Blog Abroad

Good morning! I posted all of my Aix photos, so that is all up-to-date. I have tried a thousand times to post the Barcelona photos and something goes wrong every time and it's getting irritating, so when I have the patience to spend another two hours sitting here uploading photos that may or may not load, I'll try again :). But they're already on Facebook I think anyways. Also, I will post the Barcelona info along with a brief summary of the <<Je suis Charlie>> in my encyclopedia. My first day here, last Sunday, we attended a sermon at the big Cathedral because it's a thing here to have a big sermon the First Sunday of the New Year or something like that where a bunch of people dress in traditional Provence attire and bring gifts to the baby Jesus. So that's what all those photos are about. Also, as you may have noticed, I have to post phoos with people in them on Facebook so that the other students here have them because there arent doubles. Otherwise, I AM still on a Facebook break so don't get confused. If you see me online it's probably because I have to contact someone and Facebook is my only means.

In other news, I love Aix and the program is great. It's not very hard to talk and understand French all the time, but it is very exhausting. Also, a lot of the other students like to go out drinking and, as you know, that's not my thing, but when I here about an outing or dinner or something I am going because it's important to me to try to be involved. My host mother, on the other hand, seems to think I have to go out to parties every night. No it's more than that. Literally every minute I'm in the house she's telling me about her other students and how one of them was always home and spent every weekend here with her (which I imagine at this point the poor girl spent one or two days here a week and Catherine just doesn't understand that Americans don't go out all hours of day and night). She lectures me regularly on not wearing three coats wen I go out, not bringing my umbrella every day, not having made plans yet for the break at the end of February, not eating enough (which we all know is a joke), not being out with friends all the time, etc. She talks more than me and a lot faster than me and I am already getting tired of her and it's only been one week... needless to say, I hope she realizes that I will not go out every night and I probably will not spend all of my weekend out with people. Ever. And I'm still trying to make friends... this is a circle of people that I don't really fit into anywhere and it's kind of disheartening.

I have a language partner who's a student here in Aix and she's pretty nice. Her name is Camille, but again, she likes to go to bars and dance and that's not my thing. Not that I'm shy or that I don't like to go out because I love going out with friends and doing things. And it's not that I don't want to dive into French culture because that's exactly why I'm here. But I don't enjoy drinking or dancing in clubs. In fact I quite dislike that sort of thing... so I predict the social aspect of this program to get very challenging very soon.

That's just about all I've got for you today. I know it's mostly complaints this time, but I am in the phase where I feel uncomfortable with most of this so I can't really help it. I'll write you again in a couple days! I start classes tomorrow so I'll have new things to talk about finally.