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!