sound byte

As I sat there on the moonlit rocky beach listening to the waves trying to pull the pebbles into their arms, I said goodbye for now, to those last days of summer.


I pulled out my iphone and recorded it

Plage du Prophète

looking south. winds have swept up some waves

Google Map

Scooter

My friend asked a favor of me. In fact, it was more of a great offer! It was more my pleasure than a personal favor in my opinion. Her boyfriend left his scooter at the train station when he went out of town, and so she asked me to ride his scooter home from the train station. I would follow her on her motorcycle. Yes guys, she has her own motorcycle, super cool. I was nervous, everyone says how dangerous they are especially in Marseille with crazy drivers and traffic patterns, but I was more excited than scared! The last time I drove was when I was in the States. This was to be an adventure! I have a serious need for speed and I was excited to spread my wings. I tried not to get my hopes up about driving, cause the let down could be so horrific. Oh goodness how I miss driving.

I get to the train station where she is waiting. She does a test run around the parking lot, comes around the bend onto the sidewalk and then says "go ahead now it's your turn, try it." I expect the scooter to be easy, but in fact it was too easy. No gears to be switched, just an accelerator and a pair of handle bar brakes. It was like a toy. I don't know why I expected anything different. Now I understand why those darn scooters are always revved so loudly, they are in risk of stalling if not constantly a livened with fuel. It made it easier to concentrate of the cars around me. It was so cool. I can't wait to do it again! She told me now we can do a ride along the corniche, I can't wait! Sunday here I come!

I'm in the middle of a revolution.

Take a look at what the lovely lycéens have done to the entrance of my school. The students are on strike. That so would have been me at that age. lol. They barricaded the main entrance of the school. What is usually under all that trash is steps. 

 Because of the strike, public workers such as trash collectors haven't picked up the trash in over a week. That's just in front of my school. Believe me there are hundreds of piles like this and worse all over the city.

Vive La France! I'm so psyched to be here! I was unable to go into work today because there was no way for me to get there. Wow. Gas stations are running dry, buses and tramways are blocked by strikes. The worst part is, I can't even get to the manifestation!! The subway is pretty much the only thing in service, and I'm a reallllllly far walk from the nearest station. UGH. Anyway, I plan on hiking and taking a day of repose I guess. Not what I really feel like doing right now, but something good has to come from it. Tonight, I'm going to the Fiesta Des Suds (Fiesta of the South). It's this amazing musical event that happens every year and my uncles are performing! Tomorrow night I hope to return to see more musical events.

In the next few days, I have two appointments to see some flats. Judging by their photos, I'm not really excited. I have two great options that are mine if I want them, but the thing that is the most important to me right now is non-existent at these places. Proximity to the center. Last week I had an appointment to see a flat and my lovely friends offered to come see it with me. It was really close to both of them, check. It was really close to everything, check. It was huge, check. View of the port, check. It was in a sketchy ass neighborhood, check. Ghetto, check. I wouldn't get to meet my flat mates until after- um no thanks. Eerie feeling, check. I had to say no to this unfortunately. But as my friend told me, something perfect will come at the perfect time. Alrighty, I'm off to explore this neighborhood I know so well. A town I've been visiting since I was 6 years old.

Ah Marseille

I had a great time with some new friends this weekend! Had a fabulous dinner at an even more fabulous couple's home. They had a huge terrace with an amazing view of the Notre Dame de la Garde. Our host made a delicious curry. I was just telling some other assistants how imperative it was for me to have some yellow curry or maybe a chicken tikka masala, so it was fate. Dinner was filled with several bottles of wine, good conversation, story swapping and french language corrections. After dinner, a strapping young french man picked us up to go to a party that was "close." Well, I guess the 30 minute walk wouldn't have been so bad, but the mistral was blowing and let me tell you- it was icy! We arrived at the party and it was filled with frenchies! Yeah my first french party (excluding the millions of parties I've had with my family...)! A good time was had by all, even my smiling, happy, sleeping model friend. It was great, the frenchies spoke in english to me and I spoke in french to them! The dudes were dancing, wore gummy candy vampire teeth and tried to launch them to the neighboring roof and the boys played some sort of drinking game with bottle caps. I laughed a lot.

After a long night, and public transportation schedules in search for an easier way home, we headed home à pied (on foot). On our hour long journey home, we stopped for fresh crêpes and gyros from a street vendor. (Yes folks, late night food in France doesn't consist of dollar menus and drive-thru's). We three ladies were walked to our doorstep by the strapping young french gentleman. At 5 am, after we climbed the 3 flights of stairs at my friends apartment, we crashed out until lunch. We just didn't want this weekend to end.

We went out on a trek to find pizza, a great idea by my ladies! Store after store was closed, we finally found a boulangerie which made fresh pizzas. Two young handsome young men (they were brothers) ran the store with smiles, they were very busy! Took our nosh back to the fab apartment, watched a film and ended up staying for dinner too! These ladies like to cook, thank goodness. Homemade puff-pastry, homemade panisse, and pasta. Delicious! You may be thinking, "that's a lot of carbs," yes ladies and gentlemen, yes it is. Vive La France.

Le grève! (Strike!)

Ever since I've arrived in the South of France, there has been a lot of talk about le grève (grev). The public transportation workers were on strike, then they were on strike again. Then some of the professors told me they weren't going to be in class because they were striking on Tuesday (today). At first I thought they were striking for teacher reasons, boy was I wrong. After my third class, I was walking thru a hall with an open window. The professor I was walking with mentioned the chanting of the strike, again I'm thinking "teachers... wow that's loud." I get out of the building to grab lunch since I have 3 hours before my next class in the afternoon. Here is what I come out to. 

There is no way to describe how many people were striking except that they filled the major streets. It was insane. They were striking because the French government is raising the age for retirement. Not only were teachers striking, transportation workers were striking, also lycéens (highschool students) were striking. The French love their strikes and they do it joyfully. They strike as much as there are national holidays ;-)

I'm learning more about the french education system and it's more complicated than any school system in the States. In a nutshell, the students until age 15 are in "General" education then they choose a tract. Science or Literature (broadly defined) which they will study until they are 18, then at the end of school they take the BAC, either Sci. or Lit. Students taking the science route will have more job options. If they pass the BAC Science, they move on to University where they will have many more options for "majors." And at that age how many people really know what they want to do? Ok, at this point you may be wondering, "and how does this relate to the strike?" Well, the students who are moving on to higher education will end up working a little later in life, and therefore retiring later. You need a certain number of trimesters of work and be at least a certain age to retire (or something like that). The more highly educated students, with this new law, won't be eligible for reitrement until age 70. So, the lycéens participated in the strike as well. Bravo for the youngins for participating in this big event.  Anyway, thanks for reading thru my stream of consciousness.

Again, my camera battery died so I only got these few photos. Either way it's good to have a handy dandy point and shoot in my purse at all times.

Stories of Marseille

My parents have told me many stories of growing up in Marseille. My mom talked about a café called Narval she would go to with her friends as a school girl. My dad about the navy and his auto shop. As I pass by places with my uncles and aunts, sometimes they have a little tidbit or story to tell be about a place or a person. While I'm here, I'm going to rediscover these places and make my own memories.

Photos at a governmental office of some sort.

 I couldn't tell if this was old or new.

 This is plain rad.

I like me some interesting gardens.