Day two in France.

My hotel roommates and I woke up a little earlier and decided to walk to the market in the center of the city. On the way, we of course had to stop for a pain au chocolat…basically the greatest thing ever invented.

They have a market every morning. A wonderful thing about Provence, is that you can grow almost anything here, so everything at the market is truly local. We picked up some fresh fruits and veggies, stopped at a boulongerie for some baguettes, and returned to the hotel.

After some boring administrative meetings, we were given information about the apartments we were to look at. The program I’m doing has built relationships with a handful of landlords over the years so they know it’s a good place for our group to live. I looked at one place very near my school that was amazing, but it was too far from the school that most other students were attending to convince someone to move into that one. Another student and I headed across town (10 minutes…small town) to check out another place. We had been warned that this woman preferred quiet, which is fine with me.

When she invited us in, I assumed she was just going to show us the place, and if we liked it we could take it or leave. No. This woman sat me and 3 other girls down, took our passports and information, and proceeded to interview us. What are our hobbies, where are we from, asked us about our families. She took my passport and saw my middle name. Oh, I failed to mention this…her office was full of literature about Jesus Christ, Catholicism, and a few dozen religious paintings decorated the walls.

“Marie…is your family Catholic?”
“My father’s family is Catholic.”
“Are you?”
“I don’t follow a specific religion.”
“Ah…so you’re searching?”
“…Yes”

She seemed happy with that answer and moved in to the rest of the group, and then proceeded to ask the rest of them about their religion. Also, this woman spoke no English. It was a difficult conversation all around. She continued to bring up charity, taking care of those less fortunate, and all sorts of other things.

Eventually, she took us down to the apartment. I’m not going to give any details on it until I can have pictures. I move in next Thursday. So I came back to the hotel, and celebrated with my hotel roommates (who also found an apartment) and finished off a bottle of wine over homemade, market fresh pesto. Red wine tastes different here…good different. I could never drink red wine over in the States.

Today is Sunday and almost everything is closed. We took a second trip to the market and bakery, so we’re freshly stocked on fresh food and baguette. Not much on the schedule. Intensive French class starts tomorrow and runs for two weeks.

Next update to come on Thursday once I’m in my place…unless something exciting happens before then.