Vacation Days

For my entire summer internship over here, we get three days off. My three days off were this week from Wednesday to Friday. Now, here's how I made the most of my time for R&R.

Wednesday, I went on a little trip with my friends Catherine, Veronica, her two friends who came to visit her named Katie and Curtis, and Derek. For out little trip out of town, we decided to go to Aix-en-Provence, a provincial, university town about half an hour outside of Marseille. The way it was described to me was "It's the city you thought you were coming to when you came to Marseille." It's much smaller, quainter, and safer than Marseille. So we were excited to take the bus out there and spend the day wandering around. And that's just what we did. When we got there, we walked around and started to look for a place to eat because it was about lunch time. We decided on a cute outdoor cafe by this pretty fountain in one of the town squares. To eat, I got the most delicious crepe I've just about ever had. Now, I'm going to warn you that just by reading this next part, you might actually die of a heart attack, so be prepared. Okay, so it was a crepe, filled with both vanilla and coconut ice cream, Nutella and bananas, pear slices in a homemade dark chocolate sauce, all topped off with copious amounts of powdered sugar and whipped cream. Whew, did you make it? Haha it was absolutely incredible (I did split it with Curtis, so I hopefully only consumed 1500 of the 3000 calories!), and we stayed there at the cafe for nearly 3 hours enjoying some sun, good conversation, and delicious food.

The legendary crepe

After lunch, we walked around a little more, wandering in an out of cute shops. Provence is famous for its lavender fields, so we went around smelling various lavender lotions, sprays, and products. It was just a lovely afternoon. However, by about 4, everyone wanted to go back to Marseille to watch a soccer game. I really want to like watching soccer, but I think it's just about the most boring sport to watch, so I decided to stay in Aix---ALL BY MYSELF! Gasp! Actually, it was totally safe and not a big deal at all. I just got lost in the city and stumbled upon lots of fun things. I found myself at the university at one point, got invited to play basketball with some people, and talked to this guy from Guinea Bissau. T'was lovely. After a couple hours later, I made my way back to the bus station and came back home. Since I'm with people 24/7, I loved having a couple of hours to myself and have a little peace and quiet.

And I loved it so much that the next day, I took a little adventure to the beach by myself again. Lots of people went out of town for the break, so this was a good time for me to catch up on some alone time. I looked up where the best beaches in Marseille were, and then I found a metro and a bus that would take me there. I've always been pretty independent, but one of my favorite things is venturing out on my own in a foreign city. It's kind of thrilling in a way because I know that I have to rely on myself to get where I need to go, not just follow a group. I got to the beach around noon and I didn't leave until after 6. I just listened to music, read a book, watched kids play in the water, listened to the waves, and played in the sand for hours. Blissful.

Such a beautiful coastline

Yes, she is topless. Welcome to France.

Ouch. Regretting my limited use of sunscreen.

Friday, even though it was technically a vacation day, I went up to the church in the morning to help with some preparations that needed to be done for camp and stuff. Did lots of random manual labor tasks, and then I helped a guy named Jaques with lunch. This week, we have about 60 people coming from Colorado, California, and a couple other states to help us up at the camp. Next week, I'll be gone all week to the Alps where the camp is, and I will be doing a bunch of various tasks to fix the place up and get it ready for camp. A small group came in yesterday, so we cooked a nice lunch at the church and welcomed them here. In the evening, Derek, on of the cemistes, decided to be baptized. He was sprinkled as a baby, but he wanted to be officially baptized in the church. He's a really great guy, and we were all so happy!

AHh I ate fancy, moldy French cheese

Two of my favorite girls

Derek coming out of the water

Later that night, the day of the summer solstice, we went to the huge fete de la musique that is held in Marseille every year. It's in honor of the beginning of summer, and all over town, people come out on the streets and play music. There is also a huge stage set up in the middle of Vieux Port that is televised and had big names play at it. Of course my knowledge of French pop is limited, but I actually knew a number of the songs, and it was so much fun being in a huge crowd with lots of cheering fans. I love that environment. Beautiful, relaxing weekend off.