The Adventures of Marley and Me, Episode 1

We went to Avignon today! We woke up, decided to book it to the train station, and originally had the intent of going to Arles. The layover in Marseille was too long, so we just asked for her to check the price and time to get to Avignon. It was cheaper, and faster, so we took it! We hopped on the train (luckily after I bought some rainboots because it rained all day), and made it to our connection in Marseille. Of course, the train had a different name than on our ticket, and we couldn't understand the guy at the counter, so we were running to catch it. We found it and were hopping on until we realized that we had been assigned a car number, 18, and that we were in car 1. The trains don't connect all the way down, so we had to run to the other end of the longest passenger train I have ever seen haha before the train left. But we made it! We got to Avignon, took the bus to the city center, and spent the day wandering around and shopping. There is decenct shopping in Avignon, and one store that we found especially amazing.

We took a tour of the Palais du Papes, which used to be what Rome is today. We saw the Avignon Bridge, which is for some reason famous. We ate gelato at a really amazing little Italian place that also had 28 flavors of hot chocolate, and then before we caught our train back we had a beer at an Irish pub where we met a few really interesting guys who are in the French Foreign Legion.

The train back was easy, and it was definitely a good day trip. Yes, it rained the whole time, but c'est la vie! Totally worth it!

Weird, France

Ok, I think I might dedicate a fair number of these blogs to weird things that French people do/wear. Like this lady on her bicycle. For some reason, hair that is literally red was a good idea?

I also believe that I will be putting a fair number of pictures up here of people's dogs. The dogs here are extrememly we behaved- I have yet to see any dog bark or get in a fight or run away where it's not supposed to. The French also have a tendency of dressing their dogs, often in really really nice clothes too. Most of them are walking around outside with little jackets and hooded coats on, which is super cute, if not a little weird. But yesterday I saw a dog that was wearing a Burberry jacket! These animals are some of the most spoiled in the world! No, they don't carry them in their purses, but they buy them designer dog clothes and when the dog gets too cold they will carry them inside their jackets.

Children are also extremely well dressed here. I cannot tell you how many little fur coats I have seen running around. It's adorable, but incredibly expensive. Guess the dogs and the kids are the best treated people (if dogs are people) in this country!

C'est la vie

We wandered around town and ran errands today, and I ate frites for lunch from this little stand at the Cours Mirabeau. Family dinner is at our house tonight, and we’re making Mexican! Then afterwards, The Woohoo is throwing an “Erasmus Welcomes Americans” party that we’ll go to for a while. They’re having a happy hour just for international students.
We went to market this morning and then Monoprix (it’s kind of our Kroger here). We got a phone and a splitter for the outlet so that we can have internet and a land line phone that we can call to the US on for free (well, just the cost of our plan). Then we walked to the top of the theater here that gives you a really great view of the whole city of Aix and you can even see Ste Victoire in the distance. I love how much there is to discover in this city.
I’m starting homework this afternoon. I have to read the play Hernani by Victor Hugo for a class on Thursday. Obviously I’m procrastinating by writing this blog instead haha. Maybe I should start working on that…

Mt. Saint Victoire

We climbed Mt. Saint Victoire yesterday! More accurately, we tried to. We couldn’t read the bus schedule right, and so we missed the 10:15am bus and then came back for a bus that doesn’t run on Sundays, and then had to come back for a final bus two hours later. Once on the bus, it careened through these little twisty roads driving straight at oncoming traffic, but somehow we made it there alive!

The man at the desk at the bottom of the mountain was incredibly French and very unhelpful. He wouldn’t give us a map or explain a good way to get up the mountain, and kind of just pointed us in a general direction and ended up selling us a map for 5 euros. We started hiking and got lost on a trail that turned out to be for super advanced climbers fully equipped with rappelling and climbing gear. We only figured that out when the next green arrow pointed straight at a cliff wall and indicated up. Yea, right. So we ate lunch on a nice dangerous cliff haha but it was beautiful scenery.

The paths were marked with the smallest little dashes “strategically” placed on rocks, which basically guaranteed that you would not see them (and the trail we were taking was the green trail, so seeing those little green dashes on random rocks mixed in with all the brushes was pretty difficult). We got lost again, and eventually found the path that we had intended on being on, and that did not require any gear. Unfortunately, by the time we were in a place that could actually lead to the top of the mountain, about 4 hours had passed and we had to turn back in order to make it off the mountain before the sun set and we would be lost on the mountain for the night. We still made it pretty high up, and it was really beautiful. We got to pick rosemary on the mountainside that was growing wild everywhere.

There were people that were doing “paraplone” off the top. You jump off the mountain with a parachute on and pretty much hang-glide all the way down the mountain. We had already been looking into doing this, but now that we know they offer it at Mt. Saint Victoire so close to us, we’ll definitely be going back for it!

Of course, the bus that would take us back decided that since it’s Sunday they just were going to skip a stop, so we sat at the bus stop for an hour, and eventually called the bus depot who explained that the man had “forgotten” to come back out there. The next bus wasn’t coming for over two hours.

The man that works the desk offered to drive us to the nearest town where we could catch a bus that would come more frequently, and we gratefully accepted. Once he dropped us in this little town in the middle of nowhere, it turned out that there were no busses running to that town today (just because it was Sunday). We had to call a cab which took twenty minutes to come out to us, and charged us for driving out there. He brought us all the way back to our street in Aix, 25 euros later.

All in all, the mountain was a great time. I’m really glad that we went and we’ll definitely go back again and make it to the top. We now know where to catch the bus and to allow more time for climbing! As far as getting to the mountain, I would hope that the next time we go is a weekday and there will be a regular bus schedule haha. But, I’m going to bed happy and exhausted! Definitely a successful day.

Market Day

It's market day! The biggest markets are on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, so today is a big one. There is a flower market in the square just around the corner from my apartment, and then a fruit, vegetable, and other foods market in the square just before that one. Then down the street and to the left you run into the big market that spills out of the square and into the streets. You can buy everything here. I bought a pair of nice boots today (20 euros!) that I'm really excited about.

The soldes are getting really good too. All of the stores are down to about 70% off and so it's just a steal everywhere you go. I bought two bags yesterday, one to carry goods from market, and one is a side purse that's good for travelling. Total, they were supposed to cost 70 euros, and I paid 19. Gotta love the soldes!

Our internet has been installed, but for some reason they say it won't work for 48 hours. Oh France, come on. But that means that tomorrow evening we will hopefully have internet in our house! That would be great, and so much easier. We will also have a phone from which we can call the US for free! Well, it's part of our plan so I guess it's not really free, but it won't cost anything extra from the cost of our plan, so that's great.

We're off for a little more "soldes-ing" and then out for the night!

So, these are the posters that are plastered all over our school haha. It's a little strange to walk down the halls with all these posters saying to vanquish capitalism. But, no one cares that we're American and a capitalist country, so I guess that's ok!

We bought 12-25 train passes today. They're called the douze-vingt cinq card and they cut the price of train tickets in half, so that's awesome because otherwise they are really expensive. We're about to book a train to Paris for Valentine's Day, and then we also need one to Paris in March when we're going to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day.

Last night we went to trivia night at a bar here called Woohoo. It was actually really fun and apparently the APA kids from last year went there all the time, so the people pretty much knew who we were and there was even an IU flag hanging from the rafters! That was fun, and they play beer pong there on Monday nights. It's really quite the little American hangout. There were a bunch of girls from Welsley that are doing the study abroad program in Aix as well as another group of Americans. It was probably 30% American in there last night! Yay! hahah

Malta!

Just booked a flight to Malta! And the best part is that it was 50 euros haha gotta love the cheap flights within Europe! So we will be in Malta for the first weekend in February. This is a picture of the city where we will be staying: St. Julien's. It's famous for it's beaches and obviously it's still winter and the off season, so obviously it's a lot cheaper to go there, but it should still be decently warm there! Malta is an island south of Sicily, and it's own country, which I did not know until I found a cheap flight going there haha.

We had two more classes today, both successful. Unfortunately very long, but it will be worth it when we don't have any classes on Mondays or Tuesdays! Yay! So come visit me in Europe! lol