School ends at noon every Wednesday in France, which is what should happen everywhere. Because we finished early in the day, Alberto, Rubia, and I took the bus to Aix-en-Provence, a nearby city. Alberto is the Mexican exchange student here in my town with Rotary. In January, Alberto and I are exchanging families. I currently live on the farm, he lives in the village, and we'll switch after celebrating Christmas with our first host-families. I didn't know until I arrived here that there would be another exchange student just down the street from our farm. He ended up arriving late after having problems with his visa, but it's been great to know other exchange students close by. Rubia is a Brazilian exchange student, here for a semester with another program. She apparently heard about me the first week of school, and found me when her host-sister heard me speaking English. A month into my exchange, I've found out that apparently I talk really loud and I talk a lot, which makes everyone know that I'm the American exchange student. I keep meeting people for the first time who already know that I'm the American because I talk loud on the bus... I think I talk at a normal volume.
Our high school is in Pertuis, a city half an hour away from Lauris. Instead of going to Aix from Pertuis, we took the bus to Lauris to drop off our bags, then to get on the bus from Cadenet, and from there take the bus to Aix. Seven of the thirty exchange students in my district live in Aix. Aix is the best city to go with friends because there are a ton of stores, bakeries, restaurants, cafés, etc. It's always been a meet-up place for exchange students here and for the French teenagers. Because it's a university town, most of the people in the city are young. Alberto, Rubia, and I were super hungry when we got there and we got burgers for lunch. After eating healthy for a month with only organic fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread, and goat cheese (I still love all of the food), a cheeseburger was nice. We went to Five Guys, which we have in South Bend. It was a bit overpriced, but with the combination of our hunger and the absence of fast food in our lives, it was a perfect lunch.
We met up with Iñaki (Argentina), Joaquin (Peru), and Chuchun (Taiwan) at the main fountain on the Cours Mirabeau. It was great to see the others and we caught up over ice cream. Rubia and I went shopping downtown while the guys went to look at shoes. After being in the countryside for a month, it was calming to be in the city. Alberto and I both felt the same way but it's hard to describe. It's isolated on the farm, and being in the middle of the city with a bunch of traffic, apartments, and people was refreshing. Our trip to Aix was has been one of my exchange highlights so far.
The other exchange students had sports practice and had to leave, but Zephyrine (an American from MA) met up with Alberto and I in the evening. We went to a bakery downtown and decided to share a box of fifteen macarons. Zephy and I love macarons and it was great to be free to buy as many macarons as we wanted (they're cheaper in France than in the US). Until we actually got to the bakery, Alberto had thought the entire time that we were looking for macaroni and cheese. We sat outside on one of the doorsteps in the city to eat the macarons. I had white chocolate, orange, coffee, peach, and raspberry macarons. Eventually an old woman came out of her apartment building and we had to move from the steps, but it was fine. At night, Alberto and I had to run to catch the bus on time and we almost missed our stop in Cadenet. Luckily, everything went fine and I went home for dinner.
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