Closing This Blog Out (Part 1)

Ok so it's August and I'm back in Georgetown, Texas for my senior year at Southwestern University. And I have some major catching up to do with this blog. Basically, I didn't write at all during the last three weeks of study abroad because they flew by so quickly. Then when I got home, I was busy seeing family and friends and dealing with the GRE. And before I knew it, the summer was over and I was in my car, driving back to Georgetown. Now I'm sitting here in my apartment. It's the night before classes start, but I have no classes on Mondays or Fridays, so I've got a bit of time on my hands before things get really crazy. So it seems as though it's now or never to wrap up this blog, which is something that I really want to do even if no one ever ends up seeing this last post.

So, let's see. The last time I wrote an actual post was when I got back from Paris. This makes me wish I had kept up with this blog, but oh well...here's my attempt to record all the happenings of my last three weeks in Aix.

Basically, our last three weeks meant two more weeks of class, one week of final preparations and finals, and three more excursions. Our first Wednesday back, they wanted to go easy on us, so our excursion was to the Musee Granet, a museum in Aix with an exhibit of Picasso and Cezanne works. Basically, the exhibit showed Cezanne's influence on Picasso and the parallelism between their works. And the museum was right next door to the VIF Center! The exhibit was great, and our "excursion" was done by about noon, so we had the rest of the day free. I had a paper to be writing, but of course, I spent time in Aix instead of working on my paper. I ate lunch at my favorite sandwich place (PAUL) and just spent the day relaxing. That night, we went out to see the new Woody Allen movie, "Whatever Works", and it was fun to see it with French subtitles.

(It is now September and I am still working on this post...)

The next day, my Mom arrived in France! She flew into Marseille and then took the train to Aix. After I got out of class, I went to her hotel (Hotel le Roi Rene...very nice) and then took her to dinner at le Patacrepe (chain crepe restaurant in Aix and Marseille...very yummy). I should have worked on my paper after that, but of course, I didn't. The next morning, I had my one class that met on Fridays, and then my Mom and I were picked up by her friend Helene, who lives in Uzes, a very small town in the south of France. We started the drive to Uzes, but made a stop on the way in a town called Les Baux de Provence. It was so beautiful. It was a town up on a hill, so we parked and then walked into the town. We ate lunch and then just explored. After that, we drove about ten minutes to a place called Cathedrale d'Images, which is basically a very large cave with an art exhibit inside. The current exhibit is one of Picasso, and I really recommend it. You walk around inside this large, dark, cold cave listening to wonderful music and looking at moving images of Picasso's works reflected onto the cave walls. It was quite the experience. After leaving Cathedrale d'Images, we finished the drive to Helene's house in Uzes. When we arrived, we found there Helene's husband Ernest, her son Danny and his wife Pascal, their children, and one of Pascal's friends and her children. We all spent the afternoon and early evening swimming in the pool and laying around in hammocks and then we ate dinner together outside. (All of our meals that weekend were eaten outside and it was great!)

The next day, I slept in super late (oops) and missed breakfast. We spent the afternoon hanging out in and by the pool, but then it started to rain so we sat inside just chatting. Around 5pm, the weather was looking a bit better, so some of us went in search of an apricot orchard that Helene had once visited. The car ride was so hilarious--it was such a ridiculous wild goose chase, trying to find this apricot orchard. We finally found it after many attempts and had just 15 minutes to pick our apricots before the end of the day at the orchard. Just at that moment it started raining. So we were hurrying around in the rain and the mud, picking apricots, eating some, saving some, laughing, and just having a good time. It was such a fun afternoon. That night we had an apricot pie after dinner and spent plenty of time talking. I believe there were about 14 people at the dinner table that night--it was great.

The next day, I slept in again (oops oops), and then worked on getting a train ticket from Avignon back to Aix. Then, Helene, my Mom, and Chloe (Helene's granddaughter who is about my age) drove me to Avignon. I got on the TGV and was back in Aix within 20 minutes!

So that covers things up to July 5th. My next post will hopefully cover the last two weeks of the program, my last two weeks in Aix. And then I can reflect, Paideia style. :)