Day 7- Beginning to learn!

Orientation was long, and boring. But there were free croissants and juice, so it was worth it. During our hour and a half lunch break – the French have long lunches where they eat with their families, equivalent to the American tradition of dinner- we got sandwiches and sat at a little café with our new friends, then we wandered over to the ancient Roman baths that are situated a few blocks from our school, they didn’t look very impressive, but was cool to see something so old. You can drink the water that comes out of any of the fountains in Aix, but these roman baths had warmer water, that was enriched with extra vitamins.

Roman Baths (one of about 10)

The best part of orientation was the walking tour. I learned so much about the beautiful buildings we live right next to, and why the streets are so strange. Aix is special, very special. Its different from anywhere I have ever been, and I have been to a lot of places.

After dinner with our friends, we parted ways to meet up later for a night of fun. We had our friends over to our apartment, this is the nice thing about not having a host family, we have somewhere to be loud and not feel rude. (There are many pluses and minuses to not living with a host family, more on that later)

Dinner from next door

Entertainment during dinner

This was June 4^th, so I turned 20 at midnight; it was about to be a really fun night. When we got our first bar the “Wooho” we went down stairs and I told the bar tender it was my birthday a midnight, and we were officially in. The second I said it he started to pour me a shot, from then on drinks were free for me, and my friends, If I said I wanted something, the bartender would pour 3,4,sometimes even 6 extra, it was awesome. Needless to say, it was a very late night, with awesome new friends, and a really terrible morning after.