It was the busiest, most tiring, most expensive, and absolute best week here yet! I know it seems like I say that every time, but it keeps getting better and better. It gives me a nauseous feeling in my stomach to think that I’m leaving the place that’s become home to me at the end of next week. I still have two weeks, but all of us are saying, “I can’t believe it’s almost over” when really we have a fourth left of our trip! Somehow it still feels like we’re coming around the home stretch, wish it weren’t so, and I get a Jazon Mraz song stuck in my head, naturally.
You’ve already seen Monday and Tuesday, (St. Guilhem/ Cliff Jumping then Tour de France) Get ready for an overload of pictures in attempts to summarize the following:
Wednesday: Class trip to Arles
Thursday: Jason Mraz Concert in Nîmes!
Friday: Beach day
Saturday: Marseille
Les Alyscamps (ancient cemetery) in Arles
Van Gough’s Café Terrace à Nuit… seem familiar? It’s a little modernized now.
Typical French family I had to creep on they were so adorable
Van Gough’s La Nuit Etoilée, copy of painting by my feet
Ancient Roman Bridge. Sarah and I convinced Lydia that it collapsed when there was a parade on it two years after it was built, literally made up the story on the spot and she never questioned us
Getting ready for the Course Camarguaise
The man tries to take a ribbon from the head of the bull with the prongs on his hand… when he’s not running from it of course
Bull jumping the fence! This one llllovved jumping the fence
Bull trampling a guy!
When the one bull wouldn’t go back out of the Arena, his friend bulls with bells had to come fetch him. It was so funny to watch.
You couldn’t pay me to be that close!
Jason! Be prepared for my obsession with him because Jmraz live… I probably won’t go to a better concert for the rest of my life.
We took the 5 o’clock train to Nîmes, checked in the hotel which was literally across from the station, got ready, and walked 5 minutes (so close!) to the Arena. The Nîmes arena looks like the coliseum in Rome, just a little bit smaller. It was so cool to be watching a concert where gladiators fought! We bought the cheapest tickets to the concert, which were 35,50€, and it was the standing section in front of the stage!!! I would’ve been soo mad if I’d paid more to be even farther away?! The first girl that opened was Alela Diane really folk like had a mountain feel, and we all swore the girl that harmonized with her looked familiar. After I told Sarah it was mountainy, the french girl turns to her other friend who spoke a little english and asked her what “mountainy” meant!
Then Justin Nozuka played and I really liked him, but he didn’t have a lot of stage presence.
Then Jason came on! We were all referring to him like he was our best friend by the end of the night. He made us do a little dance and made stuff up on stage and attempted spoke some short phrases in French which the audience Loved!
Then! Afterwards, the trumpet, sax, and trombone players were walking out the same way that we were! They were really really good. The trumpet player hit notes I’d never heard. Every time they popped up I had no idea where they were. Like one time they were on the side of the arena! You had to look around for them. So since we were some of the last people out anyways, we took our picture with them and since we spoke english, they asked us where we were from and ended up talking to the 3 of them for like 20 minutes! Their Europe tour is over in a week, but they’re coming to the south soon, so they told us to email them and they’d get us passes!!! We were like “ok cool just, ya know, tell Jason the girls from Georgia said hey” 
We stayed in a hotel in Nîmes, that Sarah found and I booked. I slept like a rock for 6 hours, got up, we caught the train to class at 7, read my homework on the train, bought a chocolate croissant, slept on my book bag on the street outside our classroom building till class started (probably looked homeless) went to class, ate lunch at my apartement, and spent the day at the beach, reading my homework and tanning! I love it here. I never want to leave…
Kim NOT wanting to do her homework in anticipation for Jason Mraz
Coolest venue ever, ancient Roman Arena where gladiators fought!
Justin Nozuka. You may know him from his song “After Tonight”
JASON!
The whole band at the end of the show
Encore Encore Encore!
Our friends from Texas!
Homework on the beach. This is the best study abroad program ever
And what a beautiful beach it is
I had a good time in Marseille although the day trip to France’s second largest city was a bit rushed. The city is spread out too, which didn’t help. Not my absolute favorite place we’ve gone, but has some cool monuments! After we ate our Monoprix lunches by the old port, we visited the Palais Longchamps! That was definitely the highlight of the day. The rest of the city surrounding the monuments is not much to look at…at all. I felt like I was in the sketchy part of town the whole time (even though we weren’t) and it was super dirty in general. Sarah, Ramasy, and I left the tired and hungry behind to visit a cathedral sitting on the Mediterranean bay where there were these big cruise ships and in doing so we got to see Château d’Îf from the bay, the setting for Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monty Cristo, and stumbled across Marseille’s Arc de Triomphe! Sorry that was such a long sentence. Anyways, we walked everywhere and I slept the whole hour and 45 min train ride back.
At the Old Port
Daddy would’ve loved this
So gorgeous
Palais Longchamps!
Cheesin’ with my Longchamp bag…
Flowers and Fountain
It was all so extravagant and detailed!
Statue’s view looking out onto Marseille
Whoops! Dropped my toga 
Notre Dame de la Garde
Cruise ship on Mediterranean
Cathedral
Stripped stone
Stripped red stone inside with flags of all the regions in France
I love ceilings of churches, just walking in and looking up in awe
Schweppes and Cookies= perfection
Its been a really long week, but today (Sunday) relaxing on the beach once again was a great end to it all and start for the week to come. Bastille day (France’s 4th of July) is Tuesday which means… no class! I still have a final project, final paper, and presentation looming over me on top of all my other homework every night… but I love it too much here for that to bother me.
Too cool. Longchamps Paris–whatever that is looks grand. Glad you had a good week