It's the little things in life.

Slightly bored so decided to take a pic...Thanks again Ashley & Co for my halloween goodies! Coke hasn't tasted this good for a while! I'll post pictures of our halloween decorated apartment soon !

friday friday

I've been unusually exhausted all the time lately...I don't know what's up with that but I went to bed relatively early last night and woke up around 1030 this morning still feeling zonked! Once I finally got a head start on the day I scheduled all my classes for winter quarter...

• theories of argument
• Introduction to communication theory
• nonverbal communication (Again because apparently the last one I took was just for kicks and doesn't apply to my major?)
• Rhetorical theory
• gender communication
• history and thought: buddhism (Finally going to get a real handle on OHM ---->)

Then I went to mail the package to the Hitchcocks which was not a simple feat, there's a lot of discourse involved with shipping a package it seems. Hope I did everything right and it will get through customs easily but (spoiler for hitchcocks) I was trying to explain that there was a small teddy bear (Because I had to list everything I was sending, I forgot a few things so I hope they don't confiscate them) so I said un petit ours...a small bear...my accent was bad and she didn't understand ours, after I spelled it, she pronounced it differently and laughed and said in french that there could not possibly be a bear in this box, it is too small! It was pretty funny. I hope it arrives...My friend Alexa is still waiting on her envelope of goodies (very small so it fit in an envelope) and she is in Seattle and I won't let on how long ago I sent it, but it should have gotten there...Maybe it's tied up in customs...

so now that those two are done it's almost laundry time. Hooooooray. Then I'll see where the day takes me...

General

So for my communications course I had to write a journal for 'Intercultural Sensitivity Development' and I thought I came up with one that was fairly interesting, and thought I'd share. Don't forget to read the continued part of the Strasbourg trip below!

            Us versus them. I was/am, inclined to think of it like that, living in Paris that is. That the Parisians see us as the foreign invaders, alien threats, that aren’t quite threats, just more of pesky nuisances that are a constant insult to their culture. So I tread softly and try to blend in to the Parisian lifestyle as I know it or pretend to understand it so as to not offend. I feel crestfallen if I say bonjour to a bonsoir, I’m still getting used to that…and I never know what’s up with the ‘pardon’s. If I am in a crowded place and say pardon repeatedly, no one moves. I am forced to resort to shoving and elbowing my way through the crowd of Parisians. I feel as though they have been affronted by my abuse of the crowd, but it seems as though all of my ‘pardon’s fall on deaf ears. And then there’s the issue of bumping into someone/stepping on someone or just something plain awkward that would render a quick ‘sorry’ back home. I accidentally stepped on a man’s foot and kind of shoved him on my way out of the metro, but it was his choice to lean on the door and refuse to shift at the station. I said, “Pardon, desolee monsieur,” and hurried out of the way. I felt so awful for having ‘hurt’ someone. But in all reality, this was no offense, I, could not have possibly have hurt him by treading on him and shuffling past him. This is a day to day occurrence for those not only in Paris but anyone living in a big city.  So maybe that is why I get no reply if I say ‘pardon’ for any of the aforementioned reasons, I always expect a ‘ca va’ or ‘c’est d’accord’ in response to my mea culpa, but nothing ever comes of it. On the flip side, it’s quite rare that someone does one of the things mentioned to me and issues a ‘pardon’. So when is this word actually required? What is the use? The politesse of the culture seems to dictate it, being that Parisians are supposed to be nose upturned (in the best way possible), chic, elegant people, I mean, they drink water out of wine glasses! But there seems like there is no room for it, at least not in the metros of Paris.

Continued

 

I thought ordering food in France was hard, it was triple hard in Germany! We had a quick lunch at a restaurant in the little town at the top of the Black Forest, right by the Titisee lake. I opted for bratwurst and mashed potatoes, seemed like the safest choice. And of course bratwurst was a good choice in honor of Rick, (I tried to eat the sourkraut because I know how you love it, but guess what? It's still not good).

I kept seeing these little witches all around the shops here, and upon seeing these, the witch to the far right has pumpkins on her dress, I am led to assume that Germany must celebrate Halloween! Or maybe these are just supposed to be witches who lurk in the Black Forest...Up for debate....

A beautiful view. We only had 45 minutes to 1 hour here, and then spent 1 hour walking 

around Freiburg, Germany (which was just that, walking, not really any 

sights, so I wish we had stayed here.) and you could also rent a small

boat for a half hour for a low price to go into the lake which would have 

been nice to do had we had more time. It reminded Erin and I a lot of

our trip to North Carolina this spring, the driving through the mountains 

and fog to get to the top, and this lake is a lot like one Nini showed us in NC.

 

We headed back to Strasbourg after our tours of the Black Forest and Freiburg and took a boat tour of the Ill river running through Strasbourg. We took a very strange kind of boat...

 

So the picture I got was a very good shot!

And that's pretty much it! We waited for the time to meet up for the train and took the 2-3 hour trip back which felt like forever because we were so tired.

Strasbourg and Freiburg!

This weekend we had a trip to Strasbourg, France and Freiburg, Germany that was organized by our program CEA and was included in our program.

Saturday morning we were up early to get to the train station at 745 which feels really early on a Saturday morning! We met up at the station with about 20 or so other girls, and boarded the train to S.burg which is about a two and a half hour trip. It's amazing how quickly the landscape changes from urban to very rural when leaving the city. Anyway, once we got to S.burg and off the train, we were all quite surprised to notice how much colder it was there! 40-50 f! Brr! (Coldest Paris has been is 60s). We took a bus to our hotel/hostel and immediately headed out to go check out the town. We walked through a cute antiques market and stopped in front of the cathedral.

 

I found it to be even more beautiful than notre dame...blasphemy, I know!
We had some free time to wander around and get some lunch and we decided on a bratwurst. (Strasbourg is verrrry close to the German border...seems like about 20 minutes, lots of German influence)

Once we returned for a tour of the Cathedral and the old town, we were all very cold and damp, it had been raining since we arrived.

After the tour finished, we had some more time which we spent napping at the hotel, followed by dinner with the group. The dinner was very good, a sort of pizza dish followed by chicken and vegetables and weird pasta noodle things. After dinner some of the girls decided to go out and grab a drink and we finally were making some friends!

Nobody looks happy here, but it is not the case!

Time for a haircut! Agh!

The next day we headed for the Black Forest in Germany which surprisingly looks a lot like the Smokies in North Carolina....But it was very pretty and it was a fun time strolling through the little town that sits up by the Titisee lake.

....to be continued (I am sooo tired and I have class bright and early!)

vendredi

I made a terrible spur of the moment decision and bought leopard print, stiletto booties. I couldn't help myself. I saw them one day and could not stop thinking about them. So in order to prep myself for wearing them, I thought it was tantamount to practice prancing around paris in my already broken in pair of booties that I brought with me. Heels aren't comfortable or easy for me to wear, but I was determined to make it work so that I could wear these fabulous new shoes out.

Erin and I went out and decided to walk around. So far so good from our apartment to the metro station. Stairs down into the metro? Not so easy. Through the metro? Not easy either. But I'm out of practice. So we get out at Hotel de Ville to go to BHV and look for nailpolish because I discovered on my pointless excursion for halloween decorations that they had very nice nailpolishes for very cheap prices. It's a hot day, I'm killing myself with tromping around in these high heels, and sweating profusely. (Walking in stilettos is a major workout for your calves) BHV is the star of the solar system in Paris. The hottest place temperature wise (AC doesn't exist in Europe as far as I'm concerned) and everyone flocks to it.

Unfortunately my brakes are also out on my stilettos, and being so clustered, I can't maneuver. This is starting to seem like a very bad idea. I can't regulate my temperature, and I'm sweating, and there's too many people in a small area.  We make our way out and find a stoop to take a breather on.  We stumble upon the familiar, being right by our school, and also  the least paved area of Paris it seems.  I wobble, and weeble and soon enough I mistake a crack and have a near fall. A half block later, right in front of a cafe, I have another. How embarrassing to falter in front of all these Parisians! So I am just about to die from embarrassment and Erin has to go to class so I embark on the metro to hurry home. Going down these stairs to this metro however, and using the railing and being careful, I fall about three steps, as gracefully as one can imagine, I'll add, and all my heel confidence and Parisian confidence is gone. I board the metro to the next station and somehow take another almost spill. Merde! How is this happening? I don't usually fall, I can't ever say I'm a magnificent strutter in heels, but this is a rarity. Unless I have been drinking… Haha. At the next platform I sit down and admit defeat and take the heels off and put on these new boots I found for an absolute steal. Ego is cracked and bruised, and I'm sweating from total embarrassment. I return home, defeated, and believe that I will never again try to wear heels in Paris again. Erin assures me that it'd be difficult for anyone, but I just felt like I failed, and so so sad that I wouldn't be able to wear my new leopard print heels here.

My new mission is to spot any Parisian women wearing heels and wait for them to trip to ensure myself that I was not an utter fool.

Two posts coming soon! Homework comes first ! I hope to have them up by tomorrow night.
Stay tuned. :)

jeudi soir

Bonjour a tous,

So it's almost the eve of the first of October...and our fall weather is no where in sight. It's incredibly hot and I can't stop complaining about it! It is the hottest September Paris has seen in 25 years and it is also hotter than July was! Mon dieu! (I also complain because I sent home all my summer clothes with Nathan...gra grr gah).

So I got to thinking how much I miss last week's weather, the chill and being able to wear jackets, I was just getting comfortable with the fact that I wasn't going to be cooking all day in the sun, and I can't stop thinking about fall. It's here (well not in sight, but it poked it's head around last week) and my brain is on alert for when it is time to put out halloween/harvest decorations. One small problem: The French don't celebrate Halloween. Oh. No. I've done exhaustive searches looking for little decorations for the apartment, to no avail. The best I found was some skeleton key chains and skull candles in the gift shop outside of the catacombs. I would be able to suffice with harvest decorations, but there aren't any either! Sheesh! I am very spoiled by the way the States celebrates this holiday, and it's official. I could never be an expat and live in Paris. Simply for the reason that fall weather plays hide and seek but mostly because I miss out on the time of year I love most back home. I can make do with the trees, they're absolutely beautiful, but there's just such a cozy feeling to fall back home. Not to mention the spooky atmosphere that lurks during the month of October.

P.S. Oh and nothing beats driving around top down in Ruby during autumn.

Lundi

It's monday.


GROSS.

I have nothing to wear.

  A picture from when Nathan was here and we were exploring Paris at midnight. (Feels much safer than Cincinnati...at any hour haha)

Today is rotten. I feel rotten. Haven't been getting enough sleep and I'm feeling under the weather. I made it to class today to give a presentation, it went really well, and then was allowed to leave class early to come back home. Went back to bed, Erin went to class, and now it is 4 pm. I just realized Erin won't be home til 730 pm, and started to pout about how things would be easier if I were sick at home. For instance:

1. Sweatpants are accepted, if not encouraged.
2.I could have driven to school and back instead of packing into the metro.
3.Delivery food options!
4.I could drive to get food.
5.No complex thought process on how to order food since I wouldn't need to speak french.
6.French food is still growing on me, I'm pretty picky when I'm sick so there aren't very many options anyway. ( Can you tell I'm hungry? Haha)
7.My heating pad is at home.
8. I have a great chiropractor at home that doesn't break the bank.
9.uhhh..kitties make me feel better!


Okay okay, so a pretty lousy post, but I had to complain somewhere! Now it's back to sleep...No class tomorrow so I don't run the risk of missing anything, I just hope that I start to feel better soon because lying in bed in Paris all day is boring!!!!!

2 weeks behind! AHHH

Desole mes petits.... I try to keep on top of blogging and then , well yeah it doesn't happen.

So anyway, don't have time to recap on two weeks just now, but I just wanted to real quick chat about my homework for my oenology class-history of wine!

We were sent on a mission to find a caviste (wine shop) in our neighborhood and that these were designated by just having wine-when you see one you can't miss it. Well I wasn't able to find one in my 'hood until last week with Nathan, turns out it's less than a block away...oops.

Well I wasn't really feeling this assignment because I had to write a transcript of the conversation down and I was nervous about grilling someone about all these wines.

J'ai plus de questions pour vous monsieur, vous pouvez aide-lui avant moi. (I whipped that out out of nowhere! Translation: I have many questions for you monsieur, you can help him before me.) I said that because there was a rather grumpy older gentleman who entered the caviste after me who kept eyeballing me and edging closer to the caviste owner.

When it was finally my turn, I was able to ask most everything in French and understood most of everything he said back...even though I said I was a student and it was clear I wasn't a native french speaker, he didn't slow down his speech one bit...AHH! I felt bad just wasting his time with silly questions and the other part of the hw was to try some wine anyway, so I asked him what kind of wine he would suggest with beef? He wanted more details...I was pretty embarrassed to tell him my dinner was going to be hamburgers avec frites (with french fries) but ce n'est pas grave, he offered me one called Binet Jacquet (aw cute, it rhymes) and here's more info.
I got it for a bargain of 12 euros though, I'll let you know how I like it.

Bonsoir!

Bonjour tout le monde!

Hello everybody! Just wanted to drop a quick update, still trying to make up for my long absence...

I know I promised the Venice trip would be next but that's going to take some time and it's 10 pm here and I have been doing a lot of homework and reading tonight. (And I had class at 915...wah wah right? Seriously though I haven't had to be up that early for a while!)

I am liking my classes (French, Communication & Global Competence, Haute Couture: History of style and Fashion, and Oenology-study of wine), and they are no joke. I am kind of disappointed that they are all taught in English (with the exception of my French class) because I am used to my summer school in Antibes, where it was not only a "french intensive boot camp" but only french was heard, which makes your comprehension far better. So while I was scheduling and planning back in Spring, I doubted my ability to be able to understand these topics in French...Now I wish I had challenged myself more!

It's also a shame that my french class is only two days a week for a little over an hour. I am used to 3-4 hours of just french everyday! So it's going to be something Erin and I are going to have to undertake while here in Paris to make sure our French keeps on improving. I was told Paris was not the best place to study because everyone speaks English. False. Many do, but it is also somewhat insulting when someone (peers for example) start to speak to a server, store employee, someone on the street for directions, etc, in English just expecting them to speak back in English. The French are stereotyped as rude...but you'd be surprised how nice they can be if you simply start off with a 'Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?'

Also speaking English, and American English, targets us as 'rich' Americans, something pick pockets and thieves are constantly looking for. Our advisors during orientation suggested that if you're not going to speak French in highly crowded areas (metros, parks, bars) it's better to not speak at all so you don't draw attention to yourself.

It's now just about two days til Nathan gets here and I am so excited! Time really does fly! (Although it feels like this week is dragging on...)

That's all for now! Bonne nuit mes amis!

vendredi soir

Bonjour !

Just a quick update while it's on my mind...Our apartment is darling and cozy for sure, I'll get around to getting pics soon, but unfortunately it has its pitfalls. This building, built in 1850, has extremely thin walls and we've been warned about our sensitive neighbor who shares his bedroom wall with our living room. Well, there's a tenant somewheres around here (we've got neighbors on every side except below us) who fancies themself a musician. This is Paris, can't he go sing sappy songs and play guitar in a street somewhere? I wouldn't be bothered by it if he weren't crappy haha....it's the truth I'm sorry.

Our 'sensitive' neighbor is pretty friendly, to me at least. I ran in to him in the hallway yesterday morning with his two cats! We had a brief talk about his cats in french, he walks them every day! Can you imagine? Maybe I should try this with Bert and Earnie...

SPAIN

So once our program ended in Antibes, we stored our luggage (we didn't manage to pack lightly-who could for a six month stay?) and boarded our first train of our journey. This was an interesting event in itself because of first encountering some very strange oddball individuals. Try riding a train for four hours in a compartment for four people and having someone stare at you for 3 and a half hours, and this was the least awkward part.

Our trip to Valencia was anything but easy, we had to get so many connections because everything was mostly booked because holiday season here in Europe, most everyone takes a month holiday! So you can imagine that. We had a train from Antibes to Narbonne which was about five hours. When we got there we had to scramble to make our next train to Cerbere where we had a decent layover of 2 hours. We just figured we'd get some food at that stop because we had so little time at Narbonne. BIG MISTAKE. This is a warning to everyone, avoid all contact with Cerbere. This place was deserted. It had the feel of a ghost town and was very eerie. And, there was no food to be had. Anywhere. Nothing near by. I can't describe it any better than saying it felt like we fell out of civilization and that this city had been forgotten. I actually don't believe anyone lives there. So after sitting there for what felt like an eternity (2 hours) We continued on to get our train to Barcelona at another connecting station.

Once we reached Barcelona, there were no more trains leaving to Valencia, it was about 1130 at night, we don't speak spanish, and Nathan had forewarned me of how dangerous Barcelona is known to be, especially pickpockets. After a crash course in survival spanish with him on the phone we went in search of a hotel/hostel. All the hostels were booked and each hotel was more expensive than the rest so we ended up staying at a hotel right by the train station which had the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in...or maybe because we had traveled for twelve hours on hot trains...This was also quite a funny relief because when we got into our hotel room (that was beautiful), we realized the lights weren't working. Not wanting to call the desk because they already had a poor impression of us...we searched frantically, it's so funny now but we felt pretty dumb at that point. Eventually we found out there was an obscure slot to slide your hotel key card into and voila! Let there be light! Quite a short stay we showered and immediately went to sleep and woke up and rushed back to the train station, worried about when we could get a train to Valencia.

We were also concerned because our host in Valencia that I booked through airbnb.com, wasn't very helpful in describing how to reach her home. Did I mention she also didn't speak english? This made things very interesting...We got an early train to Valencia and once we got there we ducked into the tourism office to get some help. The girl was so helpful-she called our host, Maria for us and turns out she was coming to pick us up from the station! We were so relieved because we had no clue how to get there otherwise.

She was this little tiny woman, and made me feel like a giant it was pretty funny how we towered over her while she was leading us through the streets of Valencia and she also thought we seriously knew spanish even though I had informed her that we did not. Because she kept speaking to us and all we could do was laugh (because she started laughing-at what? Who knows) and say Si, Claro, Non claro.

So, I thought Antibes in the French Riviera was hot? Not compared to Spain. PHEW I don't know how people can manage it. We went to the city center and walked around and checked out the monuments and had a grand time checking everything out. The next day we spent at the neighborhood pool for Maria's neighborhood and had a blast! Not so keen on ocean swimming...you never know what's in there after all...so we were so eager to actually get to swim! Before we knew it, it was already time to head to Venice, mostly because things were so booked so we had to choose between leaving Valencia two days early, or leaving five days late. We were so ready to switch countries especially because we were exhausted from attempting to communicate with our host. Google Translate was very helpful, but it was very hard to get anything across to her. She kept saying things in spanish over and over just in case we'd be able to understand which after several frustrated minutes we'd finally get the point haha, but as soon as we said anything in english she would walk away and say Non claro.

I'm still really sad because apparently I left my favorite shirt there although it's odd because I'm very thorough on making sure I don't forget anything...sorry you all must know how much I love clothes and can understand why I'd be sad...haha.

This is it for the Valencia recap, up next, Venice!

I'm still here!

Hey guys! Sorry for my long absence, our three week European travels didn't always have the best internet connections and we have been pretty busy!

We are now in Paris, and feel like we own the city already! Haha, kidding. We live in the 11th arrondisement or district which is on the eastern side of the city on the right bank of the Seine. We have so far seen the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Bastille (Where the Bastille prison once stood...until the storming of the Bastille which jumpstarted the French Revolution...July 14, 1789). We have also seen the Louvre and Notre Dame from afar, haha and we also spent a little time at the Luxembourg gardens which are absolutely beautiful.

I apologize for my slack in posting, I get the day off from orientation tomorrow, and I will try to post about my travels to Spain and Italy!

Things I miss...

Things I miss back home
Rick(x10)
Nathan
Kitties
My good friends; I won't name names but you know who you are.
Fame Monster (but it's not like I can find it upon my return)
Netflix/Pandora
Ruby
USD (vs euro)
Texting
Cash Mountain lacking air conditioning...haha ya right.
All of my clothes.... haha

Things I love in Antibes
Outdoor cafes
Fans
Wifi/Skype
Erin and my great roommates
Spring rolls for 1 euro
Pain au chocolat. Best thing ever!
The ocean
Sending Postcards
Getting email
Walking everywhere, and the adrenaline rush of nearly getting hit by a car
French class is truly helping me learn french
Exercise...hell of a walk to school...just kidding I don't really love this part.

A photo of Erin, Alexa (roommate) and I in the old town of Antibes

TGIF

Bonjour tous le monde!

I feel like a slacker due to the lack of updates! This week has flown by, I am surprised that it has already been two weeks here in Antibes, and also can't believe it's only been two weeks at the same time. We visited Monaco this week, it was absolutely beautiful. Incredible to see, but also incredible to believe. To buy a square foot in Monaco it's $33,000 euro! Mon dieu! But it doesn't matter anyway they're very strict about who is allowed to live there, you either need to be born as a Monegasque or be appointed to live there. We did not head to the casino, probably for the best, and we headed off to Cannes.

Here, the Harry Potter movie came out on Tuesday night, but unfortunately we missed out on getting tickets, but that showing was also in french. We found a showing in Cannes in English the next day. So after Monaco we got on the train to Cannes and set out for the theater! It was amazing, I have loved Harry Potter throughout the years and the final chapter of the movies was amazing.

Yesterday was Bastille day, the day of the storming of the Bastille and everything closes and it's treated as the fourth is in the US. I did some walking around and found some cool markets of antiques and such, but spent most of the day in bed with a migraine. Domage frommage.

Besides the day trip this week, we also went to nearby Biot on Tuesday and painted pottery! It was a lot of fun, and I made some really cool designs, I'm looking forward to the final product! Pictures to come!

Well it's 10:19 here and I'm exhausted, the heat does it I think. Beach and market browsing tomorrow, and it's another CEA student's birthday tomorrow so I'm sure there will be some interesting stories to come from that! Until then, missing everybody! Love you all.

samedi matin

Bonne matin.

I passed up on the Aix-en-Provence trip today which consisted of just a tour of the city and later a boat trip to Cassis because the boat trip got canceled and replaced with a trip to a cathedral and vineyard. It didn't sound super exciting and I've been extremely tired and needing some alone time. After living alone for so long, it's quite a change to all of a sudden never be alone. I really like my roommates and Erin of course, but I am very much of a loner sometimes. Yesterday after school I actually went to the beach and took a nap there. It was very peaceful. Erin wasn't feeling good today so she passed on the trip as well, so unfortunately it might be more difficult to get some alone time. I hope that I'm making sense of what it means to me.

Yesterday we also went to the Archeology museum here in Antibes, there are many remains here from the Roman empire. This city was established by them (or the Greeks but replaced by everything Roman), when the Romans conquered the Greeks here, they named it Antipolis. Polis for city, and anti for across from the ocean. And it's no surprise that I have a love for archeology after my stint of being a Classics major.

Right now as I sit on my balcony there's a man on a vespa talking to himself and making great hand gestures. Oh the things you see people watching.

We also stopped in a bookstore yesterday and I finally found the Great Gatsby in french. It will be a wonderful read. I had gotten a book by one of Picasso's mistresses of her life with Picasso, also in French, and for some reason it kept setting off sensors in stores we walked into. It was very embarassing for the employees to come over and search me and my bag. Shops aren't especially nice here, the perspective being that if you don't buy it, someone else will. So a little bit upsetting, but all part of the different culture. I just think employees should be nice.

Well for some reason I woke up earlier than expected, so I plan on resting a bit more and perhaps going to the beach. Au revoir!

Jeudi (Thursday)

Another busy day, but today was considerably less hectic, no traveling out of the city!

School was not so great today, we spent a lot of time covering possessive adjectives, something I've known for years, and I felt I didn't really reap a whole lot from today's lesson. After school and back at the apartment I rested for a short period before heading out to the Picasso museum. Picasso spent a lot of time painting here in his later years, hence the location. There are 3 really big Picasso museums, here, Barcelona of course, and Paris. I don't know if anyone saw in the news that just recently someone stole a Picasso from a museum in San Francisco! Interessante!

I enjoyed visiting the museum very much and will probably try to visit the others if I make it to Barcelona and definitely while I am in Paris. I was gutsy and bought a biography of Picasso by one of his mistresses, Francoise, in french. Kristin, our advisor, egged me on a little bit, but it will definitely help my french studies.

After the musee, Alexa and I traveled to the sandy beaches of Antibes. These were much busier than the gravely ones, but well worth the distance. (Although I still want to bring my water shoes, I don't trust the sea floor! Who knows what's lurking under there!)

Now we're back at home and getting ready to make dinner and later tonight going to see Minuit a Paris! I'll let you know if it is in french or english.

Day 4

It seems like I've been nonstop! So much so that I have hardly had time to get stamps! So I am taking this chance to quickly give some great details of my stay so far.

Today we had a trip to Nice which is about 25 ish minutes from Antibes. Mon dieu! Nice is overwhelming (Our advisor, Kristin, said it was about 20x as big as Antibes and the fifth biggest city in France, Paris of course being number 1). Beautiful of course and some great history to go along with our travels, Europeans used to travel here during the winter time for the warm weather, along with people suffering from tuberculosis even though it is counter productive because humidity would be bad for them. A lot of Italian influence not only because of the proximity but also because it has not always been French. It wasn't really until the 60s when Americans started flocking to Nice did anyone really start to go swimming or lay on the beach, Europeans didn't find that too interesting. The Matisse museum was interesting, I don't understand art, but I can appreciate it. Although I felt like most of the pieces could have been scribbled by anyone, but what do I know?

The travel to and through the city was hectic, the tram from the train station and the bus from the tram to the museum was too packed to sit down. And we stood on the bus for about 15 minutes before it went anywhere because it was the end of the shift for the driver and she was waiting for the replacement. Aughhh! These modes of transport were so busy that we hardly had room to grab a handle bar to steady ourselves. A lot of the time we were falling on one another and at one point I nearly fell backwards and cracked my head!

I took some great photos at the Matisse museum, until I found out that it was not permitted! I felt bad, but there certainly weren't any signs forbidding it until halfway through, maybe it's halfway okay? Ha. There are also some great roman ruins by the Matisse museum, and you all know how I love that. After being up there we took another bus back to the old town of Nice and got some gelato, then walked to the sea front. So beautiful! 7 of us opted to stay behind and shop, and we decided to go for the main stretch of shops versus the boutiques in the old town. However all the stores on the main street were advertising SOLDES (sales) at crazy discounts, however these were mostly cheap looking clothes for not that cheap. (Pas cher). A few of us got tired of shopping and around 630 decided to head for the trainstation. Certainly was an interesting train ride back, the train was so packed the doors barely closed and in either direction people were clumped together. Again there was no chance to grab a handle bar and I knocked into a few people and said Pardon, desole, as soon as that happened.

Most people speak french here but there are many travelers from many different regions of the world, so it's very easy to get into the habit of parler francais, however, many also know english and are very willing to help by speaking english, but I was able to successfully buy cigarettes and stamps today by asking in french. It was so fluid! It felt natural! Lots of work still, but it's a little progress.

Some of the other girls have been asking us to go out to the bars and such with them, and I just got asked to go to a beach party in Cannes! Sounds exciting but I'm really tired from Nice and might still be jet lagged.

Oh yea, Jenn, my roommate Alexa looks and acts just like you! It's so funny and comforting. Ironic that I'd come halfway around the world to meet a duplicate of you!

I don't know what else to add, it's 9pm and I'm ready for bed. Bon soir!

Pictures to come soon!