Saturday, November 26, 2011

Where did November Go?!

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!

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!

Host mom and host brother!

Nathan, best host brother in the world! 

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!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Adventures through Spain - Madrid and Granada!

Happy November!

This past week, we had our week-long Toussaint vacation. My friends and I were lucky to have the opportunity to travel to Spain! We visited Madrid and Granada, and it was such a wonderful trip! Since there were so many things that happened on the trip, I'll just talk about some highlights!

Tapas and Paella

I have never had paella before, but I have now developed a slight obsession with it. We had some really delicious paella when we were in Spain! Paella is basically a kind of boiled rice, with meat and vegetables. It is traditionally cooked in a large dish, also called a paella.
Tapas is also another Spanish tradition. Instead of eating a full-on 3 course meal, the Spanish like to eat several small dishes. We had delicious tapas like tortillas espagnola (Spanish omelette), croquettes, and paella. (Also - dinner in Spain is around 10pm....)
Before
After
As you can tell, I really like tapas....

Madrid
We spent a total of 4 days in Madrid - 2 in the beginning, and then 2 at the end. Unfortunately, the day we arrived in Madrid, it was pouring! So that was no good. But luckily, we were able to find some hot chocolate and churros, and enjoy those instead. We also took a 3-tour walking tour of Madrid, so we got to see all the main sites: Puerta del Sol, Palacio Real, Theatro Real. We also went to the two most famous museums in Spain: Museo Prada and the Reina Sofia. The Prado had more classical and Renaissance art, including works by Velasquez, El Greco, and Goya. The Reina Sofia is where the Guernica is! We got to see that as well, which was incredible. The museum didn't allow photographs in the gallery where the Guernica was, but we were allowed to take photos elsewhere, so I got some good shots of works of Salvador Dali and Miro. Another spot we hit up with the Mercado de San Miguel. It was an indoor market/eatery, sort of like Quincy Market for any Boston readers! We got delicious froyo, and it was just such a pleasant atmosphere.
My favorite sight in Madrid has to be the Retiro Park. This beautiful park was super large, and had the most amazing leaves and forests. We are right in the transition here from Summer to Fall, so the view was breathtaking. Here are some pictures!



Here is also a picture of the town hall across from Puerta del Sol. The night lights were so beautiful!


Granada
After two days in Madrid, my friend and I took a 5-hour long bus down to Granada, the Andalusian area of the south of Spain. It was a much smaller city, with white-washed buildings and walls. The city is located at the foot of the Alhambra - a Moorish palace and fortress complex from the 14th century. The architecture is full of Arabic influences! Apparently, tickets for the Alhambra are supposed to be reserved well in advance, so when we showed up at our hostel and told them we hoped to see the Alhambra but hadn't reserved tickets, we were judged. So instead, we woke up bright and early on Sunday morning, and walked our way up the giant hill. When we arrived at 7:30am, there was already a long line waiting at the ticket office! As we waited in line, there was a speaker who kept announcing the number of remaining tickets for the day! But thankfully, we were able to get tickets! And it was so well worth it. The Alhambra was spectacular - the garden complex, the Generalife, and the palace complex were so beautifully kept, and the architecture was incredible. From the watch tower, we also got an amazing view of all of Granada. Here are some of my favorite photos. 

Palacio de Generalife
View over Granada!
The main Palace - Court of the Myrtles 
Court of the Myrtles again - we took this photo with many different settings....
View over Granada
Arabic architecture 
We spent a total of SEVEN HOURS at the Alhambra! It was pretty crazy. We hit every single "Do not miss" attraction, and basically all the other attractions. I think it's safe to say we really enjoyed the Alhambra :) 

We got back to Aix last night, and was greeted with a horrible rainstorm. But still - it feels nice to be back in our comfy homes, and to be able to read and understand all the French! 
Coming up this weekend: Olive harvest and Orange (the color) Brunch! 

I hear it already snowed back in Boston! Be safe everybody!