Ana is studying in Aix this month. She has allowed me to take some postings from her personal blog to post here - I thought this one was great as it details what it is like to arrive in a new city and adjust to a new culture.
Every anxiety and disappointment I’d felt for the last few weeks surfaced. I hoped more than ever that I could leave everything in the States and try to enjoy Aix sans stress and sadness.
As we swung around to the other side (towards Marseilles), there were hills, but they looked sandier and spotted, like something out of a postcard. Clearly the beach side of the Riviera. It was absolutely breathtaking. By the time we finally landed, I was beside myself with joy.
I had a leisurely walk down to baggage claim (although, obviously I had nothing to claim) to meet my Abroadco contact, Lauren. She’s been studying in France all semester and returns home tomorrow, but she’d come to meet us as a favor to Pam, our local contact and coordinator. The girl standing with Lauren, Martine, introduced herself. She’s with my program and seemed incredibly nice. So far, so good.
While they waited for the next arrival, I went to the nearby desk to speak with someone about my luggage. She was very kind. I gave my address and phone number in Aix, and she provided me with a receipt for my bags and got me on my way quickly. Okay, American accent hasn’t gotten me shot yet.
When we finally went outside to wait for the shuttle, two more girls had joined us: Corder and Dana. Martine is a Senior French major from a small town and school in Pennsylvania. Corder is from North Carolina, studying French in Georgia (I later discovered that she already has a degree in Art History) and Dana is from Idaho and goes to school in Virginia, where she Economics and International Affairs.
I took out my camera and taped a bit of the bus ride to Aix. We all introduced ourselves and talked, marveling at the beautiful French countryside and expressing our anxiety over and excitement for the coming month. They’ve taken much more French than I have, but it didn’t worry me at all. This will make me a better French speaker. This is why I came here.
When we arrived in Aix, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This town is incredibly beautiful. All over are building as far back as Rome’s ownership, Provençal buildings (from the 1200s, I think) and beautiful Medieval and Renaissance architecture. The streets are winding, narrow, and packed with tall buildings, but the entire town looks like a place for vacationing. The clichés are true: there are cafés everywhere, everyone is dressed impeccably and everything is beautiful.
We met Pam, our contact, this fabulously dressed Californian woman who’s been living in Aix for 18 years. She was so kind and immediately greeted us warmly. Graham, another student (from Canada, I’m not sure of his major) in our program, was there with her to meet us. This was our first visit to a French café.
I proudly ordered my “Coca Light” en français and couldn’t stop smiling as Pam gave us our welcome packages.
“I hope you’re not shocked; I’ve included a condom in every bag. You know, just in case something happens. So put it in your purse, or wallet or whatever.” (This morning, she repeated this for the newcomers, and added that the condoms are denim-colored. Corder and I made eye contact and did our best not to laugh, although Pam looked tickled herself.)
In addition to the condoms, Pam gave us a map of Aix (which, it turns out, is incredibly confusing and hard to navigate, especially for a person like me). We also received schedules, and our rented cell phones as well as some snacks and a piece of marzipan, which is a specialty of the town.
After about an hour, Pam escorted us each individually to our apartments and homestays. I have an apartment in town, with a roommate, Danielle, who is from Denver and goes to school there. She is a second-year senior studying restaurant management, and is very sweet. She’s loaned me clothes and shower stuff and everything because of my lost luggage, and I will never forget her generosity in that. Anyway, our apartment is adorable! We have a small table, chair, couch and armoire on the first level, along with a small kitchen and un WC which is a room with a toilet in it, no sink... A spiral staircase leads up to our beds (it’s loft-style) and a salle de bains (although our shower is a hanging showerhead with no hook and a bathtub, no curtain).
After taking a quick shower with Danielle’s toiletries and a bit of walking around together, we met up with everyone again at the Palais de Tourisme. We met Anna, an Italian student studying French who lives with Graham’s host parents. She is amazingly bubbly and full of joy and, although she’s spoken French for only a month, she is wonderful at it (I’m hoping that despite a strong background in romance languages, I will be the same). We went to another café, sat, and talked. This is the typical French thing to do. As Pam explained, when one goes to a café and pays a heavy price for a drink, one pays “to park” so to speak, or to sit and people-watch. So we followed tradition.
After this, we visited the Monoprix, which is like a really nice Wal-Mart. The top floor has electronics, the rae-de-chaussée (sp? I feel uncomfortable calling it the “first floor” now) has clothes (almost like H&M, but a little less cool), and the bottom floor has a wonderful supermarket. Graham and Anna returned to their homestay, as did Dana and Martine, but Dana, Corder and I went grocery shopping. We bought a few essential things like toilet paper, trash bags, sponges etc., and food to make dinner. They have wonderful, fresh-baked baguettes for .75€ (about a dollar) not to mention amazingly cheap wine. You can get a good bottle of wine for about 4€, and Pam said not to buy wine priced over 10€. Wow. A lot of it is also local, which is wonderful.
We bought Port Salut, a semi-soft cheese that my dad and I discovered at a gourmet shop when I was about ten. Ever since, I’ve loved it and it’s somewhat hard to find in the U.S., so imagine my surprise when I found a huge wheel of it for 4€, when at home a small slice costs about the same. Corder also got Brie and Pain au Chocolat, and of course we bought a bottle of red wine (the name’s escaping me…starts with an “M” but is not Merlot…I’d never heard of it before), and some tomatoes and apples. We went back to Corder’s apartment.
Corder’s apartment is indescribably amazing. First of all, it’s above the world’s best bakery (s’appelle Paul). Secondly, it has a bigger, more well equipped kitchen, a larger bathroom, a washer and drier (which Danielle and I will certainly borrow), one single bedroom, and a loft with two more beds (three are staying there). Although the stairs to get up to their loft are precarious (it’s more like stair-sized slanted ladder rungs), Danielle and I are jealous.
Her two roommates, Erin and Megan, had just arrived. After they ran out to get pizza and a bottle of wine for dinner, we all talked for hours. Erin goes to school in Houston, her hometown, and Megan goes to a small school in Georgia that sounds a lot like St. O. Megan is a music performance major and we’ve had a lot to talk about so far. The five of us sat eating wonderful French food in this beautiful apartment for most of the night. It was like something out of a movie.
This morning, everyone met at a place called the California Market, where I’m going to post this tomorrow. They’d reserved a room for us in the back, where we met Elizabeth (school in Boston, has been studying in France for a semester and came to Aix for the last month) and Adam, the two latest arrivals. We filled out a few forms for the university and then went on a walking tour of Aix.
Paul Cézanne lived, worked and died here. He is all over. In fact, there are little golden “C”s leading a walking tour around the city. She showed us many buildings, which I will take pictures of as I rediscover each of them in more detail. The most interesting building is le cathedral, which I hope to attend Mass in on Sunday. Unfortunately, it was closed as we walked by. It was built in several segments at different times in history, so it’s part Romanesque and part Gothic, with added details and walls from before and after both periods. Wonderful.
After the tour, we all ate lunch at the student cafeteria (cheap, not that good, would go back if broke) in town. Danielle and I then returned to the apartment to get my computer and sweatshirts (it began to rain) and returned to the California Market where we met Graham. I felt uncomfortable sitting on my computer and wrote a few rushed e-mails while trying to talk to Graham. The people who run the place are incredibly kind. The owner is French, but has an American wife, who we met the second time. They’re all good friends of Pam and very helpful. When Danielle and I walked in, we said hello to the owner and in addition to meeting his wife met another man, seemingly their friend, who asked us where we were from and offered to coach us with our French, jokingly. I felt so welcomed. Shop owners here are hit or miss. Many are incredibly kind and accommodating, even if their English is assez bien, but a few are stiff and hard to work with.
After the CM, we decided to go to Corder, Erin and Megan’s apartment to see if they were there. We went a sort of round-about way, and ended up in front of the cathedral again. This time, it was open, so we snuck in. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was. I’ve been to the Basilica in Rome, and I’m not sure that it was as emotion-evoking as this cathedral is. Like I said, the exterior is almost hauntingly beautiful. Before, the doors were covered, but when we entered, we were able to see the extremely intricately carved wooden doors leading into the cathedral. The interior is very dark, with grey stone, and little light shines in. The organ sits to the left, behind the pulpit, and remaining pipes are on the right. In front is the altar, simple but beautiful. To the right is a short of shrine, with kneelers, candles, and a fresco of the ascension right on one of the sections of the ceiling. There are a few of these around the cathedral, and we also spotted an ornately carved wooden confessional that looks out of use, as pews sit directly in front of it. (Obviously, my diction is terrible…again, no sleep! Imagine an incredible interior anyway, please.)
After our lucky detour, we proceeded to the apartment. The girls weren’t there, so we called and waited, as they were nearby shopping and about to return anyway. We went into the fabulous bakery, where Graham bought a tarte avec chocolat and Danielle and I bought one mini-macaroon each. The man was so kind and gave us two each for the price of one. I will go back, because little things like that make one feel right at home again, even in a strange country where I often feel shunned by everyone on the street for my accent and broken French.
That’s not true. Everyone’s quite kind; I’m just self-conscious about it.
We all went into the apartment and talked for another few hours. Graham ran back to his homestay, but we all met soon after at the only fountain in Aix still run by actual water (uhh..you know what I mean, like, the water that naturally runs under the street? Sorry, it’s like 1am and I’m still jet-lagged and walked all over today). Earlier, we put our hands in it for good luck.
Then, we went out for pizza. Again, the waiter was so nice and gave us two pitchers of wine for free! I love France. The pizza was amazing and European. Of course, there were several interesting choices and I wanted something I’d never had before, so I order the Luigi, which was smoked duck and mozzarella. It was fabulous.
Like true Europeans, we ate for about two hours, then went to find the nice little Gelato shop that many of us had passed. It’d been raining all day, but as we walked, it started to pour. When we got to the Gelato shop, the man was closing it! After he saw all of us and told us it was closing, he took pity and stayed open. Gelato is Italian, so the labels were in Italian and he had lots of Italian flavors, so I got Bacio gelato, like the Hazelnut chocolates named Bacci that I discovered on my trip to Italy. There was also Nutella gelato, the traditional pistachio gelato…etc. It was obviously fresh, gourmet, and wonderful, but like every food so far in France, incredibly rich.
I think I’m learning why French people don’t get fat: you simply can’t eat a lot of food here. The two macaroons? I ate one and saved the other for later. The pizza? We all ate about half of our thin-crust, personal pizzas. Even café au lait is rich here.
The best part about our stay there was when the shopkeeper had to run outside to save his wooden tables, and we all pitched in and helped in return for his kindness. I’m smiling just thinking about it. The goodness of people.
Danielle and I went back to Corder etc.’s apartment, drank a bit more wine, and talked until late. I got angry about my luggage for the first time. I didn’t react when it didn’t come yesterday, or all day today, but when I realized that I can’t go running with everyone tomorrow for lack of shoes and gear, I got angry. WHERE IS MY STUFF? I’m waking up at 7:30 tomorrow to call the luggage place when it opens.
I took a shower, again with Danielle’s things (oh, and I wore her clothes today) and wrote this. I can’t believe I wrote seven pages in word, single spaced. I am ridiculous. And I will post this at some point tomorrow.
I will start taking pictures soon. I haven’t taken many yet because I want to be jet-lag free and have my things so I look like me again. I hate not having my own clothes and my own face wash, etc. Maybe it’s just a comfort thing, but I’d feel much better if I was surrounded by my own things and could feel completely clean and like myself here…I’m delaying pictures until then.
Quickly, other exciting news: we’re going to do a wine tasting sometime after the 21st!
On the 21st is a day/night of music! There are concerts all over town all day and all night and random people playing/singing…I’m so excited
There are accordion players all over, on every corner
I might be able to take a cooking class! Graham’s thinking about it, too
I might be able to take phonetics as an elective, meaning I can finally learn the international alphabet (pretty much essential for singers)
It’s weird…already, certain words I want to write in French because I can’t think of a good equivalent English word. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but it’s not just me being snotty…
I’m sorry to be so long-winded and uninteresting…I’m tired and want to record all of this for you before I forget it, but haven’t the energy for creativity. I will write again, hopefully a much better entry, soon.