Hello!
Sorry for the lack of blog posts in November! It's been a busy busy month, and I can't believe it's almost December! It's been lovely though, with lots of exciting things happening. It's going to be a big post with lots of photos!
Since my last post on Spain, there have been many other events that've happened.
Fête des Olives
November 6th. We went to another host family's house again (the one with the vineyard!) and this time, instead of picking grapes, we picked olives! Unfortunately, back then, Aix was going through its rain rampage storm, so we were caught in the middle of another heavy rainstorm that day. But luckily, we were still able to pick some olives from branches that were cut down and brought into the garage. We then had a massive lunch: of olives, pumpkin soup, tartiflette (tarte with potatoes, bacon, onions, et veggies), baba au rum, apple pie, and many other delicious foods!
Weekend at Cévennes
November 11th-13. Dear Emily and I took a trip with our church, ICCP, into the Cévennes region of France! We spent the weekend in a castle (no, really), and spent time with the community. We got to visit a museum on Saturday morning, and got to know the little kids at the church. Emily and I have developed a slight crush on a family with 4 super cute little kids, who all talk with Australian accents!
Marseille football (soccer) match
November 23rd. On Wednesday night, a bunch of us put on any blue articles of clothing we had, and made our way on the bus and metro to Marseille. We went to see the olympic Marseille football game! It was quite the experience. Even though we had reserved seats on our tickets, we soon found out that it was a free-for-all, stand-on-the-seats kind of deal. Luckily, we were able to find some pretty decent seats all together. The atmosphere was chaotic to say the least, and there was much more screaming and cheering than game-watching. At one point we all turned to face the back of the stadium, just to shout some more cheers! We even sang the words "Allez Marseille" to any kind of song we could think of, of which there was Yankee Doodle, and even Jingle Bells. It was my first soccer game ever, so it was a great experience. Although for the first part of the whole game, we were trying to figure out what color our team was....It was really very hard to figure out. But we did eventually get it by the second half of the match. Marseille ended up losing, but it was still a great evening with great company!
Thanksgiving in France!
Despite the lack of Thanksgiving in France, I still managed to have one of the best Thanskgivings to date! After class (yes, we had class on Thanksgiving. And even the day after Thanksgiving!) we all went home to prepare our respective dishes and attire for the evening. Madame Masson hosted an incredible Thanksgiving party, complete with 3 mega turkeys, 4 different kinds of pie, 53 guests, over 20 bottles of wine (red and white), and a whole lotta love. My host mom and host brother, Marie and Nathan, both made it out to the party as well, and we all had such a wonderful time. Below are some photos from the mega-fête!
Black Friday
Also doesn't exist in France, so after partying hard on Thursday night, we all got right back up for class Friday morning. (10am has never seemed so early). But thankfully, it was only an hour-long class! There are also no black Friday shopping sales...so it was a pretty calm and uneventful day in Aix. But Friday evening, we all gathered at someone's apartment, and spent the evening cuddled on the couch, watching The Holiday and listening to Christmas music! (not at the same time) There were chocolate almond cookies, hot chocolate, and popcorn. A wonderful way to begin preparing for Christmas! Although Aix is way ahead of us all....Since Thanksgiving doesn't exist, the French had no shame beginning Christmas decorations back in mid-November. 5 days before Thanksgiving, the lights official lit up, and Christmas markets began. The Cour Mirabeau is now a spectacular sight in the evenings!
In other news, exam dates are finally set! I have four exams in two weeks, and I will be all completely down on December 14th! From there on out, it'll just be partying pretty much...I can't believe it's all coming to an end so soon! But very exciting new! The fam bam is coming to France for Christmas! My parents and sister are going to come over, and we're going to visit a bunch of close-by Provencal towns, and also hit up Nice, Monaco, and Italy! It's going to be a delightful Christmas.
Since my exams end so early, I was also able to change my flight back home. So now I am going back to Boston on January 4th! I am very excited! But at the same time, it's scary to think that I have only a little over a month left in my semester abroad....time to cram in as much Frenchness as possible!
Sorry for the lack of blog posts in November! It's been a busy busy month, and I can't believe it's almost December! It's been lovely though, with lots of exciting things happening. It's going to be a big post with lots of photos!
Since my last post on Spain, there have been many other events that've happened.
Fête des Olives
November 6th. We went to another host family's house again (the one with the vineyard!) and this time, instead of picking grapes, we picked olives! Unfortunately, back then, Aix was going through its rain rampage storm, so we were caught in the middle of another heavy rainstorm that day. But luckily, we were still able to pick some olives from branches that were cut down and brought into the garage. We then had a massive lunch: of olives, pumpkin soup, tartiflette (tarte with potatoes, bacon, onions, et veggies), baba au rum, apple pie, and many other delicious foods!
Weekend at Cévennes
November 11th-13. Dear Emily and I took a trip with our church, ICCP, into the Cévennes region of France! We spent the weekend in a castle (no, really), and spent time with the community. We got to visit a museum on Saturday morning, and got to know the little kids at the church. Emily and I have developed a slight crush on a family with 4 super cute little kids, who all talk with Australian accents!
Marseille football (soccer) match
November 23rd. On Wednesday night, a bunch of us put on any blue articles of clothing we had, and made our way on the bus and metro to Marseille. We went to see the olympic Marseille football game! It was quite the experience. Even though we had reserved seats on our tickets, we soon found out that it was a free-for-all, stand-on-the-seats kind of deal. Luckily, we were able to find some pretty decent seats all together. The atmosphere was chaotic to say the least, and there was much more screaming and cheering than game-watching. At one point we all turned to face the back of the stadium, just to shout some more cheers! We even sang the words "Allez Marseille" to any kind of song we could think of, of which there was Yankee Doodle, and even Jingle Bells. It was my first soccer game ever, so it was a great experience. Although for the first part of the whole game, we were trying to figure out what color our team was....It was really very hard to figure out. But we did eventually get it by the second half of the match. Marseille ended up losing, but it was still a great evening with great company!
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| Stade de Velodrome |
Thanksgiving in France!
Despite the lack of Thanksgiving in France, I still managed to have one of the best Thanskgivings to date! After class (yes, we had class on Thanksgiving. And even the day after Thanksgiving!) we all went home to prepare our respective dishes and attire for the evening. Madame Masson hosted an incredible Thanksgiving party, complete with 3 mega turkeys, 4 different kinds of pie, 53 guests, over 20 bottles of wine (red and white), and a whole lotta love. My host mom and host brother, Marie and Nathan, both made it out to the party as well, and we all had such a wonderful time. Below are some photos from the mega-fête!
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| Host mom and host brother! |
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| Nathan, best host brother in the world! |
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| Incredible Thanksgiving party! |
Black Friday
Also doesn't exist in France, so after partying hard on Thursday night, we all got right back up for class Friday morning. (10am has never seemed so early). But thankfully, it was only an hour-long class! There are also no black Friday shopping sales...so it was a pretty calm and uneventful day in Aix. But Friday evening, we all gathered at someone's apartment, and spent the evening cuddled on the couch, watching The Holiday and listening to Christmas music! (not at the same time) There were chocolate almond cookies, hot chocolate, and popcorn. A wonderful way to begin preparing for Christmas! Although Aix is way ahead of us all....Since Thanksgiving doesn't exist, the French had no shame beginning Christmas decorations back in mid-November. 5 days before Thanksgiving, the lights official lit up, and Christmas markets began. The Cour Mirabeau is now a spectacular sight in the evenings!
In other news, exam dates are finally set! I have four exams in two weeks, and I will be all completely down on December 14th! From there on out, it'll just be partying pretty much...I can't believe it's all coming to an end so soon! But very exciting new! The fam bam is coming to France for Christmas! My parents and sister are going to come over, and we're going to visit a bunch of close-by Provencal towns, and also hit up Nice, Monaco, and Italy! It's going to be a delightful Christmas.
Since my exams end so early, I was also able to change my flight back home. So now I am going back to Boston on January 4th! I am very excited! But at the same time, it's scary to think that I have only a little over a month left in my semester abroad....time to cram in as much Frenchness as possible!
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