Marchutz Potluck

This was a great way to start off the semester- a candle lit potluck, with good food good music good people. We had a few things catch on fire during the night, but that just added to the excitement of our little get together.

Bon nuit!

Rainy Day

Hey guys, I hope everyone is keeping warm! I can't say I miss the snow very much... but I do miss all of you.

Today is a rainy day in Aix. My roommate, Morgan, left early this morning to go to Nice and Cannes with the Aix Center. Since I'm in the Marchutz Program, I don't get to go on the weekend trips. To make up for it, I am going to go to Venice in April for a week with the school.

I got up around 10 this morning to meet up with my friend, Victoria, and walk around Aix. There is a huge open market by the Judicial Building every Saturday, with fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, honey, bread, and much much more. I walked around by myself for a bit, but when Victoria never showed up, I decided to go to the Granet Museum to keep dry from the pouring rain. At this point, I contemplated about getting a phone so I could contact people/ people can contact me about plans falling through, but I'm enjoying the certain detachment there is without one. It also teaches me how to be punctual...

I walked down Cours Mirabeau towards the Rotonde, which is the famous large fountain in the center of Aix.

I found this underground creperie called Crepes a Go-Go, and decided to treat myself to a chocolate and banana crepe! I think this used to be the entrance to a train station in Aix. And yes... I do plan on riding that Carousel at some point this semester...

 Look at that sweet warm gooey chocolaty goodness... YUM!

 The Granet Museum houses pieces by Picasso, Cezanne (this is the city of Cezanne!), Morandi and Giacometti. I managed to sneak some pictures to share.

 There was a really neat temporary exhibition called Electronic Shadow > Futurealismes, by Naziha Mestaoui and Yacine Ait Kaci. This was a interactive installation with glass panels, water, ambient sounds, and projections. You can find more information about this exhibit at http://www.electronicshadow.com/ Just click "English Version" underneath the trailer so you can understand whats going on.

Some students at the Marchutz School are holding a potluck in an hour. I'm bringing two sacs of nectarines because I figured everyone else is bringing bread, cheese, and wine.  I will update soon!

Some pictures in the meantime...

Hey! I've been extremely busy/ exhausted to write anything as thorough as my last post. In the meantime I will show you some pictures I took so far:

On my way to class I walk down Rue Mirabeau, the main street of Aix. There are many cafes, restaurants, bars, and shops.

This is the Marchutz School of Art. It is a 35 minute walk from downtown Aix, but a ten minute walk from my house. This is where the magic will happen.

This is the first course of the lunch I had on Sunday. Roasted rosemary chicken with tomatoes and potato puffs. C'etait delicieux!

This is one of the many markets I walk by on the way to class downtown. Oranges, lychee, grapes, nectarines, plums, avacados, the works! I love the colors.

This is me awkwardly smiling in front of some fruit.

This is an example of what one of the houses look like. This happens to be my neighbors house.

Ancient statues on Rue Mirabeau.

Trees that look like they came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. 

C'est tout!

Bonjour.

First off, forgive me for the terrible update I’m going to give you right now. I’m chugging along on a maximum of 1 ½ hours of sleep at the moment. Leaving Boston was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Up to the point I reached security, it didn’t really feel like I would be spending the next five months in a completely different country, away from my loved ones-- really far away from my loved ones. No more “Oh, I’ll just hop on a bus this weekend because I miss you “ kind of thing. So as I was reaching my arms around dad’s tummy for one last hug, barely able to touch my fingers on the other side, I buried my face into his stomach to muffle my unexpected sobs.  I felt unprepared, nervous, and homesick already!

Once I settled down on the British Airways plane, I noticed the girl next to me seemed like she was studying abroad as well. She’s spending the semester in Prague. We chatted for a while about it and the conversation really calmed my nerves about the whole thing. I started to feel confident and excited. This is it! The plane took off, and when Boston was only a mass of twinkling light, I knew the following months would be a once in a lifetime experience.

I got little to no sleep on the plane. I watched the Social Network, and even though I am no longer part of it, I genuinely enjoyed the movie. After the plane landed, it took a good 15 minutes to get off the plane, another 10 to take the bus to the terminal that was the size of an airport itself, and security took another 20 minutes. I only had a 1 hour layover. I said my goodbyes to the girl, ran to my gate, and just made it in time to board the plane to France.

Getting out of the airport of Charles de Gaulle was fairly easy. Thanks to mom, I was able to hop on an AirFrance bus that took me directly to Gare de Lyon. In all of my excitement I forgot to go to the bathroom. It was the longest bus ride of my life.

I arrived at Gare de Lyon, exhausted, with a great urgency to relieve myself. I asked a man behind the ticket booth where the restroom was. He didn’t understand my English, so I tried again in French. “Ou sont les toilettes?” I stumbled with little confidence. He didn’t bother to listen and looked at me with disgust.

He said in French “I don’t speak English.”

I repeated myself in French with more confidence, “Where is the bathroom?”

He didn’t listen again. He didn’t want to listen to me. He asked everyone around if anyone spoke English. This was the point where I realized that my downfall to this whole confusion was the fact that I was not French and I spoke English to him. I should of held my private parts and jumped up and down like a three year old to get the point across but so save myself from humiliation I repeated in vain “Toilettes!”

Finally another customer understood, and asked the rude man behind the ticket counter. “Ou sont les toilettes?”

The man replied in really fast French, which I completely understood. And I spat back “Je compris.”

On top of being in the condition I was in, that interaction put me in a terrible mood.

To make up for the rude man behind the ticket counter, people went out of their way to help me when they saw I was in need: A man ran to open a door for me, a woman helped me carry my luggage up some stairs, an old woman made sure I would get off the right stop, and a worker cleaning the trash was nice enough to walk me directly to my train door when I had failed to find it. The universe is balanced after all.

At the train station in Aix, I was promptly introduced to my French father, Lawrence. He shook my hand, said in English with a strong French accent. “Ok, let’s go.” and marched with haste towards the car, I quickly followed behind. In the car, he spoke to me in English, but I would try to respond in French. However, he didn’t seem to have the patience to listen to my stumble over my sentences so he continued the conversation in English:

“A lot of snow in Boston?”

“Oui”

“Ok, good.”

Lawrence is a man of few words. He was very direct when speaking and very serious. I could see how someone would be intimidated by him, but I was so eager I asked a lot of questions. We zoomed and swerved around cars in downtown Aix. I couldn’t see much but it was fairly busy at night. There were cinemas, cafes, restaurants, clubs, and stores. It seemed like a funky college town and I fell in love immediately.  I pointed out an all glass building that was lit up with trees growing inside. “How beautiful!” I exclaimed. Lawrence informed me it was a parking lot. We both got a good laugh out of that.

To be continued.