A long-overdue update

Bonjor a tous! Sorry this update took so long, Ive been busy getting to know the city, with our intensive language course and then my computer decided to break. I am now able to get internet although it is very slow and a new hard drive is on the way! However because of that you will all have to wait for pictures... sorry!

So since I last updated so much has happened! The snow melted and we have had a few fairly nice days here! Coats are still a necessity but if the sun is out those are even debatable :) We also started out iteisive French course. They really do try and make it fairly interesting but when you are studying french grammar for 5 to 6 hours a day it can get rather boring! The intensive french course is a 2 week course for which we get two credits. We were split into three groups and have classes at the International Students school which is about a 10 minute walk from my house through the beautiful winding streets. Its an old house so its rather confusing to find the rooms and it is not built for the cold at all so most of the rooms are absolutly freezing but that will get much better once the weather gets nicer! All of the rooms have huge windows that open and would be amazing if there was a slight breeze on a summer day but in just above freezing temperatures it isn't so fun. I have two professors that alternate days: the woman is pretty nice but she gets annoyed when we dont over articulate things. She also keeps telling me that I vary the tone of my voice too much then in her correction she does exactly what she told me not to do. Ah well... Our other teacher is this really cute older man. When we aren't doing grammar with him he loves to talk about languages and how different languages are different (he's a linguist). We have these indepth discussions about the aquisition of language and what is the best way to learn a second or third language... its absolutly facinating! Especially for me! Its really cool when he switches into English to say our names or explain something in English because he has a very thick English accent then. The days may be long but both our professors give us fairly frequent breaks and we usually have a two hour break for lunch.

I guess the food would be a good next topic :) My host grandma's cooking is amazing! She really tries to make very diverse things as well. We have had traditional French, Italian, German, and Austrian dishes as well as from different parts of those countries. Dinner is promptly at 7:30 and I love eating so late! We always have an appetizer (very normal in France) which is anything from a cucumber and tomato salad to three fried jumbo shrimp (and i do actually mean jumbo... they were like 5 inches long) to soup. Then the main course. We had some amazing fish once... that was probably my favorite meal but we have also had chicken, lasagna, pasta, and different types of meats. I also really liked something she made the other night: it was a kind of mashed potatoes but it had a fish taste too. It was so good! I think she said it was a traditional German dish. Then we always have bread with cheese (I love that part of dinner). I'm trying to determine my favorite kind of cheese while I'm here. Ive narrowed it down to goat cheese but there are so many kinds! I really like this kind I bought at the grocery store but I have yet to try out all the cheeses at the market! I suppose I have 6 months so I have pleanty of time! Then for dessert we either have a fruit or an actual dessert. We have had kings cake twice. Thats a traditional cake from all over French-speaking countries but each specific area has different traditions and form the cake takes. The Provencial kings cake is a flat flaky cake with both a figurine and a bean baked inside of it. If you are lucky enough to get the figurine you are the king or queen of the night. If you get the bean you supposidly have to make the cake for the next gathering or for the king/queen (depending on the rules) but I dont think that tradition is closely followed. We also have had a cake with chocolate bits baked inside it and chocolate sauce dripped over the top... oh so good! They also provide me with breakfast which is also really good :) I think my host grandma is the only one of the hosts who makes their "boarders" breakfast. There is always two pieces of toast (for which i have a choice of cheese, nutella, honey or jam), some sort of fruit either whole or in a fruit salad, orange juice and sometimes yogurt. She also always has hot coffee waiting for me. For lunch I either bring food or find one of the stands along the road to eat at. The stands are pretty expensive (although good) so I usually bring lunch. There is one stand though called Pizza Capri which has 2 euro slices of pizza ($3) and they are pretty good! Although they only have "normal pizzas" its comparable to ians pizza for those of you who know what that is. The paninis here are really good too :) Some of the stands also sell crepes which are AMAZING!!!! Nutella, jam, sugar, whatever you put on it you cant go wrong! I found a bakery today that sells pain au chocolate (basically a large croissant with large chunks of chocolate baked inside) for 1 euro... i need to be careful! Aix really is a very expensive city but we're starting to find the places that actually have fairly decent deals. There is a student grocery store called Ed (kinda like Aldys back in the states) where the food is fairly cheap, so thats where I do my shopping. Ive found some instant pasta and rice bags as well as these small bowls with tuna, pasta and vegetables inside. They dont have to be heated up and are actually really good!

Lets see... France is in the middle of their large biannunal sales right now so pretty much everything is 15-70% off. Ive bought a few things but am trying to be fairly conservative! What I really want are a pair of boots but I dont think they make my size :( I'm going to keep looking though... I bought a black bag to use instead of my backpack when i dont bring my computer, a few shirts, a sweater, a skirt and a pair of pants (I think I wrote about some of those things before)

Last weekend a bunch of the program people went on a guided tour to Monaco (the second smallest country in the world- Venice is the smallest) They have the longest ruling family I believe in the world and because of their extremly lax tax laws they are the richest country in the world (per capita of course). It was gorgeous. You're going to have to wait for me to fix my computer to see pictures but the city is built on the Mediterranean coast and the whole area is so pretty! The entire bus ride there my eyes were glued out of the window at the Provencial country side. Words can't describe it... the arcitecture and the landscape. The farm fields and the amazing blue sky. Ah! I love this country! In Monaco we first saw the changing of the guards at the Palace. It was very interesting because they guards were much less formal and "military stick straight not moving" than in United States. The flag was up on the palace so the royal family was in... that was kind of cool. Then we wandered around the old district. It was cool with all its winding roads and tunnels under buildings to other streets. Unfortunatly the cathedral was closed because its their tourist off-season but we found a beautiful little chapel with a mural painted on the ceiling, numerous statues and three relics of saints. We ate lunch there then took the bus down to the lower, more chic part of the city. There we saw the famous casino (where the country gets its revinue) and walked around a bit. We did some window shopping and walked through a few gardens. Then the bus took us to a parfumerie (a place where they make perfume). We got a tour and of course were offered the chance to buy perfume or the other products they sold there. On our way back we drove through Niece and along the boardwalk along the Mediterranean. That is a gorgeous city as well and I cant wait for our program trip there. That whole trip only cost 25 euros (29 if you count lunch)!

On sunday I tried out a church thats about a 5 minute walk from my house. I looked online for a protestant church and ended up finding an amazing presbyterian church. The building used to be a synogogue and they still have two menorahs by the door to symbolize that. Its a fairly small church and it really seems like everyone knows each other. I was immediatly struck by the pastor... he is very easy to understand and easy going. He made a few jokes (that i actually understood!) during the service and overall seemed like a very personable man! I later found out when talking to the couple I live with that he and his wife are our neighbors! They're going to introduce me to them when they get the chance.

I love how everything in this part of the country is done slower. Everyone eats slower, walks slower, talks slower. At the begining I really had to remind myself to do things slower but now it has become second nature. Everything is so laid back and I love it! There have been many times these past two weeks where our classroom has been double booked. If that happened in America people would freak out over it but the professor calmly goes and finds another open room. I'm really starting to just take things as they come. My computer is broken? Eh who cares it will get fixed eventually. The lack of stress has been amazing! (Especially after the extreme stress of last semester!)

I chose my classes the other day. We are supposed to pick way too many then drop down to a normal class load. As of right now I'm signed up for: a french writing class (required), Language culture and society, history of religion in France, language and the brain, Creole literature and culture, history of education, comparative literature: myths, sociology of literature and lecture, theories of the science of language, and Anthropology of Provence. Overall that comes to 32 credits so there is no way Im taking that many! I'm going to go to nearly all of them the first two weeks then drop the ones I dont think will work out. The first few on that list are the ones I really want to take and if my schedule works out the way Ive planned it my weekend officially commenses at 10:30am on thursday morning :)

So I guess overall I love it here! The city is gorgeous, my host family is amazing, the other people here are so nice, the food is so good and I love the whole mentality of life!

As soon as I fix my computer I'll post more pictures I promise!!!

I miss you all!

Bre