Sara Tweets

webcam is broken so you would probably rather skype maggie or emily #tinycomputerproblems

Sara Tweets

operation clean out renauds nasty kitchen has commenced #notenoughwindexintheworld

So much has happened!!!!

We have been to our classes (only one session of each - but enough to know whether we like them or not). I am taking a class about Provence history/culture/la vie quotidienne (everyday life), a class about literature and history from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, a french conversation class, and a class about art and literature of the 20th century.  So far I really like all of my classes - but the Provence one seems especially cool.  We will be doing many creative projects and the class and very little actual (read Duke style 1000s of pages of readings daily) work.  Our big project is to make a carnet (scrapbook) of our life in Provence - which is pretty much what I was planning on doing/have already begun to do.  Also in a few weeks we have a small picture slideshow/exhibition due.  So basically this is like an art class with history and culture thrown in!  Magnifique!!  Classes seem like they will be really interesting and informative (with the exception of Conversation which while immensely helpful, seems daunting - we have to read the French newspapers weekly!).

As part of our program, we eat with families 4 times a week.  They cook for us and we walk to their home for a delicious dinner!  Emily is in one group and Sara and I are in another.  But Sara and my family is really great.  It is a woman, Corinne, and her son, Cristophe (who is our age - except wait he's younger because now I am old and wise and 21! - so he's 20).  Cristophe did some sort of culinary work (or maybe study in school, it's a bit unclear) but he knows a ton about food - or at least he thinks he does, so he always critiques his mom.  But he's not mean about it and she usually just laughs it off anyway - it's just a bit strange.  Anyway, the are both very nice and our dinners thus far have been wonderful.  My favorite was two nights ago (Wednesday) when we had a really nice gratin aux courgettes (creamed zucchini) haricot verts avec des tomates (green beans and tomatoes in dressing) and fried salt cod.  And we had camembert - it was divine, I had 3-4 wedges.  But oh my!!! The cheese here is wonderful.  At some point Cristophe is going to make sushi for us - he loves sushi, so we are all looking forward to that.

Yesterday was my birthday and thanks to Emily and Sara I had a wonderful 21st.  Breakfast was fun but difficult.  The place we went to (cafe splendide) was by no means splendid - in fact it was the opposite - so awful.  The service was stereotypical French (which is mostly lies, that is to say, our service was very bad but by no means representative of french wait staff in general) and took forever.  We also had very little food for very much money.  I also had espresso - which apparently is not my friend.  It made me jittery and anxious (even more so that usual) for the next few hours.  Right before my afternoon class, the Vanderbilt ladies in charge brought me an apple and almond tarte for my birthday.  It was super delicious!  So we all had that before class started.  After dinner (my family promised me a birthday with chocolate mousse and champagne on Monday) Emily and Sara gave me my presents.  I got fresh strawberries, champagne, a mug, chocolates, and a book (Le Petit Nicholas, a french children's series thus very funny and very easy to read).  It was a lovely birthday - but then it got better.  Sara, Emily, and I plus our Vanderbilt roommates went out for birthday drinks.  A few other people in our program met us and it was very French - meaning it was wonderful and we sat at a sidewalk bar and we talked for awhile.  All in all a lovely birthday!

Here are some things we have learned about Renaud:

- he enjoys room temperature milk and grenadine (a fruit syrup) - he calls it strawberry milk
- his oven is literally impossible to use
- he has a van (with no windows) to keep his motorbike safe
- he has a movie room/theater in our backyard - apparently we can watch movies there

Sara and her souvenir from the bar last night - the Corona (beer) fedora

(I ran downstairs to snap this photograph. Sara is Renaud's new muse.  -Emily)

Memorable quotes:

Emily: "I hear Renaud making strange noises..."

La Rotunde: the main traffic circle at the beginning of the Cours Mirabeau

Le Francais et L'ambition

Sept. 13- Sara

                For the past 2 years I have lived with a Taiwanese-American roommate so I have been fairly well educated in the culture of Asian-Americans and all the expectations with being the child of immigrants. Christine was shocked that being a teacher was on my list of potential careers. She asked me “Don’t you want to be more successful than your parents?” (They are both doctors and Fulbright scholars so in anyone’s estimation the bar is high). I however, have no desire to surpass my parents either financially or in renown. What Christine faults me for in lack of ambition seems to fall into line well with the culture here in France Universities in France are all public and the competition to go to the very best school is not nearly as intense as in the US. I have even been told that it is rude to ask someone what they do for a living where in the US, that is typically the central topic on first meeting someone.Here it is more important to enjoy daily luxuries like eating delicious French food (by taking an hour or two for lunch) and buying beautiful clothing than saving up to own the biggest and most beautiful house or two or three incredibly gas-inefficient cars. As someone who has never had a knack for saving money and loves food  I am finding these parts of French culture très agréable.  

Les Marchés en Plein Air

In nearly all French cities there are open air markets where you can buy anything from fresh produce, to cheese, to small cakes, to table linens, to shoes.  The markets in Aix however are especially fabulous.  We took a tour (led by an American woman) of the markets – during which she gave us some historical facts, many samples, and a few insider’s tips.  We sampled many artisanal foods (the south of France is very big on food cultivation as a profession – for instance you can be a professional/artisanal cheese maker – my new ideal job by the way).  Our first sample was madeleines (small cakes, similar to pound cake, created for the daughter of Louis XV) made by a professionally trained baker.  They were absolutely divine.  Then we had olives (which I thought I didn’t like, but turns out I do!), saucissons (which are similar to sliced cold cuts), and goat cheese (chèvre - my favorite!!!!!!!!).  We sampled two types of chèvre – a 1 day old and a 20 day old.  I much preferred the 20 day old.  It had a brie like skin or outer layer and then goat cheese in the middle (similar, but much superior to what we have in the US).   Our guide also talked about champignons (mushrooms).  Apparently every pharmacist in France must be able to tell you if your mushroom is poisonous or not.  Some mushrooms have crazy names like “sheep’s foot” or “trumpet of death”!

Our tour guide also gave us Calissons (the famous Aixoise candy) and she described the history.  The candies date back to the 1400s and were created in honor of Roi (king) Rene’s second marriage.  He was 45, she was 22 – classic Medieval love story.  Apparently the candies were the only things that made the poor bride smile!  Even their composition is historically important.  The top white icing symbolizes the purity of the bride, and the wafer on the bottom symbolizes the Catholic traditions.  The name for the candy comes from Old Southern French – Langue d’Oc.  The candies are so important to Aix that every Christmas there is a blind tasting competition of the seven candy makers to see which is the best. 

Today’s tour was without a doubt one of my favorite things so far about Aix.  It combined my love of food with my love of history (picture me scribbling notes – 2 pages, thank you very much, - between bites of fresh chèvre !  I can’t wait to buy tons tons tons of fresh produce, cheese, and other Aixoise goodies aux marchés en plein air !!

Aixoise Spices  

Aixoise tomatoes - have you ever seen more delicious looking ones?!?!

Me at the cheese stall - I feel like Dennis (the guy in blue) and I are going to be good friends this semester!

Mme Monchal cautions us to stay away from bad boys

September 12, 2011 - Emily and Maggie

Today we woke up to recorders!  Their melodies were occasionally punctuated by the noise of the garbage truck in the street.  

(During orientation in English, so we couldn't claim that we misunderstood anything)
Mme Monchal: Don't spend your time trying to keep up with . . . what is it?  Bad Boys.
Good thing we don't watch Mad Men anyway.

We didn't entirely avoid bad boys.  Evidence: we are still here, and Renaud is still here.  There was some drama (read: a serious conversation not in front of anyone else--he was actually summoned to the centre, probably by Mme Monchal's magical powers) with the in charge ladies today (they are great), which probably included more drama than my entire life has had.

Maggie: Living with Sara, you just find the strangest things . . . like her phone in the bathroom.

(A few days ago)
Emily: I know why I'm tired, it was that sip of wine I had earlier!

La Vie à Aix

Yesterday, Emily and I work up and went out to explore.  We grabbed a late breakfast at a boulangerie (bread store).  I had a mini baguette with chocolate chips and Emily had a ½ baguette.  We also walked through the marché en plein air (open air market) where we marveled at the sights and sounds of southern France. In an effort to get basic necessities for our Auberge, Emily and I tried Monoprix (a target like French chain).  We found some things like shampoo and toothpaste.  We also found clothes that we wanted to buy but didn’t.  Then, we came back and grabbed Sara for lunch.  I ate a jambon et beurre sandwich (ham and butter on a baguette) and had water and a shortbread cookie – all for 5 euro!  Later, we met up with the group and took a never-ending walking tour around Aix.  We walked down tiny medieval streets with cobblestones (in the mornings these streets are washed and thus very slippery).   One interesting thing about Aix is that there are tons of fountains.  There are traditional European round fountains with statues but there are also these 2 fountains that are essentially large square rocks covered in moss and ferns – they are gorgeous and by far my favorite.  We stopped in a confiserie (candy store) and bought calissons, which are famous Aixoise candies.  They are basically a paste (not unlike marzipan) made of melon with a hard royal icing top layer.  They are very delightful!  We went to a crêperie for dinner with the group.  We (and by that I mean Sara and Emily) had some very interesting philosophical debates with another boy on our trip.  I was very impressed with Sara and Emily – basically I was silent the whole time while they kept up with this philosophy guy.  It was quite impressive.

Today we went to Cassis – which is a town on the Mediterranean coast about an hour away by bus.  It is gorgeous/wonderful!  There is a beach and instead of sand, it had pebbles!  It was nice to walk on (for awhile) – it felt like a slightly uncomfortable foot massage – but after 15 minutes of walked it felt like walking on sharp rock daggers.  Emily went for a swim in the ocean and Sara napped/tanned.  I mostly avoided the sun (thanks to the help of gallons of sunscreen and Emily’s large wide-brimmed “tourist” hat).  We also went on a boat ride around the coast – Emily and I sat inside the boat but Sara sat on the outside – she was splashed very often.  After some beach time we a group of us walked around the city, stopped in some boutiques, and bought snacks – I bought caramels.  For lunch Sara and I had Kir – a famous Cassis drink!  It is white wine (ours wasn’t very good quality) with cassis (black current) syrup.  It was quite refreshing and we felt très française.  All in all, our sojourn to Cassis was delightful – and will probably be repeated.

Some observations about France:

-       - Swim shorts are very popular as regular everyday shorts from French men/boys.  I have seen about 7 French men wearing swim shorts as real shorts.

-       - Also man purses are very popular here. 

-      -  I’ve only seen tiny dogs (Chihuahuas and miniature poodles) or giant dogs (St Bernards and Huskies)

-      -  Those fountains I mentioned serve as water fountains (as long as they do not say – Ce n’est pas potable – this is not potable).  Emily filled up her Nalgene in one yesterday and she is still alive.  So I think I’ll trust the fountains.  

My favorite fountain in Aix

The beach in Cassis

The Cassis harbor