Vacation in Marseille

Coucou les amis...

So as you all (should) know, my friend came with her friends who are now kind of my friends.. from Sardinia to Marseille during my winter vacation, so I spent a relaxing and inexpensive week at home showing them around :) On the first day when they got here, I was a gem, if I do say so myself, and got up at 7:30 to go meet them at the train station. We just walked around and went out to dinner at Las Dos Hermanas. The second day we went to the Calanques (Sugiton) because Wednesday was supposed to have the best weather. We were right! It was beautiful. Nice to get out exercising and we had a little picnic too. Then we went made dinner at Suzie's house and went out to Little Temple and had some drinks and met up with our Marseillais. Thursday we went to the beach because it was relatively nice weather, and we went to a crepe place for dinner. Friday we had a huge Raclette/Pasta lunch at my house and then went to Notre Dame de la Garde, then got ready and went to Marengo. Marengo is kind of a funky bar- but not in the sense that it's hip, more like, there's old guys there and they play music from Claude Francois...

For those of you who don't know who Claude Francois is....

He was a hottie back in the day here in France... :P

I admit with pride that I have come to love this song.

And in case you were wondering, yes, we do dance like this when this song comes on.

And anyways, it's just not always been exactly my favorite place. But I've come to enjoy going there and the alcohol is (relatively) cheap and our friends like to go there so whatevs. But Friday night it was particularly hoppin' and before I knew it, guys were dancing on the counter with their shirts off. I have pictures. But I will respect the (little) reputation those boys have left and not put them on here :P hahahaha. I think my Italian companions enjoyed themselves!!! 

Saturday they left. I was super bummed cause I had such a good time showing them around, and it was sooo good to see the three that I know already- Vale, Ele and Mattia. I am planning on going back to Sardina in April so I already know I'm going to see them again and I'm so excited :D But Friday night we said good bye in front of a kebab which is you know, super classy. Anyways. Saturday night we went out again but had a party at our friend Julien's house, which was so nice of him to have us over. We went to the Petit Nice which was cool (drinks are terribly cheap :D) and had a nice vibe, but we got there about thirty minutes before they shut down. And it was getting late so by the time we go to Vieux Port, it was dying down. We still managed to have a really great night! I feel like (knock on wood) my weekends are getting interesting again. I mean I know not every weekend can be a BLAST but first semester it was like that, until Christmas vacation when it got really cold. So perhaps the warmer the weather... the better the weekend :P 

I go back to Morocco in 11 days! And I found out I'll be working in an orphanage! What a great experience, I am so looking forward to it- to use my Arabic WAY MORE than last time... haha, to see my Moroccan friends again, to stay in a new host family (my old correspondant can no longer host after all), to work with children in an orphanage- I have no idea what kind of work it will be but I'm sure it will be rewarding and my CV/resume will thank me, and lastly to spend the week with the Americans who haven't already been and to share the experience with my two favorite teachers- Hilda and Sylvie! 

I have also started my new community service! I am volunteering for MP2013 (Marseille Provence 2013) and so I will be doing lots of different projects, but my first project is to translate from French to English some documents for an exposition called "Le Pont" which will begin in May at this museum: Le MAC. Once again, my CV will thank me!!! 

I recently went to a Lianne La Havas concert and it was fantastic. Such good energy. Apparently she's getting fairly well known and the concert was only 20 euro. Score!

Last night Caro and Suzie and I had a girl's night dinner at this place in the Cours Julien:

I went here with my host mom on Valentine's Day just us two (winning!) and since then I've been there with the Italians and then last night with Suze and Caro. It can be super cheap, or if you split a pitcher of sangria with just one other person and then splurge on chocolat fondant.. the price adds up quickly. But it's a fun place so it's worth it. Or so that's what I tell myself when I'm drinking sangria :) Afterwards Caro and I went to Little Temple just because and ran into some acquaintances so that was a nice way to top off my Tuesday. I had actually gotten a big project done.. dare I say it... EARLY. So I stayed out a little later than usual on a school night haha.

Other than that... Life is sweet, no surprise there. But life here sure never ceases to surprise me, regardless. 

I read this quote in an article we read in journalism today and it really spoke to me:

"...les Marseillais en avaient presque oublie que sa beaute brutale leur appartenait aussi."

Translated:

"...the Marseillais had almost forgotten that (Marseille's) sheer beauty belongs to them, too."

(On Marseille Provence 2013- Capital of European Culture and the wonderful transformation Marseille is going through because of it) 

I am touched to think that I am falling in love with this city at the same time that the Marseillais are re-falling in love with their city...

Bises,

Katherine