il pleut.

i actually wrote this a few hours ago, but my internet connection wasn't cooperating with me at the time....

it's a rainy night, i'm sitting in my room listening to silver jews, and i figure, since i've been back in aix for a little over a week now, i might want to get around to posting those pictures i took before i left for the states, eh?

this is what i call "the elizabeth hadley tour of aix-en-provence."



our tour begins at the 24-hour boulangerie, or the "boulange," as jennifer calls it. this is one of two 24-hour establishments i know of in aix. occasionally i'll come here after a night at the sunset and get a slice of pizza or a hazelnut cookie.



i then stopped to admire this christmas tree on the east end of the cours mirabeau.







this would be the christmastime madness aix experiences. stores are open on sundays (seriously!) and the marché de noël (those little wooden shacks that you can see) are all down one side of the cours mirabeau. what's for sale: candy, food, crystal knickknacks, barrels, and other odd things that you might -- or might not -- want to give someone for christmas.



and this is les deux garçons, a café on the cours mirabeau, that (like every other café on the cours mirabeau) is very expensive (and possibly mob-run, though no one ever talks about that). professor gray, this year's program director, takes us out here every once in a while to sit around and chat and drink overpriced coffee. [well, it's in the program's budget.] also: this is where cézanne and zola used to hang, y'know, back in the day.



i enjoy taking pictures of foreign signs. if you happen to have been among the people who have seen my pictures from my summer in saint-brieuc, you know how true this is.



my friendly local tabac! located just next to the monoprix on the cours mirabeau, i stop in here rather often (usually for luckies, sometimes for phone credit). the girl who works there sees me and says, "bonjour! un lucky?" yeah, she knows me.



this is a very poorly-taken picture of another variety of centre-aix christmastime madness: the rides for children. bumper cars, tilt-a-whirls... all in addition to the year-round carousel.



and there are disney characters and whatnot involved. look! it's spider-man! [the french do not call him "l'homme-araignée," though. they call him "speedair-mahn."]



traffic at the rotonde. when on the way to blow euros at h&m, one often has to stop here and wait to cross the street.



aix's other 24-hour establishment: the brasserie. it's rather expensive; i came here once with nathaniel and rosie for a beer after the sunset started to suck one night. in fact, i believe that was the night we met nathaniel.



a charming oh-so-very-european alleyway.



i have never been in there.



but i have been in there: the site of the infamous "dancefloor peeing" incident.



and why would i go to speed burger when they deliver?



another fountain to add to my collection (fontaine pascal, my map tells me). i think i'm going to go out in spring and get prettier pictures of them all.



la rue des cordeliers in christmas mode.



rue du félibre gaut: where i go to the laundromat. the sign above gives the street name in provençal. and as for mary and the baby jesus, well....



aixtrême tattoo! numerous people from our program have gotten pierced here. i am not among them... at least not until i decide to get more metal shoved through my ears. rosie actually got a new tattoo here last tuesday.



fun beauté: for all your crazy-coloured-hair needs. le mékong: the woman there knows me, too. pineapple chicken, side of rice, one large egg roll.



a moss-growing fountain at the place des cardeurs.



my bar, where i spend many a night. you know, i don't think they even sell 1664.



i'm really irritated that i missed that night. french bars are not good about updating their information online.



and that would be the door. you have to ring a bell to get in.



the pharmacy near my apartment, where i've gone each of the three times i've come down with a cold in france.



snack samos! home to delicious gyro-type sandwiches and fantastic fries. and they're open until two in the morning, which is pretty rare.





bar brigand: where rosie and i had an interesting conversation with some seventeen-year-old french boys one night. this is about a block from the apartment.



la rue de la glacière in all its holiday splendour.



and the place de l'hôtel de ville at night (before going to yet another phonetics class).

as for other news, it's been quite nice to be back in classes. i actually have a final in provençal in a week. and the january sales are on -- i've done a good job not spending all my money (though i did buy a nice new pair of black knee-high lace-up boots).

well. i have some linguistics homework that i should probably go do now. à bientôt!

thanksgiving and such.

the eaten post has been recovered!

by the way: happy birthday, mom!

so, last thursday was thanksgiving. the program had organized a dinner at a restaurant, but when you have a friend from portland who has personally served oysters to gus van sant on multiple occasions who wants to cook thanksgiving dinner at your place, you don't pass that up. nathaniel (whom rosie and i met at the sunset one thursday) ordered the bird from a butcher's shop ahead of time, and we shopped for groceries the day of at the market and both monoprixs. then we all got down to business. well, sort of.


hurricane nathaniel hits our kitchen as louis (a friend of nathaniel's who teaches english in marseille) looks on.


helen, nathaniel's english girlfriend, watches the spitting rain from the kitchen window. we have (or at least used to, when the fac was open!) provençal class together. she lobbied for a calamari thanksgiving, but nathaniel insisted upon cooking a traditional meal.


still life: the turkey (with sub-dermal butter implants!) and a can of 1664 (a french beer). everyone -- well, except rosie, i guess -- was pretty much drinking all day.


our feast, clockwise from the top left corner: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (roasted with brown sugar), homemade cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing (made with a baguette), and brussels sprouts (which i ate and kind of enjoyed, actually).

sadly not pictured: the wonderful pumpkin pie nathaniel made from scratch. mmmmmm. it made a delicious breakfast the next day before going to expression écrite.


here we are, around the table, drinking wine and eating away.

that's pretty much the excitement. some friends had a french stereotype-themed party last saturday, and tomorrow night we're doing the honours of hosting champagne pong. [yes, i admit it: i played beer pong for the first time a few weeks ago. and i will never play it again. but champagne pong is different; it's classy and has a french twist to it.] other than that, i've been studying at home and staying out of trouble.

il neige!

points of interest for today:

(1) i have internet! in my room! i have defeated the evil windows vista monster (windows vista: ruining lives since 2007).

(2) it's snowing!




this is what it looks like from the kitchen window.

(3) the university is still closed. here's the situation:

very recently, a new law passed granting more autonomy to all french universities. among other things, this means that universities can individually raise their enrollment costs if they want to. this is a big deal because a university education in france costs 300 euros per year. the young communists and young socialists are particularly displeased. they began by barricading the entrances to one of the university buildings, and the situation grew into a student strike.

out of about 85 universities in france, around 30 are striking. three have been evacuated by the police: one in paris, one in nantes, and the université de provence aix-marseille 1 (which would be where i'm going). the university's president has decided that it could be potentially unsafe for anyone to try to enter the schuman center (which would be where i have classes), so the university is closed until further notice, while he meets with the student groups that are protesting.

so, now those of us in the program are required to keep academic journals describing what we're doing at home to keep up with our studies while the university is closed. fun.

however, the strike did enable rosie and me to go to lyon for a concert without missing any class. we got on the tgv (high-speed train) on sunday morning to see interpol and blonde redhead later that night.

the tgv station in aix is quite a ways out of town. because we were leaving on a sunday, we thought there were no buses running. so we took a 28-euro cab ride.

"this is what a tgv station looks like":


it's actually kind of pretty out here.







about an hour and forty minutes later (thanks to stops at avignon and valence), we arrived in lyon. luckily, the lyon tgv station is in town. rosie and i met up with dianna, a friend of mine from the barsuk mafia studying in lyon, and walked around in search of lunch.


look! it's me and the rhône. and i have a pink streak in my hair now. that rosie's a bad influence with her purple hair.






bellecour: where we finally found lunch. french fry sandwiches at a place called "american sandwich." mine involved a baguette, fries, two hamburger patties, a scrambled egg, orange-coloured melted plastic cheese, and ketchup.

that evening, we took the bus up to transbordeur, the venue. it's a nice place -- i'd compare it to the metro in chicago. i had my first alcoholic drink at a concert (a glass of good dry red wine). the show was pretty damn good, too! but no pictures. damn security.

the next day, rosie and i walked around a bit more (looking for lunch again).




the saône.


vieux lyon.



we ate near bellecour again, shopped a little (i managed to restrain myself and only buy a new bracelet), and headed back to dianna's before getting on the tgv that evening and heading back to aix.


barsuk mafia (temporarily-in-france division) at the lyon tgv. and yes, i am aware that i look completely ridiculous.

and i have a couple of old pictures i've been meaning to post, too:


we love the market.


halloween! as a cat (once again). the mask came from claire's (yes, we actually do have one in aix) and is obviously meant for little girls because my head is way too big for it. not that my head's big anyway.

so, i guess that about does it for now. updates should be much more frequent now that i have the internet chez moi!