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!