France, Part 17- The Move to Aix-en-Provence

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Note: All the events in this entry occurred back in mid January 2007. For more updated trips and entries, please refer back to this blog at a later date. Updated trips and entries will NOT include a note like this. Thanks and enjoy!


January 17, 2007- I was finishing up all the packing I needed to do in order to move from Dijon to Aix-en-Provence in order to enroll in a different foreign exchange program. I had been planning this for two months now because I learned in November 2006 that I would not be able to enroll at the Universite de Bourgogne (University of Burgundy) during the Spring semester as I had anticipated. If I really wanted to, I would have had to enroll for the Fall 2007 semester and stay for a year! There was no way that my visa and carte de sejour application status as well as my graduation calender towards completing my bachelors' degree programs back home would allow me to stay longer. At first I thought I had two choices: stay in Dijon and finish the year at CIEF or go back home to FL and then go back to my university located in SC to enroll for the Spring semester. I knew that going home would create problems because I would only have a few days to recover from jetlag and for my family and I to move all my things back into a dorm. It was also getting too late to register for Spring semester classes back home and also to apply for housing with the Resident Life office. All of this made me feel apprehensive and seriously considering the idea of staying longer in Europe. However, where would I go and how? At first mom and I began to research study abroad programs in Spain because of my strong Spanish language skills might be able to get me into a university program. Unfortunately, all the programs we found were for language intensive and not for university exchange programs to take non-language courses. We also weren't sure as to how I could solidify my immigration status in Spain and how I would be able to apply for a visa in France, especially since I was still waiting to receive my carte de sejour or residency card. Finally, mom calls me back and says that she found a program through American Students Abroad (ASA) which worked with Institute for American Universities (IAU) in Aix-en-Provence, France. It was not ideal because as a student in this program I would be studying through an institute distinctly designed for American university students abroad and not at a French university like I had hoped, however there was the promise that I could take courses at least in my political science major there. I called up the Study Abroad Coordinator at my school, and told her that I was interested in switching to this program. She showed her solidarity with my decision by contacting ASA herself to help me sign up. We also worked virtually with curriculum officials at my university back home as well as my professors to help make sure and coordinate an effective transfer of my future course work in Aix-en-Provence. By January 10, 2007 preparations for my move were pretty much arranged and completed: I was enrolled into 12 credit hours worth of classes and knew my schedule, a host family had been found for me, and I had purchased my train tickets. By January 17, all I had to do was pack up my things and set my alarm.

January 18, 2007- I get up, grab my bags and prepare to leave. Unfortunately I am delayed because during my check out procedure from Le Residence Internationale des Etudients (International Students Residence Hall) I was forced to go back up and clean up the dorm, which I was not informed about ahead of time. This made me 2 hours late to the train station, causing me to miss my train! I therefore had no choice but to purchase a second ticket and wait for the next train to come!

I ended up leaving closer to noon GMT rather than 10 AM GMT as I had hoped. I had no choice but to call my new host-mother, Camille, who was planning to meet me at the train station in Aix-en-Provence, to let her know that I would be late. I took a TGV train which had a conection in the Lyon Part-Deux station to Aix-en-Provence. I finally arrived in Aix-en-Provence around 4 PM GMT. I was turned around at first when I got off at my platform-I knew not how to get down to the main entrance of the train station, however Camille found me and showed me to her car. When we arrived to her apartment, she showed me my room, explained house rules and also what time and where orientation would be. After putting my luggage in my room, Camille and I went into her car to Aix's centre-ville, where we met up with another host mother with another American who was involved in the IAU program as well. Both women showed us where the institute was located and the easiest way to get there. After parting ways with the other American and host mother, Camille and I headed back to the car, where she showed me how to buy bus tickets and which bus to take in order to get home. She also told me which stop and how to pick up the bus from her apartment complex. We then headed home, where we spent the rest of the night sharing stories about one another.

Camille has quite an interesting yet tragic life story-she was born in Saigon, Vietnam when it was still a French colony. Her family was wealthy, and living in a plantation, however at the end of the war they were forced to leave their home and move to a crowded, one room apartment in Paris. Her parents were now poor and she remembers going to bed hungry a lot. She lived in Paris for 25-30 years I think, partially because she had no other choice but also because of her husband. She and her husband were happily married with an adopted son, however she lost him mysteriously at the age of 30 because of a strange illness. This loss hit her hard, and drew her closer to her son but also made her wish to move. She spent 15-20 years living in Marseilles, where she worked for a company and then eventually moved to Aix-en-Provence because she found Marseilles to be a difficult place to live. She used to be fluent in English because she often traveled to study in the UK and in the US, however she hadn't used it in years, therefore she was strictly monolingual. "If you ever need any help or explanations regarding life here in Aix, in general in France, with your language homework, just anything, Danielle, please let me know." From that moment forward she kept to her word I will admit. She treated me like her granddaughter which I appreciated, and served as my main support system during my adjustment period to live in Aix. In effect, I feel that she helped to save for me emotionally my study abroad experience in France because she was willing to help me adjust and learn from my time there, even help me plan travels to other countries in Europe, and for that I am ever greatful to her.

January 19, 2007- I begin orientation at IAU's Centre d'Aix. We have three speakers, who are all individuals who run the program. Apparently Centre d'Aix has existed since the 1950s, 60s, and was designed specifically for American university students studying abroad. The institute's president, who had studied abroad in Paris while he was a student at Harvard, mentions how studying abroad and travel to europe had changed because of airplanes and high speed trains. His wife, who was also a Harvard student at one time, begins to speak about French table and social manners in comparison to American ones, and why this matters in regards to our relationships with our host families. She cautioned us to be patient and tolerant to our French hosts and make sure that we respected their house rules and also took the manner differences seriously. We were also cautioned about French views regarding alcoholism and what it meant in comparison to the US. The French identify an alcoholic as anyone who drinks more than one drink at a time per day. I had already encountered this earlier when I was living with my host-mother back in Dijon. She used to drink 4-5 glasses of cheap red wine a day at dinner and I remember recounting this to my friend's host family (or more info please refer to the "A Day in My Life" entry) and their reaction was "Oh my goodness she's an alcoholic!" Before coming to France, I got the impression that the French would drink wine like water, however such practice is seen as taboo. I would say it's because the French see wine as something that is sacred and an integral part of the meal. You have to drink wine with your meal, because it compliments but also aids in the digestion of your food. But normally you have one glass per course and that's normally at dinner time and for a special occasion. Sometimes you will see French men and women have wine with their lunch, but normally wine is served with one meal during the day. Spirits, like pastis, absenthe, or creme de cassis, is served as an aperitif (before meal) and/or a digestif (after meal) as a tonic. Alcohol in general therefore, is not seen as a party source, a status symbol or a drink my sorrows away drink as it is in the US (however I will note that this is starting to change because more and more people travel abroad and learn about the signifiance of wine and spirits as they travel). However, during orientation the President's wife reiterated the fact (at least for me) that we were to be careful with our alcohol consumption because of the intolerance towards alcoholism.

For the rest of the day older students in the program took the time to show us around centre ville, how to get into the buildings related to the institute, where to find the library and the computer lab and so forth. We were also given the chance to sign up for program wide trips, and also to start the registration process for monthly bus passes. There was a trip in two weeks to Nice, Cannes, St. Paul de Vince and Monaco/Monte Carlo coming up that I decided to sign up for. I then went home to Camille, who fixed for me a lovely dinner of pommes dauphinoise (potatos au gratin) and a green salad. We then watched TV until it was time for me to go to bed.

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