Happenings of november

I realized I have not really written much in the last couple of weeks so I decieded to post and give an update. This may be long but here goes.

A few days after my dad left my friend Andrew from home came to visit. He is a friend of mine I have known since freshman year in high school. We stayed in Aix and just hung out. It was so much fun to catch up and see how things were going in his world. He currently is living in Germany. I introduced him to crepes which are just amazing.

After he left another friend from the states came to visit. She is currently living in Northern France and working as a teachers assistant. This is something I am contemplating for this next fall. The day after she arrived one of my friends here called and asked if we wanted to go hiking. It was great. We hiked Mount Saint Victoire which is a mountain that Paul Cezenne painted often. We had a blast going up. It took a little longer than it should have going up because we kept stopping to take pictures and we stopped for lunch. The group who went were just a fun group of people so we had a good time. Thankfully every one knew how to speak french so we all were able to have some good conversations. Not one of us in the group were from France but rather the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Yeah for representing north America. When we reached the top there were a bunch of guys where were working to preserve the little church at the top. One of those men gave us a little overview of the chruch and the importance of the mountain. It was really interesting from what I could actually understand. After resting at the top for a little while we started to head back down. The sun was setting as we were heading down which just made the sky light up. The rocks behind me turned a reddish color. It was just beautiful.
Instead of going on some really big trip Kate and I went on little day trips. We went hiking, and then went to Cassis which is this really pretty town on the cost. While being there we found the town to be more of a tourist spot for the French than anyone else. We had some really good pizza and just enjoyed walking around. Unfortunately we arrived too late but we tried to take the boat which would show us more of the town. Then we had to run to catch the bus back to Aix. Thankfully we got there just in time. We also spent part of a day in Arles which was lots of fun. We walked along the market and got some amazing humus and bread for lunch. While there went and saw a bunch of old roman ruins and learned a little about its history. It was rather interesting. We decided because we had some time left in the day we would go from there to a random city close by to see what that town (Mirmas) offered. As it turned out there was nothing particularly because it was sat and not a lot of things are open on the weekends especially in small towns.

During her stay we went to the french church and ended up eating lunch and talking with the people from the church for three hours. It was amazing. The elders seemed to take us under their wing. They made sure we met every one we needed to and had enough to eat. It was so much fun. We also went to a museum of different arts which was fun to walk around in and learn about different paintings that were popular at different times. I also got her hooked on crepes but decided to try a new type of crepe. This one had cheese and ham rather than nutella and bannanas. Needless to say we had a lot of fun together and hanging out.

Most recently there has been a strike at my school and for two weeks I only had class twice. What was supposed to be a 4 day weekend became a lot more than that and it was right when Kate came to visit which was rather nice. Because the strike continues my program thankfully changed where we meet so classes can continue. I am sure this sounds weird to some of you but my classes have been helpful in learning the language.
I also recently joined a small group in french which is really interesting but rather difficult to keep up with. All the same I enjoy the time I get to spend with the different French people. It is great to listen to their discussions and debates over issues in our religion. I definately went home very tired after we met that night.

The other day I went to a wine tasting. It was soo much fun to try some of the affordable wines here and learn what things go with what wines. It was also really tasty. There were two that I liked the most. One of which was a red wine that was really smooth but also had a good spice to it. The other was a wine from Chili. It was interesting to find I liked the red wines more because in the past when I tried wines I liked the white more than red. Also if anyone has not tried it yet try a deep red wine with dark chocolate. It is a really great combo.

This last weekend was just amazing in regards to learning and the experience I was able to have. People from the english speaking church (of which i was part of) stayed in a castle this last weekend. This place was beautiful. I got there earlier than the others and was able to look around a bit. Each of the rooms were different in some way. There was this huge library in one of the towers with books that dated back to 1804. The pages had dust in them. One of the evening I had the opportunity to listen to the owner of the castle who gave us the history of the castle. It was rather interesting. On top of that we went to this museum and cave. The museum was about all of these protestants who were persecuted by the catholic church. Granted I had learned of the idea and the fact that it had happened a while ago but it was really interesting to learn in depth different things that took place. This town was where a lot of persecution took place. They had tons of the old letters from the king and old sermons. Everything they did in regards to the service had to be able to be hidden in case someone came to check the house. One of the hidding spots were underneath the kitchen of this man's house. You could probably fit two people there but a whole family would make themselves fit there. It is hard to explain everything that was there but it really was amazing to see and learn about. There was a poster in french (obviously) which stated something along the lines of "If I fear God I do not have to fear anything else". The museum and the hike to the cave later really made me think of my faith and what lengths I would do for it and how complacent our world, myself included, have become. It was rather humbling. In everything these people did they did it with joy for God and giving him all the Glory. It was really interesting to ponder and think about.

After the museum we went to this cave. It is about a 20 min hike (although short it had a rather large incline). This cave went back really far but there was a smaller group who decided to cross the water in the cave to by jumping rocks to go back even further. At first I was the only girl willing to go but after two other girls found I went across with out getting wet they came as well. While walking to the back we saw this small group of bats. I saw a ton at camp but never saw a clump together sleeping. It was neat. Then we went to the very back of the cave and turned out all of our flashlights. You could not even see your hand right in front of your face. The only way I knew exactly where it was was if I had it touching my face. After doing that we looked the other direction and saw this really small ray of light. The next day we sang Here I am to worship. In it there was two lines which stated "Light of the world you stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes and let me see. The beauty that makes this heart adore you and a hope of a life with you". It was neat to see that song in a different light and reflect on the cave and what I had learned. In a lot of ways God has been opening my eyes so that I see things in a different light.

Those are most of the adventures I have been having here so far. I am daily learning something new and am really enjoying my experience thus far. Hopefully sometime this week I will put pictures up online. I have tons for people to look at it is just a matter of finding a computer that will allow access with my camera. Not as easy as you might think. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. This week I am going to have a Thanksgiving dinner with the english church which I am excited about.