Day 8- Happy Birthday to me!

We woke up to go on a walking tour of the city that we had signed up for the previous day. It was free and only supposed to be an hour. We started to walk with the woman, and she spoke about the history, but much of it I had known from the walking tour on the previous day. After an hour and twenty minutes of walking, and realizing we were only half way done the tour, I decided to skip the end of the tour, and take a nap before my first day of class.

I could not nap well, which is something the Beebe family normally has no problems with. I was anxious and giddy, what type of teacher would I have? What would the other students be like? Oh my lord, I’m studying in France! My stomach started to churn.

When we arrived at our classroom, two girls sat out front, just two. I learned that they were cousins from Texas, and that they were in the same class as us. They were very nice and friendly; I was mostly relieved that we got the right room. 3:00 passed and we were the only 4 sitting there. Were we in the wrong place? Had class been canceled? Where is our teacher?

A young woman walked in the door about seven minutes late and said “oh you must be my 4”

Tiny hall way leading to the door of our classroom

That made my day, her four, meaning we have a tiny little class, this is going to be awesome

We spent the beginning of class talking about our selves and her. She told us that she knows its summer, so we are going to have a summer class, with little field trips to explore Aix and France and become inspired to write our creative writing pieces. The teacher was so animated, and kind, it felt like she became our mom, or a close long lost friend in just a few hours.

Time flew by and class was over. I went to the best place in town to get Vietnamese food, everyone has been raving about it so I decided it would be the perfect birthday dinner. I also stopped and got a piece of cake from the local coffee shop since all of the nice bakeries were closed.

Delicious looking Vietnamese.. not so delicious

Delicious looking Chocolate Cherry cake- Not so delicious

As it turns out, France does not do Vietnamese food well, the meal although it looked delicious was not good. It also turns out that you cant get cake from the local coffee shop at 630, because by then it is dry, and has little flavor since it has been sitting out all day. So mission spoil my self with a great birthday dinner was a bust. I was so disappointed, but I guess in the end it turns out to be a funny story.

I was able to talk to my dad via email for a bit which was nice. I was also able to talk to Phil on Skype, which is always special.

I had a glass of birthday wine, which was delicious, and relaxed in for the night.

20 doesn’t feel so different, but I am no longer a teenager, which is strange, i still feel like i just started driving, and that i just  graduated a month ago, I feel like I have only been a student at elzabeth town for a month. I can already feel time flying by, even thinking about being in france my trip is already 25% done, how the heck did that happen?!  I am sure this is going to be a great year with many adventures, that all begin right here, in France.