Yesterday's Post... the hotel didn't have internet.

Okay, so here we go. Now I can give a bigger update and add some photos as well. It’s kind of amusing, since I just changed my Word to French as the default language, therefore everything is underlined. I’m already completely adjusted to the time here, as we stayed up all day yesterday (hence the entry about how I was toute claquée by 3am). So that’s good.

Like I—very briefly—mentioned yesterday, our flights went very well. (See photo below of me and Cait at the Cincinnati airport before our first flight) I didn’t sleep a lot on the plane even with the wine we had with dinner (yes, they let us drink wine on the plane… Oh, how I love you, France) and the melatonin that I took… I wasn’t too happy when they served breakfast at 7am on the flight to Paris—little sleep and feeling gross will do that to you. Little did Caitlin and I know that we’d end up wearing the same outfits all day.



I think the first time it hit me that we really were in France was on our flight to Marseille when we were surrounded by people speaking French (we could actually understand a decent amount). Caitlin was seated behind me, which was fine, because I was seated next to a very nice couple who spent part of the flight talking to me about Marseille. I didn’t catch everything but, I got more than I had expected. I did realize however that I don’t understand celsius at all… I’ll definitely have to get used to that.

Mike met us in the aéroport without any problems and after putting all our baggage on a cart and finally in JP’s van, he gave us a tour of the countryside near Marseille. We got to see the sea—very blue and gorgeous with some little waves—and the beautiful areas around Marseille. The building all have an orange tint to them.

Mike currently lives (when he has to work in Aix-en-Provence) in a studio apartment attached to his parents’ house, which is actually the same house that they lived in when I was here eleven years ago. The entire family is amazing. I can’t believe how welcoming they were. What’s more, I understood about 90% of what they said (they only speak French) and we spent the past day and a half sitting around talking and eating. Jean-Pierre had us try vin d’orange at dinner, which is a wine he makes himself from les oranges sauvages (wild oranges) near the house. Very good (and what a cool concept… wine from oranges ??? Apparently it’s very provençal, according to Katy, one of our professors).

Yesterday night, we went to a pub in Avignon to meet Michel’s friend Rémy who teaches Physics at a high school in the interior of the ramparts. It was a lot of fun, sitting around a table, trying French beer and discussing our two countries… well, until the drunk Italian students came and sat around us, starting singing and, finally, dancing on the tables… Then we decided to leave. All in all, a great first day.

Today was great too. We finally were able to shower and change clothes (woo !) and then had a huge lunch with the family. It was our first time to try pastis (an apératif made with anis)… very… black licorice-y. Around five, Michel dropped us off in Avignon with the group, and we walked around a bit before going out to dinner at Wooloomooloo (a restaurant near the hotel, where we sat on the floor… very cool ambiance) and then Cait and I took a group and went to the pub again.


(At the restaurant Wooloomooloo with the group)


(Reunited at last with ma chère Carolina :))


(at the pub with some of the other OU-ers)

Tomorrow, we’ll tour the université, the other students will get their cell phones (Mike has a phone for me w/ a subscription that LITERALLY does everything but make coffee), and finally meet (and leave with) our host families. I also have an interview for the Rotary scholarship over the phone… I’m really nervous (I want this scholarship SO bad, even though Mike assures me that I can come on my own just as easily). We’ll see..