lost in france

so anyone who knows me and my directional skills will laugh at this story. i got SO excited on friday that it was finally starting to warm up that i made all these plans to be outside this weekend. number one plan was to go today (saturday) for a long run along the mediterrean - how romantic and exciting, right?
so i looked up the "back way" to get to the Corniche, which is like a 3 mile road that goes along the water and has beaches and a palace and all this stuff to see along it. "back way" just really doesn't work for me. my point was to not have to back track, because i knew i could find my way back once i jogged to the old port, but i didn't want to run to the old port, run along the Corniche, then run back to the old port - i wanted to make a loop. ha. great idea, right? wrong!
i had very specific directions written out, had looked at a map to see where i was going, and then i got to a point in the directions where it told me to turn down a street that apparently doesn't exist. hmm. so i decided that since from where i was, i could SEE the ocean, that meant i could find my way there. 45 minutes later, i found it. i wasn't worried at all, and i wish there could've been a video camera on me, lost in france by myself, cracking up at how ridiculously bad i am at finding places. annnnyways it was entertaining for me, and i knew eventually i'd find something i recognized, which is exactly what happened. it was a good experience, and i found lots of back roads and cool views that i would've never known existed, so i'm pleased. :)
once i found the Corniche, i ran along the water, which had AMAZING views (see facebook for photos), and visited a park with the "palais du pharo" and some forts and some great views of the old port. it was SO cool, pretty much my second favorite day in france so far.
tonight i'm going out with a few of the other american students for dinner together at either a spanish or a moroccan restaurant - should be fun!
tomorrow i'm supposed to go to the Callanques (kind of like cliffs and valleys and inlets and there's not really a good translation), so that will probably be another adventure!

this will be short because i'm exhausted

i just had one of the best days in France yet. i had lunch with Pastor Keller, from my new church, and his family. they were very nice, and we had veal stew and cabbage salad - somehow really good haha. my classes were more interesting than normal this morning, and i'm feeling more prepared for them. i'm getting ahead in work, so that's good.
i came home from lunch and had a long chat with my host sister, who is still awesome. then i went out for my rendez-vous with my new language partner, alexandre. here's where i made a typical american mistake - a rendez-vous at 19h15 does not mean 5:15. Americaine stupide! it's ok; i laughed at myself and alex and i met a little earlier after i'd grabbed something to eat. he's very nice; he's russian and speaks french perfectly, and he's orthodox christian, practicing, which was really cool to discuss. he invited me to a taize service for young people that happens once a month this coming monday that is a mix of a bunch of different christians, so thats pretty cool. i'm interested to experience an authentic, french taize service! so alexandre and i walked around a lot and he showed me the beach and a different part of town that i hadnt seen before. i think he's coming to the Callanques (these cliffs and little inlets and harbors with the ocean close to marseille) this saturday, which is exciting. nora and her language partner, nolwell, are coming as well, i think. we'll have a picnic and walk around a lot and take pictures i'm sure.
then i came home and watched a program on sights in paris and talked to my host mom for a while. now i'm about to pass out so i'm going to sleep! things are looking up tho, and i'm feeling like i'm getting back to my normal, busy, enthusiastic self - yaay!

sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

Alright here we go with the attitude adjustment. I’ve been sick the past few days with a head cold, but today it turned into a head and chest cold, so I left school early and missed my Arabic class, which stinks because I need the practice, but I needed to rest to get better. I slept a little bit, and I’ve been taking medicine and vitamin C, so I think the cold is on its way out, hopefully. My host mom suggested I go to the doctor, but I told her it’s probably just a virus, so what can the doctor really do? I’m not gonna take antibiotics or anything, and I don’t think it’s bronchitis; it’s just a bad cold.
So the weather has been getting better, it was 15 degrees Celsius this afternoon, which is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Nice temperature for running. Tomorrow, chest permitting, I’m going to go for a run in the morning and ice skating in the afternoon. I think I just need to keep myself occupied and really try to find people to connect with. Tomorrow I’m also having lunch with the pastor of the new church I went to - he invited me over. They are just finishing the Alpha course here - the last meeting is tonight - but I decided to rest and do homework instead of going. I’ll see if they start a Biblestudy or something since the Alpha course is over now. I’m going to ask the pastor tomorrow about whether or not they have a choir or anything like that.
I also have a new language partner, whose name is Alexander. He’s apparently French AND Russian, but he speaks French like a native language, so that’s good. I’m hoping to hang out with him sometime later this week. I have his phone number and I have to call him probably this evening or tomorrow afternoon.
I think my goals are going to be to buckle down and get work done as quickly as possible so I can plan out other things for later this week and this weekend. I think Nora and I might go to the Callanques (cliffs) this weekend to explore and bring un pique-nique (picnic). I’m hoping the weather stays good because I think that is helping my mood a little bit. That and I’ve been listening to Springsteen and getting excited about nice weather and the beach and running and the summer haha. And Dave is coming in less than 2 weeks! I just keep telling myself that I’ll take it one week at a time and finish out the semester. I think my big problem is that the classes aren’t as interesting or engaging as I imagined, so I’m going to have to find my own ways to be interested and engaged. I think I just have to put my own spin on things, like reviewing Arabic on my own and finding a really interesting person to interview for my journalism project. I also have a presentation on the Crusades coming up, so I think I’ll start doing some research and reading on that to get ahead and be super-prepared for everything. I think I just have to find work that is entertaining for me and make it my own. For example, we have to read the press in some fashion for at least an hour each week for one class, so I bought a few newspapers, but I also bought 2 cars magazines to see what those are like in France. It’s funny, actually, all of the information about the cars is how to get the best deal for your money, and how to shop for a used car or a car that is good on gas, compact for easy parking, and good quality. There’s nothing about how the car sounds or how much HP or how sleek the make is, like in American magazines. It’s very functional. So there’s my cultural difference for the week, haha.

“The entire human experience can be summed up in this phrase: wait and hope.”

the glamour is wearing off

so, in creating a blog, obviously I have to be honest sometimes. right now, i'm not too excited to be here. i'm having an ok time, but not great. i expected things to be a little different, so i'm trying to just stay positive and get through it.
i think i'm struggling because it's so cold and its difficult to find weather to exercise in. if you know me fairly well, running and moving around kind-of keep me sane, so it's been tough with the wind and the fact that i live on a huge hill to find ways to run or exercise. joining a gym is out, since its around 40 euro a month (about $60), and all of the gyms i have seen have been less than impressive.
i'm also struggling because i really miss my friends, my family, my boyfriend, my church, and basically everything i'm used to in the US. i feel like the people here are nice, but distant, so it's hard to feel like i can really be myself and relax. i feel like i always have to be on my best behavior, and i'm not a fan of that. i like to just chill and be myself. last week was nice with Eva because i got to do that a little bit, but its hard to come back to my life in Marseille with limited friends and classes that are interesting enough, but not really very captivating.
so, i'm struggling. but i'm trying to stay positive. i'm going to try to brave the weather and run anyways (i have a little bit of a cold now, so i'll wait a few days). i went to a protestant church (finally found one!) this morning, and many of the people there seemed very welcoming and nice, so i'm hoping to get more involved with their ministry. also, i'm going to just throw myself into my schoolwork and i guess go above and beyond since i seem to have free time to kill.
and right now, i'm going to try to go relax with a movie or reading le Conte de Monte Cristo (the count of monte cristo, my favorite book, and part of the reason i came to Marseille).

snow and city of sin

Eva, Tony, one of Eva's friends, and I went into Amsterdam on Sunday to explore and do some of the "touristy" things there. We took a boat ride on the canals through Amsterdam, which was very cool, and probably my favorite part of the day. It was about an hour long, and we saw the Queen's Palace, some of the official government buildings, the governor's mansion, and all of the different canals with their different names and personalities. There was a canal with all of the rich business district area, and then there was a canal that had HUGE mansions on either side which were built during the roaring 20s era. All of the architecture was really different, and the buildings were so much older than anything in the US. The tour guide also said that because they have an overcrowding problem in Amsterdam, many people buy boats and live on the canals! It's like a floating condo...It was really really interesting to see, and I took lots of pictures (they are on facebook).
To give you an idea of my impression of the Netherlands (Holland), our boat tour was given in 4 languages - Dutch, German, French, and English, in that order. I think what has made the biggest impression on me from the past 2-3 days is how many other languages people speak. Minimum = 2: Dutch and English, but most students know some Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, etc. Eva, for example, speaks Dutch and English perfectly, and can speak basic Spanish and French, and she understands German and can speak enough to get by. I met another student last night whose parents are Iranian, so she speaks Kurdish, and can understand Farci, in addition to speaking English, Dutch, and Spanish. It's incredible to me, since in the US, students are lucky if they become fluent enough to say they speak ONE other language. Here, it's basically a requirement. I understand it's because Holland is such a small country and does business with many other countries, but man, it's still pretty crazy.
Alright, back to Amsterdam. We also visited the infamous Red Light District (I kid you not, and I'm ashamed to say it: I did not make the connection that it's called the Red Light district because there are red lights above the windows where you can hire a prostitute until about a half an hour after walking around the area). It was shocking, as I expected it to be. There were half-naked women standing in their lingerie in the windows, trying to attract attention; there were a half-dozen sex shops on each block; you could smell pot in the street. It was definitely different, but probably someplace you only visit once, and only for an hour or two, because it's very overwhelming. I think it was a little bit too much for me. One of the strangest things about it was not even the district, but Eva and her friend's attitude about it. Eva told me I couldn't "think about it too much" after telling me that some women choose to live like this and some women are kidnapped and drugged or threatened into becoming prostitutes. They also both told me that the women we saw "weren't as pretty as the whores we have in Den Haag" (their city, 25 min outside Amsterdam). I guess when it's always been there, it seems more normal to the citizens.
Yesterday I went to Spanish class with Eva, which was pretty hilarious since she's already taken 3 semesters of Spanish and I've never taken a class. I had listened to Nora's girlfriend speaking Spanish the first week of classes in Marseille, and I could understand some of what she was saying, so I thought that to be sufficient enough for me to attend this class. Uh, no, I was wrong. We went over the subjunctive tense, so I know how to conjugate most Spanish verbs in the subjunctive, and when you use subjunctive; however, I know hardly any verbs, and I can't conjugate them in present or past tense. Hmm...
Today I went to French class with Eva, and THAT I understood. They are studying the European Union and how it functions between countries, and also more of the communications and public relations side of the EU. It seems like a good field for students who already have such a wide background of languages and cultures.
So this afternoon I'm just doing some Arabic homework and relaxing. I think it will be good for me to get extra rest and just chill during this week. Eva keeps saying how she feels bad that she has work to do and has to go to class, but I honestly don't mind just resting and catching up on Arabic and sleep. I expect my classes to be a little bit harder in the next 2-3 weeks once I go back, since we'll be prepping for mid-terms in 3 1/2 weeks. Dave is coming to visit the week before mid-terms, which I'm very happy about, since most other people's significant other has their spring break DURING our midterms. At least I won't have to worry about tests while Dave's here, and I'm sure I can study more once he's left. He will be in France for almost a full week! :) I can't wait.

amster-amster-dam dam dam

hello all! i'm in Den Haag, in the Netherlands, visiting Eva, who was an exchange student at Muhlenberg and also my gym buddy for all of last semester! She's so nice to put me up for the week, and her boyfriend and all of her friends are also very nice. Her boyfriend speaks French, so I can keep practicing, and with Eva too a little bit. her boyfriend, Tony, is "fou" (crazy) as the French say, but he's very funny. other than that, most people speak at least some english, but a lot of the time thyey speak Dutch when they're just hanging out, so it's very weird for me, since i speak about 3 words of Dutch, which I learned last night, haha. I'm hoping to pick some more up by the end of the week. It sounds a little bit like German, but not as harsh-sounding (sorry for all you German-language fans), and the "gutteral" noises sound a bit more like Arabic to me.
Classes are still going well; not much to report. Classes and the schedule here are pretty regular, pretty standard, but there's not a TON out of outside work, so I feel like I have much more free time than at Muhlenberg. Which is good in some ways: i'm sure I will love it when the weather is better, but for now, it's been more of me hanging out inside since it's been so chilly, looking at what everyone else has been up to during their semester's abroad, and missing home a little bit (missing dave a lot).
I'll update again tomorrow. Eva and Tony are back from their V-day dinner now, and I've got a skype date with Dave soon!

new classes

bonjour! I just finished my first full week of classes, and I must say, it's going to be quite the semester. I'll break it down by class:

Arabic: There are two of us in the class, so...it's basically one-on-one tutoring, which is great, but very difficult. I'm excited that I'm going to be progressing so much (as in, I might be able to hold a conversation when I go to Morocco), but the pace is incredible to keep up with. The professor, who is fluent, is one of those teachers who means very, very well, but doesn't understand that it takes beginners longer to comprehend things. He's a very nice man, and very good at teaching, actually. He gives great examples. I think it's just a matter of me getting used to learning Arabic in French and remembering everything I've forgotten in the past 8 months, then putting those pieces together in French instead of English.

Cultural Patterns: I don't know what to make of this class. The professor, Madame Sellé, seems nice, but she's got a little bit of a fake air about her. She has this little fake laugh she does when she's trying to explain some of the cultural differences between Americans and French, maybe because some of it is sensitive and she's trying to make light of it so no one is offended or taking anything too seriously? I made her laugh for real last class, and she has a very nice real laugh. We were talking about Paris and how, as a city, it functions differently than Marseille. In Marseille, one student made the observation that people are less observant of when someone behind them would like to pass them in the streets. They also seem less likely to go "single-file" to accommodate people who would like to walk faster. We talked about how American culture is very busy, and time is essential to us, and how in France, maybe there's a little bit more respect for walking for the sake of it, and enjoying the walk, taking your time. We talked about how Paris isn't like Marseille as much; there is a line of people who stay to the right if they want to go slower, and you may pass them on the left. She asked us why we thought Paris was different. No one had a quick answer, so I raised my hand and said that maybe there were so many tourists that they had forced the French to change their rules. This is what made her laugh for real - and Mme Sellé said she HAS to tell her Parisian friends, since I guess they will also find that entertaining. I'm not sure I quite get the joke, but it was nice for her to be genuine. In terms of work, that class is a little uncomfortable because you're basically judging the other culture or your own culture at any given point. It's hard to say things in a politically correct way, or to express things that are so deeply ingrained in who you are, culturally. I think only having 6 opinions also makes it difficult; there's a lot of silent pauses while we all try to process, haha.

Middle Eastern Political Development: Oh, Monsieur LePape! The first day, he told us that this class would be pretty much all lecture, with reading newspapers and doing 1-2 "exposés" (mini presentations) throughout the semester. Perfect! One easy class, and he specified that he wanted the class to be easier because the ideas that we're learning about are complex, and he has all the information. He also said he wants us to be like little sponges, and just soak in knowledge, ideas, attitudes from both sides of every issue, and then (without judging) be able to regurgitate that information in a non-biased manner. Awesome. I am a huge fan of when professors teach in a very clean-cut, observational manner, rather than throwing a certain slant on everything. I've already learned a TON about the Middle East in just 2 days of class, and I feel like this is going to be a very low key, but very enriching and engaging class.

Understanding Islam: Our professor gave us 1200-1500 pages of material the first day, in the form of 10-12 packets, of all of our reading for the entire semester. It's to be divided up into 5 categories for us each to make a presentation on. I'm presenting on the Crusades and Saladin. Watch "Kingdom of Heaven" if you want to get some background on what I'll be studying in depth. I have to say, in listening to some of his ideas about stuff, I'm not sure I'm going to agree with him on things. He's the kind of professor that when you ask a question, he doesn't give you an answer. He goes off explaining the circumstances surrounding your question and then forgets what your question was, so he just expands on the subject until he feels he's answered your question. As such, he's difficult to understand, and I think both sides struggle with the other side's accent (aka he's not used to American accents and we're not used to how he speaks French). I'm trying to be open-minded because I'd really like a thorough understanding of Islam, but not from a religiously-slanted view. He told the story of Abraham from a Muslim perspective, and that was very interesting. It's much different.

French Linguistics: Hmm, I feel like there's not much to report here. My professor is nice, she's pretty organized, and we go over small French grammar points and work on expressing ourselves better orally and in writing. So, we have writing assignments, both creative and journalistic. We have to conduct an "entretien", an interview, at some point during the semester.

And that's all for classes. Socially, I'm struggling a little with the fact that there's only 6 students. Nora, my neighbor, is great, and I really like her. We hung out with some of her friends from last semester last night. It was my first time really joking around a lot in French. We went out to eat with her two friends, Thibault and I'm embarrassed to say I cannot figure out how to spell the second guy's name. They were both very funny, and we all had a great time. Nora and I convinced Thibault, who's a huge football (soccer) fan, that we knew two of the players from OM, which is Marseille's big soccer team. We literally just picked random guy's names that sounded really French (Jean-Claude and Philippe), and we had Thibault completely stumped as to who these players were and what position they played. He's going to "look it up and get back to us." We also taught them about Fluff, which they don't sell here.
I had the flu or some sort of bug or something earlier this week. I'm recovering, I think. Luckily I don't have class Wednesdays, so I had time to recover.
My host family is leaving this weekend for a week - ah! I've invited Nora and some of the other students to stay here on the different nights that they'll be gone. I'd rather not be in a house in France all by myself, haha, but I've probably been watching too many spy shows on la télé. Superbowl on Sunday! It starts at midnight here - woo, I'm gonna be zonked on Monday. Oh well. Go Saints!