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Published: February 19th 2009
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Salut Mes Amis!
Now that I'm back in France, I figure I'll resort back to French greetings...anyway, I realized that I haven't done a blog yet alerting you all to the wonders of the place I'm calling home at the moment: Aix-en-Provence. Aix (for short) is a small, I guess what you could call, college town. Right now I'm asking myself if I ever left Harrisonburg! But surely I did, because Harrisonburg doesn't contain beaucoups of fountains, have cobblestone streets, or local boulangeries (bread/sandwich shops). Also missing would be the English language, where as here, I must order a sandwich and ask for different size shoes when shopping, in French.
Similarities aside, Aix is fabulous. A typical day in the life of a student in Aix would first include waking up to sunshine. Seriously, the sun here is a staple. It rained for almost a week when I first got here, and the locals were more bummed than the new students. Once the Mistral rolled in though, the rain disappeared. The Mistral is a powerful northern wind that blows away all the clouds and rain. Although the wind itself is a little chilly, the sunshine that accompanies it is
Our school's library
It's like out of Beauty and the Beast! The only thing missing is the ladder well worth the nippy air. Breakfast in France, at least in my house, consists of toasted baguette with butter, tea, and if I'm feeling up to it, Nutella with these spongy sort of cakes (these are often too sugary for my taste in the morning). After breakfast, I head to the bus stop, or, as it's been on several occasions, I run. Taking the bus around is much more normal here than in the states. Not nearly as many people have cars, and its almost easier to take the bus because there seems to be no parking.
After getting dropped off at the Rotonde (a big beautiful fountain in the center of the city) I have to walk a few blocks north to get to school. My school is on a side road next to a centuries old church. Actually, my school is an old chapel that's been converted. You can still see the remnants of the old church from inside...the way the ceilings are arched, and the stone that surrounds the main room. Classes last an excruciating hour and twenty five minutes, but we survive. After class, around noon or maybe later, students head out for lunch, where
At the 24 hour diner
Me and Michelle with our favorite waiter we have numerous possibilities. We can stop in at Metzo Pasta for a take out portion of any type of pasta we want with any type of sauce. Or, I like to venture across the street to the local boulangerie and order a gigantic panini with local cheeses, tomatoes, and lettuce. If we don't have time in between our classes, there's always the corner pizza/panini place that saves many of us from starvation, as it's located between the main school building and our annex classrooms in the next square.
If we have a lot of time between classes we take our food and either eat outside next to a fountain, or down in what we call "the cave." The cave is a room in the basement of our school where students can get on their laptops, eat, hang out, or study (although I've tried to do homework down there, and it's impossible). We all spend a lot of time in the cave because it's a place where we can all meet up...it's other nickname is Little America.
After all of my classes are over, I go home. Now I can go one of two ways: bus or walk.
If it's a nice day I usually try to do the two and a half mile walk home. It takes me forty-five minutes to walk home from school, but usually I don't mind. Sometimes during the walk kids are getting out of school, fountains are running, and old people are sitting on benches having cute little conversations that are way too fast for me to comprehend. At 7pm everyday, Camille comes into my room saying "diner!" We have not had the same meal twice yet. She fixes all sorts of things, and not once has something tasted bad.
If this typical day I'm describing is a Thursday then not too long after dinner Ben and I go back into town to meet up with friends and go out. Since we don't have school on Fridays, Thursdays are fun nights. Starting out, we'll usually go to a bar called O'Shannons (the one our school seems to recommend) or maybe the place across the street, Caeser's. On some nights we'll end up at Sextius, which is a street on the "ring" of Aix. The center of town is basically surrounded by a road that loops around the city. Other nights we'll
go to Castel, the dance club, where we show all the French people what dancing really looks like. Either way, we always seem to end up at the 24 hour diner, where at 3am, all we want is food.
Really, Aix is just a great place to be. Besides having many universities, the city boasts beautiful flower markets and wonderful fresh food markets almost every day. It's really a delight just to walk up and down the streets of the town. Almost everyday I remind myself of how fortunate I am to be in such a great place. The towns big enough that I can still get lost, but small enough that people start to recognize you. I wish all of you could see it.
A bientôt!
Libby
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