Let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France

I was here today:

I know, I can't even believe it. Look how gorgeous it is!

Today was the first of two IAU-sponsored excursions to other parts of Provence. We went to the Luberon region, which has mountains and little picturesque villages perchées--perched villages. I love the image of the villages sitting on the side of a mountain like a little bird on a branch. According to one of my friends here, this part of France is supposed to be the inspiration for Disney's Beauty and the Beast (the best movie ever made). I'd always assumed it took place farther north--Maurice gets lost in the snow, after all--but there are definitely aspects of Belle's village that could take place here. The mountains, the fountains, the sheep, everyone saying Bonjour...

We went to three villages, each of which had a distinct character and charm. The first was Lourmarin,  the village in the picture above. My Film & Litt. professor came along with us, and he said that, while somewhere like Saint-Tropez on the Côte d'Azur is a popular destination for Hollywood celebrities, Lourmarin is the equivalent for intellectuals. High praise! But it was lovely. Albert Camus lived here at the end of his life, and is buried here. We visited his grave, which was covered in beautiful flowers. There was a big market in town that day, and we saw so many wonderful things; I even befriended a goat. I walked around the market with Cara and Kyle, and we ate lunch right here:

Hello castle! It's the Château de Lourmarin, which just means Castle of Lourmarin. It was built in the Middle Ages, when it was mostly a fortress (its location on top of a hill was strategic, not just picturesque). It was seriously renovated during the Renaissance and escaped destruction in the Revolution because the nobles were popular with the people of the town. Very lucky! Not just for the nobles, who got to keep their house and I bet that was nice for them, but for me, since we walked around the gardens.

The second village was visited was Roussillon, where Samuel Beckett lived during the war. It used to have an ochre mine, but now they are worried about erosion so the mines are preserved; you can marvel at how well Apparition works as you explore the Grand Canyon. It was really kind of confusing.

In the ochre mines with Cara and Kyle

There is a tragic legend associated with the ochre, which dates back to the Middle Ages. The lady of Roussillon castle, Sirmonde, fell in love with a troubadour named Guillaume. Her husband found out and, jealous, invited Guillaume on a hunting trip. Once they got into the forest he killed Guillaume and cut out his heart, which he ordered the chef of the castle to prepare for dinner. Sirmonde, who did not suspect anything, pronounced it the most delicious meal she had ever eaten. When her husband told her the truth, she threw herself off the cliffs. Rough life. Her blood mixed with Guillaume's blood to make the red earth I saw today. There is a café named after Sirmonde in Roussillon.

The other highlight of Roussillon, for me, was trying lavender ice cream (glace à la lavande). It was surprisingly good and surprisingly lavendery; take that as you will. The tragedy was that my camera's battery died as we reached the top of the village, so I don't have any pictures of the final village: Gordes. It was beautiful, though, and Cara took a lot of pictures for me. We drove by or through several other villages; Bonnieux stands out in my mind as particularly gorgeous. But really, they all were. I kept thinking today about how lucky I am to be in such an incredible part of the world. I had this song stuck in my head all day, and I finally realized the significance of "buy our parents homes in the south of France." It isn't just a pretty image and a nice word that rhymes with "dance." Tomorrow I'll probably fall in love with a new part of Provence as I go down to Cassis (camera is charging as we blog), but today was just amazing.

Une année

The big excitement today is that it's June 16, the day that Andrew and I will be getting married next year! It's so incredible to think that this is the last June 16 ever that I will be Miss Katherine Roberts all day. (Or Mademoiselle, same thing.) But a year is also a long time.

Today before class, Cara and I went wandering with Becca, who is also in our classes. We went to the big marché in front of the Palais de Justice, which takes place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (it's the same one I went to with Brooke and Clara). We shopped around the Cour Mirabeau a little--they have a marché there too, only on Thursdays--and got lunch from a bakery called Paul. It has a wide variety of inexpensive sandwiches (mine was 3,70), so we're Paul fans now. My sandwich was good but had a lot of spicy French mustard on it, which I didn't think was necessary.

Tonight there's a reception for students to mingle with faculty and staff from 7 pm to 8 pm, so I'm staying in town until then. I'm typing this in the library, which is adorable. This building used to be a chapel; it was renovated in the 60's, which is really tragic, but there are some remains of arches and little details. I already have some homework for my classes... a little bit of reading, mostly, so that is my project for the next two hours. Wish me luck!

Free Wine and Cheese

See, I knew I could come up with an exciting post title. What's more exciting than free wine and cheese?

The past two days have been the busiest and most interesting so far so, naturally, I haven't had time to write at all. Right now I'm home from my first day of classes, which are going well so far. Wouldn't it be horrible if they weren't? Yesterday was orientation, and although I didn't find Brooke and Clara (who live nearby) right away, we ran into each other on the walk to town. At orientation we learned about some of the history of Aix, what cell phone to buy, not to walk alone at night, etc. We also got a 2-hour lunch break, during which Brooke, Clara and I found a huge market in front of the Palais de Justice (food, spices, soap, shoes, hats, you name it), bought cell phones and met up with Elle and other Katherine (from the night before) for lunch. We got a little lost on the walk from the Cour Mirabeau (the main street with all the fountains) to the area near the Institute, but we made it in the end. Then we had some more orientation, and some French students came to talk to us about nightlife and bar recommendations. Orientation finished with a walking tour of Aix; Elle was in my group, and as soon as we were done we got ice cream. It is hot here during the day! We then promptly got lost. Little streets that keep twisting and turning are adorable, but annoying. I made it home fine, but by that point I was exhausted.

I had dinner with my host mom and then some down time until I met Brooke and Clara to go to the Wohoo, one of the bars the French students had recommended. Well, one of them bartends there and was throwing a free wine & cheese party for us, which was awesome. Unfortunately, we got there a little late so there was only one bottle left. The bar was nice, but it played a lot of American music and was mostly American students (us) so I didn't feel like it was a particularly French experience. However, it was a great way to get to know more people in a less forced setting.

(L to R) Mel, Liz, Brooke

Janette, me, Clara

Look! Friends!

The first day of classes (today) was, surprisingly, much less draining than orientation had been. At the Wohoo, I'd met a girl who had my same class schedule (1-5 pm), so we decided to meet in the morning to do a little exploring. Cara is really sweet and we have a lot in common. She loves Le Petit Prince and Alice in Wonderland; enough said. We went to Monoprix, the big department store/supermarket (think Target), where I bought a bottle of seltzer so I can have a water bottle during the day, and notebooks for class. We also stopped by the daily farmer's market to get fruit to eat during class, and ended up sharing a baguette. Delicious! We're meeting up again tomorrow. I want to explore the cathedral: it's right by the school, but I haven't been in yet.

I'm taking Provence in Film and Literature and Archaeology of Ancient Provence. Prof. Radulescu was insistent that I take classes that have to do with the area, since they will be the most relevant. Both are in French, taught by French professors, but they don't seem like they'll be too hard. Knock on bois.

Aix: Day 1

My blog titles are getting really creative. I did surprisingly little today: I slept through my alarm and then took another nap this afternoon. I'm not sure if it's jet lag or normal Katherine sleepiness. Either way. But the time I spent awake was well spent: Martine (my host mom) took me to the Institute (where all my classes will be) and around the rest of downtown for about an hour, and we went back to the Institute that afternoon for an open house. (I learned that 5 pm to 6:30 is considered afternoon.) I met a ton of people, and it felt a lot like rush week except the lights didn't flicker, nobody had chosen my outfit in advance and I did not already know half the people in the room. Oh and we weren't singing. There was, however, a running slideshow with everyone's name and picture. It was reassuring that everyone seemed normal and very friendly, but I'm looking forward to getting to know them in a more natural context.

One of Martine's friends, Jackie, is hosting two girls, so they all came over here for dinner tonight. It was delicious, and I enjoyed getting to know other people from the program. Conversation was difficult because they only know a little French, but I translated a lot and there were some hilarious moments. At one point, I asked Martine if she needed help, but I accidentally said d'assistance instead of d'aide, which is the more correct term. Jackie corrected me, "D'aide," which was fine except that then Elle thought someone had died ("dead") and hilarity ensued. Okay, written out that doesn't sound funny at all. Read the post below on bad jokes.

Tomorrow is orientation; I'm meeting two other girls who are staying next door to walk over at 9. It's about a 20-minute walk. Martine had me lead us back from the Institute so hopefully I know it well enough? Most other days I won't have to go anywhere until lunchtime, since my classes are straight from 1 to 5. But that means I'm going to get up and go exploring in the mornings, and smuggle baguette into class. This is the plan.

I'll take pictures tomorrow. Really.

Aix: Day 0

I made it! It's almost midnight here, which means it's almost 6 pm at home. The awesome thing about beng on military time is that midnight shows up as 0:00. Noon is 12:00. There's such a thing as zero o'clock!

Aix-en-Provence is absolutely beautiful and wonderful, even though it still doesn't feel real that I'm here. The rest of my time in Brussels was fine: I got to use my French to procure these delicacies.

It's okay to be jealous. I also got yogurt and a croissant, which was awesome because the yogurt came in a little glass jar and it was so cute! My camera was in the bottom of my carry-on, so I didn't take a picture, but I'm sure you can imagine. Adorable. And I read a lot of Pride & Prejudice (I need some English, okay?) before my flight to Marseille, which I remember primarily as a two-hour nap.

I woke up as we were circling over Marseille to land, and got my first look at the Mediterranean! I was caught up in how beautiful it was and how the color of the water changed closer to the horizon when the plane turned and I saw the Alps and literally my heart jumped. Even though the administrative region is called Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, living in America and going to visit someone in Florida made me think that the beach and the mountains are mutually exclusive. They are not. I hadn't realized I was going to have so many mountains, and they're so beautiful. There are all these little tan-colored houses with red roofs hiding up and down the mountainside. The effect is much rockier than the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the greens have more yellow and olive in them. I'll take pictures tomorrow.

Two people from IAU met me at the airport and called my host mother, Martine, to pick me up. While I was waiting I got to know Marguerite, who is a 'non-traditional' student in the program. She's in my archaeology class and very friendly. I also learned that my anticipated housemate cancelled for undisclosed reasons, so it is just me here. But that's okay. Martine is a little older than my parents, and has twin twenty year-olds, a boy and a girl. She also has a twenty-seven year-old daughter who lives in Paris. Her son lives at home, so I met him and his girlfriend and they're very nice, and the younger daughter is in an internship but is usually around on the weekends.

My room--view from the door

Martine took me to a barbecue (that's even what she called it) at a friend's house, to which I agreed because I was more hungry than nervous. It ended up being really great though: there were maybe twelve people (and as many bottles of vin; I had some very nice rosé). They were grilling merguez, a kind of Arabic sausage; I also had a couscous salad, a kind of ratatouille-esque casserole with lots of tomates, and a lot of baguette. I counted three baguettes, nine wine bottles and ten packs of cigarettes on the table at one point. (I hate smoking, but we were outside and only a couple of people were smoking at a given time so it was okay.) Most importantly, everyone was really friendly. They asked me where I was from, they tried to talk to me in English (which was funny) and they kept trying to give me more food. At one point a salsa song came on and two of the couples got up to dance, while everyone else watched, which was nice and seemed very European to me. After ice cream for dessert, I was really too tired so Martine took me home and showed me around her house.

View from the bed (door is to the left)

I unpacked, Skyped with Andrew and took another two-hour nap, when Martine woke me up for dinner. We had bruschetta, salad and more merguez. Dessert was fresh apricots from her garden--yum! After dinner, we watched the Sex and the City movie with French dubbing (so cross-cultural) and I facebook chatted with my mom.

My biggest challenge so far might be the shower. I even took a picture:

I know that this kind of setup is common in France, but I’m not entirely sure how I’m supposed to wash my hair with one hand while the other holds the faucet over my head, without soaking the entire bathroom since there are no curtains, and while staying warm because I am just sitting in an empty bathtub. I got clean, but I don’t know how I managed it.

À Bruxelles

I’m in Europe! I’m writing this at a café in the Brussels airport. Unfortunately, I can’t get online, so I’ll post it later. By the time you’re reading this, I will have figured out the online payment system (6 Euro for 30 minutes) and posted it! Crazy. So my flight went well: I watched The Birdcage during the sub-par dinner and listened to The Princess and the Frog as I fell into a melantonin-induced sleep. I woke up a few times but it was okay. My seatmate was awesome—she lives outside of Brussels, and was coming home after six months studying in Texas. She was really helpful when it wasn’t clear which terminal I needed to go to after immigration.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed about the Brussels airport (besides the fake potted trees) is that most of the signs and advertisements are still in English, or at least reserve the biggest font for English. I guess it’s the international language of business, but it seems strange for a country that already has two languages of its own to deal with. However, so far my French has had great success. I have said “Bonjour, un pain au chocolat et un café s’il vous plaît,” correctly paid with euros and then said “Merci.” Look at how international I am! Also. Delicious. (Not me.) For the uninitiated, pain au chocolat is a croissant with two thin bars of chocolate baked inside. It is the best ever. I have also correctly recognized a French pop song playing in this café—Ella Elle l’a, a ballad about the iconic Ella Fitzgerald, sung by the similarly iconic France Gall. It was one of the first French songs I ever heard, courtesy of Brother.

Even though they’re serving me delicious breakfast food and playing 60’s French pop music, I don’t think I’ve fully recognized that I’m in Europe for the next six weeks.

FAN GIRL MOMENT: they just started playing Dernier Danse par Kyo. So good!!! Beloved classic of high school French students everywhere.

Okay, back to reflection time. I speak French—I’m really good at French. But part of me is so nervous that when I’m hearing it all the time and expected to speak it all the time, I’ll clam up. (Or I’ll say “euh…” way too often for anyone to want to hang out with me.) For the past… 24 hours? Does anybody really know what time it is? (by Chicago.) Anyway, random phrases keep popping into my head, either French ones I should remember or English ones I can’t figure out how to translate. I even converted miles to kilometers on my phone in Newark so I could say J’habite quarante kilomètres de New-York. I know once I’m immersed it will all come so much more naturally, but part of me is still worried. I’m too pretty to be an Ugly American.