Week One

Week One

Tuesday
Yesterday, we had orientation. It was uneventful as we simply spent the day locating our school buildings, sitting through information sessions on various topics concerning life in France, and meeting other students. Today, we met at La Rotonde and from there we walked to Hotel de Roi Rene where we boarded buses bound for La Ciotat. We sat in the very front of the bus so as to see as much as we could during the trip. When we arrived in La Ciotat it was sunny and seemed warm but when we got off the bus there turned out to be a bitterly cold wind. We walked to the open-air market where we perused until we purchased two clementines, a baguette and some goat cheese, all from local vendors. Buying from a French speaking market was nerve-wracking for Jeff since he had never done that before and his French is not that good. He was surprised at how much French he did know and how he was able to get by with it. After going to the market we walked to a tiny pier with a small park on it and waited until the other students returned to get back on the bus. The buses then took us to a park where we were to have a picnic. The park was beautiful and had wonderful views of cliffs, the Mediterranean, French flora, and small villages. We ate the food we purchased at the market while watching waves break on the cliffs below. We finished our food and sat and chatted for a while before setting off and exploring the park. Carly took many pictures. From the park we got back on the bus and went to the historical Eden Theatre. At the Eden Theatre, the first movie theatre in the world, we watched three short films. The first films was on the history of the theatre, the second was on the history of the Lumiere brothers (who invented the first video camera), and the third was a group of films that had been shown when the theatre was first built. It was very interesting information but when coupled with a dark room, jet lag, and a long day, many of the students were finding it hard to keep their eyes open. We left the theatre and got back on the buses. The buses took us up a beautiful, winding road, that seemed much too small for buses. It showed us many inlet villages along the Mediterranean. We stopped at the top of an incredibly high cliff face where we stayed for just long enough to take pictures. At this point the sun had set and it took the warmth with it. We boarded the buses and got on the highway headed back to Aix-en-Provence. Carly was exhausted and put her head on Jeff's shoulder and promptly fell asleep. Jeff figured he would close his eyes for a bit as well. Next thing he knew, the buses were back in Aix-en-Provence and almost to the drop off point. We got off the bus and headed to our favorite cafe where we enjoyed warm drinks after having been out in the cold all day. Jeff walked Carly to her bus stop and then walked home. We both had dinner and went to bed soon afterwards.

Wednesday
We are both sick! Carly is more sick than Jeff. We ate lunch at a cute, little restaurant where we sat on a couch in the sun. Carly had soup de legumes and Jeff ate Barrata et legumes grilles. Jeff really enjoyed the cheese but didn't enjoy the vegetables because they were cold and had a spice on them that he didn't like. Afterwards, we walked back to the school at our sick, slow pace. We went to "La Cave", a student lounge in the basement of the Manning Building. Carly took a nap while Jeff worked on the blog and researched possible trip locations. At 5 PM we had our first class, Economic Globalization! After class we went to our favorite cafe and had tea. We walked to the bus stop where Carly's host mom, Amira, picked her up.

Thursday
Today was our first full day of classes! We both have very busy Tuesdays and Thursdays and have one class on Wednesday. Carly has no classes Monday or Friday and Jeff only has one class on Friday and none on Monday. We both had doctor's appointments today at 11:30. Carly was given medicine for the flu and Jeff was diagnosed with bronchitis and was prescribed an antibiotic. We went from there to get tea from our favorite cafe. We had our tea and then went home.

Friday
We met at a small Italian Brasserie for lunch. Carly had spaghetti with olive oil, basil and cheese and Jeff had a pizza de trois frommage with gorgonzola, goat cheese and mozzarella with fresh tomatoes. Jeff ate the whole pizza by himself! Jeff started to feel a bit better today but Carly was still having a hard time so we found a nice seat in the sun and relaxed for a while. It was incredibly windy and the wind was very cold so being outside for long was very unpleasant. Eventually we ended up back at our favorite cafe where we talked and had tea until Jeff walked Carly to her bus stop, got her on her bus, and walked home. We both ate dinner and went to bed.

Saturday
Today we both slept in! Then we met at Carly's bus stop. It was very warm and sunny today with almost no wind so we took advantage of the nice weather and walked around town. We had dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant right across the street from our favorite cafe. Carly had french onion soup (In France:)) and Jeff had lasagna mediterrano. The food was delicious! We walked around for a while more then headed home.

To see pictures from our adventures this week, follow this link:

http://imgur.com/a/RDfJY


That is all for this week,


Carly Ward & Jeff Popek

Two Days In

Hello Readers,

We are in our homes in France, safe and comfortable. The journey was an adventure to say the least. The first plane ride was long and we arrived in Paris in about 6 hours and 45 minutes. Upon landing neither of us could get our French phones to work. Jeff later got his to work with calling and messaging but is still unable to use data and Carly's phone does not work at all. We sat for a few minutes trying to discover the phone problem but could not seem to figure it out. So, we continued on to our next gate in the airport to fly to Marseille. We had to go through customs and security again to get to our gate, then, when we finally got close to our gate, there was a giant group of people standing in the way lining up to board their plane. Carly and I trudge through this massive crowd only to find that Carly's neck pillow had been lost in the crowd. Carly walked back to where the crowd once was and luckily found the pillow without any fuss. We boarded our next plane and headed to Marseille. Upon landing Carly and I again tried to fix our phones with no luck. We headed out of our gate and were quickly ambushed by the host families. My host family met me at the airport and met Carly. I left with my host family and we headed out of the airport. 

Jeff’s Host Family

My host family consists of a Mother(Torya) and a son(Nassim). They both seem very kind and accommodating. Torya does not speak much English at all but makes do with gestures and showing what she is trying to say. Nassim's English is much better and we can almost always understand each other. My host home is located about a 15-minute’s walk from the center of Aix-en-Provence and is a small flat. I have my own bedroom and share a bathroom with the Nassim and Torya. So far everything is going fine in the living situations. I have had some typical jet-lag problems but other than that everything is great.

Carly’s Host Family

My host family consists of a mother, named Amira, and a son who is 29 years old and a daughter who is 22. I am also living with another student from Massachusetts! Her name is Danielle and she is from Springfield, MA. She attends Western New England College in Springfield. She is very nice and we get along very well. The daughter no longer lives at home but the son recently moved back in. Amira speaks English very well and also speaks Arabic! She is originally from Iraq and moved to France about twenty years ago. So I will be able to practice both my French and Arabic with her. My host family’s house is located about a 45-minute’s walk from the center of Aix-en-Provence so I will be taking the bus. I have to walk about 5 minutes to the bus stop. From there it is only a 5-minute bus ride and then another ten-minute walk to school. I share a bathroom with her and my host brother. Besides my phone not working, this has been a wonderful experience so far. My host family is very nice and the town of Aix is just lovely.

Sunday: We woke up had breakfast with our host families. Jeff had two bananas and Carly’s host mother made her toast with peach jam. After breakfast with our families we met up near the school. We spent the early afternoon walking the town, seeing the sights, and catching up on what each other’s nights had been like. We shared with each other all the exciting new things we had seen the night before and what each other’s host homes and families were like. Carly had a crepe with Nutella and bananas for lunch and I shared a few bites with her. We are both finding that we are much more thirsty than we normally would be at home because of the difference in elevation. At 4 pm we had our first meet and greet at the school. There are only 250 students at our school! Carly and I probably met and talked to only about 20 so far. One group we talked to discussed traveling on weekends and long weekends together and decided that we would look at possibly doing that together sometime soon. After the meet and greet Carly and I wandered Aix for a little bit longer then sat down and had some tea at a small café. We sat there and just chatted and unwound after a hectic and stressful couple of days. We drank our tea and headed out. Jeff walked Carly to the bus station where her host mother had said she would pick her up at 7. From there Jeff walked home. It was a chilly ten-minute walk and the lights that lined his street were not on, however, he made it home safely and he ate dinner. Jeff’s dinner consisted of sliced potatoes, pan fried with mushrooms and eggs, topped with pesto sauce. Then for dessert Jeff had Apple tarts. Both meals were delicious. Carly had a delicious salad with mushrooms, hard-boiled eggs, and tomatoes with sliced turkey and a baguette with cream cheese to go with it. For dessert she had ice cream with a small piece of chocolate and vanilla cake.

To see Pictures of this week follow the link bellow.

http://imgur.com/a/Q0UgE

That’s for this week. We hope you all are having a great time wherever you are and we hope you will continue to check up on our most recent blog post every Saturday!

Until next time,

Jeff Popek and Carly Ward

We are off soon!

Hello Readers,

Carly and I will be writing this blog for friends and family who are interested in following our adventures and studies in France and throughout other parts of Europe. We will do our best to update it every Saturday morning with what we have done, what we are doing, and what we plan to do. We will try to keep the blog exciting and full of pictures!

Carly and I leave for Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France, this Friday, the 23rd of January where we will be studying at IAU College until May 17th. We are staying with host families and we have received their addresses but as of right now that is all the information we have about our hosts. We fly out of Boston at 8pm and land at Charles De Gaulle in Paris at 8:35am, we then fly from there to Marseille to then catch a shuttle to IAU College. There we will meet our host families and, after, go to our homes abroad for the first time. The following days will consist of familiarizing ourselves to our new environment. The Monday after we arrive we will attend orientation with other international students that are attending IAU College. The day after, Tuesday, we begin classes. We will update you with hopefully more exciting news once we are there.

Thats all for this week,

Carly Ward and Jeff Popek