The Beginning of my January Term

Bonjour! I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write about my first week on J-Term. There are ten students and two (soon to be three) professors on the trip, and we have already formed a very close bond. We started the trip by staying in Paris for five days which was lovely even though the weather was not ideal. Each day was packed with lectures, discussions, meetings with government officials, politicians, etc. Besides having free time to explore the city and do "touristy" things, we also had some very unique opportunities such as going to the American Embassy and meeting with the ambassador, meeting with a representative from Green Peace France, etc. Next stop of the traveling seminar was Aix en Provence, which is also where I am spending the spring semester beginning at the end of January. We took the fast train, the TGV, from Paris to the south of France. It went so fast it makes your ears pop. We arrived in Aix on the most beautiful day, which was a welcome relief after nonstop wind/rain/overcast skies in Paris. Then, luckily for me, I was able to meet my host family for my home stay a few weeks early and even drop off some of my heavier clothes before continuing on to Morocco and Spain. We have spent two wonderful days in Aix, my new home. It is honestly one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It is much, much bigger than I anticipated, but in a good way! It has absolutely everything you would find in London or New York or Chicago. And the great majority of Aixois (residents of Aix) do not speak any English, which is the perfect way to quickly become fluent. Today we visited Marseille, which is unbelievably pretty with its incredible view over the ocean. More on Aix and my new host family later, as I will be here for a long time. J-Term continues tomorrow, and we are moving on to Morocco. We are spending a few days in Marrakech, followed by Casablanca and Rabat. We are then going to cross the Strait of Gibraltar (...on a boat), and cross into southern Spain for the final week. I'm ready to do some serious negotiating with the sneaky Arab merchants in the Marrakech markets over the next few days...I'll try to bring back some fun souvenirs! Now I have to attempt to do some of the never ending reading for my lecture tomorrow, but I will start posting more regularly now that I've adapted to my new European surroundings. À bientôt!