Voyage à Orange, picdump

Happy warming weather, everyone!



Even though I have a paper that I have due tomorrow (gross), I want to talk about my day trip to adorable Orange to see the Roman ruins, and take this opportunity to throw a bunch of pictures on here at the request of certain interested readers (hi dad).

So!

While everyone else in my apartment was in Lyon or Montpelier on weekend trips, Saturday I went with Marisa and Emily to Orange! I had seen it in my little Provence guidebook, which had described it as the site of the most complete Roman amphitheater in Europe. Knowing that I'd probably be disappointing myself and my history-loving family (...hi dad) if I didn't go, and wanting to see some cute little Provencal towns, yesterday morning we headed over to the SNCF station to pick up our train tickets and hop on a bus to the Marseille train station.


Marseille Gâre St. Charles, with Marseille in the background

We didn't really see much of Marseille except the long hill we walked up to get to the train station, but I definitely know that I'm going to take a day trip there, especially since the bus is 5 euros and it's 20 minutes away!

Anyway, after an hour long train ride, we arrived at...what appeared to be a ghost town. Seriously. Where Marseille was bright, sunny, and warm, Orange was grey, overcast, and cold, without a person in sight. Definitely not what I had expected. Where was everyone? It was seriously weird. After walking into town and finding a cafe not guarded by surly old men smoking cigarettes, I had a nice crepe and we headed over to the amphitheater. After picking up our tickets and audio guides, we headed inside the main stage.



It was extremely impressive. Except for a very friendly, very persistent cat and an older couple, we were the only ones there, leaving us free to wander up and down ginormous stone seating unencumbered while listening to nice British voices talk about the history of the theater: how it was used in Roman times, Roman theater in general, how people built a whole village inside the theater during the Middle Ages, and how it was unearthed in the 19th century--including the subsequent plays and operas that are still being performed there today. Oh, and take some touristy pictures:


Marisa, Emily, and me in front of the stage wall

Even though it was cold and overcast, we followed the arrows to the top of the amphitheater to get a panoramic view of the theater, and check out some cheesy audiovisual shows along the way. It was really breathtaking:


The theater



Emily, with Orange in the background


Emily and Marisa


Me sitting on a wall in front of Orange


Fun with the self timer

We have nothing like this in the US, and getting to physically touch something that's more than 2,000 years old was amazing. Especially considering that the Romans built this without the aid of modern technology. Ridiculous.
Anyway, after viewing the funny little museum across the street (Roman ruins + 19th century paintings + artifacts from some wealthy family who had something to do with Orange in the 1700s + celebrity photos), some chocolat chaud at the most adorable little tea shop ever, and seeing that apparently the citizens of Orange don't leave their houses until 4 pm because NOW there were people, it was time to head back to the station to catch our train home.



Next weekend: Marseille? Another small town? I want to do an Arles > Avignon trip, so that will happen at some point in the future. Cou cou!

Les marches, diner, etc

I love Aix! Or, more specifically, the large open-air markets that take place every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Today after my Theater class and finding my next class was cancelled, I took a stroll throughout the markets at the Hotel de Ville and the Place de la Madeleine and the surrounding areas. It may have been a Tuesday (Saturday is the busiest day) but it was lively: sadly, I didn't have my camera on me (when I do, pictures will come later), but there were stalls of colorful fresh produce, saucisson, cheese, pastries, breads, honey--anything you can imagine that you can also eat--everywhere I looked. I kept on getting offered free samples, and although I felt bad that I knew I wasn't going to be buying anything (I didn't really need anything), it didn't stop be from taking them. Delicious! I think next time I go I'm going to pick up some sausage and cheese, and I also sampled this amazing lavender honey that I may pick up for someone back home (I won't tell who I'm thinking of, since my family reads this). Although, I may not have bought massive amounts of produce, I DID cave and buy a few ripe local tomatoes and some delicious "tartons" (pastries filled with potatoes and spinach)--and some other non-produce items. There's also an extensive clothing/antiques/thrift items, and I had a fun time leisurely winding my way through stalls and stalls of sales and knick-knacks. I couldn't help myself--I managed to snap up a beret in a beautiful rust color, two vintage postcards of Aix, and a simple necklace for 2 euro. I'm going to have to budget my expenses more...even though if it's at a market and second-hand, it's okay, right? Yes.

Anyway, I'm not really going to have to save up any recipes to make with all the produce I can buy, because 4 nights a week we eat with a French family: me and my group (Brett, Hillary, Courtney, Hallie, and I) eat on Monday/Tuesday with the Poirssons, and Wednesday/Thursday with the Zarbs. M. and Mme. Poirsson are this adorable old couple who live in the outskirts of Aix, and are the perfect French grandparents. Mme makes delicious French meals with beaucoup du pain (last night it was deliciously rustic pork and vegetables) in their modest but cozy apartment while M. grills us on our grammar and what we've been up to. I love M. Poirsson--he kind reminds me of my grandfather. Lots of sensible but put-together old-man clothing, lots of frank questions and comments on our lives and our French, lots of attention to the ladies (never letting us refill our wine glasses--or let them go empty), and last night when we told him we were in a Theater class he perked up and Mme. told us how much he loves the theater and goes every week. They're a very nice couple, and after the first week's awkwardness, dinners have become more comfortable.
The other family--les Zarbs--are a family with two daughters, Julia (6), and Carmen (11). They're a very affable family--Mme. is friendly but a little bit serious (she's a teacher, or works with children or something), but their apartment is still decked out for Noel, replete with creche under the tree, and little Santa hanging from a zip line over the living room. Julia is adorable: Carmen is a little bit "cool older sister," but Julia likes to sit at the table and play with her DS or show us her toys or pictures. The Zarbs have been catering to Vandy kids for 5 years (!), and the other night they were showing us all the group pics they've taken over the years--some on the mantle, the rest in a special album. It's very sweet.

That's all for now. Aix is starting to get warmer--it's been consistently hovering around 50˚F--so I think I may head out to a cafe and do some reading outside. And this week I may visit my cousin Andrew in Paris, which should be fun. A bientôt!

Traveling...

Since we're on the first full week, people are starting to talk about traveling outside of Aix. The thing about Aix is that even though it's not some wincy country town, it's probably 1/3 the size of Paris (at most), and I feel like I'm pretty well acquainted with the area--obviously I can do some more wandering, but there aren't really any museums, monuments, Provencal country houses, or underground oddities to be found here. So where should I go? People are already talking Big Trips--to Barcelona, Copenhagen, etc--for spring break, but I feel like if I think of that I'm just going to get overwhelmed, so France first. I really want to explore Provence: if it was summer, and if I was eligible to rent a car, or if it was summer and I had a bike, I'd go tooling around Provence, looking at the country and small towns dotting the area. Paris is nice, but I'm in Provence and I'd like to see it for what it is, and spend some time getting to know it; it would make me sad if I was here for 4 months and I never got to see some little provincial towns and eat some local cheese. So...there's that. There's also Paris, which is basically a given: people are talking about Paris for next weekend, and I'm sure there will be more trips there in the future. There's also Marseille, which is about an hour away, and apparently really fun--at one point I'm sure I'll go to Marseille.
But, other trips: obviously I want to go everywhere, but since that's not possible I'd like to go to Lyon, Portugal, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Bordeaux, and...? I'm the kind of person who needs to make lots of different lists and write things down; it's a good outlet for when I feel overwhelmed and stressed out, which I can feel myself becoming with all these possibilities--I need plans.

Anyway, tomorrow I have class (!) at 8:30 (! kill me now), so it's probably a good idea to get some sleep. Ciao!

First Impressions

Well, it's Sunday, VIF has nothing planned for today (un jour libre), and after walking 20 minutes in the cold trying to find the discount supermarket and discovering that it, and most essential French stores, aren't open--today is blog day! It's only my 3rd day here but I already have loads to say, so I'll just start with the basics:

1. Don't worry, I got my suitcase yesterday, and

2. This is the view from my window:



No big deal.

Just a little example of what Aix is like, which is adorable. My first day, uncontent to succumb to jetlag I wandered around Aix. It's not quite a city, but far more than a town: in the center, there are winding streets, with lots of narrow side alleys, which spread out into more modern buildings on a grid layout. My apartment is at the top floor of an apartment on rue Cardinale near the center of the city, which is conveniently the VIF center and where all my classes are held: what was obviously once un tres grand appartement but is now taken up by VIF on the first, larger floors, with two apartments--mine and a random French neighbor's--on the very top, which don't span the entire floor. It's an old apartment with what looks like most--if not all--of the original furnishings intact, and very small and cozy.

Some establishing shots:

rue Cardinale:


Foyer of building:



My room (my bed is the one by the window):



my kitchen (pain au chocolat, milk, and A Year in Provence in the foreground):


In our apartment, there are 5 of us: me and my roommate Charlotte (from Barnard), Courtney and Hillary (Vanderbilt) in another room, and a French student, Eliza. Last night we had a bunch of other people from the program over at our apartment for some wine and music, which was a nice way of getting to know everyone--our kitchen (the only common room we have) is teeny, so having everyone crowded around a plastic folding table and shouting over each other gets the job done pretty well.

Aix, itself, is almost too cute to bear: a little bourgeois and yuppie, it's filled with expensive boutiques, bakeries, cafes, and bistros stuffed into every nook and cranny. I've also already discovered that it's also a college town: there's no end to the bars for college kids with some spending money, and last night when we went to a cute little Irish pub (hi dad) that Eliza showed us we ended up bonding with all the other students, foreign and national. It was a really fun, laid back atmosphere, and it was pretty funny with all us American students trying to speak French to the French students, who were trying to speak English, and no one could understand each other but everyone was having fun. Afterwards, I got to go to a real discotheque, with the misleading moniker "Scat Jazz Club." I'm sorry France, but some French guy singing Radiohead's "Creep" in a thick accent is not jazz. Just to let you know.

There are also some really cool stores, and with all the soldes (sales) going on it's going to be difficult not to spend all my money here. I prefer to wander by myself (and Aix is perfect for casual wanderings): for instance, today I saw almost every other person holding baguettes or some sort of fresh bread, so I just had to go find myself some: I bought a delicious "baguette Charlemagne" for 1 euro, which apparently is expensive...so now I need to devote myself to finding the best, cheapest bread in France. It'll be tough, but I think I can do it.

Anyway, as I said, today we don't have anything to do for VIF: these past few days we've met up with the tutors--French grad students--who have kind of been acting like camp counselors, herding us around Aix. It's a little annoying: as I said, I like doing my own thing, and even when I was in summer camp I hated being led around in a group; and when you're in a big group of Americans in a French town, being led around in one huge mass, getting in the way of cars and pedestrians and doing things all together, it's easy to get a little self-conscious. I can't wait until all this introduction stuff (which is totally legitimate and much needed, I know) is over so I can spend my days wandering and traveling. And from what it looks like, I totally have the least stuff of anyone here, so it should be easy to pack up and go on day trips or whatever--although, like everyone else, I haven't been able to completely resist the soldes: I got a purse and a shirt--but to be totally honest I legitimately needed a purse (I didn't have one, since I knew I wanted to buy one here), and the shirt was on sale, and with a design by a local artist! Worth it! No H&M for me! And now I am done with shopping, at least in Aix--it's far too expensive, and most boutiques, to be honest, are basically like the chi-chi ones you can find all around New York. I'd rather spend my $$$ on FOOD: a shirt is a shirt is a shirt, but in France everything tastes like...rainbows. The food is glorious: of course I won't be going out to eat all the time, but when I go to a place I need to eat the food, and there's no shortage of bistros, cafes, and little sandwich places. I've found out I love the French version of cafe: "cafe," or coffee, isn't the American large cup of coffee with milk/sugar that you walk around with; here "un cafe," as I learned unexpectedly when I ordered one thinking I would leisurely walk around with a coffee in hand, is just a small, plain espresso. At first I was scared, because espresso, to me, just seems so bitter--it is a bit, but with the sugar served on the side it is a quick and delicious little pick-me-up when you want to pop in from the cold and warm yourself. I can just imagine myself sitting in a cafe, sipping un cafe, doing my homework and watching the world go by--and at 1.40 euro, it's less expensive than a Starbucks latte.

Well! That's about it: today has been a lovely, lazy day. It's the first day I've been here that the sun is shining, and although the traveler part of me thinks I should be outside some more soaking up as much as I can, my body is perfectly content to sit in the kitchen reading, eating my bread and drinking tea with the sun shining through the window. À bientot!

En France!

Welp, I'm in France! I'd like to write a nice long recap, but I'm tired and ight now it's 6:15 pm--1:15 pm EST--and my brain isn't really sure what time it is, and I've been up since, like, ever. So here's a quick recap of important/interesting things!
My apartment is adorable, and Aix is adorable, and cute, and old: like all the buildings in Aix, my apartment is old, and still looks like it has the original windows from the 19th century. We're going out to eat in about an hour--my French colocataire (that's roommate) seems to think we're going to have a fete, but I don't think she realizes just how tired we all are. And also, I have no clothes.

Why do I have no clothes, you ask? What happened to my AWESOMELY PACKED suitcase??

Because it's lost somewhere in the French airline system! I only had one suitcase, and it is GONE--probably because my flight to Brussels got in too late for it to make the Marseilles flight on time...I hope. If not...I'm not going to think about it. There is nothing I can do, and apparently it happens enough for Maite (the very nice program director) to confidently tell me not to worry.

Anyway, I feel my French improving already, even though basically every shopkeep, airline employee, and taxi driver knows I'm American and starts to speak in English. I'm really looking forward to this--clothes or not (although having them may make it better).


Yay!

4 days, 14 hours, and 22 minutes until my departure...

And what do you think I've prepared so far for my 4 months abroad?

This is what my room looks like:



This is my room. See that thing there? In the mess? Languishing in front of the garbage bag of clothes I will give to the Salvation Army and unused lamp and next to my overflowing bookcase and randomly placed broom? That is my suitcase. Those are my clothes. They are from when I got home from Vanderbilt...two weeks ago. I'd hire a personal maid if I had the money, but she'd (or he, I'm progressive) probably run away screaming. I am doomed.

Okay, maybe not doomed, just highly...inconvenienced (I lie). Going away to a foreign country is no place to bring a haphazardly packed suitcase, and I've looked forward to this for so long that I'd just be disappointing myself. It's just that I HAVE been looking forward for this for so long, that I can't possibly believe it's here so soon--I haven't hung out with my friends enough! I just got home! This can't be happening! Omg! AHHHHHH!!

Things Ada Needs to Do But Hasn't Yet:
-Get computer backup
-Check what stuff I need (no seriously, I have not done this yet. I'll probably end up going to Lord & Taylors for socks the day I leave.)
-Cash my last check from work--I need da rupees (as my friend Jane would say)!
-Make sure I have my departure plans neatly written down: I don't want to get stuck at Marseilles airport without directions how to get to Aix-en-Provence.
-Clean my room!
-Go to Brookstone to use up $$ from when I returned my Christmas gift (totally has nothing to do with actually going to France, but it's something that definitely needs to get done nonetheless)
-PACK!!!!! AAHHHH!!

To their credit, VIF totally has this study abroad stuff down, yo. I mean, I already have like, 2 20-page pdf manuals (one for general study abroad, and one for VIF), and they thoughtfully send me emails once in a while--here's how to get a taxi! Here are all the important phone numbers in case you need help! For the love of God, please don't bring your sorority t-shirts!! It's helpful. It makes me know they care. I've been re-reading them for the nth time to assuage my feelings of desperation and excitement--it's like I'm 6 years old again and it's the night before Christmas, and I can't sleep because I know Santa's coming, but will I get presents or not? I mean, it could be a lump of coal or a new Barbie but I don't care: it can't come soon enough, and I'm totally terrified, but completely freaking excited beyond all reason.
But yes, VIF--and Vanderbilt's study abroad office, GEO--is like some well-oiled machine. I don't have to worry about my Visa--they got that to me a couple months ago without my even having to go to the consulate--and they've even basically coordinated our arrival times with the VIF center in France. I'm happy that they've obviously had enough scatterbrained students like me to let them know how to prepare...so that's good.

Anyway, things will come together. I hope. I mean, they generally do, and at least I'm worrying about everything, right??


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