No, This Is Not Real.

Happy Easter! Never have I ever been more comforted by a few chocolate eggs lying outside of my door. The Easter Bunny still comes in France! =] Basically, awesome.

So, I have been a blog fail lately and I haven't posted anything since Wednesday. I will try my best to catch up.

Thursday, nothing of consequence really happened. There was school, dinner, Red Sky, etc. Pretty much the usual.

Friday started off as most Fridays do...slowly, and with class. It's uber hard to sit through four hours of history and literature on a beautiful Friday. Friday night was a relatively quiet one...I just went over to Adam and Kyle's house to watch Across the Universe. The walk home from their house, however, was terrifying. I had to walk by the prostitute vans, and I saw a real live prostitute, and a real live man who had just come from her door. *shudder* Plus, I had to walk by Snack Kebab all by myself. Jenny, the Graduate Assistant on this trip, and I had a long conversation about this, actually. Please, someone explain to me why men feel the need to yell at women on the street? What do they think they are going to achieve? Is it like some weird misogynistic pleasure? Really, it's obnoxious, and I've found that it's much more prevalent in France. No, I am not flattered. I feel degraded. I got off topic, I apologize. So that was Friday.

Oh, and Friday was finally my laundry day! Basically, Christmas. Unfortunately, only half of my clothes have returned (and my underwear and socks are in the second MIA half. *sigh*)

Saturday, I had to wake up far too early. Shawna and I left the house at around 8:00 in the morning so we could stop by the market before getting on the bus for our first excursion with the OU group. Oh, how I've missed markets. There's nothing better than the smell of fresh fruit and vegetables on a misty morning. I could deal without the butcher vans with pounds and pounds of bloody animal...BUT other than that it was really nice. I bought some strawberries. I later ate them...all. Well not all of them, but a large portion. They were SO yummy. I think strawberries are better in France...just saying. Goodness, I got off topic again.

Anyhow, allow me to describe Excursion #1. First we took the bus up a long and twisty road to Baux de Provence, a tiny tiny village on top of a very large hill. At the very top of the hill there is an ancient settlement. I failed at listening to the audio guide thing after like #2, so I really can't relay that much information. I can, however, tell you that it offered a wonderful view of the French country side. Unfortunately, it was really cold and windy and rainy, and my pictures reflect the bad lighting, but oh well. You can imagine how it would look on a sunny day.


French countryside.


I took this for my mama...she loves flowers. =]


More French countryside...and more flowers!


This is a snail. When Kyle and I found him, we were incredibly excited, so we took pictures. Later, as we were walking back into town, I murdered a snail by stepping on it. I screamed. I killed this poor snail's relative. =[

After walking around the old ramparts and stone buildings for about an hour, we sat down to watch a catapult presentation. We decided that war must have taken an extremely long time in the Middle Ages.

Although Baux de Provence was interesting and very beautiful, it was freezing, and we wanted shelter from the wind. We descended down into the town and walked around for a little bit, mostly to find some Fanta, which Sakinah was craving. A little while after, the group walked down the road a while to something called the Cathédrale d'Images. Annoyed about the rain and shivering under my coat, I wasn't that optimistic when we first entered, but I was completely surprised. Allow me to explain a little about the Cathédrale. Basically, there is this giant old, empty cathedral. All the walls are bare, and there are no rooms, just very large winding halls and crevices with extremely high ceilings. Essentially, it has become an art museum. Each year, an artist is chosen, and a program is constructed. Last year it was Van Gogh, and this year it's Picasso. The artist's paintings are projected on the walls of the empty cathedral, and set to music. They are constantly shifting and moving. Really, it's incredible. Imagine walking through a huge labyrinth with giant Picasso paintings on all sides: on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, all swirling around you in a beautiful mess of colors. Very very very awesome. My pictures certainly don't do justice to the experience.


Cathédrale d'Images


Blue!


Red!


Picasso paintings swirling on the floor.

After an hour at the Cathédrale, we got back on the bus for a short trip to St. Rémy de Provence. Essentially, it was a chocolate stop. Joël Durand (an apparently famous chocolate maker) has a shop in St. Rémy, and we crowded into the small store for free samples and, inevitably, some chocolate of our own. Unfortunately, Catherine and I were in the back of the line, and everyone went back to the bus before we had been helped. Since Catherine and I are so remarkably intelligent, we managed to get lost on the way back to the bus (one wrong turn makes such a difference). And then it started raining. Down pouring, rather. I forgot my umbrella on the bus. FML. After some French directions and a few phone calls, we found our way back, and got on the bus like wet dogs. Go us. At least we had chocolate.


Always remember, chocolate = love.

Saturday night was as most Saturday nights are: awesome. We had dinner with our host dad (for the first time...which is actually an awkward story that I don't really want to put on blogspot. I'll tell you if you want me to, though). Afterwards, Jenny and I walked to Red Sky to meet up with Adam, Sakinah, Katie, and Kyle, and later Catherine and Kristina (and their host brother, Paul). Around midnight, we got up the urge to go dancing. We walked down the street a bit to Red Zone, and stayed their until three. Yes, it was sweaty, and yes, I lost my favorite cardigan (actually, I'm way depressed about that), but it was SO much fun. Something about the French techno trippy music and the atmosphere and the lights that completely eliminated all inhibitions, and we all danced like it was our job.

The walk home was not as good (but I won't get into that on here either...it's not my place to talk about it). All I can say is that I'm glad I'm Shawna's friend, and I'm glad Jenny is so caring.

I went to bed about seven hours ago, around five, and now I'm awake again, blogging. Go me! I think I might be going to Arles today with Kyle, so I should probably get on that whole productivity thing. Again, Happy Easter to you all! I hope the Easter Bunny brings you yummy chocolate. =]