the start of vacation!

i will catch you up on the last couple week soon! well after new years. lol


Sunday: Matt arrives at gare routier. Bags did not make it to France! So we walk to the appt and drop off his one carry on, I let him borrow some pants (he had to get all dressed up for the first class flight over here). And then I introduced him to Pastis. 2 good glasses, and then it was out to hit the town by 1:30. We got lost right off the bat. And then matt’s bladder was on the fritz over here. He went and pissed on some French guys mail box. Ok so we find the city. And I show him around teaching him a bit of the history, and a little French as well. we go all over town and to the cathedral. This rendered matt speechless. I fell bad that I am already “used” to all this stuff and take it all for granted. How magnificent it all really is. So we check out the rest of town and then at 5:30 we head for the x mas church service, with ICCP. It is vin chaud and story and carol night apparently. So we got a couple glasses of wine. Matt fell asleep for most of the story time part. It was hilarious watching him drift in and out against his will. After church we came back to the appt to chill and have some wine. We got caught up on each other’s life. And then it was off to the bulldog to watch the falcon’s game! It was 17 to 7 when we left. And we had a beer and a half each. So we debated hitting up a club, but actually the couple I wanted to go to were not open for some reason. So we just came back to the appt to crash. (I think matt was definitely ready to lay down, long day, and I kept him moving. Gotta fight off that jet lag) I found hime sleeping on the toilette. Lol! Passed out.


monday: we checked out the town. bought some meat and cheese at the open air market and a couple baguettes. we took the bus to Mont Saint Victoire and climbed it, half way was all Matt could handle. It was an amazing day. the weather is so nice right now in the south of France. 52 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. so after the mountain we came back to the appt to get washed up and rest a bit. at 6:30 we went to dinner with some french friends of mine. got to see french life first hand. and pick the brains of a real Aixois (the name for someone from Aix). it was great to get a good understanding on the views of french people on society, life, politics, and the world. a great dinner too. thanks kimberly (she is the french guy's georgian wife) i think Matt really enjoyed himself. i did too. so far this trip is awesome.

on teusday we are going to explor marseille a little bit and see some more cathedrals and the Mediterranean Sea. it is a great city (second largest in france) and then we leave for Amsterdam at 7pm. we will be in amsterdam for 3 nights (including x mas!) and then we fly to London for 5 nights. and then on the 31st we move to Paris for another 4/5 nights!!!!!!! should be freaking awesome. i can not wait! wish us luck, and i will try and stay in touch.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

the conclusion to thanksgiving week, finally

so the week of thanksgiving i went to a french catholic church on tuesday and got to see what there mass was like for the youth program. interesting to say the least. a lot of sitting and standing and having to say the right words at the right time. i was hopelessly lost. lol. well it was fun tho. and after the mass we all went downstairs into "la cave" (french word for basement) and had a huge thanksgiving dinner. it was probably like 80 students, and we spoke french and ate for about 2 hours. it was really good practice for me. so this was thanksgiving number two.

wednesday went by normally until about 3 am. i was online skyping someone and i noticed a sneaky looking guy outside my window. and i have never seen a person out my window before, much less at 3am. he was heading for a garage that was attached to the rear side of my building, i had never noticed it before. so i watched him, and then he took out a crowbar and started prying at the door. i was astonished, was i really watching a burglary. well i couldn't just be idle, and watch. so i opened my window and yelled at the guy (he was about 200 feet away) and he turned and looked at the building and then wheeled around and took off running. now, i do not know what was in that garage, but i know it was safe for at least one more night. this definitely got my adrenaline going and it was a little while before i went to bed.

So friday i had my 8am class, woohoo, so much fun. after class i ran my errands and then went back to the dorms for a little bit. some of the asian students in my class said they wanted to cook me a dinner that night. i was excited, and had no idea what to expect. so when night came i started the 25 minute walk across town to their dorm, and boy was it worth it. they had about ten traditional chinese dishes out on the table. 2 different types of pork, rice, noodles, spinach, spicy salad, huge turkey wings, sweet rolls with meat in the middle, soup, more rice, and they had special tea for me too. wow!!!! was it so tasty and awesome. everything was slow cooked to perfection. i used "chop-sticks" with ease. all the meat was so juicy and fall off the bone good. man that was a great dinner, and i got to pick up a couple more chinese phrases. anfter we ate we sat and drank wine and played some card games they know, can't wait to share them with you. it was definitely a fun night. and i consider this to be my 3rd thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving

So Sunday was the big Thanksgiving feast! (I know that this is 2 weeks late). So the church I go to here organized the whole thing. Everyone was supposed to bring a side dish or wine and baguettes. And the church cooked all the turkeys, 20 I think and 5 chickens. I rounded up about 10 friends from school and around town to come with me. We got to the fest about 12 and the smells were amazing. We found a table and just started chatting waiting for the thing to start. So after 200+ more people arrived we were finally ready. There was a little speech about Thanksgiving and being thankful (in English and French) and then it was time to dig in. My plate was piled high. I think I got 15 different sides and turkey all in one go. It was so gooood. And there was enough left over for seconds. Now it doesn’t compare to Thanksgiving at home with the family, but it was a good substitute. We ate and drank wine for a couple hours before it was time to go back.
When I got back I went and relaxed at a tea house with a couple friends. We got some tea and a shisha and just chilled and digested for a few hours. It was very relaxing. And after this I met up with some other people at The Bulldog, and we watched some Thanksgiving football! It was a great thanksgiving day.

Bowling and Billiards

So Saturday started with laundry. I know not interesting but it has to be done sometime. I have to actually walk to another building to do it all. But it is fun to meet some French people while I am waiting the hour and a half.
The night was a blast. Two friends and I went out to Plan de Compagne, just 30 minute drive from Aix. This is like the little little Las Vegas of southern France. My friend Nizar, the one with the car, is the son of the Ambassador from Libya to France. Pretty cool, huh. And so we went out there and went to this huge bowling/billiards place. I think there were about 40 lanes and probably another 40 tables. It was a site to see, most everything in France it small. So we played “cut-throat” a couple of times, and then moved on to bowling. It was fun. I have not been bowling in years, I think. And I actually won the first game with a score of 115. And I had 3 strikes (not all in a row tho). So we played another and ordered another round from the bar. The night was good. We made it back to town by around 1 am. I can’t wait to go again.

Friday : wine and biking/ bottling

So I have a friend here who owns a wine touring company. Small scale, but she does a biking trip for university students twice a year. So I signed up. We met up and got the bikes from a rental shop. It was me, one other guy, and about 15 good looking girls. I know my life here is pretty awesome. So…. We rode out to a vineyard about 20-30 minutes outside of town. It was a nice ride seeing the scenery change from “busy city” to “rolling countryside”. The one problem was that the Mistral (the wind force that blows in cold air at 20mph in this area, and usually for 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 days straight) picked up right as we started. And most of the ride was uphill and against this wind. But alas we all made it.
So we got off the bikes and regained our breaths and hydration. The Vineyard was of small scale, and of course it is after season right now. But it was still really cool. We had the owner, a French guy, explain to us all the processes of growing the vines, harvesting the grapes, and then we moved onto the fermentation. For the last part we went inside to the room with the large steel holding tanks where the wine sits, and the sugars ferment, thus creating the alcoholic wine. And just so you know the reason red wine is red is because they leave the skins in the tank for a couple days and the color is pulled out into the wine. And rose/pink wine is pink because they leave the skins in for just about half a day. Interesting? After he explained everything to us, in French mind you, the tasting began. He passed out glasses to everyone and then poured us wine straight from the steel containers. It was a really neat experience to get the wine before it goes to a bottle.
So after we got all nice and toasty we had to get back on the bikes and head into town. It was a much easier trip, considering it was downhill and with the wind. But when we got into town we hit French traffic. And I was actually almost run over and had to try and get out of the way, which caused a fall/jump from the bike onto a sidewalk. I cut my finger open and scraped my knee, but I survived. So we got back into town and checked in our bikes. Then it was off to my friend’s house, Hilary, to bottle some wine of our own. This was pretty cool to do. We poured the wine out of big jugs into bottle and then used a hand press to cork the bottles. After we all got a bottle the fun was over. But it was a great time and for only 20 Euros I would suggest it to anyone.

Stuff i need to update you on