Blogs - Ann Halpin's Blog

About two weeks ago (once again, sorry for the inconsistency) Maggie and I climbed the very famous Mt. Saint Victoire! The whole hike took about 5 hours; 3 up and 2 down. This was one of the most difficult but rewarding hikes I have ever been on. The views from the top were incredible - the skies were clear and beautiful and we could see for miles, we could even see the Mediterranean!

Coming down, I slipped and twisted my ankle, which led to much swelling and discomfort over the next few days. However, what followed was a little adventure into the French health care system after my host mother forced me to visit the hospital (which happens to be right down the street from our apartment.) Don't worry, it was just as I suspected and nothing serious had happened to my foot. The doctor took an x-ray and gave me some ointment and pain pills and that was that. All in all, a wonderful experience:)

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Last weekend, I visited the lovely little city of Arles. This is a city that was founded in the 6th century BC by the Greeks. Later Arles was captured by the Romans whose mark remains in the form of ancient graveyards, bath houses as well as an arena that is still used today to hold traditional bull fights. In fact, I think I might actually catch one if I return in early April! Arles was also home, for a time, to Vincent Van Gogh. It was here that he painted Cafe Terrace at Night (which I have a picture of below) and here that he cut off his ear to give to a prostitute! Basically, this city has more history packed into 5 square miles than most states in America.

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A couple of weekends ago, Maggie and I visited the principality of Monaco. Fun factoid: It is the world's most densely populated, and smallest French-speaking country! It was surreal, how gorgeous and glamorous this place was. Honestly, I felt like a dirty peasant walking around what felt like a movie-set that I had somehow snuck into. Dirty peasant sentiments aside, Monaco is where you'll find me if I happen to marry a billionaire. 

We arrived just in time to see the traditional changing of the guard in front of the palace.

So this was an unexpected bonus to our fabulous day trip to Monaco..Our tour bus actually had to pull over on the side of the highway due to a road race that was about to finish in Nice (a city near to Monaco on the coast). The race started in Paris and we were lucky enough to catch the last 20 minutes of it, on accident!  

Oh my gosh, I don´t know where to begin describing this crazy vacation!

So we arrived in Porto, Portugal at 8 a.m. on Sunday at which time we headed over to our hostel to drop off our bags and grab a bite to eat.

...went to the Porto Vinho Museum (very small exhibition but interesting)

After that my fatigue caught up with me and I took a little siesta while mi amigas trekked across the city to do..I am not quite sure what.Fast forward..we got out to a little hole in the wall restaurant and share very generous portions of various seafood platters. The wait staff sang and informed us about the importance of Fado in Portuguese culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fado

The restaurant owner (who thankfully spoke English as none of us could even pretend to get by with out pathetic combined knowledge of Spanish) then invited us to enjoy some live Fado the next afternoon at a restaurant run by a friend of his. Of course we agreed.

That was quite fun, we ate fried fish patties ( I think that´s what they were...) and drank red wine while a bunch of old Portuguese guys sang their hearts out.

We went on a boat tour on the Duoro River, which empties into the Atlantic and I was able to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, muy excitingo!

Fast forward

We arrived in Madrid yesterday around 1 p.m. and pretty much rotated between sleeping and eating (I did visit one museum between the two alternating activities) until this morning.

Today was one of the best days ever! We visited the Reina Sofia Museum of modern art, where there was a Picasso exhibit going on...AMAZINGGGG! Picasso was one crazy mofo, but I really enjoyed seeing his works. I also had no idea that he was also a sculptor, did you?

We went on a bus tour of Madrid, which was kind of silly because none of the headphone jacks worked and we never stopped long enough to take a decent picture.

We got off at some point to grub up, as we were all starving. Then continued onward to the Mayor Plaza, one of the oldest areas of the city which consists of extremely expensive cafes facing beautiful buildings covered in murals.

Okay, the grand finale... we got off the tour bus with the intention of walking back to our hostel and turned around to see....THE BODIES EXHIBIT!  This is something I had really wanted to see when I was in Portland, but never got the chance. It was incredible;I am a little grossed out, but WOW! has anyone else seen it? It was so interesting to see the different parts of the body displayed so delicately.

I apologize for the messy blog, but I had to get this out before I forgot about the magically fantastic adventure that was today.

Also, when we finished at the bodies exhibit, we encountered a huuuuge protest in the street with cops everywhere..the Spanish people are fighting against the privatization of their hospitals. Maybe I was on the Spanish news today!

Last Sunday about 30 something people and myself went to a nearby city on the coast, La Ciotat. We first drove to a market on one of the ports, where we bought fixins' for our picnic that we would have at a nearby park. I also bought some sunglasses at the market, but they broke about two hours later during our hike :( That's what I get for buying cheap sunglasses I guess.

So we took our picnic items (a baguette, roasted red pepper tapenade, chevre, kiwis, and sun dried tomatoes) to this gorgeous park and sat on a ledge overlooking the Mediterranean.

After the picnic we herded back onto the bus and drove a little while to get to the beginning of the trail for our hike. We had the pleasure of being guided by a very cute little French woman who enthusiastically educated us about our surroundings during the hike.

We climbed three different cliffs each with equally beautiful views of the area.

In other news, my roommate Maggie and I just bought our tickets to Holland for a three day weekend that we have in March. We will be flying into Eindhoven (cheap airlines can't quite get you to the most desirable cities.) From Eindhoven, we will take about an hour and a half long train into Amsterdam and stay for a couple of nights.

This Sunday I will be leaving for Porto, Portugal with four of my friends here. This ought to be exciting to coordinate with five people ;)I'm really excited though.

Not much else going on, just school and eating..always eating!

This week classes began at the university; I have 12 hours of language classes, a 2-hour Phonetique class, a 2-hour Traduction (translation) class, and a 2 hour elective entitled "La Vie en Provence." All in all, I would say it was a pretty successful first week. My classmates are from all over the world- specifically Russia, Japan, Holland, Mexico, Korea, China, Hungary, and of course the U.S. It's pretty exhausting being bombarded with French 24/7 (especially now that classes have begun) but I know it will be worth all the headaches at the end ;)

However, some exciting news is that 3 other girls who are in the program and I just secured our travel plans for our week long vacation which starts in two weeks. We will be staying in Porto, Portugal for 2 nights, then fly to Madrid and stay there for two nights, then fly to Barcelona and stay for three nights, then bus home to Aix. Don't worry- we used a very cheap european airline called ryanair. 19 euros from Marseille to Porto! hoorah!

In other news, I'm loving the food here (of course). To give you an idea of what kind of amazing meals my host mom cooks for Maggie and I, two nights ago she prepared roasted rabbit and homemade mashed potatoes with crepes for dessert. Last night she prepared a carrot-green onion and cucumber salad with a vinaigrette dressing, then chevre and spinach stuffed ravioli, then SALMON that was absolutely incredible, THEN, real FRENCH toast. I'm telling you, you have never tasted "french" toast until you've tried this. I hope to God I don't gain 70 pounds by the time the semester is over!

(Aimee and Maggie at a cafe in Aix)

Today was nice and relaxing, my roommate Maggie and I didn't leave the apartment until 1:00 in the afternoon, at which time we left to find a laundromat and to run some other errands. Trying to wash clothes in a foreign country is quite interesting, but thankfully we asked for help from these other girls and were able to finish our first load of laundry in France! After that we searched for band-aids for the killer blister that I now have on my heel from these new boots that I bought in an attempt to assimilate to the local mode. After some strolling around, we bought some supplies for dinner and prepared a feast of pasta with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and garlic with tomato sauce, salad with mushrooms, tomato, and an oil and vinegar dressing. It was quite delicious :) At any rate, I definitely needed a laid back day today after yesterday, which was spent in the bustling coastal city of Marseille.

Every day here has flown by as there is so much to take in at once. I will start school tomorrow in the intermediate level, I'm a little bit nervous but I'm sure everything will be fine. I've been told that university life in France differs in that there is more expected out of each student in class, and much less work assigned outside of class.

So yesterday was the group's first little excursion- we went to Marseille (about a half an hour south on the coast) It was a great day, we visited the fish market, the cathedral Notre Dame de la Gard, at lunch at a cous-cous restaurant, and sat with our feet in the Mediterranean sea as the Provencal sun warmed our cheeks.