Merde, Smoke & Van Gogh

Dennis arrives today! And his flight is arriving later than planned, so in an effort to pass the time until I leave for the bus more effectively, I’ll update all of you on my observations, my life in France & field trips!


Observations:

The French might not be fat, but they’re going to die of lung cancer. Okay – huge generalization, I know, but it’s what I experience every day. I’ve seen two (only two) obese people since I’ve gotten here. And that includes trips to neighboring French towns – and I’ve been to a lot of places so far! In America you see overweight people at least once a day if you adventure out to the malls or supermarkets. And I think the secret to their skinniness here is that they walk everywhere. I’m serious. I play sports, Ultimate kicks my butt into really good shape, and even still my legs are sore after walking around here. I have leg muscles in my thighs that I didn’t even know existed! Not to mention I live in the center of a valley and I walk uphill to Marchutz and uphill to the main campus in town at least once every day. Lots of walking = new leg muscles = losing weight? That’s right (and don’t worry mom!) but I’ve gone down two belt sizes since getting here because of getting toned up. I’m not even trying! I run twice a week just to clear my head and because the park here is beautiful, but without working out a lot I’m still losing weight. I think it’s because they use sugar here instead of corn syrup in everything (so you’re not drinking carbs), I’m not eating processed foods and all the walking. To top it all off the French smoke – a lot. I’m thinking maybe because they’re smoking they’re occupied and eat less? I don’t know. All I know if they’re in good shape from walking so much but that their lungs probably look like the inside of a truck which lays tar. I am looking forward to the States where you don’t walk through a cloud of smoke when entering buildings. But after being here over a month I’m getting used to the smell and can even identify different kinds of tobacco being smoked (gross, but true!).

Poop. It’s still everywhere - on the sidewalks, on the curb, in the road, on the lawn, at your feet, under your shoes and stinking up your nose. While walking around Arles yesterday on a field trip periodically you’d hear one of us Marchutz kids yell out, “Watch the merde!” Which roughly translates to, “Watch the shit.” You can’t avoid it, the best you can do is be aware of where it is and try not to step in it (and make good friends who rescue you right when you’re about the walk into it!). Living here is an assault on the nose. You’re either smelling smoke, shit or really yummy food. Only one of those is appetizing to me!

Life Updates:

Classes are still going really well. My studio art courses, which are 3-4 hour long studio sessions Monday-Thursday and a 4 hour Seminar on Fridays, are AMAZING. Our professors are very intelligent, extremely giving with their time, and completely devoted to their students. They’re willing to spend out of classroom time with us getting coffee and talking about our pieces and what we can do to better ourselves. We’re always being given new reading materials to enrich our knowledge of the art world. But the best part is they lead by example. Everything we’re doing they’ve done before. They participate in the seminars (and serve coffee and homemade tea too, yum!), they come out the country with us when we paint from the motif (or direct observation from nature) and they’re there with us at L’Office de Tourisme at 7:30 am to take a chartered bus to our field trip destinations. When one of us was sick John (one of the profs) ran next door to where he lives next to the studio and asked his wife what medicine my friend should take to feel better. They had some on hand so they brought it right over to him. My professors in the states have never administered medicine to me…it’s hard enough getting the health center to test for mono when you’re clearly withering away in front of them! It’s great the amount of caring they show for us. They really are the Poppa Ducks, and we follow those two around the cities just trying to soak up as much knowledge as we can from them in this short semester we have. Sometimes we fancy ourselves the baby dicks because a lot of the time we’re following our professors around single file…like little baby ducks. These professors are less professors and more colleagues, which makes for an exciting and stimulating work environment. I can’t wait to get painting again on Monday!

ML is still as wonderful as ever. She’s the sweetest, most kind and generous woman. And she’s still cooking great food! I’ve had homemade quiche, apple pie (well she didn’t call it that, but that’s what it tasted like! But not as good as my mom’s apple pie, that’s for sure!), casseroles, pastas and everything else under the sun. And after every meal we have cheese and bread. So I’ve learned to not eat to my capacity during the main meal because they’re still more to come! Sometimes after dinner I’m so full that I just lie on my bed for a couple minutes. But 10 minutes later I’m hungry again because all of this walking has my metabolism revved up! Also, thanks mom and dad for the care package with the coffee! We alternate now between her coffee and mine in the mornings. It’s very nice to wake up in the am (and because she wakes up earlier than me most days) with the coffee smelling delicious and knowing that it’s going to taste yummy too. They say smell is your greatest sense in terms of remembering things, and when I sit and drink my coffee here – if I close my eyes and smell the steam I feel like I’m at home, sitting in dad’s spot on the coach, about to watch some morning news before school. It’s great.

Field Trips:

Yesterday we explored the small town of Arles and then the institution at St. Remy. Both towns are about an hour and an hour and a half north of Aix. We went to at least six different motifs (or exact locations) from which Van Gogh (YES THE VAN GOGH!!) painted and drew his landscapes. Mom, I saw the place that he looked at when he painted the two pieces we have in our house – Momma House you have the same one hung in your bedroom too! How cool is that? One of the paintings has a little sampling of a tree portrayed in it, and we got to go to that same location and saw that little sapling grown up into a towering, tall tree! It was so neat. Standing where he stood and seeing what he saw, well now I know what all of the Impressionist artists are talking about when they refer to the light here. Because le Mistral (the wind here) is so impressive it blows all of the clouds out of the sky and lets in the most beautiful and pure sunlight I’ve ever seen. But you know that when you see clouds here that you should probably find shelter because when it rains – it pours. Two nights ago we had a thunderstorm which was so loud and so intense that it pulled me out of a very deep sleep. The thunder shook the building and the lightning felt like the paparazzi was taking over my bedroom.