i am SO excited right now. as i sit here, watching the final moments of the movie Young Victoria about the early life and reign of England's Queen Victoria and the Mother of Europe while simultaneously playing the highly addictive Words with Friends App on my Itouch .. I am dying from the smell of dinner cooking in the kitchen making its way into my room. both my host parents are from Morocco, Casablanca to be exact and she has been dying to make us couscous all semester. tonights the night! Alex and I have been looking forward to it since last week!
Cousous is a grain from the wheat plant called -semolina- made from crushed durum wheat. It is a staple of many North African countries, it tastes a bit like nutty pasta. It's about the size of a large grain of sand. Its served with spices, meats, vegetables and it is AMAZING. Ive only had it once when a friend I made here took me out to dinner. Their son and his daughter Carla, whom they absolutely adore and fawn over, will be joining us and I am just so sad to think this is one of our last meals. Bonjour reality, thank you for hitting.
The last few days have been quite spectacular. Trying to enjoy it all, soak it all in and not have any worries. I feel like I have done a pretty good job! I specifically did not make any travel plans for the last weekends in May that I have here-- because I will be traveling for 10 days after finals before leaving from London and that was such a good decision as I have really enjoyed the quiet days here in Aix. On Friday my economics professor made us all come in at 1 so that we could have our last class-- as she would be in Canada and unable to attend our official last day on Monday. You can imagine ALL of our excitement. Especially given that the weather on Friday was absolutely to die for and even more so given that we all had a wonderfully adventurous and quite unforgettable (by some definitions) Thursday evening. It was possibly one of the most painful and annoyingly long afternoons I have ever spent. There is nothing worse than being cooped up inside when all you really want to do is frolick in the sunshine. but alas, c'est la vie.
We stayed in Friday night as a bunch of friends and I decided to catch the early, and I mean EARLY bus to the beach. 7:50 to be exact. We decided to go back to our favorite little port town of Cassis. It is just north of Marseille but MUCH more beautiful. It is dotted with calanques,
which I hiked back in March. This time, we were feeling less adventurous and more in the mood to soak up the sunshine and final days with our pal the Med Sea. Unable to break tradition, we each bought a bottle of rosé, a baguette, some salami and of course -- our favorite cheeses-- brie and this garlic/herb cream cheese. I dont think you can spell perfection in any other way. We got there around 11. There was actually quite a large group of us-- but half decided to hike up the calanques before grabbing some beach time-- so it was just the girls- my friends Morgan, Libby and Sarah and Sarah's friend Leslie who is visiting from Madrid. When we first got there it was quite chilly and windy and a little cloudy. Nonetheless, we were determined to spend the day in the sand, sleeping, chatting and continuing the dream life. Libby brought her Tales of Beedle the Bard book (a small collection of stories JK Rowling released after the HP series ended) and she read aloud while we all listened intently. before I knew it, I was sound asleep to the precious story and the sound of the waves crashing on shore. the only that that disturbed me was the occasional sandstorm (quick reference to the
USC football season theme song) whipping across the beach. Content and blissful yet stupidly .. none of us paused a moment during our day of relaxation to put on sunscreen-- mainly because the cloud cover and wind were so strong we didnt think we needed to. WRONG. whatever, im tan and Im happy ( reference to the Family Guy episode where Stewie gets super tan) .. exhausted, crispy and a little tipsy from all the wine and sun - we made our way back to Aix. I had a delicious dinner with the fam and we watched this variety-esque show where they had overly dramatic French magicians, amazing acrobats and people with all crazy talents (unicycle riding girls?) it was great fun, but I had an
early night (which means I went to bed before 2)
Sunday was equally as French and delightful. Every weekend there is a market of various items that they sell in the street. Markets are such a popular concept here in Europe and Ive been to around about 230 in all countries. They are great fun!! They have such interesting, fun, homemade, things and Ive acquired some gems along the way (can't mention them here as they will turn into souvenirs for the folks back home) the Aix market has to be my favorite though. Every day there is a fresh produce market and honestly -- I dont know how I am going to go home and shop at Publix and BiLo when I have been spoiled with non genitically modified or pesticide overdosed produce.. Anyways, the shopping market is so fun and I ventured down with my friend Kat and soon we ran into practically every one from school-- all doing the same thing-- snagging up some last minute souvies! Its always so nice to walk in and around the stalls, smelling the fresh soaps and chatting with the locals. A lot of the merchants speak English- or atleast try to when they hear us-- disproving the notion that the French are uppity and disproving of all cultures/languages besides their own.
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| My friend Sarah and I in front of our work |
i feel like my whole experience here has been one contradiction to everything that I had heard previously. the french DO shower, and quite frequently.. the LOVE foreigners, especially Americans. Yes they respect/prefer for you to speak French.. but do we as Americans not get equally as frustrated when we have to deal with someone who only speaks Spanish in our country.. they do enjoy their berets and there are bakeries on every corner. cheese is smelly, but there are SO many types and theyre delicious (well the ones ive been brave enough to try).. every French person walks around with a baguette under their arm and they are HUGE wineos! infact, the French are not the largest exporter of wine, but they are the largest consumer and producer. The reason they are not the largest exporter (second to Spain and Italy) is because they keep a certain percentage for themselves. Thats why French wine is so elusive, expensive and the best. i could probably and should actually write an entire blog about wine and what Ive learned. Cause it is so interesting.
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| I painted the big blue tree and the littler tree on the right |
Last night was quite special. I have been taking an art class all semester that has certainly given me some grief (daily sketches I was supposed to do .. the45 minute walk to school .. the bogus artsy fartsy commentary they spoonfed us and the fact that i really dont know how to paint) .. but it was one of the coolest and culturally interesting things I have done and I am so glad I chose to take this course.. how many times can one say .. I took a painting class in the South of France.. well I can say it exactly one time. To celebrate the end of the semester, Marchutz, the art school, hosted an exposition of all our work this semester. Besides my one class of 24 students, there is a full time group of students who take art everyday-- theyre exactly the quirky, eclectic and talented students you would expect and their work is AMAZING. one of the students paintings was actually bought by a member of the community. everyone was invited to hike all the way to the literal outskirts of town and come to the open bar for snacks and culture and walk around and admire the students work. Much like the picnic we had the other niight, a lot of students families did not come. mine did and they absolutely loved
we stayed for a while, mingling with familes and friends who had come all the way out for this really cool evening! after the majority of people left, my friends and I stayed and they had pizza, music and a dance party in the moonlight. it was so much fun and I got to hang out with a lot of people I had never really talked to before for various reasons but some of them I just did not have the greatest impressions of
I love it when that happens. Meeting new people is obviously a favorite pasttime of mine, but lately I have really enjoyed getting to know other people in my program who I really had not interacted with much. To be honest, two girls just really gave me a bad vibe and we never really interacted. One of them, Amelia, is from Brooklyn and is very self assured and while she is super nice, we just had never talked before. But at the market on Sunday we ran into her and ended up going together to the park to soak up some more sunshine (not that I needed any) it was just the two of us after a while and we had such a great time swapping stories and just watching people in the park. Turns out we have a lot in common and though we are VERY different we got along great. She had some really nice things to say about me-- things that she just got based off impressions and the conversation we had that day and its experiences like that that just make me smile... getting to know someone with real conversation, especially when they turn out to be different than you originally thought. on the opposite hand, I HATE realizing that someone you thought you knew really well starts to show personality traits that make you want to bang your head against the wall .. such as getting caught up in petty girl drama, talking SOLELY about themselves, telling you every boy that whistled, hollered or hit on them, interrupting your stories .. etc... we all know people like this .. and with one week left, I am choosing the high road and learning that there are some people who you do not need to be around all the time. Those types of friends are great for acting as demonstrations as exactly the friend that you do not want to be .. so really you have to thank them ..
well .. dinner is finally ready!
bisous!
