Weekends in France

Two weekends ago we went to Montpellier in southern France. It was about a three hour drive, and Anna and I went in the car with my host family, while Jacqueline took the train. She unfortunately had to pay a lot more than us, however, she did not have to listen to the novel "Matilda" on C.D., for three hours, in French. Montpellier is a super small city, but it has a big university and there were a lot of students out. We had a really great time and it was easy to find places to go out. We met two kids who showed us where some of the better bars and clubs were. The bad part was that they stay open until 5:00 AM, and if I don't get 8 hours of sleep I really want to bite people the next day. Jacqueline, on the other hand, really never wants to leave anywhere before 5:00 AM, God forbid something fun happens in Montpellier without her. Therefore, we compromised for 4:45 AM, and I struggled the following two days.
They have a really great market in the center of Montpellier and it had all sorts of leather goods, shoes, hand made jewelry, rare foods and spices, etc. We spent hours looking at all of the stuff; it was awesome! About a 10 minute walk from the market there is a huge, 4 floor shopping mall. It had all sorts of high end stores as well as regular, affordable shopping too. I really could've spent two days there, and I know my sister and mom would have done some SERIOUS damage if they were to step foot in this place. I'm not sure why Utica doesn't build something like this for us. There was a fashion show going on in the center of the the first floor so everyone was watching that and everyone shopping on the upper floors stopped to look down and watch it. It was really windy in the city, and definitely not as warm as Nice, but still sunny. I would love to go back if we can find a free weekend!

This past weekend, October 3rd, we went to Aix en Provence and Marseille with the Sweet Briar group. Aix was a cute little city, but there were a lot of protestors because all of France is currently fighting the government on the retirement age. We took a bus to Marseille from there, where we checked in to our hotel, and then immediately went to the opera. I had never been before and I wasn't too excited about it, but it was better than I had anticipated. I still don't really know what it was about, who wrote it, or the name, which was unfortunate when my host family asked me all of those things at dinner tonight...
It was an interesting experience and I loved seeing everyone dressed up! Marseille is kind of a crappy city and I don't ever want to return. We weren't even allowed to go out at night because it was too dangerous. I feel scared when I'm getting out of my car at Trails Crossing, so this was not the place for me. On Sunday we walked to a couple of churches in the city, or hiked rather, and then took a boat ride to visit a nearby island. It was sunny and the boat ride was pretty. We had fun checking everything out. This week I actually have homework for the first time in almost six weeks, and it makes me want to cry. Also, today I stepped on a nail outside which went through my entire sandal and in to my heel and I was bleeding SO MUCH! But I couldn't get the nail out of my shoe forever, which was so unfortunate, and kind of awkard to walk in to my house in the sort of situation: bloody, shoeless, kind of crying, and failing to know any of the french words to describe what had happened. Hopefully Thursday gets here super quickly so I can be off to Florence with Jacqs and Anna to visit Kat Gallagher for the weekend! Bye!