I was originally supposed to go to La Ciotat on Friday as a study tour, but unfortunately there were huge storms this weekend, so the trip was canceled. It's interesting because Aix is in a region of the world where it is literally sunny at least 300 out of the 365 days in a year, and it just so happened that this weekend (which was jam-packed full of excursions) was also jam-packed full of rain. However, they didn't tell us the trip was canceled until literally 3 minutes before we were supposed to meet, by mass email! I was a bit disappointed, but I saw my friend Natalie, and one of the people who work for IAU College, Yamina (? spelling) invited a group of us to have coffee with her at a nearby café. She also bought us these giant croissants, which was so sweet of her! Natalie and I ended up making a day out of it by visiting shops and walking around. We also took some pictures!
That night, the other girls all went to a fancy restaurant, but it was raining pretty hard so Natalie and I didn't go. We invited the boys to go to La Boca Loca, which turned out to be a non-chain French version of Chipotle. They had a menu, and you just told them what you wanted in it instead of pointing to it at a window. I ordered completely in French, and the workers all understood me! It's pretty awesome that I can get by on the little French that I know. It's really awesome practice, and I love it! And it's funny because a lot of the kids in my CEA group have started asking me how to say things in French, but honestly language has always been very intuitive for me, so it's a little hard to explain how communication works in my head. It's a lot of, If I don't know how to say what I want to say, I'll say something close to it, and use a lot of pointing and gestures. Hahaha.
(Also, I wanted to add that La Boca Loca had Mexican and American flags in their restaurant, and they also had Duff beer... which apparently is a Simpson's thing! It exists!)
Duff beer, and me modeling the La Boca Loca burrito
Steven, me, Brett, Natalie, and Trevor! The French people who took a picture for us also snuck in a selfie...
Anyway, Saturday I went to Monaco, and Natalie and I got separated from the group so we just walked around doing some sight-seeing and taking some goofy pics. Monaco was really beautiful! We first visited the Cathédrale and Palais (palace of the Prince and Princess), and there was also a garden. In the afternoon, we visited the Monte Carlo casino and walked around the Japanese Garden. Here are some highlights!
Some of the girls on our trip
Monaco!!!
Inside the church
The view on the way
Japanese garden! Le Jardin Japonais
Zen garden :D
Me and some koi
On Sunday, I went to Arles and Saintes Maries de la Mer. I saw the Arena (where gladiators fought), and the amphitheater. I also briefly stopped by the Café de la Nuit, which apparently was painted by Vincent Van Gogh? I'm actually not sure on the history of that, but it's also called the Van Gogh café.
Then we went to Saintes Maries de la Mer and saw part of a church (église), and also, it was our first beach day! On the way back, we stopped to take pictures of flamingos.
The Arena (Les Arènes)
Me sneaking around in the arena
Me being goofy on the stage of the amphitheater
More of the theater
The Van Gogh Café
Church at Saintes Maries
The beach! (La plage)
Flamingos!
Something I've been worried about is how much French I'm speaking. Most of the students I've interacted with are American, and all of the CEA students don't really speak French. I'm sooo thankful that I live with Marie-Claude and Lucie because otherwise I would never speak French, and one of my biggest goals was to improve my French speaking skills. The other day, after I got back from Monaco, I was pretty tired so I felt sorta loopy, and Marie-Claude was like, I can tell you've been speaking a lot of English today. And I was like, OH NO. Because it was true--I spent the entire day with CEA students and we don't speak French to each other at all. So the day after, I met some students from a different program who had signed a promise saying they would only speak French in France, so I got to practice some more French with a girl named Anne (who actually goes to Princeton! So that was cool).
I'm really going to try and speak French as much as possible, and that might mean that I don't get to hang out with the CEA kids as much, which makes me feel kind of conflicted. They are really the nicest people, and so accepting! I am very lucky to be with the people I am with on this trip. Everyone (well, most, because I've met some snooty American students) has been so kind and awesome. I came for my education, though, of French language and culture, so I think I've really got to put that first instead of doing other things.
Anyway, à bientôt! À tout à l'heure!
-Cindy
