Back in the U.S.A.

I will not be writing in this blog anymore, seeing as my semester abroad is over (believe it or not), but I thought that one last picture was necessary for you all to see to close this account of my study abroad experience.
Thanks for reading, ladies and gentlemen!

Au Revoir

It is January 21st, 2009.
Tomorrow, in the very early morning, I will be leaving this little cabanon with all of my bags to head back to the United States. All of my belongings have been packed into my two suitcases, a duffel, and a backpack, and yet again, I find myself moving.
Last night, I had my British friend Hannah from frisbee over for drinks, dinner, and dessert, and this morning, I got breakfast with my roommate and our two French friends, Nathalie and Simon. So many goodbyes! I knew that I'd have to say goodbye to people at some point, and it all started with Maria back in December, but yet again, I'm surprised by how strange it feels to have to say goodbye to somebody indefinitely. I hope one day that our paths will cross, that I'll run into them at an ultimate tournament, at some international event, in graduate school...who knows. But until then, it's a bittersweet goodbye.
I don't mean to be dramatic, but I just simply cannot believe that my 5 months in France are already over. Humans usually live for decades and decades, but still, 5 months is a very long time! While I ran into frustration and sometimes found myself looking at pictures of loved ones and missing them, I was never counting down the days until I left, and now I'm left feeling that I'm not ready to go and that I didn't have enough time.
The open-air markets, the university, the bakeries, my lovely little home, my favorite eateries, the new friends, the not-so-talented-but-so-nice frisbee team, the incompetence of the fac's administration, the wine, the terrible mattress on my bed, trying to talk to people on skype and having it cut out, having my french corrected, being mistaken for a french person, learning to walk anywhere that's within an hour's walking distance, the art history classes, the daily baguettes, going from cutting my fingers every day in the kitchen to making couscous topped with marinated peppers, onions, and chicken, learning to break free of the schedule, not opening my planner on some days...all of it is valuable and dear to me and I will never forget any of it.

No, I'm not ready to leave. But I am so happy to have learned and experienced everything that I have, and I am so happy to be reluctant to leave rather than biting at the bit to hop onto that plane home.
But I am so excited to see my beloved parents and to see how my little brother and sister have matured and grown (I haven't seen them since they started college!).
And, I miss my dog :)

Completely Random

I don't know if I've told you already, but I know what I want to do with the rest of my life.
I want to work in the field of education, as a student of education and educational policy, as a teacher, and someday as an educational policy analyst. Yup.
Now that that's out of the way, I want to get to my main point. I had some free time so I read up a little on my American current events and politics and was reading through profiles of Barack Obama's appointees to various important positions with interesting titles. I got to one of the profiles that interested me the most: that of Arne Duncan, the appointee to the position of the Secretary of Education. I knew a little bit about him from articles that I had read in the past, that he was a non-partisan, very uncontroversial figure in the world of American education and was therefore a great candidate to further causes on either side of any debate concerning the future of public education. But one thing struck me: he has no formal experience as a teacher.
He majored in Sociology at Harvard University, graduated at the top of his class and went on to study education extensively from an administrative and policy-related angle. He is a member of the boards of countless educational organizations and committees and is currently the CEO of Chicago Public Schools. So he clearly has lots of experience and an extensive amount of knowledge about the educational system. This shocked me, because the rough plan that I have designed for me to someday be able to make change and improve American public education began with me becoming certified to be a teacher and teaching for quite some time.

Why did I decide this?
I had the chance to take a phenomenal course called the History of American Education at Wellesley last year, and for my final research paper, I wrote 15 pages about the effectiveness of Teach for America. I concluded that while the program is necessary because of the fact that we have a shortage in the supply of teachers, that we need to work towards a society and system in which teachers are appreciated and valued more to increase the incentive to become a qualified teacher and decrease the opportunity costs that many potential teachers see as a negative in their choice between becoming a teacher and becoming something else. Basically, that Teach for America, even with its wonderful intentions and some good outcomes, has its problems, including the fact that it diminishes the value of a proper teacher education program to 4 weeks of crash courses in how to be a teacher, but that those problems are only reflections of problems that the American society and educational system must confront, as well.
But after writing this paper, I had this strange feeling of guilt or something else...I can't quite describe it. I felt as though I had no right to criticize or analyze an institution that I had not yet taken part in. In other words, I felt that I had no right to criticize or call for change in teaching and teacher education until I myself had been a teacher.
I like the sound of Arne Duncan, not only because he has a cool name, but because with his track record, it seems that he is trying to advance the issues of public education without leaving any faction offended or out of consideration. That's important.

But I still can't believe he has never been a teacher.

LA NEIGE

It snowed yesterday. A lot.
It isn't supposed to snow in the South of France at all, so when we got like 10 INCHES of snow yesterday, it was quite surprising, and the entire region has come to a grinding halt. There are no salt trucks, I don't even know if they sell rock salt anywhere for people to salt sidewalks and driveways themselves. There are no snow plows, possibly not even snow shovels, and no one has chains for the tires of their cars.
Not only have trains, buses, and flights been canceled and stopped running, but the actual stations and airports have been full-out closed, ruining people's travel plans for their European extravaganzas, ruining plans to go back to the United States...oh and the Fac is closed. As in, exams on January 7th and 8th have been cancelled, as have exams on the 9th and 10th. Four days of exams have been cancelled and I have no idea how they plan on rescheduling them, which is rather stressful. I was hoping to have the art history exams over and done with by this time today, but unfortunately, I have those to look forward to when I get back from Strasbourg, assuming I'll make it there tomorrow.
The entire university system in the Aix-Marseille area has been shut down, and all of the offices are closed, and the only means we have of getting updated about exam schedules is by a 2-sentence blurb in bolded red font at the top of the university web-site that gets updated every few hours or so. Ay carumba.
I think this is the first time that I've been annoyed when it snowed. I think I might have been excited for about 30 seconds when I woke up, and then I remembered that it's not supposed to snow here and that no one knows how to deal with snow, that no one's prepared for snow and then I got annoyed. Bleh. At least it's beautiful to look at while I study for an indefinite period of time for exams that I was supposed to take this morning.

Holidays in Provence IV: Marseille

For Jin and Angus' last day in France, we went on a half-day trip to Marseille (intended to be a full-day trip but I bummed around in bed for too long).
We took the Aix-Marseille bus into the city and walked along one of the main streets looking inside shops and marveling at the fact that Marseille is so much more visibly and culturally diverse than Aix, although the small town where I live is only 30 minutes away by bus from this bustling port city. We had a list of things that we wanted to do for sure:
- a little present shopping
- a visit to the Fort Entrecasteaux right at the mouth of the Marseille harbor
- walk all the way up to the basilica that overlooks the city of Marseille
- eat North African or Middle Eastern food for lunch
- possibly fit in a museum visit ( we didn't end up doing this one )
The first thing we ended up doing was stop for schawarmas at a seemingly very popular local Middle Eastern restaurant. They were DELICIOUS. However, we ended up having a very bizarre experience with a young beggar girl who came up to our table asking, in French, for some money, then some of Jin's Coca-Cola, then some of my schawarma. I tried to pull the "I don't understand French" card but she persisted, picking up Jin's soda bottle, pointing at my food, continuing to mumble, barely even in coherent French at this point, until finally, she beckoned to her mother to come over who then also attempted to convince us to give them money and food. The bizarre thing was that these people did not seem homeless and had plenty of nice clothing and seemed quite well fed and clean. We ignored them while they continued to hassle us for food and money until the girl reached out and grabbed the remainder of my food and began trying to pull it away at which point Angus yelled "HEY" and the girl got startled, started giggling and shrank back, and walked away, taking her mother with her. Very strange and rather unsettling.
No matter, we continued on to our next stop: Fort Entrecasteaux, which, as I discovered in my own trip to Marseille with Carmel and Claire, would give us a great view of the harbor and the city. We also took some goofy pictures.

Then, we began our long walk up to the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde, a beautiful and very unique basilica that sits 528 feet above the city of Marseille. The massive gold statue of the Virgin and Child that sits on top of the basilica's belfry has become a trademark of Marseille, and the unique green and white-striped outer walls of the basilica (made of white marble and green porphyry from Italy) set it apart from other religious structures within the city. The interior of the basilica is filled with all sorts of ex votos, or charms and trinkets in thanks for protection on the sea, the rehabilitation of a loved one, even a win for the Olympique de Marseille, the soccer team of Marseille which has tons of loyal followers.
The view of the city, the harbor, and the islands off the coast of France, including one that houses the Chateau d'If, was BREATHTAKING and well worth the 20-30 minutes of up-hill walking and stairs that took us there. If we had had more time, I think we would've taken a boat trip to the islands, but not enough time. It seems that there's never enough time :)

After this, we walked around some more, checked the Musée Cantini, found it was closed, and sat somewhere for some nice tartines and coffee and hot chocolate, and then took the bus home. A lovely afternoon in Marseille!

Holidays in Provence III: Mont Sainte-Victoire

After Jin joined us after Christmas, there was no more lazing around the house! We had things to do! And so, one of the first things we attacked after Jin had rested a little bit was something that I had wanted to do all semester long but had saved until Angus and Jin got here: the hike up to the top of MONT SAINTE-VICTOIRE.
It is a towering peak that you can see from the town of Aix that they saw YOU MUST climb if you are in the area. It is also a pilgrimage site, so there is a very old stone church/monastery right below the summit, and at the top there is a giant cross and what I believe is a little chapel. People thought I was crazy for not having done the hike yet, but I am so glad that I saved it for when I could share the experience with two people that I hold so near and dear to my heart. We got up at a good hour of the day and took "La Victorine" a shuttle that would take us to a parking lot at the base of the mountain. It was a little nauseating, a tiny little shuttle that took turns really fast and bumped its way over gravel roads. But we got there and stepped out of the shuttle and saw what lay ahead of us and it was most definitely worth the temporary nausea.
At the bottom of the mountain, there was a beautiful dam that we marveled at for a little while before starting on our hike, but we had to get started so that we could get all the way up to the peak and back in time for the evening shuttle and also before it got too cold and dark. The hike ended up being much steeper and much more strenuous than I had thought it would be, but it was so refreshing to be out and about after having spent so much time studying indoors. It was beautiful outside, with tons of sun, and we stopped about halfway into the hike for a clementine and water break and marvelled at our surroundings.

The last bit of the hike was the most strenuous, I think, as we had to follow an incredibly steep rocky ridge up to the summit. The view at the top was AMAZING. And it was freezing cold. People who had been on the hike before had warned me of the low temperatures at the top, and I was very glad to have heeded their advice. We were fully equipped with hats and gloves and heavy coats and warm athletic wear, and even with all of that preparation, it was almost unbearably cold at the top. But not so unbearable that we didn't stop for a lunch break! We enjoyed the view and shivered behind a cement wall-ish type thing that helped to block the wind and gazed out at the southern French countryside that lay below us.

After eating and sufficiently freezing ourselves half to death, we began our descent down the mountain and enjoyed the same beautiful views from a different angle on the way down, and stopped once more at the beautiful dam to marvel at what we had just climbed.
Such a wonderful day of hiking :)

Holidays in Provence II: Joyeux Noel!

Merry Christmas!
Or, Joyeux Noel, as they say here in France!
This Christmas was a little sad, as I wasn't able to spend it with my family back at home in front of the fireplace and at the beautiful festive dinner table in Princeton, NJ, but I was lucky enough to be able to spend it with Jacqueline, one of my housemates and closest friends on my study abroad program, and Angus. And boy, did we do Christmas right :)
We all got up late on Christmas morning, as we well should have, and Angus was amazing and made us all French toast. We had French toast with apricot jam, raspberry jam, nutella, and butter, with coffee and milk, and we were, of course, in our pajamas...except for Jacqueline. She's always quite put together.
After breakfast, we did presents!!! Much to my surprise, we had quite a few presents under our tiny tree for the three people who were inhabiting the house at the time, and it looked beautiful. I got Jacqueline some pretty lacy tights to go with all of her dresses and heels, I got Angus a much-needed black leather belt, and I received some lovely jewelry and sweaters from my mother, a tin wall-hanging and wooden tulip from Amsterdam from Jacqueline, and the MOST AMAZING hand-made jewelry box made of bubinga wood and brass from Angus.

Then, we all did our own things during the day, getting in touch with our families, relaxing, and got together in the early evening to make Christmas dinner. We had the most delicious and quite extravagant Christmas dinner for a bunch of college students studying abroad. We had so much fun shopping for the ingredients, cooking it, and eating it. It was actually quite rewarding to do it all on our own. I ventured to try and make an apricot-orange reduction as part of our menu, and burned it twice, severely. But, as they say, the third time's a charm, and it was delicious. Here are some images of us in the kitchen:

Let me recount the menu for you:
drink:
- champagne, of course
appetizers:
- deviled eggs with an added touch of mustard and paprika
- toasted slices of baguette with smoked salmon, crème fraiche, capers, and lemon juice on top
main dishes:
- scalloped potatoes au gratin
- magret de canard (duck breast) with an apricot-orange reduction
dessert:
- buche de noel (yule log), not homemade.
I'd say that this would receive a pretty universal "YUM" as a response. And I have pictures as proof of our culinary success.

What a lovely Christmas Day in Aix-en-Provence! Even though I was far away from friends and family at home :)

Holidays in Provence I: Avignon

Alright, so I went from being the girl who blogs too frequently to the girl who doesn't blog enough! Well, this is because since the last time that I wrote, I received two major deliveries, care packages, Christmas presents, from the United States: my boyfriend, Angus, and my twin sister, Jin! And so, for the past two weeks, I've been enjoying the holidays with them.
Angus got into the Aix-Marseille airport on December 19th, the day after my literature final exam, and then Jin flew into the exact same airport, same terminal, on December 27th. Their visits made for an unforgettable winter break in the South of France, and I must say, it was very difficult to say goodbye to them when they left, especially because the task that lay ahead of me after their departure was to study for 2 exams and prepare an oral presentation. Ugh.
One of the first things that Angus and I did was go on a late-night walk through the town of Aix, something that I haven't been able to do on my own for safety reasons (don't worry! it's not terribly dangerous, just not wise, as in any other town, to walk around alone at night if you're a small young woman), and we got to see the town all aglow with Christmas decorations that I hadn't yet seen. During our walks, I showed Angus the market, the places where I go for errands, and we even stopped for mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, and churros at the Christmas market.
Before Christmas, Angus had the suggestion that we go away for a little trip somewhere fun. Now, I am not a spontaneous traveller. I am not really even a traveller. I am the kind of person who needs to have trains and hotels booked at least a few weeks in advance. But...we went. We bought train tickets the day before and left Aix without hotel reservations. Where did we go? We went to Avignon, a beautiful city/town with a medieval wall that sits right on the Rhône River. It was WINDY, so windy that it made me nervous to stand up straight when we were walking along the top of the medieval wall. But it was SO much fun.

After walking along the Rhône and along the wall for a while, we headed into the center of town for a delicious lunch and then to the Palais des Papes, or the Papal Palace. After Pope Clement V decided to pick Avignon as his papal residence in 1309, popes and anti-popes during the Great Schism moved into, expanded, and filled the palace with all sorts of embellishments. During the French Revolution, it was used as a prison and military barracks. Angus and I did independent walking tours of the palace with audio guides...although Angus' ended up being broken so I had to do my best to translate for him. I failed. Miserably. We still don't really understand WHY the popes decided to move to Avignon in the first place. Yes, we did research. Oh well.

I think one of my favorite parts of Avignon, however, was our hotel. It was called the Hôtel Mignon, and I found it in the Let's Go France guidebook that my lovely supervisor and friend from my summer internship at the Center for American Women and Politics gave me as a going-away present. The hotel. was. perfect. It was a tiny little building tucked away on a beautiful busy shopping street in Avignon, right near all the major sight-seeing hot spots, and each room had a different old medieval architectural style. The concierge was the best part. He was a very kind old man who was almost too excited for us to come in. All I did was ask him for a recommendation for a place to get lunch, and he pulled out a map and marked every single romantic walk and good view in Avignon with a yellow highlighter and sent us off on our way. I must say, he was probably better than any guidebook I would've needed for Avignon.
The day we left Avignon, we took a walk along the Rue des Teinturiers, or Dyers' Street, something that the concierge had advised us to do. It was a picturesque tiny cobblestone street that ran alongside a canal with waterwheels and little bridges. SO beautiful, especially in the morning as we walked to the bus station where we were going to catch the shuttle back to the TGV station.

All in all, a lovely 2-day, 1-night trip to Avignon, and one that made me much less nervous about slightly more spontaneous traveling :)