Cuisine diploma

I went to my last coocking class last thursday. I was given my "cooking diploma" wich says that now I can cook french cuisine. I really just ate everything every time I went to the class so I think it is more like an eating diploma but whatever. Danielle, the woman who teaches it, said I can come back for Christmas or come once a month if I want. I think I will. I really enjoyed the class. We had so much fun. I have some good ideas for meals too. So I will cook for everyone when I get back.

St. Victoire at last!!!!!!

Left is Yiupo and the right is Cricket

This is how far up we were!!!

This weekend I didn't have any organised excursions so Melissa, Cricket, Yiupo, and I went on our own. We went to hike the well known mountain in Aix called St. Victoire. I loved it. We were so high above everything and the view was awsome. I think it was one of my favorite days since I have been here. At the top is a monistary were people can sleep and have a fire if they want. There is also a huge cross that was put there some time in the 1800's. AHHHHH it was so much fun. We took about an hour to get to the top and then we ate lunch and hung out for about two hours at the top. You can see everything from the top of this mountain. People climb it all the time. Although today my legs hurt today, I loved it!!!!!

Paintings!! This is for Aunt Martha

Of cours we had to get ice cream in Avignon. I had passion fruit ice cream.
I talked to this painter for a little while cause he had some really great ones.


This post is for Aunt Martha!!

All over Avignon people had their painting out for sale. They were al so good I loved them. I think before I leave I am going to get a bunch of paintings from different people of all my favorite places and things. Do you have any favorite French painters?

Avignon

This view is looking through the top part of the bridge where the water would flow downward.
All throughout the city they have these fake windows with paintings of different people in them.
You can walk oh the bottom half of the bridge.
This is Le Rhone river and the bridge

That gridge is the Pont D'Avignon. It was broken some time before and the King never repared it so the bridge doesn't go all the way across the Rhone river. On the other side if the road is the wall that goes all the way around the center of the city.


Saturday we went on another excursion to a town called Avignon. It is such a beautiful town I loved it. They have a really nice theater there so I got the dates of all the concerts and ballets, I don;t think I would like opera. The center of the city, which is huge, is surrounded by a giant stone wall because everyone ised to run inside for protection during times of war or battle. Avignon is also known for its bridge across the Rhone river, and there is this other bridge called " Le pont de Gard" This was used to transport water to cities from a long distance. The bridge is so tall becasue it has to be at the right angle for the water to fall downward towards the cities it was supplying. The water was transported through the top of the bridge. It is so cool and I can't believe it is still standing, with some help of cours, but still that is crazy!

cours de cuisine # 2

This is me and my friend Cricket. She loves to cook too. On our plates is what we had for dessert. It was like a custard with caramel and a kind of meringue on the top. mmmmm..
This is my friend Hildur from Iceland. SHe has a great accent.
This is a special bowl used to make a garlic mayonaise typicaly from the south of France.

This is the second cooking "class" at this lady's house. We had fish and vegetables and tons of other stuff that I will have to tell you all later cause I can't remember the name.
We had fun though.

Cassis!!

This is me drinking wine and eating a cookie while on the hike. Weird hu?
MMMM... Italian ice cream is the best!!! They have it all over in France since Italy is so close.




This last weekend I went on yet another excursion to a town called Cassis. It is a small beach town with beautiful clear blue water. The ocean does not really have waves fun it is so calm and sunny and blue, I loved it. It was a little too cold to go in the water but we just hung around for a while and ate lunch. Then we got some ice cream that was soooo good. The ice cream here is way better than in the US. After we all relaxed on the beach for a while, we went hiking around in the nearby mountains. We had a tour guid who taught us alot about the weather conditions and plants around Cassis. It was really interesting. Cassis is also well known for it's wine, so of course , being in France, the tour guid ,George, bought some wine and cookies for us to have while we were taking a rest on the hike. I tohught it was a little strange to drink wine in the middle of the hike, but it was good. I'm still getting used to drinking wine every once in a while.
Anyways, it was a really good day, I would like to have more time on the beach so I am going to go back to Cassis soon.

French cooking!!!!

Thursday nights this French lady named Danielle, the one to the right of me in the above picture, has cooking courses at her house for anyone that wants to learn. ( and pay) It is a good price though considering after you learn how to make the meal, you stay and eat it, and get wine, and get to learn about the french culture, and she sends you the recipe of everything that we made that night to you via e-mail so you don't have to remember everything. So I went with my friend Christina ,who is Melissa's rommate, and there were three other foreign students who were there also. I had so much fun. We made all kinds of stuff. This beef and potatos dish, a special kind of deviled eggs, but not like grandma's, and we even made a chocolate cake from scratch for afterwards. Once we were done preparing all the food, Danielle's husband came home to eat with us. I guess he always does that so he can get a good meal too. We also had a taste of a Provincial wine before we started eating, and another kind during. I loved it. I am going again next thursday because when you pay, you pay for three courses. I'll let you all know what I made exactly when Danielle sends me the recipe. NOW I CAN MAKE EVERYONE FRENCH FOOD!!!!!!!!

Arles

half was redone and the other was left as it was. strange hu?

Arles

This weekend we had another excursion with our program to a city calles Arles. It was so pretty you would not believe it!! As you can see in the pictures, we went to an old collosium wich was so cool to see and hear about. Our guide, George, said that at one time most of the city was living inside of this stadium during war times for protection. It was so amazing. Throughout the town there are ruins of old buildings and walls. I loved it. Then we went to another place close by that had an exhibit of a famous painter's work in France. The painter's name is Paul Cezanne. He was from Aix and everything in Aix is named after him because he was such a great painter. If you live in Aix you MUST like his paintings. They are really good though. Anyways, so we went to this giant rock which you can walk into. Rooms and stairs were cut into the rock so no other material was used to make the "building" except the rock itselfe which was already there in this mountain. It used to be a rock quarry, and then they continued to cut out the interior for this exhibit. So inside this rock it is really cold and they have projectors which project a painting of Paul Cezzane's work on the rock wall. The entire place is dark and there are tons of these projections all over the place. The colores from the paintings light up the walls and reflect all over the place. His painting are really something!! It is a huge room and the demensions of the rock walls make the paintings look 3D. The projections change all the time so the paintings are always moving. It is a little hard to explain but I hope you can start to imagine it. Some of the paintings are projected onto the ground so you can walk on them. This place was so amazing. The entire city is stratigically placed on a mountain ontop of massive rocks.
We also stopped on the way at different things like a windmill to see the view of the country side. It was a great day. I hope I explained it okay for you all.

Last day of school party!!!

Mr. Paita stole my camera and took a picture of me writing my evaluation.

Today was the last day of the intensive language program that we have been taking to prepare us for the semester classes. Everyday we work from 8:30 to about 10:30 and then we take a break for a while and then come back and work until 12:30. Today when we came back from the break, our teacher came back from the break with two bags full of stuff. He had us all write an evaluation of what we thought of the class and him as a teacher just for his own assesment and then when we were done he took out some champaign that he bought, and cookies and stuff for a party! He is so great. He made a toast to us all and told us not to drink too much cause he didn't want us all leaving the class drunk. So we spent the rest of the class time talking and taking pictures with Mr. Paita. I hope I have a class with him during the semester. I was so blessed to have him and a teacher during this month. He is always in a good mood and we finished the month with a great party. He always draws pictures on the board to help us understand stuff when we are confused so before we left, we drew him a picture. He told me how he thinks I should move up a level and let everyone know how they did in the class and what we all need to work on. It was just a good class day.

Gorges de L'Ardeche

Well the place I get my internet from also offers excursions every weekend for students. This last weekend , the 23rd, they were going to a place called Les Gorges de L'Ardeche. The river is called Ardeche and it is so pretty. The sun was out but not too much so I didn't get sun burned. It took 3 hours by bus to get there and we were only actually there for a few hours but it was worth it. So I really wanted to go Kayaking. The river had about four or five rapids. They were not too big, but one of them made some of the boats flip over. Me and my friend Alexander got stuck on a huge rock and had to shift the weight around to get off. Then we lost a paddle. That was the best part. The Kayaking was actually pretty easy but I went online and found another place the offers kayaking on the ocean of on different levels of rapids. I want to try that out. I might have to wait until march or April though because it is starting to get cold and rainy so those places are closing soon. Melissa and I did not get to go for our hike up St. Victoire becasue it was raining so hard on Sunday.

Chinese food in France

So Saturday night, one of my friends from class came over to my appartment to cook for me and our other friend Melissa. The girl who is cooking in the picture is Lu. She is from China and is here learning french in the same class as us for the month. I don't really know how we became friends. She just came up to me one day and asked if I liked Chinese food. Ummm Yeah are you kidding me. I love all food. So she asked if she could come over and cook some ofr me and Melissa. It was really fun. We met around 5 pm to go shopping for the food she needed then we went to my aparetment. We cooked there because I have the biggest kitchen. Lu brought some of her own seasonings from China and made the best food. She made rice, tomatoes and egg dish, a spicy egg plant and pepper dish and chicken that was awsome. I got to keep the leftovers at my place. We had a good time. Lu does not speak english, only Chinese and French so it is funny to try to communicate all the time. She wanted to keep her seasonings at my house for the next time she comes to cook. I didn't mind that at all. We were going to watch a soccer game that night but the game was actually on Sunday not Saturday. Anyways it was a good night. Then We told Lu that we were going to church on Sunaday and she wanted to come to thet too. So ... she came. Apparently she thought we were just going to visit a church to look at it and not actually attend a service. So she was surprised when we sat arrived for the service. I didn't think she liked it but today she told me that she really did. She had never been in a church before so it was really new for her. So the weekend was fun.

Church BBQ

Nevermind the people! I just wanted you to see the food!!! ha ha ha



Last Sunday I forgot to tell you that I went to a BBQ that the church put on. Anyone was aloud to go and it was mostly people my age and some other adults. There is a married couple in the church who organize things for youth and foreign students in Aix. Their names are Julie and Darrin. Ther are not french but they have been living here and running this Christian group for four years. The BBQ was at a ladies house who goes to the church and opens her house for all kinds of things. Her house is just outside of the center of town so we had to get a ride to the BBQ. Anyways her house was awsome. As you can see in the photos, she has a pool and a great view of a famous mountain called St. Victoire. They made so much food I couldn't wait to eat. BBQ chicken, potatos,couscous,hummus, quiche, and so much more. Then they brought out the cheese and bread. THEN they brought out dessert!! Everyone was supposed to bring something so of course most people bring sweets. As did I. So you can Imagine how much more there was to eat. I ate so much food I almost died. I didn't eat after that until two hours later.....okay the next day. There was a small band who played worship songs and a giant trampoline. There were some military people there that are my age. So I talked to them for a while. I hope they start comming to the church. So it was a great day and everyone there is so nice. I love to be around food, people, and such a nice house. It was a good Sunday

another week

Well.....I am still here. I think I am strting to get the idea that I am not just on vacation here. I am going to be here for a while. Today I took the bus to the cheap market to get some food that will last me a month or so. This was a huge place alot like costco. I was there for about 2 hours and I didn't even get to the other half of the store. So I got tons of food.
Sbhool is going well still. I think I am getting better at understanding my teacher when he speaks quickly. However my writing skills are another story. I need to work on all that still.
Anyways I just wanted to leave a little note to let you all know that I am still live and here. If anyone wants to come see me you are MORE than welcome. Sorry I don't have pictures this time.

Day in Marseilles

Today we took a tour of a big city called Marseilles given by the student program that I am in. Marseille is the bigest port in France and huge. We rode in a bus around a small portion of the port and then we were given a few hours to walk around and eat. One of the stops on the way was at an old church called " Notre-Dame De La Garde." The church is placed on top of a hill and is so pretty. The people in Marseilles are all tan. They take their boats out and eat expensive food at the port all day long. The day was perfect for being in Marseilles at the beach. The girl in the picture with me is my good friend Melissa. She goes to church with me. We just walked around and watched all the boats come in and out of the port. I loved it. When we came back to Aix I talked to my friend who runs a bakery on the way to my house. I told him that I went to Marseille today and he asked me if I liked it. I told him I did and he said that usually people who come from Aix do not like the city of Marseilles or the people, and the people who come from Marseilles do not like Aix or the people from Aix. The French are really proud of their city and region they come from in the country. I did really like Marseille to visit but the truth is that I would much rather live in Aix. Kinda strange huh? I thought it was interesting to talk to him about it. I want to go back to Marseille and swim before the summer is over though. The water is so clear and blue. There is so much to see I can't believe it. The pictures don't even do the place justice. I didn't even see the really nice part. I want to go to some other parts of the coast. I hope you like the photos!!!