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!

Dimanche soir (Sunday night)

After 12 hours of flying, 8 ish hours of trains, 5 hours of sitting around, I finally made it to my destination yesterday evening around 8pm. Did a little walking around, but mostly unpacked. Today I had an orientation with my group who is studying for July and already tomorrow morning I have to go to school. Pretty tired, and a huge migraine is forming. So au revoir pour maintenant.