À Table

2 days = 7.5 crepes

Hier (yesterday), it was the holiday called Le Chandeleur, which is a holiday to eat crepes!  So, naturally my host mom made crepes for dinner.   We had crepes with ham and cheese and just cheese for dinner.  Then we had incredible crepes for dessert with nutella or chestnut butter, ice cream, and a touch of whip cream.  So delicious!!

I must say that I eat sooo much here.  If I don't take a full second helping at dinner, my host my says, "Oh tu suis un regime?!" which basically means, "What, you're on a diet?!"  Well no... but that's a lot of food!  Oh la la.

Some of the other dinners I've been enjoying here are:

-le poulet et les frites (chicken and fries)

-le pizza

-la soupe (of the mystery vegetable variety)

-a French dish with ham wrapped around some kind of vegetable (can't remember what it was called though)

-And then Sunday night, the host family had guests come over and we had the full-out 5-course meal.  Seriously, how much can a person eat?  We started with aperitifs (drinks) and hors-d'oevres, then had le pate avec des boules et des saucisses (pasta with meatballs and sausage).  Now keep in mind... I was full after my host mom made sure I had a second helping of pasta.  So then we had our salad course, and then le fromage avec du pain (cheese and bread).  My host mom makes all of the bread herself.  So full.  And then out comes the special cake... it was kind of like a tiramisu.  My housemate Cate and I had watched her make it the night before.  She had showed us how to make the mousse au chocolat and given us recipes the night before.  Well I have to say that it was an absolutely delicious dinner, but it was definitely a lot lot of food.

So, if anyone was remotely worried about me being hungry, this is to assure you that I am not.  I am eating wonderful French etc cuisine... and lots of it.  Santé!

Up Next:  Nice and Monaco

This weekend I am visiting Nice and Monaco on an overnight trip with my school.  We get to tour the cities, check out a perfume factory, go to Monte Carlo (but I can't get into the fancy casino area cuz there's a 21 age limit), and get to know the people in the group.

First Days

The big fountain in the center of Aix.  Beautiful.

Le Cours Mirabeau (main street)

Outside my school 

There are three buildings with classrooms, but this door leads into the main building. 

This is an OLD Roman column. 

Colorado missed me... so Aix had to bring in a little snow.

Arrivée

Je suis arrivée à Aix-en-Provence hier.

After a long and mostly sleepless flight, I made it to the airport in Marseille where I was met by the directors of my program at the Institute for American Universities as well as my new host parents.  They instantly started taking care of me by holding my carry-on while I went and joined the other study abroad students who flew in on the same flight.  After finding my bag, we drove to the other airport (literally four minutes away) to wait for the other student that would be living with us.  However her flight was delayed with a blizzard at her connection in Munich.

So, we got a snack of tea and my first pain au chocolat of the trip and drove to Aix where Mireille and Robert Ragusa welcomed me to their home.  They have a cute sixth floor apartment about 15 minutes walk from school.  I have my own room with little bed, desk, armoir, and a nice big window/door.

The couple also has a dog named Poncho and their middle-aged daugher Odile (sp?) living with them.
Once back at their apartment, Mireille promptly got me some more food with sandwiches for lunch.  I then watched a little tv with Robert before starting to unpack.  I unpacked until I sat down on my bed and succumbed to a nap.

I woke to meet the other student, Cate, arriving.  She is from Tennessee and I believe we will be taking business French together as well as possibly history of Provence.  We hung out for a while watching tv (of course in French), ate a dinner of chicken, fries, and salad, and watched Mireille and her daughter make a cake for today.  She also showed us how to make mousse au chocolat and gave us recipes to keep.

After trying so hard to stay awake, we took showers and went to bed.  Today we have an open house at the school to go to where we will meet other students as well as teachers in the school.

I am missing home but I'm also really excited for what this semester holds.  My french is going well and I must have had some switch in my head that I didn't know about because I took off running with conversation.  I hope it keeps up like this!

Love you all,
Danielle

A Little French Inspiration

Well I had to do something special with my momma to get ready for France, so we dressed up as artists and went to Red Rocks for a little painting!  We may have drawn a bit of a crowd...  Got some nice compliments on the 'stache too.

My Last Weeks in the U.S.

So you may be wondering... what have I been doing with myself with my last weeks in the United States?

Well, two weekends ago I was in Winter Park!  My mom and I planned an escape to the mountains for some relaxation and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  

We stayed at our beautiful condo at the base of the Zephyr Lift.  The snow hasn't been quite up to par this winter, but the last day there, it was a complete white-out with a blizzard!  Recently, the snow has been hitting the mountains hard... woohoo!

One day we took some time to exercise and went snowshoeing!  It was my first time trying it, and it was a little hard at first, but fun.  The picture above was taken when we started walking past the frozen beaver ponds.

After Winter Park, I spent a couple days in Fort Collins where my boss gave me some time to work (yay money!).  I trained the 4 new people that he was hiring this semester.  Yeah... it takes that many to replace me... no big deal.  Just kidding.  There are a couple people leaving this semester, so some new people needed to be brought in.  I think my boss really appreciated some help getting them set up.

Then, I visited my dad in Omaha, Nebraska.  Brrr was it cold! But I had a great time... I really enjoyed hanging out with my dad (and my kitty).  We ate a lot of food, toured the art museum, checked out the city, and played card/board games.  I may have whooped his butt in some backgammon.  Now, I can't wait to see my dad and grandma when they visit me in France in April!

Here I am at the jelly bean counter at a candy store in Omaha.  Which should I choose?!

After a good past two weeks, I am looking forward to my journey to France.  I leave this Friday!  First, I have an entire list of items to get through such as getting some Euro, getting a haircut, finding a gift for my host family, and of course packing.  So much to do, but I know it will be worth it!  By this time next week, I will be living the French lifestyle.

Wish me luck!

Pictures from Los Angeles

Waiting at DIA at 5:30 in the morning... brrr.

This is the side of the building that the French consulate was on.  The door to the visa sections was actually to the right of the red awning for the Alliance Francaise.

Rodeo Drive

Sunny day on Rodeo Drive... I don't think my jeans and backpack really fit in...

Cool tree in the city

Getting a French Visa

Nothing starts my morning better than a little TSA groping...

Well I arrived at DIA at 4:45 AM and got right through to the gate (after getting to know TSA a little after I opted out of the naked body scanners).  My flight took off at 6:30 AM and even arrived 20 minutes early.  The guy I sat next to was nice and we had a lot of talk about.  Ironically he had gotten both his masters and bachelor's degrees in finance which he mentioned after I told him that would be my hardest final and I wasn't looking forward to it.  The next nice person I met was my taxi driver who originated from Armenia.

Once I arrived at the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, I wandered around the building to find the door to the visa section.  After about 15 minutes of waiting outside, I was called in for an interview from the guard.  Once he gave me the go-ahead, I proceeded to the next waiting area.  After sitting for about 5 minutes I was called up to the window.  I proceeded to give my application, ID, passport, photo, program acceptance letters, financial support and residence forms.  It may seem like a lot but they didn't even ask for half of the papers I had brought with me.  It was definitely better to have more than less at least!

Overall, it was a lot less stressful of an experience than I was expecting.  After hearing some horror stories about people not being able to get their visas and having to return at another date, I was pretty nervous.. but there was no need for that!  Nevertheless, I'm glad I was prepared.

After arriving so early at the consulate, it was nice that I didn't have to wait for my actual appointment time, but that also meant that I had a lot of free time on my hands after my appointment before my flight took off.  So then I wandered around the area a bit.  The consulate is right on Santa Monica Blvd in downtown Los Angeles.  I visited a couple coffee shops, wandered around a big mall, and made my way to Rodeo Dr.  It was definitely a fancy area of town... and my impression of Rodeo Dr was that it was very sparkly.  There just seemed to be sparkly decorations everywhere with winter decorations as well as sparkles on clothing.  I even had to opportunity to see some paparazzi!  They were hiding outside of some hotel... don't know who they were looking for but they didn't seem to be having too much luck. Looking back on it, it's too bad I didn't take a picture of the paparazzi!  The paparazzi of the paparazzi haha!

Well just letting you know that everything went well for my visa process.  Yes, it was hassle having to actually fly to Los Angeles to show up in person, but everything worked out.  Here is proof that it is definitely feasible to accomplish a visa appointment in one day (even if I was completely exhausted after it).  And to make things better!... I received my passport back in the mail today with a big, thick stamp (my visa) so I am all ready to go!