almost two weeks gone

so last friday i had some meetings for the school. i had to actually wake up early, and set my alarm for the first time. but i have to say france looks good in the morning. there is a lot of stuff that happens before 12. and the markets that pop up in the streets and courtyards around town are awesome. you can find anything and everything fresh and made local. it is quite a site. and on sundays they even have an open air antique market that fills one side of the main street. and the other side stays busy with all the cafes full of french people and tourists. there are actually a lot of tourists here, so you would fit right in.

i am still loving the views i have from my window. and every now and then i get to watch a storm front move over the mountains. its pretty cool.

well i have got a big 3 hour placement test on wednesday. it will decide what level of french classes i should take here. and then i will be able to pick my classes and meet some professors on friday. and the classes are supposed to start on monday. hopefully i can get some later starting ones. its like a 35 minute hike from my dorms to the building all my classes are in. so wish me some luck!!

tonight i am going to bible study across town. it should be good, it is the first of a 3 week series. its great to chat over wine and cheese. and then all go out to the 2 euro bar that we found. haha, it should be a good night. and i hope i meet some more people.

a bientot, talk to you soon!

Mont Saint Victoire

wow! this mountain is huge. i definitely can see it from my dorms and it is like 10 miles away. it is like stone mountain but on the alps scale.
so i met up with heather and a couple of her friends at la rotunde, in the middle of the city, and we hopped on the bus for st victoire. it only cost 1.10 euro each way, and was like a 20 min ride. petty good price i think. well so we had no map of the mountain but we could see the top from the bottom. its way up there. The climb started off nice and easy for like the first 20 mins, and then we really hit the mountain. i mean it starts going at like a 70% grade up. crazy! we were climbing over boulders, sliding on the rocks, and trying to take pictures all at the same time. one rigorous climb. but we made it to the top. oh yeah, while we were climbing there seemed to be a huge storm on the horizon. and guess what? it started to head right towards us. but we got to the top first, and got a bit of shelter. but it was soo cold and windy, and now wet. but eventually it passed, well just the rain. and we explored the peak a bit. there is a huge cross up there that you can see for miles, and we were now standing right next to it.
the views were spectacular to say the least. just when we were really enjoying our mountainous feat, some french people came over one of the cliffs. they had climbed the even steeper part by way of ropes and caribeaners. man that had to be hard. maybe next year. lol, no way. the part we did was hard enough.
but we started to head down, we had to catch that bus back to town. the climb down was about 30 mins quicker, but none the less treachorous. we made it all in one peace, and with nothing but a few scrapes and some great memorioies.
this was a lot of fun, i would love to take any of you up it if you visit me. there are some easier trails to the top, fyi.

still having fun

ok so i know it has been a couple days, sorry.

friday .
i met up with my isep coordinator, emily and we went and got me set up with a french bank account and a cell phone. after that i went to here office and filled out some paper work for my residence permit. and boy was here office far away from everything, i mean a good 30 minute walk. i also got some things like a blanket and some silverware and pans and stuff from her for free. that was awesome. also on this afternoon i found the bus to carrefour, the french wal mart (which is not easy because there are like 25 different bus routes, and they all pick up in different places around the city, and make several stops) but i figuredit out just in time, and the busses were actually free friday and saturday ( it was transportation services weekend here) so that was lucky. i met some interesting people on the bus ride there and back. all in all it was a good day, and i had some good interactive experiences.

on saturday i woke up late, and bummed around in the dorms all day. i did help an asian girl who only speaks russian and english move a fridge. she didn't tell me that she didn't live in my dorm building until i was already holding the fridge. it was a few hundred yards away. but luckily we found a shopping cart out side, and just pushed it the whole way, well except for the 5 flights of stairs up to her room. ugh. but once we got to the top, she said that she would cook me some diner later. she did. it was really good. we sat in my room (chambre) and ate and drank some red wine for a hour or so. it was fun. and now i got another friend here.

let's see. today, sunday wasn't too interesting until around 5 tonight. i went to an international church that speaks in english. this was with some of those people i told you i met on the streets thursday. it was good to get to see everyone again. and after the singing and the sermon, a big group of us went out for dinner. we ate and talked for a couple hours. it was a lot of fun. and now that i have a cell phone here, i was able to exchange some digits. tomorrow we are all meeting up for a home cooked dinner at one of the guys apartments. it should be fun. these are mostly all exchange students. but from all over. i think we will make a good group.

this is all for now. i hope you all are having fun in lame america. just kidding.

my computer works again

you might not know it, but my laptop crashed in the atl airport right before i got on my plain. i have been using the campus computers for the past couple days, and man are they slow. but now my laptop is back up and running. I have got SKYPE! my name in it is caleb_alexander so look me up!

i hope to hear from some of y'all soon.

a good night

so all of today i walked the town. looking in shops and checking out some cafes. i still hadn't really met any people i could talk/relate to. until tonight! it was a stoke of luck. i decided to go back out of the dorms and head to main street and hope that i find someone/something to do. I heard a couple girls speaking english, and i introduced myself. it turns out that they were meeting up with a local youth group that was meeting for the first time tonight. perfect timing, i was suddenly meeting around 20 people (18 were girls) who were all exchange students. they were having a social game/ meet and greet in someones apartment tonight. it was just what i needed. a couple hours of conversation( ones that i could understand). it turs out that we all have the same doubts in our capabilities abroad.

it was fun we drank wine and played catch phrase. it might be a good group of people to get involved with, a couple of them even live near me here. so hopefully i will be able to stay in touch.

other that... tomorrow i am supposed to get a phone. it will do me wonders i think.

well thats all for tonight, its almost mindight now.

p.S. the keyboard here is one of the most confusing things ever!!!

Im HERE

So i finally made it to France. It's a bit different than i had expected. It took over 18 hours to get to my school. I got a first class seat with my buddy pass, thanks robert. It was awesome! free drinks, food, movies (with the complentary noise reduction head phones) and anything else i could think of. my first challenge was trying to find where my luggage was going to be at the airport and then how to buy a train ticket. let's just say it was a good thing we caught a huge tailwind and arrived in paris in only 7 and a half hours. the train ride was really cool although i was tired. i had plenty of room for ny legs and the veiws were great! it was a 3 and a half hour riddes with about 4 stops. the scenery of france changes so much as you travel cross-country. Provence is amazing. the sky is blue, and it is still summer here, but without so much humidity.

My room is reqlly nothing special. kinda feels like the size of a closent. and my laptop is not working right now, a big bummer for me and everyone i wanted to "skype". hopefully i can get it fixed. I walked down into town, which is about a half mile or so. Its a great pedestrian street front shop/cafe place. After walking all over the main downtown and peeking into shop and checking out the many fountains, i sat down at a cafe and had a beer. a 1664 to be exact. it was 3 €. i sat and people watched for a while. I think i could get used to this. I just hope i can learn some French quick and find a group of college kids to hang out with. I only overheard like 5 or 6 kids speaking english all day. but i have got hope.

well i am going to try and get some much needed rest. i will keep you posted on what happens tomorrow and this weekend.

p.s. you won' t believe it but the keyboards here are completely different than in america. so knowing how to ten finger type is no good (its good i never learned how to)

a bientot,
caleb

The Day Has Come

Well the French consulate pulled through for me. I picked up my visa this morning!! it looks like i will be getting on a 3:30 flight for Paris! so my next blog should be from France. I am a bit under the weather right now, but i am betting that a cool Mediterranean breeze will be all the healing i need. Wish me LUCK!

Almost there

So today i went to the French Consulate in Atlanta to ttry and get my visa. I know it might seem like i should have done this a long time ago, but i forgot. So now i am doing a mad dash to get a visa in order to be able to leave on the 16th. It looks hopeful. I can't hardly wait to get over to France.