On Friday morning, I went to grocery shopping and to run a few errands in town with Amy, which included a stop at the Boutique SNCF on the other edge of town. Although we don't have a train station in Apt, we have always been told that we have a train boutique, where you can go buy tickets for trains. As I had always done this online, the fact that this store was never open was not a problem for me. However, due to problems online, I had to resort to asking around to inquire why this establishment wasn't open. Turns out, it has been open for awhile, potentially all this time - I probably had just gone at lunch hours the time I had went before. Très bien, Becca. Anyway, now I am happy to say that all accommodation and travel tickets are booked for when my parents, Dan and Brenna arrive in nearly a month! What a big weight of my shoulders.
In the afternoon, I had my first private lesson with a boy from the college. As this is the lowest level I have had to work with here, it posed quite a challenge and I found myself having to use a lot of French to try to explain things to him. I also taught him how to make and use flash cards to memorize vocabulary, something nearly unheard of here. After a successful lesson, I walked back outside to beautiful blue skies, with sun peaking through a few clouds. As this was the first time to have had sun in a while, and would be the last time I have seen it since, it was a welcomed change in weather.
That night, Alison came in from Avignon and we enjoyed our first dinner using our new Crockpot*. Brought all the way from the U.S., we haven't had a chance to use it yet - wanting to make sure that the first time we would use it, we would be in the apartment the entire time it was on in case the voltage converter I bought was incorrect. Thankfully not, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner of sausage casserole with baguette and red wine.
Awaking at 5:30am, we caught the 6:30am bus to return me to my French home: Aix-en-Provence. Although this route was the windiest one I have ever experienced, making your stomach feel like it was in your throat at times, I was so excited when we finally arrived at the all to familiar Rotonde in the center of Aix.
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| Felt like coming home! |
I wondered if I would have trouble remembering where everything was at, was worried whether everything had changed or moved, and even thought that I just might not recognize anything in the city. My reaction was none of these things: it truly felt like coming home. It felt like I had never left. I could recount instantly where a good boulangerie was for breakfast, my exact route I took to and from class every day, and where O'Sullivan's Pub was (our normal watering hole). I can not fully describe how this feeling of familiarity with this city has put me even more at ease by being here in a foreign country, but it has.
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| Cours Mirabeau. |
Even though the entire day it was raining, and sometimes it was pretty cold, it did not matter. In fact, I welcomed this change, as I had never seen the city so drenched in rain due to the amazing Provencal summer weather where every day is sunnier than the last. We wandered through narrow alley after narrow alley, me pointing out various things I learned about the buildings or squares we visited. We of course walked several times down the Cours Mirabeau, viewed many fountains, and visited the Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur. Amy and Alison even kept refering to me as the resident Aix-pert.**
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| My favorite fountain! In Place d'Albertas. |
We sat for a long lunch at Geisha sushi, the place where I first tried sushi and fell in love with it. Dipping in and out of shops during the afternoon to avoid the rain as much as possible, we ended the day with a nice long hot chocolate with a friend of Alison's who just moved to Aix. Although it was a long day, when we got on the 6:30pm bus back to Apt, I couldn't help but feel a bit sad about leaving this amazing city. But, knowing I will be back again, I will just say à bientôt Aix!
This morning, I awoke starting to feel a little sick. I think the rain and colder weather, along with walking around in it all Saturday, is starting to catch up with me. But, as Amy and I had a lunch rendez-vous planned with Cathy (my coordinating teacher) and her family, I get myself up and bundled up to head off to St. Saturnin for the day. It was so nice to be welcomed back into this family atmosphere, as they had me over for Sunday lunch when I arrived in France. This time though, I feel like I did much better with my speaking as well as comprehension. There is always mistakes you make, but I feel like that is the point of being here: to learn. And to learn from the French who also speak and teach English, I could not ask for a better way to improve my language skills. I know that sometimes this experience has allowed me to get a little down or critical of myself, but what is important is that I am trying, I am being confident in trying to put myself out there and use the language.
The hospitality of this family is quite indescribable. Cathy made us a full lunch of aioli, cod with vegetables and a homemade mayonnaise, complete with several glasses of white wine and a galette des rois for dessert. As I have had the opportunity to try many galettes during this January in Provence, I do have to say that Cathy's homemade frangipane King's cake was the best one I have tasted yet. To digest our food, we enjoyed a quick, cold, wet walk and then a nice hot tea with nougat while listening to Marc and his two daughters play bluegrass music. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and am continually realizing I am blessed to have these experiences.
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| Provencal countryside |
*Thanks Dan and Brenna! We will be using it a lot more now, and it works perfectly! :)
**Forgive this horrible pun. And the one in the title of this post. I just had to.
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