No parlo italiano: The third and final installment of our adventures in Italia

I left you having just arrived in Rome, about halfway through our travels in Italy. We woke up in reasonable time and caught the bus to the metro to the center of Rome. We’d chosen a hostel outside the city so as to avoid driving through the city proper, but that meant that transportation took a bit longer. All ill thoughts were dismissed when we stepped outside the metro station, smack in front of the Colosseum, perfectly backlit by the mid-morning sun. It officially felt like we were in Rome.

We stopped for a quick bite at the sandwich shop right in front of the monument – and paid at least twice what we should have for a simple sandwich. Note to self: don’t buy food so close to such attractions, because the price shoots up like nobody’s business. Anyway, we ate and made our way toward the Colosseum among the eager crowds of diverse and muttering tourists, hassled as we went by the dozens and dozens of tour guides. We were irritated until we saw the enormous line to get in. Knowing we had only the day to explore one of the world’s biggest, greatest cities, we eventually caved and had a guided tour for about seven Euros more.

Thank goodness we did, because there was so much that we just wouldn’t have understood without it. Thinking about all the history that’s taken place, the fact that spectators stood watching gladiators in the same places I stood, that the actual Caesar and other men and women of legends had been in the same place, was overwhelming and incredibly cool. Also, the steps were atrocious. The ancient Romans must have had monster thigh muscles if the common stairwell was anything like the ones we climbed. That or time has caused the stairs to shift.

The tour lasted an hour and we debated walking through the Forum, but considering time and the fact that the Vatican is a bit of a hike, we opted not to check it out and instead boarded the metro to take us across the river. We arrived at the Vatican in much the same fashion, hounded by guides offering tours in I don’t know how many languages. As we waited for a crosswalk, a man with an unmistakable New York accent approached us, claiming to be an honest recruiter who wanted us to get as much as we could out of the tour. He chastised the collective death glare we gave him, having no intention to fork over the money for this tour too, and then he asked us if we could tell him where the entrance was. We couldn’t. Touché, old man, touché.

So we signed up for the tour and he led us around the corner to his office where he introduced us to our Scottish tour guide, Ian. I think taking this tour was the best decision we made all week. Ian was lively and entertaining from the very start, accommodating all kinds of humor, though the ten-ish-person group we had seemed to be of similar tastes. Or maybe everyone just loved his accent like we did and were ready to listen to anything that he said. Either way, Ian guided us through the Vatican Museum beginning with the earliest art. The figures in the beginning of the period (and I can’t remember the name of the era for the life of me, so bear with me, pretty please) showed indistinct figures that lacked the precision of the later and anatomically accurate paintings and sculptures of Michelangelo. As we moved through the museum, we could see the progression of science and thought as various religious scenes were depicted, as well as scenes blending the pagan gods of Rome and Greece with Christian images of Jesus, Mary, and other figures and stories.

A few of my favorites were "Pietra", a statue by Michelangelo, and "School of Athens", by Raphael. The relationship between Michelangelo and Raphael was explained to us – a difficult relationship in that they basically hated each other, but Raphael understood what a master Michelangelo was after sneaking a peak at the highly secret Sistine Chapel – as well as Michelangelo’s strained relationships with most of the clergy who attempted to commission him. And of course, the Sistine Chapel was more incredible than can be imagined. Depicting the scenes of Genesis, which Michelangelo decided to paint but wasn’t supposed to, Michelangelo took years and years to paint, modeling his characters after an amalgamation of Greek and Roman art, the arm of this statue mixed with the torso of that one and the face of that bishop that he liked. On the mural behind the altar, “The Last Judgment”, this is exactly what Michelangelo did when depicting Jesus. Unfortunately, you can't take photos inside the Sistine Chapel, but definitely Google it.

Fun fact: Pope Sixtius IV who commissioned the Sistine Chapel wound up with his face on the devilish character Minos, complete with donkey ears, who is painted directly above the door of the chapel, where all the cardinals and bishops would enter and leave the church, because he insulted Michelangelo. Other fun facts: it’s believed that Michelangelo suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome, explaining his obsessive compulsive forays in art and science, as well as his difficulty in dealing with people and social situations. Other fun fact: there’s a good chance Da Vinci had ADD/ADHD, based on his scatter-brained journal entries and numerous unfinished projects, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, inventions, etc.

We finished the tour at the Sistine Chapel and after asking Ian’s advice about where to go in town, he gave a few suggestions and his number in case we (now our group of three and two Irish girls) wanted to meet up later. We took a quick tour of the actual cathedral, but weren't allowed into Pope John Paul II's tomb, since it was already closed, but the vast, beautifully decorated church was enough to look at.

We grabbed pizza with the Irish girls and went back to get ready before heading straight back into town for aperitivo, which means you buy a drink and you can get all the appetizer-like finger food you want. We sat for a few drinks until Ian met us, then headed to a club a few blocks over in the heart of Rome. Downside: cover charge, upside: free drinks once you’re in. We were having a great time, and I dragged Roz and Caitlin away to dance to Party Rock and Sexy and I Know It in between getting drinks at the bar, but that’s when things went downhill a smidge. Irish Girl #1 starts puking on the side of the dance floor, and Roz, Caitlin and I are forced to take care of her since according to her friend, “oh no, she’s fine.”

Taking care of drunk friends, even puking friends, isn’t so bad, because you love them plus you know if you were ever in that situation, then someone has your back. Not the case when it’s more or less a lightweight stranger who is yelling at you about her purse and how she doesn’t want to stand up. We managed to get her outside and hail a cab for her, but not without being harassed/helped by a few guys who were carrying on in Italian that we didn’t understand, bumping into us and fumbling trying to get this girl into a cab.

We get back into the club, flustered and aggravated but glad to be free when Irish Girl #2 comes back, asking about the other girl’s purse. No one has it. We start searching the bathroom and every nook and cranny to see if someone’s at least taken the money and ditched the purse. To check in dark places, I reach in my purse for my camera to light up these dark areas, and realize that the flap is open and, what do you know, my camera is gone. There’s no doubt in my mind it was the guys “helping” us get the girl in the cab. What’s worse, I’d purposely put my money in my back pocket and had kept my camera on my wrist since I knew my purse only had a clasp, because we’d been warned multiple times about pick-pockets in the city. The only time my camera was in my purse was when both hands were occupied, supporting this belligerently drunk girl get home. It’s over a month later and I’m still unbelievably bitter. Needless to say, the pictures I’ve been using for these posts have come from Roz and Caitlin, and I can’t thank you guys enough for your photos!

After a lengthy search for the purse, the girls left and we took off too, since the club was closing at this point. I was livid and couldn’t have cared less about the purse or the girls at that point, but I tried to tell myself that it was over and nothing could be done. Roz and Caitlin were champs at consoling me and joining in the string of insults aimed toward the girls, and Ian even chimed in a bit. After hanging around on the street, he asked if we’d seen everything we wanted to in Rome, which we definitely hadn’t. With that, we set off for the Trevi Fountain around maybe 4am. We arrived and were, unsurprisingly, the only people wandering around the famous monument. Ian briefed us on the statues and sculptures around the fountain, and we all appreciated the history and how special it was to see such a sight in such a calm and peaceful atmosphere. It was unreal and so beautiful. We wandered around the fountain and entertained maybe trying to take a dip before a police car pulled up, clearly keeping tabs on us.

Soon enough, people began walking around, clearly on their way to work and we realized the sun would be coming up soon. Ian asked if we’d like to watch it rise, because he knew a spot, but that we’d have to hurry. That was all we needed to hear before we let him lead the way, jogging after him the whole way. It probably took ten or fifteen minutes jogging the whole way around the city, but luckily there was very little traffic. I came up behind Ian and he directed me up the steps and around the side of a building, and the stairs about did me in after my first extended jog in a month. We all reconvened at the top of the steps, desperate trying to catch our breath in the rapidly approaching dawn.

Off in the distance, we could see the Colosseum with the Forum splayed out almost directly in front of us. The sky just over the Colosseum began to lighten up, casting a brilliant pink light into the sky, bouncing yellow and orange off the clouds. The sky grew lighter and lighter over the next few minutes, and we stood and watched the sun slowly peek out from behind the great monument, still trying to catch our breath and force ourselves to believe that it was real life.

Once the sun was up, we made our way to the same metro station we’d been at that morning and parted ways with Ian, the greatest, coolest tour guide I will probably ever encounter. We all headed back to the hostel, knowing we had to check out of the hostel and start our drive to Milan through Pisa in just a few hours, but figured that a little sleep would be a good idea. A few short hours later, we piled into the car with our luggage, and I pulled us back onto the road. Between Rome and Pisa, we drove through the Italian countryside that looked like what I’d always imagined it to look like: sprawling, green fields, speckled with olive trees and little clusters of houses made of some kind of tan stone. It was a surprisingly mild drive and we didn’t even get lost! We arrived in Pisa and stopped for gelato before making our way to the tower for plenty of photos.

The drive to Milan was another story. Long story less long, we took a few wrong turns getting into the city and had an awful time finding the Zebra Hostel that wasn’t marked with any kind of sign. After driving around the city limits for an hour, we found the place but had to spend another hour to find parking. I offer my sincerest thanks to Roz and Caitlin for their unyielding help and patience with me during this drive. I couldn’t have hoped for better tempered, more cooperative, capable navigators. You two are the best. Seriously. Though we hadn’t eaten since midday and we didn’t set foot in the hostel until after midnight, I passed on the meal they were setting out to find and was asleep seconds after my head hit the pillow.

Unfortunately, we had to return the car first thing in the morning, so we were up at 7am and were able to return the car without hassle before finding public transport back to the hostel where we crashed again until 1pm when we finally roused ourselves out of bed. Pizza as first on our list of to-dos was the Napoli pizza place we’d passed on the way back, and I’m glad we did. We had more incredible bruschetta in addition to the best pizza I’ve ever had. We sipped a beer with our meal, and had a few waiters checking on us through our meal, only one of whom spoke a little English. The ordering process had been a lot of pointing and gesturing.

When we finished, a few of the waiters came back and after trying to communicate unsuccessfully, came back with the English-speaking server. Then, they invited us to come back to the restaurant when they closed to go out with them. We accepted. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city and saw the Duomo, the large cathedral in the center of town. Since it was our last day in the city, we also had more gelato, which may have been the best gelato I’d had all week, which was saying something.

We wandered around the shops for a while, and found an impressive makeup store, where we spent the rest of our evening until we headed back to the hostel to get ready. Caitlin has a friend who’s working as an au pair in the city, so we met her for a bruschetta dinner and some really good beer. As midnight drew closer, we made our way back to the hostel and the restaurant to meet the guys who took us to a bar near the restaurant before heading to a club where we danced. I became unbelievably excited when No Parlo Italiano came on, and had a great time dancing. Since we had to leave the hostel for the airport at 4:30am, we stayed out until close to then, popping back over to the hostel to collect our bags and change before checking out.

We made it onto the plane in plenty of time, and I was asleep before the plane took off, waking up only when it landed back in Marseille. Once back in Aix, I crashed until the early afternoon, recovering from one of the most hectic, culturally enriching, fun, and spontaneous weeks of my life in a country I’ve come to love. Had it not been for my camera, I would say that the trip was absolutely and completely without reason to complain, but even with that significant setback, it was an incredible vacation. Plus, now I speak just a little Italian, or at least to know how to say, “No parlo italiano.”

In the last month, a lot has happened, and I hope to get those posts wrapped up this weekend, outlining all the highlights and traveling including: visiting Matt and Graham in Toulouse, midterms (ew), Jenn and Brooke's visit from Cincinnati and our trips to Madrid and Paris, more schoolwork, Easter in Croatia, and moving my plane ticket home to May 29. Plans are in the works for the study recess in the UK, as well as a long weekend in Amsterdam and Brussels. Like I said, lots has been happening, but I'm hoping for some free-time after my presentation on Thursday. I'll be honest, I've been obsessed with finishing "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series, so I've been less than useless since it's had its hold over me. Sorry for anyone that has put up with my lack of attention span over the last few weeks! Anywho, I hope you all had a lovely Easter, and I love and miss you all heaps!

Here and there,
Kiley

No parlo italiano: Part due of our adventures in Italia

So we’d just gotten to Palermo, right? Even though we’d had a light breakfast in Trapani, we were starved and so keen to eat some real Italian food, so we staked out a nice little pasta place right away. We checked into Casa di Amici, then walked around the corner to the restaurant the woman recommended and OH. MY. GOD. We shared a bottle of the red house wine again and started with bruschetta (pronounced bru-sketta!) as an appetizer and the freshness of the spiced tomatoes and the crispness of the bread and olive oil were the perfect blend of I don’t even know what. It was the freshest tasting bruschetta I’ve ever had, with just a hint of salt. I didn’t think there was any way the pasta would compare, but I was pleasantly surprised. I had a type of flat noodle with red sauce and bits of what I think was sausage, but may have actually been beef. Seeing as we don’t speak Italian, we started off doing a lot of ordering based on the few words that looked familiar and hoping for the best. And I wasn’t disappointed in Palermo, that’s for sure. We shared bites of each other’s dishes, and I think it’s fair to say we were all incredibly jealous of what the others had, but also equal parts glad to have ordered what we did.

Once we cleaned our plates, we rolled ourselves to the counter to pay – we never really did figure out if you were meant to go up and pay or leave it at the table for the server to collect. Whoops! Still, we were surprised at this first restaurant to have a service charge of a few Euros each. We made sure from then on to look at the menu beforehand, but most everywhere had some kind of charge for eating in. It took us aback a bit, but it didn’t end up being an issue, just a minor annoyance for incredible food. We carried ourselves back to our B&B and decided it was time for a much deserved nap to appreciate the day’s worth of food we’d just consumed in one sitting.

We woke up an hour or so later, got ready for the night, and went back out to find drinks and gelato for the night. Since it was still before dinner-time, we licked at our gelato while exploring a bit and just bought our own bottles and took it back to the common kitchen area and balcony. There we enjoyed a few drinks on the terrace, appreciating the fresh, Italian night air. Before we realized it, a few hours had passed and we began to get hungry again, so we set out back into town to continue exploring and find food. A number of vendors were still out in the street, their tables set up to display the array of bracelets, rings, coin purses, scarves, and whatever sort of knickknacks they had to offer tourists with money burning holes in their pockets, i.e. us.

We walked away a few Euros lighter for our purchases and wandered down the main bar street and found an appealing late night beer-and-kebab offer that just happened to be showing a soccer game as well. It may have been the combined atmosphere and excitement, full of soccer, alcohol, and promise for an unbelievable trip, but I think it was the best kebab I’ve ever eaten. Perfectly spiced, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, on a pita-esque type of flatbread. We took our time wandering back to our room where we continued to listen to music and chat, having fully enjoyed our night out.

We rose the next morning and donned our swimsuits, the plan of the day to go to the beach and brave the chilly temperature for the sun that was brilliantly shining. Once we found the bus, again with the help of kind strangers, it was a thirty-minute ride to the coast where the beach was splayed out in front of the mountains on either side, rows of little cafes and gelato lining the street opposite the beach. How pretty!

We ordered Stromboli/pizza-roll things from a little shop and walked along the beach a ways, and I was so relieved to have my feet back in the sand. Of all the things I miss about Australia, the proximity to the beach is close to the top of the list, just behind everyone I met there. After walking a bit, we found a place to sit and enjoy what was again a delicious, cheesy masterpiece.

Unfortunately, it ended up being a sandy, delicious, cheesy masterpiece, because the wind was blowing something fierce. To the point where I was worried I might actually have scrapes or burns from the sand whipping me in the face. Luckily my sunglasses protected my eyes and the long sleeves and pants I’d worn protected most of me while allowing me to watch the water and pretend I wasn’t being stung repeatedly. We walked along the beach a bit more once we’d finished eating before we gave in and called it quits with the swimsuits and appreciated the beach from inside. We had coffee in one of the small cafes and soaked in the gorgeous view laid out in front of us before making our way back to the bus stop to go back into town.

The afternoon turned out to be one full of learning lessons the hard way, starting with a valuable travel lesson on the way back from the beach. We had all nodded off during the thirty minute bus ride, and we were woken up by some of the public transport security/police officers. Eventually, the girl next to me was able to translate, and we were told that since we didn’t buy a transport ticket, we would have to pay a 53 Euro fine. I was skeptical, but since they were wearing jackets and hats with the public transportation logo and had official-looking, ticket pads of paper, it seemed legit. As soon as the guards were out of earshot, the girl next to me suggested that we just make a run for it when the doors opened (not the only time running from the public transport police was suggested that week, as it turned out), but they already had one of our passports, and we figured we shouldn’t take off without it. Instead, we stayed and ended up handing over the 53 Euros. Wah. I’ve since been advised to insist on paying the ticket at the office in order to ensure that the authorities are legitimate, but also because they’ll often drop the charge if you do. Lesson one: learned.

We spent the next few hours in the hostel lobby soaking up what bit of internet we could before making our way to the harbor where we would catch our ferry that night. On the way, we looked for somewhere to have dinner, a bit before 6:00, and lesson number two was there to meet us. No one, and I mean no one, eats or serves dinner or anything resembling a substantial meal before about 8:00. We found a few pastry or sandwich shops, but nothing was open and serving dinner. Literally forty minutes and eight failed attempts later, we stumbled upon a deli/gelato/bar/restaurant that was actually open for dinner. Success! Or so we thought. We started with another bottle of red wine that did not disappoint, followed by another incredible bruschetta. I’ve never been much of a fan of the stuff, but Italy knows how it’s done! Shocking, right? Unfortunately, the incredible food stopped there. Roz and I had ordered the same spaghetti dish, having only recognized the word “spaghetti” with what we inferred was red sauce and then assumed came with a kind of meat, and we had been hoping meatballs. Caitlin had figured out that her pasta came with a white cream sauce, but we weren’t able to figure out what kind of meat she had either. Turns out we all ordered seafood. Caitlin’s crawly things were still looking at her, and Roz’s and my best guess as to what we were eating was sea urchin. EW. Thus lesson three was served: don’t order something if you don’t know what it is. We’d lucked out previously, but this set a new standard for the trip. We wrapped up the food to appear less rude and ordered gelato, but the damage had been done.

We traipsed disappointed to the port where we saw a cruise ship-type boat in the harbor before checking in, where we found out that that was the boat we’d be taking! Once aboard, we explored the few bars, seemingly endless staircases, movie theater, game room, lounge/library/cards room, and the seating room where we had booked seats. Instead of going straight to bed, we played cards and chatted in the lounge and played cards before finally acknowledging how tired we were. Though the chairs weren’t super comfy and it ended up being fairly cold, we slept a bit before pulling into the harbor in Naples, or Napoli as the italianos say. I was the first to wake up, so I stood watching the sunrise over the city and Mount Vesuvius – I only just now figured this out as I’m writing, courtesy of Google maps, so I’m feeling excited about it all over again! What an incredible sight to see.

We arrived in Napoli almost rested and stopped right on the harbor for a quick chocolate pastry and coffee before trying to find a map or shuttle or something to do before picking up our car at noon. We had a fairly lazy morning and afternoon wandering the city (and finding most places to be closed!) until we decided to look for lunch before getting to the airport for our car. Unfortunately, lesson number four turned out to be: no one opens for lunch until noon. One woman – who also operated a hostel and even spoke English – let us sit down at her restaurant and have a drink with snacks while we waited for the taxi she was kind enough to call us to get to the airport. Though we were only in Napoli for a short time, the people were so hospitable and kind, and the architecture proved to be incredible, from the ancient ruin-esque looking castle to the fancy and more modern though still very old looking town square.

At the airport, we picked up the car we hired – a Fiat Panda for you car enthusiasts like my dear father – and made our way onto the road. Since I was the only one in our group who could drive a stick, I took on driving responsibilities for the trip, and Roz and Caitlin gratefully performed the ever important and demanding task of navigating. I was a bit nervous about driving period, and the Italian drivers did nothing to assuage my fears with their lack of turn signals, quick stops and starts, and endless line of Vespas zipping around everywhere, but we made it to the highway without any real issues. Luckily, highway driving proved easier to manage than the city.

The drive between Napoli and Roma proved to be an interesting one. About an hour into the two hour drive, we start coming up on an armored police vehicle, and I slow my speed a bit, unsure of who has the power to pull you over in Italy. As we pass the “polizia” from the middle lane, Roz gets a big grin from the driver in the car, and they proceed to pull behind us. With three American speeding tickets and a number of accidents to my name, fear was my first reaction, and I immediately made the conscious effort to hold my speed at 110km/hr (don’t let the 110 freak you out, it’s still under 70mph!). The car continued to the left lane and passed us, and I received a cheesy grin and wave of my own from the officer in the passenger’s seat. Next, they passed in front of me and back into the right-hand lane. Still with my speed consistent, they allowed us to pass them and they started their loop again! This happened four times before they motioned me to put my window down, at which point they mimed drinking coffee and we agreed to follow them to the next rest stop/exit to have coffee. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

Twenty minutes later, we pulled off the toll road to the rest stop where the police officers got out and all but helped us out of the car. It was at this point we learned that none of them spoke English, and we already knew we didn’t speak Italian. Our saving grace was the one officer who spoke some French! Through him we learned who was the boss of the three officers, what part of Italy they were from, that they worked in Rome, they did not in fact have a prisoner in the back of the car, but oh by the way, they had in fact just taken one to a mental institution in Napoli. Just a regular day’s work, you know, driving around mental prisoners and picking up girls on the highway for coffee. We told them about our studies in France and our plan for Italy, and before we knew it, everyone had finished their coffee. The officers walked us back to our cars, kissed us on both cheeks in the proper European fashion, and we parted ways. Oh, Italian men!

Needless to say, the remainder of the drive was reasonably calm, comparatively speaking. We checked into our hostel, the Peter Pan Hostel, a thirty minute bus/metro ride outside of the city and lovely as can be. The single man at the front desk was incredibly helpful and quirky, marking the map of the city for us and telling us all the best places to eat and shop. Since it was already late, we decided to have dinner around the corner where we asked questions and made sure we knew what we were ordering and had a wonderful meal of calamari, bread, wine, and pasta. We made our way back to the hostel and gladly gave into our food coma, ready to rest before our only full day of exploring Rome.

I’m posting this now, just to have something to post before getting into the last half of our adventures, but I’m still writing! So expect the end of Italian adventures, my weekend trip to Toulouse, and my girlfriends’ visit to me coming up shortly. Thanks for bearing with me as the weeks stretch between posts once again, though I hope they find you in a good place. Love and miss you all, and I can’t wait to tell you more about what’s been happening here!

Here and there,
Kiley

No parlo italiano: Part uno of our adventures in Italia

So much has happened in the last week, it’s ridiculous, so I’ll try and hit all the good bits and include as much info and pictures as possible! It’s been about two weeks since I last posted, so I’ll pick up where I left off, going into the start of last week.

I mostly stuck to my plan of buckling down and getting things done to prepare for winter break, our one week off of classes before midterms. On Monday, my host family had to cancel our dinner, so I stayed in and Alison, one of the girls from the program, came over to cook dinner with Carly, and they were kind enough to let me crash it. Alison had a recipe for pasta with this creamy avocado sauce, which was absolutely delicious! I need to look up some stove top recipes to cook here, so if anyone has any good ones that don’t require an oven, please send them my way!

Also some time that week, Carly and I noticed a musty, moldy kind of smell when we used the microwave. We checked the food we’d just taken out and since that all seemed fine, we didn’t think anything of it. Until the next day when we realized the smell was coming from the actual microwave. We took off the glass plate, and I nearly spewed right there. White, green, and blue fuzzy mold covered the underside of the rotating plate. EW is an understatement. It took about an hour, but through the power of Google, we were able to figure out and execute the cleaning of said infected microwave (pour water in with soap, bleach, or a number of other cleaners, microwave for a minute, dump the water, repeat). After I started dry-heaving when we dumped it the first time and the mold slithered out, Carly took over that job on her own. Moral of the story: don’t EVER leave any moisture in the microwave, no matter what, and make sure you clean it meticulously. From now on, you will never find a microwave cleaner than ours in all of Provence.

Anyway, I was doing well and being productive school- and chore-wise. With laundry done and letters and birthday presents in the mail, I was feeling pretty on top of the world by Wednesday afternoon when things took a downward turn. I went to bed early since I was feeling under the weather, then woke up on Thursday with a raging sinus/head cold, feeling weak as can be. I don’t usually stay home sick or even acknowledge the fact that I don’t feel well, but I was incapacitated on Thursday. I slept through my first class, hoping that I would wake up feeling better, but I definitely did not. Instead, I moved from my bed to the couch for a few more hours of sleep and movies before I made it into the shower and out to buy orange juice and flu meds. After that, Roz came over to get our last plans in line, then I went back to bed and skipped my evening class, too. With leaving for vacation the next day and being too stubborn to confront foreign health care, I was praying I’d just start feeling better after my day of rest.

Luckily, when I woke up Friday morning, I did feel loads better, which was good because I didn’t have the choice to skip class – it was time for our midterm for methodology. I went into class armed with tissues and doped up on the French equivalent of Theraflu (which isn’t so effective, actually…it may be my vocabulary, but I haven’t found meds in France that are as good as the ones in the US – hopefully I’ll be healthy the rest of the time here and won’t find out, though). The exam is a bit of a blur, but nothing I can do about that now, so I’m trying not to worry until the exams are handed back to us. That may be this week, or in three weeks, since none of us are quite sure how the French system operates!

By 1pm, Roz, Caitlin, and I were waiting for the bus to the Aix TGV station to go to Paris. Unfortunately, by 1:30, we were still waiting for this bus. Once the bus came, we ended up stuck in traffic, took a different exit, got turned around, and were sitting in front of the train station where the bus driver wouldn’t open the doors. This decision was met with yells from the back of the bus: “Ouvrez la porte!” (open the door) was heard repeatedly along with other French obscenities, but my favorite was “Je sortirai par la fenêtre!” (I’m going to jump out the window!). Why we were being held, I don’t know, but we were eventually let off the bus, and we ran to catch the train, which we made just in time. During the ride, I realized it was the first time I’d taken the trip in daylight, and the French countryside did not disappoint! We saw plenty of small villages tucked into the hills on the west, and the ruins of what may have been castles or towers or maybe military structures – I really don’t know – sprinkled the foothills of the mountains to the east. Roz and I chatted the whole way up to Paris with high hopes for the week ahead of us.

Once in Paris, Caitlin went to find her French friend who she was staying the night with, and Roz and I went to meet her friend, Alex, who was kind enough to put us up for the night. We went straight to dinner with him, a few of his friends, his dad Tim, and a friend of his dad’s. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I had one of the best burgers ever! (I wish I’d been journaling all week, because now that I’m sitting down to write about this, I’m having quite a bit of trouble remembering it all.) It was this incredible little place on the corner in the gay district in Paris, and the food was amazing, just like the service – our waiter is a friend of Tim’s and talked to us about his break dancing while showing us his “fresh” dance moves! Afterward, we went down the street to a club called Sept Étages (I think that was the name…) where we had a drink and talked before going next door to a really cool place called Yono. It’s a gay bar owned by this incredibly fun couple that can make the best Long Island iced tea I’ve ever had. The next time I go out in Paris, I would love to go back, because all the staff was friendly, the drinks were great, and the atmosphere and music were fun and welcoming, too.

Roz and I got talking to a few guys that sat down at our table, and it was nice to speak French in a social, non-academic setting. We probably spent a good solid thirty minutes talking with them until the group decided it was time to leave. At that point, we went followed every outside, and the guys followed us – which was when we saw that they had motorized scooters! And they let us ride them up and down the street. It was AWESOME. I believe the two guys we’d been talking to worked for the scooter company and were promoting the scooters, but we got to try one out, so I was a very happy camper. The last stop of the night was this snazzy little bistro/diner-type place where I had my first Croque monsieur, basically an open-faced grilled cheese with ham under the cheese. Delicious! And this was only the first night of encounters with incredible food.

Roz and I crashed at Alex’s and ended up sleeping in a bit later than we had planned. Our morning then consisted of brunch at another bistro kind of restaurant where I had an incredible chicken sandwich. It sounds simple, but the chucks of chicken, Dijon mustard, and fresh veggies on the sandwich, along with the fries, were a magical combination. After eating, we went straight to the Arc de Triomphe where we went up to the top to appreciate the view of all of Paris. The weather was much, much better than the last time I was in Paris with Ole, Leelou, and Max (thank goodness!), but it was still a bit cloudy and foggy. Even still, we could look out and see Montmartre, the highest point in Paris, and the Eiffel Tower. Sometimes the top of the Eiffel Tower was blurred by the clouds, and it looked kind of creepy and cool as the clouds passed over it. We had to part with Alex, his friends, and Tim when we came down from the tower to catch our flight, but I can’t tell them thanks enough for putting us up and for taking us to so many cool places in such a short amount of time! I’m so appreciative of everything!

Roz, Caitlin, and I caught the métro to the bus to the airport and thus the second leg of our epic journey began! We touched down in Trapani, Sicily around 10pm, and it was one of the roughest landings I’ve ever experienced. Good grief. Since we flew Ryan air, the tickets were really, really cheap. The tradeoff? There are no free snacks or drinks, you’re only allowed a single carry-on bag, the landing frankly scared the crap out of me, and I’ve heard from friends that they’ve been on planes with duck-taped windows. The baggage proved to be difficult for me to handle, but I managed to get a week’s worth of clothes and toiletries into my LLBean backpack and keep it under 10kilos. Whew. The plane we got on seemed to be in pretty good shape, and the seats were rather comfortable even. Still, that landing was frightening. But not so frightening that I’ll cough up the extra hundred+ Euros to fly a different airline. Oh the priorities of a traveling college student.

We took a taxi from the airport to Paceco where we were actually staying, and we got our first taste of Italian driving. Again, good grief! It felt like we were in a racecar with how fast he drove, and there were little Vespas zipping around us. He paused where there were stop signs, just enough to make sure there was no one coming up the cross streets. We did make it to the bed and breakfast, the Aldebaran, in one piece, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice room for three! There were sweet, fruity biscuits left for us on the desk, and the guy at the counter told us how to get into town to find food.

So, we ventured into the town square where nearly everything was closed up, even though it was a Saturday night. We ended up finding a small pizzeria where we all ordered our own pizza and of course traded pieces with each other. I’ll never look at pizza the same way. My salmon, tomato, and multiple cheese pizza was SO good. We don’t speak any Italian, and the waiter didn’t speak English, but we were able to communicate that we wanted a red wine too, so he brought the house wine, which was also incredible, though I couldn’t tell you what kind it was. The cheese was perfectly melty, the ingredients – especially the tomatoes – were fresh and crisp, and the bread was fluffy but crunchy and delicious. I mean, wow. Prepare for some more raving and drooling over the food.

We went home to the Aldebaran full and completely happy with the first night of the Sicilian beginning of our vacation. On Sunday morning, we got directions to the bus stop, though between our lack of Italian and the man’s lack of English at the desk of the B&B, it was difficult to understand where to go, though he was incredibly kind and eager to help. We eventually got to the square, which was also just beautiful, right there in the middle of this small, quiet town. We'd gone through it the night before, but without proper lighting, it was hard to appreciate it.

Unfortunately, the bus stop we found didn’t seem to go to Palermo like we wanted. We approached a few older men walking through the square and were discouraged when we first realized they didn’t speak any English whatsoever, but they were so unbelievably helpful. They walked with us to the bus stop and explained to the other man waiting there where we wanted to go. Through basically gestures and sign language, they let us know that we had to go to Trapani to catch a bus to Palermo and that it would arrive in forty minutes. We sat waiting with the other man who didn’t speak English either, and when the bus came, the group of older men came back to speak to the bus driver to make sure that we would get where we were going. How nice and kind to go out of your way to help traveling strangers!

We arrived in Trapani around midday, and the bus driver directed us to the bus stop to Palermo. We waited again before eventually boarding and making it into Palermo a few hours later. During the ride, however, we were treated to some of the prettiest countryside and mountains I've ever seen. While some of the terrain we saw could have been fields in Indiana or Ohio, the mountains in the background and the tidy long rows of what we assumed to be olive trees in some of the fields couldn't have been more different!

It wasn't until we pulled into Palermo city proper that we realized we had no idea which stop we wanted, nor where in the world our B&B would be from where we got off the bus. Roz was the trooper and made her way up to the bus driver (who didn’t speak English either) and found a wonderful Italian woman who not only told us which stop to take, but got off the bus with us and walked us a good half-mile toward our destination. The genuine kindness of people truly amazes me at times.

Thank you, Italy, for renewing my faith in the human race. Not that I'd been particularly doubting it, but it’s always nice to be reassured. After being in France where we’re told to be cautious about making eye contact (because it makes people uncomfortable and makes us potential targets, since we’re American), it was so refreshing to be in such an openly friendly country where people are eager to help, regardless of whether you speak any of the language at all. It’s not that French people are unfriendly (as a lot of stereotypes may lead you to believe), but the culture does seem to be less inviting and less open to strangers in the community, as far as I can tell. The few times that I’ve managed to break the initial barrier and get talking to someone in France, they’ve been just as friendly and welcoming as anyone we met in Italy, that I met in Australia, or you might meet in the US, it’s just that first chance to talk to someone that is a little harder to come by in France.

I’ll leave my story here in Palermo, on Day Three of our Italian adventure, since this is getting to be rather lengthy and because I have a midterm on Thursday to study for! I know, who can think about midterms when there are beaches, Italian police officer interactions, sunrises over mountains and monuments, and more to tell about from the rest of the week? I allowed myself the night to catch up on letters back to Abby, BRoy, and Kathleen, and this post, but tomorrow is all business. Thursday brings my first lit. midterm, as well as my Expression Orale midterm-recitation, but I’ll do my best to catch up on the rest of the break after that! Then of course, I’ll be in Toulouse this coming weekend visiting a friend from high school, I have two more midterms Monday and Tuesday, and then Jenn and Brooke will be arriving Thursday, but somewhere in there, I’ll get cracking on the rest of winter break. Thanks in advance for bearing with me, and I hope this finds you all as happily busy as I am! Love and miss you all, wherever you may be!

Here and there,
Kiley

Friends and warm weather make me happy.

Well, I was doing well on posting regularly! I’ll try and get back on track with frequent posts again, but for now I’ll hit the highlights from the past few weeks, because there seem to be plenty to tell about!

Starting with where I left off, most of the people from the program went to the engineering party a few Thursdays ago, the “American frat” themed one. We started out at a few of the girls’ apartment before trekking to the building, which I’m fairly certain was a school. It seems France has taken Australia’s idea of having a bar on campus one step further and hosts full-out parties, complete with coat check. We arrived at a reasonable time, around 1:00am, and the party was decent with a bit of good music, but I have to say the highlight for me was the chance to wear the new heels I bought. I got called Dorothy more than once, but these little heels are my new best friend.

Despite my three-hour class that starts at 9am on Friday morning, the weekend went well, though it was fairly quiet as most everyone recovered from Thursday night’s festivities. This suited me just fine, because I was able to rest before my Monday night adventure to Paris! I took the train from Aix to Paris where I finally settled into my hostel after walking from the train station and making not one, not two, but three wrong turns before arriving and checking in after midnight. Still, I was riding a high having navigated the Paris train system and streets (mostly) successfully on my own. I woke up in the morning and explored the area around my hostel before Ole and Leelou arrived and we began our mini tour of Paris. We began our walking tour and did this: the Panthéon, Notre Dame, coffee (because it was below freezing the entire time we were walking – there was feeling in my feet for maybe twenty minutes over the course of the day), the Louvre (where we met up with Max and his girlfriend), Jardin de Tuileries, la Place de la Concorde, the Champs Élysées, l’Arc de Triomphe, and coffee.

After this short rest, we hopped on the Métro to the Eiffel Tower. On the way, we happened to pass the Australian Embassy with their poster of Australia and the Australian flag perfectly placed in front of the Eiffel Tower. A beautiful summary of my year abroad! Once we had our fill of pictures with the Australia/France business, we went to the Eiffel Tower where we waited just a few minutes until the lights came on. If it was a breathtaking landmark in the day time, I don’t have words to explain what it looked like all lit up with the backdrop of the night sky. Unfortunately, my camera had died by this point, so I’ll have to get pictures of this lit up, sparkling business posted later.

The following day, Ole and I were back at the hostel for breakfast and some perusing the streets before finding Leelou to go to Montmartre! We first trekked up the hill to the highest point in Paris, the Sacré Coeur. No pictures were allowed inside, but it must be one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen, and it’s enormous! We warmed our souls and our feet inside before going back down the hill to take the Métro to meet Max again and go to the Moulin Rouge! We were able to go inside the lobby, but the signs I saw for shows were all around 200 Euro, so over $250. Maybe someday, but for now it’s incredible to see the posters and make mental comparisons between the real Moulin Rouge and the Nicole Kidman/Ewan McGregor version. We made our way back toward the Sacré Coeur to see the Artists’ Square, where there were a few artists – though not as many as usual because of the cold – with their paintings all set up for purchase. What incredible work! Sketches and drawings, all different kinds of painting styles, and even a stand for caricatures.

Once we’d had our fill of the art and culture at Montmartre, we made our way to get coffee and regroup. As we sat, we figured out the distance we’d walked the previous day. About 10km in freezing weather. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so bad for being so tired. We explored the area a bit more before making our way back to the Métro where Ole and I split off to see Les Invalides at the Eiffel Tower once more, this time from the Champs de Mars side, before I had to leave to catch my train home to Aix. All in all, a wonderful whirlwind trip of Paris. Next time, I’ll hopefully have the chance to take it a bit more slowly and go into some of the amazing places I was able to gawk at from the outside!

Once back in Aix, it was back to classes for Thursday and Friday, then Ole arrived here for the weekend. We had a quiet Friday making dinner, and Ole showed me a show, Dexpedition, which I think I’m obsessed with now – it’s basically two guys running around Europe finding the coolest parties and beaches. They had an episode in the French Riviera, which is where I am, and they explored Nice, St Tropez, and Monaco. Everywhere they’ve been, I want to add to my list of places to go while I’m here, because they seem to have an outrageous and fun time every episode as they make their way around the continent.

We woke up the next morning prepared to tackle Mont St Victoire! Ole and I met Roz, Michelle, and Kate to catch the bus up into the mountains and we set off to find a trail. It proved harder than we expected. Literally two hours after catching the bus and three false starts up what we thought were paths but weren’t, we found a real trail. Having gone through the one street town of Vauvenargues and asking directions, we set off on the trail Sentier des Plaideurs, which was luckily clearly marked (mostly…we still got lost once on the trail). It started out as a mild hike, though the trail was covered with snow and called for caution at about every step. We all had some close encounters with the flat, frozen ground, but the snow-capped scenery was so pristinely white and beautiful, the slipping and sliding was worth it.

Once through the valley, we began our ascent which started as a steady incline, but quickly became an arduous climb. I hadn’t worked out in so long that it was a real task, but after so long, we finally made it to the top! We’d been peaking at the view as we went up, taking breaks and such, but the view at the top put all of them to shame. From the peak we were on, we could see the higher mountains behind us (maybe we’ll upgrade to those by the end of the semester!), the range sprawling out on either side of us, the valley through which we trekked, as well as the range facing us from the opposite side of the valley. Though it’d been cloudy most of the way up, the sun came out to greet us as we sat eating our sandwiches on baguettes, passing around the bottle of wine that Roz was wise enough to bring along. I can’t say it gets much better than sipping and munching with friends on the top of a mountain in southern France.

Then we remembered that there was the steep perilous climb down. It had given us slippery fits on the way up, and it was even worse on the way down. Good grief. Working a whole different set of muscles on the way down, I still managed to tire out fairly quickly, which is a very bad thing when going precariously down a mountain covered in snow and ice. Highlight of the way down would have had to be the 90degree one or two foot step down where every last one of us slipped and had to grab the tree and swing around it in order to stop ourselves from tumbling down the mountain. That, or when I walked into a small branch face first (I was looking down and didn’t see it), and it surprised me so much that I didn’t have the time to warn Ole behind me before it whipped back and smacked him in the face. The same thing happened to Ole that happened to me with the being surprised, so it hit Roz – same thing happened – so then it hit Kate and then Michelle. Instead of hearing warnings about the branch, all we heard were the steady succession oh “oh”s and “ugh”s and “ow”s. I doubled over laughing, but luckily did not fall down the mountain. I believe it was about five or six hours after we initially met and around ten kilometers later, we were back on the bus and going back to Aix. What an incredible hike!

Once back in Aix, we dispersed and Ole and I chilled with coffee in front of more episodes of Dexpedition before Roz and Caitlin came back over for the night. We mustached it up as we hung around my apartment, and then left for WooHo, the international bar where we danced for a bit. Caitlin and I split off to go to the bathroom (because you have to go in pairs, of course), and we met a few Irish girls while waiting in line. We got talking and decided to all go to Le Scat, but unfortunately weren’t able to get in since it was so crowded. Instead, Ole, Roz, and I came back to my apartment where I made an omelet since we were twenty minutes too late to get a kebab. All in all, a wonderful night out!

Ole and I woke up on Sunday and Roz came over to spend a lazy morning chatting until it was time to walk Ole to the bus station to catch his train back to Paris before leaving for Australia. Best of luck this session, Ole, and thanks for coming to visit! Roz and I trekked back to mine and Caitlin came over again, and we spent the afternoon watching YouTube videos, mostly reaction videos of people being scared (check out Ellen Degeneres’ scare montage, or at least where she scares Taylor Swift – it’s hilarious). Then we watched a scary link my roommate from last year, Matthew, posted to me and taped our reaction for him. I’d tried watching the video once before, but I’d been too scared to finish it, but I found courage with a few companions. It was an awful, hilarious idea as it scared all of us out of our wits but it provided us with endless entertainment for the afternoon since we kept watching the video.

The week was fairly ordinary with my reading assignments piling up on me, but there were a few highlights worth mentioning. Roz and I finished planning our winter break trip to Italy! We will fly to Tripani in Siciliy, stay for the night then take the bus to Palermo where we’ll stay for a night. Then we’ll take a ferry to Naples where we’ll pick up the car we hired and drive to Rome where we’ll spend a few days, then on to Milan where we’ll wrap up our trip and fly home to Marseille. I am SO excited. Neither of us speaks a lick of Italian, nor have we ever driven in Europe, but we’re hoping for the best! Caitlin may even be getting in on the adventure, so I’m looking forward to the week off of school wandering around Italy!

I haven’t spoken much about classes, because there hasn’t been much to discuss. I have three-hour (and one four-hour) lectures that consist of the professor dictating while we copy down what he says. I have four mid-terms, one this week, and the rest just after the week break, which will be essays on one question pertaining to what we’ve discussed so far. Aside from Methodology, the course that’s required for the program, there are no weekly assignments, only reading, and my anthropology class doesn’t even have required reading. It’s a much different system, and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to not just put everything off, even though I know that just means more work for me at the end of the term when the weather will be even more beautiful and all I’ll want to do is go to the beach. I don’t know if it’s the school system or my American senioritis that’s followed me across the ocean, but I very much don’t feel like finishing the rest of my reading today! God knows there’s still plenty of it, though. It’s a good thing I do find the subjects I’m taking interesting, or I’d be afraid that my lack of motivation in my final semester would get the better of me!

The academic highlight so far has certainly been the Expression Orale class, where we more or less do improv, which is even more difficult in French but just as entertaining. Even bigger plus? There’s no work outside of class! Our instructor is so entertaining, too. “Qui est disponible?” is heard a dozen times a class, basically asking who is ready to go or who will volunteer. This week, we were to volunteer to go up against the rest of the class, acting as the president of France and field the most ridiculous questions from the class. I’m usually pretty intimidated by being in front of a group, but I’ve found this class to be really forgiving and fun to work with, and I’m glad because it’s such a great opportunity to speak. I volunteered to be president for a round, and my favorite questions were probably why I was destroying the Mona Lisa (I said there were conspiracy threats that Da Vinci enchanted it, or something along those lines) with the follow up of why I was also destroying the Eiffel Tower (similar threats were made, since this conspiracy group also thinks Gustave Eiffel was the reincarnation of Da Vinci), what my thoughts were on the zoo animals that escaped during a children’s festival/fieldtrip (we accidentally hired people from an animal freedom organization who set them free, and yes I was very sorry about the two children that died), and why I mandated that beer pong be taught in high schools (something about how embracing alternative educational methods so that it’s not taboo, I’m not sure how I went with that one). It was such a fun exercise, and everyone was pretty creative and did really well.


I had a number of wonderfully refreshing Skype dates since my last post, including BRoy, Matthew, Turner, Kathleen, Jenn (where we started planning her visit to come see me!), Celli, and Allie, so it’s been great staying in touch with everyone. Keep the Skype dates coming! Thanks to Jackie and BRoy for the letters, too; it's so exciting to get mail, but it's even more exciting to hear about your acceptances to grad school! Super happy for the good news for both of you!! Your response letters and my first letter to Shata are in the mail now.

I’ve made it away from the computer and spent the last few days hanging in the parks with some of the girls, just basking in the sunlight and wonderfully warm weather that’s finally come around. I’ve been taking my school books, but I confess I haven’t gotten much reading done this weekend. Carly, Caitlin, Allison, and Emily and a few of her international friends were over last night for movies which turned into just chatting and munching on delicious junk food, which was perfectly alright by me. This week, I’ll be buckling down to read everything so I can have a homework/worry-free week-long break, so I probably won’t be getting up to any shenanigans or adventures. Hopefully, I’ll continue working out, too. After the mountain, I’ve been running once, and am finding an online workout video for today. I was meant to go skiing today and was really looking forward to it, but I couldn’t get gear together in time and with all the reading I have to do, I opted not to go. Hopefully there will be another outing!

Hope you all are well and enjoying your February, wherever you may be! Love and miss you all :)

Here and there,
Kiley

Attitude is Everything

It’s good to be in a better mood! (I didn’t post a link or email about my last post, but my miserable, culture shock of a funk is all there, if you’d like to read it…it does get happier at the end.) The past week has gone exceedingly well, and I’m happy to share what’s happened as I listen to the new playlist I made recently called “ILY” (short for “I love you,” heard often among the halls of I-House last session) with all my Australian favorites. Yes, I am dancing as I type.

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