So sometimes I think about writing my entire blog post in French. I could probably definitely do that now. It's actually really difficult to wrap my head around writing in English. As I feel my French improving, I can feel my English worsening... Hahaha. I think the hard part is that they use the same alphabet! When I'm writing my art history paper in English, sometimes I'll look at two vowels next to each other and think, "Wait, that's not right. There needs to be a contraction..." because usually if there are two values in between two French words here, you need to link them--example: Je + imagine (I imagine) = J'imagine. And actually, I've been kind of forgetting English words... like I'll be writing in English and I'll forget the English version but I'll think of the French version (which often is just a more sophisticated version of the English word). Like if I want to use the word only, the word for only in English is "seulement" (pronounced sull-mon, roughly), so then I'll say "solely" because that feels more natural than "only." So then I end up sounding quite pretentious.
Also, good news! After we complained, my art history teacher changed our art history paper to 15 pages. Quality over quantity ;)
Anyway, this week, I went to a cheese tasting on Monday! I had 8 different kinds of cheese, including the stinky ones! In Provence, we're pretty known for our goat and sheep cheeses. There are over 400 different kinds of cheeses in France, and 48 cheeses are officially approved under the AOC/AOP (Appellation d'origine controlée). We had cow cheese, sheep cheese, and goat cheese. Cheeses taste different according to their age. Most of the cheese in France is unpasteurized, because apparently the older the cheese, the better. We had the following:
- Camembert de Normandie (Marie-Claude and I have this almost every day, it's like a better Brie)
- Comté (we had this cheese at the wine tasting I went to--it's hard and quite salty and VERY expensive)
- Ossau-Iraty (one of my favorites! It's a sheep cheese)
- Roblochon (Marie-Claude and I have been eating this one for the past week or so)
- Fourme d'Ambert (this is a blue/green cheese fermented with penicillin for >28 days, so it's very strong... I ended up eating it with bread and confiture (jam) to hide the taste! The French adore blue cheese but it's just too much for me... Haha)
- Salers
- Chabichou
- Banon (a goat cheese! My other favorite)
I don't really have pictures of the cheese, but it was very fun! I definitely ruined my dinner that night.
Plain bread, olive bread, and cheese. It's good to be French :)
Another exciting thing I did this week was go to the movies! I heard that the French are pretty big on cinema. My friends and I went to Le Renoir, one of the 3 movie theaters in Aix, to see Jurassic World in English (with French subtitles). The movie was really awesome! And the theater was pretty nice. The movie has been out for a while so there weren't many people in the theater. But the theater seats were like, plush red velvet and huge, so super comfortable. It was in 3D though. Turns out, you have to pay for 3D glasses here. If I knew that, I would have brought my 3D glasses from home! Ugh. It wasn't too bad because movies here are actually pretty pricy, but luckily it was the Fête du Cinéma (Festival of Cinema) for the past couple of days so all the ticket prices are like, 4 euros! I mean the 3D was a little more, but not by too much, and still cheaper than most 3D screenings in the US. :)
Anyway, that's all the exciting news for now. I'm really loving my classmates, especially the ones in my writing class! Every day in between our classes, we'll eat and do homework in the library. Lots of bonding moments :) I am really going to miss them-- it's hard to believe that after this trip, we might not see each other again in the US :( I'm so lucky to have met all the people I have on this trip!
-Cindy
