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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hello from Perpignan!

Hello from Perpignan - the Catalan city nestled between the Pyrénées Mountains and the Mediteranean Sea in the south of France...The city of sunshine & palm trees; of Aristide Maillol & Mallorcan kings; of Rusquies (frosted donut-shaped cookies) & Cargolades (tiny cooked snails with salsa); of thick southern accents & warm individuals; of theatre & rugby! Basically, Perpignan is everything you could hope for and more in a place to live. It has only one flaw - the wind (unless of course you're my father, in which case Perpignan is heaven).

When Marco, my Parisian host father warned me, "there is wind in Perpignan", I didn't think too much of it. However unlike Chicago, which earned its reputation of being the 'windy city' from its politics, Perpignan has wind so strong, it merits its own name - Tramontaine. Anyway, the irony is that every time I tell someone in Perpignan that I'm from Chicago, they say, "Oh, Chicago! The windy city...". I guess with a name like Aria (meaning air in Italian), I'll never escape the wind. It will continue to blow me from one adventure to the next, and as long as I don't try to go against it, this 'wind' will only empower me.

But enough about wind, metophorical or literal. Let me first take a moment to thank you for following this blog. For a while, I went back and forth (see how windy I am!) about whether to create a blog during my time abroad; quite honestly I'm not sure if what I have to say is interesting enough or merits being read. But for various reasons - the largest one being that I have such limited communication here in Perpignan (internet access is like gold here) and blogging is a good way to reach anyone who wants to keep up with me - I decided to go for it. Secondly, let me apologize in advance for any typos (and there will be many I assure you). I am using the computers at my school to create this blog, and not only is the language set to French (so no spell check), but the keyboard is that funky french one, with all the letters scrambled in strange places. Now I know what old people must feel like who never learned to type and have to pay super close attention to the keyboard, haha.

Anyway, I promise to post something every Wednesday (with the acception of the first real post, which will appear tomorrow). The posts might be long or short, and I will try to keep them interesting. Please feel free to comment, and if there's something you want me to write about, let me know.

Bisous (kisses),
Aria


Lycée Aristide Maillol (high school where I work)
Palace of Mallorca
Arago Square, Perpignan city center
Perpignan city center
Perpignan city center with view of "Castillet"
Mediterranean Sea (15 min drive from city center)

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