settling into life

yesterday morning we took a tour around the city!
the student org for intl students took us around and it was mainly more of a good time for us to all talk and meet eachother.. we also got a mini tour of the school. i need to get better pictures/upload the ones i have because i cant really describe what the city/school look like. but i can try. the city is first off one huge hill.. i live at 'the top' my school is 10 min down into the city. The main  city area is all brick streets and houses, its very yellow/orange and warm colors and theres a constant sound of water trickling.. no people are not peeing in the streets like chicago/ny, but there are 122 fountains in the little city! there are boulangeries, cafés and little tiny stores filling all the streets so it is very busy city.. but not loud as there are not very many cars/traffic noises.

the school is super hard to describe.... mainly because its tiny.. also because i havent seen much of it but i guess there isnt much to see.. ill post pics soon i promise. right across form my school is a cathedral (saint sauveur) that from the outside is beautiful and sticks up high over the town.. cant wait to go to mass there!



after the 'tour' we all kinda broke off.. most people went to eat but my friend carla n i went shopping! she had to get cleaning stuff and food for her apartment and i got bras and some more necessities to send in to airfrance! (yeah.. STILL no luggage) its difficult talking with her just because she has a romanian accent on top of her french.. but her french is very quick nonetheless but its really good practice for me so it was a good day of convo!

walking back i thought i was lost but its the perfect town for me.. you cant be lost really.. uphill=home.. downhill=into town further. so i had noo idea where i was.. but kept walking up the street that was more uphill than my other options and sure enough arrived home in not much time at all! awesome. it is weird in that since its not a 'car' city.. its all a billion tiny little routes at diagonals.. like many many, so i dont think ill ever learn all the streets and where they connect.

lets see.. got home.. thats right to INTERNET. got to see chases face real quick on skype.. and mainly spent the afternoon catching up with my parents. also had dinner and talked with véro before getting ready to go out. intl program had a bar crawl set up for us.. so i hurried off for that. first place we went we sat out on the patio.. YEAH.. you heard that right.. jan 8th and sittin on a patio at night.. BEAUTIFUL here!! drinks were paid for by the org so that was awesome. and we discussed the french clichés with one of the aix students. it was hillarious.. tlaking about not shaving and cheese eating and smoking and war losing and protesting.. etc. on the flip.. for america i got 'fat, loud, all farmland and a few braggy city names, scared of zombies, obsessed with vampires, and of course jersey shore was brought up too'. it was a really great convo with laughs and free drinks.. and in french so.. success!

the second place we went was indoors and the typical scene. sso weird/nice to just walk in.. we all got drinks and hit the dance floor! had a ton of fun.. tonn. i got vodka fraise mmm and shouting to eachother in our second language was funny.. all the actual aix people there wanted to speak english.. but they all sucked at english.. so it was pretty entertaining.. oh and to here french people try to sing along to american music that they dont know the words to. it was cool because all of us were there and knew each other so it felt pretty safe. there were several pretty typical 'forward french guys' that was real .. like more than real awkward.. in fact i ended up leaving but it was 1am anyway. note: was interesting that they were more 'forward' as in persistant, but less creepy.. not like hey wanna come home with me but.. wanna get a coffee tomorrow? nonetheless no no and no but a free drink n polite convo is fine :)

i feel so weirded out everytime im walking alone cus i NEVER do it in chicago.. but everyyone that lives here keeps assuring me 'no theres never theft.. its so safe.. no worries.. at any hour any day'. but i cant believe it haha so im still super paranoid. but after i got back i ended up waiting up for all you people 7 hours behind.. and talked with mr. chase til super early in the morning.. so went to bed at 8 n slept today til 2

i then got up.. hung around with véro and the daughter roxanne. showed pics of home and chatted.. some more stereotypes (got one saying american chicks all run and dont smoke! go us) and i got ready to running (ps thanks mom/dad/whit/pat for the new running stuff!! ipod band, wrist band n shoes!!!) running was awesome.. first time ive ran since october.. which was a run i did just cus i was mad and hurt myself. soo i reallly enjoyed it! ran to the top of a huugee hill.. even above where my house is and could see the whole city and mountains and.. UGH im taking my camera next time so youll see. lazed around until dinner tonight.. ughh

i dont even wanna tlak about this.. but you know how i said you cant get lost here? well you def can. i was lost for 40 min.. with a map trying to find our 'meeting' spot to go to dinner.. i eventually ended up on the right road.. after almost an hour (so was already 30 min late to meet them) and happened to run into all of them walking! rediculous luck! they were running late too so thank god. went to eat on somewhere actually really close to me :\ haha

i forgot about how french service isnt a hurry in anyway at all. i was starving so it felt like forever maybe. but anyway food was good i got pasta and we stayed there for a good 3 hours. it was fun but i mainly just liked tlaking to filippe.. italian guy because pretty much every single other person was speaking english.. made me really tempted but filippe is more determined than maybe me to avoid it so he was a good influence! but yeah.. and hour n a half after everyone was done eating and we still ended up asking for the bill!! just different but whatever.. soo nice to have tax/tip included in everything! so much easier to pay in a group! the US needs to get on that. i love not having to think ok.. yours was 12. 56 plus the 1.34 in tax.. and then yours was.. etc (whoever that was with me at buffalo wild wings knows what i mean)

so that concludes my kind of settling in.. i 'start classes' tomorrow and have paperwork i wanna get out of the way. i say 'start' classes for a reason but ill explain later im tired and need to 'pick classes' (again reason for the '') til later...