My first few days...

I finally made it to Europe after spending 7 and a half hours in a middle seat next to 2 guys who hogged the arm rests. I had a connection in Amsterdam, where I arrived at what would be the equivalent of 2:17 am our time. I then had to walk 20 minutes to the gate for the flight to Marseille, luckily I had enough time to spare. We arrive safely in Marseille but unfortunately, the airline has lost my luggage! Of course I didn't follow the suggestion of packing 3 days worth of clothes/toiletries in your carry-on so I was a bit nervous... but after speaking to a representative using my rusty French, I found out it would be delivered to my homestay address later that night. Fortunately, my super nice host mom took off work to come pick me up from the airport. She had to go back to work though so she basically dropped me off, helped me connect to the internet and then left again. I was on my own for the afternoon so I decided to take a walk around town so I wouldn't fall asleep. I'm living about 15-20 minutes from the center of town so it's a bit of a hike but not too bad. I walked around the beautiful little town for an hour or so before I got so tired that I had to come back. I decided I had to take a nap or I would pass out at the dinner table, which I imagine would not have made a good first impression. My 65-lb. bag finally arrived at 9:45 and we hauled it up the stairs where I could unpack. As soon as I finished, I fell asleep instantly.

I woke up the next morning and went downstairs for a breakfast of what else: bread (& jam and some amazing coffee), it was delicious! I walked into town for our first meeting with the program, where we had a guided tour of Aix en Provence (in French, of course). I got to meet most of the people in the program and everyone is super friendly. Actually, one of the girls from Wisconsin (it's a joint program with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana students) had taken a french class with my older brother. weird. We had an information session later that day where the directors of the program tried to explain some cultural differences and give us some advice. She basically explained that, as a woman walking on the street, if you make eye contact with a guy, he will approach you and he will try to seduce you. Apparently that's just how the French roll... but it's better than Italian guys at least (be careful, Amanda!). Then our director got a phone call, that she later told us was about the cancellation of exams (for the year-long students) for that day and the following day because there was snow in the forecast. They also canceled our mini-excursion on saturday and shut down stores because it was EXPECTED to snow a couple of centimeters. I don't think these people would handle living in Ann Arbor very well. So then most of us went to buy cheap phones; the workers at the store we went to were a little overwhelmed when about 25 loud american college students came into the store but they worked really efficiently.

I got to sleep in a bit Friday morning but I still had a great breakfast waiting for me! I went into town to take a placement exam (to decide the level of our french abilities) and then we had a meeting about opening a french bank account. Now I understand that we are here to learn french but all of this really, really important information was told to us in french so there's a very large possibility that I missed a giant chunk of info that I made need for future decisions... but hopefully it'll all work out. When I went home for dinner, I found out my host-mom was having a "fête des voisins" which is like a neighborhood party (all the neighbors come over and bring different kinds of food and alcohol). Interestingly enough, another student from Wisconsin who's in the same program I'm in (except he's doing the full year, not just a semester like me) arrived with one of the families that came to the party. My host-mom was so impressed by his speaking abilities, that she thought he was from Paris before he told everyone he was from Wisconsin. One of my goals for the semester: be mistaken for a French person. Anyway, there was a bunch of different foods to pick on, such as foie gras and un petit pizza (which my host mom cut up using scissors! I've never seen that done before). But more importantly, there was a lot of alcohol. We started with champagne, then red wine, then white wine, and then one of the guests proceeded to make a mixed drink with some kind of rum. It's so great to be able to taste all these different foods and drinks, part of what makes France: France.

So I wake up Saturday morning and it actually snowed!! Now almost everything is shut down. My host-brother is at a friends house 20 km away but according to my host-mom, it's too dangerous to drive. The bus system has stopped as well. There was about 3-5 inches (if that) on the ground. But I can't blame them too much, the streets are so narrow, the cars are so little, and they don't really have the machinery to clear the roads so it's better to be safe than sorry I guess. I found out that a supermarket is somehow still open though so I go to buy some toiletries and some food for lunch (because lunch is not covered in my monthly "rent" for my homestay). I go to get a grocery cart inside the store but I don't see any, so I walk back outside to get one but there all locked together. I found out after pulling on it and pushing in random spots that you have to pay 1 Euro to use the cart!! So I finally get in the store and I keep running into everyone cause it's super busy and it's a really big cart. I get everything I need, which is about 15 items, so the cart is practically empty and everyone is looking at me like "what an idiot" especially since right near the registers are hand baskets that would have been the perfect size and I wouldn't have had to pay... but you live and you learn!

Later that night, some friends from the program and I decide to go see a french movie and go out to dinner. My host-mom lets me borrow her hiking boots cause I didn't bring any snow or rain boots (of course I only brought my nice suede ones), but once I make it off my little side street, there is absolutely no snow on the sidewalks and I realize I didn't really need them at all. I make it into town and we wait in line to see "le siffleur" (the whistler). I didn't fully understand everything that was going on but I got the gist and it was pretty funny. It was absolutely freezing outside, and we were starving, so we went to one of the first restaurants we saw. It turns out to be absolutely delicious (I don't think I've eaten anything I didn't like yet) and we spend about 2 hours just talking and enjoying the atmosphere. When we finished with dinner and dessert, we were still relaxing at the table and who we think was the owner of the restaurant gave us free shots. Apparently being a girl in France means free drinks, which I don't think any of us were complaining about. So once we paid and figured out where we were on a map, we went searching for a bar that a lot of international students go to called "the woohoo". None of us knew where it was exactly so we wandered around for a little bit and finally found it. We met some other american students doing study abroad programs and chatted for a while during which time we got more free shots. The bar didn't start to get crowded until around 12:30 am and finally people started dancing around 1. I love dancing, even with my bum knee and all, so I was having a great time. The music got a bit too techno for our liking though so our new study abroad friends (who had been there for the fall semester too) took us to a club. It was reasonably empty but still fun because there was a lot of space for dancing (and I didn't have to worry about messing up my knee). Our new friend knew someone who worked there so we got free champagne. More people started to arrive at 2:30 and it was pretty crowded by 3 but I was super tired by 3:30 and my knee was bothering me a lot so I asked my friends to leave with me (I know, I'm lame) so I wouldn't have to walk alone. I live much farther away than everyone else so I took a taxi home and tried to make as little noise as possible. So that was my first night of going out in Aix... did I mention I was wearing hiking boots?? That was a little awkward cause everyone is so nicely dressed here but it's ok, I "made it work" as Tim Gunn would say.

So that brings me to this morning where I got to sleep in cause it was our "free day." I haven't done much but read a french comic book and watch some TV with my host-mom. I got to talk to my family today too which is always a pleasure ;) If anyone ever wants to set up a skype date, let me know!

That's it for now, tomorrow I start 2 weeks of our "cours intensif" which is put on by the program to help us adjust to life and school in France. We have an average of about 5 hours of class a day so I'll be keeping busy.
À bientôt!

P.S. the first 3 pictures are from my night out on Saturday and the other 2 are views from the window of my homestay.