Popes, Another Lucky Pot, and Guests!

To make up for our lazy last weekend we did tons this weekend!

We had another guest, Nick (you may or may not have heard of him, some say he is kind of a big deal)!!  He arrived Thursday morning - Emily and I picked him up from the bus station.  We all hung out/went to class/walked around town (in various and sundry combinations) Thursday afternoon.  Thursday night Sara and I took Nick to have dinner with our host family.  Unfortunately we forgot that we were supposed to get there 30 minutes early.  Fortunately we brought champagne and raspberries (Nick's hostess gift).  Also we had sour kraut and potatoes for dinner.  It was delicious - I personally love love love sour kraut.  After dinner Nick, Sara, and I met with Emily and some of our other friends at a cafe for dessert/drinks.

Friday we got up and met our friend Laura at the neighborhood boulangerie for a bible study/catch up session.  It was really nice - an energizing way to start the day!  Then we met Caroline and we all went off to Marseille.  Here is some background about Marseille: it is on the Mediterranean sea, it was originally a Greek settlement (as in the Golden Age of Greece - wabam! it's that old) named Massilia, it gets mixed reviews.  Our Provence class teacher lives there and loves loves loves/raves about it.  Our host/dinner brother, Christophe, detestes Marseille.  Nearly every meal (whenever Marseille is brought up), Christophe decries the city and says how dangerous it is.  He tells us to never ever go there (unless we want to die...).  When we told him we were going on Wednesday for a class field trip - he said "I hope you survive".  His diatribes (friendly - but prevalent nonetheless) are basically a dinner group joke now.  But despite all his warnings we went to Marseille.  We took the bus from Aix (it took approximately one and a half hours to buy tickets - typical France...) and then the Metro (yes, you read correctly, Marseille has a metro system) to the Vieux Port (old port).  We grabbed lunch in the area.  I made the mistake of ordering a very heavy cream sauce pasta - it haunted me (aka sat heavily in my stomach) all day.  We took the bus up to Notre Dame de la Garde - a catholic basilica on top of the hill.  The views over the Mediterranean were gorgeous - it was just before sunset so the light was a dream.  The sun was breaking through the clouds in rays and then the rays hit the ocean so you could see sun spots on the ocean.  It was one of the coolest things I've seen this semester.  The basilica itself was very beautiful.  The outside was green and white striped stone (a bit like the Duomo).  The decorations inside were really spectacular - very ornate painted walls and ceilings.  I really enjoyed the church.  After taking tons tons tons of great photos we took the bus down (I got mega car sick) and headed back to Aix.  We split up with Laura and Caroline for a bit - but then after dinner (only an apple for me) we headed over to their place for a movie - Invictus.  Then bed time!!

Saturday was work work work.  Nick and Sara got up a bit late, so we didn't make it to the marche until noonish.  After speed shopping there we headed back, Nick took an afternoon length nap.  I worked on an essay about Phedre (not my best ever...) and Sara did some creative work (designed her website, emailed some people).  After 5 we woke up Nick and started preparing for our pot luck.  Sara made pasta with Vodka sauce.  I swept/cleaned the auberge.  We listened to Christmas music during our prep - it was delightful.  Everyone came over around 7:30.  It was definitely the best pot luck of the semester - people brought great food - everyone really stepped it up.  We had a tomato tart, rosemary vegetables, salad, sara's pasta, cheese, bread, egg/sausage/green pepper sandwiches, pesto risotto, and apple cake.  Then Emily and her parents (who are in town for the week) popped in with wine, cheese, and grapes!  Everyone stayed for almost 3 hours!!!  Sara, Nick, and I talked with Emily's parents a bunch.  They were wonderful - no wonder Emily is so great!  After the pot luck ended, we talked some more with the Galls.  Then we went to bed.

Sunday (today) we got up a bit early and headed out quickly to meet Emily's parents who were going to take us to Avignon!!  I have been trying to go to Avignon all semester.  It was too rainy last weekend, and the only weekend it was too expensive.  In an example of French highway robbery, the bus to Avignon costs 35 euros!!!  But because the Galls have a rental car, we were able to go today for free.99 (aka no money!!!).  It was so kind of them to take us along.  We got to the city around 10 so we parked our car and headed to the Palais des Papes.  History lesson!!!!!  From 1309-1377 the popes were based in Avignon (also called the Babylonian Captivity).  During that time there were 7 (legitimate) popes (all French, and all increasingly loyal to the French crown).  The move happened because of political instability in Italy - the civil war between the Guelfs and Ghibellines was particularly out of hand during this period.  Part of the Avignon papacy witnessed the Western Schism, in which there were two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon - both of which claimed to be the real pope.  There were two such instances between 1378-1423. But that's enough history for now!  So basically the Palais des Papes was the Papal Palace for some years in the 14th century.  We took a tour - complete with audio guides!  We saw many large stone rooms - dining halls, chapels, meeting rooms, antechambers to the papal apartments.  Some rooms were had painted walls - sadly we could take pictures - but they were very beautiful.  Another cool thing: there was an exhibit (and then later some rooms) of painted ceramic tiles.  Chronologically, first there were mostly geometric designs, then later the designs became more complicated and featured animals (real and imaginary).  After the Palais, we had a leisurely lunch and then set off to the Pont Saint-Benezet.  It is a very old bridge that was built after a man, Benezet, received a message from God in which he was told he must build a bridge across the Rhone river in Avignon.  When he mentioned his command to the Pope and citizens, they all laughed at him and told him that they would believe him if he could lift an incredibly (and up until that point unliftable) boulder.  He did and they were convinced.   We had more audio guides for the bridge but I can't remember anything specific - except this little gem.  At one point, during a papal procession on the bridge, two cardinals slipped on the icy bridge and fell into the Rhone.  Luckily boatmen saved them!  The Pope, after ordering the bridge to be paved, offered his own doctor and gave the two men money to make them feel better!  After the bridge we walked back to the car and drove home.  The Galls dropped us home and we made dinner.  Then the Galls returned and we had bread, red wine, pasta carbonara, salad and chocolate molten cake.  All very delicious.  Then Nick did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen - it was fantastic!!!

So that was our super duper busy weekend.  Now I have two more Provençal cities to add to my scrapbook!!  Next weekend we go to Madrid to visit some friends from Duke - so that should be swell.  Other than that - the end of the semester is rapidly approaching!  Only five weeks left - which I am happy about.  I can't wait to get back home and see everyone in Jax and celebrate Christmas!!!!

View of Marseille/Mediterranean from Notre Dame de la Garde

Notre Dame de la Garde

Marseille/Chateau D'If in the Mediterranean sea

SARA!!!

Maggie 

Duke in Marseille: Nick, Sara, Maggie

More Marseille

Inside Notre Dame de la Garde

Model of Palais des Papes

Call me Ansel Adams:Avignon through a window

Chapel in Palais des Papes - not how tiny the people are!

Maggie, Sara, Emily on Pont Saint-Benezet

Palais des Papes

La rentrée

The past week was not extraordinary, which is to say that is was normal.

We arrived home from London on Sunday and didn't start classes again until Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday were blurs - we were sick, tired, and only left the auberge twice I believe.  One bright spot was Halloween - it was Monday night.  Another auberge was having a fête, so Emily, Sara, and I dressed up and brought candy.  I dressed up as a "french person".  I wore a striped shirt, baret, and black pants.  Emily was Eloise at the Plaza, and Sara was Jimmy Neutron.  It was really great to see everyone after their breaks.  Also the party was a nice excuse to get out after being cooped up in the auberge for so long.


Our rentrée (restarting classes) was unremarkable.  On Thursday I had my bénévolat (volunteering) at the school.  I was asked to explain Guy Fawkes night to the children (the 6ème, 12 year olds).  As it is their first year of English, I tried to speak slowly and use simple words (tried instead of attempted...).  Once I finished my simple explanation, the teacher asked if they understood what I had said and the all answer "pas du tout" (not at all).  Then she asked if they understood any individual words.  A few raised their hands and responded "king" "very" "sixteen".  Clearly my explanation was not very helpful.  So I tried again in French and they got it - so many little light bulbs went off!  It was pretty funny. 


This past weekend, Sara had a friend from Paris come to stay with us while Emily went to Paris to visit a friend from high school.  Sara's amie was MK.  I had met her the first time I was in Paris, a few weeks ago.  Despite the extremely rainy and windy weekend (it poured all weekend!!) we had a good time.  Sara and MK walked around town a bunch and went to the local art museum.  We also spent a good amount of time at the auberge working on letters (a bunch of our Duke friends send us letters last week, so I had to write them all back - luckily this allowed me to whittle down the insane stack of postcards I have accumulated this semester) and scrapbooks (I am making 2, one for a class assignment about Provence, and another that includes all of my trips outside of Provence).  One night we went out to dinner and the other we visited another auberge for a pot luck!  I assumed that not many people would go to the pot luck because, oh guess what, it was POURING that night (luckily the auberge was only about a five minute walk for us) but everyone who was in town went.  I believe there were about 18 people there.  It was a blast!  Auberge Bellegarde (that's us) is going to host a pot luck/lucky pot (as the french call them) this Saturday.  


I had to buy a new SIM card today for my cell phone (which is actually Sara's old Kenyan phone) because I lost mine in London.  Luckily the SIM card was not too expensive at all.  I went to the cell phone store and waited forever (it was worse than going to the apple store in the US).  During my long wait, I started to get worried that the phone wouldn't work, or that I hadn't brought the proper form of ID (just general Maggie type worries) but luckily everything worked out, and I now have a working phone.  


Our good friend from Duke, Nick Bodnar, is coming to visit us this weekend.  Faithful readers will recall that we saw Nick just two weeks ago in London.  He will arrive on Thursday and stay for the weekend.  It will be fun.  We are planning to go to Marseille on day and also to have a pot luck.  

 

L'halloween: Eloise (Emily), French person (Maggie), Jimmy Neutron (Sara)

Party Mode Emily: aka let me take a nap on the couch and wear a witch's hat

DJ Sara, she's got the moves like Jagger 

Emily and Maggie 

Sara Tweets

Loving my printing press drawer #iheartfleamarkets

The London Daze Oct 25-30

We arrived in London late Wednesday afternoon (we decided to stay in Oxford a bit longer to attend the Inklings tour).  We took the longer train.  It was very nice, a good opportunity for those much needed naps and also it offered beautiful views of the English countryside.

When we got to our hostel we quickly realized that London is tres cher!  Our hostel didn't offer free wifi, towels, or breakfast (all required big bucks!) and there was an inattendu fee of 10 pounds (to become a member of the hostel chain).  Needless to say I was more than a bit miffed.  I pouted for a bit (boo, Maggie) and then cheered up when Laura and Nick arrived.  Once we all settled into our room we decided to go find a pub for dinner.  Another thing about London - all the pubs (everywhere) are packed packed packed full to the gills starting from about 5:30 PM.  Clearly the Londoners know how to relax after work. We wandered around for nearly 2 hours before we found a place - it turned out to be a restaurant more so than a pub, but it was still super delightful.  Though the walk was long, it wasn't too terrible - at first we weren't even hungry.  Also it allowed us to see cool London bits - like the Thames!  Our first London dinner was a blast!  We talked for several hours.  Nick and I bonded (again) over Arrested Development (the best show ever ever ever).

The next morning, we scampered over to the local Starbucks to get coffee and wifi (but mostly wifi) and we were astonished/chagrined/amused/bemused (cemused?) to see Occupy St. Pauls.  Our hostel, despite having several hidden fees, had a great location - right by St. Paul's Cathedral (rumored to rival/resemble St. Peter's Basilica).  However the whole courtyard out front was (and is being) occupied by protestors of the Occupy Wallstreet persuasion.  Even though we walked by their encampment many times daily, we could never quite place their objectives.  As far as I can at best the are making people reconsider certain things (capitalism, the wealth gap in the world...) and at worst they are disorganized and confused.  It was strange to see them right outside of Starbucks every morning - as Starbucks is quite capitalist it made for a nice juxtaposition.

Thursday was a brilliant day!  After coffee/occupy St. Paul's we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I had been there before and loved it!  The highlights were the Islamic tiles (I LOVE Islamic tile art), the jewelry, the Medieval tapestries (when Henry VIII died in 1547 he had over 2700 tapestries!!) and stained glass through the ages (I prefer the older Medieval ones).  After that we met our good friend Claire McIlvenny's parents for tea.  We all go to Duke with Claire, she is our resident culture prime minister - she's British, so naturally she's cooler than all of us.  Anyway her parents took us out to tea at The Orangery at Kensington palace.  It was absolutely delightful - a proper high tea with finger sandwiches (the cucumber and cream cheese were divine), scones, and small desserts.  I need to start having more high tea in my life.  After a long and luxurious tea we dashed off to Westminster Abbey for Evensong.  It was very wonderful.  The choir was beautiful - and composed of little boys!  Also I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Anglican atmosphere.

On Friday our two friends who are studying in Madrid, Katherine and Karen, met us.  We went to the changing of the guard (been there, done that already - the second time is was just as crowded and boring) and Harrods (ditto).  I was pretty tired all morning so I didn't really enjoy the massive crowds at either location very much.  But we had lunch in Hyde Park which was very nice and relaxing.  In Hyde Park we had an interesting interaction with a swam.  Karen really wanted to touch him but I was terrified because he was huge and could probably break one of our arms with one swift wallop from his neck.  He was also bigger than a normal sized toddler.  Scary.  Later we went to the National Gallery and saw some Van Goghs (Sun Flowers) and some Monets - I really enjoyed the bridge paintings.  Later Karen, Laura, Emily and Katie went to see a play (which they thoroughly enjoyed) and Katherine Sara and I camped out in a pub (it wasn't an occupation though, don't worry).  Nick ended up meeting us and we had a blast!

Saturday was super excellent.  We went to Portobello Road Market.  It was super crowded (just like the rest of London!).  I bought some little trinkets for myself and a few Christmas presents.  Sara found an old print type drawer (picture a pull out drawer with tons of little cells/boxes inside) which she had been looking for for ages.  So it was a major score!  We also met up with another Duke friend, Robert Francis, for a bit.  After Portobello road we wandered about London.  We went to the Sherlock Holmes museum (giftshop only - museum was too expensive) on Baker street.  After that we stopped for a spot of tea.  The we headed over to the Tower Bridge and found Nick.  We walked around that area, popped in the Globe theater (gift shop only again) and then walked back to the hostel to regroup.  We regrouped on the steps of St. Paul's and while there witnessed something that scarred Emily FOREVER.  An old man fake Irish dancing.  He was mostly just shuffling his feet around whilst wearing a kilt.  Not at all legitimate.  Emily was quite indignant.  Then we headed to an area that someone recommended for dinner - calling it a place with "tons of restaurants and nightlife".  False.  It was the heart of the financial district.  There were tons of places to eat but there were all closed - presumably they only open for lunch.  So we repeated our multi-hour dinner quest (we seemed to end up doing that every night).  We finally found a place and ordered fish and chips for dinner.  I also had a cider.  All in all, it was quite satisfying after our long hunt.

London was quite enjoyable.  It was wonderful to be with so many friends (though a bit trying at times trying to coordinate everyone's needs).  Also Portobello Road was definitely a highlight.  We could have stayed there exploring and shopping for hours (due to the horrific exchange rate, it is was a good thing we didn't).  I also loved meeting the McIlvennys for tea.  It was so much fun getting to know them - even though I did miss Claire terribly this week.

Occupy St. Pauls

Islamic Tiles!!!!

Laura and Maggie at high tea

Duke girls and our new friend, Ben

That swam is dangerously close to whomping this child

Katherine, Laura, Karen, Sara, Maggie, Emily (reunited and it feels so good)

The Globe Theater

St. Paul's (minus the tent city)

Protest!! "General strike, David Cameron ride your bike!"

No, this is not K-Ville at Duke.  This is K-Ville's study abroad program in London.

Sara Tweets

starting to miss my sewing machine #surpressingthecraftiness

Overheard last night

November 1 - Emily (actually blogging!)

Sara to me:  Hey. Can you help me strap on my jet pack?

Oxford: We go to a pub and get kicked out of a walking tour...

Oxford: October 23-25

We left for Oxford Monday afternoon.  At the train station we ran into an old friend, the violinist from Saturday night’s concert!  Sara, being the friendly gal that she is, went up and introduced herself and told him how good he was during the concert.  According to her, he seemed a bit flustered so Sara backed off, but not before figuring out that he too was going to Oxford!!!  He is actually a student there.  So we got on the train, with Harry, and headed to the city of dreaming spires (that is literally their nickname – something to do with all the spires on the various colleges’ buildings and the fact that students dream (?))

Oxford was wonderful – so educational!!!!  Our first real event was when we attempted to join the free tour.  We saw a group of meeting in the correct meeting spot, asked one of the participants if this was the free tour, to which she responded yes, and headed off with the free tour.  Or so we thought.  Turns out, we were actually not on the free tour, the girl we asked had literally no idea what we had said (she was French…).  So when we were asked to produce our tickets a few minutes later before entering some important and collegiate building, we responded that were had mistakenly believed this to be the free tour, and we were asked to leave.  Whoops!

There is terribly much to do in Oxford, unless you are a student, in which case you are tremendously busy and important all of the time.  As a tourist however you mostly just walk around a bunch and take tons of pictures, and try to sneak into tours or colleges, because Oxford is on the collegiate system.  Basically that means that there are 38 colleges.  Upon entering into the University you are accepted into one of the colleges and live and eat there your first year.  Within each college all subjects are taught (no one college specializes in one subject over others).  The main method of teaching is that weekly students meet with their individual tutor who gives them an assignment/reading/essay to be completed and discussed at the next meeting.  There are lectures and labs sponsored by the university, which you attend as a student as well.  All in all I do not think I would like this system because there doesn’t seem to be much of a plan and also it seems quite isolating.  But tons of people like it.  It takes all kinds of people.

The first day we snuck into Lincoln college and walked around the quad and in some buildings.  All the colleges have a bright green immaculately cut quad lawn.  Very beautiful.  Also there are about 3 million bikes in Oxford – most of which driven by students.  The bikers are indeed assassins who will try their hardest to run you over. 

I took tons tons tons of notes during the free tour (we acutally found it!) the next day.  Our tour guide kept mocking me and saying that he was going to include fake facts.  But yo – I’m a history major.  Taking notes about cool facts is in my blood.  Allow me to share some of my favorites:

-       every year there is a tortoise race among colleges #whathappenswhentoomanynerdsaretogether

-       the Harry Potter hospital scenes (1^st movie) and dance class scenes (4^th movie) were filmed in the Divinity School – which Sara and I visited

-       Cambridge University will never accept an Oxford reject – also you cannot apply to Cambridge and Oxford at the same time – there is a register in England that keeps track of all the schools to which you apply

-       Hitler decided not to bomb Oxford because he wanted it as his capital city of England

-       In 1355 the town attacked the students and killed 63 students #townvsgown

In the afternoon Sara and I went to the Science museum.  She loved it!  I was really tired at point.  But we saw Einstein’s chalkboard upon which he proved relativity to Oxford.  It was pretty cool – it stull had the equations on it.

Our last night in Oxford we went to the Eagle and Child pub where JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis (and others) had weekly Inklings meetings.  Inklings was a literary society that both Tolkein and Lewis joined while undergrads at Oxford and where both pitched their manuscripts.  We had pub food – good but unremarkable.  What was really delicious was the cider!!!  It is essentially half apple juice half beer and all delicious – and cheap!! 

Wednesday Emily, Katie, and I went on the Inklings tour.  The guide took us (we were the only participants that day) to places where Lewis or Tolkein studied/lived/worked/wrote/were inspired.  It was pretty cool.  My favorite fact was that when Tolkein entered Oxford in 1911 as a freshman he was put on the Oxford English Dictionary Committee researching the letter W.  Tolkein also wrote the Hobbit as he graded papers.

All in all I really enjoyed Oxford.  It was very educative.  Our hostel was also super cool (and had all the free perks as the last one – same chain).  The common room always had people in it.  It looked like how TV shows try to depict college common rooms.  Very colorful and people hanging out everywhere.  Also everyone who worked there was super nice.  

Lincoln College: so much fall!!!

Oxford: tons of colleges and bikers all around

Divinity School: Harry Potter!!!!!

Tolkein and Lewis drank here...

...and so did Maggie and Sara (ciders!)