Take to the Sky

Photo Dump!

2009-04-11T10:42:51Z

Here is a photo dumb because I have been very bad about posting photos. Sorry guys! Hope you enjoy :)

(Careful Dial-up Users)

Le point du Guard. The Aqueduct. 2000 years and still standing.

Me with with 900~ year old Olive Trees.

The Cafe in Arles painted by Van Gogh.

Inside the Amphitheater

Outside the Amphitheater

The... "hallways" of the Amphitheater

The theatre seats (the first 4-ish rows are originals)

Les beaux

Images of Provence from the top of Les Beaux.

The Pope's Castle's Courtyard in Avignon (Sadly, no pictures were allowed inside.)

Le point d'Avignon

We got to make our own perfume! Here is an image of my work-station. It didn't turn out half bad, I don't think! :)

Here's a shot of a street in St. Paul de Venice.

Sorry this was all over the place, Hope it was an ok little taste of everything.

Provence Weekend

2009-03-28T18:15:13Z

So. I am pretty behind in updating this. I'm very sorry! Also, no pictures yet because it just takes forever for them to download. Will try to get moving on that.

Anyway last weekend we took a trip to Provence and visited a few major cities. Arles was our first stop and is a city where Van Gogh painted 300 some paintings towards the end of his life. Arles is where he cut off his ear (and consequently was hospitalized) and we saw the yellow café in his one painting – I’m sure you know the one. We saw the Roman Amphitheatre and regular Roman theatre (both of which they are restoring and use for cultural events). They do bull fighting and things in the amphitheatre which is pretty cool. It was actually set up for bullfighting while we were there. Apparently there is a bullfighting school in that area that practices there. After the fights they sell the bull’s meat in the restaurants and things. Random facts! :D

After Arles we went to Les Beaux which was a huge fortress/castle and we got to climb all over the ruins. I don’t really have much to say about this other than it was a lovely view, I took a ton of pictures and nearly broke my ankle repeatedly. The steps were so worn they had huge foot imprints in them and the rest of the step was like ice.
Incredibly hard to walk on. Anyway it was simple and awesome, definitely sparks the imagination.

After Les Beaux we arrived in Avignon where we had dinner and spent the night. The next morning we got up, ate and went to see La Palais des Papes which was the Pope’s palace when the Popes were staying in Avignon. Because of this, at that time Avignon was considered in Italy. I really enjoyed the palace. Some of the walls still had the paintings on them. I mean, you never see that anywhere! It’s always stone and they are like “this was painted back then, imagine this as vivid blue yellow/green/with frescos” but no, you could actually see it! And the floor, they had it re-tiled as a replica of what was there before. They’re part of some UNESCO historical sites thing that makes it so when they restore things they have to keep it all as historically accurate as humanly possible. The palace was split into two types the old, monastery-esque part for the first pope and the second was gothic architecture for the second pope who was more vain and whatever. It was seriously beautiful. Apparently in the summer they have a huge Thespian thing in the palace where they have up to 1000 shows a day or so the guide said though I find that hard to believe. During a war (which I now forget - going to go with the Revolution or WWII - obviously) they had troops living in the second Pope's sanctuary since it was so large.

After that, there was a quick stop to look at the Point d’Avignon which was silly and is a nursery rhyme in French. Originally a bridge it now is only half a bridge. It was made thanks to "God's Will"

We then went to see the Point du Gard which was the aqueduct and incredibly impressive. Just, the idea that it’s still standing 2,000 years later and there is no mortar in it… Incredible. And they used to drive over it until a little while ago? Insanity. Anyway, it was truly lovely. Took a lot of pictures here too.

We then stopped at a random town called Uzes which is a restored medieval fortress town. Sadly, it was Sunday so there was nothing to do there.
It was pretty and all, just kind of pointless when we all wanted to be heading back. I bought caramels of random flavors. So that was positive.

Then we moseyed over to Chateauneuf-du-Pape and wine tasted. It was very nice the poor girl doing the tastings didn’t speak much English. Kristin helped her out though, translating questions and such. We tasted a rose and two reds. I enjoyed them all but one of the reds more than the others. They’re pretty amazing quality. Chateauneuf-du-pape is one of the most hailed appellations in all of France.

And that was a quick run-down of my weekend in Provence. Sorry it's long and sorry there are no pictures.
Tune in next time for St. Paul and Perfume making!

A Smattering of Photos from Spring Break

2009-03-11T20:43:38Z

Spring Break!

2009-03-08T16:56:46Z

Spring break is over and I am back in Antibes. I had a really lovely time. Though I will have to admit to you that I didn’t take a lot of pictures and for that I am sorry but I do have (mostly) legitimate reasons.

So. At the beginning of spring break I kind of spontaneously decided that I wanted to go to Marseille. Lucky for me one of my friends Katie-Jo decided she wanted to come along! So that was fun. We attempted to grab a train at 9:53 in the morning from Antibes to Marseille but of course it is never that easy. They told us the next train we could take was at 2 so we took a nap and frolicked around separately and then tried again. The train ride to Marseille was around 2 hours. We watched The Princess Bride on the way there. Good times.

Anyway, so we get to Marseille and of course because this is me, we get completely turned around trying to find our hostel. I stop some guy with a dog to ask directions and he was nice enough to go horrendously out of his way and walk us essentially to the front step.

Our hostel was nice and clean and in a good location. We decided to go wandering. We went to the front desk, got the guy to circle some stuff on the map and went searching for food. But of course it was like 5-6ish and the French do not eat until 8 so we wandered around the artsy districts (graffiti, murals and crazy little stores everywhere. I loved it. Seriously there was no surface without some kind of street art on it. It felt truly alive. Loved it.) Anyway there was also a lot of Arabic food to choose from. At around 7 we had picked out which (still closed) restaurant we were going to eat at and went to have a drink outside. It was nice just sitting there outside and night just ‘shooting the shit’ as they say. That’s what this is supposed to be like really. Sitting around outside watching people, speculating, talking in circles with people and just waitin’ on the world to change. (Oh song lyrics.)

Dinner was, needless to say delicious. It was the third time I’ve gone out to eat here! And this was the first properly French food. It was some kind of potatoes, vegetable pate and veal kabob-esque things. So delicious even if I couldn’t properly identify exactly what I was eating.

After our delightfully long dinner outing Katie and I went back to the hostel, chatted a bit more and then went to bed.
It is somewhere between here and waking up that I started getting sick. Lucky me.

We had (well, more me) originally intended to see Cassis – an island off of Marseille that has huge white cliffs and other beautiful sights but unfortunately both of us were leaving for London the day after (different times, different airports) and needed to do some left-over small bits of packing and what not so there wasn’t enough time to work out getting over to the island and getting back before our train. Instead, we walked to the old port (all of these cities have old ports) and took a bus to the Notre Dame – the highest point in Marseille from where you can see the entire city and the islands. We took a good chunk of pictures here and wandered around the inside of the church. It was very cool looking.

After Notre Dame there wasn’t much more time so we went to lunch at a café and then from there took the train home. Time in Marseille was short but very enjoyable. I’m glad Katie came along of I would still probably be lost somewhere. Hah.

Now onto London. Getting to the Nice airport was such an experience in ridiculousness. I could not find the right bust stop for the life of me. Finally find it after asking a bajillion people. Of course the whole time I am getting increasingly more panicked. Ahh travel, you bring out the best in me. Anyway. Get to the airport pretty early because I am paranoid and confident in the fact that I was going to get lost and screw things up and have no idea where I was going. Which, obviously, all happened. There was a old man on the bus with me talking (at more than with) me about what he did in World War II and Algeria. Sadly, I didn’t really have all the vocab to follow along but from what I can tell he did something with writing and codes possibly? Either way. A nice man who went out of his way to help me understand what he was saying – even if it didn’t always work. Also, what a fascinating topic. Yay for random awesome people. Anyway. He helped me not miss my bus stop.

Get to the airport, get through security after having to pay extra for my bag (grumble) and not being able to find the line for security. God. I fail so hard at maintaining a cool/confident front when panicking over travel. Blah. So there was a delay because the guy checking passports wasn’t at his station until almost exactly when our plane was boarding. Oh France, you are always so on top of things. Love it.

Get on the plane. Get into Gatwick. Hop on the train to Victoria station where I would be meeting my friend Leanne. Get there around midnight and call her. We find each other and there is much rejoicing. We head to the tube station and take many-a-train in order to get to our hostel. We wander around in the dark trying to find the hostel for about an hour. It is cold and rainy and ridiculous and the guy from the hostel kept calling us and getting us more lost at some points but finally we find the stupid place and lo and behold we are sharing our bedroom with French kids.

We decided to get up the first day go wandering around London. It was nice but not a good day for picture taking. We went to the British Museum and saw all kinds of neat statues and everything (Egyptian, Greek and Roman mostly. A lot of the Greek and Roman statues didn’t have heads while the horses in the sculptures with them had no torso but a head. It was kind of bizarre.) Anyway we saw the re-created pantheon which was really cool and all kinds of sarcophaguses. Sadly, my health was steadily declining so Leanne and I headed home after not too long and grab a nap.

But before doing that we went got tickets to see Avenue Q later that night! Exciting! We got very cheap, very high up tickets (but were still able to see rather well thanks to the theatre being relatively tiny). That’s a musical I’ve been wanting to see forever and I’m so glad I got the chance. They changed a few of the lyrics and jokes and things so that it made more sense to the British audience. (The play is supposed to take place in Brooklyn). Either way it was hilarious and we both had a good time. Seeing it definitely added a lot to the songs I already enjoyed.

The day after Avenue Q we didn’t do much because I was quickly losing my ability to breathe and Leanne was concerned. So she got me hooked on the TV show Torchwood. It’s a Dr. Who spin-off (which I haven’t seen but whatever, it stands alone as well.) Very, very enjoyable. Anyway. On this day of doing nothing one of the boys in our room asked me to translate his CV into English for him. So that was an interesting task. We sat down for about two hours and went over it. Luckily he already had it mostly translated but didn’t actually have it done properly, as in a lot of the words didn’t really cross over the way he wanted. The language barrier we kept running into was pretty hilarious. Thank god for Wordreference.com. I felt kind of bad for the kid, his English was pretty lacking (but he did also speak Arabic so not being amazing at a third language is not really something to be sad about) and the guy behind the counter was kind of making fun of him in English too fast for him to understand. Either way that was my extreme kindness for the day/week/month. It’s seriously no wonder why people charge a ton of money an hour to go over CVs and things. Also Leanne helped me Britishify the American way I was doing the CV. We made a pretty hilarious team.

The day after that Leanne forced me to go the hospital since I my asthma was getting really bad. Sigh. So one of the other Hostel guests was sitting in the room with us as we were trying to find a place to go (at first we going to try a clinic/surgery or pharmacy) but once they found out I used an inhaler they said they couldn’t help and well, the clinics were booked for the next two days. So the other guess who was from the area told us what bus to get on a walked us to the station. It only took an hour to be seen which is just… incredible considering at home it’s usually 4 hours. One of the doctors did a consultation, wrote me a prescription for Amoxicillin, Prednisolone and Ventolin a different inhaler that worked wonders. So yes, I have been taking 11 pills a day since this day. Crazy. But I am feeling a lot better.

When I went to the pharmacy to pay the girl looked at me and was like “you know you’re going to have to pay for these and it’s going to be a bit expensive” and I’m just steeling myself for some horrendous price and she says “It’s going to be 21.50 pounds.” Needless to say I stared at her and then started laughing. I mean, god 21.50? Hello, United States it’s time to catch the hell up. Seriously. And the consultation at the hospital didn’t cost me anything. I mean, really. There might be flaws with the socialized system but let’s all be honest. Some, affordable medical care for everyone is better than nothing. We are doing our people a great disservice by not offering this kind of alternative. Truly. It is worth the taxes. *steps off her soap box before this goes on any farther*

Oh funny story. Later at the pharmacy when we went to pick up the meds they couldn’t find my name. Apparently someone had entered it in as “Gynthro” instead of “Cynthia” much hilarity ensued.

Sadly because of the trip to the hospital we missed meeting our mutual friend in London for coffee. Major downer but she was on a tight schedule and I couldn’t breathe so, things happen. Perhaps some other time.

Anyway, that night we met up instead with Leanne’s best friend Lindsay (sorry if I’m spelling that wrong) and we went to go see Jersey Boys! We had incredible seats right in the middle on the floor and they tickets were half off. The musical was truly incredible. I feel ashamed to say I had no idea Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons sang all those songs. The boys acting did amazing with the Jersey accent and singing. I highly recommend this musical. At the end there was a bit of a sing/dance along. Awesome fun time. For sure, especially if you enjoy rolling your eyes at the nature of New Jersey. Heh. But yes. Fabulous stuff. And the theatre was beautiful. All red velvet and the boxes along the sides had lights in them on the outside. It was very pretty and very big. I wish I could explain it better.

We decide to have another relaxing day in order to give me time to rest and recharge also not spending money is good. We watch more Torchwood and lounge around. Possibly it was this day that I did the CV. I honestly can’t really remember, but I don’t think so.

The day after, we wander around and do a bit of touristy things. I get some pictures but again we don’t stay out too long. I feel bad. Stupid illness. Why am I always infected with things? Stupid immune system. Stupid lungs. We also go see Watchmen which I am very excited about seeing in English instead of French. I’m going to say that I think it was a really well done translation of the comic. I enjoyed it a lot. Though I did feel kind of bad since it was a bit confusing for the first half if you hadn’t read it, but then again that is the way the comic works so… Anyway if you like the Cold War Era, superheroes, violence, and detangling the web of insanity that is humanity and its issues I highly recommend it.

And that really sums up my time in London. After watching Watchmen (hah, who watches the watchmen?) we decided to stay up the whole night since we had to grab a bus (the tubes weren’t working that early) to the train station at 5 in the morning. It was 1:30 by the time we got home. (Odd story: around 3 in the morning some girl came into the kitchen where we were sitting to read her bible. She was like falling asleep in it. It was odd. And she was confused about why we were saying up. *shakes head*) I feel like this was a good plan. Except for the tiny moment when I dozed off on the bus. Thankfully Leanne has more strength than I do. Anyway we ran around trying to find the right place (Read: Leanne tried to find the right place, I trailed along behind, oblivious to where I was going – as always) to get the second bus. We made it in the end, said our goodbyes and she walked to her train station and I got on mine back to the airport.

It was a really wonderful time and I’m very glad to have been able to hang out again. Even if I was sick and there were some other hiccups in our plans – It was fantastic and I’m so glad I got to go. London is a lovely place. It was refreshing to hear and see English all around. Hopefully our next reunion will not be so far in the future and not so full of issues. Heh.

Anyway. That was a lot to read, sorry about that.

♥

Spring Break

2009-02-27T07:32:49Z

Spring break has officially begun and I'm going to be hard to get a hold of so please don't freak out if I don't answer my phone for the next week. (there will be horrendous roaming charges if I do)
Today I'm heading out to Marseilles/Cassis. I come back tomorrow
Then it's off to London for the week! I'll be back on sunday!

Pictures and an entry when I get back! Hope you all have a good week

♥

Italian Riviera and Carnival!

2009-02-23T01:30:29Z

Yay for another update.
This weekend CEA went on a day trip to the Italian Riviera. It's a lot like the French Riviera except there is Gelato everywhere, the stairs are steeper and it seems a bit more run-down rather than "old world charm".
The first city we visited was San Remo... which was basically just a lot of churches and medieval walkways. Pretty neat. Ahh and there was the market. The market was nice. We tried this bread-esque pizza thing (I can't remember the name). It was pretty good. :)

Russian Church

I have no idea how anyone escaped this parking lot.

Then we went to another city: Dolceacqua where there is a roman aqueduct and a fortress/castle.... And that's about it. Heh. Not a lot to say about it. Our tour guide was pretty long winded and boring, to be honest.

Monet or Manet painted this bridge a lot apparently. I can't remember which.

After our Italian Riviera trip a group of us decided to go to Carnival in Nice for a bit! That was a blast. Silly string, loud music, confetti, people and floats everywhere. Sorry that a lot of these pictures aren't fabulous but everything and everyone was moving. I really wish we had something like this in America. I really feel like we're missing out, guys. We never get to cut loose and fill the streets like this. (Well, fireworks for the 4th -- but no one is happy doing that - it's just frustration at trying to find a spot to stand for 4 hours and then an hour of a display that was kind of a let down.) This though, this is different. Because everyone is having fun and everyone is everyone else's friend. Watching the kids during these things is probably the best part. They are loving life.

Sigh. These updates wouldn't take hardly any time if it weren't for loading the pictures. Blah. They take forever.

I didn't break my ankle on the loose rocks!

2009-02-15T23:14:09Z

Hello everyone. Sorry for the absence, I haven't had much to write about until this weekend when CEA went hiking in the Esterel mountains. It was very nice. We took a train out a little past Cannes and met our program director who took us for a nice hike. The mimosa trees are in bloom so it smelled and looked lovely the whole time. However, I think I'm allergic to them. (They're the trees with yellow blossoms in a lot of the photos). Ah well. No one is really surprised by that, I'm sure.

We hiked for about two and a half hours and then had a picnic lunch on the beach. Sadly, it got quite cold during lunch since it started to get cloudy. But really, who can complain?

After lunch our program director, Kristin, taught us how to play patonque/boule (essentially Boccie ball). All the old men play it on the weekends in the park. They are very serious business about it, which is a shame because it would be fun to play with them. After a few rounds I started getting pretty good, which is exciting since sports are not usually my thing.

So much green.

...I always seem to end up in the back. Ah well. It's better there.

Hi Mimosas you are very yellow.

Other trails.

Me.

Hi Theoule-sur-mer.

We stopped here for a bit of a rest.

This is a statue dedicated to all those who died in North Africa due to wars from colonization. :\ Boo imperialism.

Another angle of the monument.

Flowers!

Walking to the beach

The beach + clouds that made everything cold.

Kristin teaching us boule

I have midterms in every class this coming week. Fun times. I must admit that I'm not too concerned though.

So...

2009-02-08T14:01:17Z

You may or may not be aware that

Excuse my super happy face -- I was really tired when I took this last night, but it by far the best photo of the new hair I could get.
... Here's a happier looking one.

Ventimiglia and Juan les Pins.

2009-02-01T20:51:00Z

So this weekend I went with some people to Ventimiglia, Italy to the market. It was lovely. Italy is much more relaxed than it is here, I feel. People smile more. The language barrier was pretty hilarious. Most people spoke French and were able to understand my ridiculous attempts at speaking and gesturing. I would say the most versatile word I came across was 'preggo' which seems to mean anything from "Ready" to "You're welcome." So that's fun. I had lasagna, pizza and gelato which were all delicious. I wish I could eat there forever. Ah well.
The market was huge and as such easy to find. It was right on the water.
The train ride took an hour, but was certainly well worth it.
I didn't take as many pictures as I was hoping to since I felt kind of awkward taking them with the vendors right there. Hope you enjoy/that it gives you an ok idea of what it was like! (Probably not as there was SO MUCH STUFF to see. Pretty overwhelming.)

The group of everyone that went.

I absolutely loved these gloves. The bright blue ones especially. They were so soft.
Everything here smelled like leather.

Before that I went to the town over (Juan les Pins) and took some photos walking along the boardwalk with my roommate Cara and Sydney. These are all kind of pointless but it was a nice day.

Eze and Monaco: A Day Trip

2009-01-25T13:14:22Z

So we got back from our day trip to Eze-sur-mer and Monaco around 7. I am pretty exhausted. Of course it had to be cold and rainy today. Sigh. That was unfortunate. I hate being wet all day. I took a lot of pictures though. Hopefully you all will enjoy them even though the colors are a bit off and they’re not amazing. I hate being rushed and unable to explore on my own. Big groups are lame sometimes. But I did learn some interesting facts from the tours so – I don’t really have any valid complaints. Hah.

First we went to the Fragonard perfume factory and had like a 5 minute tour
and then they herded us into a showroom where women in purple suits, bizarre neck ties and too much makeup tried to talk us into buying perfumes. I didn't buy anything but a lot of the other girls did. They were all too light and flowery for my taste.

The "usine" factory.

What they put the flowers in, to steam them.

Soap

Stuff for moisturizers and whatever.

Scents I think

Ladies in purple trying to sell us stuff.

Cars outside.

From there we walked up a hill to Eze-sur-mer (It would have been an enjoyable hike if it hadn’t been raining and cold). Eze is a tourist attraction: medieval perched village. Lots of cobblestone, winding streets, stooping shops and uphill walking. It was enjoyable.

Eze as seen from the parking lot of the factory

Walking up the hill.

Another village as seen from Eze

Entrance into the medieval part. The red stones continued like a carper through the whole thing.

After Eze-sur-mer we drove through Nice and into Monaco. Just the drive through Nice and into Monaco was beautiful, even in the rain.

So, Monaco. We kind of went a bad time of year. In order to get the full impact of Monaco it needs to be spring and sunny, since the whole place is flowers and skyscrapers. We drove on the Grand Prix racetrack since it is one of the common roads, saw the church where Grace Kelly was married and is buried, the street where she died, saw numerous palaces and villas for the Prince of Monaco (Albert) and the Princesses. Apparently the Prince of Monaco is 50 and still unmarried much to the dismay of his people.

Fun Facts about Monaco: You are only considered “Monagques” if your Father was a Monagques. If you move to Monaco the most you can hope to become is a resident. You keep your original nationality.
In Monaco the people pay no taxes (no property tax, no income tax) thanks to the income the state gets from the casinos. However a studio apartment in Monaco costs, at least, 1 million euros.
To watch the Grand Prix from your yacht you have to book a space two years in advance. And if you want to stay just one night in a hotel during the Grand Prix you have to pay for 5 nights, no matter what.
So that’s fun. Yay for guided tours.

I plan on going back and hanging out in the botanical gardens later when it is warmer and spring.

It was such a crappy day, weather wise!

Castle -- up high because of heads and construction.

Grand Prix racetrack. Vroom.

Oh! We also went to the Museum of Oceanography curated (?) by Jacques
Cousteau and created by Prince Albert the First (who went to the
arctic). It was cool. Basically an aquarium. Everyone knows how much I
love aquariums! I took lots of pictures. There was an octopus!

Walrus heads on the wall

Sea Turtle. Probably my favorite picture.

Our last stop of the day was Monte Carlo. I went into one the casinos but didn’t gamble. Sadly, you can’t take pictures in there but I did take a few outside. It’s neat to actually go somewhere like that, I mean a real Principality – how cool! It’s in so many movies too. Pretty ritzy.

I'm sorry the pictures turned out so big - also for the blurry ones. It's a pain to find them and pull them out though, now that they're on there, so they're staying.

♥

The Photos to accomany the previous!

2009-01-22T16:10:06Z

Ok so I don’t really have much to update with since you know, school is not that exciting. I had Introduction to PR for the first time today and the professor is seriously insane, standing on desks, kicking things across the room. He’s Dutch, apparently. It was an experience.

The main point of this update is to post pictures that I have taken from various other people that were on the trip:

These are from the bus ride

These are at the mountain

Here’s some around where we were staying

There are a few more group shots and whatever but I look like a hobo so I’m going to refrain from posting them.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Skiing and photos of Antibes

2009-01-18T22:02:39Z

Sorry for the delay in updates. I’ve been pretty busy lately. I’ve finally finalized my schedule here in France – which is a relief. There were some issues with things not being what I needed them to be – or being at inopportune times. The only real change I have made is that instead of Profession and Business writing I am taking Introduction to PR.

My Religion, Politics and Culture of the Mediterranean is probably going to be my most exciting class. The professor is an Atheist Iranian-American woman who is apparently a pretty established writer. We’re going to be talking a lot about the Gaza crisis and things from that region more than France/Italy and what-have you. Though we are going to talk about French colonization. I’m pretty excited.
There are a lot of French kids in my classes, which is nice. I need to not be timid and actually try talking more. It’s a goal, especially now that I’ve gotten to know some of the students that to the ski trip… What a nice transition. Hah.

So, I just got back from skiing in Le Val d'Allos. It was a lot of fun. The BDE – bureau des eleves (kind of like student government I guess? Though they don’t make laws they just put things together for the students) sponsored it. My roommates and I stayed with two other girls from our program in a very nice apartment and we made a lot of friends. Definitely learned some fun vocabulary. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but the French (boys especially) love to sing. Drinking songs in particular. We’re trying to learn all the words. It’s kind of hard, but we are up to the challenge.
The bus ride to Allos took us about 4 hours and there was probably about only 30 minutes of silence on the whole trip.

I wish I could remember everything everyone tells me how to say. I almost feel like it goes one ear and out the other. Sometimes I get lucky though and it sticks.
Also, the French like to make fun of our accents but they do seem to be pleased by the fact that my roommates and I speak French. So yay.

Anyway. Skiing. The skiing was amazing and fun and everything. I helped two of my roommates (one more than the other) which was an interesting experience. We all had a good time. The sights were amazing but I didn’t take any pictures on the mountain – I was scared I was going to fall and break my camera. In fact, one of the boys on the trip (he’s from Colombia) who is also in my Photography class brought his Nikon SLR (I don’t know the model) and it was stolen along with his smaller power-shot, iphone and ipod out of a bookbag. It was very sad. The guys from the BDE came into everyone’s room and searched. It wasn’t found. I feel really bad for him. But yes, the point is that my roommates took pictures so I am going to steal their photos and put them up here so that there is some testament to the beauty I was able to behold – even if it is a poor representation.

Oh! Fun Culture Fact: When toasting with red wine you don’t touch glasses. And when toasting ever, you must make serious eye contact.
"A votre sante!" - to your health and "Tchin Tchin!" - Cheers! (pronounced "chin chin")
I feel like I’ve learned so many more little cultural things but they’re not coming to me right now. Sorry.

Oh also, we met some Moroccans on the slopes one day. They invited us to coffee while we were heading toward the lift. After that they helped my roommates learn to ski and that night (they were the room across from ours) they invited us over for crepes with chocolate. It was pretty delicious.

Hmm what else has happened. Oh! A few days ago I took a walk around Antibes and took a few pictures.

Street in the old town

More of the old town

I figured out the self-timer finally!

Someone famous who I can't remember wrote here - mow it's a restaurant.

One of the prettiest spots in the oldest area.

I stood on the rocks in the previous picture to get this one -- someone walked by at that time of course. It was kind of awkward.

Graffiti is everywhere. Even on cacti.

Cathedral.

Mural on the ground outside of it. For the knights, it's thought.

Hi Antibes.

The beach by our apartment.

The ramparts.

The only photo from my 21st:

Oh another note: picking up french is doubly hard because everyone speaks in abbreviations. Just though I would share that dilemma.

♥

PS: sorry for the lack of accents - I keep forgetting how to do them without a number pad thing. I'm going to look it up again later.

Cannes, the apartment and other things.

2009-01-11T19:42:52Z

Hi everyone!
Today my roommates and I went to Cannes – where the film festival is. We went to the beach and it was lovely but a little cold. The city is pretty similar to Antibes though it feels more like a large city. (Antibes is more residential and less metropolitan.)
We bought a “cartre de jeunesse” which makes train tickets 50% off if you’re under 25.
Sadly – or not - the SNCF (the train workers) are on strike so instead of being forced to take the local trains we got to ride on the TGV (train de grande vitesse) which are the bullet trains. Fun times. The sky was spotless and beautiful.

I really am there. It was coldish, as I said.

I take pictures of scenery because I am obviously too cool to take pictures of people. (hah).

More Cannes.

I um really like the water?

A hotel or something. I don't really know. It was pretty.

Before going to Cannes (we had a long wait for the train thanks to the strike) we walked around Port Vauban in Antibes. It has the largest yachts in all of Europe docked there.

Les Alps as seen from on top the of the train station...

I had a very good Birthday and got lots of Birthday wishes.
My Mom sent me a lovely bouquet of flowers and my roommates and I went out at night. It was good times.

Cara, my roommate from UMD has a French buddy Pauliene (we all signed up for French buddies; but hers is the only one that has taken an active interest in the whole thing so far) who took us around last night. She’s helping us a lot with our French and is a real sweetheart who speaks English fabulously. Her friend Samantha drove us around. Seriously the French are the most ridiculous drivers ever. It’s exhilarating to say the least. I feel like I would either fit in really well or kill hundreds of people.

We also got our first "la bise" with French people – very exciting! (La bise is the kiss hello on both cheeks.)

Here are photos of our apartment (and other things) for those who haven’t seen it

My room. My bed has the purple blanket and is made (shock!)

The living room + balcony

More of the living room.

Kitchen + welcome sign and clementines left by the woman who owns the place. She's very sweet.

Kitchen again

Bathroom part one: Shower, washing machine, sink

Bathroom part two: the toilet.

Hallway + slippers left by the landlady as well...

The flowers mom sent for my brithday!

La patisserie where they have delicious treats and breads.

My breakfast the other day: Bread with chocolate inside. Wonderful.

I also got a lemon tart. Also fantastic. ;)

CERAM: the front of my school.

I have some photos of Antibes, where I'm staying, but I'm going to wait until I have more before I make an entry with them.

Sorry I used so many parenthesis.
I will post more pictures next time!
Hope everyone is doing well.
<3

PS: I have no idea why the photos are different sizes and I am too tired to fix it now.

First day of Classes

2009-01-07T21:55:37Z

Today was the first day of school. It has been cold and raining for the last two days – I feel like they lied to me! So much for ‘sunny always’. Hah. Oh well.
I only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each class we take is 3 hours long, which takes a lot out of you – especially at 8:30 in the morning.
Here is my schedule for those interested. A conversion to EST is in the brackets:

Tuesday
Religion, Culture and Politics of the Mediterranean – 16:00 [10am] – 19:00 [1pm]

Wednesday
Advanced French – 8:30 [2am] – 11:30 [5am]
Photography – 16:00 [10am] – 19:00 [1pm]

Thursday
Business and Professional Writing – 13:00 [7am] – 16:00 [10am]

I was going to take a sport (Yoga) but you need a doctor’s certificate and the times fell when I had other classes.

The ski trip hosted by the Bureau des Eleves went down in price from what they told us it was going to be yesterday (200 euros) to 140 euros. I don’t know if this means I’m going to go or not (but I need to decide by Friday – my birthday!) I should go. Even if it means I have to buy some extra, warmer clothes. Apparently there is a very cheap store for those kinds of things near the huge grocery store we’re going to as a group on Saturday.

Speaking of as a group, tomorrow is dinner with all the kids from CEA. Yay free food.

I don’t really know what else to talk about it. I’m hoping the weather clears up and I am able to go exploring this weekend. I have some errands that can’t wait though, such as buying my bus pass.

I've made it!

2009-01-04T16:34:46Z

So I'm officially in Antibes! Sadly, our apartment doesn't appear to have internet so -- I figured I would type this up quick before the people decide to kick us off their network!
The flight into Frankfurt was really nice but uneventful since I fell asleep for what was essentially the whole thing.
I also wanted to say thanks again to everyone who came the other night -- I really appreciate it & it was so nice to see you. ♥

Moving on.. In Frankfurt I ran into one of my roommates, Kenna. We were both lost and in the wrong passport line. The conversation went something like this:
"Do you know where the US passport thing is?"
"Ahh no - I just got kicked out of this line.."
"Aww. Well let's go over here."
"Okay. So. Where are you going?"
"France."
"OH really me too!"
"What's your name?"
"Cynthia"
"Are we roommates?!"
Hahah fun times. But honestly, what are the chances.

So yes we got picked up from Nice without any problems (there were palm trees everywhere and sky and sea were beautiful). The taxi driver was the first person to speak French with me. He was very nice and complemented my grammar-error filled speech. Hah.

Everyone has been very helpful and extremely friendly. I forgot to the cord for my camera (mom is sending it) so no pictures of the apartment or Antibes until I get that. I am taking pictures though -- be prepared! ;)

And now, since I have napped for a very long time we are discussing dinner -- once the last girl gets here.

I miss you all and hope you're doing well!

PS: Our address has changed. I've changed it in the previous post. Just so you know.

Pre-Departure Post

2008-12-15T20:47:48Z

So upon request and because I couldn't not document my time abroad I give you: This blog!
Horray! Enjoy & feel free to comment.

Some things of importance:
Itinerary
Depart: 1/3 @ 5:22pm from Dulles
Arrive: 1/4 @ 7:10am at Frankfurt
Depart: 1/4 @ 9:00am from Frankfurt
Arrive: 1/4 @ 10:30am at Nice
---
Depart: 5/9 @ 11:05am from Nice
Arrive: 5/9 @ 12:45pm at Frankfurt
Depart: 5/9 @ 5:00pm from Frankfurt
Arrive: 5/9 @ 7:40pm at Dulles

Contact Information
To be updated as things are found out
Skype username: FireBlooms

Address:
Cynthia Slemaker
Chez CEA
29 Boulevard Marechal Foch
06600 Antibes
France

Phone: +33 687.752.561

About the Program
CEA: French Riviera -- a short program introduction from the company.
CERAM -- The school I'll be attending