Monday January 28, 2008
My online journal finally begins!
Most of you know that I had some bad luck in Vienna when I took a bathroom break on the train and came back to find my bag (the one that had my computer inside) stolen. So the journal I had been writing up until then is gone, and since then I have been journaling by hand. That is why there has been nothing online so far! It would be much too expensive to keep up at internet cafes all the time, especially with all the emails I get, which I love to read.
I just arrived in Aix-en-Provence on Saturday the 19th, and mom sent me my old laptop which I got today, so now IÕm able to keep up with this journal almost daily.
After five weeks of travel I finally arrived in Aix-en-Provence for my study abroad. This is what I have journaled by hand and instead of typing it all out again, I will share in person when I get back home with anyone who wants to know about those adventuresome first weeks. In December I had spent a week in Paris with my mom, then we met my dad and sister in Munich. From there, we traveled by train to Rome, then Florence, then we visited Pompeii and Italian countryside. Then we spent two days in Athens, and from there they went back home and I continued onto Vienna by myself. Then I spent a day in Venice, and then I spent the last week recuperating from it all in Oxford, England. But I still had to finally make it to Aix-en-Provence, and after my nice week in the nice small (and English-speaking) town, it was hard to leave like I can't even tell you. I had to take a train to London, a bus to Paris, and then a train to Aix-en-Provence, then a bus into town, and finally I waited at the station for my host family. I was tired. I needed a shower. I didnÕt want to meet new people.
But it ended up being only one new person. Her name is Colette Faggilini, and she lives by herself outside of town. She picked me up. ÒIs this all you have?Ó she asked when she saw my backpack. SheÕd hosted a few other girls in the past and apparently they had brought much more. (I suppose I DID have more, but it is still with someone in Austria now!) Her English is perfect. She can say ÒhelloÓ ÒbyebyeÓ ÒgoodÓ "thank you very much" and ÒOh my God!Ó perfectly. But that is it. So since I arrived, I have been completely reliant on my French and IÕve gotten much better at it in just a week and a half...a learning curve will slow the improvement down, but right now itÕs fun to witness improvement so quickly.
I already feel really at home here. Collette takes such good care of me. She makes a delicious meal every night. SheÕs half Italian half French and trs fire (very proud) of both. It shows in her cooking. She told me that her last students tended to gain about four kilos each (which is about ten pounds). I believe that after tasting her cooking! But the other great thing is that she lives right near a beautiful park (with waterfalls and bridges...) where I go running every day. Hopefully I can slow down those kilos.
Colette also loves politics and celebrities. Both of which IÕm not very good at and never cared for. But IÕm learning a lot. Actually, I hope that I never know a lot about celebrities. But because she loves to talk about politics, IÕm learning a lot about world relations, current events, French politics, even American politics (because she follows American politics very closely too). She always has talk radio on, so while I learn some French I also learn world events.
On top of that, sheÕs teaching me Italian. She teaches me a new word or phrase every day. And sheÕs a sewer, too, and has been teaching me a little bit of that also. She lets me watch her cook, too, but she likes to do it herself so I donÕt help, I only learn by watching.
The school itself is good, too. ItÕs right in the middle of the centre-ville, which is the old part of town. Our classes are in really old buildings, some of them are even in the cathedral. TheyÕre very strict about students missing class, and your grade can drop a letter grade after missing only one or two. This is especially frustrating because the classes are very easy, and if one keeps up with the reading, it would be okay to miss a class or two, which is not the case at U of I (which is why I canÕt and donÕt miss class at U of I). I would have the opportunity to do it here, and probably for a good reason like having family visit or seeing other parts of France.
In my history class, we were studying the geography of the area and learned that Provence is almost three times as sunny as the rest of France. And indeed itÕs beautiful here. And itÕs surrounded by the coast and by mountains. I'm so glad I chose Provence in which to study.
I am taking an art class here, and the studio is outside of town. ItÕs about a thirty minute walk, but itÕs nice and quiet and hidden in some trees. ThereÕs a view of the town from up there, too. ItÕs surrounded by windows so you can see the beautiful outside...I really like being there. On the first day of class, we had a nude model to draw. That was indeed a surprise.
In my education class, we are going to be teaching English to elementary French students. ThatÕs going to start in the middle of February because we have to prepare first. And since I've never taught a class before...and since I've barely even babysat in my life, I'm a little bit nervous about this, but thatÕs partly why I picked that class. For me, the study abroad experience is mostly for doing things that arenÕt exactly comfortable or normal and that give you a chance to learn a lot about yourself.
On Sunday we visted Mt. St-Victoire. It was an excursion that anyone in the school is free to try if they like. I've been able to see the mountain from where I live with Colette...it's a big rocky cliffside that changes colors throughout the day. When we got to see it up-close today it was even better. Paul CŽzanne painted that mountain 88 times and there is not a person in Aix-en-Provence that you can meet that is tired of telling you that.
The hike began with a girl Caitlyn who lives by me on the outskirts of Aix and her friend, Bradie. We made a point to take the most fun paths up through the park as possible. We avoided the main pedestrian almost 'road' and took the little paths in between whenever we could. There are paths everywhere and there were so many French people running all over them! When we got to the top of the first little hill, we could see all kinds of people running and walking in all directions around us. We were in a field. And we walked a little farther to a little cliff to sit on to eat our lunches we packed. We talked for a while and Bradie sounds like such an interesting person to get to know. She tells the funniest stories. And she's really fun, too. During the rest of the hike we ran around finding more of these fun paths closer and closer to the mountain. At one point we ran into two other students from our class, Andy and Matt, who were doing the same thing. The five of us climbed over rocks, through little caves, under crevices. I think we had the most fun of any of the students who went. At one point we found ourselves stuck on top of a rock trying to figure out how to get back down and we found a rope that was there to lower ourselves, suggesting people do this a lot. We found more of those, and then we found ourselves a miniature summit to reach, because in the four hours we had at Mt. St-Victoire there was no way we would have made it to the top and back that afternoon. So we climbed to the little summit, and when we finally reached it, one of the boys cracked open a miniature bottle of wine that his host mom had packed him for lunch, and we had a sip for our victory. We could see forever from up there and we weren't even at the top of the real mountain. We loved it there, but we wanted nothing more than to come back as soon as possible and stay for the day so we could climb the real mountain.
More soon.
-Pam
