I'm in Arles...NO MORE PARIS!! :)

WHEWWWW, I am soooo very happy to be out of Paris. No more city, no more metro, no more dirty smelly streets. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time there, but after 5 weeks in that place, I am so tired of it. I think the city life just isn't for me. Too much time among the craziness of a huge city makes me want to be in a rural place. Even the train ride was a relief. We went through hills, farmland, and beautiful parts of France that people probably don't even know exist. It almost reminded me of the Midwest, only with more hills, of course. See, it seems like to me…after living in Paris for 5 weeks, that it's all hyped up for no reason. When Americans think of Paris, most people think it's so beautiful, romantic, and charming. Well it can be…in some places, but I've seen a side of Paris that people don't hear about. It's a huge, busy, crazy, dirty city with tourists running around everywhere, so much like New York or any other large American city. Nothing too special. But ok…now that I've gotten that taken care of, I'll tell you all about my day. We checked out of our annoying hotel (I can explain later if you want to know why it was bad) and visited Marie for one last time, which was so sad. I wish she was here with us, and we're all gonna miss her. So we took the train to Avignon, where we were supposed to catch a bus to Arles. But the Tour de France had stopped traffic for several hours, so we had no clue when the bus would come. Just the fact that something so important stalled our trip made it that much easier. Brian may have been jealous to know we were within kilometers of the race, although he will be near the race the rest of the month. So we got a taxi which took us to the Arles train station where we met up with the IES staff. They showed us to our hotel, and we got settled in. By the way, our hotel is soooo beautiful. It's in a very old building, and the rooms are big and cozy. And Arles is a perfect relief from the nastiness which was Paris. It is absolutely beautiful. The streets are narrow, the architecture is old and amazing, and it's quiet, yet there's a lot going on. The IES people took us to dinner, right near Le Café La Nuit, where Van Gogh painted his famous painting (he lived in Arles). It's sooo amazingly wonderful here so far, although I'm too tired to take it all in tonight. Tomorrow we're going to the market, and we will begin our photo viewing (there's 28 different shows). Arles is near the beach, so I'm sure we will be going there this week too. It's very hot here, but it's beautiful, southern heat…not the smoggy, musty heat that was all over Paris. I am so amazingly happy to not have to worry about assignments or projects this week. I can just concentrate on shooting photos of this beautiful area of France. There's no internet here, so I am writing this as I go and I'll add the stuff from this week when I get back. Have a great week, I miss and love you all.
Love,
Lex

P.S. On the way here, there were hundreds of sunflower fields! It was so sweeeet!