Reason’s I’m spoiled.

1). The weather.
I’ve been here over a month and I can think of three, maybe four days that haven’t been 70 or 80 and sunny without a cloud in the sky. In the winter, the high temperatures are supposed to be in the mid 50’s, with the lows in the upper 30’s. Coming from Milwaukee, WI, that seems pretty unreal. Provence is sunny 300 days out of the year, and apparently the rain/clouds are concentrated in fall and spring…so if it makes you feel better it will start raining on my parade soon.

2). The food
This should come as no surprise. Every day in the center of town, there’s a farmer’s market where I can go and get whatever fresh fruits and vegetables I might need for today or tomorrow. I found a good bakery a few blocks from my apartment where I go and get bread every few days for .70€. But it’s not just the fresh things—even a lot of the packaged stuff at the grocery store is phenomenal. The fruit juice here comes in unseen flavors, like pear or peach, and then it’s essentially just a bunch of pears or peaches blended up and bottled in much higher concentrations than US juice. The French also have some weird knack for serving way too many things in mini yogurt containers, which I’m still figuring out. But I do know what I have developed a taste for chocolate mousse that comes in these little plastic cups and has nutritional content far too similar to yogurt, so I don’t feel bad having one.

3). The wine
Again, this should come as no surprise. France is world famous for their wine for good reasons. Being a cheapass, I haven’t spent much on a bottle yet. For one special dinner I got a 7€ bottle, otherwise I hover around 4€ and under. I haven’t taken a class or gone to a wine tasting yet, but it’s on my list of things to do. Anyhow, a lot of the stuff sold here is grown and produced nearby. Provence is famous for their rosé wines. I’ve tried probably 10 or 12 different kinds and most of them have been good.

4). My school

I love Sciences Po. It’s a 10 minute walk from my apartment (straight through the adorable center of town) and all my classes are centered in their main, yet still small, building located in the center of town right across from an awesome old cathedral. I’ve met some really nice people from all over the world because the school is 30% international students, and a lot of the French students are also very nice. All my classes meet once a week for two hours, and there’s a break halfway through for people to get coffee and/or smoke. I have one class on Monday and Thursday, and two classes back to back Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and that’s it. Twelve credits, the minimum for my program. The list of classes I have to choose from each semester is two pages long, instead of ¼ page.

*This post was initially titled “Five Reasons I’m spoiled” but I couldn’t think of a 5^th one, so I’ll have to come back to this and update it as I realize how much I love life. Stay tuned, and be prepared to get jealous.

France is everything you want it to be.

I have officially been gone for just over a month. And status report—I love it here. France is everything you want it to be. People walking around carrying baguettes? Plenty. People drinking Perrier? Of course. Couples awkwardly rolling around on top of each other in the park? Welcome to Europe.

I don’t think I have any real complaints. Everything is a little different, but if you’re not expecting that to happen, you’re an idiot. I’m just really enjoying doing something different with my life. For the past three years, I was juggling full time school, one full time job on breaks, one part time job on breaks, summer classes, winter classes, and one “part time job” during school that took up way too much of my time/energy/sanity. So I haven’t had a real break in a long time. Even though I got dressed up every day this summer and went into an office, it never felt like work. The Capitol was too magical a place for it to feel real.

So this is my vacation. I get back to the States a college graduate who has no plans to go on to graduate school (unless someone reading this has $40,000 laying around that they’d like to send my way, then—yes, please!). I need to find a real job and start earning real money. But that’s a scary topic to handle another day. In a nutshell, I’m returning home to another crazy schedule where I know I won’t get a real break for some time. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back to Europe…politics and fighting for people’s rights doesn’t pay very well. And I’m totally fine with that, it just means I really need to enjoy it extra while I’m here.

My classes are all going well. I can understand most of what the professor says, which helps a lot. Sometimes I forget my lectures are in French. Then all the sudden I look around and realize that I’m going to school at a French university sitting side by side with French students and I’m happy. If anyone is curious, I’m taking French as a foreign language, comparative political institutions, history of the European Union, political sociology, American political society, and comparative law. They’re all super interesting.

With the exception of my mandatory French class, it’s really awesome that all my classes are poli sci. Students here don’t have to put up with the bullshit that the American system puts people through. They don’t have to take art, cultural diversity, science, etc. They just take what their program is. I told some other foreign students that I could have finished my degrees in two and a half years if I hadn’t had to deal with the stupid general education requirements and they were astounded. Maybe that’s nice for students who need to figure out what they want to do, but I would have preferred another two years of heavy poli sci training.

Either way, it’s done. I’m done with the American system, but not America. Don’t worry about that. I will be coming home in a few months. I’ve started to get a little homesick, but there are ways to make it better. Last night some friends came over and we cooked American breakfast for dinner, which consisted of chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, and orange juice. It was amazing. Ketchup, even though it didn’t have red dye or preservatives in it, still tasted like America. We also had a meeting with the study abroad advisors from the offices in Indiana and Madison yesterday, who were in town to check out the program and evaluate it. Those nice people brought bags of Reese’s peanut butter cups with them. Pretty sure I squealed when I entered the room and saw them. It’s the little things such as those that can make all the difference.

No more updates for now. Maybe later this week.

I fought a mountain today.

Nature and I have a complicated relationship. I’m injured very easily due to no one’s fault but my own. I’m half ginger, so I burn easily. The combination of these things, but mainly the first one, makes mountain climbing quite the feat.

During orientation week, I read that the international association at my school was organizing a trip to climb the local mountain, Monte Sainte Victoire. The mountain hangs out just a half hour north of Aix, and gained international fame thanks to an impressionist painter named Paul Cezanne, a native of Aix. Cezanne gained much fame after his death, and apparently the US got into him before the French did. This means that the US has more of his work than France does, which they don’t like. But Aix loves their Cezanne. He has a little bit of everything named after him, including the larger university I attend (of which Sciences Po is just a part). There are bronze squares in the ground with his name on them all over town, taking you from one Cezanne landmark to the next (I live right around the corner from his middle school). But back to the mountain…he painted it like a gajillion times. If you run a Google image search of “monte sainte victoire” you get more pictures of Cezanne’s work than you do photos of the mountain.

Being quite the local landmark, I told myself early on that this was something I had to do while I was here. It worked out nicely that the association was organizing a trip. I pay them four euro, they reserve buses, feed me breakfast, and find 70 or so other students to struggle up the mountain with me.

After meeting up a few blocks from my house, we departed on the chartered coach buses. We definitely drove past a vineyard during our 30 minute ride. Welcome to France. They dropped us off in a parking lot, and we were in dismay. Are we supposed to walk all the way over there? And up that high? Yes. This is literally what I signed up for. Why am I doing this to myself? Is there a lift? Is there a slide on the way back down?

We trekked over a large dam was apparently constructed with funds received from the Marshal Plan, for people who think that’s cool. Then began the zig sagging through the woods, down some hills, and then up some much larger ones. The terrain ranged from dirt, to large gravel, to hopping from one rock to the next. I wore real tennis shoes this time, and brought water, and brought food. Try explaining to someone how you accidentally went hiking over the summer, and learned not to wear Converse in the woods/on a mountain. Apparently it’s a strange thing to have happened to you, but this is my life.

After a hike of about three hours, we finally reached the top. At many points I could have easily died. There was no shortage of steep cliffs to fall off of, especially when you’re stumbling and exhausted. Thankfully that didn’t happen. There’s a monastery at the top where I think you can spend the night. We actually climbed a bit higher than the monastery, to the true top. Everyone brought out their picnic lunch, and relaxed for an hour or so. After a much easier two hour climb back down, I was never so happy to see a parking lot in my life.

I didn’t twist an ankle. I didn’t dislocate a knee. I technically fell on my butt once, but no harm done. Some bushes tried to eat me, but I made it out alive. I made it to the top, and then back down to the bottom. I fought the mountain, and I won.

Children, cover your ears. Fuck the metric system.

A month before I got over here, I tried to convince myself that I should try to better understand the metric system. Said effort miserably failed. I was too busy with other things that it just didn't happen. So now I’m in France. Which isn't the United States. Which means they use the metric system for everything, as opposed to selectively like they do back home. I think large soda bottles and science are the only things that use this “strange” system. I say “strange” because it really does make more sense, but that doesn't mean I understand it.

The only conversions I understand is that 1 kilo is 2.3lbs and 5 kilometers is 3.1 miles. Neither of those is really helping me. When shopping for produce and whatnot, I can guestimate what one pound feels like, but 2.3 is a bit of a stretch. As far as distance goes, I’m totally lost. I was looking up some directions on GoogleMaps and the final distance was 800 meters. What does that even mean? Sure, I was a swimmer for a long time, and for part of the season my events were in meters. I remember 50 meters of backstroke seeming like forever. So, if it’s 800 meters from A to B, and I walk backwards and multiply 16 times forever, that should be something I understand right?

This is starting to make cooking difficult. I have found comfort in rice. I can handle that. Take a juice glass, fill it up to the line with water twice, and then once with rice. 2:1. I can handle simple ratios. Aside from that, I think I’m going to have to add measuring spoons and cups to my next care package. Mother—if you’re reading this, please add it to my running list. Thanks.

I made an ass of myself in class the other day. My comparative law professor was talking about how the same laws were different in all sorts of countries, like speed limits for example. He went around the room naming off major countries, asking their speed limits. With Sciences Po being international people pretty much replied to their home state. Once he asked about the United States, I said 70 because I was the only American in the room. After that, the prof replies, “That’s pretty slow…”And of course I couldn’t think fast enough to say “I don’t understand the metric system. Please convert 70 to kilometers per hour” so he just moved on. I’ll survive.

Temperature hasn’t been a problem. I still use weather.com for all of my forecast needs, which is in Fahrenheit. Time has posed a slight issue. What is metric time you ask? The 24 hour clock. In the states it’s only used for science, for the most part…just like meters and whatnot. I recently found how to change the clock on my cell phone to include am and pm. It’s wonderful.

I’ll have to revisit this post at the end of my stay and see if I actually understand this any better…

But I will resist.
USA! USA! USA!

These people are all liars // General Updates

I've noticed that these people can't keep their story straight lately...


1) I walk around town on any given day and I see people wearing shirts that have text in English. “Oh look, another Anglophone!” is what my mind instantly jumps to. Wrong. Lies. They are a French person. Apparently they think it’s cool to wear things printed in English. I think it’s bullshit. Get your own t-shirts.

2) Europe claims to be all high and mighty with recycling and reusing stuff. Me being concerned with all of those things and just being straight up poor, brought my reusable plastic water bottle. I look around in my giant lectures and see disposable plastic water bottles EVERYWHERE. Are these kids too lazy to remember to grab the same bottle every day and go fill it up? Do they have enough money to buy a bottle of Evian every day? I don’t know. But I’m calling bullshit on this behavior.

3) Deodorant here is weird. Make some joke about how French people smell, and I will fly home and punch you in the mouth. I’m sick of it. That being said, I’ve seen this in several stores now, and I might be wrong, but I think I’ve noticed a trend. The majority of the stuff is in aerosol cans. I’ve seen it back in the States, but it’s not nearly as popular. If your country is going to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol and whatnot, how about you not use aerosol cans so much? Pretty sure that was one of the things they first figured out people should stop doing once people all the sudden started to get green conscious. I’m having my mom ship me normal stuff once I actually need more. So once again, I call bullshit. Stick to your story, France.

4) This weekend was “La Patrimoine”, loosely translated as history-fest. Since France is so old, there are more substantial historical sites than in the States. Since they use larger portions of their budget to take care of their citizens, they have to be smart with what’s left. So, all of this stuff is open only this weekend, for the most part. They open it all up for free, and make a big deal out of all of it. That way, the upkeep costs are smaller and everyone can have an equal opportunity to learn about their country. But now to the bullshit…my landlady. Her house/building is from the mid 1600s, and mine probably is too, but it’s not the same style at all so it’s less cool. She was charging 2 euro for a quick tour, and 4 euro for a longer tour. Really, lady? Do you need the money that bad? She was pretty much the only one charging an entry fee. I declare bullshit.

But everything isn’t bullshit.

Fun things of recent:

My roommate and I trekked the whole two blocks to the laundromat. We walk in, and there are two women and a man who appear to be in their early 60s. They were speaking American English, and as soon as they heard my roommate and I were as well, they just about died. They didn’t speak French and couldn’t figure out the weird payment/starter machine. We helped them out, I let them use some of my soap, which they nicely overpaid me for. It was a wonderful little encounter.

I almost have a cat over here. This little all white kitty quickly figured out how to get into my friend’s building through a window, and go all the way up the stairs to her 5^th floor apartment. She can be super cute and sweet…or sometimes she just wants to sleep on Grace’s bed alone and will take a swipe at you if you try to disturb her. And kitty apparently just comes over whenever she wants and stays however long she wants. So if I’m ever over there, there’s a 75% chance the cat is already there, will come over while I’m there, or will be outside and if we call her name out the window she will come over. It’s awesome.

Today was the 2^nd or 3^rd nasty day since I’ve been here. I was originally planning on going to the beach, so it sucked. But looking at the bigger picture, I’ve been here for just about three and a half weeks, and aside from these couple not nice days, it’s been sunny, 80, and not a single cloud in the sky. I’ve been told that rain comes in the fall and spring, and winter and summer are pretty dry. So we’ll see.

I still don’t have real internet. I remain convinced that wifi is black magic. Ok, “friends”…if it’s a stupid question as to whether it leaks through an open window or not…is rain a legitimate excuse for wifi to suck? And how come my roommate’s laptop can grab wifi in more spots than mine, but mine gets BETTER wifi in some of those spots? I don’t understand this stuff.

My friends and I decided that we’d like to go to Paris for Halloween. They do the Rocky Horror Picture Show every Friday and Saturday, so we’d like to go for that. I already decided that my costume this year is going to be a unicorn. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I’m keeping my eyes peeled for inspiration.

So that’s what’s going on in my life. Hopefully soon I’ll have real internet and I can Skype with people to catch up on what’s going on in your lives. This stolen stuff can barely load a facebook page; much less wrap itself around Skype.

TTNF, ta ta for now.

Back to school...

So I really suck at updating this blog, but that’s okay. If I remember correctly, my last update was last Thursday or something before I went to Marseille. I can’t even look up what my last update was because I’m typing this into a Word document and will copy and paste it when I lift my computer onto the ledge so that it can have internet for a brief while. Could I edit this out once I have internet? Yeah sure. But then you wouldn’t understand what my life is like.

So this was my first real week of classes. At Sciences Po, students pick a sub specialty within the school right from the start, and are stuck with that track for the rest of their time there. I don’t even know what they are because I’m not a real student. Not that it’s privileged information, I just don’t care because it doesn’t concern me. So this means that everyone in my classes take the same block of courses, have the same schedule, and all know each other. Though they know that there are plenty of international students who are there to choose from the menu of classes in its entirety, it’s still an awkward situation. On Monday I went to a class on comparative political institutions, and had to squeeze out of the room when it ended because everyone else was staying there for another class with their block right after.

Today, I went to classes on sociology of politics and the American political society. The first one was alright, I haven’t taken sociology before but I’m sure it can’t be that hard. The American one…was interesting. When I decided to take it, I was prepared to fight with my program’s faculty director and have to tell her that I “want to see it from a French prospective” which is half bullshit, half truth. Yeah it’s cool, but if I can have one class I’m a rockstar at I’m going to take it. Let’s be real. But I didn’t even have to fight her, “Oh, you’ll be able to see it from a French prospective!” she said when she saw it on my list of classes I wanted to take. #winning . I was waiting for the prof today to say, “raise your hand if you’re American” and he waited until halfway through the class. It’s just me and another girl from the program who are americaines. I’m really looking forward to this class, because I don’t know if you know this…but I know my shit when it comes to American politics. I’ll just have to keep up with the NY Times.

I don’t get homework or any of that bullshit here. It’s wonderful. The French just absorb their lectures, writing or typing EVERY SINGLE WORD that comes out of the prof’s mouth. It seems so unnecessary to me right now, but I’m trying to keep up as best I can. If you’re not constantly writing in class I’m sure you stick out like a sore thumb, not that anyone can tell if their face is smushed into their computer or notebook the whole time. Because I can’t take notes and listen simultaneously very well, I went out and bought a little recorder to at least help me with the listening. It’s just the size of a cell phone, plop it on my desk, and then when I get home I can hook it up to my computer and upload them as MP3s to listen to later.

I’ve had quite a few very pleasant encounters with French students so far. Sciences Po has a great international student association that’s run by a group of French students. They’ve organized a whole bunch of welcome week type things already and have more stuff planned for throughout the year. In class today, I finally talked to some French students for the first time. I was sitting all alone, and since it’s such a cliquey type system that I explained earlier, if you’re alone that pretty much means you’re an international student. But today this nice group of girls sitting near me asked where I was from and how things were going. They actually knew where Wisconsin was, which was nice to not have to explain. I was in a class for 2^nd year students, and at Sciences Po they spend their 3^rd year studying abroad. So 2^nd years have overseas on their mind as they pick were to study next year, and apparently UW-Madison is one of their options. They were very nice, and I doubt I’d be able to pick them out of a crowd again, but at least I know nice people exist somewhere in that room.

But aside from school, life here if going very well. My friend and I went to the bus station to buy student discount cards today. For a onetime fee of five euro, you buy this card that’s good for five years, and you get super discounts on regional buses with it. There’s a variety of fares you can buy with it, but all I’m going to need is the two euro pass that’s good all day (so it’s essentially a two euro round trip ticket if it’s same day). I’m going to the beach this weekend, and without the discount card the fare is 7.20 euro….oh look this card just paid for itself. I’m not sure on the specifics of where these buses go, but I’ll definitely be able to get some use out of it. I don’t exactly have the money to jetset around Europe like some people do while they’re studying abroad so I guess I can start with Aix’s immediate neighbors before I go too far away.

My program went to Marseille last Saturday, which was awesome. Marseille just short distance from Aix and is the second largest city in France. Geographically, it happens to conveniently be about the same size as Milwaukee. But it has like twice as many people. Apparently it’s run by the mafia. Apparently there’s a ton of murders and crime and things like that. I don’t care to write about that, so if you’re interested, google it yourself. We toured a bunch of historical stuff which was super interesting. I was standing in the crypt of a church constructed in the 5^th century. We don’t have a 5^th century in the States. Also, it was crazy to look down over the city from the church we were at and imagine the Germans actually coming in and bombing it. Like much of Europe, Marseille has a lot of more modern buildings because it saw a lot of damage in the early parts of the 20^th century. After a day of sights we stopped at a beach and I got to stick my toes in the Mediterranean for the first time. It was amazing.


That’s all I feel like updating right now. I’m not attaching photos to these posts because it takes too long to upload them onto blogger. If you’re one of those people who isn’t on facebook and can’t look at my photo albums, let me know and I can send you a link to whatever pictures I have posted so far. I’ll be back here to write more once I feel like it again. I have a lot to share, but no motivation to write it out. Right now I’m only doing this because I got sick of fighting with my stolen wifi. Oh well.


Miss you all, probably. I don’t know who read this so I’m going to use statements like that. Nothing you can do about it.

<3

Ugh!

I’ve officially been in France for over two weeks, but it seems like so much longer. It’s been a rough two weeks.

Monday-Friday we’ve had an “intense” French class from 9-1. It’s really not that intense, and I don’t think I learned/improved enough to get the 3 credits it got me, but whatever. It was just a long time to be in class. And we’ve had all sorts of homework, as is to be expected.

In the afternoon there have been bank accounts to open, and other things of the financial sort. Administrative meetings to sit through. Paperwork to process. Shit’s complicated.

We’re all trying to pick our classes, and apparently that’s not allowed to be easy. There are plenty of classes I’d love to take, but UWM is not being nice to me. At least I’m finally in contact with the head of undergrad for poli sci who essentially told me to just not repeat classes, and they’ll make it work for me.

I’ve had “Welcome to France” class all week at Sciences Po, along with orientation meetings there. Today I went back and forth between the two universities at least twice because of places I had to be all throughout the day. Absolutely exhausting.

I miss Washington. It’s weird reading about things happening on the Hill and not having it be old news for me. It’s hard to be so up to date on things when it’s not part of my job.

I don’t have real internet. I need to be in the garden (which has mosquitoes, scary sounding birds, and is visible to my crazy old landlord) to get a signal, for the most part. In my room, I get it on one square foot of space on the windowsill. Sitting on top of my desk is not comfortable. I don’t know when I’ll have reliable internet inside the entire apartment.

But it hasn’t been all bad.

It’s absolutely beautiful here.
I’ve gotten to know plenty of wonderful people who are part of my program.
I’ve met lots of really cool international students at Sciences Po.
I have my Arrested Development discs to unwind with at the end of the day.
I’ve been practicing my French.
The classes I’ll probably be taking sound really awesome, and I start on Monday.
I’m going to Marseille tomorrow. I get to see the Mediterranean for the first time!

Update to come tomorrow when I get home from that adventure…

Apartment!

So it’s official. I’m moved into an apartment. Thanks to a deal worked out with a friend, dragging suitcases across town got a lot easier. Now, about the apartment…I posted these to facebook but I’ll just repeat everything for people who don’t look at that.

This is the dining area in the kitchen. The door on the left goes out to the amazing courtyard, and the stairs on the right go up to a double bedroom where two French students live. The cupboard under the stairs is full of dishes and pans.

The other half of the kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this place, because I was prepared for the fact that most French apartments have a mini fridge, a microwave, and two hot plates as a kitchen. So I was very excited to have a real stove, and a real oven. To the right, is a hallway which my room and another single bedroom is off of. To the left, is the door to leave the apartment and another single bedroom. The double doors off to the side are the living room.

…and this is that living room. Most apartments don’t have a separate living room, so this is nice. By the way, having all these nice things is only possible because there’s 5 people living here.

This is the hallway past the kitchen that the living room is to the left of. Our fridge, microwave, and some food storage the first thing on the right. Then the next three doors is the toilet (the toilet and the shower are always separate in France), and then two shower stall rooms. There’s also a full bathroom upstairs for the other two girls, so there’s no problems with that.

This is my room. The perfect size for just me.

Nice little sink, vanity, and storage…just for me.

The other side of my room. A nice desk area, more shelves, and an armoire that I have all my clothes in.

And then the garden. There’s even a fountain.

So anyhow…that’s my apartment. I’m a fan.

If you want to look on a map where I am, my address is 10 Rue du 4 Septembre. Don’t send mail there though.

If you want to send me mail***, please send it to:

Carly Wilson, Academic Program in Aix
30 Rue Victor Hugo
13110 Aix-en-Provence
France

***by mail, I mean letters. Not packages. If you want to send me a package, let me know. There’s more specific info you would need. And don’t send checks. They can’t be cashed here, and literally need to be sent back to the US before anything could be done with it.

Culture Shock.

I’ve slowly been entering a phase of culture shock.

Examples:

Trip to French Walmart, called Carrefour. I was looking for washcloths. They literally didn’t sell them. They just sold these square, washcloth material “gloves”. It’s weird.

I needed a pillow. Let me preface this with…the past two nights I had to invent pillows. How does one invent a pillow? Take the two pillowcases you brought with you, and fill them with fluffy things like sweaters, scarves, and a sweatshirt. Add the tiny travel pillow on top of that and it almost feels like you’re using the real thing.
So I had pillowcases, but no real pillows. Apparently France has different pillows? They’re all square, and are flatter than US pillows. Yeah, so my rectangle pillow cases will do me a lot of good. Don’t worry, I made it fit.

Everything is closed on Sunday. Not everything, but most things. So my friend and I spend most of today running around town getting the things we needed, because the stores will be closed tomorrow. Our French culture teacher explained to us that if they want places to be open on Sunday, that means that people would have to go to work. And who would want to go to work if you can have one day dedicated to nothing but spending time with your family? It has absolutely nothing to do with church, because no one actually GOES to church here.
Some restaurants and stores proclaim that they’re open 7/7 , and it makes them stand out from the rest. Back home, establishments get the same effect from being able to tell their customers they’re available 24/7. But, 24/7 doesn’t exist in France, at least not so much in Aix. It’s an accomplishment of sorts just to be open on Sundays.

So culture shock for me just turns out to be a series of mild annoyances. Thankfully I’m a great problem solver and can avoid these things from becoming too difficult.