What is your culture?

After spending so much time studying foreign cultures, sometimes it is necessary to sit back and consider what is your own culture?  How does my culture influence my perceptions and sense of success in other cultures?  If you don't understand who you are, you can't understand who they are.

Here are some ways in which I identify myself and the cultures I fit into:
-student
-Colorado native
-study abroad adventurer
-traveler
-hiker
-U.S. American
-French speaker
-daughter
-sister
-friend
-animal lover
-free spirit
-Living in the moment.
-Knowing I want to make a difference in this world.

So let me ask: How do you identify?

-Danielle

Happy Birthday!

Birthday month has arrived and went off with a good start!

It's odd to say I'm 21 now, but I suppose it would be more odd if I hadn't studied abroad.  On Monday evening, I went out for one of the most delicious dinners with my roommate at a local restaurant called Cafe Vino in Fort Collins.  We shared gorgonzola pear ravioli and an artichoke/ pesto/ eggplant/ goat cheese pizza.  Is your mouth watering yet?  Of course I also enjoyed my first drink at a restaurant in the United States with my dinner.  I decided to go with something nostalgic from French: a nice red wine from the Côtes du Rhone region.

I guess after studying abroad in France, it was almost more weird to come home and not be able to enjoy a glass of wine with my dinner than it was to order my first drink in the United States.  Of course the waitress checked my ID, and told me welcome to being 21!

P.S. Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!

Gratefully yours,
Danielle

Everyday Aix 2

I already posted some pictures of my "everyday Aix," but I felt that I couldn't stop at that... so the post is continuing!

Like I mentioned, many of the wonderful moments of my life in Aix were little everyday happenings... arriving at the bakery for a fresh pain au chocolat coming out of the oven, walking through old Aix and seeing walls/ buildings/ street layout from hundreds and thousands of years ago, and watching French people walk their dogs down Cours Mirabeau on a sunny day come to mind.

Here are more pictures to show you my life.

Excursion with my honors course to Chateau Marguii, a vineyard and winery in Provence.
Photo courtesy of Leigh Smith.

Walking home from school and seeing -> 

Library time at school... Despite a lot of what I've highlighted, I did actually spend a good amount of time studying and learning about France!  Also, this library was really cool with nooks and crannies for studying with books covering the walls.

Even with studying I had to take some time to enjoy cafés on sunny afternoons.  This photo was taken at the end of the year when my honors class got together to enjoy a glass of provencal rosé... compliments of our teacher!

Flour markets or outdoor markets in general.

Fountains everywhere!! This was at Hotel de Ville.

Passing the Cathédrale St Sauveur at night and seeing its incredible architecture lit up.

Art Party

At the end of the semester, the Marchutz art school put on an evening of exhibition to display everyone's art and enjoy everyone's company.  I had two pieces on display... a still-life and a painting of Mont St. Victoire.  As the evening continued, music was put on in the studio and everyone started dancing.  Even our teacher was breaking out some moves! It was definitely a fun and memorable end to one of the best parts in Aix... my art class.

Beautiful Mont St. Victoire  (I wish this was my work...)

Art, wine, and conversation.

Having some fun too!

Les Gorges du Verdon

What a beautiful life.

Ile du Frioul (Marseille)

Towards the end of the spring semester, the weather finally started getting warm enough to think about a beach and swimming.  With some last minute plans, a friend and I set out for Marseille to find a beach.  After arriving at the train station, we ran into a large group of students heading to the island just off of Marseille so we joined them.

We arrived at the Old Port in Marseille to catch a ferry.  It was a nice ride and we went past the Chateau d'If, made famous with the Count of Monte Cristo, and arrived at the second island, l'ile du Frioul.  Here, we took a short hike in the sweltering heat, past the main beach, and to a private cove.  It was worth it even after having to deal with some dive-bombing seagulls... their young were walking around on the top of the hill after-all.

It was surreal with the blues and greens in the water and now I can check "swimming in the Mediterranean" off of my list!

In the distance you can see Chateau d'If.

Our cove.

Everyday Aix

While I took many amazing trips to areas in Provence, France, and other European countries, something has to be said about the pleasure I found in my everyday life.  Walking through Aix and seeing history unfold, stumbling upon markets every day, and enjoying a spot in the sun were some of life's little pleasures.

Here are some of the highlights of my "everyday Aix."

Place de l'Universite... (right outside my school)

A typical Aix street... my school is just down on the left.

The path I took to get to my afternoon art class at Marchutz.

Pavillon de Vendome... a parc steeped in history.

Aix trees.

Host family (Mireille et Robert) with my housemate Cate at an end of the year school picnic.

Fontaine de Vaucluse

My last school excursion this spring was to Fontaine de Vaucluse.  It was a beautiful area.  We walked along a river a ways in the shade of the trees and shortly arrived at a natural spring.  The water is an incredible blue-green and it is melt-off from the Alps.  It travels underground for hundreds of miles before popping up at this incredible little spot.  Just like magic.

Right at the source of the spring.  The water is so cold I could only get a toe in!

What am I drinking? Oh Pschitt, ok...

The village of Fontaine de Vaucluse.  Here is a water fountain... and yes you can drink the water coming right out of it!

French Markets

Well now that I'm home, people keep asking what I miss.  I miss friends, I miss traveling, I miss wine in the afternoon at an open air cafe, and I miss my art class.  Well that's not all, I miss the French life, and one of those things embedded in my life in Aix-en-Provence was the countless markets throughout the city.

There is really something to be said about the open air markets in France.  They span entire squares, taking up life as you stroll down the rows upon rows of vegetables, flowers, breads, cheeses, clothing, and souvenirs.  Some markets have only a specific item, such as the daily flower market outside the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) in Aix, after which they clean the square and fill it with tables from the local cafes.  Some wrap around an entire city, such as that I saw on my excursion to Isle sur la Sorgue.  No matter where you stumble upon one though, which will undoubtedly happen, there is always some treasure to find.  Don't forget to try the strawberries that are in season, the delectable French cheeses, and the saucisson for an unforgettable picnic.

Cezanne

Aix is all about Cezanne.  He was a post-impressionist painter that lived for many years in Aix-en-Provence, France.  His statue sits right at la Rotonde in the center of town for all to be seen.

Throughout his time in Provence, Cezanne chose Mont St. Victoire as a motif.  It was a motif of untouched nature and constantly changing perception.  During my time in Aix, I had the privilege of painting the mountain twice in my art class.   We would drive out to the middle of nowhere, onto a kind farmer's property and set up out easels and paints for an afternoon as we strove to paint what we saw.  This was definitely one of my most incredible moments of a semester as I sank into Cezanne's footsteps.

Home from Aix

Well I am now home after a whirlwind 4 months of French, food, and fun.  It was a semester that I will never forget and that continues to shape my future.
Over the next couple weeks, I will try to catch up with my blogs of what happened in the past few weeks... It was go hard, and then go home.
Needless to say, I arrived home pretty tired after a long 17 hours of traveling.  My mom mentioned that I was speaking a little gibberish... but I guess that's what no sleep and a head full of French do to someone when they suddenly switch to English.
I can tell that my French has definitely improved over the last four months... why else would I switch 3 of my 4 airplane movies over the French and read my French newspaper Le Monde during the flight?  I'm now still trying to figure out how to keep up my language.  Colorado doesn't provide as many opportunities for French speakers.  On that note, it is also strange to hear English everywhere.  On my way home, I had countless doubletakes when I heard English- speakers because I was looking if they were students in my school in Aix.  And nope, they weren't.
Well as the adjustment continues, I will continue my blogs...
I don't yet know what my next great adventure will be, but I know there will be one.  There is always more to come!

Family Visit

Last week I had a wonderful time during my spring break when some of my family flew out to visit me!  We had a whirlwind trip seeing Nice, Monaco, Antibes, Cannes, les Baux-de-Provence, and definitely lots of Aix-en-Provence!

Here are some pictures from our adventures:

First up is les Baux-de-Provence.  I absolutely loved this medieval city with a castle at the top.  It was fun to explore around the ruins.

Here I am with some of the artwork there!

 This is the castle.

...and the view from the top.  Pretty neat huh?  You can see a lot of the grape vines.

Next, here's my Dad and I spending some time in sunny nice.  It was beautiful!

 Soaking up some sun on the road to Monaco!

 Monte Carlo was all about the fancy cars.  We just happened to arrive on the day of a car show.

 Here are my grandma and I back in Nice.  We found some beautiful mosaics while wondering around at the top of a lookout.  Grandma, you're awesome!

 A stop in Antibes for lunch.  Lots of fancy yachts... and it was interesting to see snow-capped mountains beyond the yachts gleaming in the sun.

 My aunt and I had to take advantage of the red carpet in Cannes!

 This was at Santons Fouque... a specialty of Aix.  Isn't this guy neat?

 Chilling in Cassis!

 Loving the boats, the city, the sun!

Marseille and Immigration

Marseille is an up and coming city. 

It's a quick 30 minute ride from Aix by bus or train and the third largest city (by population) in France after Paris and Lyon.  Marseille was chosen as the 2013 European Capital of Culture.

Marseille is unique for France because of the significant numbers of immigrants from North Africa.  They are coming to France for work and for better lives, especially with France's social benefits.  It poses an interesting opposition to the city of Aix where there is immigration as well... however the immigration to Aix is of wealthy Parisiens from the north who now have access to living in southern France on weekends and holidays while working in Paris during the week due to the great advantages of the high-speed TGV trains.  

Speaking of immigration: after seeing the results of the recent French elections, I have to admit that I'm a bit shocked.  

First let me explain a little about the French political election system.  To be a candidate, one must be French and get 500 signatures from mayors throughout France.  These signatures are called parrinages and they are basically a vote of confidence.  After a bit of campaigning and presenting their platforms (which legally must be the same for each candidate - same amount of money, same amount of time on TV, etc), there is a national vote.  This year of 2012, there were 10 candidates including Sarkozy (the current French president), Hollande, Le Pen, Bayrou, Melenchon, and Joly.  After this vote, the two with the highest percentages (in this case Sarkozy and Hollande), will proceed to have a debate this coming Sunday and then there will be a final national vote that decides the French president.

Now, what surprises me from this election was not the results for Sarkozy and Hollande; it was the high result for Marine Le Pen who heads the Front National, an extreme right party, at about 18%.

Her firm stance against immigration and desire to pull France out of the Schengen zone seems extreme and unreasonable.  I find her stance to be almost anti-multicultural and very exclusive to many people throughout the world.  However, her strong numbers (with support of many immigrants and youth in France) demonstrate the need to bring these issues to the forefront.  

I see this as an opportunity to recognize how important of an issue immigration is for building relationships and helping the world's populations.  However, my business professor doesn't have such an optimistic view; she thinks this is only the beginning for the Front National and is worried for the future of France.

What do you think?

Strasbourg Conference

About a month ago I applied and was accepted to join a conference on the environment in Strasbourg.  It was a conference between U.S. and European students to discuss environmental issues and what we can do to help.  Our keynote speaker, Polly Higgins, is currently working on making ecocide the 5th Crime Against Peace in the United Nations (http://pollyhiggins.com/Polly_Higgins/Welcome.html).  Another speaker was from IUCN, a leading organization in environmental efforts (http://www.iucn.org/about/).
One comment that really stands out to me from the conference is that we, as individuals, are not working to save the planet.  The planet would be just fine on its own.  What we need to do is save the planet from our own destructive ways.
Well yes! That is true.  Time is running out (as you can see by all of this wacky climate change - and you can't deny that things are changing, this has been a pretty wacky year for weather for example!) and the environment shouldn't be a this-side/ that-side political issue.  It is something that affects every single person whether you think you care about it or not. That is why it matters.

The conference went all weekend, but I still took some time to get to know the other students as well as the city.  Here are some pics!: