Paris and Beyond

Hello Friends!

The last few weeks have been full of art, travel, friends, and extreme amounts of fun!

Great successes in Paris:

-Visit to the Louvre

-Lots of free candy from the desk of our hotel :-)

-Eiffel Tower

-Mime training

-Orangerie and Marmottan museums (Monet)

-No one passed out

-Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur

-Riding the metro like pros

Great non-successes in Paris:

-Finding our hotel initially

-Knowing how to use the lights in the hotel

-Refusing to pay 3 cents for a bag at the grocery store... lots to carry

-Nearly being kidnapped by the moroccan man who offered me a ride on his moped

-Eating too many cookies in bed all night

-Convincing our waiter we spoke french

Fun things we maybe shouldn't have done in Aix recently but did anyway:

-Run through all the fountains!

-Made fun of John and Alan (our teachers) endlessly at our show.

-Bought so many clothes that our suitcases wouldn't close.

-Eaten so much gelato that our tummies hurt

-Stayed up so late and gotten up so early

-Gone with Philippe (random french dude) in his car to go swimming at the barrage where it is prohibited to swim.

Things I learned about fountains:

-Some are deeper than others

-Some are way colder than others

-Sometimes dogs bathe in them

-Sometimes people do too

-If you drop your camera in one, it will stop working...

Best pick up attempts while in France:

-I was running to meet my friends, and a guy started running alongside me... he asked me if I was running after his heart (in french). I said no, but he continued to run with me saying, I wish you were coming for my heart, you wouldn't have to run. We ran together for a while hah.

-At the music festival a large african man came up to my friends and I and demanded "dance with me" in french of course. We really had no choice. He ended up going on stage and dancing there a bit later.

-I was walking to meet my friends and passed a guy who was saying something to me in french over and over again. I couldn't figure out what he was saying so just kept walking. When I finally figured out what he was saying, I started smiling because I was proud of my comprehension... turns out he was asking me to smile. He was happy to see when i eventually did and told me the world was much nicer that way. It was actually a bit sweet.

-At the beach, three guys sat down behind us. They tried saying hi to us in every language until they heard us speak english and we were busted. They then continued to say every english phrase they knew. It was hilarious!

-Large moroccan man told me I was beautiful and wanted to take a picture with me. I said no to that, so he asked me about a ride on his moped. My instinct said AWESOME but then I decided that was a bad idea, so I declined. All this time he had taken my hand to shake it and never giave it back... awkward.

The final week at Marchutz was a blast. I realized that thus far I have failed to even touch on how much my time here in Aix and with Marchutz has changed me... and in such huge ways. I will think on how to express that and get back to you. Until then.