Good old times

Hi friends,
I realize I have not written in a while and the blog I had started to write got deleted. This entry my in turn be rather long. I have done so much in the last two weeks. It is hard to believe I have been here for a month now...crazy. It has gone by really fast. On the 3rd of October I left Aix and went to visit an old friend Tyas. Some of you may remember him from freshman year. To be honest I was expecting our first encounter to be awkward because of not seeing each other for three years and because of the last time I had seen him was a couple of days after I broke up with him. In fact there was nothing awkward about it at all. It was very much like old friends who picked up the friendship as if no time had passed (execpt of course neither of us now has feelings for each other).

The first day I was their we went to Maaschrict (I belive that is how you spell it). We had a blast with that because we were able to take a tour of the town in a more historical sense. We went around the city wall and learned about some of the history behind the city and what protected it. In general I love doing that kind of thing so I definately enjoyed that time. At one point we also got caught up with looking and playing with these huge spiders. If you saw my pictures on facebook you would see a picture of one of them. Other than that we walked around the park. It was soo pretty there because of all the trees and the leaves changing colors. I love the fall! That night his mom cooked a traditional dutch dinner, which was very good but I can not remember the name of it. I was also able to meet his gilfriend, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend. All of them were very nice and fun to hang out with. Milou (tyas' girlfriend) and I got along really well. There was a joke by the end that I was the "latino who claimed to be from the United states and is from the bronx." Needless to say we had fun messing around and more so teasing each other. Thankfully they all knew english because French does not help me speak dutch.

The next day Tyas showed me around his town and then we went to a field and played nothing other than...frisbee. Yeah for bringing Whitworth to Europe. : ) That day we ended up walking for about 4 or 5 hours. I was rather tired. We went back and watched Blood Diamond which I had never seen before. It was a good movie. Definately one that make me ask a lot of questions and think. One interesting thing about watching the movie with Tyas is that his father and step mom live in South Africa with his two little brothers. At the end of the movie we were able to have a good conversation about Africa. Really interesting. Through out that day a few days before I had had a little cold and was very tired by the end of the evening. I also had been going to bed around 3 every night. Not good for getting a cold. Finally I learned to get some sleep.

The following day was fun but rather interesting. Tyas was having his going away party because he is leaving for Chicago to work for about a year. He is doing some sort of student research in regards to the human side of economics. I do not remember exactly what he is doing. Anyway his family and friends came over and most of them could not speak english. In turn I had a lot of fun watching the way people talk. Most people who were there spoke a lot with their hands and gestures. Finally on sunday I returned back to Aix. It was a fun trip.

The next day was monday and also the first day of classes. I have three classes through out the week that are three hours long, and I have several classes which are only an hour long. In all I am taking about 12 credits. Nine hours of work is grammar and language and then I have a role playing class, creative writing, Provence culture (the region I am currently living in) and Phonics. My professor is fun, she makes the class laugh a lot. She also does a good job of explaining things. All of my classes are completely in french-we are not allowed to speak in english or use a dictionary in class. We must explain using other words and then ask what the actual word we were looking for. I am working with a girl on my hall who is helping me with me french. I am also using the weekend time to work in almost a lab environment where I force myself to speak as much in french as I possibly can.

This last weekend was a great example of that. My dad came to visit this last weekend. I had soo much fun going everywhere with him and just exploring. I became his personal translator. He would want to know something or would try to buy anything and would need me to translate. It was really hard at times because I had to use words I did not know but in the end I learned a lot. In learning a lot you also generally make a lot of mistakes. I misread the ticket to Vernon and thus missed my first train. In turn I got into the town I was meeting my dad three hours late. By the time I got there there was no buses, no taxis-nothing. I got the directions and walked to the hotel in the dark. I know not safe but neither is staying at a train station that was closing. Obviously because I am writing this now I got there saftely. The next day was one of my favorite. We went to Claude Monet's Garden in Giverny. I have liked his work since I was in third grade. Getting to see his house and what inspired him was such a neat experience. It is rather hard to describ. I will try to put pictures up soon so you can see what I am talking about. The colors were amazing. You had the leaves changing colors, flowers of every color you can think of and the beautiful blue sky behind as a backdrop. Then we had lunch at this cute this resturant near his house. I loved that day and I loved being able to spend it with my dad.

That night we took the train back to Aix and dropped my dad's stuff off at my room. The next morning I took him around and showed him where I live and where I go to school. After that we randomly decided to go to Marseille. When we arrived we decided to go to the beach. It was fun to walk around and enjoy the sun. There were tons of sailboats out that day (I think there was some kind of race going on). Then we found our way around this place that was obviously a private club to a entry way which allowed us to watch a race of small remote control sail boats. It was rather fun. From there we took a bus that was far too full for its own good back to the train station. While on the bus I came across this women who decided to give me a brief history of Marseille and some of its old buildings. That was really random but interesting to listen to. When we arrived at the train station we decided instead of going back we would head to Avignon.

We got to Avignon in the middle of the ruby game against England. It was definately a party. That night we stayed at a little hotel in the middle of the city. The next morning we got up and went to the Pope's Palais. We spent a lot of time walking around there and learning about the history. Mine was rather hard to hear because I got one of the phones in French (again working on my french) so I had to ask my dad several times what they actually said. From there went to Pont d'Avignon. This is a bridge that is rather famous in Avignon. It is famous for reasons which are normal to a bridge but also for the song that orginates from it. I learned this song while at whitworth this last jan term. It was fun to see where it actually came from. From there my dad and I went to a mideaval fair type thing. That was rather interesting and fun to watch. Although I do not know where you would put all of that stuff when you were not working at a fair.

Eventually we returned back to Aix. I had class the next morning and my dad had tons of homework to do. That evening I sent him off on his way. He was going to visit Evan before going to business meetings. This week has just been a lot of me catching up and working on improving my french. Thankfully it is improving daily. I am making more friend and have become a little more confident in my abilities. That is where things are now. Hope all is well with you guys.

Interesting week

Hi friends. This week has been an interesting week. It was full of all sorts of things. I got a cold for a couple days which made my energy level almost none existent which meant the last thing I wanted to do was go out and speak french. None the less I made myself go out because I would not get to know people, or improve my french, or get the things I needed to get done if I hadn't. There were a couple of days where I got rather home sick. All I wanted was to see a familiar face or talk to someone I knew. That got better as I began to meet new people. I now know a few people I hang out with frequently and some people who I have made a deal to help them with english if they help me with french. I also went to a church that I was told about which was nice and they welcomed me in right away.
The problem that I have found the hardest is how many people prefer to speak english with me especially when they learn I am from the U.S. Especially when my cold was hitting full swing I easily fell into the trap of just speaking english. Slowly though I have continually asked different people to speak in french. Although I have spoken in english a great deal I have found that my confidence of speaking french has improved and given me courage to do it even more. Of course I make mistakes but I am definately improving. I had a conversation a couple people the last couple of days in french that lasted about 20 or 30 mins. That was encouraging.
So some interesting things that have taken place. I was walking down one of the main roads and walking a local performer when I saw a guy running toward me. My immediate reaction is hold my bag and start walking away. Considering the fact that I do not know many people it makes sense. Eventually the guy got closer all the while calling my name. It was David, the guy from Whitworth who is studying here. It was fun to bump into him and see a familar face. Unlike what I thought he actually had just arrived in Aix. For some reason I was under the impression that he had been here for a while. He has not had the best time here so far. They put him in a room that has bed bugs. Apparently he had asked Marlene (i do not know how to actually spell her name but I think this is close) for a pot to borrow so he could he something for dinner. She is one of the girls that I have started hanging out with. They got to talking and realized he was put in the same room she had just been moved from because she complained of the same thing. He had not had a chance to sleep for a while so they checked the room to see if the bugs where there or if they had the dorm had taken care of the problem. Generally you do not put a person in a room that you know has bed bugs. he woke up the next morning covered in bites. Since students are the ones who run the "office" on the weekends he could not change rooms. He found a friend he could room with for a couple of nights. Now the bed bugs are everywhere in his room. Including all of his stuff. We all joke about it but it still is not exactly the best welcome. He should be allowed to change rooms today I think.
Another interesting thing...I have been asked by two African American French guys at different times if I could be their girlfriend. You must realize that both times it was after having met them once and talking for about 15 mins. Both of them wanted me to go back to their houses with them. I said no and found ways to leave the situation. Both of the guys were students and both occurances happened at different times, different places but I just found it funny. It also holds to the stereotype that European people believe American girls are easy. Well they kind of picked the wrong girl to see if that was true. Going to prove that one wrong quickly. Just thought it was interesting.
Anyway. My social butterfly is starting to come back. I was walking around with a couple of people yesturday and what stared as 4 people sitting at a cafe went to 10 people at the table. It was rather fun. I was sitting in the middle and was able to be part of several different conversations. What was also fun was that France was playing rugby against Republic of Georgia (country) so every cafe was full of people watching the game. We could not really see the screen from where we were but we could hear the cheers and boos through out the game. It made for a fun afternoon.
Alrighty this is getting long. I hope all is well with everyone. I will write again sometime next week or so. I am going to Holland this weekend to visit a friend and then start school so it may not be for a little while. If you could be thinking today of me because I have my oral test tomorrow and hope it goes well. Eventually I will find a way to get pictures on here but currently my computer is not working well and it does not seem to work well with wireless so I haven't found a place I can download pictures. Also in regards to skype...same problem. I will continue to try and find places but I can not promise I will have that any time soon. Things here are good and I miss you all.