Return to the [Mediterannean] Sea

I went to my first concert in Paris last Wednesday: Islands. It was really last minute. My friend Alex asked me if I knew them around 6 p.m. and told me they were playing at 8:30 and so we went. It was only 12 euros at a pretty small venue. It was awesome except that there were poorly placed columns like on the stage that blocked the view a bit. They played some songs I didn't really know because I don't know much other than their Return to the Sea album, but it was still really good and fun. There are two brothers that play violins along with a couple other instruments and they are really entertaining and get really into it so that's awesome. The lead singer had half his face painted white, which was cool except the whole band apparently used to wear all white suits when playing, according to Alex (who met them a couple years ago actually and hung out with them all night), so maybe just having the paint was a downgrade. But they played really well I thought and I was just glad to see a show again. The last one I saw was Battles on Nov. 12th and that might be the longest time I've gone between seeing shows since freshman year. Next will be Hot Chip on St. Patty's day which should be a lot of fun. Then I'm seeing Broken Social Scene in May. Other than that I don't have anything planned, but maybe something else will come up last minute which is fine by me.

This Friday I left for a weekend in Southern France with API. It was kind of a rocky start. I had to be at the train station at 6:45 a.m. and so I had set my alarm for 5 a.m. so I would have time to pack, shower, and go. Well, I don't know if I didn't wake up or if my alarm didn't go off, but either way I woke up at 6:15 from a text message and not from my alarm at all and so that was sort of awful. I had to throw things in a bag and bolt out the door leaving a quickly written (and in English, which I felt badly about) note for my host family. I got to the metro at like almost 6:30 and realized I didn't have my metro pass but didn't have time to go back and get it so I just bought a ticket and then it wasn't working so I basically had to jump the turnstile with the help of this random guy. So I had fifteen minutes to go five metro stops, make a transfer to the RER and go two stops on that. I got to Gare de Lyon at like 6:50 or so and realized I didn't even know what track I was supposed to meet the group on and had no credit in my phone to call anyone so that was fun. But alas, I spotted some people from Paris 7 and everything turned out alright.

We got to Aix-en-Provence a few hours later and went to our hotel right away. Then we all went to look for some lunch, and had a tour of Paul Cezanne's studio/workshop (painter, duh). I actually didn't go to that because we had to meet at 2:30 and we weren't done with lunch and I didn't feel like rushing through like some other people did. I wanted to see it, but it's okay, I'll.. uh, go back some day? Other than that we didn't really have any set plans for Aix so I just wandered around with a few people for a while, which is where I took on the role of acting tour guide "Kah-tee." I must say I'm pretty good. I set the record straight and let everyone know that Napoleon is a fictitious character from a 12th century novel, on par with Harry Potter as far as popularity is concerned and that is why so many know about him today. That night we just went out to dinner and hung out in the hotel since we had to be in the lobby at 8:45 in the morning to leave for Marseille.

So yeah, Marseille was next and it's pretty, etc. We had lunch on the water and I had bass (we all did) which came with scales, head, and all. That was interesting. It tasted good but I didn't finish the whole thing because there were too many bones, bones, brittle little bones poking at my gums all the time and it got tiring to have to pick them out. We also had this superb calamari that was cooked in some special regional way and it was awesome. Uhh and we went to some church, uhh notre dame de la garde or something? Jkzz that's what it is I am just funny.

Sunday we left to go to Beaux-de-Provence which is this little chateaux/village in the mountains and it was awesome and you can see some pictures on my picasa website. Then we went to Avignon for a few hours before heading back to Paris and I saw Miss Hannah Wittwer which was lovely, but too short. We got a tour of the Le Palais de Papes and then went to the train station to head back. Sadly I left my camera at the hotel accidentally on Saturday and then it died after only a short while of being Beaux-de-Provence on Sunday so I don't have many pictures to prove how beautiful it all was, but believe me it was awesome. I don't think I could study down there, but maybe when I am deciding where to retire, Southern France will win out over Florida.

Well now I'm back in Paris, back to reality and such. It was a nice weekend though and I'm looking forward to my trip to BARCELONA this weekend. But I think I'll stop there because I got stuck speaking in a southern accent this weekend via game of kings and now I am still sometimes thinking in a southern accent and so every word I type means more angst for my brain. I hate the south... but not the south of France. Anyway, au revoir.