continued

grabbed all 20 lbs of baggage and dragged it down all 6th flights of narrow narrow stairs (i was on the French 5th floor, which is actually the american 6th-- their first floor is the american 2nd floor)...
made my way to the gare lyon with everything, and waited for the train to come. their system was so extremely easy to follow that i didn't understand it (i couldn't believe it would be that simple, look at a screen, look for your location/train ride, and they would tell you which station {a through z) you would be taking, 5 minutes before departure. i was station I, found my cabin, and rode all the way to aix. i pretty much slept the whole way, and actually, they don't check the tickts when you grab the train, but instead, they grab them when you are like halfway through haha...
made it to aix, carried my luggage up 3 flights of stairs and met my host mom. her name is Odile Cheminade, she lives on her own because her children are grown. she has short curly brown hair, glasses, and she's very expressive, quirky, and feisty. My housemate's name is Kate. She's a dance major who just switched to Natural Sciences pre-med. (needless to say, she's really smart!) She took one course of French in high school and I think one in college, so the communication between Kate and Odile had been very rudimentary (read: hand gestures and one word questions hahaha)... my housemate is partly vegetarian (she does eat seafood!) and Odile asked me if I was also vegetarian. I said that I liked meat, so she was happy. She asked me if I drank milk, i answered oui. since she seemed to think i liked all things, i made sure to let her know i was picky by telling her i didn't like mushrooms, to which she answered MAIS NON! (oh no!)-- she had cooked a musrhoom bacon quiche with a part that didn't have bacon for kate. i told her it would be okay. i tried the mushrooms (beatrice had told me the french ones were much different) but i still did not like them. so i picked out the whole top of the quiche which were the mushrooms and gobbled the bottom, which was AMAZING!
Sunday we were taken to a tour of downtown Aix. it's so beautiful! we saw a church that has a part from the 12th century, a part from the 14th/15th, and a part from the 17th/18th century. cea then took us out to lunch at a cute little outdoor cafe (with tents for the blazing sun) where i ordered a really great steak with potatoes on the side. for dessert, tiramisu. the waiter was REALLY handsome, so i made sure not to giggle. (no worries stephen, i'm too scared of french boys to even try talking to him hahaha)... then we went to a special artisan's market where i bought a really really cute ring. it has real flowers inside, and the artisan told me each flower means something different, and the one i picked meant sweetness and attraction.
monday was pretty much uneventful because we had orientation in the morning. everyone talks about culture shock, but i don't believe i've had any major ones. it was of course a little shocking in paris when i passed by a stand, the waiter called me back, i purchased an iced tea, and then he spoke to me in english, making small talk, saying i was "really beautiful" and asking me if i wanted him to come with me. i said no thank you. he said, "are you sure? we can speak! you can have someone to conversate with" i said i'm sure it would be lovely, but no, i didn't think so. i was on my way to a museum and i would be fine. more than shocking, i would say that was unexpected... but yeah. no culture shock yet... i don't think.