Paris, well it was closer to 6 hours.  Opps, probably could have looked into flights instead of the train, o well.  We were able to sleep most of the way and I could write in my travel journal I've been using to keep track of memories and places I have visited and things I've done everyday since coming to France.  We were very hungry around 12 and still had an hour or so on the train, so we pretty much wiped out the rest of the provisions I had brought for the trip.  When we arrived in Nice everyone was still wearing big winter coats and my initial thought was that we hadn't escaped the cold! Nope the French down south just over react to cold weather and wear winter coats up till the last day of cool spring like weather.  When we got off the train we both shed our coats and headed off to find our hotel.  We were a pretty good walk from the train station and at the time I booked our hotel I knew it was pretty close to the ocean but didn't realize it would be so far from the station.  Once again we had a tiny two person elevator, but this time the elevator stopped on the floor and not in between floors.  I had rented us a hotel room that had a 180 (ish) view of the Albert 1st gardens just north of the ocean and old Nice.  The carnival parades and festivities had been the week prior to us visiting Nice so all the floats and decorations were still out and the city was covered in silly string and confetti.  Carnival is a celebration leading up to our version of fat Tuesday which brings Ash Wednesday in the catholic church or in other words it's Europe's Mardi Gras.  Our room did indeed have an almost 180 degree view of the gardens and a small balcony.  The bathroom was much smaller than the one in Paris and we later found out that the walls were paper thin and we could hear everyone's TVs blaring at night (all night).

We started out our adventures in Nice, France by doing a little shopping in the boutiques and souvenir shops in Old Nice, and wandered along the Mediterranean ocean, and then found the Negresco Hotel.  The Negresco Hotel is right on the beach and a little over the top for my taste, but fits in quite well back in the day when Nice was developed by American and English vacationers and wanted somewhere very lavish to stay for a week or two.  Even the bellhops and concierge had costume like uniforms.  We walked around the main lobby and found a room of statuaries so of course I will include those photos for you.  After seeing a hotel we could never afford to stay in we decided to go back to retail therapy.  Like I had mentioned in a previous post our feet had developed blisters and were so soar from all this walking so we stopped into a pharmacy to find some kind of foot padding or protection to alleviate the pain.  My mom had found a sport like foot padding in France that was working quite well for her so this very nice pharmacist tried to help us find the same product in his store.  Finally a nice French person, granted he is not a stuck up woman, he was a very nice French person.  He chatted with us for a while about our stay in France and spoke English very well so my mom was able to converse with him as well.  He went so far as to call other pharmacies in the area to see if anyone had this type of foot support and offered to have the product brought to his store for us.  What a nice man.  We declined his offer since the pharmacy that had what we were looking for was just down the street and we were headed that way anyways.  I guess there is a small ounce of customer service in France.  

Before we could even think about finding a restaurant for dinner we had to get gelato.  On the way to this famous gelato stand I had been to before in the Old Nice we found an outdoor cafe that served this really neat focaccia pizza dish and said we wanted to come back to that restaurant and try it.  Each night we went back and they told us the kitchen had closed for the night at 7pm.  Then how are you going to make money if you're not open to serve food?  Whatever France. We successfully found the gelato stand and each ordered three different kinds to share.  I ordered Bueno, which is a chocolate candy bar in France, raspberry, and tiramisu.   My mother ordered pineapple, a red fruit yogart, and a chocolate cookie gelato.  All very good selections.  We found a cafe that serves Italian hot chocolate, which is basically chocolate syrup heated up and served in a cup to drink, so it's very thick and rich.  We never ended up going back...

For dinner that night we found a nice Italian restaurant on this main street of fine dining restaurants.  I ordered a focaccia with mozzarella and lettuce and tomatoes.  It was basically a salad on a giant focaccia bread.  My mom ordered a risotto dish and we shared a 25 cl. carafe of Lambrusco (an Italian wine).  It was a rather fitting meal considering we were about an hour from the Italian border.  Our bellies were full and we were tried from walking and traveling so we headed back to the hotel  room to catch some sleep before going to Monaco and Monte Carlo the next day.

The next morning we woke up early yet again, this seems to be a pattern on this trip... so much for vacation sleep in time.  We figured out how to use the tram system in Nice, but didn't figure out how to buy tickets to ride the tram, so we ended up riding for free.  No big deal I do it in Aix all the time (no seriously I do).  We figured out which train to take to go to Monaco and hopped on board ready for our last day of our adventures in France.  The train dropped us off in between Monaco and Monte Carlo so we started out on the Monaco side to see the palace, the exotic gardens, and the harbor.  When we got out of the train station we were a little turned around and finally realized that we were at the bottom of the hill where the palace sits.  Great we get to walk up a hill.  So many steps, but thank god for the view.  When we reach the top of the hill we are just to the left of the palace and mother is looking around for where this grandiose palace should be.  Nope it's nothing like Versailles just kind of another building the seems a little important, but only because of the fake canons sitting out front.  We snapped a couple pictures and figured that was that.  We explored parts of the exotic garden and were in awe and amazement by the harbor and the homes stacked up the sides of the cliffs and mountains.  We found the church where Princess Grace Kelley is buried, but it was closed today so we couldn't go inside to see her burial place behind the alter.  A quick little history lesson to get you up to speed on Monaco and Monte Carlo.  Monaco is a principality surrounded by France.  They have their own government and Prince (who lives in the palace) and don't pay taxes into France, actually they don't even have an income tax.  No wonder they are so wealthy.  So prince Albert the first, the father of the current prince, married Grace Kelley, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA and became a movie star in hollywood.  They had 3 kids, a boy (the current prince) and two girls.  One day Grace Kelley was driving home from their vacation home in Italy with one of her daughters and their chauffeur. Princess Grace asks the chauffeur to pull over and let her drive with her daughter for a while because they needed to have a private discussion, which ended up getting rather heated.  All in all, Grace Kelley lost control of the car and ended up dying in a car accident on Rue Turbie, but luckily her daughter survived.  They say if the medics had brought the princess to the hospital in Nice she would have survived, but since they took her to the hospital in Monaco
(I believe) they were not ready and equipped to deal with the situation.  Unfortunate story, but now she is a legend that will love on in Monaco.  Monte Carlo, which is right next to Monaco is where the famous Casino and hotel are located.  In other words lots o money!  We tried to do a little souvenir shopping, but everything was so expensive in comparison to Nice we decided to just wait till we got back to Nice to buy any last minute souvenirs.  We were headed in the direction of Monte Carlo when we say a huge crowd surrounding the palace and figured it was the changing of the guards ceremony since it was almost noon.  So we pushed out way to the front of the pack (very European of us) and watched the guard do his routine of walking back and forth and back and forth for almost 10 minutes.  He finally started to head towards the main entrance of the palace and we were thinking the new guard would come out and that would be that, neato!  Nope he went back in his little guard shack and was done.  That was a bit of a disappointment so we headed to Monte Carlo.  

We walked along the very edge of the city where it meets the harbors and looks out onto the ocean to get to Monte Carlo.  A lovely walk but so many hills!  We finally reach the Casino and figured we couldn't get in since we are middle class and are not renting a $1000 room from the hotel so we just took pictures from the outside.  We didn't spend much time in Monte Carlo, found a sandwich stand to get paninis for lunch and took an early train home.  We had had enough walking and getting lost for one day.  

Back in Nice we rested in the hotel room for a just a short while and figured we should take in as much of the city as we could with what little time we had left.  Nice is my favorite city in France so I was down for that.  We shopped in Old Nice a little more, and tried to find a restaurant for dinner.  Unfortunately the one we wanted to try with pizza focaccia was closed since it was currently 6:30pm and the kitchen closed at 7pm, what?  We walked up and down the streets and hostess after hostess read off the menu to us trying to get us to come eat at the restaurant.  Too many offers for the nights specials and offers of "complimentary drinks" was enough for us to go looking for dinner in another part of the city.  We eventually found a very typical French restaurant that served in the very typical French style.  A long meal in other words.  I ordered French onion soup and my mother ordered some kind of pasta in cream sauce.  This restaurant actually served butter with their bread, which elated my mother.  After dinner we returned to the hotel since we had to get up early, yet again, for our train back to Aix.  When we got back to the hotel our favorite night concierge was working.  Not! we came to hate this man.  The first night we mentioned to him that we couldn't get the elevator to work on the 3rd floor and didn't know why.  Later that night when we came back to the hotel he asked for our room number, which I told him (even though he had this information), and said that if there is ever a problem again with the elevator he will be sure to call our room because apparently we were the ones that did not close the door all the way to properly operate the elevator.  Yes of course, how could I forget that it is also the foreigners fault, never the French.  Righty-o sir!  This particular night, when all we wanted to do was pack up and go to bed to be ready to leave in the morning, he proceeds to ask us if we will be checking out between the hours of 7:30am and 8:00am or after 8:00am.  I don't know... I think 8:47am to be precise sir.  I don't know when ever we get up and moving, why does this matter?!  Well if we were planning to check out before 8:00am we will be paying him in the morning, if we check out after 8:00am we will be paying his college.  Ok duh! that's how a hotel works.  I may be American, but I'm not retarded and I'm not trying to run out of this hotel without paying, even though I so could right now.  So we decide fine we'll pay now and get it over with so you don't think we're cheapskate Americans.  He tries to run the first credit card through the machine, doesn't work.  Tries a second card, doesn't work.  Tries a third card, doesn't work.  His proposed solution as to why this is happening:  our credits cards are maxed out and it's not his machine that is causing the problem, it's our credit cards.  Right you are again, it's our fault.  So he tells us we can either wait till the morning or go to an ATM and withdraw the cash.  Side note: when you withdraw money from a foreign account in a European ATM you get a transaction fee and exchange fee.   With the credit cards, there is no additional fee (now this just happens to be with the credit cards we have, not the case for every credit card company).  So we decide fine old man we'll play along and go with draw the money and treat ourselves to more gelato for having to deal with you.  It was very good ice cream.  We did not pay him for fear that he might misplace the money and blame us for this misfortune.  We finally make it to our room so fed up with France and it's people.  

The next morning we got up in time to pay for our hotel and take the tram (with a valid ticket this time).  We got on the train and were very ready to get back to Aix, and I think my mother was very ready to get back to the US at this point.  When we were getting off the train in Marseille (our connecting station to Aix), we had put our luggage in the storage compartment in between train cars.  There was a pile up at the exit door because people boarding the train were trying to get on before the people who were trying to get off the train could de-board.  We both had had enough of this European self centered-ness to last us a lifetime, and not in the mood to deal with this.  My dear mother, knowing she couldn't communicate with the people here used hand signals to try to communicate with this French lady that she only wanted to grab her suitcase and needed to reach in front of this French woman for just a second.  This French woman would not have it.  She informed my mother (in English) that she would like to get off this train (duh who wouldn't?!).  So my mother, holding her own, replies, Yes I would like to too.  The snotty French woman says, Well I'm French and I know how this system works.  Ok what does that have to do with anything? you're in the way!  Of course we let her go first because she was "right".  As I was getting off the train this older heavy set white haired French woman starts to put her suitcase on the train blocking the exit, and looks at me and asks if I'm planning to get off the train (in French).  (In my mind: No I'm going to stand here alllll day!)  I reply yes I am trying but you are in the way.  She replies, well hurry there are many people waiting.  I had had enough so I shoved her suitcase back off the train and left it laying on the ground on it's side, got off the train helped my mother de-board and prayed to God I can go home soon and get away from these crazies.  Too bad I couldn't go with her and escape this place for even just a little bit.  The train ride back seemed to take forever but we finally made it back to Aix and made the trek up to my apartment.  This walk back really wore my mother out and I think the jet lag caught up with her because she slept for about 4 hours on my pullout couch/bed while I chatted with Cathy about our trips.  I went on a couple errands for my mother to buy a few last souvenirs for friends back home.  She packed up her stuff and we got to bed pretty early since we had to be on the airport shuttle bus by 5:40am, which meant we got up a little before 4:00 am.  She had been told to get to the airport 2 and a half hours early because the check in process a the Marseille airport takes that long.  So we get there with exactly 2 and a half hours before the flight checks off and we are told we have to wait an hour and a half before they will start checking in people on her flight.  What is going on France? get your stuff together!!  Luckily we had a very nice airport personnel looking up my mother's flights and printing her boarding passes.  He spoke French pretty well and explained everything step by step to her and was very nice.  It's amazing how when you find one person that is the equivlant of just being nice to if they were in the US, this person becomes a saint in France.  You're not going to find a lot of nice people in France, not even in Nice (haha, ok bad joke).  She was finally allowed to go through security and get to her gate in just enough time before the flight took off.  We kissed and cried and said good bye and I was off to catch the shuttle bus to Aix to try and get more sleep.  I had a midterm to study for that day.  I get to the shuttle bus 5 minutes before its departure time and the bus was locked and couldn't see anyone on it.  I waited in the cold till about 6 minutes after it was scheduled to leave and I see the bus driver sit up from between a two seats, yawn, stretch, and wipe his eyes of sleep and make it to the front of the bus to let me on.  Seriously, you were SLEEPING?! I know there is some crazy stuff going on in the US right now with local and state governments becoming a little too radical, but I'd totally trade for that right now to escape this stupidity and absolutely rude country.

My mother and I had a wonderful trip together, don't get me wrong I know I have been complaining a lot about the people, but all things considered we had been wanting to take this trip together for a while and all in all had a very nice time.  Lots of great food, amazing places to see, and fun to experience a totally different culture together.  I think I wore her out so it was probably bet that our vacation was only about a week.  

Observations:

1. I probably don't need to say this again, but 90% of the population in France is rude, just like their stereotype.  They sure live up to it.  When you find one nice person they become a god send to your day.

2.  European hotels suck in comparison to US hotels.  The bathrooms are so small and gip you on toilet paper and towels.   The beds are small and hard, and the "wireless internet" never actually works.

3.  Gelato will always beat out ice cream, no matter the flavor.  You must experience real gelato at some point in your life.  It's an eye opening experience.  I promise.

4.  Foreigners, especially Americans, are always wrong when dealing with a French person, no matter the topic.

5.  I love my mother so much for making the trip all the way over to France and going along with me to so many places and seeing so many things, even if she was exhausted and her feet her.  She was a trooper and stuck in there.  Takes real strength to keep going when all forces are pushing against you to stop and rest.  God bless you mom you are a saint.

Well my dear friends and loved ones, this concludes my recollection of my trip around France with my mother.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories.  I will be trying this next week to get my blogging back on track to its usual schedule.