No classes?

Let's start with the ordinary. Yesterday's France en Perspective was great, and the professor seems really interesting. And I am certainly moving Friday night to live with Mme G.

After going to the bank this morning to pay my social security, I headed to my class, which was supposed to be French literature/theater. First oddity: no French students. There were four students from my study abroad program, which I expected, but there were also six students from Wellesley, a girl from Korea, and the two foreign students from my class on Monday. Second problem: no professor. After sitting for 20 minutes without seeing a professor, someone went to ask at the department office. Apparently our professor just had a baby, and until she returns, we won't have that class.

And then there's the strike.

It turns out the strike tomorrow is to demonstrate that the unions can organize a strike. Mme T explained last night that most of the state syndicats (unions) will strike to show they disagree with Nicholas Sarkozy's policies. But the unions aren't seeking a particular goal, just to demonstrate the power they have.

The news last night talked of "Jeudi Noir", and they're about right: tomorrow, almost all of France will halt. Public transport (including airports), banks, the postal system, schools, and even some hospitals will shut down. I asked what people do on a day of national strikes. "You do what the unions do," Mme told me. "Nothing!"

It's thus unclear whether I'll have class tomorrow. French law requires that some parts of the country still function, so there will be some buses and some doctors and so on. And because tomorrow is more a call to strike than a full-blown strike, not all professors at La Faculté will stay home: those who disagree with the strike could still hold classes. Basically, we still have to go to class tomorrow, although the professors might not be there. Oh, and starting next Tuesday, there might be a national teachers' strike, which would mean no classes next week either.

Still, it's a beautiful day and I find this all more bemusing than frustrating. I bought a book I need for my Monday class, Corneille's L'illusion comique, for just €2.95, which is a great deal compared to my $40 textbooks at Michigan. And this evening I'm going to plan out my February break—I'm planning to visit Italy with some other students from the program.

First class

Yesterday I had my first class at La Faculté, a four-hour litterature course about French theater. The class was split into two sections: one professor taught the first half, then after a ten-minute break, another professor taught the second half. It was interesting, but trying to pay attention for four hours was tough because I'm used to classes that only last an hour and a half at Michigan! There were only eight student in the class, which was a little odd. More unusual was the fact that four of us were foreigners: myself and another American student, a Spanish girl, and someone from Turkey.

Today I'm helping at the ENSAM English debate again before France en Perspective, a class I'm actually very excited about. It covers foreign stereotypes and myths about France, as well as current French news. I was supposed to have a history class this morning but—nobody knows why—the history department doesn't start classes until next week.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Madame G, but otherwise my plan is to move in with her this weekend. On Saturday, the program has organized a trip to Vence, St Paul de Vence, and Antibes. The towns look really pretty, and we're also going to go to some art museums there.

In Marseille, almost everyone is going on strike on Thursday: public transport, schools, La Poste, even banks. The public transport system in Marseille went on strike a few weeks ago because some kids assaulted a bus driver, which seemed like adequate cause for a strike, but I'm not sure what's behind the new ones. Apparently, the strike could spread here, and some people think La Fac will be closed Monday.

Yesterday we had more rain, but avoided the strong winds that knocked down power lines and entire forests in other parts of France. Today it's cold, but sunny.

Houses and Rain

This has been a fairly hectic week, what with picking classes, finishing cours intensif and deciding to move homestays. On Tuesday I went to the ENSAM, an engineering school in Aix, to help out an English class. The professor, an Irish woman, wanted exchange students to go and join in the discussions with the French engineers. The school is on the outskirts of Aix and seems horribly run-down. The buildings are bleak concrete blocks and the classroom was bare and unattractive. Most of the students hadn’t really done any work, either. They’d been given two hours to read an English article but, when asked to discuss, few actually knew what the article was about. Still, it was interesting and the professor asked if I’d go back and help again next week.

Tuesday was also inauguration day. Because French TV was going to overdub Obama’s speech into French, I went with some other students to the cyber café and watched on CNN.com. I think we were all a little bit underwhelmed by the speech, to be honest, but the locals were exuberant. Everyone here is very happy Obama is in office and, like Americans, expects great things.

On Wednesday I finally saw where I’ll be taking classes starting Monday, La Faculté de Lettres. The quickest way to get there, apparently, is to cut through Parc Jourdan, take a bridge over the railroad tracks, and then follow a narrow, muddy path between the rails and a graffiti-smeared wall. People had warned me that La Fac looked like it belonged in a former Soviet country. That’s an exaggeration, but compared to Michigan, it’s a disaster. The outside walls are crumbling in places. The few signs around the “campus” and inside the building are dirty and faded. Inside, ads for student political groups, concerts, and tutoring help are plastered to practically every surface. Painting is a haphazard affair: on some walls, they seemed to paint for a little while and then give up. It looks messy and rundown. But the difference is that at Michigan, students pay upwards of $20,000 per year. At La Fac, French students pay next to nothing. And because all French universities are regarded as equals, there’s no competition between them to be nicer than others.

I also picked out my classes. Because it’d be very tough to get Communications transfer credit, I’m going to work on finishing up my French minor. That means taking classes that are about France, in any respect. Tentatively, I’ve picked out the following: Anthropology of Provence, Anthropology of France, History of Religious Life in France, Social and Cultural History in 19^th Century France, France in Perspective, and Expression Écrite, the mandatory continuation of cours intensif. It’s the equivalent of 16 Michigan credits, although it seems like far less class time per week than I’d normally take. French students typically take closer to 30 credits at a time, and we’re only doing a fraction of that.

On Friday I saw two new homestays—see the last post for why I might/will move. The first was an apartment in a part of Aix that’s perhaps less pretty than where I currently live, but far closer to La Fac and, well, everything else important. The woman who lives there, a Madame G, is in her mid-forties, works from home, and has a black dog. The apartment is smaller than Mme T’s, but there’s still adequate space and balconies looking out over Aix and the distant hills. But more than anything, Mme G seemed sooo friendly. She told me we’d try all sorts of French food, including frogs’ legs and escargots, and that she’d love to chat with me and would accept any differences in viewpoints we had—very different from Mme T, who seems to be confused whenever we challenge her stereotyped views of American life. Overall, I just got an overwhelmingly sense of warmth and welcome.

I also visited the home of Vivien, a British lady who teaches English here in France. She lives alone with her 15-year-old daughter. Their house is amazing: it’s an old, old building in a street very close to the Cours Mirabeau. When you enter through a big, thick wooden door, you go up a spiral staircase and along a long corridor to get to the main rooms. It truly is an old-fashioned house and was adorably quaint. She’s decorated everywhere with really nice furniture and lamps and posters, and my room was especially charming. There was a big fluffy bed, Ikea lamps, a large desk with a TV and DVD player, and in lieu of a closet—my actual closet would be just down the hall from the room—there’s a giant “nook” in the wall covered by a hanging curtain. But despite all this, I had some reservations. Vivien is British, and although she speaks French, it has a heavy upper-class British accent. And she said that she didn’t cook for her previous exchange students, but would try to make me all sorts of British specialties. I feel like me coming to France and living with a British family defeats the purpose of study abroad. Moreover, Vivien’s rent is €20 more per month that Mme G’s. I have until Monday to decide.

Yesterday it rained, and I told Mme T that we’d already seen every type of weather in Aix: snow, rain, and sun.

Today it rained more, and because I am also out of groceries with which to make lunches, I took the bus with some other students to Carrefour. A ten-minute bus ride from Aix, Carrefour is what would result if Walmart and Meijer had a child, and raised it in France. It is giant and sells everything: clothes, food, TVs, mopeds, freshly-sliced meats, books—everything you could ever want under one roof. And the food was cheaper and with a better selection than Casino or Monoprix in Aix. They also had free samples. I tried apple/mango/coconut juice, which was delicious; prawn crackers; and an absolutely amazing Alsacien sausage. Quite an experience!

I'm moving... somewhere... at some point...

I don't have time for a full post today, but here's what's going on with my housing situation. Gradually over the past week, Mme T has become less and less welcoming and friendly. And when I took a tour of La Faculté the other day, I realized it actually is a 40-minute walk from her apartment. Moreover, when our program director heard that Mme doesn't let us use her washing machine and doesn't have Internet, she was really upset. So I'm now in the process of looking for a new homestay that'll be closer to the Fac, have Internet, and hopefully a friendlier host. The program has already found Dan a new place to live which is closer to town, school, and has an overall better situation.

The full story is that our program, APA, was cautious about having students stay with Mme T but had to because it was close to the housing deadline and without her, they wouldn't have enough homestays this year. Mme T has had exchange students before, but always girls from a different program - that presumably has vastly different standards!

So along with the stress/hassle of picking classes this week, I have this housing to worry about. But ultimately, I'm here for six months, and I want to live somewhere I'll be happy. Tomorrow morning I'll go to see the apartment of Mme G and take things from there!

The second full week

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we had a long, dull meeting about academics here in France. Namely, the differences between American and French universities and how we would pick our classes. In typical French disorganization, the room our program was supposed to use had been double-booked, and our program director had to kick out a group of Chinese students. The biggest differences were that French professors like to have most things handwritten rather than typed, and insist on excellent and legible handwriting. Also, as in England, French students don’t pick and choose classes like a buffet, but instead pick a degree and follow a prescribed schedule of classes.

During lunch, I went to go to the bank to ask for my IBAN so I could transfer money from the U.S. to here. Unfortunately, banks and many other French businesses close for lunch from noon to 2 p.m., and I had to wait.

For dinner Madame made duck again. I asked if it was from the same duck as the other meal we’d had, and Mme laughed. I thought it was a reasonable question, given that she buys fish whole rather than from the store. This duck was barely cooked and still pink, but delicious.

Thursday

The morning held four hours of grammar classes. After lunch, I went with another Michigan student to a little café called Caf Thé where we browsed through the lists of courses we can take at La Faculté. The course lists are wholly disorganized because each department (art, science, history, etc) has a totally separate website and course list format. Worse still, some of the listings don’t mention the time or location of the class—students are expected to go to that department’s office on the first day of the semester to find times and locations for classes.

The woman running Caf Thé didn’t seem to understand my accent, yet had long, in-depth chats with every other customer who came in. They would shout about the weather or different types of tea or whether the store attracted lots of tourists.

Dinner was another bass that Mme had procured straight from the net, as it were, in Marseille. This one was also very flavorful, but had lots of bones, which made eating tough. Over dinner, Mme and her sister pontificated on every subject possible. The conversations we have with them are fantastic, and I learn so many interesting things, even if her views are a little peculiar. Mme thinks that the French healthcare system encourages people to abuse hospitals. She hates lawyers but thinks doctors are underpaid. Joining the European Union was a bad thing for France, as was switching to the Euro—les anglais avaient raison in not adopting it, Mme said. Madame and her sister also debated whether Dan or I have a better command of French. Mme thinks Dan, her sister says me. So who knows?

Friday

I was supposed to meet with our program director to talk about the classes I want to take here, but she postponed until next week. Not sure why, but it is France, where schedules seem subject to change. Class this afternoon was great. It was still make-up time from last week’s snow days, but we did verbal exercises like playing charades in French and listening to some songs: Dernier baiser, Le jour se lève, Quelqu’un m’a dit.

Our professor also explained a few mystifying elements of French society. One student said she thought it was frustrating that France has no public bathrooms, forcing you to buy something in a store or café. Tissot told us the way around that: all French bars/cafes/etc are required, by law, to let anyone use their bathrooms if you drink anything. They’re also legally required to serve you a glass of water for free. Hence, order a glass of water and use the bathroom for free.

As well as bathrooms, one thing notably absent from Aix is public trashcans. Our professor explained why. Several years ago, the French became very worried about riots and terrorists. One big fear was that trashcans and public bathrooms could provide places for terrorists to hide bombs in the middle of big towns. So, both were phased out across the country.

On my home this evening I saw a huge flock of seagulls—not the band—at the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. Turns out an old man was casting seed all around for them to eat. I mentioned it at dinner, and Madame said than in the summer, pigeons are sometimes brazen enough to swipe food right off your plate if you eat outside. Dinner was beef and veal, including the bone marrow… which was unusual.

Saturday

Slept in for a while and had lunch, then browsed some shops in the center of town. Went to Le Renoir and got a schedule for their “Fesitval Télérama”, during which Le Renoir and Le Mazarin are going to show French films for just €3 starting Wednesday. In the evening, met up with some other students and we tried one of Aix’s two Mexican restaurants, Smokey’s. The owner, Smokey, seemed really excited to have students there and was very amicable. He even brought us a free pitcher of margarita, presumably to encourage us to go back often. Eating fajitas in France did seem like an odd mix of cultures, but it was delicious and very cheap. Didn’t see Madame at all yesterday: she was already out shopping when I woke up and asleep when I came home.

Today

Today I think I have a cold, and so slept in and drank lots of water and took some cold medicine. Also finally went to the lavomatique and did some laundry. For class next week (our last week of cours intensif), we have to give a five-minute oral presentation, so I need to think about what I’ll talk about. They had predicted rain for today, but it’s dry and just grey. Also, pretty much everything in Aix is closed on Sundays.

Six Hours Later...

Today was a long, tough day. We were supposed to just have three hours of classes, from 9 to 12. But since we missed three hours of classes due to the snow, we had another three hours from 1 to 4. Aside from a brief listening exercise and a conversation about the differences between American and French universities, it was all grammar revision and not exactly fun. Fortunately tomorrow we only have 3 hours of classes.

For dinner Madame made us salmon and macaroni, then some other kind of fish. It was, as ever, delicious. This morning, Madame asked me to make sure I hadn't left anything on my bedroom floor so she could vacuum. In the process, she also made my bed and cleaned the bathroom Dan and I share. Not bad!

Not sure why each post has a different font but it's probably down to the fact that I type my posts in Word at home, then paste them into Blogger when I get to this Internet cafe. Speaking of the Internet cafe, by the way, it gets weirder every day. Normally their giant flatscreen TV shows French TV or, occasionally, MTV. Right now it's showing Michael Jackson's Thriller and Beat It music videos... it's like I never left home!

Snow Days, Markets, Mountains, and Classes

Friday

Once again, no classes, so I slept in late. Even though the snow was pretty much all melted, our schools were closed and we suspect the professors wanted to faire le pont, or make it into a long weekend. Spent some time at Progamers reading emails and chatted to a few friends online. Explored Aix’s chic-er areas with some of the other students for a bit in the afternoon, and found an underground crêperie. It’s in a little tunnel under a main road that also houses a watch repair shop and a key-cutting place. Our program director got everyone together in the mid-afternoon and bought us hot chocolates at Les Deux Garçons, where (supposedly) Cezanne and Zola used to meet up almost every day.

For dinner Madame made a delicious blend of cheese, potatoes, and ham, with a salad dressed in, like all meals from Provence, olive oil and vinegar. She’s a great cook, and everything we have is delicious. For dessert we had flan, which was also great. Mme scolded Dan and I: apparently we left the hallway light on during the night, and because l’électricité coute beaucoup in France, she warned us that next time she’d charged us a Euro per hour the light was on. After dinner, watched some of a documentary about a French ship going through the Arctic Circle with Madame and her sister, who are very green-thinking. They want to ban the Paris-Dakar rally, foe example, because it wastes too much fuel.

Saturday

This morning, all the markets were open and it was sunny and reasonably warm. We wandered through them, and got samples of calissons and locally-made olive oil. There’s such an incredible array of produce, flowers, vegetables, and meats that I can understand why most French people buy their food at markets. There are even crafts, rugs, old books, even men’s boxers. A friend’s friend, who’s been in Aix since September, showed us the south-west of the city and a really pretty park—although it was muddy and icy.

An odd contradiction: walking normally, I frequently catch up with and pass local pedestrians, who walk with a sedentary, relaxed manner. But when they reach roads, the locals glance left and right and try to jump in between cars to cross the roads as hastily as possible. Often, so many people are jaywalking that cars give in and wait while they cross.

Tried Crêpes-à-Gogo, the underground place; I got a mushroom and cheese one which was delicious and surprisingly filling. It began to get colder in the afternoon, which was unfortunate because we trekked about 20 minutes to a nearby rugby stadium where, one of the students believed, there was a game this afternoon. When we arrived, the pitch was covered in snow and nobody was around save a few bystanders, who said the game had been cancelled due to the snow. Saw an anti-Israel demonstration near the town hall, and wisely sidestepped as the protestors yelled about liberté for Palestine and les flics (cops) looked on.

Through another Michigan student, met Damien and his girlfriend, two French students who live just outside Aix. They told me my spoken French was good—perhaps they were just being polite—and that many words and phrases in American textbooks (boum, chouette, etc) are outdated and not used. They also said the hilarious tektonik dance has gone out of style. Darn.

Sunday

Cassis trip! With most of the Americans, plus a big group of Swedish and Japanese exchange students, we took a daytrip to Cassis. First the bus took us to La Ciotat, a small town where there was a market. We sampled cheeses, breads, olive oil, tapenade, and assorted fruits, then bought sandwiches. The bus took us through some windy roads up into the hills, and we had to take a detour when the bus couldn’t make it round one especially-tight turn. Narrow, twisting Provençal streets were not made for tour busses. We ate overlooking the Mediterranean and I even got to dip my feet in the sea. The view was spectacular and, under the sun, it was even warm enough to take off my sweater and jacket! See below:

From there we went to Cassis via une route spéciale, which took us through mountains. Worryingly, the road was barely wider than the bus, with frequent turns and sharp elevation changes. A Lotus 7 clone flew past us and we saw it slipping around the mountain bends; motorcyclists buzzed around the curves. Our bus pulled over so we could see the most magnificent view – see the panorama below.

You could see for miles and it’s truly hard to describe the sensation. Rolling hills, sprawling rural towns, and the bluest sea and sky were all around. The air was fresh and clean, and it was even warm! The pictures don’t really do it justice. It was a fantastic and breathtaking vantage point. That and the gorgeous beach at La Ciotat made me wonder why I live in the midwestern U.S. and not Provence.

Cassis is a small, touristy beach town. It was too cool for the beach but Cassis is also known for its calanques, fjord-like inlets that are some of the highest cliffs in Europe, apparently. We took a boat trip out into the Mediterranean that took us into the calanques and told us about them.Unfortunately, it was cold and windy, and the boat pilot spoke with such a strong Marseillais accent over a tinny speaker that the trip wasn’t all I’d been expecting. We got ice cream and got back on the bus to head back to Aix. It was a marvelous, if exhausting, trip and I’m glad I went. Took far too many pictures of the gorgeous scenery, and I’ll try to upload them soon.

Our tour guide, Georges, was a peculiar character. He first joked that the typically untimely American students got to the bus before the very-punctual Japanese and Swedish students—which didn’t seem to make anyone laugh. And to make an announcement on the bus, Georges started with, “Allo, allo!? Ecoutez!”

Monday

Today was back to the grindstone: three hours of spoken exercises and grammar in the morning, then two hours of grammar in the afternoon. Now I’m exhausted, especially after having such a busy day on Sunday. My professor for this morning, a Monsieur Tissot, was hilarious. Our classroom was up four flights of stairs and the radiator seemed to be stuck on full heat: Tissot warned we’d either die from the climb or from the heat. He was full of jokes all round, in fact.

I was excited because tonight Mme asked us if we needed to do laundry. Dan and I promptly brought her our big stacks of dirty clothes but she protested, pointing out how tiny her washing machine is—we each put in two pairs of pants and some t-shirts, and absolutely filled the machine. For the rest, Mme told us we should go to a nearby launderette. Ah well. For drying the clothes, she has an ingenious system that her husband (whom I haven’t heard her speak of before) built. In the laundry room is a drying rack that hangs from rope threaded around four pulleys. Normally, it hangs just above my head (about 5’9”) and it’s easy to hang things. But pull a rope and the rack lifts to about a foot from the ceiling. Thus, drying clothes doesn’t take up any space in the incredibly-cramped laundry room! Must take pictures of it sometime. For dinner we had duck, and Mme promised one day she make us lapin—rabbit!

Snow way!

As I said, yesterday there were five inches of snow on the ground when I woke up, and it snowed practically all day. People told me it hadn’t snowed like that for anywhere between 15 and 30 years, although the news claimed 22. Either way, it was chaos: Provence isn’t used to getting snow like that, so nobody was prepared.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died partway through the day, so I didn’t get to photograph some of the cooler things, to wit: skiers on what’s effectively Aix’s “Main Street”; giant snowball fights; people throwing snowballs are cars, cyclists, and strangers. Kids didn’t have school and so played as if they’d never seen snow before—which they really hadn’t.

One group of kids was pelting a car with snowballs, and hit the girl who got out. She yelled at them, and they threw another which hit the girl in the face. Her dad jumped out of the car and started a yelling match with the kids. And people tried to sled down Aix’s narrow, windy streets.

Many stores—including the cyber café I have to use for Internet access—just didn’t bother opening because of the snow. The buses didn’t run and neither did the trains. At Marseille airport, thousands of people were stranded, and the police even shut down les autoroutes because it was too dangerous to drive. Admittedly, it was a lot of snow and the Provençaux aren’t prepared for it, but they seemed to overreact.

Yesterday our school closed at 3 p.m. and today it isn’t open at all. The streets and roads are deserted. People learned their lesson yesterday: don’t go out in the snow! Even now the snow has turned to slush, the town looks very pretty in the snow, especially last night when it was lit up with the remnants of Christmas lights.

Today the snow is just slush, but everything’s still closed, including many cafes and stores. No school, no afternoon meeting—now I know why former students called this program Aix-en-Vacances! I walked all the way to our program office for a group meeting at 2, only to find it had been cancelled. We’d gotten an email about that, but I don’t have the Internet where I live… very frustrating.

Class tomorrow, perhaps?

First Days in Aix!

So, I had italics and tabs and bold and stuff but it didn`t copy over... sorry in advance... click the pictures to zoom in.

Saturday
After spending something like seven hours sitting around in Frankfurt, I flew to Marseille, took a bus to Aix, then a taxi to my new apartment. Met Madame T, her sister who’s visiting from Nice, Dora the cat, and Dan, who’s from Wisconsin and also on the program. It was late so I talked to them briefly, unpacked a little, then went to sleep. Also gave her the cherry jam and chocolate-covered cherries I’d brought, which Madame said she loved.

Sunday
Woke up to beautiful blue skies and had coffee, cereal, and apple juice out on the balcony looking over Aix. It was a gorgeous view and a fantastic way to start my stay here. Went into town and had a guided tour of the city with the other American students. The tour was interesting and I now know plenty of Aix trivia. The town is gorgeous. Everything I saw looked so picturesque, pretty, unique. After the two-hour tour, we students squeezed into Café d’Horloge, and had croques messieurs. A TV was showing the MTV show “The Hills” dubbed into French.
Our group went to the once-monthly book market, where they have all sorts of rare and antique books, as well as comics and modern novels. We went to see if a grocery store and cellphone place were open, but it was Sunday so they were closed. Instead we meandered around the trendy, newly-built area near la Rotunde. Many places were shut, but there were still a surprising number of cars and people about.
Dan and I found Madame and her sister watching the news. Dan and I were getting hungry, and Madame didn’t seem to be cooking anything. By 8:30 she asked where we were going for dinner that night. We’re supposed to get six dinners with her per week, though, including Sundays. Not wanting to cause a ruckus, we left and found a tiny place called L’Eclipse where we got steak frites. We sat by la Rotunde and ate. Everything is lit up and night and it looks really cool, especially with the remnants of Christmas decorations. It reminded my of the night scenes in In Bruges.

La Rotunde

The apartment where I live

Monday
Today I had to set my alarm for 7 and the sun was barely up when I left. The weather forecast was for -1º! As we walked into the town centre, there were lots of people heading to work, and more stores and restaurants were open than yesterday. First stop today was the Institut d’Etudes Françaises pour Etudiants Etrangers, where we had a test to place us into our cours intensif.
Next we had an info session, which warned girls to never look at, smile at, or even walk too close to French men. It also told us that crime in Aix is rare, but to watch out for gypsy/Romany people and a litany of street crimes. They also noted that every single year, there is an American who gets engaged to a French person while here. The cours intensif started in the afternoon, with 13 people in my group, and met in a tiny classroom.
A big group of us from the class then went to get French cellphones from Bouygues, the company recommended by the program. We all ended up with the same service and €15 phones. Went to ProGamers next, a cyber café we can use for free through the program (my host family doesn’t have any internet and there isn’t any free wifi nearby). It’s mostly pre-teens playing Counterstrike yelling, but it lets us check email/etc. Typing is tough because French keyboards are different than American ones. You hit 6 for hyphens, left-shift and 9 for the “@” symbol, some letters are transposed, etc.
Madame had made us a meal of Provencal fare. We started with lettuce leaves dipped in an olive oil/ vinegar sauce, tomatoes with puréed olives (tapenade) and avocadoes brushed with the sauce. Next came daube, beef in a thick sauce atop pasta. It was all very good and we had loooong conversations with Madame and her sister.

My phone

Tuesday
More classes today, covering adjectives, present participles, and other exciting elements of French grammar. Our professor’s really nice. Briefly saw the markets before they closed up at 1. Bought sandwiches for lunch again—this time for €3.80 with cheese, ham, and a bunch of other stuff.
After lunch we had a program meeting to learn about paying for homestay rent and la sécurité sociale, which pays for hospitals/doctors. We also opened bank accounts, and I’ll soon get my French debit card. Changed my travelers’ checks, paid January’s rent to Madame, and had dinner. She told us she had gone to a port in Marseille and when the fishermen returned with fish still flopping, she bought one. So we had a big bass-like fish sitting on a plate in the middle of the table, as well as potatoes and some odd vegetable mix.
I finally took my camera out with me and took pictures of the town, but it was overcast (as you can see) so I’ll try to get more when it’s sunnier. Looked at the schedule for the school I’ll be attending—classes start on Jan 26—and we have looong breaks: A week between Feb 21 and March 2, and two weeks between April 18 and May 4!

Today
Today I woke up to snow. Yes, snow. It snowed in Paris yesterday, which is normal, but snow like this in Aix is rare—every 20 to 30 years, Madame told me. And I’m disappointed because I thought coming to the south of France would let me escape cold and snow! It’s now 11:30 am and still snowing pretty hard. I need to do some homework then go to classes, which today run for three hours straight without a break.

On my way into town, everything had gone crazy. I helped push a few cars because the locals seem to think they can drive in snow with low-profile tires, and their strategy for when it's slippery is to engage first gear and accelerate as hard as possible. The town looks beautiful zith the snow but my camera battery just died :( More updates soon, I hope!

I'm in Aix!

I'm now in Aix, and in lieu of sending out many emails with pictures and what I've been doing, I've created this blog. I'll try to write up a short entry soon, but for now here's the room I'm staying in: