Marchutz, Art, Cezanne/Picasso

So! The past week has been kind of nuts. After recovering from Oktoberfest, I came back to my senses and realized I had work to do. A LOT. At Marchutz, we started oil painting. Now I've painted a little bit in my time but never with oil. I consider myself more of a watercolor girl. It was really interesting to see the difference between the thickness, amount and all the other necessaries needed to paint with oil. Turpentine, poppy seed oil, LOTS of paint, a palette knife, brushed, rags, easel, prepared surfaces... the whole bit. I've used oils before while doing prints (monotype, block.. etc) but this was a whole new experience for me.

We were to choose a painting that spoke to us and of course all of the landscapes didn't interest me, so I chose Monet's last painting that he did in Venice called "Gondola in Venice". It's a very beautiful painting but has a lot of depth to it. It's filled with so many incredible colors that it was hard for me to distinguish a lot of them. I cranked out my first copy in the first session and it was too dark. The second I completed the second day with a 5 hour session but it still wasn't right. The third is still incomplete but you can definitely see the progress made from one to the other. I think that since I was using a new medium that I was getting used to what I was doing with it as opposed to seeing what I was actually doing. I kept getting stuck in certain areas of the painting worrying about the color moreso then the relationship that was on the canvas. So I have a bit of work ahead of me to finish that one. But by the end of the semester I'm bound to finish it.

Thursday night "Les Marchutz", hit the town. Unfortunately we were with out two because both Joy and Jamin we're really sick. We planned a whole evening together. Last week was the ending of the Picasso/Cezanne art exhibit at the Musee Granet in Aix. We decided that we'd go to the exhibit then have dinner at the school later on. Since Marchutz (the school) is so far away from town, Mary, a really awesome lady in our group offered her apartment up for the evening. So, we went to the exhibit.

My first impressions of the exhibit were that It was wonderful to see the works separately but I together it seemed kind of like a far stretch. Of course Picasso is a descendant of Cezanne but I think that the two are on different levels of work. There were some really hard comparisons to comprehend. It didn't seem like the exhibit was fully brought together. That was my personal opinion, but it wasn't all negative. My favorite room was probably the third as you went through the exhibit. A wall called "Les Fumees", was enthralling. Cezanne's painting of "L'homme avec une pipe" contrasted against Picasso's 2 abstract paintings of the maritime men with pipes made you really think about color pallete and how it's applied to the painting as a whole.

The upstairs portions of the exihibit was great. There was a lot more Picasso than Cezanne, I feel, but that wasn't the best part. I got to see some other artists that I'm quite fond of. Paul Klee, LOTS of Giacometti, which was impressive. I saw my first real Piet Mondrian that totally blew me away. There was also Ingres, David, Constantin, Granet and Rigaud. I feel that it was a great way to end my experience at the exhibit because i was taking in so much information about the latter two, it was nice to be able to just stand and be WOWed by some of France and the world's greatest artists. It was about time for me to return to meet up with the group. So i made my way back through the exhibit to find everyone.

Have you ever had the opportunity to look at a painting, hear a song in your head and be able to sing the whole thing through while navigating your way through the brush strokes? I had this experience after we regrouped with everyone. I spotted Picasso's "Woman with mandolin" and immediately in my head started "Little Motel" by modest mouse. I've never been so drawn in by a painting composed by the song in my head. It was absolutely insane to have this kind of moment. The way her face just held the power of the majority of the painting lead me to believe I have a connection somehow with this woman and her mandolin.

Alors, j'ai oublie finir ma rapport, donc, a plus tard!
(i forgot to finish this entry, so I will a little later)

More pictures from oktoberfest.

Probst!!!

This weekend was my first weekend away. Let's just say, WOW. I flew to Munich with two of my friends from the Marchutz program, Nick and O'Neil. We got to Munich about 830 and had to make our way to the city. None of us speaks german so that was kind of interesting trying to buy tickets for the train. But two very kind australian guys helped us out and we were on our way.

Once we got to the Haupbonhof, I parted ways with Nick and O'Neil to meet up wtih Monica and her friend Marcus. I decided to stay with Monica and her friends at this place called "the tent". It was much cheaper then the hostel I was staying at, but my forgetfulness made me pay for the hostel anyway. (Way to not cancel!) I was near the Haupbonhof when my minutes ran out on my phone so I was stuck using payphones, which are RIDICULOUSLY expensive, to try and get in contact with Monica. I had no idea where I was but she was pointing out certain land marks and said "The Erotic house"... in my view there wasn't one in sight.. so I walked a little ways to see if I was in the right place. BOOM, in front of me, "Erotic House". I knew I in the general vicinity so I walked back to the central station stop at the Haupbonhof and finally Monica and I connected!

We made our way back to "the tent" and went to sleep. The morning started verrryyyy early. We were up at 4:30 to shower and get ready for the day. Monica, Marcus and I all left around 6:00 to get to the Oktoberfest grounds. Their other friend, Tim, wouldn't wake up, so, he had to make this way over by himself later on. We got to the fairgrounds and so many Bavarians were dressed in their traditional lederhosen and dirndls. It was so early that the sun hadn't come up yet but once we exited the U-Bahn station it looked like we were in the tent because the sky was so cloud covered. It looked almost eerie, like we were entering another world.

Marcus' goal was the got to the Schottenhammel and be there on time to see the Mayor of Munich tap the first keg, kicking off the festivities. We waited in line for 4 hours and the tent had quickly filled and we were in a huge mosh of people. Finally, decided to just walk around. We saw the little parades of the keg floats coming in. It was kind of boring, but was cool to see. Some of Monica's group from Cologne found a table outside the Schottenhammel where we were earlier so we decided to make our way back and prepare ourselves for the craziest two days of our lives.

12:30 our first beers finally arrive. When i say, i mean, a HUGE fucking beer. (pardon my german). This was not a place for beginners. Spatel was the beer we were being served. These giant liter mugs for 8.80Eu a piece were absolutely WONDERFUL. The day continued to pass and so did the beers. By 2-3 o'clock, we were all getting kind of rowdy. I was happy to be with a group of people that were so cool and that we were able to connect. Momo always knows how to pick the good ones! :) So the frivolity ensued and so did the day.

The haze of the Spatel took effect but it was okay, we were at OKTOBERFEST!!! everywhere you went you could hear people alike singing "Auf Probst...Auf Probst" as loud as they could, to a final PROBST!!! then a drink of your beer. The Bavarian people were so much fun. I'm not sure where the hours of 5-8pm went but Monica's friend Tim and I got separated from everyone else. We decided to go on a ride because a fest isn't complete with out at least some rides! We picked the one that flipped us upside down, sprayed water, etc. (Good choice Tim). The ride completely rocked us. Not only were we drunk and on the ride but when we sat down, Tim's arm was still around me and the harnesses came to lock us in, with it still behind me. An uncomfortable way to spend 5 mins on a ride thats kicking the shit out of you. And shit kicked it did. The next morning I woke up with a huge bruise on my collar bone from where the harness had me positioned. Tim had similar features.

We continued to walk around the fair grounds for a good 3 hours trying to meet up with people. Everyone's phones were dead and we had no way of contacting them. We finally foundn Jaimin, another of Monica's friends. He was such a funny guy to be with at this point of the night. We decided it wasn't worth getting pissed that we coulnd't find anyone-- so we just went back to the Schottenhamel and had some more fun. I saw a reserved table with a few people sitting there and it looked pretty empty so I went over and asked these guys if it was okay if we sat with them. Good karma was with us because not only did we get to sit inside a tent, we got to sit at the reserved table. These people were so nice and loved hanging out with us for some reason. They tried so hard to get us to go to the club with them afterwards but Tim and I were overserved that point so we opted to just go back to the hostel.

On our way back to the hostel we took the 17, but got off at the wrong stop so instead of getting back on it, we thought it was a good idea to walk around and follow the tracks. This was another 3 hour adventure Tim and I had. We kind of dozed off waiting for the train and finally realized where we were and Tim led us back to the hostel. it was a brutal day, but it was serious fun.

In the morning we were happy to find Monica and Marcus curled up in their beds. and boy did we all have stories from the night before. Apparently EVERYONE was separted at some point and then ended up together on this big hill, where they watched all the drunks do stupid things. Man, I wish I could've seen that. Tim lost his wallet and his cell phone the previous night, either on the ride or somewhere inbetween. So we went back to the fair grounds to check it out. Hang overs were starting to set in, but for some reason we all still had the urge to drink. So drink we did.

We sat at a table with a bunch of Australians, who were so funny! Tim, Marcus, Monica and I all had a great time that afternoon. Singing songs, giving kisses, playing drinking games. Nothing but pure fun with some awesome people. On our way out, we hopped the wrong train to the Haupbonhof ended up in the wrong area and had to make our way there on a different route. We got the Haupbonhof, I said good bye to Monica and Tim walked me to the train because Monica ran to get a salami sandwich. I didn't have time to go back to the hostel to get my stuff, so, I left with Monica. Me, my purse and my waterbottle were on a train that didn't go directly TO the airport but around it. So, I missed my flight. I was so pissed that I cried almost the whole way to the airport.

There were these two nice Texan's who live in London and said that if my plane got rerouted there I could stay with them, which was nice, but in all reality I knew that I'd be sleeping in the airport. I got my plans and stuff changed, wasn't cheap, but had no other option. After i got that taken care of, I called Monica and they too missed their train back to Cologne. Kind of funny that it happened to the lot of us. I was hung over, tired, spelled like beer and pee (don't ask why), and all I wanted to do was get home and shower. I slept on some benches in the airport and made friends with the cleaning guy. My flight left for Marseille at 6:45 and i made it back to Aix with in hours.

Now i'm sitting here trying to upload photos from the weekend to facebook but it's not working. So i'm going to make a list of what I need to buy before I see monica again to get my stuff back....

Toothbrush, power adapter, hair brush... good thing I traveled light this trip!!!

More ridiculous stories to follow, I'm sure.

for now, PROBST and good night.

Dancing in the... daylight?

Yesterday was a very interesting drawing class. For the past 4 sessions we've been drawing models and the human figure, like it was our job. I think by the time that yesterday's class rolled along we were all kind of sick of doing the same thing. But little did we know a quater of the way into class that John and Allan had something planned for us.

When drawing you usually use your dominant hand, no? Okay, so we'd been doing that. We tested the waters of drawing with our non dominant hand... lets just say we've seen some better work. Also, when drawing you tend to use your wrist and move it along with your forearm and fingers. Well, John and Allan came up with a creative method to get us thinking and drawing in a different way.

Firstly, we were drawing only by moving from the elbow. A lot of the strokes were turning out rounded because we weren't told that we could move our wrists. The second was by isolating the shoulders and drawing only from the shoulders. By this meaning moving your upper body at the shoulders to create line and depth. Some of us fashioned a Britney Spears shimmy as our method while others used the push and pull from each to get through the exercise. The most noteable and third part of our experiment was attatching our arm at our side and moving from the hips to draw. (Sidenote: Along with drawing we had latin salsa music playing in the background to help get us going.) A guy in my class, O'Neil had the funniest way of drawing. He squatted down a little bit and just started going after it. This made the whole class burst into laughter which got the energy flowing through the room.

I think that it's safe to say that we were all a little bit airy and loosened up when it came to continue drawing regulary.

Good work guys, mission accomplished.

First week of classes, Nice is Nice.

My first week of classes wasn't too bad. I'm enrolled at the Art program with the Marchutz School of Art just outside Aix-en-Provence. I spend a great amount of time at Marchutz because I have painting or drawing four times a week and Fridays is seminar day. We have 10 people in our program, which makes it truly intimate and allows to bond as a group. We started with figure drawing last week. It was a very interesting experience getting back into drawing the figure, as I never had much training previous. I'm excited to continue at the school of vision.... a silly joke we say, but back in the day the Marchutz school was called Marchutz School of Vision, a school of seeing. And really it is. It may a sound like something out of the 60's or 70's paired with an acid trip, but in all reality, this school is teaching us to SEE the world, SEE what were drawing and become more aware of what we're creating through our vision. It's a very cool way to put it. My Professors are both wonderful guys. Alan seems a little far out sometimes but he's got his head on most of the time... and very good insight. John is really, REALLY, intellegent and expects a lot from us. I have a feeling that being in these classes at Marchutz, it's going to allow me to broaden my self and where I want to go in life. We were paired quite nicely. :)

My other two classes are International Relations and French. My international Relations professor is very cool. He's an American from New Hampshire and studied in Marseille and Aix. He's pretty young but has a great attitude about Political Science and I see that he's very passionate about it. We started discussing the introductions to International Relations, the who, what's, where's... so on and so forth. But it's good. We were told that we get to go to Geneva in Novemeber for a "field trip" to the United Nations. I'm so excited!! i've always wanted to go. This time I won't get suspended though, :P

French class is cool... It's just correcting my corrupt slang from being around very familiar people who don't mind speaking a little broken French. (by broken I mean familar french, not proper.) That's all I've got on French....

The weekend started Friday afternoon. After our seminar some of the Marchutz students walked back to town and got food. We bought a slice of pizza from Pizza Capri, the best pizza/sandwich place a emporter (take away). Around the corner from school is a little tabac shop and a bar where you just buy drinks but can bring your food... a BYO..F. Hung around for an hour or so then we parted ways and headed home for naps and dinner. We were all pretty beat from the week and had a huge weekend ahead of us.

My host family is friends with another family who is hosting an IAU student named Chris. He's from New Jersey and goes to F & M University. His host family invited mine and me over for dinner on Friday evening. We made the walk over to their house and past Cezanne's previous residence. Awesome. When we arrived at Jerome and Kathleens house, we saw a beautiful garden included were seating area for hors d'oerves and tea, a magnificent table under an umbrella of tree branches and this wonderful old French house. Their back yard was absolutely incredible. It went up three different stories. The first level was for the clothes line, just close by you can see a rock stair way heading up to the second where you would find a chicken's cage, and the third was a pool an tool shed. The hen was awesome, as well as the pool, wonderful textile work. They had a fig tree in their back yard and from my knowledge of what Chris told me... they eat figs with everything. I saw that to be true at dinner. Figs in the salad, figs with the chicken, a bowl of figs next to the cheese.... Kind of funny to see Chris talk about how sick he was of them.

The dinner lasted a good four hours. Wonderful conversation with some very interesting people. Chris and I left around midnight to go walk around the centre ville and just get out of the house a little bit. We walked around the whole ring road. (the ring road is the primary route around the centre ville that's very well known. ) He walked me home and I headed to bed to wake up early for our trip to Nice, France.

Nice, pronounced Nee-s, is absolutely wonderful. We arrived and had about 4 and half hours to just do whatever we wanted. Some friends from the Marchutz, Jahmin, Martha, Katherine and I walked around the markets before stopping for lunch. We found all sorts of beautifully crafted jewelry, purses, paintings, clothing, you name it. Earlier in the week walking from class past shops in Aix a large ceramic cicada caught my eye. Unfortunately it was 49EU, which I shouldn't be spending on decorum. I passed, but to my luck, I found a whole bunch of them in Nice. I thought it to be appropriate to buy a small one at first then work my way up in the family. As annoying as the cicadas can be, they represent the folklore of Provence and the Mediterranean. Also, they represent lovegevity and nonchalentness. (The latter being the very attitude of Provence.) It was kind of cool to learn that. I really enjoy looking at these creatures and love even more that even though their purpose is different, they're represented well here. After a little shopping we found a restaurant that was overpriced, and not worth the hassle but we had to eat. After eating and spending a little bit of time talking to an Italian couple who now lives in France, we headed to the beach.

The Beach. Omg. The smooth mediterranean rocks under your feet. The beautiful water ahead. The gorgeous scenery behind. It was perfect, absolutement parfait!!! Katherine, Martha Jamin and I just hung out on the beach for a few hours and drank in the pure beauty that we were experiencing. I went for a swim in the Mediterranean sea and was speechless. I've been before whilst visiting Spain years previous but it was nothing like this. I swam out and watched people from the water, very peaceful from the water. We spent the majority of our afternoon telling stories and getting to known one another just a bit more. We had to be back at our meeting point around 4 o'clock to meet our group and bus drivers to take us back near Nice where we would have dinner together as a program. After dinner we were all anxious to either go to bed or go out. I chose to go out with a few people.

Katherine and I met Chris to go to the "Pizza Place", a restaurant called Le Roi Rene where we have drinks before going out. Joy, Molly, Marcel, Stephen and Andrew met us there. Our first drink was called "Get 27". I was told there would be glowsticks involved with this drink, but my first experience was a bust. It was a minty drink that is a turquoise green color that truly resembles and tastes like mouthwash. Its pronounced "Jet" and was produced by Jean and Pierre Get in 1796. In all seriousness I felt the effects of this drink rather quickly. Who knows how often I'll be drinking that, probably not so. We left the Pizza Place to go to the Wohoo bar down the street form school that has some pretty good deals and has a great building for it. It was loud, crazy and only American music was played, again. Ugh. We left to go to IPN down the road but the guys had to pay so Stephen, Katherine and I opted to go to the bar next door. Shots were 3EU so Katherine and I decided to do one.. but we didn't really know what was in any of them, so we told the bar tender... "deux shots tres fort!" (two shots very strong) Ultimately it was a bad idea because we were given a shot of tabasco sauce, lemon, salt and vodka-- all the while it was set on fire. It didn't fare well with either of us so we got beers.

The bar closed shortly after so we walked around to find some food for Stephen. I bought a Kronenbourg for 2EU from the Kabab place and we headed into what would be one of the most memorable nights of my life. We walked around to the Rotonde. Stephen wanted to go sit on the public benchs and people watch but Katherine and my agenda included walking over by the fountains close to the rotonde with the many colored lights. We were stopped by a folle (crazy) young french girl asking us about ourselves etc. We parted ways with her and turned a corner and found a couple of guys playing guitar and a drum. This continued for hours with great conversation, dancing, drinking wine and ultimately having an amazing night. These people were so genuinly nice that they were rolling cigarettes for us, playing songs we might know and sharing their wine. We arrived at the place at 1 and didnt leave until 430, it was just an absolutely transforming night. Granted, we woke up this morning with a hang over and lack of sleep it didn't bring our spirits down for a minute.

Today, we journeyed to Cassis, a small fishing town on the coast. If you've been to Paris, you haven't seen anything yet. Cassis is known for it's awesomeness. (Great terminology, I know) We were driven up to the highest point in the mountains overlooking Cassis. It was just absolutely breathtaking. You could see everything from up top. The other islands in the distance, the houses, boats, beaches, cliffs and the most beautiful water. I fell in love from the mountain. On the other side opposite of Cassis was another small fishing town, La Ciotat, where the game Petanque was invented. In all reality petanque relative to Bocce Ball. Ciotat was gorgeous as well but it was a little more industrial than Cassis was. We took the bus down the mountainside and parked the buses and walked down a very step series of hills to get to the city. Katherine and I kind of trekked solo today and went to the petite casino, bought baugettes from the boulangerie and headed for the beach. The beach was wonderful and the scenery even more so. If I were ever to live near the coast in France, it would be in Cassis. It was a magical place. Plenty of culture, visitors, cute little french kids, boats, fishermen and the locals to create a perfect Sunday.

We returned. Katherine and I were walking home and found there was a little bazaar going on for all the different associations in Aix to promote their stuff. we found a 12 piece band being crazy playing French folk songs and across the street was a group of drummers banging in perfect unison with their different rhythms only to find that you can actuaaly take lessons. HOW COOL!! If it were 300eu for the semester, I'd be all over that. But u have to pass somethings up. I had the perfect day on the beach only to return home to Aix to find more amazingness that this country hides...

What's next?! OH YEAH, Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany. :D

.99 eu sangria

Went to a bar.... americans. American music. everything. frustrated.

Le joie de vivre d'aix

Le joie de vivre d'aix
I arrived in Aix on September 5th. My plane landed in Marseille around 930 and we were waiting for our bags, which took about 30mins-45mins. I was totally okay with this but there were other form my plane waiting around in much anticipation to get out of the airport. I, having traveled quite a bit in my life, was very patient with this process despite the fact I had a purse, three backpacks and a regular suitcase. (Kind of a pain in the ass).

After the luggage arrived, I walked out to find two women rambling in French with a sign that said, "Institute for American Universities". Surrounding her were some of my fellow classmates with looks of great, err, joy, to be waiting for the others to collect their things and then follow suit to where they were situated. The first thing I heard, "Bonjour, you look very tired"... nicely put, I looked like ASS from traveling... plus a few nights of little to no sleep. (I take after my mother. When I worry about something, I think about it all night long... it's not always so favorable.) We sat for a while and once a few others arrived our group was complete.

First curve ball thrown at a few of us starts here. A small group of about 7 of us had to get onto a bus to Aix because some of our families didn't have cars, or like mine, just opted to meet us at "Gare Routiere". Once we arrived just outside the center of Aix, a small Vietnamese lady came walking over carrying piece of paper with my name in capital letters and my school, "KATHERINE BARKO, MARCHUTZ SCHOOL". Kind of funny. I was the first to be picked up when in my head I was dreading being stuck at the Gare Routiere for a long time. I followed this small woman, who would be my host "mother" for the next few months, Jade, to find a man of equal size with an untamed head of hair. Jacob me parle, "Bonjour, Katherine. Bienevue!!" ::Bissous:: (Hello, Katherine. Welcome. ::Kisses both cheeks::). Their petite frames were well paired with their car. A small Peugot convertible with limited space. I felt as if I were a giant around the pair. We arrived at 32 cours de Trinite and go into their apartment building.

I walked up the stairs to find a young man, their son, Alexi, awaiting with a great big smile to help with my luggage. He then showed me to my room and Jade explained the obvious and I started to unpack. Jade made this WONDERFUL pot (when I say pot, I mean about the equivalent of one cup american) of Turkish coffee. Because it was a special occasion they broke out all of stops. Jade cook a very lovely lunch and I experienced the quirks and queries I'd always had about the French meals. SO MUCH CHEESE. Mom, you were right. Jacob explained to me that in all French paintings you will see a baguette and some Camembert. (Kind of like Brie). The two are some of what France is best known for.

Getting to know them a little better I found out that Jade is a college Professor hailing from Vietnam, but I've never heard someone speak such perfect French. She teaches at Le Universite de Provence. (Universite de Provence hosts students from all over the world who come to live in Marseille, Aix and other areas of Provence.) Jacob is the a-typical artist in France. He came from a very poor background but through his art and his expression has been able to make a life for himself and his family. Jade and Jacob are both very, very interesting people. I've come to like them very much from the short amount of time I've been here. I enjoy this genial side of the southern French. Their family welcomed me so nicely and I truly feel like I'm at home (not real home mom) but that it's a good "home" for my time here.

After I took a small nap on Saturday, Jade, Jacob and Alexi walked me through Aix. There is an old part of Aix and a new part. I kind of compared it a little bit to London. It would kind of be like if you were at Covent Garden market place vs. walking through Bluewater. it was cool to see the drastic differences. Apart of scenery I was in for a real treat. They took me to a "concourse" or competition for young international pianists. Being as jet lagged as I was, I tried to take it all in as much as I could but still I was absolutely wiped from what was going on. By the 5th performer I was about ready to pass out. The music was beautiful but was just not the appropriate time to listen to it. It was a nice gesture of them though. From what I hear from other students, I did a whole hell of a lot more then some through the weekend.

Sunday came around and I was able to sleep in a bit. Jade made me a great breakfast. I didn't realize how soon we would be going to their friends’ house for lunch so I ate a big breakfast like I normally would. Bad idea. We walked around for about 2 hours, saw my school and various other places of interest in Aix. (more getting to know the city, which for me is pretty easy to do, thankfully.) After walking for about two hours, we arrived at Chez Marienne et son Mari. A vast difference in the size of living between chez nous (our house) and chez leurs (theirs). The couple was wonderfully accepting of the fact that I speak very little French yet my comprehension is fairly good. Same with Jacob and Jade.

We had a delicious starting course with finely chopped olives, green and black(mind, I HATE olives), a roasted tomato salad, a chickpea salad, lupine beans, bread and champagne. everything was seriously delicious. The second course came about 40 mins later. Chicken, asparagus baked with eggs, salad and more bread. The final was the cheese course-- with plenty of different kinds. I had a very mild orange cheese that I really liked but can't remember the name. A funny thing that happened was they were named from which animal each cheese was made. They kept saying "Mutton, mutton" (mooton, mooton) I kept thinking 'mutton chops mutton chops... I can't remember what they are!" Thankfully Jades intelligence helped me out and she said lamb. I had the lame of excuse of being a vegetarian.

I was absolutely full by the time dessert rolled around. I had to be back at the school around 430 for an open house, but I didn't make it in time. So I stayed in the Place d'universite, just up the road from 2bis rue du bon pasteur, the aix center, and I watched young skateboarders film awesome lines. It was cool to see that the sport is over here too!! How I love the skateboarders... hahha, guilty as charged.

I went home a little later and ate dinner with Alexi and shortly following Jade and Jacob went to a friend’s house for dinner. I passed out pretty early, but woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. I'm paying for it now!

This morning I woke up and got ready for school. Then went out and Jade prepared my breakfast... "Dis-moi, tu veux une oeuf? deux oeufs? Haricots vert? ou haricots simple?" (tell me do you want one egg, two eggs? green beans? or beans?) I chose two eggs and have no idea why she was offering me beans in the morning. She said something about "une petite dejeuner l'anglais" (english breakfast) but don't ever remember experiencing beans in the morning. She went into Alexi's room to do some work whilst Jacob slept because he, too, couldn't sleep the night before because of his brase-mal. (bad arm) I tried listening to NPR online but realized it wasn't anything new because it was the evening at home and didn't reboot until 9EST. So I opted to listen to BBC online. Around 830 I finished getting ready and walked to class.

I was very nervous about going because it was a totally different setting but once I got there I felt a little bit at ease. There were copious amounts of speakers, ideas, rules, papers, observations etc, so on and so forth. That part of the morning was kind of brutal. Lunch time I just walked around by myself because I still wasn't comfortable in walking up to a bunch of typical american girls, the kind I kind of wanted to get away from, and introduce myself. So I did my own thing, nothing new. Once we broke into smaller groups, the Marchutz students had a meeting with Allan, one of our two main professors. A really cool dude from North Carolina. We talked and socialized while getting stuff taken care of at the same time, the way a real art group should operate. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the school and some of the students better. I met some very nice ones from my class, which made me feel content with being there... put me a little more at ease.

We had a few more sessions, A-Z with Margaux and friends. It was really just Margaux's adorable son and friend who are "les jeuns aixois" (young people of aix) telling us more about the social aspects of the city. (movie, shopping, bars, excursions in Marseille, music et al). Our final program of the day was a tour of Aix. It was informative but everyone was very tired from all the travel and changes going around. We were dismissed and I headed to Monoprix, which is the place where you can get pretty much anything... the department store, if you will, in Aix. I got some soap, shampoo and razors. Just because I'm France doesn’t meant I can't shave my legs... it's actually starting to bug me that they're super hairy... Yeah, TMI. Sorry.

I went back home and talked to my dad via iChat which was awesome and then listened to some music and chilled out before dinner. Alexi had a friend here, Josef, who really, is his uncle. (Alexi's sister, is his Josef's mother, who is Jacob's daughter from a different mother). It was a bit confusing when I was trying to figure it out from French to english... but eventually got it. We had PASTA PESTO (it was a sign that Kelz, my roommate, should've been here bc I wrote a big long thing on her fb wall today) broccoli, salad, different vegetables, bread, cheese, water, and cauliflower. I love the variety on every table. I also love that they are so accepting of my eating habits and will cater to them. They're such a wonderful family and so far I'm enjoying my time so much.

Jacob returned home when I was finishing dinner and he sat down and we chatted a while. We got to talking about music. I asked if he liked any Jazz or Blues and he said he absolutely loved it. He showed me his Jazz collection and introduced me Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. We sat in the living room and just enjoyed the simple sounds coming from the speakers and he walked in with little cheri glasses and a green glazed bottle from Asia. He explained that it was a special liquor from Vietnam. After he poured me a small portion he kept saying 'friends' but with his thick French accent, it was hard for me to decipher but once I did, it was great moment. The "A-HA!" I've been waiting for. I belong here, with these people and in this group. To further this new bond, he saw that I, like him, find leaves and put them in my notebook. He then said "tu est ma soeur" (you are my sister). It was a great feeling to know that I have the connection with the people who have so graciously let me live in their home.

I have a feeling this adventure is just getting started.... More later!

For Mom

J'aime le nourriture bcp! J'ai pensee le manger est difficile pour moi mais ma famille sont tres interessante avec ma choise de vegterianisme. Nous allons aller mon ecole et marche tout d'aix!!

I like the food a lot. I thought that eating would be difficult for me but my family is interested with my choice of vegetarianism. We are going to go to my school and walk all of aix.

Le premiere dejeuner d'Aix

J'aime le nourriture bcp! J'ai pensee le manger est difficile pour moi mais ma famille sont tres interessante avec ma choise de vegterianisme. Nous allons aller mon ecole et marche tout d'aix!!