To start, some comments on the internet:
-It’s GREAT because I can talk to all my family and friends and post pics and blogs!
-It’s HORRIBLE because I’m addicted to facebook and spend all my time stalking friends instead of writing in my journal! Oops. :P

Given the above statements, my posts covering the last week will be considerably less detailed…

Classes were supposed to start Monday but the level I placed into is a new group this semester so they were still working on our schedule. While everyone else was getting settled we were still waiting and although that may sound “lucky” we were bummed. We had gotten all dressed up and pretty for the first day of class and then it was all for nothing! Haha, we were also just kind of ready to jump in and get it all started. Anticipation, after all, is the most killer part. Anyhow, we went to the office mid afternoon to pick up our schedules and then hung out there talking with everyone until it was time to go to CEA Happy Hour at Café des Negociants. When I got there, Lydia found me with information on choir at the local music school and it worked out that we had time enough to drink a chocolat chaud and get to rehearsal! We ended up being a little bit late (of course) and had to do the awkward-stand-at-the-door-while-they-are-still-rehearsing-not-wanting-to-interrupt-but-you-still-are-because-everyone-is-gawking-at-you thing. Ooh. The awkwardness only got worse when we couldn’t exactly say what we were there and who had sent us… So we not only interrupted them, but also became the very intriguing international contingent deserving of funny comments and further interruption of rehearsal. O dear. We did eventually settle in with the soprano section and all the women were very kind and helped us catch on to the music quickly. This was kind of my first real immersion experience with native speakers and I think it went very well! We always managed some kind of Franglais definition for things and where Lydia and I lacked knowledge of the classic tunes, we made up by being the only classically trained people in the room. It is sooo nice to be able to sight-read music! Thanks to the people in my life who taught me these things, I appreciate it!

Tuesday started our first day of actual classes!!! YAY!!!
Ok, get this: my language profs name is Monsieur Pierre Tissot. Does that get any more French?!? He also looks exactly like William Shatner.He told us a story about how he used to fancy himself to resemble George Clooney but once a student piped up and corrected him and his life has been forever changed. Mr. Tissot has traveled the world and seems to know a little bit about everything. He also has a lot of experience with international students and that is comforting because for a long while we’ve been being warned that French professors could be very abrupt and brutally honest. I haven’t found Mr. Tissot to be brutal but he is definitely honest with us. After our first written homework he read mistakes made in our compositions aloud to the class and addressed the writers directly. That’s something that would never happen at home. Personal work is kept very secret secret, as are grades, so it was a bit of a shock to have individuals singled out in front of the class. Shock aside, I think it was beneficial because every mistake we made, we will be much less like to make again for fear of being called out on the same mistake. It also benefited the rest of the class to see the mistake made and corrected.
After language class (which was 4 hours long) we went to Traduction Francais-Anglais (Translation). This will be a really helpful class I think! We are learning how to say things so that all the implied meaning of phrases gets translated too… Its NOT so easy to do, but a very interesting study! It was especially fun because the first text we’ve been set to translating is an excerpt from Harry Potter ☺ LOVES it!

***Note: My roommate has started awarding me daily nerd points. I got one for being excited about HP and also later in the day for having a minor meltdown when I found out that there are flamingos in France. FRENCH flamingos. Can you belieeeve it? Haha
Here they are called “Flamants Roses.”

Between classes we had a bunch of the people in our level over to the apartment for the lunch break. Its nice that we live so close and we like having people over too, so everything works out perfectly!

Wednesday:
Had I actually written this on Wed. I would have been jumping out of my skin with excitement over being reconnected to the Borg (a.k.a getting internet at the apartment), but from where I sit now it is incredibly difficult to be SOOOO EXCIIIITED because I’ve been so busy surfing the web that I haven’t been keeping up with memories…
So, I was REALLY excited to have webs at the apartment and since I didn’t have class all day, I just sat in the apartment on the computer.
After grocery shopping later that day Allison and I met a neighbor in the stair well after and we ended up being invited to his place and befriending him. His name is Momo and he is a 30 year-old Moroccan man who has lived in Paris the last 20 years. He was recently divorced and has a 6 year old son in Paris… We had a fun night discussing language and life and Momo taught us a kind of French slang that is generally used to avoid people understanding what you’re talking about. Kind of sketchy, but our “verlens” names are Sonalli and Ttanybri! Bahaha! These are our new gangster names and often we refer to ourselves this way when joking. :) Momo is also a new resident of Aix in search of friends and things to keep the mind off of being lonesome, so we decided to invite him to our dinner party on Thursday. Long story short, we were apparently too friendly too quickly and (due to cultural differences in perception of open friendliness) Momo has unfortunately fallen in love with me. Ugh. He did leave me a nice note about how he thought I had the most beautiful “ices” (eyes) and that I was very “handsem,” but instead of being charming it just kind of makes me nervous every time I hear footsteps coming down from upstairs.
1/2/10

On Thursday we had more language class and then stylistic studies. Our professor read to us and though tat sounds kind of elementary, it was one of the coolest things I’ve heard so far—He picked a selection from a political work and read it like prose or poetry.It was absolutely beautiful! THAT is how French is supposed to be spoken. Passionately and with grace! Even though it was SUPER difficult to keep up, I think I’m going to be able to do this level 4 thing… Let’s hope!

As I’d said we had a dinner party tonight with some of our fellow apartment dwellers and despite the neighbor issues, it was a lovely evening! The meal was kind of a grand experiment but it ended up being absolutely delicious. And I DO say so myself! Haha. We had garlic-mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and eggplant sautéed in lemon butter herb sauce, gorgonzola tortellini with red meat sauce, a kings cake, fruit tarts, and of course French wine! It was really tasty and also really fun to have people over. We just spent the night talking and enjoying each others company and all kept saying how we felt so “big” like grown ups or something… Haha! I hope there will be more of these to come; I really enjoy entertaining and having people over. It was a good day today!

Friday:
Looong day. I had 7 hours of straight class today… wow that was exhausting! I think I’m really going to like school here, but there are definitely some things to get used to. I must remember to bring nibbles with me next week and work on extending my attention span! (the requisite 50 minutes at home just isn’t gonna cut it here!) Later we had Jenny over and we’ve started discussing plans for a trip to Italy over the February break! YAY! Sometimes I’m taken aback by how surreal my life seems right now.

“Oh yeeeaah, I just had some friends over to my apartment in France to drink some wine and discuss travel plans to Italy. Just Rome and Florence… no big, right?”

“Wrong…! HUGE DEAL!!!!”

Haha! I love being here and I am so thankful to have such awesome opportunities to do things like this. I LOVE FRANCE!


Saaturday a group of us decided to go to Marseille and it ended up being an awesome day! We had planned on taking a boat out to an Island to see Chateau d’If (Same as in Count of Monte-Cristo) but the Mistral was blowing so they weren’t sending boats out. Shucks. We ended up just walking around and taking advantage of the great shopping in Marseille. (SO much cheaper that Aix!) We had lots of fun running round and taking pictures and thoroughly enjoyed being able to play tourist for the day. In Aix we try to seem like we belong and not do dumb foreigner things, but leaving town has the effect of lifting a veil. When we leave Aix we just get to be excited Americans seeing the sights of Europe. :) After our shopping adventures we decided we’d get a crepe before heading back to the bus but for some reason we couldn’t find a crepe place ANYWHERE! This seemed strange because they are literally on every corner in Aix. Eventually we asked someone where there was a creperie and had to walk 3 blocks to get there. We didn’t get it. This is France. Don’t they know that? Hahaha ☺

Sunday Allison went to Cannes with some French friends we’ve met so I decided I would take a walk before settling in to do some studying. It seems like every week I learn a little more about the tendencies of European men and I just don’t like them so far. I haven’t had any trouble with guys my own age but the older men here must think they are gifts from God or something because they tend to be very forward… While walking around, in broad daylight, there were a couple men who tried to chat me up as I walked by, another who followed me for half the Cours trying to tell my how beautiful I was, and another old guy who ran out of a bar and grabbed my arm trying to pull me in and buy me a drink. The last one I think was a bet because when I shook him off and went away his friends laughed at him…. Ewwwwww. I don’t understand it and I don’t say this to freak anyone out its just kind of something I’m trying to figure out how to deal with and not feel like I'm constantly being preyed upon. If anyone has insight, shoot me an email please!

We are now almost half way through the second week of class, I need to finalize my elective schedule, and then I'm off to Barcelona with some of the girls for the weekend! More to come after I get back from Spain!
XOXOX ~B