hi all - i survived my first week of orientation classes. it was hard, we were in class from basically 9am to 5-6 at night, lots of thinking and doing in french. but i made it through, and now i have my regular schedule. i have no classes on wednesdays, which will be nice so i can do other things, like go ice skating or explore marseille, or when its nicer go to the BEACH!
every day i wake up and look outside, and i'm amazed. everything is so different but so beautiful. i feel like i'm getting accustomed to many different things at once: living in a city, walking places or using a bus/subway system, meeting new people, speaking french all the time, thinking in french, getting used to my family. i'm not stressed, though, somehow, haha. things have been very regulated up until now, but i'm sure once i have lots of hw i'll feel a little bit of pressure.
i signed up for a library card, and i found a really cool ice skating rink, which is like a half an hour walk from my house or a 20 min walk from my school. i have yet to find a lutheran church here (i think catholicism is the ruling religion), so i've sent out a few emails but put that on hold until i can find something. i went to church this morning at the highest point in marseille, and the notre dame de la garde cathedrale behind my house. it's quite the hike, but the views are incredible.
there's a lot of sun here, but its chilly because le "mistral" (their word for the wind that blows here) is very strong at times. not as cold as Maine, but i'm glad to have my northface and my gloves.
we have these language partners, and i met mine on friday night. his name is david and he's in his last year of high school, but he's 19 or 20 i think. their school is a little bit different. he plays tennis a lot during the week, but i'm hoping that on weekends we can hang out. we spend half the time speaking in french and half in english. i went out with my friend Nora's language partner and some other american students on friday night. i don't know how i feel about going out here, since everyone smokes and it's very expensive. but, incredibly, you can walk around downtown marseille with your own bottle of alcohol for the night. the first time i saw two guys walking around with their OPEN bottles of wine, i was like WHAT??? apparently if you're rowdy and cause a problem, you can get in trouble, since it's technically illegal. but if you're not bothering anyone, no worries, you can walk around with your own bottle of alcohol all night, haha. don't worry, i'm not gonna be a drunk while i'm here - i haven't had more than 2 glasses of wine since i got here. the idea of being intoxicated in downtown marseille is a little daunting, haha.
so for classes, i'm going to be in a class with only one other student for arabic, which i am pretty nervous about, since i don't think my knowledge of arabic is very advanced, but the other student has studied for 3-4 semesters - yikes! but it'll be a lot of individual attention, which is great. i'm hoping to improve a lot with such individualized classes. same for all my classes really, since the largest class we'll have is 6 students.
it's a little weird to have so few students. i went to my friend laura's last night and we were talking about it. we're hoping that there's no drama and that everyone can get along, haha, since there's only 6 of us it could get uncomfortable pretty quickly if there's personal issues. i don't see it being a problem, though. there's just a limited number of friends to make, which is kinda strange.
i'm very lucky, though, because my host sister is about my age and she's very very nice. she invited me to go to the movies last night, but i had to take a raincheck since i was making dinner with laura. my family also invited me to go skiing with them, but its too expensive and its the same weekend as the superbowl, lol. can't get all of the american out of me yet!
"is this the real life? is this just fantasy? caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. open your eyes, look up to the skies and see..."
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
HERE!
bonjour tout le monde!
i arrived yesterday in Marseille - very late at night - i was exhausted. i was a little homesick last night, but i'm feeling better today, and Marseille is awesome! i am 20 minutes away par pied (walking) to my university, and pretty much the same distance from everything else, including the beach. my host family is very nice. my host mom, Michele, showed me where my school was this morning, and then my host father, Jean-Marc, gave me a virtual tour via un plan (a map) of Marseille. He showed me all the places to go and how to walk there.
I also have a neighbor who is in my program who lives on the same hill as me, about 2 minutes away. we're going to walk to school together, and today we went to visit Notre Dame de La Garde, a huge cathedral which is literally a 10-minute HIKE up a huge hill right behind my house.
Forgive me if this is choppy - i've been speaking all in French, and it seems a little weird to be speaking in English. It was very difficult at first to only speak in French, but i feel myself getting better and better at it. It's easier to speak with other students, like when Nora and I went for a walk this afternoon, because we speak at the same speed and with a similar accent. The Marseillais accent is difficult to understand sometimes. My host sister, Camille, is very sweet - she's 20. I'm actually going to go watch my first french film without subtitles in a few minutes, woo!
i'll have more updates on structure of classes and stuff, but for now, the photos will have to do.
a bientot!
i arrived yesterday in Marseille - very late at night - i was exhausted. i was a little homesick last night, but i'm feeling better today, and Marseille is awesome! i am 20 minutes away par pied (walking) to my university, and pretty much the same distance from everything else, including the beach. my host family is very nice. my host mom, Michele, showed me where my school was this morning, and then my host father, Jean-Marc, gave me a virtual tour via un plan (a map) of Marseille. He showed me all the places to go and how to walk there.
I also have a neighbor who is in my program who lives on the same hill as me, about 2 minutes away. we're going to walk to school together, and today we went to visit Notre Dame de La Garde, a huge cathedral which is literally a 10-minute HIKE up a huge hill right behind my house.
Forgive me if this is choppy - i've been speaking all in French, and it seems a little weird to be speaking in English. It was very difficult at first to only speak in French, but i feel myself getting better and better at it. It's easier to speak with other students, like when Nora and I went for a walk this afternoon, because we speak at the same speed and with a similar accent. The Marseillais accent is difficult to understand sometimes. My host sister, Camille, is very sweet - she's 20. I'm actually going to go watch my first french film without subtitles in a few minutes, woo!
i'll have more updates on structure of classes and stuff, but for now, the photos will have to do.
a bientot!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Final Days in Portland
The last few days have been crazy, but I've been trying to relax and not freak out about leaving. I've been trying to fit in visiting everyone and saying goodbye. I said goodbye to folks at Muhlenberg over the weekend, which was tough (especially to Dave), but I'm feeling more emotionally ready over the past couple of days. It was weird to see everyone starting off classes; I'm ready to be doing something constructive with my life again, haha.
I went out to Sea Dog restaurant tonight with Andrea for my last blueberry beer in a while, unless magically France decides to abandon its obsession with wine and switch to fruity beers while I'm there. My mom and I spent part of yesterday looking up my address in Marseille on google maps. Google is brilliant - I could see my street and what the city looks like at ground level. Gotta love advances in technology. Anyways it made me much more excited, and it definitely made my mom feel better about where I'd be, since there's been some talk about Marseille being a rough-and-tumble, drug trafficking kind of place.
I've been reviewing vocabulary and reading up about French culture at the gym and in my spare time, trying to make sure I can express myself as best as I can. I'm going to try to call my host family tomorrow, but it might not work out with the timing since I'm leaving so early for Boston. It'll be 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon when I call them, so if they are like normal people who hold a job, they'll probably still be at work. I can leave a voicemail, though, and send them an email if I need to.
My next post will either be in an airport or in France!
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” -J.R.R. Tolkien
I went out to Sea Dog restaurant tonight with Andrea for my last blueberry beer in a while, unless magically France decides to abandon its obsession with wine and switch to fruity beers while I'm there. My mom and I spent part of yesterday looking up my address in Marseille on google maps. Google is brilliant - I could see my street and what the city looks like at ground level. Gotta love advances in technology. Anyways it made me much more excited, and it definitely made my mom feel better about where I'd be, since there's been some talk about Marseille being a rough-and-tumble, drug trafficking kind of place.
I've been reviewing vocabulary and reading up about French culture at the gym and in my spare time, trying to make sure I can express myself as best as I can. I'm going to try to call my host family tomorrow, but it might not work out with the timing since I'm leaving so early for Boston. It'll be 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon when I call them, so if they are like normal people who hold a job, they'll probably still be at work. I can leave a voicemail, though, and send them an email if I need to.
My next post will either be in an airport or in France!
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” -J.R.R. Tolkien
Friday, January 15, 2010
So it begins...
Hi All!
I will be using this blog to keep family and friends back at home updated on my experiences in Marseille, France, where I will be for the spring semester.
So far, it's been a bit of a headache getting ready to leave. There was some drama with the Study Abroad office at Muhlenberg, and some rushing to get my visa last minute, but as of now, I am finally all set document-wise, and ready to go.
I leave Friday, January 22, 2010 from Boston. I fly to Philadelphia early Friday evening and am then taking an overnight flight from Philly to Amsterdam. My friend Eva who was an exchange student at Muhlenberg last semester is from Rotterdam, right outside of Amsterdam, so she and her boyfriend are coming to keep me company at the airport while I wait to fly out to Marseille. I get in at 10:45am, and I don't fly out of Amsterdam to Marseille until 8:30 at night, which means I will meet my host family at 10:30pm, after almost 34 hours of traveling. I'm planning to sleep on the first leg of the journey, from Philly to Amsterdam, and then I'll be up during the day Saturday but hopefully will be able to sleep a little bit on the flight Saturday night into Marseille.
I find out about my host family on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, and then I get to call them briefly before I leave. So I get to figure out how to make an international phone call, since I haven't done that before.
A bien-tot!
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. ~Henry David Thoreau
I will be using this blog to keep family and friends back at home updated on my experiences in Marseille, France, where I will be for the spring semester.
So far, it's been a bit of a headache getting ready to leave. There was some drama with the Study Abroad office at Muhlenberg, and some rushing to get my visa last minute, but as of now, I am finally all set document-wise, and ready to go.
I leave Friday, January 22, 2010 from Boston. I fly to Philadelphia early Friday evening and am then taking an overnight flight from Philly to Amsterdam. My friend Eva who was an exchange student at Muhlenberg last semester is from Rotterdam, right outside of Amsterdam, so she and her boyfriend are coming to keep me company at the airport while I wait to fly out to Marseille. I get in at 10:45am, and I don't fly out of Amsterdam to Marseille until 8:30 at night, which means I will meet my host family at 10:30pm, after almost 34 hours of traveling. I'm planning to sleep on the first leg of the journey, from Philly to Amsterdam, and then I'll be up during the day Saturday but hopefully will be able to sleep a little bit on the flight Saturday night into Marseille.
I find out about my host family on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, and then I get to call them briefly before I leave. So I get to figure out how to make an international phone call, since I haven't done that before.
A bien-tot!
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. ~Henry David Thoreau
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