24 Mars 2008: MTV shows are just as bad in French...

Paques in Marseille! My first Easter away from home. A few of us ventured to Marseille, a city in Southern France along the Mediterranean. I ate one too many baguettes and too many pastries while I was there but it was entirely worth it. There aren't many actual sites to see in Marseille but we spent the weekend walking around, checking out the shops and the old port, and just walking along the beach. And our hotel room had a TV with CNN in English! I hate to say that we watched a lot of TV but it was definitely constant background music when were at the hotel because we really have missed it a lot. Anyways, we had a few nice train rides, a lot of unhealthy food, and a few very windy beach afternoons.

We went to Easter Mass at the Notre-Dame Basilica down the street from our hotel, which was very nice, aside from one simple thing: there were no line for Communion. It was survival of the fittest and it was complete chaos. It just left everyone scrambling around, walking over other people trying to get to one of the ten stations, then trying to climb back into their seats in a weird order. We had to go to the back of the Church because one poor, old man was so confused with the whole ordeal that he stood in front of our pew with his cane until we finally gave up blocking the aisle traffic. It was ridiculous and if I was ever a member of that congregation, I would have shown those people how civilized lines work.

We also hit up the local cinema for a movie on Sunday night and saw the one film whose sign said it was originally American. We assumed that meant it would be in English with some French subtitles but I guess one should never assume because we definitely felt like asses when it was all in French and we could hardly understand anything. It was like our incomprehension was being shoved in our faces with each punchline that we failed to understand. I mean, we could get the general idea of the movie just watching it, especially because it was a Jack Black film and no serious conversation was involved, but it was still quite an unexpected blow. It was enjoyable nonetheless but it still hurts.