Je recherche les étoiles avec beaucoup de taches!

A public "Happy Birthday" to Dad. Either the parents were at work or out when I tried to call.
Lame. I paid $23.19 for 30 French minutes for the cell phone I was given so I can call home (specifically for this, Dad...). The guy at the store couldn't tell me if they were fine to use to call the United States or not. I am pretty sure there was no way I was going to avoid being ripped off, but I am pretty sure I'll get at least twenty minutes of US calling, which is more than necessary if no one is home when I call.

I came back to the apartment the other day to find that my laundry was being done for me, my room was being cleaned, and the pitchfork was hung up.

I just don't know what to say about this. At first I was afraid that it hung itself. Then it was explained to me that it used to be on the wall, but it fell at some point. I didn't get an explanation of if that's how it broke.


I really like this town, but I don't think that I could live here unless it's in this house:

Who wants to buy it for me?

It's in the "new" part of town. That just means that the roads were planned in a grid pattern a few centuries ago as opposed to the all-over-the-place roads like the part of the city that started with the Romans.

This could be considered a hôtel particulier, which just means a really fancy aristocratic home, not a hotel as the word is presently understood. There are a ton of these things all over Aix, and they're beautiful and old. Naturally, I love them. My school is actually in one. I often wander around the building wondering what it used to be like. I'll more than likely take pictures of that place, too.

How about some food? Recent delicious desserts include a raspberry tart and a chocolate éclair.

In my class we had to talk "freely" about something for around three minutes. I talked about my research. That could be categorized under "Bad Choice" because a lot of the words I needed I don't know in French, and no one had any clue what I was talking about. OK, the fact that no one knew if what I was saying was right or wrong could move it to "Good Choice" (note that everything I said was accurate, but overly simplified).

Saturday, I am going to Saint Tropez, or the "jetset" center of the Provence/Côte d'Azur region, as my hostess describes it (with that particular word).
Sunday, I will probably walk around the city taking pictures of the fountains. I hear that there are actually only forty of them. Don't worry, I probably won't post all of them on here.