Gonna pick up the game

Ok. I'm Sorry. My blogs have been boring of late. Not that they were particularly gripping before, but the past few have been a new low. It's not that I've been really busy or occupied with other important things. I think I;ve been a tad bit off. Like culture shock and the like. Whatever.

But now I think I am getting back into the swing of things, and I also have the ability to get pictures off my camera!!!! WOOO. SO this mean that you won't just have to look at me holding a something. Or a something in front of my computer. Or just me. Because we all know how old that has been getting.

Here are a lot of pictures. This is a cop-out for now. But still visually pleasing, non?

Sitting in the courtyard of my school.

Out my window

View out my window

Caitlin and me

On the Cours Mirabeau on a sunny Sunday morning on the way to Market

Beautiful-out my window

The Family at dinner(from left to right) Robyn, Ben, Me, and Sebastian

Robyn and me

To Market! To Market!

Les Poissons Les Poisson. Hee hee hee hoh hoh hoh!

Fromageeee

I sit here and eat lunch, or breakfast or dinner if I don't eat with The Family.

Claire
Song "Back to the old house" The Smiths
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiFzKNmeeSw

C'est pour les hommes....

Hello Everyone!
I have had my first day of orientation/foreign exchange student school. My french student classes don't start until the 14th or 21st. Here I am in my window the night before school. For my entire youth, my family took a first day of school picture. We have them throughout the years of Grace's rad pink glasses, bagheera in the background, my front toothless smile to my braces smile, Grac'es shiny purple eyeshadow and then me solo with Lori. This year it was a little different, as it was taken the night before and I'm alone in my french window with no family anywhere. Oh, where life takes us.





On a funnier, lighter note. I was looking for a bike today to buy for the year. I simply want a used bike to ride around aix in place of the 130 euro bus pass. So I go to the Depot, a pour les trucs utilise. Used items. I find a bike, 68 euro, not too horrible. But its old. I inquire with a man who doesn't really look like he works there, even maybe mentally slow...but he walked up when I rang soooo....

We start talking, en francais and he says.."oh no no no, this is a man's bike" I respond with. Yeah, but I'm tall, I can handle it. He is very adamant and now chuckling. No no no, it for MEN, it is made for MEN. "yes sir, I GET that, ok thanks". SO I go get the head guy, and he sasy teh SAME thing. I ask why now, thinking something huge is lost on me. He simply says see the bar here, it is straight and not slanted. Women's bars are slanted to make it easier to swing you leg up over. It is not as hard to get on"......I am happy! "Oh that's it" I say, then yeah, I can do that! No he says, no c'est pas pour toi. ca marche pas pour toi. NO, it won't work for you. I'm thinking, "sir, I rode HORSES for 4 years..I don't think a bike bar ont eh ground is going to prove too difficult for my delicate female legs to swing over". He is laughing now, no no work for you, les femmes. EXCUUUUUUSE me? Are you trying to sell your bike or not. He started to get a little worked up and so did I, then I remembered that it was a crappy bike for 70 Euro anyway and said merci au revoir and left.

Gender Equality has a whole different mindset in France. Excuse me, I must go to bed and I think my bed might be unisex and so I want to give myself extra time to make the jump up into it....
Mlle C. GORTON
Song:"Technicolor Health" by the Harlem Shakes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_x7Njb-JHQ

That Fateful Day in France: Day 1

This is a blog post that I wrote on the train from Montpelier to Marseille...after writing it before arriving to Aix I decided to never post it. Upon recent events I have decided to post it. I have't even re-read it since I wrote it...it's completely au natural...no spell check either (good luck) along with a picture immediately after writing it. Act One. Here it is:

It’s gone. My key. The key I’ve worn everyday since December 9th 2006. I had just bought an orangina in the train station from a vending machine and I looked down to see if it was still on my wrist. Which was a negative. It had been pulled off by pressure, which isn’t surprising because I have been hauling around humongous bags all day across countries.
I knew I would have a slight emotional breakdown, whether it showed outside or not, but I never guessed this would happen. I feel so lost. I can’t even call anyone to talk about it. This is lesson number one. I don’t even want to be in France right now. How could I have been so stupid to wear it on my wrist when I knew I would be all over the place? I don’t want to go explore; I don’t want to play soccer; I don’t want to learn French.
Shitty happening number one. Right so it sucks, yeah. I can deal with that. But how can I fix this? I can’t, not really for a year. I believe there were two keys to the lock of my mothers lock, but I’m not sure. And I’m not sure where it would even be. And then I’m not going back to MI for god knows when. Maybe this is a sign. For those who know what the key means, maybe it’s time to quit using my mom’s, and start using my own. I had taken hers and was using it to help me transition to my own life. Her _________ was acting as mine, helping me through. Now, as I enter into completely foreign territory, perhaps it is time I get my own ____________ of myself, of the world and of her. I think this might be good for me. This breaks my ties with the past a little. I have recently felt a few feelings that I probably should have felt a lonnnng time ago about her death. I believe it is time to move on. I am speeding through the French countryside. I do have to a find a completely new key and ________.
Ok then, nowhere to go but forward. On to Marseille, then Aix….and then, well I don’t really know because I don’t have directions to my new home yet. There is a good possibility that I will be spending my night in a train station tonight. Step one. OH man I feel restless now. I want to go find a new key, but it won’t be the same. I wish this had been a choice. A new key and I could have the old one in a box knowing it was there. But it’s out there. Just like she is. Booooooo. Still I must make the best of it; but I would never have picked this. But, I will be okay. I will. It’s just a piece of metal, small at that. I don’t know if I want instant gratification, or if I should take my time and find the right one. I think I need a substitution, but only a stand-in until I find the real thing. Yes that’s it. I have one in New York that will work, and maybe even permanently, because I did get it before this, it wouldn’t be a replacement, IT was a transition, I was debating wearing it instead. Yes. I’m done.
P.S. I don't look as though I love trains so much now, eh?

So it was devastating no? I had lost my key, if you understand the gravity of teh situation, you might also be saying buck up Claire. Also if oyu know me, you know I have weird senses about this that I own and that i use a lot. And people as well. I can feel them. I didn't FEEl that it was gone. Like teh idea made me want to sob, but it didn't register. I though, denial right?

But two days laterrrrrrr:

I am going through my backpack to get my folders of endless papers out for government stuff andddddddd

I FOUND THE KEY AT THE BOTTOM.

It was in my backpack. it had been ripped off of my wrist...and fallen into my backpack. The chances! To think of all teh miles I traveled, cities I walked through, countries I crossed.

Incredible.Needless to say I'm a little happier in the following pictures, non?

I still stand by what I said, I think the transition period is my choice, and I'm choosing it. I think I will now have two. One tried and true, and one new: Mine.

Claire Winter Gorton
Song:There Goes the Fear by Doves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgBKVBduQg
(Sometimes I just love how these songs fit so well with the posts...by chance)