Here I am on Bastille Day, drinking tea at a perfect cafe and having a chat with my friends. It is almost unbelievable that two weeks have already passed... It feels like so little, but at the same time it feels so long. Past, present, and future mingle in my mind while I watch people walk down the street, all going in different directions, ...
We continue our adventures in Aix... On Thursday afternoon, we visited a contemporary art exhibition at the Pavillon Vandôme, a baroque building with its jardin à la française. That evening, we had the chance to dance traditional french dances called baleti in the public plaza. The musicians stood in the middle, playing violin, accordion, ...
On Monday, we started the regular rhythm of our program in Aix. Every morning, our students have French class with our teachers, Sophie and Jen. All classes are divided in two parts: The first part is in the classroom where the students learn grammar and theory, and the second part is outside where they have to interact with locals and practice ...
Bonjour again from Aix-en-Provence! The first week of classes is quickly coming to a close. With French classes every morning and either art or French conversation in the afternoon, students are constantly being immersed Aix's culture. On Tuesday, many of us chose to take a hike to Mont Sainte-Victoire, which is known for being the subject ...
Some of my friends and I signed a form that promised we wouldn't speak a word of English for the whole trip! It's a huge commitment, but it is worth it, because it really help better our French. I've been speaking French all day since yesterday morning, and it gets easier the longer you do it. We had our first French class Monday, which was ...
July 11: Monday we started our first true day of classes after the first week of getting acquainted with the city and visiting various cultural hubs in the south of France. As we near the end of the week, I look back on all that we have done in the past few days, and it is amazing to see how much we have covered in this relatively short amount ...
I know that last time I promised to tell you everything about our French classes, but I hope you won’t mind if I start by talking about our trip to Arles. I have never seen a photography festival before and I am grateful that my first experience of this kind has been the Rencontres d’Arles 2013. All old photos, even the ones that are not ...
It has been a very relaxing past couple of days in Aix-en-Provence. It already feels as if we are simply locals living the French lifestyle. On Saturday some students woke up early to go on their daily morning jog through the city center. After this, the whole group gathered together to go to the famous Aix-en-Provence market. Here students ...
Coucou! After almost a week here, we have become accustomed to the new language, new region, new time zone, and hot climate. We have been exploring Aix, and the regions around it, nonstop. We started the trip off with a bang by getting to see the Tour de France as it made its way around the famous "La Rotonde". It was such a surreal ...
July 4th: Today is the Fourth of July! Normally I would be counting down the minutes until sunset so I can set off fireworks, but I expect waiting another ten days to experience Bastille Day ("the French Fourth of July" as I have heard it called) will be well worth it. Out of all the things that we did today - having our first lunch in town, ...