A visitor from NJ

bonjour! This week is midterms week, so I took half of one yesterday and my first real French midterm exam this morning. Both were pretty straight-forward, but I expect the final 3 to be tougher. I have a French culture one on Thursday and an advanced grammar one on Friday, so those will be a challenge for sure.
Dave was here last week! It was completely fantastic; we had such a good time. We went out in the harbor and saw the islands that are right off the coast, but unfortunately the Chateau d'If was closed...I'll have to go back another time for sure. But Dave and I walked around on the other islands, and we explored this huge old fort with absolutely INCREDIBLE views of Marseille. I would hate to be a ship trying to attack anything within 50 miles of the city, haha. Pretty intense view, and lots of remnants of cannons, so I imagine the city was well-protected.
We also went out to eat at two fantastic restaurants - one on Monday and one on Friday. The one on Monday night was great because we got to sit on the second floor right next to the window, so we had a nice view of the Vieux Port area. The food was also really delicious; except stupid little French student here ordered her steak medium because she got the vocab wrong- haha. The Moroccan restaurant on Friday night was equally fantastic, since I'd already been there before and knew exactly what was good to order. We were ridiculously stuffed afterwards, so we walked around and then went to see Ghost Writer with my host sister, Camille.
Speaking of Camille, she proved herself to be an adequate english speaker, since she's been studying it in school and getting good grades. She practiced with Dave, which was funny for me to be on the other side of learning a language, since Camille is always helping me with French or making fun of me for silly errors. Dave also spoke some Italian with my host parents, and he picked up a surprising amount of French while he was here (I was so proud!).
Overall it was pretty amazing to be in another country with him, but it definitely made me homesick since it was so nice not only to spend time with him, but to speak in English and feel like myself again. I have a good enough handle on the French language to have a personality and joke around, but truly, the culture is different enough that there are a few things each day that remind you that you aren't in the US, and you're not quite acting like yourself in order to fit into the culture.
I'm having some issues with the administration here, since they are seeming to control more and more things, including how we perceive our own country and France. I think at the beginning I just listened to everything that was taught without questioning it, but now that I've lived here and experienced the culture, I'm finding many of the generalizations made not only about France but about the US rather "genant" (frustrating, irritating). I'm trying to let things go and just concentrate on learning and taking what is said with a grain of salt, but there are definitely some things that I'm struggling to brush aside.
Other that the University, I honestly really enjoy living here. My host family is very nice, I love my host sister Camille (we're all watching House tonight together - haha never watched it in the US but I'm watching it every week here). This weekend I'm supposed to help my host mom out with her garden, which I'm excited about. I like Marseille a lot; it's so beautiful. Right now there's a garbage strike (oh the French with their strikes), so there's lots of piled up trash and the streets are pretty dirty, but even with that, I don't mind it. It's cool to be able to walk lots of places and see all sorts of different people and stores and everything. This morning I went for a nice long run next to the Mediterranean Sea - whatttt!? I feel so lucky to be able to do exciting things like that.
Anyways I'm getting really hungry so I think it's time for baguette and mozzarella (tell me i can't mix French and Italian culture at lunchtime)!
Miss you guys!