Avignon and Arles

So i was very proud of myself. Sunday morning, after lying in my bed for a good 20 minutes trying to convince myself to get up, I finally listened to myself and drug my butt out of bed and out to the bus stop to go on my "BECCA'S WEEKEND ADVENTURE" to Arles and Avignon. Oh, let me just tell you, the fun started right away. My bus driver was so sweet- he actually reminded me alot of dad, with his little straw-ish cowboy hat on and a big old beard. SOMEHOW, we got started on talking about linguistics and China becoming a big economic powerhouse and .. i dunno.. i'll be honest I was a little lost some of the time. But i hung on for dear life and tried to keep the conversation going. From what i did understand though, this guy is actually very intelligent and had some awesome viewpoints about thoughts creating languages AT FIRST but how now, language has become so restrictive , it is hindering our thoughts. i dunno if i agree with him.. Language is pretty malleable. words are created everyday. lol... aaron, what was that word that i SWORE on my life existed but actually didnt? that's gonna drive me crazy.

Anyways, got to Avignon without a hitch really. Stumbled upon my hotel which i had reserved the night before. It was actually not bad... but... I say that and remember... my standards for hotels in Europe vary GREATLY from my standards for hotels in the U.S. If, in Europe, you have a working shower, a tv, and an ACTUAL pillow ( and not just one of those long noodle pillows ( i need to take a picture of oone of them to show you guys)... then it's a GREAT hotel. No matter that the lenolium in the bathroom is peeling off the floor and the comforter is plastic and scratchy lol.

So i dropped off my stuff and headed straight out to check out the Pope Palace and the AVIGNON BRIDGE!! Most random thing ever, as i was walking up to the Pope Palace, i see Valerie and another english assistant walking down the street! So, i hung out with them for about an hour, but seeing as how it was already 3 at that point, I went ahead and separated off from them so I would still have enough time to see everything in Avignon that i wanted to see. THEN, as I was walking around inside the Palace, I ran into 4 more english assistants who just so happened to be in Avignon that weekend as well.. I guess great minds think alike.. excpet i laughed and told them they were all making me feel like a loser since they were all there with people and I was just there alone. They are all in Nice, though. They can get to and from each others houses alot more easily than I can obviously. Thats the one thing that is hard being here in Ste. Maxime. Not that there's nothing specifically to do. I don't mind that really. I wouldnt do much shopping or go out to bars alot in the first place, but the fact that all the language assistants who live in a big city become alot closer ( and theres more of them- like 30 JUST IN NICE) Whereas in my area, there are just us four ( me,linda, elena, and miguel).

anyways, Pope Palace was kinda underwhelming. Cool from the outside, but not much to look at from the inside. I bought a joint ticket for both the pope's place AND the bridge, so after I was done the with pope place, I walked the 2 blocks to get to the bridge. I love how, in Europe, all the touristy stuff is labelled so clearly. On my way, i saw three French college students trying to take their own picture (self-portrait style) so i offered to take it for them. We struck up a conversation and they asked me to go have a drink with them , but I politely declined. I wanted to see the bridge,.. and... i dunno. I'm prob way to skeptical, but since i was alone, I thought it would be better if i stuck to my original plan. Anyways, bridge was great, I tried to take pictures of myself dancing on it, but they didnt turn out so great lol. I also saw some gardens and a church, then headed back to the train station to buy my train ticket for the following morning to Arles. On my way back, i passed a sushi restaurant, and.... i caved. I MISS SUSHI SO MUCH!! It definately wasn't as good as I was used to back in the states, but ... it was sushi, so i was happy.

That night, I made a list of ALL the places left in France I want to see... I will most certainly not have time to cross off ALL of these places, but .... gives me a reason to want to come back, ya know? AND, now i have an official list! I also read that night. ALOT. I am so freaking proud of myself. It had become such an easy read once i finally got about 100 pages into it. I guess i just had to familiarize myself with the characters first, but now I love it and I am on pg 200 i think. 400 pages left to go lol. ALSO that night, there was a soccer game on. Apparently, we won or something because at 12:00...... honking began. Cars. driving circles and circles and circles anc circles around the block tirelessly blaring their horns. Not for 10 min, not for 30 min, not for an hour. I kid you not. ONE HOUR AND A HALF LATER, they stopped. At 1:30. I dont think i have ever been so mad in my entire life. I tried to sleep through it ( cause they would circle, so for like 2 minutes, it would become muted... and then start up again). Needless to say, NOT the best night's sleep of my life.

Anyways, Monday morning, got up... went to a museum that was closed. =( so i went to the train station early, hoping I could catch an earlier train.. which i did. So i arrived into Arles at about 12:00. There, I bought this pamphlet on Vincent Van Gogh. ( VVG lived in Arles .. kinda during that period where he went crazy- he stayed there as a hospital- but apparently painted some great stuff while he lived in Arles. ) The pamphlet led me to all of Vincent Van Gogh's favorite painting spots, SO, it took me to a cafe, and then had a plaque out in front where you could see what painting VVG actually painted while he was sitting at this cafe. It was actually very cool. VVG is probably my favorite artist. I am slowly realizing this as I have been here. Started when i was in Paris back in September and saw soon of his paintings at the Musee D'Orsay. Anyways, I hunted down abuot seven of these little plaques they had all throughout Arles, ... nice day for walking. I also saw the Roman arena/ colloseum that was built there in 1 AD.... looked alot like the one in Rome. VERY cool. ALSO saw some ruins, but ya know, after seeing the real thing in Rome, It was a little underwhelming too. I enjoyed the painting hunt more lol. Got losta few times, but got some GREAT exercise out of it ( EXERCISE IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE FRENCH/ ENGLISH WORDS I TOLD YOU ABOUT..... French= exercice/ English= exercise... I GET THEM MIXED UP ALL THE TIME LOL)

So, after spending 5hours walking around Arles, I was pretty exhausted,..... got back into St Raphael at 7, met up with Linda cause she had just gotten in from paris, and so we were both waiting for the same bus that came at 8.

Today, in like 2 hours, we are switching rooms. I checked my mailbox to see if I had any notification about a package... no luck. BUT, i got a letter saying that my stupid application for G-ment aid is indeed not complete... so uh... now i have to go back there, even though last time i was there ( last last monday) they told me everything was a-ok. I 'll kill them. GRRRRR. Guess i'll go back monday, before dad gets here.

Ok well I guess that is all for now. Love to all and Gros Bisous!