let's get out of here

it has been a week since my arrival, and all has been pretty dece to dece plus (thank you hymen for making this my scale).

as i mentioned in my last post, i live about a mile and a half from the center of town/the school. at first it seems like bit much, but you learn to enjoy it after a while. i'm getting to listen to more of my music, which is great, since i recently got a lot of new stuff, thanks to dana. i've been listening to new andrew bird these past couple of days in honor of you bastards back home who got to go to the concert. this is needless to say, but i'm a tad bit jealous. i'm in the south of france though, so i'll get over it.

aix-en-provence is an absolutely gorgeous town. quintessentially french is the best way to describe it. cafés, shops, fountains, etc... everyone is incredibly laid back and has a very laissez-faire attitude. where better for me to be? unfortunately, all this small town charm comes at a price, that cost being the second most expensive city in france. fuck me. i guess working all that overtime, dealing with ridiculous patients is paying off right now.

i like the program i'm with. lots of helpful people and a lot of pretty girls. my classes seem ok. nothing too demanding, which is good, because who wants to do work in france? my psych class seems like it'll be entertaining- we're talking about freud and dreams right now. my philosophy teacher is a little ridiculous. he says some pretty off the wall shit. he also sells seafood at the market on weekends. eh. when i introduced myself in class, he noticed that i went to tufts and then asks "slumaville?" he has a loft near porter and spent about 5 minutes of classtime giving me precise directions on how to get there.

people have been going out a lot lately, but i've been sick and i really don't want to spend all my money in the first couple of weeks. i ended up going out thursday night and had an awesome time. my friend and i bought some beers at a convenience store (leffe, to be precise) and got with a larger group of kids from the program. we went to a bar called le p'tit bistro and met up with people. met some kids in another program and we found out that we go to the "american" school. it appears that they take all their classes in french at the french university. pretty legit. sucks for them. we then went to another bar and met up some other girls from the program. i rather enjoyed myself there. it was an irish pub, o'shannons, that happened to play rihanna and other typical american music. that long walk home was useful when you're trying to walk off the alcohol. mars bars and chocolate cookies also seem to help.

this seems like a long enough post. we'll see when i have time to go out and take pictures.

So it begins...

2 things that i love about traveling abroad: flight attendants and the beverage selection. both are amazing. what was even more amazing is that i flew on lufthansa where all beverages are free and served by attractive stewardesses with german accents. in addition to these two great things on my flight was a richard gere movie, which was entertaining considering the aforementioned abundance of drinks.

so i arrived in aix after a 6 hour layover in frankfurt. i went to my host family's apartment and practically fell asleep as soon as i got there. my host mom, paty, is awesome. all she does is compliment me and tell me how adorable i am (which i really don't need to tell any of you...).

i went to check out the program today and it actually seems pretty awesome. the building is in the center of town. met a few people and made it back home, which is about 20 minute walk. not horrible.

tomorrow i go back to the center and have the general information meeting. oh crap. i just realized that i have to go to school here.