Last Night

My blog sure did pitter off here at the end. O well.

So today is my last day in Avignon. It is going to be terribly sad. I will say goodbye to my French friends tonight. 

Anyway, today we had our last meeting as a group. Last night we had our aperatif. It's all a little sad, but the real pit in my stomach hasn't hit me...yet. 

After our meeting I went and had a lunch with Rachel and Jenny. I ate a tartine with eggplants. OMG, it was soooo yummy. Then I went to my favorite ice cream place for my last chocolat ice cream with raspberry ice cream. I told the man it was my last time and he loaded it on!

I somehow managed to pack my bags today. And they aren't over in weight according to the scale I am using. I also used this scale to weigh myself. I gained 5 kg. I'll let you figure that one out on your own. Let's just say, I have some work to do this summer!

This evening I took a walk with Rachel to the "grand roue," (ferris wheel) but it was not open. That would have been fun. I will miss my Rachel dearly. She is staying in France for awhile to visit some people in Belgium.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Paris. I plan on visiting the Catacombs and Musée d'Orsay tomorrow. I kinda wish I were just staying in Avignon. It is so peaceful here and Paris is too hectic. O well.

Au revoir Provence.

Heartburn, xylophone, oh, and Marseille

So here I sit in my bed, with heartburn and no heartburn medicine. That was stupid of me. And Thomas or Hugo is playing the xylophone, annoyingly and I can feel a headache coming on. Anyway....

I am starting to panic about going home. I am more worried about returning home that I was about leaving it. France is just so relaxing and I have no problems here. I am really going to miss all my French buds. They have been so kind to me!

Jonathan left this week. He was the Swedish boy in the room next to me. He got mugged the last night he was here. On our street. Boy do I love living in the ghetto. They stole his wallet with 500 Euro. Don't ask me why he had 500 Euro on him at night. Not smart. Anyway, the children did a little presentation for him and Marie and Natsu sang. Just another day with the Partridge Family I guess.

This past weekend the group took an overnight vacation to M

arseille. I was really looking forward to it because all the books I read in grammar and litterature were by the author Marcel Pagnol and many of them were based in Marseille. It is the second largest city in France. So now I have visited the largest, Paris, second largest, Marseille, and third largest, Lyon! Before heading to the city, we took a hike in the Calaques of Cassis. It was probably the prettiest site I have seen here in France. The water is so clear and blue here. 

The pictures do it no justice. It was super hot though and I had fun swimming in the ocean afterwards in Cassis. I almost drown. No joke. We had been swimming in the water for about 15 minutes and decided to swim out to the bouyies. This whole time I was treading water. When we got to the bouyies I realized that there was a strong undertow. Then I tried swimming back and seriously had a moment of panic. The beach wasn't far but I was so tired. Luckily, I made it back! Then I learned that Sakinah had gotten stung by a jelly fish. Had I gotten stung by a jelly fish in the undertow, I would have died. 

That night we went to Marseille. We ate at the White House. Or at least that's what they called it, "La maison blanche." The food was delicious. Afterwards the city was so crowded and alive because the soccer team was in the finals and it was the last game. They won their match, however, the team who came in first won their match, too, so Marseille was in second. Yeah, that took me a long time to figure out. Afterwards I was dead tired, so I went back to the hotel and konked out. 

The next day I did some tourist browsing on the rue de Canbiere, kind of like the Champs Elysee of Paris. Then we walked around the port and headed to the beach. It was a nice relaxing Sunday. 

I have just finished up the last of my horrid work. I have one more grammar test tomorrow. A final on Thursday for oral. A final on Monday for grammar.  And a final on Tuesday for history (I still have no idea what is going to be on that). I am really starting to flip out. No offense, but I don't really want to go home yet. 

Well, time to go enjoy my last nine days =( ......

Oh and one last thing. Please note the difference in the toilet paper. Also, I just learned the other day why there are two buttons on the toilet. One for pee (that uses less water) and one for poo. Learn something new everyday! Oh and I am sad that I have not seen a buday. I don't know how to spell that.

Now Normandy! Day 1

Before I start with Normandy, let me tell you about my postal experiences. I recently received all my mail on one day. It was weird. I received a letter from my mom from almost 2 months ago! Nonetheless, I was still happy to receive it. I also got a piece of paper saying I need to go pick up a package at the Post Office. I went to get it and saw that it was from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Joe. When I opened it, I laughed so hard because it was full of toilet paper. And the strangest thing was, the toilet paper looks weird to me. I am so used to the small, pink, roles that the French use here. I almost forgot what color toilet paper we use in the States. And the roles are so huge! I don't know, it just threw me off. They also sent me Tylenol PM (yay!) and Mac and Cheese, which I will make tomorrow for lunch. I think I will also make some for my French friends because I described it to them and they looked like they were going to vomit after I mentioned the powdered cheese. Hopefully it will taste the same with the strange milk they have here.

Ok Normandy. I left Thursday morning (May 21) with Rachel, Jenny (The grad student), and Catherine. It was a nice group of just us girls. We first took a train to Paris, and then from there we took a train to Bayeux, but not before stopping at Starbucks in Paris. Catherine, Rachel and Jenny are caffine-aholics. The train ride there went smooth (just wait until I tell you about the ride home!)

When we arrived in Bayeux, I was terribly surprised to see how much cleaner the North is! Avignon, granted I live in the inner city, is very dirty at times. We went to our cute inn/hostel, Le Maupassant, which sits on top of a bar, and then headed out to see the tapestry of Bayeux. That sucker was long! It was amazing that it was all stitched by hand. I mean, who sits down and says, I am going to make the longest tapestry ever of the Battle of Hastings (I think that was it)?

After that we visited a very pretty Notre Dame. Of course it wouldn't be a city without a Notre Dame! But actually, this one was very pretty and I liked it a lot. 

It had a crypt in it, too. And the stained glass was magnificent. And as you can see from the photo, it was gorgeous against the blue skies.

After the church, we decided to have some tea. Being that Normandy is so close to England (just right across the Channel), there were many English speakers. In fact, many French people who speak English have a British accent because they are taught that type of English. Anyway, Anna's Tea Room started our eating binge in Normandy. It was a fun, different thing to do. The French love to sit and chat for hours on end, and I am starting to like it, too. The waiters never give you the check unless you ask for it. You can sit there for hours in a restaurant just drinking coffee and it's normal. 

After the tea room we went to this French specialty shop of foods from around France. I saw the alcohol that one of the student's host dad makes in Provence. It is a liquor with a pear inside the bottle. I guess the pear grows inside the bottle. It was cool. I texted Lance to let him know that this shop had one bottle of it in Normandy. At this store, I bought onion jam. Ok, I know that sounds gross, but I am super excited to try it. I have not opened it because I am going to save it for home.

Next we went to dinner. Oh my God, dinner was delicious. I had some pizza, with eggplant. It was sooooo good. We had the table wine, too, which is a cheap wine (you can drink cheap wine here without looking, well, cheap), but even France's cheap wine is better than the USA's good wine. It was 11 euro and we eat got three full glasses out of it. And of course, we had dessert. I had this caramel, vanilla, delicious ice cream dish. In the photo you can see how big it is. And it was only 5 euro. Jenny got this crepe with apples and caramel and ice cream and sugar. That was good, too. We all wanted to vomit when we had finished. It was a delicious dinner. Going out to dinner here is always magnificent. When I think of Applebees, I want to cry. American dining is so sad. Oh well. 

We went to bed after that, very tired and stuffed to the brim...

Lot's of stuff. Let's start with La Fountaine de Vaucluse.

I have not blogged in awhile. So this might be long. 

To start. Let's talk about the Fountaine de Vaucluse. Vaucluse is the providence that I live in in France. La Fountaine de Vaucluse is this spring that has no bottom. Well, at least divers have not been able to find the bottom. Yes, it is very deep. It is also terribly cold. The water was so pure though that I didn't noticed I had stepped into it.

 Luckily Brad yelled "Shawna! You're standing in the water!" and I could jump out before I completely soaked my brand new Converse. The seem to be impermeable to water though. I walked away unscathed. 

After visiting the town, we visited the village. It carries the same name as the fountain. It was a little town and it was a bit touristy. There was also this huge hill to climb to a chateau. It was very hot but Brad, Kelby and I decided to climb it. It was completely gorgeous up there. And terribly high! I was scared. In the picture with my one leg up, I was standing on a steep ledge and I was scared to death. 

Luckily there was no Mistral that day or I would have blown right off! Kelby continued on up the mountain (he's the adventurous, hiking, rock climbing type) and Brad and I decided to head back down because it was so hot. I actually sported some shorts on this hike (it's very taboo for girls to wear shorts here without pantyhose underneath. Yeah I know, don't ask). Brad and a group of our friends hung out by the cold river the rest of the day. You could literally drink the water it was so clear. 

We were initially in the city because there is another Resistance Museum there. The students in the Resistance class (I didn't take it because I was not at that level and it requires a LOT of work) had a meeting with a group of senior citizens who participated in the movement. I could have met them, but I had a feeling I wouldn't understand their accents. And I was right. I met up with them at the museum later. They were nice, but I had trouble understanding them.

Overall the day was wonderful. I got some more ice cream, of course and then we headed back. I wish I could post more photos of the fountain, but I can only upload 5 photos per post.

Busy Busy Busy

OK, so I just got home from Normandy yesterday and I have a busy week ahead of me. I will blog about my fabulous trip in a few days!! See you in 2 1/2 weeks...

This is where I live. And carpet. And milk.

Ok. This might sound terribly strange, but I miss the warmth of carpet beneath my feet as I wake up in the morning. Followed by a nice bowl of cereal smothered in milk. Oh well, I've got the rest of my life for that!

So this is where I live. Avignon.

 Never thought it was much until I started walking around. We are famous for the Palais de Papes that I told you about a long time ago. And also le Pont d'Avignon. The bridge that broke. Now you can see a little bit of my town. I run along that river when I'm not being a lazy ass and Rachel wants to come with me. It's dangerous to go out by yourself. As you can see, I walk under a terribly scary bridge at least

 twice a day. 

And also you can see the Snack Kebab. They make deliciously sketchy food, but they can be intimidating at times, especially the one by my house. The men who hang around the place are super creepy.

Basically, Avignon has a good side and a bad side. Sadly, I live on the bad side. But that makes me wanna get out and see the good. Talk to ya after NORMANDY! Be jealous! We just finalized all our plans and I am super excited!!!

Uzes and Pont du Gard

Yesterday was my favorite excursion yet. It was a beautiful sunny day, probably in the mid 70s, not a cloud in the sky. 

First the group visited a town called Uzes. There was a big Saturday market there. The markets are a lot of fun here. They are so different than back home. After Uzes we sailed under the Pont du Gard, an ancient roman aqueduct. It was so much fun. We canoed under it! It was so pretty. And of course I took about 50 million photos. 

I don't really have much else to write. I'm still loving life in France. I am sad that I only have a few more weeks. Hopefully I'll get some more photos up soon. I just realized this week that you guys don't know what MY town looks like. You've never seen the monuments in Avignon. I went around and took some photos the other night so hopefully I'll post them on photobucket soon. 

Have a good week! Next week is Normandy for me!!!