Voyage d'études au Maroc

So I know this blog is supposed to be about my time in France… but it’s barely there… so why not add my Moroccan experience :)

&& Yes, I went to Fez, Morocco!

One week for my “voyage d’études” – it was totally a school trip, promise ;)

I was literally too eager to leave Marseille, even though my flight was delayed. Tant pis!

I clearly remember that I was welcomed to Morocco with hella food – like a nice seasoned (is that even the right word?) salad, then the main course – couscous avec viande, plus dessert – so many fruits (grapes, strawberries, apples, bananas and the famous oranges our prof told us about)

So meals are definitely a big deal in Moroccan culture – I promise Im not just being obsessive about food this time

One of the meals I had with my host fam

We had excursions to nearby historical sites

Like these roman ruins at Volubilis

We did a bus tour of the ville nouvelle

And several walking tours of the medina

The Medina is the old traditional town in Fes (the oldest medina in all of North Africa) and the Ville nouvelle is the newer part of town with its own version of the champs élysées (due to French influence Morocco having been a French protectorate and all) and a huge brand new mall (opened this year!)

Transport in the medina - most of the roads are too narrow for cars

Madrasa - I don't remember which

Also lots of visits to see artisanal shops in the medina

And where leather is made - like all the steps from the freshly shaved off animal skin. I was sniffing on my mint leaf so hard while we were there. But hey the final product is pretty nice and not smelly 

I was staying with a host family in a traditional Arabic home in the medina – (+++ Got to see first-hand what my Arabic prof from Syria was explaining to us in class)

My host mom insisted that I take pictures in the fancy entertaining rooms since I was oohing and aahing

Apart from my correspondent and my host mother, the rest of the family didn’t speak much French and since my Arabic solely consists of “tamam” and “habibi” there was def a language barrier

Eating with my host family (was only with my host mom and correspondent – separation by sex)

-          One communal plate for the main meal

-          Bread/ my hand was my best utensil unless it was rice, salad or soup then I used a spoon

-          Sugar in everything: tea, coffee, even the warm milk

-          Most conversation was carried out in Arabic and if there was French it was more than likely “Mange! Mange!” (eat! Eat!)

I wasn’t lying when I said I went for studies cause I attended about 4 conferences there – the MOST interesting one being the Debate on the Veil. It is so much more authentic when you’re in a Muslim country and in a conference room surrounded by 90% veiled Muslim university students – it was a great learning experience!

My last night in Morocco was our going away party – we got to dress up or not (if you were too poor to buy traditional dress lol)

Me, my French prof, the craziest Moroccan girl ever (in a good way of course)

We got to dance to Arabic music and nibble on traditional Arabic desserts

Had a great time!

And before you know it, it was goodbye Morocco

I got plenty invites to return, so for sure I gotta make it back to Fez!

The view of the medina from the rooftop terrace 

Paris - La Ville Lumière

Hello lovelies

Thanks to a super busy semester I've been quite the absentee blogger

Luckily I got a one week breather - Vacances de Toussaint (Fall Break) when I went off to Paris

For many people France=Paris so I couldn't disappoint without visiting the city of light myself!

My TGV pulled into Gare de Lyon on a Saturday evening and at midnight I headed off to explore the night life

I soon found myself in the red light district  pigalle

There were more sex shops than bars and cafés so that should tell you

Me in front of moulin Rouge in Pigalle

After a little bar hopping I found somewhere playing decent music and not that electro stuff that's super popular here

Danced the night away literally...

The metro opens back at 5:30 after closing at 1 and I was waiting to go home on the metro

Totally forgot that daylight savings was ending so it was even longer

Let's just say I slept for most of Sunday 

And got someone to cook for me (lol random person I met, totally avoiding details on purpose)

Chicken and my fave - plaintains. Was delish!

Most of my time in Paris I spent wandering around touristy areas and stuffing my face no lie!

The river seine - I still don't know which bridge is the pont neuf but this one was pretty

At the 850 year old  Notre Dame with guess who - Parkinson, my high school French teacher ! 

Please forgive my little iPod camera - flash is not its best feature 

Under the Eiffel Tower - pwetty! Somehow I thought it would be taller but that's just me. Still cool

More food...

Greek restaurant with Riley :) a friend from Marseille 

Then my adventures continued with lily, who I convinced to come to Paris at the last minute

Wednesday started off in a church near Montmartre 

The Sacre Cœur Basilica

But we ended the day with a lovely French dinner (wine included) - bien sûr!

And then the night turned crazy - meeting more French people and bar hopping. My night ended dancing to Beyoncé (woot woot) and my exhausted butt slept soundly that night

Beautiful day - time for the walking tour

I have no idea where this is as I was wandering around but this bridge has been one of my tumblr faves since forever

Too cute! 

Can't get any more Parisian than this? Munching on Nutella crêpes in the jardin du Luxembourg 

Yay for public gardens! 

First steps to walk the entire Champs Elysées - in the jardin des Tuilleries, in the distance is the place de la Concorde and l'arc de triomphe 

Made it to the end - l'arc de triomphe

Tomb of The unknown soldier - "ici repose un soldat français mort pour la patrie 1914-1918"

Last day in Paris was terribly rainy and cold ughh

The view of Paris from the Notre Dame tower - I spy the Eiffel Tower!

Made it to the top of Notre Dame for free (French student status) but after waiting forever in line (over an hour) and then climbing a million steps (it wasn't built in the time of elevators darn)

Me and a gargoyle just chilling (more like freezing)

Warmed up to a lovely meal of vegatarian tagine at a Moroccan restaurant in the quartier Latin

Hit the wet streets again...

In Sainte Chapelle - the stained glass here is beyond amazing and as the tour guide told us there is a story in each picture once you know how to read it. King Louis IX spared no expense in its construction for sure

Made it to the louvre - albeit a bit too late to enter (closed early because of the holiday) but I will be back to check out the collection for sure!

Got to meet up with some other cool couch surfers and hosts at this bar overlooking the Seine before we headed into Le Marais (aka the gay quarter) 

I heard that you can best falafel in Le Marais and the restaurant we found did not disappoint. Delicious falafel!!!

But there ended my adventures in Paris

Had an early train ride out to Marseille the next day!

Now I'm back in Marseille and while I think Paris is beautiful and charming, Marseille is my true love

It's Warmer - weather (of course) and the people !

Truth: everyone speaks English in Paris. I will fully be speaking in French and people respond in English - like pardon my English accent but you can respond in French. Or if I ask someone to repeat they switch to English - umm I actually did not hear the words that you said not that I didn't understand them. 

But there you have it :)

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo

Chantelle à la française 

From Fancy Bars to Nature Parks

Hey so I haven't posted in forever..1 month in marseille and 2 posts? Oh c'mon!

So I'm being lazy and writing in English (you can't believe how tiring putting in all the accents when you don't have a French azerty keyboard can get)
Just wanna let you know what I was up to last week in this post...

Back to September (pretend it’s the end of the week Sep 22-28)

Maria's birthday!
1 of the 2 other grinnellians at my school had her birthday last Thursday. Her host mom was psyched and said she was taking her to a bar to celebrate and I was invited to come along

A little more white wine please?

Talk about fancy bar in a fancy hotel....

Only in France would this place have been a former hotel - come on look at it!

We both enjoyed our too-expensive drinks and complimented the DJ on the electro night music theme… 

Talk about not sticking to the cultural 'private space' norms in France

Just chatting with everyone as if we knew them!

 Hung out with my language partner again!We went to this lovely bakery that had so many tempting cupcakes (one lady bought like 100 – I’m not exaggerating, this is the almost empty counter after they boxed up her order)

No lie!

And this is my absolutely delish red velvet cake – mmm!

While we were chatting, Agnes told me about her new dog and I learnt something really interesting about the French.

Fun Cultural Fact: The French name their dogs (and cats) based on the year ‘x’SO this year is year “I” so Agnes named her dog Icare so it would correspond with the rule – can you believe it? It’s not as crazy and random as it sounds; basically it helps the vet know instantly how old the dog is based on the first letter of the dog’s name. And it’s really only obligatory for pure bred and animals that compete in those fancy animal competitions (whatever those are called).

Read more here: http://www.lefigaro.fr/assurance/2013/01/04/05005-20130104ARTFIG00471-2013-l-annee-des-i-pour-les-chiens-et-chats.php (Sorry best explanation is in French tho) 

Also, what I love about being in a big city. There will always be malls and lovely places to go shopping! Thanks Marseille!

Well what do you know? I already have a French lingerie line named after me!

 And if getting to go shopping in a big city isn’t enough – you can always witness the strangest things on the streets.

So who needs legs? Not this guy!

 I spent my Saturday touring the countryside with other students – specifically the villages of Luberon. So it was a huge contrast from the city, but so lovely to see another side of Provence.

We visited old ruined castles, climbed up mountaintops (well not literally climbed, there were stairs) and picnicked with a lovely view of the countryside and the houses perched on top of the hills like in a fairytale. Awww!!!

I apologise for the lack of pictures and also the picture quality cause my ipod camera was out-of-service at the time – (I think the stupid electric current messed up my charger even tho I have an adapter)We even got to visit Roussillon to go on the ochre trail – a pretty popular natural park here in Provence.

Me on the Ochre Trail

 Since my pics suck, it’s supposed to look like this:

See the difference!

Yes, well now that I've updated you - I probly should get started on my next post since I'm so behind.

Thanks for reading :)

Bisous!

Oh la la - Ma première semaine des cours

C'est difficile pour maintenir un blog pendant l'année scolaire mais je vais essayer!

La semaine dernière j'ai eu ma première semaine des cours
J'ai assisté 6 cours pour décider ce que je veux faire.

L'arabe est un cours obligatoire en raison de notre voyage d'études au Maroc en novembre (une semaine!)

J'ai étudié autres langues avant comme l'espagnol, le latin, le wolof et bien sûr le français. Mais
l'arabe est sans doute le plus difficile pour apprendre pour moi. L'écriture, prononciation, tout! 

Mais on doit s'amuser encore! Donc, après ma première journée des cours, je suis allée au vieux port avec une amie. 

J'ai mangé un

chocolat religieuse à côté de la mer pour me détendre. C'était super!

Ma deuxième journée de cours s'est passé bien aussi. Après j'ai eu un rendez-vous avec ma partenaire de langue. Pour le sorti, j'ai pris le métro pour la première fois!

Nous somme allées au Palais Longchamp qui est tellement beau. 

 

Dans le passé, il y avait un zoo là mais maintenant il y a des faux animaux de couleurs vivres. C'est drôle!

Nous avons visité le musée d'histoire  naturel - c'était gratuit pour les étudiants! 

On peut dire que le taxidermiste a fait un très bon boulot!

Mange! Mange! Bien sûr j'ai mangé un crêpe de nutella en France après notre promenade au parc. Il faut qu'on mange des crêpes ici :)

Le jeudi je suis allée à un autre parc près de mon université avec mes collègues. 

Au sommet d'une colline, je pouvait voir la ville de Marseille - les montagnes, le bâtiments et l'eau. Tellement belle!

J'ai reçu une invitation d'une autre partenaire de langue pour un apéro pour les étudiants à la fac pour les études de pharmacie.

Je suis allée avec mes collègues et nous avons passé une bonne nuit avec les jeunes français.

Le conseiller de mon université a dit que les François voient d'un mauvais œil l'ivresse au public. Je ne suis pas d'accord! Haha mais je me suis amusé avec la musique (souvent en anglais) et la conversation avec des inconnus. 

Le samedi, je suis allée à l'église à pied encore. J'ai promis de chanter un sabbat la première fois - mais je ne sais pas si je peux tenir la promesse.

Après l'église, j'ai mangé avec une famille qui a des origines de la Caraïbe! 
Et si la plage me manque, je suis allée à une plage où j'ai regardé le coucher du soleil. 

J'ai acheté une glace pour 2/3 le prix - grâce à mon sourire charmant peut-être ?

Hier, je suis allée au marché Noailles! J'ai acheté une banane plaintain et les autres choses pour le déjeuner - mais les bananes plaintain de Jamaïque me manquent donc je vais être heureuse pour cuisiner la banane plaintain. 

Oui,c'est tout pour mes petites aventures à Marseille pour maintenant.

Xoxo,
Chantelle à la française 


***

Google Translate ENGLISH Version with my edits (no pics added):

It is difficult to maintain a blog during the school year but I'll try !

Last week I had my first week of classes
I attended 6 classes to decide which ones I wanted to do.

Arabic is a required course because of our trip to Morocco in November (one week ! )

I studied other languages ​​before, such as Spanish, Latin, Wolof and of course French. Arabic is probably the most difficult to learn for me. Writing, pronunciation, everything!

But I must still have fun! So, after my first day of classes, I went to Vieux Port with a friend. I ate a delicious chocolate dessert next to the sea to relax . It was great !

My second day of classes went well too. After I had plans to go out with my language partner. To get there, I took the subway for the first time !

We went to Palais Longchamp which is so beautiful. In the past, there was a zoo there, but now there are brightly-couloured fake animals . It's funny!

We visited the museum of natural history - it was free for students! Let's just say that the taxidermist did a great job !

Eat ! Eat ! Of course I ate a nutella crepe in France after our walk in the park . You have to have crepes while here :)

On Thursday I went to another park near my university with my colleagues. On top of a hill , I could see the city of Marseille - the mountains, buildings and surrounding water. So beautiful !

I received an invitation from another language partner for an event for pharmacy students.

I went with my colleagues and we had a good night  hanging out with young French people.

The counselor at my university said that the French frown upon public drunkenness . I beg to differ ! Haha but I enjoyed the music ( often in English ) and conversation with random people.

On Saturday , I walked to church again. I promised to sing one Sabbath the first week - but I do not know if I'll be keeping that promise .

After church, I ate with a family that has Caribbean roots ! 

Just in case that I was missing the beach, I went to a beach where I watched the sunset. I bought ice cream and got it for 2/3 the price - thanks to my charming smile, perhaps?

Yesterday I went to the market Noailles ! I bought a plaintain  and other things for lunch - but I miss my Jamaican plaintains so I'll be happy to cook the plaintain soon.

Yes that's it for my little adventures in Marseille for now.