Buona Pasqua (Happy Easter in Italian)

So its raining in Florence right now, we have some awesome internet access and we pretty much saw all of the city (besides a buch of museums which we really dont feel like paying 6 or more euros to enter) so Im going to take this opportunity to truly update my blog.

Overally France has been getting better and better. I can feel my language skills improving (thought not nearly as fast as I thopught they would originally...) I feel like I am actually meeting more French people and on top of that the weather is getting gorgeous! The trees are starting to fully bloom in flowers of all colors and most of the trees are starting to get leaves as well. It is a stunning mix of bright yellow, white, green, blue and pink. France actually has the spring-time I have been without my entire life! As much as you may say Wisconsin has a spring it doesnt. It goes directly from winter to summer with maybe a couple weeks of arguebly springish weather. Aix has that very comfortable temperature hovering just around skirt-weather when the grass really starts to get that light green color so representative of spring. Ok maybe im over-romanticing the city a bit and setting it above my Wisconsin memories in my mind at the moment but it really is beautiful.

I started volunteering at a day-care here (the french do daycare a bit differently as it is all run by the state) and the kids are so cute! What I originally thought I would be doing is tutoring middle school kids with their english homework and from there that morphed into teaching an american culture class to a group of middle schoolers and that morphed into playing with 2-5 year olds and trying to weave a few english words and american culture. I love it! For my first week I took a small group of kids into another room and told them to draw a fruit and then I would tell them the name of the fruit in english. However at that age they dont have too much patience for that kind of thing so they ended up all over me playing with my hair and asking me to read them a book. I successfully taught them one word however: to tickle (in french it is gilli gilli). They loved it! I wouldnt tickle them unless they said the english word so they learned it pretty fast and soon I had a group of 4 and 5 year olds surrounding me screaming tickle tickle tickle! So cute! I left that day in such a good mood because I had missed playing with little kids so much. When I returned the following week the first thing one of the little girls said to me was tickle tickle! She especially has a great memory for english. I am so surprised! I can tell her a word once and she will remember it when I ask for it again a little later and she is only 4! So my second time I went a little early because the group was going on a field trip to a park and a planetarium. We took the city bus which was very interesting with a group of 27 little pre-schoolers but it was fine. We arrived at the park and started playing. Yes, I had about 20 preschoolers chasing after me trying to catch me. After quite a bit of chase I got way too tired so I sat down on the grass and just talked to a few of the littler ones. I must have gotten nearly 100 flowers shoved in my hands (pour toi!- for you!) I put some in my hair and some in my jacket button holes but they all fell out eventually. Then we went to the planetarium where a lady talked about the solarsystem and the constelations. They all listened very well I was so surprised! Well, all except one little boy. It was his first day without a nap and I was attempting to keep him awake to listen to the talk but he was just far too tired so I let him sleep in my arms for a while. However, when we moved from the classroom style room into the true planitarium he woke up and stayed completly awake despite it being so dark. While waiting for the bus that would take us back to the center the kids were getting restless so I sang them a few songs like "row row row your boat" "if you want to be a badger" and the ABCs. Their favorite however was "head shoulders knees and toes" which they had me sing time and time again progressively faster motions and everything in plain view of everyone... oh well :) Im so sad I was only able to start volunteering there so late in the semester but everything in France moves so slowly. It is both nice and annoying at the same time. I live with it however because there is nothing else I can do. For example we only just got our official "you are a legal temporary french immigrant" a few weeks ago-- almost half way through our stay.

What else... as you can see from my pictures I went to Paris for a weekend with Jess. It wasnt too much of a cultural experience as Ive been there before and we didnt come across too many French as Jess couldnt exactly talk to them. We saw basically everything. We went on a free tour throughout the city (the same one I took a month ago so I knew all the answers to the questions) I am a little upset by the conflicting information I have been getting from that tour and my france history/culture class however. There were a few things that wernt completly correct but I guess he got the main message across. I realized that weekend though how much I actually have learned in my french history/culture class because (as Jess can testify) I told her so much about the different periods, the different governments and the buildings. Sorry but when I come back Ill probably talk your ears off about it too hehe. I saw a few things for the first time like the Basillica of St. Dennis, the moulin rouge, sacre coeur (which was my favorite church for a very short time until I arrive in Florence), up the arc de triomphe and parts of the Louvre. So first time in the montmartre area and I fell in love. It really is true what our tour guide said earlier that day: Montmarter is the real Paris. Its the only part of Paris that wasnt re-done during Napolean and Haussmann so it has the small windy streets with so much culture. It reminded me so much of Aix and im not going to lie made me a little homesick for my beautiful city :) Sacre coeur is too hard to give justice through words however. It is a giant completly white church in such a different style than most of the gothic churches throughout France. It has a really pretty mosic and is just gorgeous. Im so glad we went up the Arc de Triomphe at night as well. The view of the Eiffel Tower sparkling was incredible! We saw it from 5 places around the city: by the tulleries gardens, underneath it, sacre coeur, on the arc de triomphe and from the metro. LOVE IT! This city truly is the city of lights and seeing it sparkling in the Seine river is even more gorgeous. As much as I love Paris however it truly is a place to visit and I am so glad I choose Aix to study in instead of Paris.

I also joined a soccer team a fact some of you will find extremly surprising, but it is so much fun! Despite the fact that I have not played organized soccer since 6th grade my skill level isn't too far below the average. I'm not technically a part of the team since im only here for a semester but I'm practicing with them every monday for an hour and a half. The number of girls there changes from week to week but they are all really nice and try to include everyone. The rules of the game are a bit different because it is played inside but im starting to get the hang of it. the hardest rule has been the fact that we are not allowed to talk at all no "good job" no "pass over here" I really wish we could talk though because I feel it would be easier to get the know the girls if I can use soccer terms during the game. At my first practice one of the girls fainted because she hadn't eaten breakfast long enough ago. It was really scary and the pompiers (mix between firemen and paramedics) came to make sure she was ok. The french tend to call the ambulance more than americans because it doesn't cost them anything as opposed to our really high costs (thanks to their universal health care). Apart from that team though I have also been going to play pick-up-soccer in the park with a few freinds and that is so much fun! I only really go when one of my other girl friends can go because I dont want to be the only girl but even then its a little weird. Some of the guys playing are really competative and some arn't so much. All of them though seem to get scared playing around girls which is hilarious. I guess its just not normal for them because they keep on appologizing when they so much as slightly bump us. I can deal with that (although annoying) but I can't stand when they get overly excited and congratulate me whenever I make any sort of play. I know I'm not that good... i dont pretend to be but dont make me feel worse by making it seem like such a big deal. Ah well... I love playing with them because its so easy to meet them and start up a bit o0f a conversation. The last time I played our teams goalie was constantly texting and let a bunch of goals by because of it. I started teasing him about it telling him that his phone was awful at saving goals. He told me te was texting his fiance and that she would kill him if he stopped texting for a while. Jeez... some of these french girls. Continuing with the soccer theme Zidane is in town!!!! One of my friends saw him come out of the town hall because he is working with thye city to build a new soccer stadium. I really want to see him!!!! He is still after 4 years of being retired a HUGE celebrity everywhere in france.

Onto spring break! Theres so much more to say about france but I dont have enough time to type it all (nor will i put you through the bordom of reading it) so spring break... I am traveling to Florence, Venice, Rome/the Vatican, Seville and Barcelona in 2 weeks with my friend Erin. We left Thursday night on the overnight bus to Florence and well... thats an experience I want to forget. The seats were tiny, the bus was either far too hot or too cold (depending on where you were sitting-- I was too cold) and because of those two things I couldn't really sleep at all. I think I slept a bit but most of it was spent staring out of the window into the dark listening to music. Because I was awake however I saw the mediterranean by moonlight and noticed the sign that told us we were entering ITALY!!!!!! Finding our hostel from the train staton was no problem whatsoever and we went out right away for breakfast at a cute little cafeteria down the street where we had one really good pastry. That first day we took a walking tour of the city on which we saw Dantes house, San Lorenzo, the Duomo, multiple sculptures and other cool sites. The Duomo is officially my favorite church (sorr Sacre Coeur). I wish I could post a picture of it but they wont let me download pictures on this computer so I can't. Look it up though... it is gorgeous! On the tour we tried gelato... I am now in love with true Italian Gelato... YUM!!!! I had chocolate that first time and then when we got it again the next day I tried strawberry and cheesecake (All AMAZING!) Sorry culvers frozen custard, sorry Babcock icecream I still love you both but have found heaven in the form of a little bowl of deliciousness. An apple a day may keep the doctor away but a bowl of gelato every day will keep me happy indefinitly! The next day we went to the Uffizi galleries early in the morning where I actually recognized a few paintings (quite a feat for me). The birth of venus, Piero della Francesca, a few Madonas and the portrait of Martin Luther King to name a few. There were two Da Vincis as well... I think he is fast becoming my favorite painter not necessarily just for his works of art but for who he was as a person. His attention to the detail of anatomy of the human body is facinating and the fact that he discected bodies despite it being illegal at the time is awesome. We didn't take an organized tour but I had downloaded some podcasts for my ipod by Rick Steves and he gives a very good tour of the museum. We saw quite a few other things as well.

Easter in Florence was amazing though! We got up pretty early and went to find the easter celebrations. We knew there were two parades which started at different sites in the city at 9 but we didn't know where. We did know however that they both ended at the Duomo so that was where we set out first. When we arrived at the Duomo we heard drums playing down the street at a different plaza so we went to investigate. There were about 30 drummers playing for about 25 flag throwers. All of them were wearing very brightly colord renaissance costumes which included tights. Seeing them made me miss colorguard. Their flags were not the same (smaller portion without a flag) but they had a lot of the same throws. They were really good! They threw the flagts across the group so many times and I didn't see one of them drop a single flag. After watching them a while we met up with one of Erin's friends who is studying in Florence for the semester and staked out a spot at the duomo to watch the main event: the Scoppio del Carro or the explosion of the cart. We got there an hour and a half before 11 when the actual "explosion" takes place and there were already a bunch of people. We got a pretty good spot though and there were cool things to see pretty much the whole time we were there. The two parades arrived (one carrying coals lit with flint aquired from one of the crusades and the other with the wagon). The ceremony dates back to the middle ages (the history is really interesting but ill let you look it up yourself if you want to) and the cart is basically the same one as they used back then. Two white oxen with flowers around their necks pulled the two story cart into the square and the people set to work. There were so many fireworks on that cart I was sure it was going up in flames. A priest came around sprinkling everyone with holy water and other people dressed in renaissance costumes threw olive branches and flowers into the crowd. Nothing could have prepared me though for what hapened at 11. A mechanical dove soared out through the doors of the church (lit by a priest by the alter) and set off a chain reaction of fireworks and colored smoke which lasted at least 15 minutes. It was awesome. They know how to celebrate easter here! Aparently easter is traditionally the start of the new year in this part of Italy so it is their biggest holiday of the year. After the cart the mass of people was crazy. One of friends of Erin's friend (he's from WI) summed it up perfectly: "this reminds me of State street at Freakfest" yep... quite a different situation though. After we made it through the croud of people Erin and I went to mass in the Duomo (one of the largest Catholic buildings in the world). After that we ate some amazing pizza at a restaurant and came back to the hostel because it had started pouring. Overall however Easter in Florence=great!

Well, we are off to Venice tomorrow. Thats the city I'm looking forward to the most so I hope its not too touristy! I dont think Ill have internet access there however so until next time!

Happy Easter everyone!