End of First Week

(I'll preempt this by stating there are lots of recent pics not included in this post that I think you can view here)

Woohoo made it through the first week of classes/being in France! Classes started picking up towards the end of the week, as they were our second meetings. Nothing too exciting to report on the academic front, although I'm sure that will change in the week to come though, but right now I'm still living in vacation mode.

It's a very weird feeling. I had a month and a half break following this past semester, and got very accustomed to being on vacation: no work and hanging out with friends. Being in France has extended that feeling, as I still feel as if I'm on vacation. I realized earlier today that I will have class tomorrow, and it was an unpleasant shock.

Thursday we had a big night out on the town. A lot of people in the program (myself included), don't have classes on Friday, so Thursday is a big night out. About 20 of us met up (orchestrated through Facebook), and went to a bar called Sextius which was a very chill atmosphere. Lots of people, lots of oldie dancing music (jazz, etc). After we were there for a while we went to IPN, which is one of two dance clubs in Aix-en-Provence. We got there before midnight (free before midnight) with most of the original group still intact. The club wasn't too crowded when we got there, and after a while most of our group left. However, at around 2am the club started getting crazy! Apparently in France the thing to do is stay at the pubs/bars until they close (at 2) and THEN go to the dance club. There were only 4 of us left, but we stayed there and danced until well after 3, and then got food at a 24 hour restaurant. It was the latest night I've had since I got here, and I didn't get home until after 5. Luckily I didn't have class on Friday!

On Friday I enjoyed a late sleep-in, and eventually pulled myself together to go into town. I'd been feeling bad about not taking any pictures, so as I walked into town I brought my camera and looked like an average tourist. In town I met up with some friends, and we went exploring. At 6, we had a meeting in which different local clubs/activities came to talk to us about getting involved. There was a travel agency guy, a wine tasting club, volunteer opportunities, a local gym, and a representative from the local ultimate frisbee team. This immediately grabbed my attention, as I like playing at home with friends. The team here practices once a week, and has optional national tournaments to attend. I went over to talk to him afterwards, and found that he graduated from Penn State in 2005! Small world.

This weekend was our first trip out of Aix, and one of the only planned/paid for trips through the program. Everyone in the program (70+) came on the trip, so it was a really good chance to get to meet and befriend some people that I hadn't already met. We had to meet downtown at 8:15 am on Saturday, where 2 buses picked us up and drove us to Nice. The bus ride was over 2 hours, and needless to say the majority of the group was asleep in minutes.

As they say, Nice is nice. Although when we were there it was pretty overcast and cloudy. Right when we got there, a group of us decided to walk down the boardwalk by the beach to get to a hill you can climb up to get to an amazing vantage point. It was a pretty rough walk, with lots of stairs, but it wasn't too long, and the view was amazing. We could see the whole city sprawled out below us, with an amazing view of the Mediterranean. There were also some ancient ruins which it looked like were part of an archaeological dig. Never one for conventional authority, I hopped over the fence, past the no entrance sign, and posed for what a considered an excellent photo.

While we were eating lunch in town, it began pouring, which put a bit of a damper on our touristic intentions. However, 2 of the girls and I continued our exploration by seeking out the modern art museum, which to our delight had free admission. It was a great way to spend an hour, with a lot of really cool artworks. There are lots of pictures on the Facebook album.

After meeting up with the rest of the group, we headed to our home for the evening, a youth hostel near Monaco. The program stays at this hostel every year, and it's a really nice place, with a lot of outdoor spaces. This was my first experience with a hostel, and it was a great one. The rooms were clean, the people were friendly, and the food was good. After dinner we all got spiffied up in our finest attire, and headed for the Monte Carlo casino in Monaco. I was surprised at how different the casino was then any other I've been to. It doesn't really have the feel of a casino, it feels like a grand hotel that happens to have some gaming tables. The atmosphere is extremely classy, and rather quiet. It's extremely expensive to gamble there; the maximum bet in the blackjack room is 20,000 euro per hand, and the minimum bet is 25 euro per hand. I decided to play blackjack for a while, and ended up winning over 150 euro!

When we came back from the casino the staff of the hostel had set up a "discotheque" for us. They had pushed the tables in the cafeteria to the walls, set up a disco ball and lights, and had music. With the help of the bar, everyone was dancing by the end of the night, and it was a really fun time, although I got to bed pretty late (considering we woke up at 7:30 this morning).

Today we traveled to Cannes, where we saw all that we could on a Sunday. I don't think that seeing Cannes in the winter was the best idea, but it's still a cool place to visit. We hiked up the hill nearby where the man in the iron mask was supposed kept, and saw an amazing view of the city. The marina is awe-inspiring, with some absolutely phenomenal yachts docked there (check out the facebook album). Most of the day was spent walking around and enjoying the town famous for its annual film festival. We took pictures on the red carpet, and compared our hands with the molds of famous actors and directors (Bruce Willis has little girly hands!). We finished up the day watching the old men playing Bocce, and most of us slept through the trip home. It was a great weekend, with lots of good adventures, but it was kind of nice to get home to Dominique's cooking.

Well, now I've got to figure out if I have any homework, plans for the next 2 weekends (potentially London and Spain) and mentally prepare myself for classes!

Oh, Studying Abroad Means Classes?

Yes, the last two days have been a bit of a shock to my system. Having not had any classes since early December, and having gotten used to relaxing all day, going to classes the past two days has been a bit of a challenge.

Smartly, I've also gone out the last 2 nights. Tuesdays are ladies' night in Aix, and so last night everyone went out to the bars. We started at Wohoo, which is the "international bar" in Aix. Nearly all of the bar tenders are American or British, and last night they had 2 for 1 deals for foreign students, which meant the place was packed. We met lots of Americans from other programs, before going to a bar called Le Manoir. It was a really fun night, as most of our program (and the whole group that I've been hanging out with) all went out, and it was a good chance to get to know everyone a little better.

I'm taking 5 classes here in Aix, 2 in French, and 3 in English (or broken English, depending on the teacher). Yesterday I had French literature followed by political science. Whereas at Penn State we have "syllabus week" (the first week of classes which are very short and don't really cover material), in all of my classes so far we've jumped right in to the material. My French literature professor's named Florian (Flo-Flo), and is extremely French. He gave us all of the material that we will be reading this semester. The course is going to cover 19th and 20th century poetry and novels, and his goal is to improve our written French, as well as our phonetics (we'll be reading poetry aloud). I was somewhat surprised that the literature we're beginning with is babied up or edited at all; it's full-on French adult poetry. I have enough difficulty with poetry in English! For the second class (tomorrow), he assigned a rather long poem called Le Lac (translation). Needless to say, I didn't understand much my first time through. But after a few readings of it, with a lot of help from an online dictionary, I was able to get through the homework questions. My second class yesterday was Political Science. The course is Geopolitics of the Mediterranean Basin, which is an interesting class because it treats the entire region as one area, rather than splitting it up. Over the course of the semester we'll be covering the Middle East, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Maghreb. The professor seems very laid-back, but enthusiastic (those seem contradictory, but trust me). He was born in the U.S., was a Marine for 8 years, went to undergraduate and graduate school in France, and has been teaching for the last 10 years.

Today I had a 10:30 class, which was unfortunate as I didn't get home until 3:30 last night. It was another French class, this one advanced French grammar. The hour and a half consisted of the professor explaining the course, and trying unsuccessfully to get us, the half-asleep students, to engage in a conversation. My next class wasn't until 4, so I headed down to le cave, which is the basement of the school (it literally looks like a cave). There are a bunch of tables there, and vending machines, and it's the preferred hang-out spot. I met up with my friend Lauren, and we ended up running into my friend Alex (he's the only other guy from Penn State). We went to get lunch across the street from school at a boulangerie (a bakery), and got what's becoming my new lunch staple: pain bagne. It's a sandwich on a baguette with tuna, egg, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. On a freshly-baked French baguette, it's heavenly. We walked over to the Hotel de Ville (the square where the town hall is), and met up with two MORE friends at a café that has lotsa chairs outside (this is kinda the way our program is. Always running into more people to hang out with). It was a pretty amazing lunch of what I hope will become typical; eating French food, drinking French coffee, good company, good conversation, good weather, and some French guy playing his accordion.

Alex and I had our next 2 classes together (from 4-7), and he also had a long break, so after lunch we hung out in le cave for a while. Finally it was time for class: Com 312. This class is called "Speaking of Provence" and is a study of the region and its history through media. The professor teaches communications at NYU in the fall, and is the aged hippy-activist type. My final class of the day was Econ 304, globalization, growth, and development. The material we talked about today seemed extremely similar to the course I took this past semester, so I'm hoping it gets more in-depth! The material is interesting, although I can't stand the professor's voice: high-pitched, ditsy, with a horrible French accent.

Don't think that I've mentioned this yet (might have been in the first post that got cut short), but this weekend we're going on a big excursion! The whole school gets bussed out Saturday morning, and we start out by going to Nice. After spending Saturday touring Nice, we head over to Monaco and visit the classy Monte Carlo casino. Finally, we head over to Cannes and spend Sunday there before returning home. I can't wait, and will be sure to take lots of pictures!

Speaking of which, I went back and put a few pictures into previous posts. A lot more to come! I keep meaning to take pictures of Aix, and I will soon!

Orientation

Today was the orientation day for the program I'm on, and it was quite a marathon effort (a what?). Orientation began at 9 o'clock, which having gone out last night felt quite early. For over 3 hours, they provided us with information, most of which I felt I had already read on the web site, or information packets that they had sent to us. Needless to say, I found myself drifting off.

One interesting thing they told us about was our first "excursion" with the program, which is going to be this coming weekend. Everyone on the program is traveling to Nice on Friday, then to Monaco and Monte Carlo for the evening, and then to Cannes on Sunday, returning Sunday evening. Monte Carlo is supposed to be EXTREMELY classy, with the wealthiest of Europeans flocking to it.

Part of the orientation also included our group sitting down with a few local French teens, and having the opportunity to ask them questions. They told us all the best places to go in town, the cheap restaurants, best bars, etc. The teens were extremely nice and helpful, and assured us that most French students are the same, and very willing to practice their English (which is probably better than our French).

Last night was a fun experience, and I think characteristic of the small town that Aix is. I left the apartment with Christopher and Thomas, my housemates, and we met up with Katie, a fellow IAU-er who lives up the street. We had arranged to meet with 2 of our friends at a pub (Alex, from Penn State, and his house mate, Justin). Once there, we saw a group of people across the street, who looked like they might be in our program, so I yelled out "Are you American?" in doing so perhaps reinforcing the justified stereotype of loud, obnoxious Americans. They were from our program, and after meeting up with a few other people walked into the pub (O'Shannon's) with 20+ Americans.

The end of the orientation provided us with some practical information, like how to get our mail, and how to get phones. If you want to write to me, don't write to the previously listed address, write to me at the program I'm on, IAU:

Noah Simmons
IAU, 2 bis rue du Bon Pasteur,
13625 Aix-en-Provence,
France

Fan mail would definitely be appreciated.

After orientation I decided that I'd gone long enough feeling vulnerable without a cell phone, and gathered a flock of followers to go searching for a cell phone. Laura (who was on the program last year) had told me of a good deal at a store called The Phone House, so we went searching. We found it, and I ended up getting a phone! Pretty good deal; it was 30 euro for the phone, plus 60 euro for a prepaid plan. This plan includes unlimited text messaging for 4 months, and 79 euros worth of credit, which translates to 6 hours of local calls, but call also be applied to long distance calls or (more applicable to me) roaming charges, as the phone works all over Europe. While all the other suckers are loading up 10 euro cards at a time, I'll be set with unlimited texting for the duration of the program. Also, incoming calls are free, so if someone wants to call me (I know Skype and Google Voice have very cheap rates), my number is

00 33 760408560

Well, I suppose that's all, folks. First day of classes tomorrow, although my first one isn't until 2:30, so I'm going to go meet some people in town. À demain!

Le Premier Jour à Aix!

Well, today was my first real day in Aix-en-Provence. I think I did an excellent job of beating jet lag. Despite napping for 4+ hours yesterday afternoon, I was able to fall asleep around 12:30 last night, and slept until 10. After waking up today, I arranged through Facebook to meet up with some people to go explore Aix.

After my 25 minute walk to town (I really need to look into a bus pass), we met at the tourist office in the place de general De Gaulle. The place De Gaulle (also called the rotund) has a really magnificent fountain in it, with a traffic round-about around it (called a rond point) (PICTURE TO COME). We needed to be at an open house at the IAU building at 4, so we walked around Aix for a few hours. It's such a small town that you can go from one end to the other without even noticing in a 15 minute walk. It didn't help that nothing was opened (it being a Sunday), so there was nothing to interrupt our stroll. We met up with Lauren, who I'd "met" on Facebook. Lauren just came from Paris, so she told us all about that. I'm convinced that Lauren is the luckiest person on the program. She has her own apartment in downtown Aix. I guess her host mom owns 2 apartments on top of each other, so she's staying in the second one. Unfair. I have a little room in an apartment 30 minutes away, and she's a 5 minute walk from school. Some people. After searching fruitlessly for an open-air market the girls said they'd seen (I'm not convinced of its existence), we finally got lunch at Pizza Capri, which is apparently one of the best/cheapest pizza stands in Aix. Only 2 euros for a pretty big piece of pizza (and really good).

At the IAU open house we got to meet all the other students, which was nice. After meeting a bunch of fellow students, a bunch of us decided to go out for a drink. Went to a pub nearby (O'Sullivans. Yes, O'Sullivans). Then Christopher (my housemate) and I went back to Dominique's (my host mom) for dinner. I'd always heard French don't have big dinners, but both nights she's prepared rather large dinners for us. Pasta, cooked eggplant, bread and cheese; very satisfying meals. Christopher and I are going out soon to meet up with people, but unfortunately none of us have cell phones yet. Should be interesting.

À demain!

(really upset that I went back to see my post from yesterday, and saw that half of my original post was gone! Lost forever! If anyone has any questions about anything that's not clear, comment and lemme know!)

En France! Finalement!

Well, after a day of traveling, I've arrived! I left Pittsburgh "yesterday" morning at 10ish. There was absolutely no one at the airport, which was nice. Dad dropped me off, and I was through security in under 5 minutes. However, the first leg of my journey wasn't without incident. Walking toward the gate earlier, I'd noticed a sketchy-looking guy walking around without any carry-on luggage. Didn't really think anything of it though. However, a few minutes before takeoff, when we had already boarded the plane, two angry looking cops stormed into the cabin. They headed straight for my direction, and stopped two rows in front of me; at the sketchy-looking guy. They yelled at him to get up, and escorted him off. Later I heard one of the stewardesses mentioning that he had stolen something. Interesting start to the day.

From Pittsburgh I flew into Washington Dulles, where I had a 6-hour layover. Yes, 6 hours. It wasn't too bad, in retrospect. I spent a few hours finishing "The Watchmen" which I really enjoyed, more than the movie perhaps. A visually amazing literary and graphic novel word; it's no wonder Time named it one of the 100 best novels. Spent the rest of my layover watching a few episodes of Boston Legal, which I'm working through the first season, taking farewell phone calls (thanks Grandmere, Melody, and Laura <3).>

OH NO THERE WAS SO MUCH MORE TO THIS POST AND IT GOT DELETED!!! GAHHH!!! Oh man, idk how it got deleted. Ugchhh. Short summary; flights were good, slept some, got to Aix, host mom nice, named Dominique, other people staying with me, Swede named Thomas, American named Christopher. Really upset. Blogger deleted like half my post!

Le mot du jour (word of the day) -- décalage horaire (jet lag)

P.S. if you're anxious to send me something, you can send it to me through Dominique:

Dominique Scherb

Parc Beaumanoir, 2 rue Marcel Arnaud Bt 5/1

13100 Aix-en-Provence

Scratch that. If you want to send mail, send it to:

Noah Simmons

IAU, 2 bis rue du Bon Pasteur,

13625 Aix-en-Provence,

France

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, after a few months of preparation, and a few hours of intensive Tetris-like packing, I'm all set and ready to go. How did I do it, you might be wondering? 1 word kids: rolling. I'd heard of this packing technique before, but had never tried it. Basically...roll everything. I'm now convinced that you can roll anything and it will be more compact and efficient. Shirts? Towels? Backpacks? After rolling, everything I could ever want (major exaggeration) fits into a suitcase and a pack. It's a bizarre feeling to see everything that I need to study and travel Europe for 4 months packed into 1 suitcase and 1 backpack.

I like it though. It's a very enlightening and motivational feeling; to know that for this semester it's going to be just me, and the bare essentials. The ultimate freedom; to take a completely new experience, with new people, no preconceptions, and to have the power to take that trip and make of it what you want. That's what I hope to do between now and May 14.

But wait, what's going on? Where are you going? Ah, I'm glad you asked. Despite enjoying my time in the frozen tundra that is Happy Valley every spring semester, I've decided to give in to one of the greatest collegiate stereotypes; the junior semester abroad.

How original, you say. Indeed, I respond. And yet sometimes a nonconformist must conform for the sake of nonconformity. Indeed.

Come Friday, I'll be picking up my well-packed luggage, hopping on a jet plane, and setting sail with the wind at my back for Europe. I'll be spending the semester at the Institute for American Universities in Aix-En-Provence in the South of France. I'll be studying pretty much the same things I'd be studying stateside; French, Political Science, and a little bit of Econ. But obviously that's not the highlight and appeal of the trip. On this, my 3rd trip to France in a little over a year, I hope to undertake traveling a bit differently than I have before. I want to really travel. No more of this tour guide, tour books, reservations crap. Traveling isn't a destination, it's about how you go about getting to the destination. I want to immerse myself in the culture. I want to go somewhere with no idea what I'm going to do once I get there, and nothing but the pack on my back. I don't want to fear the road, I want to embrace it. I want to see what the world has to show me. I want to become a citizen of the world. I want to become an intrepid traveler.