One of my really good friends Erin from Illinois is studying in northern France for her first semester so on her way to school she stopped by Aix and stayed with me for awhile. While she was here it was probably the busiest 2 weeks. I started school, moved into my flat, showed her around town, went to Marseille and La Ciotat, it was exhausting but SOOO much fun!
She was set to get here on my first day of school so I had to get out of school and then walk to the bus station to pick her up but the thing was that she didn't have a phone that worked and i really had no idea where the bus station was. So after class i go with my friend Christa to the train station where the buses come in and we waited for about and hour and a half with no sign of Erin until i found out that i was in the complete wrong spot so i hussled up the street to the bus station i was supposed to be at and still no sign of her. I had no idea what to do i had no way to get a hold of her or to find out where she was and then all of a sudden i hear and American voice call my name i turn around and there she was with all her luggage. She told me that she had been waiting at the station for about 2 hours...i felt soooo bad! So we grabbed her bags and started to carry them up the cobble roads to my new flat (pics will come soon it still a mess ha). We finally get home and start to get her settled for her stay, i show her around town and make some dinner. It was a start of a hectic vacation.
La Ciotat
For our first group adventure 14 of us decided to go to the beach. For most of them they hadn't been out of Aix yet, i was just lucky because i had met some friends that had a car to take us out of time. The clan of us meet up early in the morning and walk to the bus station, because first we have to take a bus to Marseille and
then go to the train station and take a train to the beach. A group of 14 Americans learning french traveling together is just asking for trouble. Everything ended up harder than it needed to be as soon as we got to the bus station. After some confusion we got our bus tickets and were on our way to Marseille, once in Marseille it was just a short walk to the train station and that's when all the fun began. The train station was madness to get our tickets without waiting in line forever and missing our
train we had to buy the tickets out of the machines they had, but the problem was that the machines only took change (there aren't 1 and 2 euro bills there coins) and barely any of us had enough change for the 9 euro fare so here are 14 of us throwing our money around trying to get change from the people at the food stands who were really not in the mood to give change to a group of Americans. By the time everyone had everything in order and got there change we realized 3 of us were missing. I get a phone call from my friend German asking where were were and what we were doing because the train was going to miss us. I had no idea where the train was so German was trying to explain and yelling at m
e to run or we would miss it! I was positive we were too late and going to have to wait another couple hours and buy all new tickets because it took to long. Finally i figure out where were supposed to be going and German is still yelling at me to run...so i yell at the group to run but they all just look at me like I'm and idiot so i just decide to run and hopefully they'll follow and so they did. So here we are a group of 11 Americans running through a crowded train station...I'm laughing now but at the time i definitely was not! So finally we get to the train and the men taking th
e tickets are smiling at us and there is German hanging out the door trying to get them to wait for us. I get on the train and find seats next to German, Christa, and Sarah and get on my phone and start calling everyone to see if they all had made it. Luckily everyone did. The train ride was about a half an hour and once we got there we still had no idea how to get to the beach so we asked a local man and he told us how to get to the beach. We eventually made it to the beach and just spent the whole rest of the day laying out and swimming. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work for such a short trip.
then go to the train station and take a train to the beach. A group of 14 Americans learning french traveling together is just asking for trouble. Everything ended up harder than it needed to be as soon as we got to the bus station. After some confusion we got our bus tickets and were on our way to Marseille, once in Marseille it was just a short walk to the train station and that's when all the fun began. The train station was madness to get our tickets without waiting in line forever and missing our
train we had to buy the tickets out of the machines they had, but the problem was that the machines only took change (there aren't 1 and 2 euro bills there coins) and barely any of us had enough change for the 9 euro fare so here are 14 of us throwing our money around trying to get change from the people at the food stands who were really not in the mood to give change to a group of Americans. By the time everyone had everything in order and got there change we realized 3 of us were missing. I get a phone call from my friend German asking where were were and what we were doing because the train was going to miss us. I had no idea where the train was so German was trying to explain and yelling at m
e to run or we would miss it! I was positive we were too late and going to have to wait another couple hours and buy all new tickets because it took to long. Finally i figure out where were supposed to be going and German is still yelling at me to run...so i yell at the group to run but they all just look at me like I'm and idiot so i just decide to run and hopefully they'll follow and so they did. So here we are a group of 11 Americans running through a crowded train station...I'm laughing now but at the time i definitely was not! So finally we get to the train and the men taking th
e tickets are smiling at us and there is German hanging out the door trying to get them to wait for us. I get on the train and find seats next to German, Christa, and Sarah and get on my phone and start calling everyone to see if they all had made it. Luckily everyone did. The train ride was about a half an hour and once we got there we still had no idea how to get to the beach so we asked a local man and he told us how to get to the beach. We eventually made it to the beach and just spent the whole rest of the day laying out and swimming. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work for such a short trip.!Marseille!
The day after La Ciotat the CSU Program had already set up a tour of Marseille...it was a long day of sight seeing of amazing building that i don't remember the names of so ill just tell the story with pics!
*It was great to have someone from home come visit me so early into my stay it helped to make me feel so much more comfortable being here...we had sooo much fun bring our own little Midwest to France! Here are just some other random pictures from here stay.*
1 comment:
wow didn't know you had a blog, it's very nice!! such a great idea... i'm home sweet home already.... i hope you have a great christmas kristin... everyone is great at home. i'm jealous you've seen SO much. thanx for makin a blog bout me, and thanx for the hospitality...
tonite i'm going to christies with girlies from our class, we'll be thinking bout ya.... MERRY CHRISTMAS HOMIE
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