Photos de l'appartement

salle de séjour = living room

entryway into kitchen and stairs up to loft bedroom

cuisine = kitchen, or whatever of it fits in the picture

terrasse = terrace (see. . . French isn't so different)

The apartment seems to be made up of a million little corners, so it's hard to get shots of much of it at the same time. And I was going to take pictures around Aix today and upload those as well, but I didn't because everything is closed on Sundays. Pictures of where the market usually is would not be very exciting.

Class tomorrow :(

I'm a little worried that these beginning intensive courses will be too easy for me. How's that for being arrogant? One annoying thing about the program is that we are allowed to speak English, unlike the program I did in high school. The benefits of that are that I can write this darn blog and having deep intellectual conversations is much more accessible than merely talking about the weather or whatever other conversations arise when using banal vocabulary everyone knows. The drawback of this is that even our program directors speak English often to make sure everyone understands. I guess that's nice when addressing issues like our safety and how to avoid "exhibitionists" in the park late at night, but I think it only encourages English with all of the students. For the most part, I have been speaking French, but every once in a while the temptation to engage in a fast-paced conversation where your friends know exactly what you mean to say is all too great. It's only the first week still, there will be much more French to be spoken.

Also, didn't wind up going to the beaches in Cassis today because I just wanted to sleep in after a day of moving. I don't think anyone else went either because there was a large group from our program who went out on the town late late last night. I feel like kind of a square for not joining them, but I was sleepy, and sometimes that comes first. The realization that I can actually buy alcohol here is just not that big of a deal for the time being. I felt like the best way to celebrate moving into the new apartment was to spend a restful night in the new apartment.

The neighbors I've met so far are very nice. They're mostly French students, so it's good to hear from people approximately my age who are French because despite the fact that this is a French town, this place is crawling with mostly American and British tourists.

Also, there are two hotels less than a block away from my apartment if those of you who are planning on visiting me don't want to sleep on the "couch."

French word of the day:

farine = flour

Aujourd'hui quand je suis allée au supermarché je voulais bien acheter des provisions pour faire une tarte de pêches--la farine, le sucre, etc., mais toutes les pêches étaient déjà vendues.