So last Wednesday, I pretty much sat in the apartment sulking and catching up on email, which was when I resolved to pull myself out of the culture shock and general funk I’d been experiencing for the few days beforehand, because I realized that I really had no reason to be grouchy in the least. I resolved that night to let go of my bad mood and find the same attitude I had in Australia last semester, because this session will be just as good as the last, in a different way, if I can quit being mopey that it’s not Australia. I decided my new immediate goals were then to try and meet people and keep myself busier.
Thursday morning, I tried a different theater class that focuses on Molière and his comedies. I chose to try this one instead of the 1950s one because it started at 10am instead of 9am, and because the four hours is divided into two two-hour segments with a one hour break in between for lunch. (Gotta love the French!) I walked up to the classroom knowing there was one year-long student who I would know, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that two of the other girls from the semester are also in the class. When the professor turned up, I found I had a mixed reaction: it’s the same professor from my Monday course who had absolutely terrified me during Monday’s class when he went off on two separate tirades, flat out SCREAMING at students for being late and then for talking. Luckily, he was in a much better mood on Thursday, and though I was unprepared for the lecture since I hadn’t read the material, it was an interesting lecture, and I’m looking forward to getting into the swing of the class.
I came home with enough time to eat before going back out for my oral expression course, but forgot to double check the directions. So I got a bit lost. By lost I mean I found a new part of the city that I didn’t know existed, but that spit me out into the main square, and I have absolutely no idea how the two connected. It was like going through Narnia. Either way, I got to class with a minute to spare and had another really fun session, basically doing improv in French.
I walked from class immediately to grab dinner, inhaled it, and marched straight to the ballet where I found out I was the only one from our program going. I was disappointed by this momentarily, until I figured that I might as well practice doing things on my own – one of my goals for this semester is to plan a solo trip: traveling, staying in a hostel, sight-seeing, the whole bit. It’s fun to travel with a group, but I really want to conquer someplace on my own. So I looked at this as a mini project for traveling alone. It helped that I was seeing Swan Lake, too. Aside from what I saw in the movie Black Swan, I knew nothing about the show, except that it’s a classic ballet, and since I love ballet and classical music, particularly Tchaikovsky, that was enough for me.
During the first intermission, the woman next to me, who I found out is a French student here in Aix, commented on the ballet and we talked for a few minutes, realizing we had both come to the show alone. Then she invited me out for a drink with her friends! I accepted, of course, and we talked about the ballet, classes, and traveling during the intermissions and on the way to the bar with her friends, who are also students here. We met up with them at a new bar I’d never been to, and they were so friendly. A few were very eager to speak English with me, and I was so tired that I didn’t mind speaking a bit of English. When we moved to the next bar, Caesar’s, we ran into a bunch of the girls from the program, including Carly, my roommate. Since the French group wasn’t interested in staying, I decided to hang with the American girls I’d found, glad for a reasonable excuse to go home and sleep before my 9am class on Friday.
Class on Friday went as well as a course on the methods of the French university system can go, and I was more than happy to start my weekend when it finished! Roz and I went straight for lunch after class. We went to Crêpes à Go-go (I think that’s how it’s written…), since we’d heard their crêpes are some of the best and cheapest around the city. Wow, were they right! We also ran into another group of girls from the program, also ordering crêpes. They had every option, salé (salty) and sucré (sugary), with all kinds of fillings: all kinds of cheeses, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, ratatouille, or Nutella, chocolate, bananas, sugar, rum, and more! I went with ratatouille and cheese, which is probably the messiest choice I could have made, but it was well worth it for the melty, gooey goodness. I mean seriously, so good!
Next, Roz and I went to the train station to buy our train tickets to Paris so we could catch our flight to Italy, since prices seemed expensive online and we wanted to make sure our student discount was being applied. It was. Train tickets are just that expensive. Though slightly put down, we got over the money spent, since we’ve found pretty reasonable deals on most everything else so far. We did a bit of shopping for the afternoon, including getting postcards and exploring the paper store on the Cours Mirabeau. After getting gelato, of course. (Sorry to anyone receiving slightly gelato-smudged postcards, but I think that’s just going to be you, Abby!) Upstairs in the craft section, we found all kinds of cool craft projects and tools and gadgets, including colle de lapin = rabbit glue. Roz and I weren’t sure what that meant, how it would be made, or what craft could possibly require it, but we had a good laugh over it. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the saleswoman was as amused as we were.
We hit Monoprix for a few essentials, and then I peaced out to go home and work on my grad school applications, whose deadline was rapidly approaching. Though I puttered around for the first part of the evening, I actually did a significant amount of work on my applications, and even got to Skype Celli for a bit while I took a break from work. I didn’t think my internet would support Skype or be fast enough, and though it lags a little bit, the connection works well enough! Also on the agenda for the night was a list of SOS emails regarding the scholarship money I was told I wouldn’t be receiving since some of the credits I’m taking here don’t transfer to IPFW. For anyone looking to study abroad, question financial aid incessantly before stepping foot on a plane, because it’s a gut-wrenching feeling to be in another country and then finding out that you’re not able to receive a decent chunk of the money you had initially anticipated having. Between the grad school applications and the several email threads that were going back and forth, my eyeballs were ready to pop out of my head by the time I went to bed.
I did wake up on Saturday, ready and excited for the day. Carly invited me along on a day trip to les Baux-de-Provence with a few guys she’d met when we first gotten here, and from what we could research, it all looked gorgeous. But first, I had more grad school work to do (which wasn’t fun) and lunch with Roz (which was really fun). We’d walked by a few Asian-type restaurants while exploring the day before, so we decided to try our luck. I ordered a spicy chicken dish, but it came with a salad, a dumpling, a spring roll, fried rice, and a coffee. I couldn’t finish my food by a long shot, even though it was so good, so we had our food boxed up instead. On the walk back, we opened the single bag they’d given us with our food to split it up, only then realizing that they’d literally bagged up our food. We also found this particularly funny, and I had a time heating up this mess the next day, but now we know how leftovers are packaged, at least…
Then Carly and I went to the Rotonde where the guys picked us up. It was about an hour car-ride, and I was nervous about the weather since it was so grey in Aix. Once we were fifteen minutes out of Aix, the clouds started to break up, and by the time we were thirty minutes west, the sky was as blue as could be and absolutely gorgeous! I snapped pictures like the American tourist that I am during the ride and as we climbed through the mountains to get to the chateau. We walked a ways up the hills and mountains, then through the small village with various shops lining the streets. It was all absolutely adorable/breath-taking/quaint/medieval/beautiful, I found it hard to keep walking to our destination without just stopping to photograph everything.
Once at the chateau, we walked the grounds and saw the medieval weaponry, trebuchet included, before getting to the edge with a view of what laid below us. It was another of those “Oh my God, I live here, and I love my life moments” to say the least. The pictures don’t do it justice, but we had a great afternoon exploring the ruins of the chateau, and the view made me catch my breath every time I caught a glimpse of it.
Once we’d walked everywhere (I would say had my fill, but I don’t think I could ever spend enough time in a place like that), we took a quick look through the gift shop and ducked into a bar for a drink and snack. My coffee went perfectly with my crêpe-Nutella, and it was nice to warm up a bit. We sat talking about traveling and soccer (finally, people to talk soccer with!!) before climbing back in the car for the drive back to Aix. Once back, we went for dinner at a tapas place and had a few delicious cheeses, a platter of different meats, and the best mozzarella/some kind of cheese stick that I’ve ever had. I find I’ve been spending a lot of time raving about the food, but I really can’t help it. It’s all so delicious and worth mentioning that it’s almost all I want to talk about. Almost.
After dinner, Carly and I went back to our apartment to recoup before heading out for the night. I went back to work on my applications, then changed before Carly and I met Roz and hit O’Shannon’s, one of my favorite Irish-themed bars. The girls got drinks and we found a nice standing space, but I was just happy to have a view of the Barcelona game on the TVs. When we saw the guys we’d hung out with for the day, we joined them at their table and picked back up on our soccer conversation, and talked TV shows, movies, and entertainment before going to Le Skat, the jazz-ish club with live music where we spent the rest of the night dancing until, um, after 4am. What a fun day/night!
Unfortunately, the morning came around quite too soon. I’m not drinking this semester because of the arthritis medication I’m on, so there was no hangover to speak of, but I was utterly exhausted from the day before. Around 1:00 when Carly and I managed to be up and get out of the house, we picked up a big, greasy, delicious pizza from Pizza Capri that tasted exactly like spaghetti Bolognese, just like the name of the pizza. Roz came over and we demolished the pizza while watching episode after episode of Arrested Development. I passed out on the couch. When I came to, Roz and I looked into flights and trains back from Italy to save ourselves from driving through the Alps, but haven’t gotten to book anything because of card complications. It’s probably written somewhere in our bank information, but we could not find the additional password/code needed to use our French bank cards online. Gotta try that again this week!
Roz left shortly after, and I got to Skype with my family for the first time since leaving the states! It was so good to see them, and it’s always comforting to talk to Mom and Dad. I didn’t get to talk to Abby for long, since she had to run to play practice (congratulations on the ensemble role and, oh yeah – getting the LEAD in one of Princeton’s musicals! Anyone that’s in Cincinnati, go see it and tell me how it is since I can’t be there to cheer her on. It’s in March, so you have plenty of time to plan and go check out The Jungle Book with my sister, Mowgli!). After my parents, I had a Skype date with Kathleen, who I haven’t seen since well before I left the states. Happy 21st, my dear! I wish I could have celebrated with you!
I called it an early night after my Skype dates and woke up ready to go to class in the morning…until I realized how much I still had to do for my grad school applications. So I skipped my classes and kept a steady string of emails running to Mom for the day as I edited and re-edited my work. But at least they’re all done now! While I would much rather save the classes I get to skip for long travel weekends, this one was necessary. Keep your fingers crossed for me and my applications, pretty please! Monday night got even better when I got a surprise Skype call from Mitchel! I completely lost track of time as we were talking and didn’t make it to bed until almost 2am, but it was worth it to get to catch up, and I’m so glad the internet has been holding up.
Tuesday was productive again as I wrapped up the finishing touches for my applications and sent the last few pieces to Mom to print and mail in for me – Mom, you’ve been SO helpful with this; I didn’t foresee the lack of online-submission-ability, and I don’t know what I would have done without you. To my advisers who have been wonderful and accommodating with my letters, a huge thank you to you! It’s a weight off my shoulders to have everything submitted, even though it means playing the waiting game now.
During class on Tuesday, I took better notes than I feel like I have been, and Caitlin and I planned a study date to go over the material this weekend. It’s much needed, and I’m so excited to have a study partner, especially for this anthropology course that’s much different than anything I’ve ever taken. I also put together a massive to-do list, with sub-lists and lists of lists to get my act together this week, so I set to work on it for the rest of the night until my Skype date with Allie! As always, good talk, and I can’t wait until our next date when we both have real internet in our own houses!
On the internet fiasco – we’ve been stealing from our neighbors (as instructed by our landlord), but the connection is horrid. So we ordered a box to make the account, and it finally arrived on Thursday, but we didn’t see the slip until Friday, and since we couldn’t go to the post office on Saturday, we finally picked it up on Monday, but couldn’t get it installed. So I emailed the office to go over all the forms and emails that are all in French on Tuesday morning, and so today, Wednesday, I went in to find out that it may take up to 15 days to properly set up the line. Meh.
Along with the office errands I did this morning, I also caught up on more emails and found out more about the scholarship situation, and went to the market for the first time in a long time. It’s so good to have food! Chelsea came over for lunch, and she gave me the book we’re sharing for our Monday class, and we set up a date to go over the notes for the class I missed. Thanks, again, for helping fill me in to Chelsea and Aubrey, who I’m excited to get coffee and hit the books with! You’re so helpful!
I went shopping with Roz for part of this afternoon, then came back to Skype with Elana! It’s been such a good Skype week, and I’ve been so lucky to chat with so many people that I miss dearly. Keep the Skype calls coming, everyone. I love it, and it makes missing you all that much easier to bear. And that catches me up! Whew. Busy week with lots to tell, but being busy has made being home/I-House-sick so much easier to handle. It’s amazing how drastically and how quickly things have turned around, just by deciding to have a different mindset. I totally believe in mind over matter, but I couldn’t have hoped for a better week to prove it.
On top of that, my advisers have been working tirelessly to work out something with my scholarship. Dr. Cain, Dr. Corbin, you’re my heroes. I really can’t imagine having better, harder working advisers who would advocate more for me in my absence, and your help has made all the difference in my two semesters abroad. I doubt it would have even been possible without either of you, so THANK YOU! You’re instrumental to everything I’ve done here, so thank you again and again.
The weather has been just plain gross lately with snow and sleet yesterday and really cold and windy today, so that put a damper on the Marseille soccer game I really wanted to see tonight, and it’s gotten the program trip to Arle cancelled this weekend. Silver lining: it gave me time to Skype E tonight and write this, and this weekend, I’ll have more time to catch up on the studies I’ve been slightly putting off. Tomorrow night, the engineering department is hosting a party, and a lot of the people from the program are going, so that should be fun. Other than that, it’ll be interesting to see what I get up to this weekend!
Hope you all are doing well, and have fun moving back to Wollongong for all of you just starting back up in Australia! Love and miss you all.
Here and there,
Kiley
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