Le 108ieme jour: Je ne peut pas dire "À demain", demain.

So tomorrow when I leave from seeing people at the Institute, I can't say "À demain" (essentially, "See you tomorrow"), because I won't be having a "tomorrow" in Avignon tomorrow. That's insane. I can't believe it.

"Parce qu'on sait jamais, regarde vers la haut."
"Because one never knows. Look up, think to the future."

I woke up this morning at 8am. I left my huge tall windows open (which by the way are awesome and I'm going to miss) because it was really warm, and especially since my bed is lofted and heat rises. SO anyways, the crazy Avignon guido hooligans were being loud and obnoxious at 8am this morning and plus, I think I "turned into" a light sleeper for the past week since I'm so torn about leaving Avignon and going back to the US.

Claudie said "Bon nuit, le dernier."
So I studied in bed for about a half hour (I reviewed my flashcards for my Literature class) then got up and started packing. I wasn't too sure that I was going to fit everything but I did in the end (I didn't finish packing until this afternoon). I will feel a lot better once that suitcase is approved (if its more than 50 lbs it can be checked but with a fee. If its over 70 lbs I'm not allowed to check it) and checked, and I'm through security.

I showered (my last shower in this shower without a "permanent" shower head) then got dressed for the day. I had really worked up a sweat packing! :-) I went to school a few minutes early to say hello to everyone and do a last minute review. The professor thought my flashcards were cute. The exam took over 2 hours for me (which is our allotted time) and some students took over a half hour extra.

Came home and finished packing.

Theater association/company "reunion" - they talked business then we ate dinner.
Two major highlights they asked me that I'll share:
1. what was surprising to me when I arrived in France? I was like, nothing, I can't really remember. They were like, nothing. And I was like, well I don't really know, it's been a 4 months since I arrived. They all laughed!
2. Then they asked me to explain what the word "merdique" is in english. I explained. If you don't speak French, then look it up on google translate or wordreference.com.

Le 107ieme jour: Ç'allait

Exam this morning: 9am
Time I got up this morning: 7:30am
Time I finished my exam: 10:40am
Going to bed at the same time as Claudie last night: timeless

Well okay, not really...it was 2am. I could read the clock no matter how wacky I was feeling. But you get my drift...maybe.

Exams were good. I felt good when I left them, and felt even better just by the fact that I was finished.

Bought stamps to send postcards. Yes, I know I will return home before the postcards get there, but I still want to send them anyway.

Went up on the roof one last time, even though it's interdit. I had to enjoy the 75F weather here before I go home to where it has recently been at least 20 degrees colder.

Dinner, tv, studying, paper writing. ... all successfully completed.

It is so hard to leave. I can't believe it. Four months ago I arrived and there was snow and ice on the ground, and I could barely figure out what people were saying to me. Now 8.5 times out of 10, I understand what people are saying to be the first time they speak and 9.75 times out of 10 I understand the second time. I can navigate my way around Avignon and often get mistaken for a native.

Tomorrow is my last night in Avignon, my second to last night in France for this semester.

Le 106ieme jour/T-4: Un bain de boue./A mud bath.

Brief bullets/summary of my day
.Met with a University representative for the Avignon University. She is supposed to be the International Student Relations Coordinator. I've never met her before. I leave in 4 days and have one more class session at the University.
.Sylvie (our director) treated us IAU/University students to lunch outside at a restaurant in Place Louis Pasteur.
.Did some last minute gift/tourist shopping
.Spent the rest of that time studying for Poli Sci. and History exams that I have tomorrow.

~~~

As my days in France wind down, everyday I find myself thinking of new things that I will miss. Here is my list from today:

.the church hymn that the church bells in Place St Didier play at noon and 7pm that no one seems to know the name of
.the classical music that the neighbor across the street plays spontaneously on random days
.being able to speak in "code" aka English...when I go home, I'll have to find people I can speak in "code" with aka French
.inexpensive "bubbly" (carbonated) water
.strong, delicious, dark coffee (even the instant coffee can sometimes be better than brewed coffee in the US)
.walking under the canopy of the fruit, veggie, bread market and smelling the fresh aroma of all the delicious smells that are captured under the overhang

Le 105ieme jour/T-5: Le dernier jour des cours

-Last day of classes: history and poli sci.
-Michel's last day in France with me. He leaves tomorrow a.m. at 7h45 for his flight from Marseille to Paris and then Paris to Togo.
-Gave them gifts because he was leaving. I gave her the Avatar DVD and I gave him the "singing" motion sensor cicada. Woody loved the cicada, he jumped all around. It was so cute. They really appreciated the letter that I wrote as well. It's amazing how much some honest and kind words can mean.
-We watched Arsène Lupin - a drama/mystery show based off books. Claudie said they're similar to the books of Agatha Christie, and they are from the same time period, but instead by a French author, Maurice Leblanc. She read them as a child and loved them! I am going to look for them tomorrow when I am out doing some brief last minute gift shopping.
-Took two group photos. The first one we weren't ready for, but it still came out well of me and Claudie. The second one is the best photo I have of Michel. I think that he just doesn't look at cameras. :-) I cropped the photos of the pairs (Claudie and I, Michel and I), but also kept the originals, the best one of which I will send to Claudie when I get back to the States.

Le 104ieme jour/T-6: J'ai baladé.

Got up this morning, went to the free market and got some cadeaux for people. It's very overwhelming, there are so many things to choose from and pick between. Mirel met me there after I'd been browsing for about a half hour. She also bought a gift or two. We went back to her house and ate lunch outside on the patio under the purple flowers (seen in the picture).

I returned home and je me suis installée (I got comfortable/situated) on the terrace and 'did some homework', though it was more of an effort and less of actual results. Claudie and Michel had gone to Saintes Mairies de la Mer with Woody.

They came back and gave Woody a bath - which he doesn't like. However, it was amusing to see him all skinny with his fur flat from being wet. He then proceeded to come out on the patio and rub off along the wall, pacing back and forth along the wall to dry off. Claudie came and gave me a little gift - they had bought me the salt and herb mix that she uses and has on the table to use at every meal. Apparently it is special to Saintes Mairies de la Mer, or at least the type she gave me is.

For dinner, we ate a little earlier, and by a little earlier, I mean like maybe 5 minutes, but we'd been eating later the last few days, so it seemed extra early. Anyway, we had chicken (poulet rôti), green beans (haricots verts), and french fries (frites américains).

After dinner was the Molieres, named after the famous french playwright, Moliere (in case you didn't know who he was). This awards ceremony is for french theater only - best actor/actress, best up-and-coming actor/actress, best costumes, best director, etc. There were a lot of people that Claudie and Michel knew or used to work with. I still find that so cool that they know people who are on tv in awards shows.

Michel leaves Tuesday morning for Togo, so I will be giving him his gift of a chirping, motion censor cicada. He likes them according to Claudie, so I found one over Spring Break in Cassis.

Bises.

Le 103ieme jour / T-7: Saintes-Mairies de la Mer

I always start with the "cons" and end with the "pros." It's better to end on a positive note!

La journée: Saintes Mairies de la Mer

Cons:
-I have bug bites.
-It was cloudy and humid.
-My feet straps weren't appropriately adjusted, thus I "bounced" when we trotted instead of moving with the horse.
-Unable to take a lot of pics.

Pros:
+I went to Sts Mairies de la Mer - where Claudie used to go as a child on vacations!
+Went to the beach and collected cool spiral shells!
+Went horseback riding in the dunes!
+Got a great photo of Mirel!
+Saw flamingos! (Who knew, flamingos in France!!??!!)
+My horse went slowly!
+I didn't fall off!

La soirée: La soirée salsa

Cons:
-My friends left early.
-The photo I tried to take with Claudie and Michel didn't come out too well.
-Sometimes I have two left feet (...Hmmm, I wonder if there's a translation into french for that?)

Pros:
+I got a photo with Claudie & Michel. If nothing more, I can show people a picture of them even if it isn't that good a photo.
+I got mistaken for a French person.
+I got asked to (and accepted) dance!
+I got taught salsa basics!
+Took a "timer photo" with Woody. New profile picture perhaps? :-)

Le 102ieme jour: Le dernier vendredi en Avignon./The last Friday in Avignon.

Art History this morning: had class where some students presented and then we had a little picnic in the garden by the tourist office and then went to a museum on Rue Victor Hugo by Porte de St. Marguerite. It was a former mansion and there were tapestries, porcelain cups/dishes, old furniture, etc. Nothing special, but it was one last "hurrah" with the art history prof, who told me when/if I come back to France I need to let her know and that I need to keep her updated on what I end up doing with my life. She was super excited at the beginning of the semester to find out that I wanted to go into museum work. She's so sweet and super cute.

Came home, watched some tv, then went over to Mirel's, hung out, and watched some tv. Yes, I'm sitting in my/her room watching tv, but we just needed some chill time.

I returned home, had dinner, watched Boulevard du Palais - a french police/crime show kind of like a mix of Law&Order and CSI, though Claudie strongly dislikes "Les Experts" as CSI is called in French.

After that, went over the guy's house who is in the Foreign Legion, from Colorado. Most of the IAU students went over there to "celebrate" the last weekend. He also has friends who are from Argentina, the Ukraine, and Germany.

Now I am home, pumped to go to St Marie de la Mer tomorrow, even if it is predicted to be cloudy weather. I don't care...I'm going horse back riding and then sitting on the beach! :-)

À demain.

Le 101ieme jour: Il a une poussette./He has a stroller-pushchair.

Woke up this morning to beautiful fresh French "morning" air as I intentionally had left my window open overnight. It was a gorgeous way to wake up. Got ready for the day - in and out of the shower, etc. Went to eat breakfast and Michel had Woody sitting up on the table out on the patio and he was cutting/combing his hair! When he finished and Woody jumped off the table, he came in and explained to me that he'd been doing it for over 2 hours. While he was talking to me, Woody was going crazy...he wanted Michel to keep combing his fur! What a crazy dog indeed! :-)

Had my last Lit. class this morning where she went over our exam, how to prepare for it, etc. I don't anticipate any problems on this exam, as she basically gave us the questions that will be on the exam. I spent the rest of the day eating my lunch and working on my art history paper. With the recent arrival of beautiful weather (mid to high 70s), we'd been going up on the roof to hang out during lunch, and have little picnics. I didn't go up today because I was being a busy bee working on my paper, but the directrice discovered that there were students up there and she went up and told them it was not allowed and that they had to come down. Oh well!

At 4:30 I headed out with Jenn for our university class. We popped by Mme Deronne's office to talk to her about our assignment. Because we don't follow the same schedule as they do at the university, Jenn and I get a different final exam assignment. However, Mme Deronne wasn't in her office. We arrived to class about 10 minutes early. -- My rule of thumb since arriving in France has been as follows: If you don't know how you are supposed to act or what you are supposed to do in a particular situation, watch over French people and follow suit. -- This rule has served me quite well. For example, I'm pretty sure that you aren't supposed to enter the classroom before the professor has arrived. However, today seemed to be the exception, as many of the French students/people entered the room before Mme Deronne had gotten there. I don't know how the circumstances were different than other times that they've waited, but I followed suit.

We got our midterm exams back (we don't get to keep them, but we got to look at them). Jenn and I both received an 11/20. Before you freak out, that's actually a really good grade. To give you a frame of reference, Mme Deroone told the whole class that the french students received between an 8 and an 11. Granted, our grades are adjusted because we're not native french speakers, but still, that means we were on the same level as the native French speakers. -- Our directrice will adjust/translate our grade into an actual letter grade for our transcripts. --

Also, Mme Deronne gave us our "final paper" assignment. We have to pick an artist, talk about his works, give examples, put him in context, and talk about what he contributed to the "nature morte" style. It only has to be 3 to 4 pages! How fantastic is that!?!?

Claudie was in on the computer and Michel came in, telling her about he had combed/cut Woody's fur. He called in Woody and then had him hop up on the swivel chair, at which point Michel said, "Il a une poussette," thus inspiring the title of today's post.

Claudie showed me a forwarded email that one of her friends sent her about english-french translation and pronounciation. The following is an example:

• FRENCH: donne-moi de l'argent!
• ENGLISH: Give me some money!
• FRENCH pronunciation of ENGLISH: Guy vomit sous mon nez. (Guy [a male name] is vomiting under my nose.

There are others also, but I don't feel like typing/pasting them all in here. Then Michel and Claudie started explaining to me that these are similar to what they call "des exercices du theatre" literally, theater exercises, but more like speaking warm-ups. Then they started rattling off tongue twisters

Dinner was chicken (cut up like stir fry style in some kind of sauce/juice), ratatouille over rice. I don't care how many times she serves it, I love ratatouille!

After dinner, we watched The Outlaw: Josey Wales (L'hors loi: Josey Wales), a movie created and acted in by Clint Eastwood. Michel recorded it to bring down to Togo to show the people in the village. They are certainly all about there westerns here. Then we watched a short show about jazz/Harlem/New Orleans, and then watched the Breaking Point (Point Break) with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. It just made me want to watch Blue Crush.

Le 100ieme jour: Je ne sais pas comment te dire. / I don't know how to tell you.

Je ne sais pas comment te dire. / I don't know how to tell you. - a line out of a French Canadian song I have on my computer.


Je suis arrivée en Avignon il y a 99 jours. C'est incroyable!
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I arrived in Avignon 99 days ago. That's just unbelievable!

Today was my last Wednesday of classes. It's really bizarre/exciting/confusing to think about that. It's just crazy! I find it hard to believe. I can't even believe that I've been here almost 4 months. I recently emailed with the Dean of International Studies about the Fulbright Fellowship. I'm hoping to come back to France or somewhere in "le monde francophone" at some point after F&M.

As everyday passes, my mind is becoming more mélangé (mixed/jumbled). It's such a bittersweet ending. As my family was unable to come due to the Iceland volcano explosion (Life Lesson: Nature wins over man and there is not a thing you can do about it.), I am missing them especially because of my anticipation/excitement about them visiting. However, at the same time, I am sad to leave Claudie, Michel, and Woody, and the lifestyle to which I have become so accustomed to in France (fresh food, laid back "speed", direct-ness, being 'cultured', etc.). After being here for almost 4 months, it is hard to picture myself back in the States.

Today, I had Art History, History, and Poli Sci. Qu'est-ce qui s'est passée? Franchement, rien de tout. (What happened in my classes? Frankly, not too much.)

Came home after class, sat in my room with my window open, listening to the bells ring at the nearby church in Place St Didier, enjoying every minute of this life, this weather, and this tranquility. Tout de suite, everything will change. Je vous jure.

For dinner, we had an omelet to start and then last night's taboulé (which is "cracked wheat" - I actually think it's quinoa - with vegetables, served cold or hot, whichever you like) mixed with ratatouille. "Yum num num!" as Michel would say.

After that we watched on tv "Les racines et les ailes" (Roots and Wings), a show that talks about places around France. Tonight's was about preserving different historical monuments and getting young people involved in preserving the "patrimony" of France. The archaeologist part of me was freaking out because they weren't preserving the monuments, but instead restoring and rebuilding them. This freaked me out a little.

Then Claudie put on a performance she had recorded on the DVR called the Trial of Ceznac, based on a real historical event. However, it reminded me more of the show, "Edwin Drood" where you pick the ending. People were invited to text, call, or submit their votes of whether or not he was guilty.

À demain. ... oh wait, it is "demain"! :-)

Le 99ieme jour: Presque trois chiffres./Almost three digits!

Ce que me manquerai quand je retour aux Etats-Unis...

• la nourriture: les repas de Claudie, les baguettes, les fruits, les legumes, le vin, la glace italienne, le café,
  
• Il fait beau maintenant en Avignon (au moindre 70 degres F!)
• Qu'un bouteille de bon vin ne coute pas très cher.
• Ma famille d'accueil (Claudie, Michel, et Woody)

Je suis encore confondue...

• Pourquoi "Microsoft Word" n'a pas appris que j'écris en français?
• Les differences entre des phrases et des verbres comme Bonsoir/bonne nuit, si/oui, dormir/se coucher. Je croyais que je les ai compris, mais il y a quelques jours, j'ai constaté que je ne les ai pas compris, pas de tout!
  

Ce que je n'aime pas...

• Ma famille me manque
• Le Dunkin Donuts me manque
• Lady Gaga et Kesha
• les grèves! (qui se passe chaque printemps)

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Things I Will Miss when I return to the US

• The food: Claudie's meals, the baguettes, the fruits, the vegetables, the wine, the gelato, and the coffee
  
• It is already nice weather here in Avignon (at least 70 F)
• That a bottle of good vin doesn't cost a lot.
• My host family (Claudie, Michel, and Woody)
  

I am still confused...

• Why the Microsoft Word on my computer doesn't remember/hasn't learned that I am writing in French?
• The differences between some phrases and some verbs such as Bonsoir/bonne nuit, si/oui, dormir/se coucher. I had thought that I understood the differences, but a few days ago, I realized that I don't in fact understand the differences at all!

Things I don't like...

• I miss my family.
  
• I miss Dunkin Donuts.
• Lady Gaga and Kesha
• Strikes ! (which happen every spring apparently)

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Today it was beautiful weather again. I ate a banana, a kiwi, and strawberries for breakfast, sitting comfortably in the kitchen with the door to the patio wide open!

I only had one class today where we talked about this artist, Andy Goldsworthy, who does something called "Land art," basically making works of art in nature, using nature. It is really cool. He built this kind of conical egg shape "statue" out of rocks that got covered by the ocean and when the tide went back out it was still there.
That was my only class. Then I made myself lunch and went up on the roof for a picnic of roquefort cheese, baguette, and salad.

Then, I returned home, opened the window in my room, charged up my computer for a little while during which time I recharged (aka, I took a half hour nap), then I went outside, sat on the patio, and did some homework.

Dinner was tarte, and some couscous like thing with a combo of vegetables - tomatoes, peppers, olives, and salad. Claudie and Michel decided to start composting after watching this movie about local solutions to global problems, apparently produced by the French equivalent of Michael Moore.

The volcano continues to cause problems and so does the strike. So clearly life as usual aka the status quo continues. :-)

Le 98ieme jour: La princesse et le pois./The princess and the pea.

Happy Monday! I had class bright and early today at 9am, normally I don't have class until 2pm, so this was quite a change. The class was meant to make up for a class meeting that was canceled last week. At like 11am, I felt as though it was already afternoon. There were only 5 students (in a class of I think 9). Two of the students were stuck in a nearby city where they had gone for a day trip yesterday, but due to the strike, had gotten stuck there. Messy business this strike, messy business indeed.

I bought some couscous last week, and I bought the smallest one available. However, according to the box, it will last for 8 servings. I think it will last more for me...probably the rest of my time here. (Wow, that's weird to say.) I do love it so much though, just add a pinch of salt, some pepper and some herb mix, and you're good to go!

Between classes, a friend and I went up on the roof of the Institute to chill and do homework. Well let's just say there was more "chillin'" and less "homework-ing," as you could have probably anticipated. It was beautiful weather today - high of prob 70 with no wind, just beautiful.

Had two more classes the rest of the day (my normal two classes for Mondays). Those were nothing special. The professors hadn't planned to speak about the exam until either Wednesday or next Monday. Our exams for those two classes are next Wednesday! Let me just say, professors have a different stance on exams here despite the fact that they still count for a lot, if not more than they do in the States.

I was having a minor freak out last night/this morning when I couldn't find my cell phone charger as I had only one battery bar left. After much frantic searching (rearranging, unpacking, etc.), I gave up. I was quite tired (as I had my 9am class). I gave one last look as I got into bed for a nap. I looked under my mattress because I usually charge my phone up by my bed. What do you know, it was under my bed, at the head of my bed by my pillow. I kind of felt like the princess and the pea.

-Woody heard a cat while he was out on the terrace and was looking all around.
-Dinner was fish and rice with mushrooms and zucchini. Claudie was upset because the fish had really shrunk in size when she cooked it.
-Watched the movie "La Traductrice" - a Russo-Swiss movie. So some parts of it had French subtitles for the Russian parts.

Le 97ieme jour: Nous avons fait un pique-nique!/We had a picnic!

Il faisait très beau aujourd'hui - si chaud avec beaucoup de soleil! :-)

D'abord, je suis allée aux Halles et j'ai acheté quelques légumes et des fruits - deux pommes, un nashi (poire-pomme qui vient de la Chine - http://www.only-cookware.com/blog/2007/11/28/the-delightful-delectable-nashi-pear/), et un poivron vert. Le nashi n'était pas si delicieux comme le site-web dit, mais j'aime essayer des nouvelles types de nourriture pendant ma sejour en France.

Après, je cherchais (et j'ai trouvé) le "free market" (comme Michel m'a dit) avec des vêtements, des chaussures, des livres, des tableaux, etc. en Place des Carmes. J'ai acheté deux journaux de l'époque de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale! Je n'ai payé qu'un euro pour les deux! Comme vous savez, j'adore l'histoire, donc, ça me plait beaucoup!

Puis, j'ai appelé Mirel et nous avons décidé de faire un pique-nique. Son hôte d'accueil nous a donné des verres (pour le vin, bien sûr!) et un nap (peut-être pour être semblable aux vrais français). Nous avons fais nôtre pique-nique en haut dans le jardin d'Avignon (près de la Palais des Papes).

Nous avons bien mangé, et après nous avons acheté/mangé du barbe à papa et après, du glace (j'ai choisi le parfum, "crème du marron," qui était très delicieuse!)

Puis, Mirel m'a montré des roue à eau (que j'ai voulu voir), mais la petite fleuve était très sale.


In English:
It was a beautiful day today - so hot with lots of sunshine! :-)

First, I went to Les Halles and I bought some vegetables and fruit - two apples, a nashi (pear-apple that comes from China - http://www.only-cookware.com/blog/2007 / 11/28/the-delightful-delectable-nashi-pear /), and a green pepper. The Nashi was not as delicious as the web-site says, but I like trying new types of food while in France.

Then I looked (and found) the "free market" (as Michael called it) with clothes, shoes, books, pictures, etc.. in Place des Carmes. I bought two newspapers from around the time of the Second World War! I paid one euro for two! As you know, I love history, so, I am quite excited!

Then I called Mirel and we decided to have a picnic. Her host family gave us glasses (for wine, of course!) And a small blanket/table cloth (perhaps for us to seem similar to the real French). We had our own picnic up in the garden of Avignon (near the Palace of the Popes).

We ate well, and after that we bought / ate cotton candy and after the cotton candy, we got some ice cream (I chose the "creme de marron" flavor which was very delicious!) Then, Mirel showed me some water wheels that I had wanted to see, but the stream was quite dirty.
...
Dinner: pork, potatoes, and peas.
Dinner discussion: about the movie they went to see called "Local Solutions for Global Problems" which is a movie about agriculture/pesticides/industrialization and globalization problems.

*Sorry about the weird white highlighting behind some of the text. I don't know why it did that and therefore don't know how to change it.

Le 95ieme jour: Je ne peux pas chercher les mots./I can't find the words.

Current event - A volcano erupted in Iceland.
Effect - All flights canceled into most of Europe aka Charles de Gaulle Paris Airport closed.

Had class this morning.
Went to "the island" on the free ferry (which literally takes less than 4 minutes).
Enjoyed good company and wine on the island.
Went back "to the mainland".
Did some shopping.
Found a good gift for Claudie.
Went to a movie at Utopia (Huits Fois Debouts)
Claudie kept dinner for me.
Carpentras tomorrow.

Le 94ieme jour: J'écrit en français./I am writing in french.

Je vais écrire seulement quelques mots parce qu'il est très tard (ou très tôt, ça dépends sur votre point de vue!).

Aujourd'hui, j'ai eu deux cours - une séance de Science Po. et une séance de Littérature. La séance de Science Po. était pour rattraper une autre séance que le prof a annulé. Mais, hier, il a annulé la séance, donc nous devons rattraper une autre séance lundi matin de la semaine prochaine!

Après mes cours, j'essayais de commencer de réviser pour mes examens (parce que ce week-end, ma famille vient à la France, et je serai très occupée, je suis sûre.) Mais, je n'ai pas réussi en commençant mes études.

Donc, je suis partie de l'Institut Américain et je suis rentré chez moi. Maintenant, il y a des ouvriers qui s'installent (ça n'est pas la traduction, mais j'espère que vous pouvez comprendre ce que je veux dire) des carreaux sur la terrasse. J'ai commencé à faire ma valise (je sais, ça semble si en avance, mais...), et ça m'a rendu triste, donc j'ai arreté tout de suite.

Nous avons bien mangé ce soir - un pizza de fromage des chevres, une salade, et un artichaut (plus grand que d'habitude!).

Maintenant, je veux me coucher.
À demain.

En dessous, vous trouverez la traduction de la texte du français à anglais. J'ai utilisé l'Outil linguistique de Google et après je l'ai corrigé un peu.

Below, you will find the translation of my posting from french to english. I used google Language Tools and I corrected it a little afterwards.

"I'll write a few words because it is very late (or early, it depends on your point of view!).

Today I had two classes - one session of Poli Sci and one session of Literature. Today's Poli Sci class was to make up for another one that the teacher had canceled. But yesterday, he canceled class, so we have to make up another class session on Monday morning of next week!

After class, I tried to start reviewing for my exams (because this weekend my family is coming to France, and I will busy I'm sure.) However, I did not succeed in starting to study.

So, I left the Institute and I went back home. Currently, there are workers who are installing (this is not the translation, but I hope you can understand what I mean) tiles on the terrace. I started packing my suitcase (I know it seems so early, but ...), and it made me sad, so I stopped immediately.

We ate well tonight night - a goat cheese pizza, salad and an artichoke (larger than usual!).

Now I want to sleep.
See you tomorrow.

Le 92ieme jour: Mon visa est devenu necessaire hier./My visa became nessary as of yesterday.

So starting with yesterday, my visa actually became important because you only need a visa if you are going to be in France for over 90 days. So I better make good use of the next 3ish weeks I have left and get my money's worth. Goodness knows I had to pay lots of Euros to get a valid visa. Thanks France!

Today I only had one class, in which I presented my Lit project. One more major assignment that I can cross off of my list. <*Phew*>

Tomorrow I have a presentation for History, and that will be the last thing for me in terms of major assignments before exams. I am still waiting to hear back from my University professor with guidelines about my final paper for her class. I hope we find out soon, as I'd like to get started on it ASAP.

Nothing major happened today. I am looking forward to visiting the "island" on the free ferry on Friday with some friends from the Institute.

Le 91ieme jour: Après la vacance./After vacation.

Here is a short (Reader's Digest version) description of what Sam and I did while she visited this past weekend.

1. We conquered the greve. Well not quite, but almost. They only thing it stopped us from doing was from seeing the Pont du Gard. But besides that, we got everywhere we wanted to in spite of all the havoc it is causing.
2. We baked a cake. Actually it is my grandmother's recipe that my parents sent me for a pistachio cake. Claudie and Michel liked it. They went back for seconds (which made it less noticeable/uncomfortable for us to go back and get seconds!)
3. We went around Avignon: the Pont Benezet ("Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse..."), the Palais des Papes, the Jardins des Roches, and the other church in the Palais des Papes "square" (the name escapes me at the moment).
4. We went to Nîmes: saw a bull fight "training session" in the ancient Roman arena for free. 'Gratuit' is one of my new favorite words in French. This adventure was completely unplanned and ended up being worthwhile since we ultimately ran out of things to do in the afternoon because we couldn't get to Pont du Gard. It was what I imagine to be the French version of the Kentucky Derby - classy people wearing big hats as seen in this picture of the woman with the white hat. However, seeing a "Ralph Lauren model" at the bull fight was certainly worth the visit! Sam insisted I take a photo (and I didn't need much persuading) and right before I took the photo, he "swished" his hair back with his hand. What a true model move!!!
5. 
6. 
   
7. We went to Marseille: have to say, Michel warned us. Marseille was very dirty. There were parts that were so dirty, I don't think I have seen anywhere else in my life as dirty. But at the same time, there were parts that were really pretty near the Vieux Port and along the water in general. It was Sam's first time seeing/touching the Mediterranean. Good thing she is going to Greece at the end of her time in Europe! However, I feel as though it is the one city I can "check off my list." I feel no need to go back. We both ordered without really knowing what exactly we were going to get. I lucked out, Sam not did not fare as well.

Today, Sam left to go back to Paris. She had some train issues because of the ongoing grève (strike, or as the French like to call it, "les mouvements nationaux", literally "the national movements"), but ended up getting back to Paris in one piece. I really hope the strikes are over by the time I need to head to Paris to meet up with my parents and sister!

Had class today in the afternoon - History and Political Science - both which I felt went better than normal. Maybe that's because I've been on break, who knows. But it was a nice change whatever the reason for the difference.

Tomorrow I have a presentation (poem and performance) for Littérature using "my five assigned words" - un pneu, quasiment, s'asseoir, l'escalier, un fauteuil. Translation: tire, practically, to sit, stair, armchair. Yes, I know, random words! I had picked them and then by chance (we were randomly handed out each others' lists of words), I received my own. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, and I'll post about it.

For dinner, an asparagus omelette, pasta, and pistachio cake! Afterward, we watched a movie by Hayao Miyazaki (some of you may recognize his name because he produced "Princess Monoke"), but we watched a different one - "Le Chateau [something]". It was really cute!
This video is one of the many that I took while at the bull fight. Enjoy!

Le 89ieme jour: Les grèves. / The strikes.

Since last writing the following things have transpired:

1. Went to Bath, England and visited with Annie, Christine, Terry, and Chris - F&M International Rendez-Vous
2. Flew into Toulouse (returning from Bath) and had my first run in with French strikes (les mouvements nationaux or les grèves). A nice French woman also headed back to Avignon guided me through the process of navigating the transportation system.
3. Went to Cassis (pronounced Cah see) where it was nice the first day but rainy the other two days. We went on a boat excursion and saw the calanques, which is primarily what Cassis is known for. It's these huge cliffs carved out along the coast line. I think they would have been prettier if it had been nicer out. We met some people from Washington state who we ran into again at the train station.
4. Encountered more issues because of les mouvements nationaux, but worked through them like champs. My wish for this week is that they end soon.
5. Sam arrived on Thursday evening, also after a debacle with her train because it was canceled and she had to find another that was going to Avignon.
6. We went to Avignon sites first (Palais des Papes, Le Pont, and Les Halles), to Nîmes -where we saw a bull "fight" training/technique competition for free in the Roman arena, but weren't able to make it to Pont du Gard because of the strike (we are going to try to find a bus there on Monday morning).
   
7. Tomorrow, we are headed to Marseille to see the Mediterranean!

The pictures I have put in here are from Cassis and from Nîmes.

Le 80ieme jour: En retard. / Late.

• Michel gets used cell phones donated to him that he gives to stores to sell. He saves that money for the village in Togo. They recently bought a motor water pump.
• Art class a lot of people missing.
• History we talked about the influence of youth on fashion and what was "in" back in the 60s.
  
• Poli. Sci. cancelled, but don't you fret, it got rescheduled for after break.
• Studied all day.
• My minutes expire today on my cell phone, so I called and chatted with my parents for a little while.
• Chorale = drama. Discussion throughout the entirety of rehearsal. No singing took place.
• Dinner: pork, ratatouille, gnocci
• Watched a tv show about the H1N1 scare/scam.
  
• Studying, studying, studying. ... but in my spare time thinking of things I want to do in Avignon (when Sam comes to visit soon!!). ... I've got a list going.
  

Bisous! Bisous!

Le 79ieme Jour: J'attendais pour la pluie d'arreter. / I was waiting for the rain to stop.

1. Woke up to pouring rain. By the p.m. it was bright and the sun was shining.
2. Only had one class, but a lot of work none the less.
3. Wore flip-flops for the first time in public in France. I don't plan on doing it again. I felt like a tourist. No respectable European wears flip-flops.
4. Had artichokes for dinner. Learned how to "correctly" eat them.
5. Ate a mango (un mangue) for breakfast. Michel explained to me how to cut it and eat it last night, but it was still difficult to eat/figure out.
6. I decided that besides my host family, the next thing about France that I am going to miss the most is the food. The freshness, the availability, the inexpensiveness of eating healthy, and the numerous bakeries on every corner (like the number of Dunkin Donuts that surround my house, except even more so!).

Le 78ieme Jour: Lentement./Slowly.

Weekend: Contemporary Art Museum, Picasso Museum, Renoir Museum, Matisse Museum, and Chagall Museum. My favorite was probably (and surprisingly) the Contemporary Art Museum and the Chagall Museum. The weekend was jam packed, getting up bright and early every morning. Our directrice, Sylvie, reminds me a lot of Mr. Horne on our spring break trips. Go, go, go! It was nice to get places on time/early, but it wasn't always so nice getting up at 7am every morning of the weekend. I don't even get up that early on weekdays when I have classes! :-)

We also had daylight savings this weekend, which meant that we lost an hour of sleep on top of not getting to sleep in. However, I am now enjoying the fact that it is light out almost until 8pm, which is an added bonus. I don't know how I'm going to like it in the mornings. I hope it is still bright when I wake up. That is half the reason I get out of bed in the morning...because I can see that there is daylight!
The weather was beautiful, warm, etc in Nice. No Mistral! We also had a "stop over" in Cannes - yes, like the International Film Festival - for a couple hours and went to the beach there as well. It was nice to see the ocean, but made me miss home a little bit. At the same time as it made me miss home, it was also nice to have a taste of home in France!

Today I got up, showered, and went into school to do work. That is always a bad plan I've discovered. But I had to go in to discuss with my group...which didn't end up happening until hours later.

Spent most of the day in class and doing homework. The ray of sunshine in the shadows (aka the dark clouds of homework that I have) was that I received a postcard from Celine, who is studying in Rome! It's so nice to get mail! :-)

I have a busy week ahead, but I hope to be able to take some quick study breaks so as not to get bogged down/stressed out.

Le 75ieme Jour: J'espère qu'il fait beau à Nice!/I hope it's nice in Nice!

• This weekend: Traveling to Nice with my Art History class.
  
• Today: Lit. class - have a creative assignment with incorporating words into a text.
• Today: University class - exam next week.
• Today: cloudy but bizarrely not cold.
• Next week: lots of assignments and deadlines.
• Dinner: croquettes or coquettes (I'm not sure) & potatoes, cabbage, and carrots.
• Desert: Michel asked to eat the chocolate covered cranberries. Or more he asked if I had any left.
• After Dinner: Watched the movie the Gangs of New York - I never realized how long that movie was, but I do like Leonardo DiCaprio.
• After Movie: Packed and Skyped with my parents and then with Celine.
  

Le 74 Jour: Je porte plusieurs casquettes./ I wear many hats.

Highlights of the Day

The phrase "I wear many hats" actually exactly translates into French - a rare occurrence between figurative phrases in French and English.

Michel returned today from Togo! He called this morning to tell Claudie he had arrived in Marseille and would be home around 11 or 11:30!

I had three classes today: Art History, History, and Poli. Sci.

Art History: we got off on a tangent discussing the utility or lack thereof of titles for paintings.

History: we discussed France's situation in 1950 compared to the late 70s/early 80s. We had previously discussed the riots that took place all over France in 1968 and the protests that had caused the Avignon Theater Festival to split into two separate festivals: "In" and "Off". Claudie actually had stories from these. She was living in Paris (there were protests in Paris as well) and she had returned to Avignon for the Festival so saw the protests here as well!

Poli. Sci.: -. Enough said.

I ended up not going to choir. Today was the last rehearsal before the concert and since I'm not going to be in the concert, I thought it better to not attend today's rehearsal so they could rehearse the songs with choreography they way they will be performing them on Saturday at the concert.

Claudie made chicken and ratatouille for dinner. She mentioned that she will give me the recipe for ratatouille- I thought she had forgotten. I'm glad she didn't!

It turned out well that I was dinner. I actually participated in the conversation. ... Like with multiple interjections and explanations! :-)

Found out that Claudie and Michel aren't actually married. Claudie said she feels like marriage is only related to religion, that it is a religious ceremony. Michel also added that in the 60s/70s, it was the "hippy age" and of women's rights, etc. He explained that marriage was created by men to make women under their power and submissive to them. He thought instead, people should have to renew their marriage every few years, like the presidential election that takes place every 5 years. It gives people options and keeps people on their toes. He's such an creative thinker.

All night at dinner I kept noticing this whole coconut sitting on the corner of the table. At the end of dinner Michel offered some to me, and of course I agreed! He had brought it home fresh from Togo. SOOOOO DELICIOUS! Unbelievable!

Watched a movie called "Le Fauteuil hanté" - "the haunted arm chair". It was a fictional story about how multiple people serving in the same role (sitting in the same chair so to speak) in The Academy, mysteriously died (each one being replaced and then the replacement dying). It was funny, but not amazing. I had set a goal today to learn furniture vocab like "table", "sofa", and "arm chair". Both the word for sofa and arm chair just came up today over the course of my day. So it's not like I even looked them up because I wanted to learn that vocab, but because I came across the word and wanted to know what it was. Oh France and its fate! : )

Bisous! Bisous!
Ciao!

Le 73ieme jour: Le printemps arrive!/Spring is here!

Beautiful weather today. Wore my sandals and was very comfortable.

Had Lit. class where we are discussing "The Other". We are currently discussing Marguerite Duras, though I don't 100% understand her relationship to the discussion of "The Other". I hope that perhaps the next class will clarify that a little.

Today's weather was gorgeous. I think it was well over the forcasted 15 degrees Celsius - 59 degrees Fahrenheit! How awesome!?!?! I booked my hotel for Cassis for spring break. It is a small fishing village along the coast of the Mediterranean...the pictures of it look gorgeous with sandy white beaches and steep, rocky cliffs. I can't wait to go!

I came home a little early, It was relaxing to sit in my room with my tall, narrow window open and the light breeze blowing in!

I helped set the table for dinner. I always try to each night, but I always manage to arrive too late and she's already done it. Today I arrived just while she was in the process of doing so! Super exciting. Well, I guess not, but I was glad that I was able to help! The dog was going crazy and has been the past couple of days. I think it's a combination of Gabi (Claudie's daughter) and her cat (Ramon) just leaving and also Woody's anticipation of Michel returning to Avignon tomorrow. I have learned so much vocabulary variation just from what Claudie says to Woody (Calme-toi, Tais-toi, Pousse-toi...).

Claudie had to do the bills and accounting stuff today for the theater. I told her that my parents are both math teachers. She told me that she was never good at math, but always enjoyed languages (Latin, Spanish, and English) and things like that.

After that, she pretty much left to go down to the rehearsal she has every Tuesday night. I watched some tv but then went in for the night around 11:30pm (23h30 - much simpler way to do it, doesn't require any "a.m." or "p.m." nonsense!).

We had eggs with smoked ham (jambon fumé, kind of like bacon) for our first course and the spaghetti with tomato sauce and grated cheese for the second course.

Day 72: La liste de ce que j'ai fait. /The list of what I did.

Things that happened...

In Amsterdam:
1. Van Gogh (pronounced Van Gawg in France) Museum
2. Reijsk Museum
3. Visit with Adriana
4. Ate "traditional" Dutch food
5. Saw canals at night
6. Ate Ben&Jerry's
7. Ran into Jon Chu (someone from F&M for those who don't know) on vacation in Amsterdam

Today:
1. Nice long sleep
2. Shower
3. Carrefour (crossroads) aka grocery store
4. Received 2 letters in the mail:
i. St Paddy's Day card from my parents
ii. Easter card from grandmother
5. Class
6. Dinner
7. Made plans for Sam to visit me and for when my family comes to visit

Day 68: Fête du Printemps! / Spring Celebration!

• Lit. class: talked about photography, mixed media artists, etc.
• Lunch
• Returned home to see if I could help with the cooking for the party tonight. She had already made the "tarte aux tomates" and showed me where the tart and wine were that I was supposed to bring.
• Met Jen at the Institute to walk to the University class. Class was very fast paced ("très chargé" with 8 pages of notes, scribbling notes almost constantly for an hour and a half. Informative, but I left with a cramped hand.
• Went home, prepped for the fête, got the tarte and wine, and headed back to the Institute.
  
• The celebration was good. Sat with Jen and her host dad, Matt and his host mom, and Alaska. There was Easter stuff everywhere - chocolate eggs, etc.
  
• Most families made tarts, quiches, or something circle on a crust! (+ a salad)
  
• Deserts ranged from chocolate mousses, to chocolate cakes, to pastries, to apple tarts.
  
• Overall - delicious! :-)
• TOMORROW: I leave for AMSTERDAM!!! I won't be bringing my computer so this will be my last blog until Sunday or possibly Monday.

Bon week-end!

Day 67: Bon anniversaire! / Happy birthday!

My Actual Schedule Today

• Classes 9:30-11am, 11:30-1:45, 2-3:30, 4:30-6pm
• Chorale 6-8:30pm
• Birthday celebration 8:30pm-midnight

Highlights from each of the above bullet points

• Class: For history, we watched a movie called Le Bataille d'Alger, the Battle of Algers, about Algeria's fight for independence from France. It was produced by a man who had lived in Algeria and fought on behalf of the resistance movement (FLN?) along with an Italian producer.
• General statement about classes: More and more people have started bringing their ocmputers to class and not using them to take notes, or taking notes typing really loudly (pecking style). It is really distracting to me. I have to figure out a way to ignore it or make it stop.
  
• Chorale: Our rehearsal today was basically a run through of the concert we will be having in 2 weeks. I told the director that I won't be able to make it to that concert. It's frustrating and upsetting that I can't participate, but at the same time, I am still enjoying my time in the chorale. People are just starting to warm up to me - I get kisses now for greetings. I am no longer the lonely foreign student.
• Birthday celebration; -arrived home after chorale, they were still on the aperatifs and opening presents -2 kiss greetings happen in Paris and 3 kiss greetings happen in Avignon as I re-remembered when greeting Gabi, Claudie's daughter who lives in Paris. Gabi speaks English (I think very well -I am so surprised at the excellent speaking abilities and random vocabulary that the French people know in English. For example: fossilized.) -Claudie mentioned that she thinks my french has greatly improved since I have arrived. This made me really happy!! :-) -For dinner was whole crawfish/large shrimp, and indian chicken. Claudie was very upset because she had left the chicken cooking/boiling to long so it had broken off the bone/wasn't as presentable as she wanted it to be. She really takes pride in her cooking. -Gabi kept switching between French and English. In addition, she can also converse in Spanish. -After dinner, we talked about traveling, the importance of getting to know the people and customs, not just sightseeing and having leisure time. Truly exploring and experiencing the daily life of the people in the place you are visiting. I thought this was interesting because I totally agree. Gabi and Claudie both agreed but her mother just likes to know a few people very well and when she travels she likes to get the ambiance of the place she is visiting, but doesn't even notice/ignores the people.
  

Bisous.
Ciao!

Day 66: ----

A pretty light day today. One class - Lit. Lunch, etc. Came home a little early. It was beautfiul weather today, nice and warm.

We will be having the birthday dinner tomorrow instead of Friday, thus I can attend!

Tomorrow I have a very busy schedule: Class 9:30-11, 11:30-1:30, 2-3:30, 4:30-6; Choir 6:15-8:15; Birthday celebration 8:15 to ???.

I "helped"/ watched Claudie make the hamburgers tonight. We had salad, hamburger, and "American style" fries (which Claudie laughed about because we call them "French fries"!).

After that, I skyped with my parents and worked on planning their trip here in April.

Ciao!

Day 65: Après la première tour./After the first round. [of elections]

The first round of regional elections took place yesterday. There are A LOT of parties in France. To name a few there is the Front Nationale (FN, the extreme right), the UMP (l'Union pour un Mouvement Populaire - the right), la Parti Socialiste (PS- the left), le Modem (centrist party), and l'Écologiste Européen (the left). Claudie voted for the Écologiste Européen party. She explained that she voted for this party during the first round to show what types of policies she wanted in place, but will vote for the PS in the second round because she wants the left to win. Sarkozy is the UMP and most of the French people that I've met and from what I can gather, they don't like him.

These are regional - not presidential - elections. Our region is the PACA (Provence, Arles, Côte d'Azur). Being just the first round of elections, any party that doesn't earn more than a certain percentage of votes (I think it's 10% but I'm not positive) can move on to the next round but has to "buddy up with another party" or something like that. If you get over a different specific percentage point, you can pick your candidate to present in the 2nd round. If you are under a certain amount, you're out. The big news was that there were a record number of voters who didn't show up to vote (a record number of abstentions) - over 55% of voters didn't get out and vote. Claudie was very upset about this and has told me multiple times that she is going to remind and make sure all of her friends get out and vote next Sunday (the 2nd round). In the PACA, the UMP and the PS got the same percentage points (about 26%) and the FN got 20%. This is a huge jump for the FN, which bodes not well for policy. Claudie described them as a party that puts forth racist ideas and who are bigots. My history professor put it more gently and described them as the party that is majorly against immigration and blames the immigrants for all the problems - unemployment, the economic crisis, etc. My Poli. Sci. professor described them as fascists.

We watched a news broadcast show where they were updating the voting outcomes and rotating through the different "deputés" of the parties for discussion. It got really heated and really amusing to watch, though difficult to understand because sometimes 3 people would be trying to talk at once. I don't think I could even understand that in English!

I had 3 classes today because we had a double session of history to make up for one the professor had canceled earlier in the semester. It was a little tiresome having class 11:30-1pm, 2-3:30pm, and 4:30-6pm. In between 1 & 2, I ate lunch, and then in between 3:30 and 4:30, I fixed/sewed the buttons onto Mirel's jacket.

We were supposed to have dinner tonight to celebrate Claudie's mother's 89th birthday. However, it got canceled. Claudie's daughter's, Gabi, cat got loose so she had to find the cat before leaving, thus missing her train, etc. Therefore, she won't be arriving until Wednesday and they won't be doing the birthday celebration until Friday or Saturday. I won't be here Friday or Saturday because I am headed to Amsterdam this weekend. Therefore, I will still be able to meet Gabi, but I won't be able to participate in the birthday celebration.

But because of that, Claudie had made a huge meal and bought a cake. We had cooked zuccini and squash with garlic and herbs, and then spicy Indian chicken. The cake she had bought at a bakery. It was chocolate and orange with sugared/dried (kind of reminded me of the texture of marmalade) oranges on one layer, a layer of chocolate mousse on another, and a layer of something else. On top were some tiny macroons (not to be confused with macaroons) which I thought would be amazing, but I don't feel like they are anything special. But the cake was delicious!!!

We watched a movie called, La Verité, with Bridget Bardot. Then we watched a movie called something like, Paranoia in Las Vegas, (that is my exact/rough translation from French - I know that's not what it's actually called in English) with Johnny Depp. While watching the movie, Claudie began re-apolstering a chair with black and red fabric. She and Michel are definitely all about the black and red interior decorating.

Day 64: Le temps fait mal chaque dimanche./There is bad weather every Sunday.

Coucou! (Hey there!)

Last Sunday, snow. Today, gusts over 30 mph (no, I haven't started using metric just because I'm not in the US anymore).

Woke up insanely early after spending a fun evening over at Alaska's cooking, eating, and chatting last night. Rolled over after hearing the Mistral, got up to close my curtain, and put on some tv on my computer, rolled over to go back to sleep. I ate a lunch of leftovers with Alaska, Alyssa, Mirel, and Sarina (Mirel's friend who is visiting) - pesto/creme fraiche pasta, couscous vegetable mix, and hot cocoa with whipped cream (chantilly!).

Spent most of the day over at Alaska's. Her host mom returned briefly, only to go back to her daughter's because her daughter recently had a bad fall. She walked into the kitchen while I was washing my dishes and said "Hey" - I responded "Bonjour." Then she proceeded to tell us/Alaska that we could put the dishes in the dishwasher.

I left a little while after. Returned home, did laundry - by myself (no help pressing buttons, putting in detergent, etc.)!! I know that may not seem like a big feat, but for me/France, it is at the moment. 50 minutes later, I hung it out on the truc (the gadget/thing/apparatus) for drying clothes on.

Then we ate dinner. La soupe du soleil, fish that she bought fresh from Les Halles, and a vegetable combo. And evidemment (of course), a petite tasse du café (a small cup of coffee) to follow.

We watched the movie, Amadeus. It is apparently an old American movie based around the story of "Mozart's life" and interactions with this other classical musician who was lost in Mozart's shadows. It was well done, but a little simple for my tastes.

À demain.

Day 62 & 63: Le week-end/The weekend

Friday
Art History class - Mirel presented and did an amazing job. The professor ate it up. We got back our exams and the professor told us she was changing the style of the class because had all done so well. We can no longer go without speaking...we have to share our thoughts and knowledge. We looked at some paintings by Courbet. The image I input on today's entry is a picture I then saw later (as a print) at the movie theater! :-)

So then, the day passed uneventfully. We wandered around and did a little window shopping. I picked up the art history book I had ordered from the FNAC (the french version of Barnes&Nobles plus Best Buy) for my university class.

After that, I picked up my stuff from the Institute and went home. I was about to head out to meet up with some friends at 6pm. I told Claudie I was heading out and she said that we would be eating earlier than normal because she wanted to go out to see a movie. She invited me to go see the movie with her - Ghost Writer - and I accepted, of course! So, I returned home at 7 to eat dinner: some vegetable (I don't remember) and potatoes à gratin.

At dinner, I told Claudie that I was going on an excursion tomorrow to Saint Remy and Les Baux de Provence. She told me that the wind is very strong because the village, Les Baux, is very high up, but that never the less, it is very beautiful.

We went to the movie at the Utopia theater (République), which is where I saw the reprint of the Courbet painting just hanging on the wall like no big deal. It was cool to be able to recognize what I was looking at! I felt special.

So we watched the movie. Because it's at Utopia (they show foreign films in their original language with French subtitles), the film was in English. Even though it was in English, I don't think I really understood how it fit together. It was too simple a story for me for my interpretation to be the correct one. Therefore, I will have to rewatch it with someone when I come back to the States and have them explain it to me.

Saturday
Got up this morning and got on the bus to go to St. Remy/Les Baux. It is only about 45 minutes away, which was quite a change from what I was expecting.

First we went to St. Remy. There are what are called "Les Antiques" - aka the ruins from Antiquity aka the Romans. We ancient arch ways that marked the Roman conquering of the city. Then we went and saw an asylum where Van Gogh had been for a part of his life and saw some of the views that inspired quite a few of his paintings.

After that, we left to go to Les Baux. We got lunch. Though we all broke off into smaller groups, 12 of the 14 students ended up at the same restaurant. I got a ratatouille crepe, split a bruschetta, and had fondant au chocolat (a chocolate cupcake-esque cylinder with hot fudge "filling" in the middle!).

Then we went to the "chateau". More like a castle built into the cliffs. At first, it was hard to tell that it was even a castle, it blended in so well with the rest of the cliffs. We got lots of beautiful pictures. The wind was crazy blowing - it was unbelievable! We left there a little early, thus getting home to Avignon a little early.

I got home and skyped with my mom and then met up with my friends at the grocery store to get food for our meal we were making at Alaska's. The food was delicious and we had lots of leftovers. We will be going back over tomorrow for lunch to finish them off.

Good night!
Bisous!

Day 61: Pas beaucoup. / Not much.

Today I had Lit. class and my university class. In Lit we watched some clips of people who do "Slam" - a kind of mix between spoken poetry and rap. Before leaving this morning, Claudie told me that she was going to see a show/performance tonight and wouldn't be around for dinner, but that she would leave me something to reheat/eat for dinner.

The projector/computer connection was working today during the university class, making things a lot easier to understand. The other girl I am taking the class with and I pledged to speak french while at the University and on our way to and from. I'm sure it will get easier/I will be able to make better conversation with time.

I returned home around 7pm to find a note from Claudie that dinner was on the stove in the red casserole/pot. It was sauerkraut with meats! Yumm! I set the table for myself, put on the radio, and enjoyed my dinner while listening to classical music!

I had watched a little McGyver (in french, of course!) before dinner, and it was still on afterward. I watched the end of the episode that was on. I then found the movie, Milliardaire malgré lui. It's a movie about a police officer who ends up winning the lottery and had promised as payment to a waitress to either come back the next day or to give her half the winnings of the lottery if he won. He wins, his wife is very upset that he promised to split the money. Eventually they divorce and he ends up with the waitress.

I am working on making plans for spring break. I am trying to pick a country where I haven't yet visited. However, at the same time, I still have a lot of France to see and not a lot of available weekends!

Bisous!

Day 60: Je suis propre, mais je vais à Bath quand même!/ I am clean, but I am giong to Bath anyway!

Woke up this morning ... kind of early (8:30am) for my 9:30 Art History class. Before heading out, Claudie said to me "Il y a beaucoup de Mistral" aka the wind is a killer.

In class, we talked about the artist Gaspar David Friedrich. One of his paintings was on the front of my HIS360 book by Gaddis last semester.

After class, I was busy working on applications for summer stuff. Mirel and I took a break and went to Les Halles. I didn't buy anything, but just love walking around and breathing in the fresh smells of fruits, vegetables, meats, and breads.

After les Halles and working on summer apps, I had two more classes in the afternoon - History and Poli. Sci. The professor talked about the show I watched last night about the movie "La Rafle" about the thousands of French Jews deported from Vel'd'Hiv (in the south of France) under the Vichy regime. I felt really special that I had watched it...I was the only one who had seen the show about it last night. Thank you, Claudie, for always pointing me in the right direction as to what shows to watch.

In Poli Sci, I had my "Revue de Presse" aka review of current event news relating to the EU. I did fine and am glad it's done.

After that I had choir. I made it there without a hitch ... If you recall, last week I had to take multiple buses, etc. to get to rehearsal. Rehearsal was fun - choreography is complicated in french - "à la face" means to the side, but to WHICH side?!??!? So I got a ride home, got home, ate dinner. Dinner was some kind of delicious soup. It looked like pea soup, but it tasted like a combo of tomato, garlic, and lentils! In addition to soup, had tart (which as far as I can tell is a mini quiche, but I'm sure there is another difference that I'm not aware of) that had red peppers in it. And finally, épinards aka spinach. It was in some kind of butter combo sauce so it tasted okay, but to be honest, cooked spinach always makes me gag a little. It tasted good, I think for me it's just the texture. Then I went to write down the date of my concert for the chorale...It is the same weekend as my Art History excursion (which I'm pretty sure is required/don't want to miss). So, next week, I will have to talk to the director when I arrive and let him know/see what needs to happen.

I watched the 2nd part of a show Claudie and I watched last week about the 50s in France. It was well done, and I could understand it for the most part. Then I came back to my room (this whole time, Claudie was downstairs at a dance class...she didn't come back up until after 11:15pm). I skype chatted with Annie and booked my flight to go to Bath!!!!!!

Bonne journée/soirée/nuit ... depending on what time zone you're in!

Day 59: Quelqu'une qui parle l'anglais? / Someone who speaks english?

The title of my blog was what someone said to me (in English) while I was waiting for a friend to get out of a dressing room. I was almost surprised myself! In general, in stores/in public, I am so surrounded by French and so used to speaking french with everyone in public, that I was taken aback by my response in english!??!

Had Lit. class today. We watched film clips about choreographers/dancers that do contemporary style dance - two people remain touching for the entire dance, dancing on walls instead of floors, doing almost mime type stuff. Bizarre/interesting.

Spent the rest of the day working on homework and summer applications. Sometimes this poses nearly impossible as the Institute is not always as quiet an environment as I would like it to be.

Came home, ate dinner - salmon filet and "chinese" noodles (skinny, dark yellow/brown, long noodles) with small nuts, carrots and other veggies mixed in. Watched a highlight about a movie coming out in theaters tomorrow based off actual peoples' stories who experienced the "mass exodus" of Jews out of the "Liberated Zone" of southern France during WWII under the Vichy regime. ... I definitely want to go see it. I love that many French movies are historical fiction (largely based in truth) instead of movies like "Superbad".

À demain.

Day 58: Je suis très occupée./I am very busy.

List of things that amuse me about France:
1. They love Westerns and often use Westerns as their model for what the United States looks like.
2. They all love Obama.
3. They call hamburgers steak.
4. Healthy food is cheap.

List of why I am busy:
1. Travel plans for myself
2. Applications for summer stuff
3. A class presentation on Wednesday
4. Bad weather makes me unmotivated so it takes longer to accomplish tasks.

List of what I did today:
1. Stayed inside this morning finishing up homework. It is much quieter, and thus easier and more efficient, at home than at the Institute.
2. Went to classes (history and poli. sci). Got back one of my midterms. Did well! :-)
3. Ate dinner then watched the météo and a Western (The Cheyenne) with Claudie.
4. Worked on a task from my "list of reasons why I am busy"

List of reasons why I did lists for today's blog:
1. Not a lot happened.
2. It's late.
3. I'm tired.
4. I'm busy.

À bientôt!
Ciao!

Day 57: Les flacon (du neige) créent la necessité d'utiliser mon capuchon. /The flakes (of snow) necessitate that I wear my hood.

Snow. Again.

So last night after dinner we were watching the "météo" (phonetically: the may tay oh) aka the weather (notice that root in the word "meteorology") and they predicted snow in the mountains of the south, but just rain or light snow in the rest of the south of France. Ils ont dit un mensonge aka Lies. It snowed today, hard core - probably over 6 inches of snow.

I ventured out into the snow and it started to snow even harder. I plans to go see a movie with Mirel and Alaska (because we didn't end up going yesterday). I met Mirel for a quick bite to eat (I had already eaten lunch with Claudie) and then we headed to the theater, Utopia, near the Palais des Papes to see the film, Une execution ordinaire. It is about a female doctor who has a gift for healing and Stalin finds out about it, takes her into his service, causing much backfire at her workplace and within her family. I really liked the movie. It was really well done and I understood what was going on 90% of the time (there was a point where she ate a letter that Stalin had written - I didn't entirely understand that part). So, I was telling Claudie tonight at dinner that we went to see the movie, and she proceeded to tell me that she had taken an acting course with the actor who plays Stalin in the movie. How cool is that?!?!

Anyway, for dinner, we ate this dish that was chicken and then some other kind meat wrapped inside a layer of thin lard and bacon, then tied up with string. It is the second time we've had it, and it's very good. She told me the name of it (and I said it back to her a couple times) but now the name has escaped me. It's something that has a 'p' in it and an 'ette' sound in it...if that helps you. We also had "artichaut à la barigoule" - small artichokes boiled/cooked with mushrooms and small potatoes. Artichokes taste great, but for the hassle of eating them, it's a little frustrating. Also, I feel a little foolish eating an artichoke in front of Claudie - it is so messy and she is always so "proper" when eating!

The pictures of the cards are a small example of how I "revamped" my room a little while tidying up on Saturday.

The pictures of the snow I am posting is while it was still snowing so picture almost double the amount of snow than in is the pictures. Claudie told me she has never seen it snow in the month of March, let alone snow this much!

Let's hope it warms up.