geez...what? 2 or 3 weeks since my last posting?? well, needless to say that i'm on vacation. so i got up that saturday morning and LUGGED my luggage to the train station to go to miramas. you wanna talk about somethign that will make your back HURT like a mother for a week. yeah. each bag of mine (4 of 'em total) are stuffed to the rafters. my suitcase probably has to be hovering around 70lbs. it's really a mess. but hopefully i'll make it. christian was at the quai when my train pulled in so that made it easier. it was only the change of trains in marseille that really hurt. while at their house i did really absolutely nothing. went to the movies once and saw 'the day after tomorrow'. ummm...just hung out, really. ate a lot of really good food. it wasn't too hot like what it was a month ago in the south but it was still kinda warm. i read a good book that andy left when she was here back in april. ummm...then came the day that i took the tgv up to paris. yet another horrible trip. but anne-caroline was at the train station to get me when i get to paris. we still had to take the metro but it was a lot easier with two carrying all that luggage. i stayed the night at her place and then took the tgv out to brittany (st. brieuc more precisely) last friday, the 25th. i stayed with laurent and nanou. all we did was laugh and joke around. they're so fun! laurent and i went to the beach a lot in the afternoons since he's off work. he had an annuerism (?) and he's one of the few lucky ones that survive with no damage. here, the weather isn't so hot. it's about 60's everyday with about an hour a day of sunshine. anyway...i've since changed families. i'm at another host family's house from 4 years ago. then on sunday i'm going to the last host family that i had 4 years ago, the josse's. sylvie's in paris until saturday so i'll probably go there on sunday. then it's dinner with the program profs (program i did 4 years ago here in st. brieuc). i'm going to try to see if jacqueline danner, the director, will let me be a prof next summer. we'll see. then it's back to paris on thursday morning. tgv leaves at 6am!! isabelle's flying up from aix and we're going to hang out in paris that day then she's going to go with me to the airport on thursday to say bye. then it's home!! well, there it is, my program for the next week in case i don't post before coming back home. see you in a week, y'all!!
well, here it is folks...my last post from the good old dorm (cuques) computer lab. it's finally here. i started off my day by having someone come by and make sure that i hadn't destroyed anything throughout the year. then...more packing, then i took a bunch of stuff to the office for next year's students (forks, plates, vase, just a bunch of crap). i made several round trips today in the sweltering heat. yeah, not fun. then it was back home one final time to shower and then to head to marion's for 'aperitif.' so after sitting visiting with her a bit this evening, i headed home after a LONG detour because the shortcut that i always take had the gates shut. ended up taking me a half hour to get home instead of 10 minutes. i then went to a movie with isabelle (2 sisters/2 soeurs) and then off to have one final drink. so, i'm exhausted. i'm going to go upstairs and spend one last and final night in my dorm room - i'm leaving at 9am tomorrow morning for miramas.
i got up this morning and went trapsing through aix taking pictures and video-taping the city of aix with jessie. then it was off to see about cancelling my renters insurance, then to quick (france's version of mcdonalds) to get a coke with jessie, ankica and tim. then...it was back home to take a nap, shower and then head out the door to go have dinner with isabelle. now that i'm back from dinner, i've spent the rest of my evening packing. my room is BARE!! it's sooooooooooooooooo upsetting. i just can't believe that i'm leaving already. it's going to be really, really, really hard. anyway, just fyi, i'm leaving on saturday so my internet access will be more and more limited. so i probably won't be able to post everyday as i like (or don't like) to.
i got up this morning to go take my renaissance lit oral final exam. it went really well, i think. then it was into town to have lunch with marion, get coffee with feral from the office to talk about my year abroad, grocery store for wine, home for a nap, then a party! that has been my day. it was behind the restaurant here at the dorms and soooooooooooooo many people ended up showing up!!! so yeah...that's been my day. later, all, i'm off to bed.
i spent the majority of my day...PACKING! can you believe that its here - my departure??? i certainly cant. but i do know one thing - i have absolutely no idea how im going to get all that stuff in my suitcases. but my rooms depressing now. everythings off the walls, suitcases are everywhere, just a mess. so i guess im going to go back upstairs and do some more packing. i have my FINAL final exam tomorrow at 9:30. hopefully itll go well...
i rolled out of bed early this morning to go take yet another in-class dissertation. yeah. i didn't do too poorly, but it wasn't fabulous, either. see, we had to comment on a text that talked about something specific covered in class. since it was something specific and not a broader topic (like exams are in the states), there really wasn't all that much to say. that's why i say you can know basically 99.9% of course material and still fail the course here in france. i didn't fail, but, well, we'll see. after the exam, i came home and decided to get myself out of a mess...literally! i cleaned my room. so after a thorough cleaning, i took a shower and headed into town to get a train ticket to go to miramas for saturday morning. then it was back to the dorm to cook dinner with jessie then back again to town to go out and have a drink with stevie and marion. it turned into marion taking us out to dinner. i had a good time. back at stevie's, i gave her a BIG good-bye hug since she's leaving to go back to the states tomorrow. it's so sad. i just can't believe that it here!! the end of the year! i never thought i'd see this day come, but at the same time, it's upsetting to be leaving. i mean, stevie lives in indy so i'll see her when i get home, but still. however, when i went to bed last night, i couldn't hardly sleep. i was sick at my stomach. it wasn't the fact that i was leaving aix/going home which i have mixed feelings about (not wanting to leave my new-found life, friends, etc but really wanting to get back home to see everyone, blah blah blah) but i was sick because things are going to change...yet again. it's human nature to not like change and here things are going to change yet again...BIGTIME. i'm going to be leaving the new-found life, friends to go home. anyway, just the whole mental soap opera slash drama of studying abroad. but nobody said study abroad was going to be easy. anyways, in other news, the weather has taken a turn for the...wetter and cooler! it's been raining today with (and get this)...THUNDER!!! whoa!! there's a first. but it's kinda chilly outside. for once when the french weather forecasts call for rain, it finally rained!! ok, i'm going to go. nite.
today i ended up getting out of bed at 12:30. it was nice to sleep in. i bummed around my place for a bit and then cleaned up to head into town to a study session with kirsten. we've got another big exam tomorrow, but i'm not really worried about that one, either. so now that we've finished going over our notes, i think i'm going to go upstairs and relax before our exam tomorrow morning. yet another long in-class dissertation. only this time it's 3 hours long instead of 4!
