Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Gonna Walk Around!

Guess who has an Anatomy and Physiology practical exam on the bones? This guy! Wish me luck!

Picture of a skeleton with text saying "The average human body contains enough bones to make an entire human skeleton."

Protesting, Birthdays, and Unintentional Coordination

My weekend involved all three of the things in the title. On Saturday I went to the March for Our Lives protest. Here's an article about it. And here are a few pictures I ganked from the article:

Panoramic view of the crowd at the protest in Worcester.

Marching crowd at the Worcester protest.

After that, I went to my family's house to celebrate my brother's birthday:

Brother and fiancee with the cake she made him.

My baby brother is 30!!! I feel so old!!!

On Sunday I went to church and then visited Pacman and Purl. No pictures of any of that. Then on Monday (which is still the weekend for me), I visited some other friends and found I was unintentionally coordinated with one of them:

True friends dress in orange and brown.

Test Day

Meme with a photograph of a baby cackling with laughter with the words "Kicked that anatomy exam in the gluteus maximus haha" written over it in white text.

First day back in the states and I had an Anatomy and Physiology exam. The timing was crap but fortunately I remembered what I'd studied before break so I think I did fine.

Backdated trip recap posts to come! Since that seems to make more sense for the blog timeline than posting it without backdating now that I'm home.

Backdated Post - Traveling Home

After a fun night on the boat, it was time for us to dock in Toulon - just in time to see the sun rise!

Sun rising over Toulon!

More sunrise over the city.

Pink sky view from the boat.

I only had a few hours in Toulon because my plan was to catch the train to Nice and then take the airplane home from there. Because of the time crunch, I decided I would just sight-see on my way to the train station.

Boats on the docks.

Pretty fountain.

Me and a cool building.

You can see the mountains in the background.

Palm trees line the streets.

The statue is Le Génie de la Navigation by Louis-Joseph Daumas, 1847. 

Boats in front of the maritime museum.

Front of the maritime museum.

The Naval Base. Obviously not allowed in here. 

Me in front of some random American flag street art making a confused face - why is this here?!

Pretty building.

Pretty fountain.

Building with bust of Admiral Victor Senes.

I did stop for a short while at Place de la Liberté. The square was originally called Place d'Armes because it was used for military manoeuvres, but it was renamed in 1889 to mark the centenary of the French Revolution. The fountain in the square is called La Fontaine de la Fédération was made in 1980 and it marks the centenary of the French Revolution. The three figures are supposed to represent (from left to right): Force, Freedom, and Justice.

The square - you can see the fountain in the distance.

Me in front of the fountain.

Looking from the fountain back out of the square.

After that brief stop, it was back on my walk to the train station.

The Commerce and Industry building.

Street with a view of the mountains in the distance.

I love these iron balconies.

The train station!

I was excited to see that the train station had a piano! Clearly this meant it was time for some impromptu karaoke. I sat myself down and played/sang "Someone Like You" by Adele because it's the only pop song I could remember how to play on the piano that is both in my vocal range and likely to be known by a bunch of random French people in a train station. A group of teenagers actually sang along with me so I was pretty happy about that. Unfortunately I was also kind of embarrassed at drawing so much attention to myself (clearly I hadn't thought that part through) so in my rush to get away from the piano after I finished my song I managed to drop my phone and crack the corner of its screen. Oh, well.

Piano.

Train tracks.

Me awaiting my train.

The ride to Nice was lovely but I was dismayed to discover that the station in Nice charges you to use the bathroom. Sigh. I stopped for a little bit to charge my phone and met a nice man from Sweden who caught the bus to the airport with me. We parted ways at the gate and I caught my first airplane with no problems.

The second plane was more frustrating. The connection was confusing and I was picked for "extra security" - which literally happens to me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. No joke. It's ridiculous how much time and money the United States is wasting on a random dude from MA with no criminal record. Thanks to this extra security, I held up the plane, which did exactly nothing to endear me to everyone else on board. And I had no time to fill my water bottle or use the bathroom because I was busy getting an unnecessary pat-down. When I did finally get settled in my seat, I discovered that the man in front of me had a serious issue with gas. It would have been impressive if it wasn't so unpleasant. This was my face by the time I made it home:

Unhappy me on my last flight.

On the plus side, it was a wonderful trip overall and I was greeted by Joy, Mini T, and Belle who were excited to look at all of my photos and share the Corsican delicacies I had brought with me.

Backdated Post - Last Day in Corsica

This was my last day in Corsica. Feather, Dolphin, and Wolfie were taking a plane so we said our goodbyes and they dropped me off at the ferry. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to park my suitcase so I wound up taking it with me for the day.

This is where you go to catch your ferry.

My (GIANT) ferry.

I walked into town past some men selling fresh sea urchins. If I wasn't a vegetarian I would have been curious enough to try them since I've never seen anyone eating sea urchins and the people near the stall seemed to like them a lot.

Sea urchins.

When I got to the Hotel De Ville there was a concert going on. I don't have photographs but I will tell you that there were singers doing Corsican polyphony and the music was gorgeous. Here's a clip of Corsican polyphony I found online so you can hear what I'm talking about:



After watching the concert, I looked around the square and saw multiple people selling candles and rosaries and icons in front of a building labeled "Madunuccia." When I asked about it I was told that today was the feast for Ajaccio's patron saint - Madonna of Mercy. I made a mental note to go to church in time for the service.

Some of the candles.

The building in question, with Mary statue and flower arch.

Then I spent some time wandering around the town.

Pretty red tree.

Tiny liberty turtle graffiti.

Pretty moss-covered old building.

Another pretty crumbling building.

Mary statue over a door. There are lots of these in Corsica.

Lantivy Palace, built in 1826. The prefecture has been housed here since 1838.
It also houses the Southern Corsica Developmental Counsel and the counsel chamber. 

At this point I was excited to find a boulangerie near Lantivy Palace that was open despite it being Sunday. I bought myself a quiche for lunch and a bunch of canistrelli for the boat ride.

Mmmmm... Quiche!

Me smiling and holding up a bag of canistrelli.

After I ate, I hung out for a bit around Place Général de Gaulle. The most noteworthy features of the area are a carousel, a large open space to run about in, lots of pigeons and seagulls, and a monument of Napoleon with four of his brothers. The monument was inaugurated in 1865 and it originally faced towards the ocean. In 1969, on the bicentennial of Napoleon's birth, it was turned around to face the city.

Me in front of the monument.

Closer up view of the monument.

Side view of the monument.

The ocean is at the edge of the area with the monument, so I spent a while sitting there and watching the sea.

Me in front of the ocean.

Pigeon, palm trees, sea, and sky.

The coastline.

Sea and sand. 

The ocean and the clouds.

At this point it was time for church. I made my way back to Ajaccio Cathedral and arrived just as things were getting started so I crossed myself with holy water, lit a candle by the statue of Mary on the side of the church, and grabbed a seat towards the back. We prayed the rosary a BUNCH of times, the priests came to the front of the church and said some blessings, and then it was time for the procession. Various monks, nuns, and religious orders led the group, and the center of the parade was a large statue of Mary of Mercy covered with flowers and hoisted in the air by a group of men. Luckily for me, I'm quick at learning music so I was able to sing along as I joined the gigantic crowd in a procession around the city. No photos of the prayer service since that would be disrespectful. Instead I took a photo of the outside of the church, one of the statue and candles after the service, and a bunch of photos of the procession since everyone in the city was taking photos of that part.

Outside of the cathedral. You might recognize it from my last post in Ajaccio.

Mary statue with flowers. 

Prayer candles. 

Procession starting in the church.

Isn't it gorgeous? 

More of the procession.

The women in blue are in the Confrérie de la Miséricorde.

More procession.

Mary held up by 12 men.

Me in the crowd once we reached the town square.

Crowd shot of the square - you can see Mary in the middle.

After the procession, I decided I should eat before getting on the boat so I stopped at one of the very few open restaurants for dinner. Then I made my way back to Quay l'Herminier for boarding. As you could probably guess from the photo of it earlier in this post, my boat was HUGE. It had multiple floors, multiple restaurants, multiple bathrooms, a play space for kids, and actual bedrooms for us since it was an overnight ferry. I'm guessing this is what cruise ships are like?

I started my trip on the deck since I tend to prefer being outside, but the rain and hail that started up once we got underway drove me back to the interior. That was ok, though, since I realized one of the restaurants actually had a piano bar! I decided to spend the rest of my evening drinking fruity mixed drinks and chatting with my fellow passengers while listening to some jazz piano. Not bad.

Me on the deck.

Goodbye Corsica!

Hallway with large portholes looking out to the deck.

Me with my fruity mixed drink. You can see the pianist in the background.