Host Mom = Host Grandma = Best Cook In France. Yes!

The last two days have been a whirlwind of activity!



Saturday morning my host mom, Lucienne Aubrey, picked me up at my hotel. She took one look at me and took a step back. Uh oh. So I’m thinking, “Oh, crap. I’ve offended her already and I haven’t even opened my American mouth yet!” But then she smiled her 72 year old smile and exclaimed (in French) “You have the biggest and bluest eyes that I’ve ever seen!” At least, it was something along those lines. So we got off to a good start 


My two suitcases barely fit into her adorable, tres petite, car – it’s blue and can go very fast…I found this out on our drive home and when we ran errands. She might be older, but she still has a lead foot! When we arrived at her home we were greeted with stairs. There’s a big set of stairs leading from where we parked and where her apartment is, but I lugged those bags up here and made it in one piece! We live in a comfortable little apartment. It’s just the two of us, but it’s quaint and I love Lucienne. I’ve taken to calling her Mama Lucienne. I think she really likes that. We don’t always understand each other, but we do a lot of smiling, rewording, and if it’s not too important we switch subjects. When we eat dinner together we don’t talk the whole time. But she has a beautiful view from where we sit to eat, so we munch, chat some and look out the window at the birds and the trees. There’s a really nice breeze that comes through here, so it’s nice and cool despite there not being ac. A HUGE step up from the hotel!


Food: the food here is awesome! First off, it’s very healthy (Nicole – you would love it!). Everything is freshly picked, bought or grown. I think my body is in shock because I haven’t had processed food in 2 days. How great is that? Momma Lucienne (ML from now on) feeds me very well. She’s a great cook! She’s a golf instructor for senior citizens, and has a lot of friends, but she also has some free time and she loves to use that time cooking for me (also, I might’ve accidently told her I love to golf when I was really trying to tell her that my dad loves to golf…and we have a golfing date next weekend! Uh oh! When I explained that I’m bad she said it’s okay because she’s old, love her)! Even if I didn’t speak any French we’d still have a great relationship - I love anyone who feeds me like this! We’ve had Le Poulet au Citron avec du Riz (Lemon chicken with rice), Pizza de Lucienne (her own homemade pizza !), and for breakfast this morning she bought be a chocolate croissant, a baguette with jam (2 different kinds!), yogurt with granola mixed in, an apple, orange juice & coffee! Sure the coffee will tar your insides as it goes down because it’s so strong, but that’s ok! I’ve learned it’s 2/3rds milk to every 1/3rd coffee if you want a mug of coffee like in America. I’m so thankful to have a host like ML, what if my host made awful food?! Thank goodness for ML. She eats as much as me! We’re kindred spirits.


Today was our first day at the IAU campus with the students there. It was a meet and greet kind of event. And guess who I met there? A kid walked in wearing a High Tide jersey from this year and I instantly was like, “Hey, you! What’s your name? Let’s toss!” I’m so excited to have made a friend here who can throw a disc with me. And we’re both in the art program so we’ll have 3 classes together. And I met up with Meghan Quirk. It was the best feeling seeing a friendly face I recognize! We live on the same street, so I’m meeting her and her housemate (Lizzie, I’m pretty sure that’s her name) to walk to campus together tomorrow. Orientation starts at 9am. I REALLY need to buy an alarm clock. But I have a watch I can set until I get an one and burner cell phone. Waking up at 7:30am is going to be difficult though. My body isn’t on American time, but it’s not on French time yet either. I’m on mid-Atlantic ocean time I think!

I was dissappointed with how small the IAU campus is, two buildings, but I'll see more of it tomorrow and form a better opinion then.
 My room here is very cute. It’s a very good size, I think GBurg students would fight over this single. ML saw my crayons and princess coloring book (love you Tina!) today and that gave her a good laugh. I told her I’d color her a picture, I’m not sure she knew how to react to a 20 year old coloring…but I’m an art student, we get away with a lot of things…blame it on the art stereotype! I also showed her my small photo album of friends and family from home and school and she loved that up until she got to the Frisbee pictures, then she was just confused. How do you explain to a 72 year old French woman of Swiss decent the concept of playing Ultimate Frisbee? Especially when you don’t know many French words that describes sports! I showed her my jersey, and she recognized Lincoln, but asking why he was laying down holding a plate. Well, at least she liked our pictures  Even if she doesn’t understand why we chase around a Frisbee…but really – I don’t even understand it sometimes.


I mailed some more letters today, and the mail boxes here are bright yellow, and much smaller than ours at home. Also, I bought a bunch of stamps (les timbres) the other day, and I’m fairly certain the woman at the post office took advantage of me…that or the cost of mailing letters is astronomical. But now I have 7 more really pretty color-sticker stamps with pictures of France on them. But after that I’m investing in the .87 euro stamps – try to fool me again!


When I explained to ML today that not all the students here have internet she was very surprised! I’m soooo thankful that I have a host with the internet. I think the adjustment to being over here would be much more difficult without being able to talk with the people I’m close with on an easy and daily basis. I’m very excited to embrace life here completely, but I don’t want to be in complete isolation from the US. Hooray internet, and aim & skype once it’s happy with me (Mom – ask dad to help with that please? I love you!).


This morning, after my HUGE breakfast, ML and I went for a walk in the park that’s right next to our apartment complex. And it’s so beautiful! I have a safe place to run now, and my art studio is just a short walk through the park too. How great is that? ML pointed out the ducks to me and said that next time we’ll bring any old baguettes with us for them to eat. I’m not going to lie; I’m pretty excited about that!


Orientation tomorrow – I’m so excited to get back into the studio this week!

Aix-presso (pronounced, espresso – catchy eh?)

Yes, espresso and tea. They are similar to coffee, but not really the same. I have, however, had a cup of each…both times thinking I was ordering coffee. But I don’t want to be an ugly American, so I drank both with a smile. The tea was actually very good! Espresso has a little bit more of a kick than I expected and I was suddenly very thankful for the glass of water the waiter had given me - which I’d not understood the need for until the first sip. Also, at both locations “free wifi” was displayed. So thinking it’d make a good place to upload this post and the one before I sat down and ordered “café.” And both times my computer decided to hate me and wouldn’t connect to the internet. One espresso and one tea later I still have no internet, but I’m determined to get my laptop working. I’m hoping tomorrow when I meet my host mom, Mme. Aubrey, that she’ll have internet.

Yamina, one of the program coordinators, called me at Hotel Paul today and confirmed my pick up time tomorrow. She told me all about Mme. Aubrey and apparently she’s a wonderful, lively lady. She’s around 75 and everyone’s favorite host mom (grandmom?). She’s a great cook, so I hear, and also has a pool. The walk to my art school, The Marchutz School of Art, is just a quick promenade through the park. How cute and European is that?

Today, after spending a little while in the internet café (yet another failed attempt at wifi via laptop, so I used the café’s computer with its European keyboard which was a little easier to use after sleeping 13 hours last night) I meandered through the town and fully appreciated how beautiful it is. The cobblestone streets are completely historical. Also today I walked where Cezanne walked! *GASP!* How cool is that?!?!? CEZANNE! I love him. Then while perusing one of the many squares in the city which are lined with shops (candy stores, boutiques, cafés, wine stores, cheese & meat shops, paper stores – awesome! – , perfumeries, etc.) I stumbled upon the quintessence of Aix in human form. This old man was sitting on a travel case, smoking a giant pipe, and people watching. He was doing all this while sitting behind his tabletop which displayed pieces of art. They were gorgeous - small pen & ink and painted pieces - just beckoning to me to admire them. Then I did it. I bought two small pieces depicting a fountain and a hotel in the historic part of Aix. They’re great! I bought my first pieces of art for this trip !!

In other news, the dogs here are very well behaved. They sit under their owner’s tables quietly and mind their own business. And they’re so cute because most of them are really tiny! Then when they walk they smile at you, I swear the dogs smile. That or I understand the dogs here more than the people because they speak the same non-French language as me. But my lack of fluent French skills didn’t stop two different people from asking me for directions today! I either fit in well enough that they think I’m a native or my persona of well-put-together-well-aquainted-with-the-area-snazily-dressed-woman-of-the-world has convinced at least two people, hurray! I felt the same way I did when I visited UVA in high school with mom and someone asked us where an academic building was. Glorious. Simply glorious.

Four girls from my program came by my room earlier and we’re all going to go out together for dinner. I’m so excited to make new friends and to share this experience with others. I’m keeping myself awake until we leave by writing this, a few postcards, and working on a couple sketches. But once we’re at the café – I’m getting coffee! Well, attempting to get coffee anyways. Maybe I’ll end up with another espresso or tea, but I’m in France, well rested & happy, so it’s all going to be okay.

PS – It was great hearing your voice today Mom! I’ll call you tomorrow from my host home 

The 24 Hour Challenge Has Nothing on Me!

How long have I been awake? Good question. I have no idea. I do know, however, that I’ve taken 1 dad-manned car, 2 airplanes, one taxi and a long walk to get where I am. It all started around 9 am Wednesday morning and as I write this for you my computer is telling me it’s Thursday and 7:55 pm. Flying through the night can do crazy things to you! For instance, did you know that trying to speak a foreign language, after traveling for a full day and night is a pretty comical thing to watch (when you’re not the one struggling through it, tehehe). My cab driver from the airport to the hotel was one of the nicest people I met all day (2 days?), and I met a lot of people within the last 36 hours…I’m fairly certain that’s the hour count. Don’t worry, I did nap, but I’m trying to stay awake long enough to go to bed here at a reasonable time in order to switch to French time quickly. Anyways, this cabbie was wonderful. He asked me simple French questions, didn’t laugh when I stumbled over simple grammar and he introduced me to the city via car. As Kathleen and I say, “We speak fluent Franglais.” And yes, my friends, Franglais is certainly what I have been speaking. I’m fairly certain I’ve begun sentences in French today and ended them in English, I blame the lack of sleep – but tomorrow we’ll find out if that’s true ;)



My first flight was 6.5 hours long. Long enough to watch three movies and eat dinner onboard which was very quickly followed by breakfast since we literally flew through the night. It was crazy! We left Jersey and it was light out. Then it set as we flew over the ocean, and right as we landed in Brussels the it was coming up again. Crazy. I know. But after some sleep maybe the concept won’t feel quite so elusive.

The line for customs in Brussels was uncomfortable to say the least. There was a huge amount of people crammed into way too small of a space…and guess who picked the line with the chatty customs agent who nicely (but not without taking up a lot of time) asked everyone about themselves? Oh, that’s this kid. But after being in that kind of cramped, hot space everything else seemed pretty cool (temperature wise at least!).

My hotel room for the next two nights isn’t air conditioned, but that’s to be expected. And provided that the couple one floor up and one room over from me doesn’t repeat their performance of Afternoon Delight, I’ll be all set to fall asleep listening to the silent bustle of Aix with a cool breeze lapping at my window…which coincidently opens directly to the outside world and has let a daddy long legger take up residence in the top corner of my room...but with no RJ/Tina/Dennis to relocate him I think I’ll let him stay there as long as he doesn’t break our treaty about keeping to our sides of the room (I get the floor and he gets the ceiling). Also, the man who owns Hotel Paul is very nice, a sweet older gentlemen who has been very willing to help point me in the right directions in town…well the right direction isn’t exactly what I get from him. I’ve learned from the three sets of directions he’s given me (in English mind you, I’m still comprehending that one fairly well) were all at least one block off from the place he circled on the map. Once today his directions led me down a very quiet side street where I was supposed to be able to find wireless internet access. All I found were three Frenchmen who took it upon themselves to tell me that I have “Zee mohst bezutiful bleu eyez I haz evah sen!” I did find a place to get on the internet to send two emails, which was a feat in and of itself since I was using a French keyboard (wireless internet, I will find you tomorrow!) and I couldn’t figure out how to get the @ sign to show up. And the a’s and m’s are in different places so most of my words including an A turned out like something not even resembling franglais. And periods have to be made using the control key as well…needless to say almost all of my sentences were like this: long dqy todqy, love yot very mucb, tqke cqre,” No periods, just a lot of commas and dashes!

So after getting lost a few times, finding food at an open air market and lunch (or at this point dinner’s midnight’s snack’s breakfast) at a sidewalk café, getting to my program head quarters 5 minutes after it closed, not finding adequate internet, finding out the hotel I’m at doesn’t allow the use of phone cards (*808 you’re my best friend!), and asking a woman if I could hold her hand (I think I was asking for a chocolate croissant, which I did get in the end, but after something getting lost in translation), and taking the greatest shower of my life (showering after the longest day of travel ever is one of the best experiences, even if I can’t bend over in the shower to pick up my shampoo without conking my head) – even after all that…needless to say it was not an ideal first day…I’m still hopeful for tomorrow. I’m exhausted emotionally and physically, but in the end I learned something, that even when you’re in a foreign city, surrounded by complete strangers who speak a different language, there are still people out there who want to help you.

I befriended a man traveling back to Spain today. We waited in the awful customs line together and then again at security (where I was randomly chosen to be frisked) and the whole time we gave each other looks like, “Well, we can’t hurry this process along so we might as well keep smiling and try not to get too down.” He barely spoke English, and I speak practically no Spanish, but we were united in our struggle to get through the airport. We kept each others’ spirits up without much conversation, but some dancing to iPods was definitely included. I feel alone, not knowing anyone yet and still having an entire day ahead of me to explore a city I’m pretty sure I covered every foot of today, but it’s okay because I’m not actually alone. There’s always someone else out there going through the same exact same thing as you, and together you can keep smiling because tomorrow has got to be a better day.

Thanks again everyone from home for you nice good luck texts today (well, yesterday morning now), they meant a lot to me. And thanks for the facebook notes and great emails (Thanks for making me smile via email Dennis!). I promise to keep in touch once I find an internet hookup for my laptop.

Tomorrow is another day, and thank goodness it’ll only be 24 hours long.

4 Sleeps.

I know, I know. 4 Sleeps! You can't believe it. And I can't wrap my mind around it either. And yet, here it comes. Almost time to go. Am I ready? I hope so...I think so...I will be! I'm well equipped with a travel journal (courtesy of Momma House), my camera, Disney folders (thanks Tina!), enough pictures of friends and family to cover a bulliten coard, & a frisbee. So really, what else will I need?

I can't believe that in 4 days I'm headed to France. Wednesday starts this adventure. Woah. But want to know one of the best things about where I'm headed? Today weather.com informed me that it is a good 20 degrees warmer in Provence in the winter time than it is in Gettysburg, sha-weet! Do I know how to pick 'em or what?!

Right now it's 4:33 am in Aix. Hopefully, with arriving two days prior to orientation, I'll be able to adjust mostly to the different time zone. Here's hoping I don't turn into a complete and total night owl my first week there! Can't have my french family thinking I'm a crazy, non-sleeping person. That Kate is reserved for finals weeks, and finals week only.

4 sleeps. Where did the summer go? Will this semester pass as quickly as the summer months?

Why Does the Metric System Hate Me?

First - Why can't we use the metric system?

Second - How many lbs. are in a kgs?

Third - How am I going to get all this into two bags and stay under the allowed weight limit?

These are only some of the questions facing me today. I'm not leaving for a few more weeks, but the packing is starting now. Operation get Kate to Europe with all her necessary school items, commence!

Three piles of clothes, books & miscellaneous items - two suitcases - one student hell-bent on getting from Newark to Brussels to Marseilles and then on the Aix!

The French Embassy in DC - First Encounter with French "Hospitality"

The first picture is of the French Embassy and the second is of me and Dennis exploring DC.

On July 27, 2009 Dennis and I went down to DC to the French Embassy. We left here around 6 am and didn't get home til midnight. It was a very long day, but we accomplished everything we set out to do!

We arrived at the French Embassy around 11 am, a half an hour before my appointment. There were only so many guest passes so Dennis and I waited under a tree at the gate for the next guest badges to arrive. When one did I figured I'd go in and Dennis would get the next one and get to join me. But we were mistaken! Dennis had to wait outside for close to three hours while waiting for the French to take care of their business with me.

We had grand dreams of a beautiful, posh building with guards who checked your i.d. and then led you to a waiting room. Dennis would be allowed to sit in the AC and read (and use the bathroom!) while I'd take care of the Visa in another office. However, it definitely didn't happen that way. The office was small, hot and crowded. There wasn't enough staff, and the wait took forever! People who accompanied those of us who had Visa appointments had to wait outside, on the curb, and if they had to use the bathroom the guards directed them across the street the the hospital. They weren't hospitable, but we did, in the end, leave with the visa process started. I should know within 2-3 weeks about the status of my Visa...aka it should arrive in the mail - hooray! My fingers are crossed until it arrives, there's a lot riding on this!

To make the day end better than it started we toured DC a bit, watched an IMax show in the Air and Space Smithsonian Museum and had lunch in the Smithsonian Castle. Then on to dinner with Matt & Alexis which was fun! We had a very...peculier...waiter who talked in old English and was a little strange, but the food and root beer was delicious! In the end we were able to catch an earlier Amtrak train home and to bed a little earlier than expected (which was nice because we still hadn't rested at all post-Wildwood tournament).


Here's hoping the Visa arrives soon :)!!

Get Your Tickets Here!

That's right - This kid bought her plane ticket to France!

When: Wednesday, September 2nd - 6:35 pm

Where: Newark, NJ - on to switching planes in Brussels, Belgium and finally a short voyage to Marseilles, France.

After approx. 12 hours I'll be almost at my home for the next four months!

Next week I'm headed to Washington, DC to get my student visa at the French Embassy. Traveling there counts as preparation for future travels abroad, right? So excited!