Aix-mas is in the air!

It has officially turned into winter in Aix! (Selon MOI that is!). Average high temperature is now between 7-10 degrees celsius, 40-50 degrees fahrenheit. I only like it because I love the time before Christmas when there are beautiful lights everywhere. The Cours Mirabeau has turned into a magical winter wonderland, with all sorts of Christmas lights hanging from the trees, a big carousel at the end, and wooden Christmas booths with all sorts of goods from delicious Christmas pastries, cheeses, and all sorts of Christmas gift-type dealios. The weekend before last I spent in Aix with some good friends of mine. We went to this store that has some American products and bought stuff for pumpkin pie and cheesecake. On our way out, we walked to the Cours Mirabeau which was just magical. We ended up getting some vin chaud (warm wine), which is a typical winter/after-skiing drink. It sounds disgusting but it was delicious! It's basically just red wine that's been heated and mixed with spices and lemon. Delicious! After that we were hungry so we went to the best crêpe place in Aix (which just happens to be a 2 minute walk from me!) and then we walked back to my friend's apartment to spend the evening baking. The only thing that could have made that more magical would have been if it had started snowing! The rest of the night we spent baking and hanging out at my friend's place and then we ended up going out, which was quite fun.

I straightened out my library problem finally. It took me 3 tries though (Go France!). The second time I went I brought the papers the guy had told me to the last time only so I could have someone tell me this time that it was my card and I had to get it reactivated. So I walked out of the library, furious, and in my little moment, I didn't see a little set of stairs (it was pitch black out and there were no lights) and I ended up falling and landing flat on my face. Woohoo!

In other news, my French proprietaire (landlady) of 85 years has officially been placed on my shitlist. Last week, after her daily trip into my room while Im not there so she can "air it out" (no, Im not smelly or dirty, she just has this obsession with airing out all the rooms, especially the bedrooms after we've slept in them all night) she noticed that I had a bunch of laundry in my hamper, which I planned on doing the next day. So she tells me to put them out so she can do them in the morning since we now have to do our laundry in the morning so that it has time to dry outside since it's so cold. I told her it was fine since I had to get up in the morning anyways. Needless to say, the next morning I did NOT get up as early as I wanted to. I reset my alarm so I could sleep again until 9:15 but at 9 I get a "tap tap tap" at my door. I try ignoring it so she'll go away but a minute later she comes back and does it again this time with an added "Dooglass!". I reply with a vague "oui", sit up  in my bed, and there she is in my doorway, reaching for my laundry hamper. She makes some sort of comment about how she knew I wasn't gonna get up early enough and then closes the door. First of all, bitch did NOT just come into my room while I was sleeping! It's bad enough she does it during the day while Im gone (I specifically close my door every day, my sign that I do NOT want people going in my room, but apparently she doesn't get the hint) but really, while Im SLEEPING!? What if I slept naked!? Luckily it's winter and Im cold, otherwise I usually do. What the hell! I was furious! Then the fact that she's touching all my dirty clothes! I hate that! Yeah, so today she was pissing me off again with the running commentary about my laundry. I put too many things that were heavy into the washer (my towel and one of my sweatshirts), I have to hang this up here, do this, this, this. OMG, LEAVE MY FUCKING LAUNDRY/ROOM/STUFF ALONE!!! Anyways, that's my rant about that.

So Thursday was Thanksgiving. I spent it with the wonderful people in my program, who arranged for us all to have a very nice Thanksgiving dinner in one of the nicer restaurants in Aix. It was absolutely delicious! Im pretty sure I ate the best stuffing of my life! Later that night I skyped my family for 3 hours since everyone was at my parent's house for dinner. It was cool, I sort of felt like I was right there with everyone. Pretty cool. All in all it was a good day. :)

I just realized that I'm only 3 weeks away from my Christmas trip to Paris and New Year's trip to Belgium! I am so excited but I have sooo much work before then! I don't know how I'm ever going to get this all done, but I know I'll pull through. Also, still haven't seen Harry Potter yet! I want to see it once in French and once in English. Maybe this will be my treat after I get some of my work done.

Alright y'all, Im off to buy a baguette to have with my dinner. 

Deuces,

"Doog"

Couple pictures from my phone:

The Cours Mirabeau lit up with Xmas lights. 

My French family (or at least a part of them!):
Véro, moi, et Audrey after we gave blood in October.

Je ne donne pas une merde! (I love literal translations that don't make sense!)

Hey y'all! I feel bad because I haven't been keeping as up-to-date with my blog lately as I should be, but things in France are starting to get into a routine, which is a good thing. I feel as though now I have the basic understanding of how things work here in general. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with things and I'm feeling a lot less lost (except for the other day when I went to the library for the first time and everything just turned into a huge fiasco with me leaving without any books and extremely pissed off) BUT yes, other than that, much less lost!

Aix is sorta/trying to turn into fall! Leaves have gotten more colorful and the weather has been steadily getting colder (and by that I mean it is usually somewhere in the low 50s during the day, which isn't bad at all!). It does get quite cold at night though and when that mistral (famous, cold, northerly wind) comes flying through, it can be quite freezing!

This last weekend was fairly nice though, which worked out perfectly for when my Ingy boo came to visit! We had such a good time together this weekend and I can't wait to see her at Christmas! Her and I sat down and made travel plans for our Christmas holidays. I booked train tickets to go to Paris, where I will spend Christmas with her and her family! Then her and I decided to be random and we booked very cheap train tickets to spend 5 days in Brussels, Belgium, where we will spend the New Year! I have then decided that (since I don't yet know my exam dates) if I have some extra time, I may change my return train ticket back to Aix and do a little traveling somewhere by myself. If possible, I'd love to go to London for a few days to see my friend Sarah, who will be doing a winter study abroad session there for a few weeks or maybe go somewhere with my roomie if we both don't have exams the week right after! Either way, should be fun!

So in other exciting news, I have officially checked off one of the things on my bucket list! (I don't actually have one, but if I did, this would be on it!) Yes, I climbed a MOUNTAIN! Mte Sainte Victoire, to be exact. The mountain which many of you would recognize either from my pictures of it from my apartment or from some of Paul Cézanne's famous paintings! But yes, I managed to reach the summit of that 900 meter beast! And I only came out with several blisters and two large open wounds on the backs of both my feet, thanks to my wonderful boots that rubbed the skin completely off. And then some. But it was totally worth it! The views were amazing! Check out some of my pics on my facebook if you haven't already by clicking this link: On top of the Sainte Victoire!

Anyways, that's all I got for now folks!

Deuces.

-THE "Doog"

Updates from the mini Paris of the south

Woa, long time no update! Guess it's time to catch some of yall up on what's happening in my French life! Since my last update I have been to Avignon, Les Baux de Provence, and Toulouse! So far, I'd say Toulouse was my favorite, even though it was cold and rainy almost the entire time we were there...

For the Toussaint (All Saints) holiday weekend, a friend and I decided to do a little exploring in another part of France. So we took a train 5 hours northwest of here and ended up in Toulouse, known for it's bonne bouffe (good grub!) and red brick buildings. The weekend was filled with ups and downs. Some of the ups included us renting some vélos and biking around the city, eating some delicious German food which included a PLATEFUL of sauerkraut (yum!), and some Private Spice watching after our late night club outings (inside joke, sorry). Downs included the Ballet National de Guinée (The Guinea National Ballet) show being canceled, cold/raininess, and lots of general moments of frustration with the way things work here.

I came back from vacation last Tuesday and immediately had to jump back into school mode since I had 2 exams. I ended up not doing any studying though (figures!). But Im ok with it. The exams weren't TERRIBLE, and the professors promised to take into consideration the fact that we're foreigners, which Im ok with. In the end, it'll all work out. On the way home after my second exam I was talking with one of my friends who brought up what I think is a very valid point! Her & I, as well as many of the people on our trip that I talked to, seem to be going through similar points of feeling stressed over the fact that we're not more stressed out with school. I mean, I'm not completely neglecting school but I'm definitely not blowing it off completely. This isn't just school, it's LIFE. That's what her dad's advice to her has been throughout this whole experience and I think I'm going to be taking that advice as well.

In other news, I've had a few problems with my bank card, I'm taking Dutch lessons from a Dutch friend I made on one of our weekend outings, and I have been spending a lot of time with my French family lately. It makes me so happy to be surrounded by such kind and welcoming people. This weekend Dorine, ma soeur française (my French sister) had two of her Australian friends come and visit with them. I spent almost all weekend with them all. We showed the girls around Aix and Marseille and ate lots of delicious homemade food made by Véro, the mom.

I've got lots to do this week but I am super excited because my Ingy boo is coming to visit me in Aix this weekend! I haven't seen her since I came to France so I am very excited to see her again!

Here are some pictures I took of Toulouse (for those who haven't seen on my facebook):

Le Pont Neuf, famous bridge in Toulouse

Le Capitole. We stumbled upon a big bio (organic) food market.

One of my favorite pictures that I took in Toulouse. Got this while we were bikeriding around the city.