Marseille, la cité phocéenne

I know, you were afraid, what is Kelsy doing, where is she, is she even continuing this adventure in France still ? WELL, I have the response to these questions and much more!

Let's be honest, you guys know how bad I am at keeping this thing updated. But I have a goal to update at least once a week (I am starting a master's people, so let's not set crazy expectations). In addition, I wanted to give you the link to a new tumblr account I created, which will allow me to share photos/little moments with you more easily than long-winded blog posts about culture, food, and life.

http://kelsyexpatlife.tumblr.com/

Ok, so, WHAT am I doing?

Jonathan and I moved to the South of France, to the city of Marseille in the Provence region (I am still in France! the adventure lives on). I've been here for almost 3 weeks, and it already feels like I've been here longer (maybe from all the trips up and down 3 flights of stairs with heavy Ikea boxes).

Leaving Paris for me was not as bittersweet as I thought it would have been.  I had been waiting to find a city that was both big with opportunities to eat out, go out, etc. and close to a lot of outdoor opportunities in the mountains, sea...While I miss my friends who are back in Paris (and even more those back in the states!), I feel that the change of city has done me good, and I really couldn't be happier in our new place (pictures to come soon).

Our first weekend in the new city, to be honest, was a pain in this girl's rear end. We had ikea furniture to build, we were missing half of our stuff, I felt like we were surrounded by boxes that we would never get rid of! Here we are, two-point-5 weeks later, we have all of our stuff, all boxes are done, now we just need to decorate a bit to fill in the enormous white space that is our walls.

Marseille, some of you may not know much about it, here are some quick facts (some via wikipedia, so...grain of salt) :

• Cité Phocéenne? The Phocaeans, from Phocaea, an ancient greek city in Turkey, had many major sea colonies (they were a strong, way-faring people), Marseille (Massalia in 600 BC) being one of them
• "Marseillais" identity is strong, and each area of the city has a distinct "vie de quartier." For example, Jon and I live in the 6th arrondissement (there are 16 total), and more specifically in the Préfecture quartier. In Marseille, your quartier is more important than your arrondissement.
• Population about 850,000, probably a bit more, it's the second biggest city in France, and the biggest in terms of surface area
• It is on the sea, with a big, beautiful, old port
• It is surrounded by some of the most beautiful spots in France, including the Calanques, Cassis, Sainte Baume, Mont Ste Victoire and the Aix en Provence area, and a bit further (2 hours drive), the Gorges du Verdon 
• It gets a bad rep. for banditism and mafia (which exists, but is 1. not as rampant as the media makes it seem and 2. is between them and not random people in the street), it also gets a rep for being "dirty," due to frequent strikes by the waste management services (frequent=1 per year...so not that frequent)...I honestly see just as much dog poo and garbage in the streets as I saw in Paris

I am excited about getting to know this city, and am excited for the adventures to come. Jonathan and I have started hiking, swimming and other various activities (soon rock-climbing, I hope!) and I will soon be starting a master's program at the Université de Provence in Aix. It is a degree in Anthropology and Jobs in Development, the goal is that after this first year of courses and next year's internship in a developing country, us young buck master's students will be primed for the development, ngo, non-profit rich world we've got out there.  Hey! You, 50 page bibliography? It's go time.

Ok, ta-ta for now, time to go to the library,

Kelsy

View from our window

Montpézat

La Sainte Baume