Aix-en-Provence

The first thing we did when we arrived was march to the museum.  We ran to keep up with our professor who walks incredibly fast.  We even arrived at the museum early so that gave us a chance to walk around and explore a little before the museum.  We found an art store and loaded up on supplies for our classes.  I was so excited to pick up some highlighters so I could experiment with them with my watercolors.  I had been wanting to do so ever since we went to Angolême and I heard about an artist who combined them and white ink and their work was so beautiful!  We also stopped by to pick up things to keep us warm because it was COLD.  I mean REALLY COLD.  There were huge icicles forming on all the water fountains and any exposed skin actually hurt from the cold.

We went to the museum and I actually enjoyed it.  It was a lot better than the one at St. Remy.  Even though nothing was in English, it was still beautiful to look at.  My favorite part was the statues.  There was one in particular that I loved called "Leon Pilet."  The way her dress was carved was simply breath taking.  Right behind the gallery was an actual pomegranate tree.  I had never seen a pomegranate tree before so I found that really cool, especially since it was still covered in fruit!

The Sweet Shop Mrs. Christoph took us to

Riding the French Bus With Sarah

This is where Sarah, Mrs. Christoph and I got lost

After the museum, Sarah and I attempted to follow our professor to the tapestry museum, but he walked so fast!  We figured it would be a safe bet to follow his wife there because we thought he would wait for her... but he didn't.  The three of us set out to find the museum ourselves.  We followed the map and went to the office of tourism who told us to get on the #7 bus and that it would take us to the museum.  Since we didn't have any change on us, we went to a sweet shop to try and get change for the bus fair.  Mrs. Christoph insisted on buying us sweets.  The reason we call her Mrs. Christoph is we didn't hear her name when our professor introduced her to us and we have no earthly idea how to pronounce their last name.  So Mrs. Christoph it is.  She is so nice!  We boarded the bus and it was quite the experience.  So similar yet completely different from the buses in the US.

We got off at the stop that the office of tourism told us to get off at and we came to one conclusion: The Tapestry museum that was labeled on our maps was not the Tapestry museum.  It was some guys museum that began with an M.  The lady who worked there kept insisting that we must be French Canadian because there was a group of French Canadian students who came through there earlier- even thought we kept telling here that we were not French Canadian but were in fact American.

By this time we had pretty much  given up on finding the museum and were focused on finding our way back to where the bus was.  Even though we missed the museum, we really enjoyed getting to know Mrs. Christoph and determined that she is awesome.  Extremely awesome. 

Some strange guy in a bunny suit

Unfortunately our good day came to a crummy end.  Someone broke into the bus while we were out and stole several computers- including one of the professor's computers with all her lesson plans on it.  We ended the day at the police station reporting the stolen things.  One thing about french law is that thefts can not be charged unless the stolen items are actually found on their person, so once something is stolen it's gone for good.  This is one of the many things that I have come to have new appreciation for in America