un jour de la vie francaise

i've been here in aix for two weeks now, and have settled into a somewhat normal routine. here's an idea of a normal day in france:

i wake up pretty early here, usually between 8 and 9 am. its weird though, i dont really mind. breakfast consists of cereal, bread with butter and honey, and green tea. then i walk to school and have class until 2 on mondays and wednesdays. (on tuesdays and thursdays i have my painting class, which goes until six).

we're on our own for lunch, and for the past two weeks i've spent a small fortune at restaurants getting sandwiches and pizza. my favorites include a piece of mushroom pizza (une portion de champignon) and sandwiches with fresh mozzerella. yesterday i went to the grocery store and from now on, i'll be making lunch at home to save some ca$h.

after class, i usually go to my school's library for internet, or sometimes go sit at a cafe. for my painting class, we have to keep an outside sketchbook for drawing what we see-- landscapes, buildings, people. i plan to go to cafes a lot more often for sketching.

madame serves dinner between 7:30 and 8:30. she always makes great food. every night we have bread with a different kind of cheese, wine, tons of fresh vegetables and cold salmon. the main entree varies, but is always delicious. (for example, last night we had a creamy soup with leeks and scallops. mmmh!) and for dessert, we have the french equivalent of pudding cups, except they're much better. dinner always ends with herbal tea and a piece of chocolate candy.

by the time dinner is over, its usually 10 or so. since i get up so early, i'm usually exhausted by this point so i'll do my homework, study some french, read some tintin (comic books en francais) and go to sleep.

this weekend i'm planning to make my nights a little more exciting. on thursday my school organized a rendez-vous with french and american students. we met some cool people and ended up going out with them on thursday night, and stacy and i are going to meet them to see a band tonight.

c'est la vie francaise!