Making Friends in Marseille

Arriving in Marseille was kind of a shock. 
I was so used to living in a dorm with 60 other people. I'm the type of person that needs human interaction (at least once a day)... I'm not going to say I don't like quite, alone time, but I like people... Probably one of the reasons I chose Marseille instead of like Port Grimaud or a tiny French village or something where it surely would have been cheaper and the majority of people twice my age.

This painting makes me wish I had lived in a Provence village though...

I began writing, touring, reading, researching (as always), and exploring... But I was beginning to think I'd be lost unless I learned French over night...

I met with the Production Company I would be interning for, as I mentioned before, and they all spoke English pretty well, but they're not 19-21 year old students all prepared to Party in Prague... Didn't realized this until I got there... But Prague is supposedly the Party Capital of Europe... So many clubs and it's so cheap to drink... Plus in small amounts, most drugs are legal... Not that that's relevant to me at all.

Many more tourists in Prague than Marseille. And many more clubs... Not to mention BECHEROVKA

So... On May 27th, I went to couchsurfing.com looking to see if anyone needed a host. It just so happened that a young traveling Chinese guy needed a place immediately the next night for three nights and no one had yet offered to host him... I decided I would do just that. And, hey, I'd be able to practice my Chinese!

What I fun guy!
Or so I thought for the first day. He was so excited that I spoke Chinese and knew Chinese culture. We listened to Chinese pop music and toured all of the places that I'd already toured.

I watched Days of Being Wild by Wong Kar Wai (he fell asleep near the beginning), drank French wine (I feel guilty if I do it alone... it's a social thing after all... however I think he took it as more than just social... He kept awkwardly cheersing me like every 3 minutes... romantic or something??), and did loads and loads of talking (the first night. very openly which may have given him the wrong idea?)....

He said he's never met anyone so open minded..

I mean, I guess that's true, but when you compare the Chinese way of thinking to the American way of thinking... we are all very open-minded. That's one cool thing about France.... They're super open-minded as well. I think probably more so than the Czech Republic...

Then... I got sick... Stomach problems (again)... So two things brought me down his first full day here: my stomach and his incessant flirting... I tried not to let it bother me. Overall it was an okay day... But I think the stomach problems only became worse because he insisted on making me homemade Chinese food. Super super considerate, but not at all what I'm used to eating with my sensitive stomach.

We listened to all the Chinese pop I learned in high school and he was convinced I was going to re-memorize one of the songs and perform it and become famous in China... He wouldn't let it go...

However, there are three reasons I'm glad he came... I wasn't bored, I got to improve my Chinese (finally), and the last night he was here, we went out and I made some Marseille friends. We went to a few places: a tapas bar, a bar, another bar, and then on our way home E-Wine (a wine bar that plays electronic music?) where in order to get away from his unwanted attention, I turned to these cool Williamsburg looking girls (awful to say, but easiest way to describe them without getting into French style... Either way, it's definitely a cool French style) and asked if they spoke English. We got to talking. Their friends showed up and they invited us to hang out at their apartment.

Don't mind the scratch on my iPhone lens... It makes everything blurry and unclear

So glad I met them. Definitely excited to make more friends in Marseille. Such a rich culture.

My couchsurfer passed out and I had to take him home where he attempted to "make memories" as he called it, but I forced him out of my bed... 
And in the morning he was gone... Off to Paris.

Oh the people you'll meet.
What exciting adventures.
What different cultures. And while My chinese friend had a personality that was unwanted at times, I respect the differences in culture and where he was coming from. I'm sure if I was a Chinese guy and a young pretty American girl began talking to me so openly and was so willing to go on adventures with me, I'd be flirty... But either way.... People are weird. :)