Week Five: Palermo, Sicily

Buongiorno Readers,

We are in Italy! We were picked up by Carly's host mother, Amira, and brought to the airport in Marseille where we checked in without a problem. We got through security and waited for our plane. We had never flown out of Marseille or on Ryanair so we didn't know what to expect. There was only one gate in our section of the airport and when they called the airline people went and lined up nicely at the entrance, but when the Ryanair flight was called there was a mad dash to the gate. Ryanair flights are like Southwest Airlines if you remove all the rules and boarding sections. Carly and I calmly walked to the end of the line. We had previously reserved seats so we weren't going to be apart of the chicken run. 

Our plane landed in Palermo at 6:30 and took about an hour to get into Palermo proper. It was 9 by the time we were all checked in and situated so we called it an early night and went to sleep. We were up early the next morning and headed out to see Palermo. We wandered for about half an hour until we found a beautiful, huge fountain in a square with two old churches. We toured one of the churches then continued on our walk. We saw some of the sights of Palermo but were amazed at the number of cheesy stores targeted at tourists. There were definitely some incredible sights to be seen in Palermo but you have to sift through the tourist targeted garbage before finding it. We saw an incredible cathedral where a huge funeral was taking place. The bells were ringing the entire time and it was quite the sight. We walked from the cathedral through a neat little park and ended up at the Sicilian Parliament buildings. We walked past those and ended up in another park where a large group of Italian men were playing chess and card games and were very animated. It was a very exciting sight and was exactly what we expected when we thought of stereotypical Italy. We continued our adventure in Palermo by walking through what looked like an open air-market. As we walked through the market it turned more into furniture stores and a flea market. There was a lot of nice handmade furniture but we didn't really have a need for it nor did we have a way to get it home so we moved on. We were famished after all of our exploring so we headed in search of food. We were really rather uninterested in tourist targeted food so we went off the beaten path to find somewhere the locals were eating. We came across a bread store, pastry store, and market combo where the locals were stopping in and getting food. We ordered two slices of pizza and a fresh squeezed lemonade. The lemonade was very sour but quenched our thirst nicely and the pizza was deep dish delicious! From there we went to get gelato and then sat in a park and watched a group of dogs playing. That night we went to dinner at a highly recommended restaurant that was known for its large selection of vegetarian dishes. We ordered from the special menu and got three courses. Carly had a couscous with ratatouille and Jeff had fried eggplant and cheese in balls soaked in tomato basil sauce for our first course. For our second course Carly had fried chicken dumplings and potatoes and Jeff had potatoes au gratin. For our third course, desert, Carly had apple pudding and Jeff had a chocolate amaretto pudding. All of the food was phenomenal and we were sad when it was gone. We left the restaurant and walked back to the hotel in the rain and went to bed.

The next day we woke up super early and headed to the airport, again in the rain. We boarded the plane on our way to Rome!

Pictures from Palermo: http://imgur.com/a/VdVRL

Week Four

Hello Readers!

We spent this week in class. So far we both really enjoy our classes with the exception of one: our economics class. It is, unfortunately, a long, usually boring, lecture class and since it is at the end of our longest day of classes, we both have a hard time staying awake. However, with a dose or two of café, we manage.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Tonight, we went out with our friend Isaac and got to meet his girlfriend, Katherine. They both attend the University of Alabama and are from Mississippi. They are both very nice and we get along very well with them and enjoy their company. We went out to dinner and got pizzas, pasta and drinks! We started dinner with a bottle of nice red wine to share amongst the four of us then after dinner the restaurant brought us about a quarter of a bottle of Limoncello, on the house which was very kind of them and will ensure that we go back there again! From dinner, we tried to get gelato but the place was closed so, instead, we ended up a place with ice cream. Carly got cookies n'cream and Katherine got chunky monkey. While the ladies were ordering their ice cream, the guys decided to get drinks. We found one that was called "The Big Love Machine".  We decided we wanted to try it. It was two liters of orange juice, pineapple juice and an assortment of alcohols. It was delicious! The four of us enjoyed sitting outside, chatting and drinking our drink. We spent, in total, about five hours with Katherine and Isaac and we were both sad to part ways with them. We very much look forward to spending time with them again.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Today is Valentine's Day! It is our first Valentine's Day together and we went to an early dinner at a very cute Italian restaurant. Carly had gnocchi with tomato and basil sauce and Jeff had four cheese penne that was super creamy and delicious! After our meal, we went and saw The Imitation Game at a local movie theatre (in english). It was a great movie and we enjoyed it very much. When the movie was over, after having eaten lots of salty popcorn, Carly decided we needed something sweet! So we went to a frozen yogurt shop where Carly had a chocolate shake and Jeff had pistachio frozen yogurt. It was a very nice, low-key, holiday and we both had a great time enjoying each other's company.

Pictures from week four:http://imgur.com/a/gsMr6

Next Friday we are off to Italy!

We will keep you updated in a much more timely fashion from now on :)

Until next time,

Carly and Jeff

Week Three

Bonjour Nos Amis,

Wednesday, February 4

Today, Jeff met Carly at her bus stop and from there we went and studied. Around 1:00 we went to lunch at Tomate et Basilic, a small pasta place in the heart of town. Carly ate gnocchi with four cheese sauce and Jeff had cheese tortellini with four cheese sauce as well. They were both delicious but very heavy. We studied for a while longer and then began to plan our spring break. We are going to Spain! The majority of our trip will be spent in Madrid and Jerez with small side trips to Toledo, Segovia, and Seville. The second half of the trip will be centered around pool-lounging and MotoGP. We have acquired two three-day passes to the Jerez MotoGP race! We are both very excited as this is a world sporting event.

Friday, February 6

We are off to Lyon!!! After classes this morning we ate a quick lunch and headed to the bus station where we found our bus just before 4:00 PM. The very beginning of our trip was through a valley with towering mountains on either side. We passed a beautiful gothic-style monastery high on a peak followed shortly by ruins of what seemed to be walls of what used to be a very large building. We rode through many miles of nondescript fields filled with vineyards or horses, roaming rivers, towering mountain ranges, many villages seemingly built from the stone of the rivers they surround. We passed chateaus and castles build into the mountains. We passed industrial centers followed by old villages dominated by the central spires of their cathedrals. We passed a cement factory that disrupted our thoughts of ancient grandeur. We went around roundabout after roundabout. We passed shopping mall and city center. We rode past chain restaurants and through city traffic until we were back in the peace and beauty that is the French countryside. The untouched ancient beauty of these mountains and river valleys and the noble grandeur of the medieval architecture is what drove us to come here in the first place and seeing it in person has really solidified, in our minds, that we would be here for four months and be able to experience what this beautiful country and the surrounding areas really have to offer. We passed through the city of Avignon. Avignon is very old and surrounded by a towering ancient wall. We stopped at a bus stop in Avignon and pick up a few more passengers. A guy about our age sat diagonally in front of us.  We left Avignon and were immediately stuck in traffic. It looked pretty dense and didn't look like we would get out soon. We passed a McDonalds which in France has a gold M with a green background instead of red.  We finally cleared the traffic and were on a highway between two mountains. The sun was low and perched on the mountains to the west. There was not much daylight left. Carly slept sleeping soundly against the window. We passed a castle sitting on the bend of a river with miles and miles of vineyards up to its front. The river was deep and wide providing a good natural barrier for the castle. Carly woke up from her nap and enjoyed the landscape with Jeff as the sun faded behind the mountains. We passed a village nestled up to sheer cliffs and on top of the cliffs was an incredibly preserved castle. The entire village looked very old. We stopped at a bus stop for a while and we grabbed some snacks and some drinks. We got back on the bus and the bus driver proceeded to scream at the younger guy diagonal to us. He didn't want to put his bag underneath the bus but the bus driver was insisting. There were not a lot of people on the bus and the guy said he would like to just leave it in the seat as it had breakables in it but the bus driver wouldn't have it and threw a classic hissy fit about it. Finally the guy relented to the bus driver after the bus driver threatened to call the police. We were not sure what the police would do or if they would even care but the guys bag went under the bus. After we left the bus stop the guy seemed rather shaken so we talked to him for a while and tried to ease his nerves. He was from Alsace and was headed there now. He was coming from Avignon and had been to Marseille and Nice. He said that Avignon was the best and suggested we go there sometime. We got off the bus and got a taxi to the hotel and promptly fell asleep.

Saturday, February 7

We woke up and headed out first thing. We went to the metro and took the D line (just like Boston) to Vieux-Lyon. We exited the metro station and decided to just wander around and see what we find. Just outside of the metro station, on our right, we found a beautiful cathedral. We went inside and looked around the interior. Once we had seen the inside, we left in search of brunch. Lyon's street were largely cobbled and the city was very clean. We walked down an old street until we came to a small brunch restaurant. We both had savory crepes. Carly had a crepe Lorainne and Jeff had a Margherita crepe, which were both delicious and filled our bellies. We found an incredible number of stairs heading upwards and decided not to go up them, but instead turned down a small alley that led to another cathedral and a river. On the other side of the river were many pretty, old buildings. so We decided to cross the river. We went in search of a bridge and found a small foot bridge that walked us into the center of a gorgeous plaza with a large fountain and a towering hotel. We took some pictures and then went in search of gloves for Jeff as his hands were falling off from the cold. While we couldn't find him any gloves for less than 65 euros, we did have a great time going in and out of a bunch of shops. We passed two more cathedrals before we came to a giant square of red sand. There was a large statue, a ferris wheel and a tourist center in this square. We stopped in the tourist center then went to look at the statue up close. The statue was of Louis XIV and what looked to be a god sitting with a lion. Carly sat with the lion and the god and Jeff took her picture. We went from there back across the river and decided to try to hike to the top of the mountain that had a breathtaking castle-like structure on top. We had to take a break half way up since the road was incredibly steep, narrow, and long. It took us a long time to get to the top but when we finally did we found a Gallo-Roman ruin dating back to 55BC. The first recorded image of the site was found in 500 AD and they were ruins then! We found a giant mansion made of stone at the top of the ruins, clearly built many years after the ruins were found. Unfortunately, this building was privately owned and not open to the public. We left the ruins and headed for the castle at the top of the mountain. We finally got to the castle-like structure and found that it was a cathedral called Le Cathedrale de Fourvière. We entered the cathedral and were immediately struck by the beauty of its detail. The inside was covered with ornate carvings and all the walls seemed to be covered with incredible murals. On closer inspection, all of the paintings on the walls turned out to be mosaics. The entire cathedral was covered in mosaics! It was incredible and must have taken many decades to complete. We stayed and looked around Fourvière for about two hours and then took our leave. We went to a store and bought some food and wine along with an etched "Lyon" corkscrew. From there we took a neat, little cable car down the mountain that lowered us right down to the metro station. We wished we had known it was there before we hiked all the way up earlier in the day! We headed back to the hotel and when we arrived, we watched a show called "Long Way Round" about Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's adventure riding motorcycles east from London to New York City. After an episode, we went to sleep.

The next day, Jeff made a breakfast of eggs and Emmental Rapé (French cheese) and after we went out and explored for a bit. We found the Jacobin Fountain and the square it was located in was pretty cool! It was Sunday and on Sundays in France NOTHING is EVER OPEN. We wandered around some more and found a building that looked like it belonged in Washington D.C.. We crossed a red suspension footbridge and found a medieval store that sold suits of armor, swords and medieval mead. We looked around until we had our fill and then we went to dinner at a pasta bar. Afterwards, we went into a pirate candy store and couldn't help but buy some. We headed to bed early that evening since we had to be up early, at 5AM, to check out and catch our bus. Lyon was a beautiful, exciting and clean city with lots of cute puppies! We both had a phenomenal time there and had a hard time leaving. We decided that Lyon is definitely a city we would like to go back to someday to stay for a longer visit.

Pictures from lyon: http://imgur.com/a/eZq3Q

Week Two

Hello everyone,

We are sorry it has taken so long for this blog post to happen. All the forces of the universe have been keeping us from you over the past three weeks so we are going to use this post and the next two in order to catch you up on everything that has been going on!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Today, we took another bus tour! We met the bus at 8:45AM and headed north into vineyard country. We saw beautiful vineyard homes and chateaus. We both thought that these vineyard homes would make a nice summer retirement home. We got to our first stop which was an 11th century monastery, which we toured for about an hour. The architecture was beautiful and it had the most adorable little, wooden doors. It was interesting to see how the building had aged in such an immense amount of time. From there out buses headed to Cavaillon. It was a very cute, small village with a river running through the center of it and had many waterwheels powering local businesses. We had a delicious lunch at a small restaurant on the river. Carly had a prosciutto, parmesan and mushroom risotto and Jeff had mushroom and cheese raviolis. Both were absolutely delicious! We got dessert a local patisserie. Carly had a meringue and Jeff had a chocolate and a coffee eclair. From there we walked back towards to the bus through the market where Carly saw the hat she had been talking about since we had met. With a little encouragement from Jeff, Carly went and talked to the hat salesman and finally purchased her hat! While Carly was a purchasing her hat, Jeff saw a yellow lab puppy sitting on a german shepherd and was able to take their picture, which made his day. From there, we went to the town La Fontaine de Vaucluse. It is the source of the river in Cavaillon and is known for its hiking. We walked around but other than a near river and a castle ruin that we couldn't get to, there was not much to see or do. After wandering in a park near the river for about an hour, we got back on the buses and headed home.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Today was the unfortunate day that Jeff's phone broke. After the sad incident we quickly took his phone to be repaired. We spent the rest of the day doing homework and preparing for the week of classes ahead.

Pictures for Week two here: http://imgur.com/a/QgmBa

Unfortunate Phone Incident

Hello Readers,

The blog for this Saturday will be later this week. Jeff's phone is currently undergoing some serious surgery after a fatal fall from a slippery unlevel table top. Once we get his phone back we will be able to update the blog and pictures.

We can't wait to update you,

Carly & Jeff

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