BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - IU volleyball standout Katie Pollom is studying abroad in France this semester and has graciously agreed to chronicle her time in Europe throughout the semester for IUHOOSIERS.com. This is the 11th installment of her diary series.

"Before I start chronicling my week I just want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with Jamey Chapman, the women's basketball family, and all who know and love her (particularly my teammates who live with Jamey)... as well as James Bailey from the football team...some things are just much more important right now than describing a week in France....

This has definitely been a whirlwind of a week, but a good whirlwind nonetheless! Last Thursday, I met my close friends Neal and Christina at the airport. I spent Thursday night and Friday morning giving them a taste of my life in Aix-en-Provence. On Friday afternoon, the three of us took a train to Nice, which is located east of Aix on the sea. Nice (pronounced Neece) could very well be pronounced, as it is in English...nice! The city is a popular tourist destination and I understand why...it is beautiful, sunny, and on the water. We stayed in an old monastery converted into a hostel, which was voted in the top seven hostels in the world...it was very nice: clean and pretty (with stained glass windows). However, it was about a 45-minute walk from Vieux Nice (the old town) so we all got a good workout each time we decided not to take the bus.

Saturday, we spent the day exploring Nice...we went to the fruit and flower market in the morning, ate a picnic by the water, then made our way to the Chagall and Matisse museums...a lot of walking (but definitely worth it because the art was phenomenal)! Both nights we went to the grocery because nearly everyone cooked his or her own dinners in the large kitchen at the hostel. On Sunday (Easter) we took a daytrip to Monaco, which is a principality just east of Nice on the Cote d'Azur. It's actually not far from Italy. We visited the famous Monte Carlo and walked around a bit. We saw the prince's palace from afar (Prince Rainier III is in the hospital right now...the guy who was married to Grace Kelley...so there were police closely guarding the entrance to the hospital). We were all exhausted and got some rest on the train ride back to Aix on Sunday evening.

Christina left early Monday morning to head home to Norway, but I had no class since Easter Monday is a holiday in France, so Neal and I visited Marseille. I took him to the most famous attractions in the city. We could only stay for the morning, however, because I had to be back by 2 p.m. to study for my upcoming midterms. Tuesday morning, I woke up with a stomach flu, which made studying rather difficult! However, they do have Sprite and saltines in Aix, which helped to settle my stomach, and I took my African Anthropology midterm anyway Tuesday night. Neal left on Wednesday morning, and I spent the majority of the day studying for my theatre dissertation. Boy am I glad that's over! The French dissertation is very different than essays we have to write in the US. We were given a quote and allowed to use our French/English dictionaries as well as the two plays we had read as references. Then, we had to come up with an introduction, problematic (a question that we basically had to prove), a thesis, an antithesis, and conclusion that related the quote we were given to the plays we had read. Well, four hours and eight pages of writing later, the other Americans and I were giving each other high fives (one of my friends even did a cartwheel in the hall!) I am sure that my French grammar was atrocious because I did not have time to proofread it at the end (and afterward my brain would not really function in either French or English!), but it felt great to be done!

Yesterday, I met up with a guy from the Congo who started the African Dance Company in Aix, and he invited me to come watch them dance this morning (they dance every morning for about three hours!) I told them that I have a djimbe (African drum) back home, so the drummer let me play his djimbe while he played these two other drums, which are well known in India. After about an hour I even joined in on the dancing a bit...needless to say, they didn't really have to twist my arm! They are preparing for performances in May, so it is interesting to watch them bring together their different ideas and styles (because they come from different countries in Africa). They invited me to go to lunch with them afterward, which I graciously accepted, and I am going back tomorrow to watch again :) I learned so much about their respective countries of the Congo, Senegal, Guinea, and Algeria this morning, and I'm looking forward to learning more. I'll let you know how that goes! There are also hip-hop events this coming week in Aix, which I am looking forward to...I'm in dance and music heaven right now!

Until next time, take care everyone and have a good week!
Katie"