1/2 Day of "Culture Shock"

Apparently this is my half day of "culture shock." I'm quite grumpy. I will put this to not sleeping well last night. So, no concerns, family, I'll be better tomorrow. I'll write about my amazing first-ever experience with crepe next internet session.

I am sick of:

NOT HAVING INTERNET

NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND BOOTS, WHILE MY SHOES DISINTEGRATE MORE EACH DAY

NOT BEING ALLOWED TO HAVE A DECENT SHOWER

THE LACK OF A BLOODY SHOWER CURTAIN

NOT BEING ALLOWED TO FLUSH THE TOILET OR USE THE SINK AT NIGHT

LOOKING LIKE A BUM (it's not really as bad as that..)

Bonnuit.

Notre Fête

Okay, so this will be a quick post. We're currently finishing off a Marchutz "potluck." It was awesome, so informal, even though our art professors and their wives were here. Many candles, I brought hazelnut chocolate, many people brought wine, we had brilliant cheese ($7 in the US, but it's "cheap" cheese here -hah!), an absolutely amazing French pastry/cake, and fruit salad that I could actually eat. More details on this adventure tomorrow probably. We accidentally started two fires, and I put the first one out. My friend Nadia is currently juggling clementines. Going in search of boots tomorrow. A demain!

Slower

Life is slower here. I half wish I could just move my entire family to Aix.

Deuxième

Okay, now I'm in the Centre's library. This is the first time I've been into the uptsairs portion. It's an open floor, basically an upstairs indoor porch or balcony without windows. you get up to it by a very narrow, incredibly steep spiral staircase. Not that I was measuring, but it felt like a single stair came up to about my knee. I'm currently trying to master a french keyboard. Can you believe it? The Q is where the A belongs, and vice versa. Outrageous. (BULLcrud, Kevin!)There are a ton of other improperly placed letters, too.

Really, though, I just switched it to English. Hah. Take that, French Keyboard. Now I only have to remember to doubly extend my left pinky when pressing the shift key.

I've finished my classes for the day, but should be doing homework. Especially considering part of it requires the library, which closes in the early evening. Caffeine will have to come first, though. It's astounding; despite sleeping between seven and eight hours every night, I'm still exhausted. I think I may have to try my first ever cappucino today. Apparently they're different here, but good. And they involve espresso. Loootttsss of espressssooo.

Madame replaced the jelly, so we had more for our 'continental breakfast' this morning! Raspberry. Even better than the fraise from before. Lunch was a portion of fromage pizza - thin crust, Italian style. We are near the border, after all. It was cheap, relatively tasty, and sufficiently filling. This may be on the menu more often.

We had pasta for dinner last night! I hadn't realized how much I had missed it. This pasta had REAL Roquefort in it, and we added Camembert. Real Roquefort is only made in a specific region of France, with milk from specific sheep that graze in certain pastures. The cheese can only be aged in certain caves because it requires a specific bacteria. Dinner tonight will be the leftovers cooked with some sort of vegetable. Madame has switched to an appetizer of pea soup ):P   I am missing the celery soup.

Classes this morning were French and more figure drawing with Melanie (in reverse order). Apparently this is Melanie's first modeling job. She's amazing, much better than any of the models we've had at school. She also looks exactly as one would picture a Frenchwoman, except she has pleasant facial expressions.

What a strange post, with random paragraphs about food.

A bientot!

D'Abord

I am currently sitting alone in the darkened Marchutz studio, with music from what I would guess to be the '20s or '30s playing. It is John's (one of our professor's) music. I can see fog gathering a ways away.

The studio sits on hill about a seven minute walk from Madame's apartment. This means we are approximately a forty-two minute walk from the Aix Centre, and very far outside the Ring Road. The Ring Road is the old border of the city. I believe it was knocked down in the 19th century. As is, the studio and our apartment are still beyond civilization. Okay, not quite. We are, however, far enough out to not be on the general map of the city, 

I finally walked to the Aix Center completely on my own today, and I did not have to use a map. Actually, I've never been Mapkeeper while here, so the fact that I got to the Centre on time, without getting lost, and without a map is actually quite a feat. The city lay layout fits expectations of Europe - it's got tons of tiny roads that look like alleys, and you can tell by the street order that it was not all built at once.

After my first class (Art history, Cezanne and Van Gogh), I went to the art store where an account had been set up for me. I picked up a large sketchbook for class, a red hard-bound Moleskine (!!) for outside of class sketching, two pencils (2b and 5b), and a pen. Met a fellow Marchutzian, who had been waiting for someone else. The someone else never turned up, so Nadia and I got lunch around the corner. Mine was absolutely delicious. How could it not be? Mozzarella, goat cheese, some other thing with a French name I didn't recognize, creamy gouda, and tomato on fresh French bread. Mm. Good thing I'm walking at least five miles a day!

We found another Marchutz classmate after that, and walked around the daily market while waiting for another person. Nadia bought lychees, and gave one to both Kyra and me to try. Interesting. Sticky juice, white-translucent flesh, smooth pit, paper-thin prickly skin, with a taste similar to watered white grape juice. We found a "Honey Man," who had each of us sample his product. So good that I actually bought some. My first unnecessary or not-food-to-be-eaten-immediately purchase. Walked around some more, found Sloan, had coffee/hot chocolate. I have pictures from the market that shall be posted on Facebook later. Went back to the art store, got a pencil sharpener, found the original person we had been waiting for and another person, started walking toward the studio. 

Worked from a FEMALE model! What a treat. At Denison they hired old males almost every time.

Well, time to head back to the apartment. Madame will be serving dinner at 7:30, as usual! :)