Easter Weekend

This weekend, I went to see my second cousin, Justine. It was lovely to meet her and her family. I found it interesting to discover that there are many similarities between our families even though we have never spent any time together. Their household is incredibly bilingual. They switch between French and English all the time. I really loved their house. It is an old french house, but the inside is very modern. They rent it in the summer if anyone is interested.

Justine and her oldest son Thomas took me to L'Isle sur la Sorgue. It is a little town with lots of canals and water wheels. There was an antique festival/fair thing going on, which was fun to walk through. There were also these random vintage cars. Herby!
They had a big dinner party on Saturday night. There was a lot of French spoken. It is amazing how tired you are after a night of trying to follow all the conversations in French. It was particularly hard when more than one conversation was going on across me at once.
The next day the three boys, their dad, and the cat left for England. I spent the morning talking to Justine about her life, the many places she has lived, and what I should do with my family in Provence when they visit me.
I got back to Aix at about 4pm on Easter Sunday. That evening we had people over for dinner. We had breakfast for dinner. It was lots of fun and very delicious. I think it should be an Easter tradition.
Today I mopped and cleaned the apartment. I also spent some time outside in the lovely nearly 70 degree weather.
I am very excited for my family (minus :( Aled ) arriving on Thursday. I am also very excited because the housing results for next year at Wellesley were announced. I am going to be living in the same dorm as my friends Stacy and Kate. It was our first choice and it is right on the lake. It is also right next to our lovely friend Maria who is going to be the Resident assistant in the Spanish House.
I am a happy camper (except for figuring out classes for next year, but that is for another post)

hair

I got my hair cut! I will put up photos soon. I am not totally pleased, but I am more happy with it than I was with my damaged long hair.

Lately the strike has continued as has the blockade. All of our classes that were held at the school have been moved to various places around Aix and the classes that are on strike have been converted to independent studies.

I am doing laundry today, which I hate. It is such a pain going to the laundromat. I now appreciate the $1 laundry machines at Wellesley and I REALLY appreciate the laundry machine at home.

I am also going to make some scone/shortbread things today to go with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert tonight. Ali has a friend staying and we are inviting a few people to have dinner with us. I bought strawberries at the market as well as some gerbera daisies. So pretty!

Ali and I made a very successful quiche last night. We put ham, leeks, and peas in it. It was very yummy and we have left overs!

Alright time to pick up my laundry. ugh...

Wellesley Excursion

This is from the excursion I went on with the Wellesley program last weekend. We went to the hospital where Van Gogh stayed in St. Remy de Provence, an ancient Roman city called Glanum, and Les Baux where there are awesome ruins of a medieval castle. This photo was taken at Les Baux and it was raining by then. We had just had a very yummy lunch in town. It was a good day.

I'm not making this up

The strike continues and is getting worse. The students are now blockading the building. I thought you might want to see some pictures. Here are some photos that a girl on the program took. The first one is of the protests that happen outside of the school. That is the main reason we can no longer get in.
The second reason is clearly the fact that they make it as difficult as possible to get through the doors. It is not impossible though if you put in quite a bit of effort as displayed below by another girl on the Wellesley program.

Apparently Stalinism is that way

It might be hard to tell since the picture is pretty small but the hallways and staircase in the background are totally blocked with furniture. Pretty impressive. The director of our program says that the students continue to strike now because there is no point in starting the semester at this point. The professors have caused this semester to be a waste so the students think there is no point in going to school this late in the semester.

Oh the French.

p.s. notice what bad shape the building is in to begin with. There really isn't much care for the school facilities.