Mykanos Island Spring Break Part 2

Okay, so the first half of my spring break was spent in Athens and this is the second half that was spent on the beautiful Greek beaches of Mykanos Island.

Day 5- To Mykanos
We boarded the ferry to Mykanos so early that I had no problem paying 2 extra euros for a sleepy type seat and sleeping for the first 2 hours or so. Afterwards, I just had to see the view of the sea and islands where we stopped to drop off passengers. After another 2 hours, we arrived with sunny weather where a Paradise hotel van took us to the other end of the island. We were in awe on that van. There were animals, mountains, the sea, shoppes, white-washed houses- just everything you ever thought Greece would have. I couldn't believe that it was outside my window. Erin, Sara and I anxiously squealed in the back of the van waiting to get to our hotel, and by the time we arrived, my face hurt from smiling so much.

The hotel village, if you will, was set up with condos, villas, rooms and other things that I don't even know. The beach was less than a minute walk and our room was a little nothing with a shower that showered not only the whole bathroom, but the little room we slept in as well, but honestly, it was perfect.


-our beautiful bathroom.-

Erin, Sara and I pushed our beds together, unpacked, and put on our swimsuits to go and explore the beach. We were a little hesitant at first because a lot of people told us Mykanos was really windy, but the beach was perfect. We laid in total contentment for a while before Erin and I decided we were going to climb up a rocky path and look out from the top. We found poppies, which is Erin’s favorite flower, goats and aloe plants and a beautiful mountain ledge that leads right into the ocean.


-view from the beach-


-it's all about the climb-

After our little excursion, we decided to settle down in whicker chairs on the beach with a watering bucket full of Pina Coladas and later ate our dinner...which ended up being a very cold experience since the wind pick up immediately with the sun's going down. Luckily, Sara had her Star Wars Towel to cover herself. :-)

That night, Erin, Sara and I decided to stay in because of our long journey, so we cuddled together and watched Mamma Mia, our theme of the trip. Erin fell asleep, but we woke her up because sleeping is not allowed, and following the movie, we absolutely felt the need to do a music video to the soundtrack. Do not judge, we were tired and delirious.


-Our Mamma Mia Music Video-

After all of our excitement, we decided to go to sleep, but instead we came under siege by mosquitos trying to get in through the window! They were big and loud and seriously, they wanted our blood. We tried bulting the windows best we could, but in the end, my elbow and arm suffered from their night invasion. And after our mosquito incident, I got this idea in my head as I drifted off to sleep that if someone tried to break in, we would surely die because we didn’t have any weapons. So then I scared myself into thinking that someone was actually breaking in so I shoved Erin and she was told me it was someone next store opening the zipper to their suitcase. Opps. Then I fell asleep.

Day 6- Exploring Mykanos
This day was one of the best days of my life. Around 11:00 after a very unsatisfying breakfast of toast, Erin, Sara and I attempted to rent mopeds, but the guy said we were girls and couldn’t (which actually was to our benefit) so we rented ATV’s and went around the island. Of course, I still had a lot of trouble with my ATV because it hated me, but we got along and Erin became the “speed demon;” Sara was the “dare devil” taking her hands of the handlebars all the time, and I was “grandma” because I was always too nervous to go too fast. hehe.


-Our ATV's-


-View from ATV’s-

We ate lunch at a little gyro shop with awesome tzatziki, which I am now obsessed with, and then we had Greek ice cream- parfait vanilla with cookies and cream. The town of Mykanos was just like I imagined, blue shutters with perfect white washed walls that fit right in with the sky and sea. The streets were so tiny even the occasional donkey had trouble, but it was absolutely gorgeous exploring it all.

After some shopping, it was back on the ATV’s and around the Greek mountains. We found a field as we drove, and it was just too beautiful to pass, so we decided to get off our ATV’s and run through it while making a clip for our music video. I’m not going to lie when I say I was a little afraid of finding a snake at my foot, but it was well worth it, and no creatures ended up attacking me.


-The Field-

On our way back to Paradise (our hotel), we stopped to get snacks for the night’s drinking festivities. We went to dinner at a restaurant right on the Mediterranean and I gave my lamb “mutton” to a stray cat. We had kadafi for dessert, which of course was delicious and has only fueled my new obsession with honey and walnuts, and then we drove into the night on our ATV’s. Sara became the new grandma because she was afraid of driving in the dark, but we made it back without a problem.

That night, we drank with all the other college students that were staying in Paradise, because let’s be honest when I say every single person there was an American on spring break from some European college, so we just casually drank and talked about our study abroad experiences. Sara was lame and went to bed early, thus she was dubbed “Sara Passout” and then Erin and I ended our night by binge eating Crunch cereal (which she kept dropping all over the floor) and Pringles. Classy.

Day 7- Relaxing in Mykanos
This day was really just a chill day. We did a morning ATV ride before we had to return them- which was so scary because we had to go up a really big hill called SUPER paradise hill- and I didn’t want to go up or down it for fear of my ATV’s liking to it. But I finally did it and obviously I’m still here. Then for the rest of the day we beached it and Sara bought us a Sex on the Beach bucket- very orangey.

That night we joined the other college kids again, and we played a card game called ride the school bus..weird...and then we ended up going into town to a bar called Bar Down Under. I found out one of the guys was from Philly so we chatted for a while, and then we all went back to Paradise to pass out because the night life in Mykanos was still in its Spring infancy.

Day 8- Last full day in Mykanos
That morning a lot of college kids were clearing out so naturally they gave us all of their left over alcohol that they wouldn’t be able to take with them on their flight. We decided to cheer ourselves up by renting ATV’s again and driving them into town for lunch. We ate pork gyros which I didn’t think would be that good since I’m not the biggest fan of pork, but it was delicious as usual, and left me extremely happy for the day. We shopped around town for a while looking at all of the custom made trinkets and then decided on stopping in a cute Greek crepe shop that had a Good Friday mass playing on the tv. The chanting from it was so loud that I felt like I was imposing on some kind of cult, but that obviously didn’t stop me from devouring my fresh strawberry, walnut and honey crepe. After we left the little Greek couple’s restaurant, we went to go ATV some more, but Sara’s ATV wouldn’t start. In fact, we had to drive back to Paradise with sara on my ATV and get the big Greek man to come and look at it. Of course he was able to turn it on as soon as he got there. Embarrassing.

So with all three of our ATV’s finally working, we went to the explore and looked for a beach we could lay out on. Erin decided she wanted to ATV some more so Sara and I read on the beach for a while, and then when we realized that it was getting kind of late and looked in the direction Erin had drove off in where we saw that she was currently walking down the mountain road without her ATV. Oh geeze. When she got back to us, she said that her ATV just stopped running while going down the hill so she just had to pull over and park it. We knew that the ATV place was already closed, so we decided we’d worry about it tomorrow and get some really good seafood in the meantime.

Erin and I split one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The calamari was huge and had so much flavor. It wasn’t too bready, and the meat inside tasted so fresh. Then for dinner, we split the shrimp saganki, which included huge shrimps with a delicious sauce. I’m hungry just thinking about it. Sara got her usual Marguerite pizza, but she really liked it so don’t judge because she’s wild.

Day 9- Leaving Mykanos
This was a sad day. We spent the beginning half collecting Erin’s bike, which actually did have something wrong with it and wasn’t our fault. As we packed though we did come up with a band name for our music video- Moni Moni and a Bottle of Vodka and then we laid on the beach until we had to catch a cab back to the ferry port. I bought us our last bucket, which was Pink Panther, and it was like Mykanos was trying to comfort us because it was absolutely delicious.

The ferry ride back to Athens was sad and we talked a lot about all the fun things that we did on our adventures. When we arrived back in Athens a cabdriver who thought he was a racecar driver/professional air guitarist lead us back to our hostel and then we went to a restaurant called Vitro for dinner. We got the traditional Greek platter which basically had a little bit of everything we had eaten during our trip and then I got spaghetti and shrimp for dinner. I talk about what we ate wayyy to often in this blog.

Anyway, we thought about going out on our last night in Athens, but when we saw that the Metro was closed, we decided our time would be better spent together making another music video in our room and taking funny pictures of ourselves. And it was. Best spring break ever.


-Toi Plus Moi Music Video-

Greece: Eat Feta with Everything and Don't Forget to Dance.

Okay, I really don't feel like blogging, but if I don't now then I never will. Sooo I will try to make it as simplistic as possible being that I'm sure you're only reading this because I respond to all your questions about how my spring break went with "read the blog."

Day 1- Arrival to Paris
To get to Athens, Erin, Sara and I had to take a 5 hour train ride to Paris and spend the night there so we could be ready for our too early flight to Athens in the morning. But my trip actually started when we made it to the train station with much time to spare since Sgt. Erin was in charge. When we got onto the train, we spent close to 15 minutes just looking for the right car we were supposed to be in, and pretty soon we were at the end of the train, I had motion sickness and we decided to just seat ourselves...in first class. Erin assured us that no one would check our tickets and that the only time we would even be addressed at all would be for something "inconsequential." So after an hour and a half, we got our "inconsequential" request for me to remove my feet from the seat ahead of me followed by us being kicked out of first class 7 minutes later and sent to the complete other end of the train.

When we arrived in Paris, we congratulated each other on being intelligent and not taking fixed priced cars and choosing a nice taxi to take us to the Hilton. Unfortunately for us, our cab driver kept passing the exit for the Hilton and the price kept rising. We kept telling him, "il y a une signe..." (there's a sign) but he just kept going in random directions. He found it finally and took some money off our payment for getting lost, but by the time we stepped foot inside the Hilton, which was like a little American Embassy, we had already missed dinner and we were starving. Erin and I settled for a nice "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" dinner consisting of a stale Special K bar from a machine, half a clementine, half a coca-lite, and 3/4 cup of coffee. We finished our wild night watching Scrubs in French, understanding none of it, but keeping it on because we were so excited to be in the presence of a television.

Day 2- Arrival to Athens
The next morning, Sgt Erin Pames Bond had us up and running bright and early for breakfast, and by some miracle of God and all the rules of an American hotel franchise, we were treated to a breakfast fit for American kings. I'm talking Heinz ketchup without the extra added vinegar, Skippy Peanut Butter, Maple syrup, salted butter, scrambled eggs and sausage were only some of the highlights that we have been missing oh so much. So naturally, we ate all we could and smuggled some for later.

Our flight to Athens was about 3 1/2 hours, the peak of which was when I ate a pain au chocolate I stole from breakfast with some Skippy peanut butter. When we finally reached the ground and I stepped off the plane and onto one of the most beautiful countries with some of the richest history, I breathed deep to take it all in before realizing the airport had an indoor smoking section around the corner. Gross.

At the airport, we bought 3 day metro passes, congratulating ourselves again on our genius savings, and with the thoughtful help of a woman who worked at the metro station, we took a 50 minute metro ride to the Acropolis stop where our hostel was. And before I go any further, I should mention that we were helped twice and to the fullest extent by the Greeks. The first time being the woman at the metro station who helped us find the location of our hostel by giving her the phone number so she could locate the area code, and the second being metro workers that helped us find the way from the metro to our hostel. When we asked the men who worked there if they knew our hostel they said the didn't but then they actually called around the station asking, and then finally called the actual hostel for us without our even asking. And no they didn't hit on us, didn't smile creepily, and didn't ask for anything in return. This is just the first example of kindness from the Greeks. Erin, Sara and I later read in a tour guide book that Greeks are really proud of their country and make it a point to be kind to strangers and giving them a great experience so that people remember them. This was absolutely the case and I don't think I've ever been treated and accepted more graciously. But to continue, after we found our hostel and our room, we came to the realization that we were not alone. In our 4 person mixed room there was a girls luffa and suitcase. Other than our mystery room mate's things, there were 2 bunk beds, a balcony, mini kitchenette with fridge, and bathroom with shower that showers the entire bathroom.

After a quick freshening up, we walked the citrus smelling streets to God's Restaurant (yes that's really its name) which is where I learned my first piece of advice I'll give you: eat feta with everything. We ate baked feta as an appetizer and I ordered spaghetti and muscles with a side of feta for flavor. It was absolutely delicious- a great way to begin the trip. The owner was really sweet too and saw how much we liked the food so he gave us free dessert that had the consistency of fish eggs the size of grains of sand with the flavors of cinnamon, walnuts and brown sugar. It looked so weird but it tasted great. We're still trying to work out what the name of it was because we're not so great with the Greek but it was the perfect light ending to the meal. And as we finished up, a twenty some year old guy walked in speaking Greek and came over to us to introduce himself. He told us he was American and I just blurted out that I thought he was lying because I had just heard him speaking Greek, and then he got more than offended when I refused to believe him until he was like, "I'm from Santa Monica, California." So then I felt really awkward that I called him out, but he let it go and invited us to a party he was having at a local bar- The Flocafe- for spring break. Afterwards, we thanked him for the invite and then debated if we'd go.

So when we finally decided we'd go, we got dressed and went down to the bar attached to the hostel to have a few G & T's (Evan's favorite) which I only drank because Erin convinced me it "tastes just like Christmas" in Paris. No they do not, and after a long discussion that brought us closer together, we made our attempts to get to the Flocafe. Unfortunately, our cab driver never brought us to the Flocafe because he couldn't find it. We walked in to the supposed place, which we knew wasn't the right one, and we confirmed our beliefs when we walked in and no one was there. So, we continued to go to the bathroom, catch a cab, and go straight back to the hostel, which turned out to be about a 3 minute drive from the place we were left at which took 15 minutes to get to. In conclusion, we dubbed that night, "The Party in the Bathroom."

After our party in the bathroom, we gave up and tried to go to sleep, but our room mate had made it back to the room and was snoring louder than anyone I have ever had the inconvenience of listening to. It was violent and extreme and all Erin and I could do was compare it to the winds of Zeus and bang on the walls and clear our throats in the hopes of waking her up. As I was drifting off to sleep finally, I guess I was partly dreaming and someone was telling me to yell, "burglar" so she'd hear the word and think there was an actual burglar and wake up. Nope. I just said burglar out loud in my half sleep before passing out completely.

Day 3- Touring Athens
This was the first day we started listening to Mamma Mia every morning to wake up. And because of that decision even this morning I woke up thinking of Mamma Mia. But anyways, for breakfast, we went to a small cafe where EVERYONE smoked inside. It's a law that your not allowed to anymore, but it's held at the discretion of the owner who obviously isn't going to hinder his business by telling smokers that their not welcome with their cigarettes. The smoking in Athens is worse than France by a million. It's absolutely disgusting. In fact, they can tell your American if you're not smoking all the time. After breakfast, we went to the Acropolis which holds the famous Parthenon and we met the winds of Zeus again because it was soo windy we thought we were going to fall off the mountain.


-The Parthenon-

As we were looking out at this great view of Athens, we found a path that seemed like it led into town so we took it and found ourselves in the middle of the market place. Everything there was hand made by local artists all in an Athens' Artisan Society so you knew their things weren't just crappy trinkets; so, we spent the afternoon browsing the stands and eating ice cream which actually started a bad trend of eating ice cream all the time.


-The View from the Acropolis-


-Sara's and my Ice Cream.-

We also saw The Argura and The Temple of Zeus which is mind blowing to me considering they've been around since BC. I mean they’ve seen wars where the people who’ve fought in them are less than dust now. It’s mind boggling. On a totally different and less dramatic note, Erin read us a FUN FACT from her guide book while walking to dinner. It that said all the stray dogs that we thought we're owned because they look so well fed are taken care of by the towns people who also buy collars and things. And when the Olympics were held in Athens a few years ago, the government took all the dogs off the streets and got them vaccinated and fixed so that they could live healthy in the streets where they like after the Olympics were over. Really cool, right?

That night for dinner, we went to a Greek restaurant where the owner had previously helped us find The Temple of Zeus. He was really nice so we decided on dinner there and it was one of my favorites. We had grapevine wrapped appetizers and I made my own gyro for dinner. It was soo good and I'm now obsessed with the cucumber dipping sauce, Tzatziki, that I will never remember how to say unless Erin says it first. We got Bakalava for dessert and the honey cinnamon mix is amazing (Stacey, I'm not sure if its better than Nick's because I never tried it, but I'm sure it gave it a sweet run for its money). I really want to start putting honey on everything now. And since we didn't have anything else to do, Erin, Sara and I decided to get a carafe of white wine, which was dry and perfect, and then because the owner said he could tell that we were "good girls" he brought us out a dish of oranges all peeled and sliced up which tasted so fresh since all the oranges are in season now, and then a half hour later he brought us apples with honey- now one of my favorite dessert combinations. And after we devoured all of that, he invited us to learn how to Greek dance with the little live traditional Greek band playing inside. So while the rest of the restaurant looked on, Sara, Erin and I skipped around the room attempting to dance, which seems easy BUT ISNT. This is where I learned my second piece of advice: don’t forget to dance in Greece. Our whole eating experience there was one of my favorite memories and we felt really European making our meal last 2 1/2 hours. After dinner we walked back to our hostel with the happy reminder that our room mate had left early in the morning so we had the room all to ourselves :-)

Day 4- Touring Athens Cont’d
On our last day in Athens before Mykanos, we decided we wanted to be more active, so we took the advice of Erin’s tour book and spent the day visiting all the places it suggested. First, we climbed to the top one of one the highest mountains in Athens to see a little whitewashed church named St. George. I packed some sneakers so the journey up wouldn’t be as harsh on my usual flip-flopped feet, but that didn’t help when we reached stairs. Erin and Sara barely had a problem climbing all the way to the top because of their height, but I on the other hand had way more trouble because the stairs were like little mountains for my short legs. However, once we made it to the top, we took lots of pictures and everything was well worth it because the view of Athens made me feel like time didn’t exist at the top of the mountain. It’s one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen in my life. Sorry California, but Greece takes it all.


-On top of St. George’s-

Once we made it safely to the bottom of the mountain, the flip flops came back out and we walked to the National Archeological Museum, but not before we had a 2 euro lunch consisting of the best gyros and ice cream. The museum was amazing with all of its Greek artifacts that date back well before BC. All of the history was actually a bit hard to comprehend being that the United States is a measly 300 years old.


-Greek Pot found in the Kerameikos Cemetery from 460-450 B.C.-


-Close up of Pot: The design of a person having their hands on their heads was a signal that they were mourning.-

After our walk through Greek history, we took a “leisurely” 45 minute tram to the coast of Greece, and as we were riding, we met some really nice boys studying in Jerusalem for the semester, a Greek woman who naturally was more than willing to help us find our stop, and two flight attendants that had the day in Greece before departing again for the United States. I couldn’t believe that anyone would actually WANT to study in Jerusalem with its being so dangerous, but I’m glad I found out I was so obliviously wrong. The guys we met weren’t even all Jewish, actually the one was ridiculously hot, and they just chose it for its history and its experiences apart from Europe. I should have gotten his phone number... Anyway so that was refreshing to hear, and then their was the Greek woman with two children who were trying to tell us the best place to go on the coast, etc, and we didn’t even have to ask her for help. She saw that we were looking at our tour book like losers and made some suggestions. I just love how friendly all the Greeks are, and this is just one more example. And as for the flight attendants, well if I wasn’t afraid of heights and flying so much I might actually do it. They both know how to speak more than one language so they are able to go on international flights and because of this, they have explored more than 32 countries in the past two years. Can you believe it? Even though I am afraid of flying, that makes me want to do it! They said that their pay is bad, and sometimes the hours suck, but its worth it because they’re young and they love to travel. And that’s good enough for me. Hmm....

When we got to the coast, we went out onto the rocks, took pictures, and sat out to watch the romantic sunset over the water. We felt so lucky to have been there to see it. For dinner, we ate a local restaurant and had a Greek salad, grilled feta and a veal appetizer. I’m not a fan of veal at all, but I tried it because all the Greeks love it, and while I wouldn’t pick it over chicken, it still was good. The Greek salad was delicious though; you could taste the crispness of the tomatoes and cucumbers, and mixed in with the feta, it was just the right amount of flavor.




-Coastal Pics-

I also learned another FUN FACT that night from Erin’s book! The water, which was one of those huge European bottles, is always 1.50 euros where ever you go because the government regulates its price so no one gets dehydrated. It was great because we never realized how much water we had to drink there, and we knew we would never be overcharged.

When we got back that night, we noticed that there was a blue backpack on the floor next to the open bunk bed. We looked at it and for anything else around the room that would give way to the sex of the unknown coloc (room mate), but we only had the neutral blue book bag with a Coke Zero in one of the outside pockets. We decided since there was no sign of other luggage, that either it was a health conscious guy or a really manly girl. No one had shown up by the time we went to bed, and I had a horrible time trying to get to sleep because I knew I had to wake up at 5 am for our ferry ride to Mykanos. By 3:30 I had finally fallen asleep only to be awaken at 4 by our room mate who was in fact a guy. I tried making quick convo with him and telling him he could turn on a light if he need, but he said he didn’t need to and just jumped into bed wearing his clothes and tossing his hat. When I fell back asleep, I had a dream that he was from Texas and he was in Greece with his family, but there wasn’t enough space in the rooms so he had to separate. I told him I was sad that we hadn’t met when we were all going out so we could hang out and he said he felt the same way... and then it was 5 am and Drill Sgt. Proper Flower was up and at em. I really wanted to wake the kid up for a second before we left to ask him if he had ever even been to Texas, but I refrained and closed the door behind us.

----Intermission! Second Blog on Mykanos----

Quick Update of my Life Before Spring Break Because I Suck and Procrastinate..Is This Title too Long??

Welt, the term is half way through and I just can't believe how fast the time is flying by! These past two weeks before spring break moved so quickly that they almost blend together completely. Soo I'm just going to give you guys a brief catch up.

First things first, I have to complain about some cultural differences and this week's topics are the Mayo and mustard combo and the "Philly Cheese Steak." Okay, so with the Mayo/mustard combo, I'm annoyed that its a combo- the Mayo here has Dijon mustard mixed into it- like in the same bottle. If I wanted Dijon Mayo, I would mix Dijon and Mayo together. I shouldn't have to be forced to eat every ham, cheese and Mayo sandwich with the accompaniment of Dijon. This is gross. And for those of you who are aware of how often I randomly throw up, you might also know about my ham and cheese sandwich trick. If you don't then I'll just tell you, or you can skip reading it, your choice. So how I usually decide if I'm going to throw up is by thinking of a really good ham and cheese sandwich with a little Mayo on wheat bread. If I cannot even bare to think of it, or I start breaking out in a cold sweat...yea I'm going to throw up. If not, then there is hope, so that was the old way. However, about a month or so before I left, Iron Hill had ham sandwiches with Dijon mustard on them, and that night I ended up throwing up for reasons I will never understand and Dijon mustard became a no no and has tainted my special trick because now I always feel like I’m going to throw up when thinking of ham sandwiches! I am cursed with bad memories and every time I want a little Mayo with my tuna or egg salad. It's a punishment I just do not deserve.

Anyways, to get back on track, the second thing I was supposed to be writing about was the French idea/dream of a Philly cheese steak. Now, do not judge me and be like, "oh Lia you are so naive; why would you go there and think they could do a Philly cheese steak." And to you I say shut it pre-judger! I was NOT going there because I already knew the French don't over-grease their foods so they never stood a chance in the first place. No, the real problem actually came about while I was at a little "eatery," if you will, called Funny Food and they have both the "cheese steak" and the "Philly cheese steak." This differentiating of cheese steaks intrigued me because for a second I thought maybe this French take-out center acknowledged the existence of hot peppers and onions being joined together on one steak..or maybe just acknowledge the existence of hot peppers on its own...but alas this was naturally not the case. No, the "cheese steak" is literally just cheese and steak on a baguette (omg) and the "Philly steak" is steak and PAPRIKA. Can you even comprehend what I just wrote? There's not even CHEESE on the Philly cheese steak. Nope they just call it the “Philly steak” and expect everyone to believe that's how we roll. I mean if we want to spice something up in Philly we do not add a dash of Paprika. If you did, You'd be called a homo and told to step aside while hot peppers and ketchup sprayed out of a container that makes farting noises took your place. And that's how it should be.

And just a dab of a sentence before I go on- I think its weird that the French keep their milk in little cardboard boxes and it doesn't have to be refrigerated 'til opened! That's gross and I'm a little afraid for my life, but I will continue to drink it because it is so freaking delicious.

Ok so now that I got that off my chest, here's what I've really been up to. For day trips, AIFS took us to Grasse and Aix-en-Provence where we learned the art of perfumery and the actual art of Cezanne. Grasse is the perfume capital of the world and only 10 minutes away from Cannes so we lucky enough to get a private tour through Fragonard Perfumery which supplies all the designer names with their essences and scent elixirs and see how the scents are made, harvested and manufactured. The tour had many fun facts, but I think Erin and I liked the part where our tour guide sounded like Charlie the Unicorn and said "blah blah blah" and we awkwardly laughed loudly while everyone else was silent. But the true best part was when we got to create our own signature scent by mixing different fragrances together! Mine was a cinnamon and vanilla base while Erin stuck with a musky design haha.


-Making my Perfume!-

And as for Aix-en-Provence, we spent our day wandering around the markets and I tried my first French milkshake. It was vanilla and I'm going to be honest when I say that the it gave Nifty Fifties a nice run for their money. After shopping, we went to Artist Cezanne's workshop where we saw all of his props for his still life’s and then we climbed to the top of a hill where he use to paint to see the exact view he saw of Mt. Vincente.


-Cezanne's Workshop.-


-Cezanne's Painting which currently lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.-


-My Photo of Mt. Vicente-



As for regular life in Cannes, the spring weather has arrived and laying out on the beach has become an everyday thing. More and more people are showing up for the spring months too which is great because I think the school bubble is getting old. Right now we have high school Italians visiting for two weeks and I can’t believe how immature the are. They look so young, and all of them smoke, even with their teachers, and they all cut in front of everyone at lunch because they have no concept of a line. Now all the Americans try to leave class early because the Italians put so much stuff on their plates while cutting in line and the whole experience is just obnoxious.

In other news dealing with food, Erin, Becca, Steph and I went to a cute hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Cannes (it has about 6 tables inside) and got some of the best Cannes food we have tried yet. The woman who was our waitress told everyone we were her babies and we loved being her babies. For dinner, I had the Cannes speciality, fish soup, which was caught right outside followed by a white, flaky fish in a light tomato sauce and ended with various fruits from the area. Our waitress, or mom, brought us free after dinner shots too... thanks mom!

Another not-so-civilized meal we’ve discovered is Mr. Pizza. Cannon, Joju, Steph, Becca, Paige and I finally tried it and I wish I never had because its cheap, they deliver for free, it tastes like home with a dab of French anddd its probably over 300 calories a slice. Worst of all, the boys always want to order it and they know just how to manipulate me into going in with them!!

Some other fun stuff that’s gone on here was St. Patty’s Day with Erin, Sara, Cannon, Steph, Becca and Paige. We smuggled many a beer and miny keg into the college and spent the early afternoon till evening playing beer pong and singing songs. And the great thing about starting so early was that I was back from Morrison’s and in bed by 12 am. I definitely still had to pay for my actions the next day in Claude’s class when he showed no mercy on me or Cannon, but overall it was still worth it.

Becca, Steph, Erin, Sara and I also went exploring in Nice a few weekends ago which is about 45 mins away, but worth the trip by train. While shopping, I found a really great pair of what I call my GaGa high heels because they are ridiculously high, dangerous and the style is a little GaGa-esque, if you will. But since my black high heels were ruined from the cobblestones, I found these worth it because they were simple, which is my normal style, but had a funky European edge to them, which is awesome. After all our hard work with shopping, we ate at a cute Italian restaurant where I had the major craving for Hawaiian pizza before heading back to Cannes.

And the last thing I wanted to mention is the day before break started, my art history class went on a field trip (yay field trips!) to an art museum in Nice where we got to see some of the work we’ve been studying. Sara, Erin and I have a project due on Renoir and Warhol on Thursday and I’m going to have to pretend I’m Mr. Andy Warhol himself and defend his idea of social class in his work. I’m really excited about it and also really happy that I dragged my friends to the Warhol museum in Pittsburg (can’t spell Pitt without Pittsburg..oh wait.) Sooo yup that’s what went on here. More excitingly, my next blog is on my spring break in Greece which was the best spring break ever so stay tuned!

Florence..yeaa it happened three weeks ago, so?

Okay, I'm finally getting around to writing my blog about Florence and I'm not going to lie when I say its just because I am sick. I have croup (Kevin knows all about this) and so I'm just hanging out in bed, coughing like a dog, the ush.

So, I read my friends' blogs about Florence, in the hopes of recounting everything chronologically, and I made notes as everything was happening in my little black book, so I'm sure I will have no problems recounting...hopefully.

The bus ride from Cannes to Florence was 6 hours or so, which may have been a long time for everyone, but was just a "river trip" away for me. Erin had to pee all the time, and I never got off the bus at any stop because I enforced my own river rule that once the car starts, there is no stopping until we are there. Therefore, if Erin ever comes to the river with me, she will be in another car, or riding behind me via bike. Lia's car does not stop. Anyways, so I got to listen to a whole lot of John Mayer, look out the window at the changing French to Italian scenery, and think about my trip abroad thus far.

We stopped about an hour and a half away from Florence at Pisa, where we saw the leaning tower, did another dance for our video, and looked around town for about a half hour. The city of Pisa itself is a dump, aside from the tower, and I don't really recommend going out of your way to see it because there's really nothing else to do there besides take a picture and go.


At the Leaning Tower!

When we made it to Florence, we had to walk up lots of old steep staircases with our bags ( I really thought the weight of my bag was going to pull me back down them) and get the key to our rooms; then, we had to walk down another set of stairs in another hall. The receptionist was really bossy, and not nice at all, but I just ignored her and went to my room with Paige to unpack our things. The room itself was nice; we were excited for the tv, even if everything was in Italian, and we were excited about having our own bathroom; HOWEVER, the shower was not okay. In Italy, there are no separators from the shower and the rest of the bathroom. Meaning that the water can go any which way in the bathroom without a secure curtain, meaning the whole bathroom gets a shower, meaning the whole experience is awkward and unsatisfying. But no worries, they made plenty of room instead for a bidet (which is like a douche, I think). I didn't even think those things were around anymore, but oh no, Italy is chalk full of em incase you were ever wondering.

After we unpacked, Erin, Sara, Paige and I were really hungry, so we found the first restaurant we could to eat some real Italian food. Since our hotel is right by the famous duomo, we ate a ristorante, instead of trattoria which was a big mistake. In Italy there are two kinds of restaurants- ristorantes, which are more for their location and scenery than their food, and then there's the trattoria, which is a restaurant made from the food harvested from the area. Our food at the ristorante was good and everything, but it was expensive, and not exactly the mouth watering experience we were expecting. Afterwards though, we went to a gelatoria, which was the taste of heaven we were hoping for and supposedly it isn't as bad as some American ice cream like everyone says, so that just made the delicious experience all the better.

The next day we were up and out for early morning tour with a cute Italian lady who showed us around Florence and gave us all these fun facts, which I have shared with you in my Florence album. Apparently after reading Erin and Sara's blog, not everyone was as into the tour as me, so now I'm hesitating on sharing what I've learned with you. I will say a little though just so I can remember these facts for myself, and if you want, you can skip the next few sentences or so if you're as bored as Erin and Sara. So, Florence (Firenze in Italian meaning "may you flourish") was the capital of the Tuscany region, and like Philadelphia, it was also the nation's capital for a short span of time. It's said to be the birth place of the Renaissance and was actually founded by Julius Caesar in 59 BC. The duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore), which sits close to the city's center was built a top of a pagan church, and is still the largest dome built in brick and mortar in the world and is made of three type of marble- white, green and pink, which were bought locally from the Tuscany region. The Arno River, which runs through the olde city, shares a love-hate relationship with Florence because although it did bring much commerce because it enabled easy transportation, it continuously destroyed sections of the city with its floods. Also, the ambulance sirens here are even more annoying than those in France because they have one monotone sound and I swear its 10x's louder. So there.


First Section of the Duomo


The Actual Dome of the Duomo


The Little Streets of Florence

When the walking tour throughout the city ended, Erin, Sara and I found ourselves in almost every store and leather shop in Florence. It's really cool walking through Florence too because the cobblestones are mostly all original so thats like hundreds and hundreds of Italian history under your feet. And most of the streets are all so tiny that you need a special permit to even be allowed to have a vehicle in the city so most of the time you can just walk in the middle of the street instead of cramming together on the sidewalks. So as we shopped, I considered not getting any leather items since I don't wear it, but I figured that since it wasn't for me, it would be okay. I did, however, buy myself an awesome pair of charcoal boots, and tights to go with my new European style that I have expensively been developing (don't worry mom, I've been holding back) and after our tiring shopping excursion, we ate lunch at a local pizzeria, which honestly was better than the night before's food, and way cheaper. However, I felt really bad asking for my food in English, because I've become so accustomed to being able to ask for everything in French, and I felt ignorant for not speaking any Italian. They didn't seem to mind too much, but still it would have been nicer to at least be able to ask for my food in Italian. Anyways, we wolfed down our food and then made our way to Uffizi Gallery in which The Birth of Venus is held.


"The Birth of Venus" Botticelli 1486

I can't say I will ever fully appreciate all the Madonna and child paintings there. I mean all of the many paintings have the same idea depicted on them and the whole concept got old, fast. It just seemed like they were uninspired. But I guess that's okay because as Sara said, I felt that when I reached the Pagan idea of The Birth of Venus, I was that much more impressed. The bright colors are completely different from the surrounding frescos, and its size alone is enough to awe anyone.

After leaving the museum, Missy, Erin, Sara, Paige and I went to the only surviving bridge of WWII to look out at the Arno River and explore the various shoppes created along its path (big bridges all use to have shoppes and buildings built along them, which is so strange and kind of junky to see today).


Surviving Bridge

For dinner, we listened to Aude (the AIFS assistant) and found a hole-in-the-wall trattoria that she told us about which served the most delicious local Italian food for less than half the price from the night before's restaurant. The cook/owner was such a cute, stereotypical, Italian man who sang as he cooked and served us our food with a serenade. We ate Brochette, and cold cut meats and cheese plate to start, and then I had a big bowl of Spaghetti and clams to finish me off ( Literally. I could barely walk after all that food). We had red wine with the dinner too, and I couldn't believe how much I actually liked it and that's saying a lot because I am definitely a nice, dry white wine drinker.

Sara was having a hard time finishing her last few bites, so when the cook/waiter/singer/owner/etc. came over to collect our plates, he looked at her plate, picked up her fork and made her eat another bite. We were all hysterically laughing when he kept urging her to eat, and then he kissed her forehead and collected her plate. It was probably one of the funniest, most memorable moments I had abroad. There was also this really cute couple from california who were celebrating their fortieth anniversary in Florence, and their love for each other still was a sight to see in itself.

After we left, and made another trip to a galato shop, in which Erin ordered Rose gelato and earned herself the nickname Proper Flower. That night, Sara and Proper Flower went out to explore Florence's night life, but Paige and I decided to be lazy and stay in and watch weirdo Italian tv until we both drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, we were up bright and early as usual to go to our last museum, Galleria dell'Accademia, to see the world famous David. I wanted to save David for last, so I walked around looking at all the different painting of Florence by all these Renaissance artists, and it just blew my mind seeing these paintings from the 1500's depicting the plague, religious events, and historical happenings of Florence with the Duomo and the Medieval Tower of Florence peaking in the background. It really just made me wonder what happened on the ground I was standing on in a time I couldn't even fathom living in. I also learned that when an artist paints an animal next to a person, it usually depicts the person's temperament since it can't be captured by the painting itself. So I guess I wouldn't mind hanging out with the woman whose animal was a humbled sheep, or the man's who was dolphin, but the renaissance guy that was sitting next to a lion in the shadows. Yea, I bet he was a dick.

But anyways, so before I saw David, I really wasn't expecting much, I mean it's a nice statue and all, but I wasn't that excited. However, when I stood right in front of it, I can honestly say that I could not take my eyes off the statue. It was absolutely beautiful, and so big that it just commands attention. Like Sara said, every movement you make around it just brings out a new perspective to it. I learned from the tour that Michelangelo's statue is important, not just because of its absolute beauty, but because it was the first time that David wasn't depicted as a little boy like in biblical depictions, but as the true hero he was to the people. We weren't allowed to take any photos, but Sara snapped one while the guard wasn't looking so I'll share it with you.


"David" Michelangelo 1504

That wraps up my trip to Florence; I think I remembered everything I want to remember and said everything I wanted to say. Sorry it took so long to post, but I promise I will try not to let my procrastenation get the best of be again. Grazie for reading! Love you and miss yo all! Arrivederci!!

Paris, mais oui!

Hey everyone! Just got back from Paris and I figured I should write a blog about it before I forget or take forever like my blog for Florence which clearly has not been written yet and will be done at some point this week. Hopefully.

Paris was an awesome, awesome trip, and I can’t stress it enough. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard and so often. Before I left the states, anyone who asked me what I was going to do after I graduated would get a “I’m hoping to figure it out while I’m abroad,” and as empty as that was while I said it, I think it was partly true in some ways, and I think after this experience I’ve gotten some kind of clue to what I would like to do, and that’s living in Paris. I still want to write my book after I graduate, but maybe I’ll consider putting it off for a little so I can teach children English with this program my French teacher recommended to me. I think it’s really strange that I like Paris since I wouldn’t care if I ever walked the New York City streets again, but I think Paris is so different and has more than New York could ever offer. Sorry Jay-Z.

Paris is huge with different cultures living within it, but it has so much history and experience accompanying its future. Even the most modern and expensive stores have a historical background to how they came to be that way. And for whatever reason, I felt settled within the hectic without feeling as if I was about to be swept away by busy crowds and New York mentalities. It is more fast pace than living in the south in Cannes, but its without the constant missions and initiatives New York and even Philly seem to have. Of course, there’s a good and a bad to everything, and Paris is no exception, but I think that while I’m caught up in my dream of it’s being perfect, I can keep a blind eye and allow it to come as close to perfection as it can.

Our trip started on Thursday morning when we took an early flight from Nice and arrived around 2:00 pm at Hôtel de Paris Bastille. This trip, I was lucky enough to room with Erin, Sara, and Becca in a quad room and we had so much fun living together. Well, the room was small and Erin, Becca and Sara usually woke up more than a half hour before me since I never do anything but throw clothes on and maybe do some quick makeup , but other than that things went splendidly. After we settled in, I heard that there were some stones from the Bastille (the prison that was knocked down by the people of France as a symbol of revolution against the king’s absolute power) that weren’t placed in bridges and buildings around France, so my friends and I decided to take advantage of climbing some ruins and taking pictures. However, when we found it, things were not as we imagined. Red flags should have been dramatically waving in our heads every time we asked a Parisian where this little monument was because each time they either thought we were stupid to not know that the stones were throughout the city or they just had no idea what we were talking about. But finally, I asked a police officer and he pointed us in the direction of a road leading to 7 or 8 block stones fenced in with a small house holding gardening supplies for a park. In our anti-climatic moment, we snapped a quick shot or two and made our way back to the hotel for a 3 hour bus tour of the city...which was also a let down.



What's left of the famous Bastille. And they almost moved these remains, so its not even the original spot!

When we were in London, we were off and on the bus, learning fun facts which I then included in blogs and albums, but none of this occurred on our 3 HOUR tour. Most of us fell asleep...including me. We did, however, get off the bus at the Eiffel Tower and Erin, Sara and I danced while tourists watched and our friends’ videotaped us for our video we are creating of all the monuments we dance in front of throughout our study abroad. We switched up our signature dance moves because the old ones are just getting too old, and we’ve also decided to get a little more choreography in it.



Eiffel Tower Video!

Since I was basically dying from Mexican food withdraw (yeaa I’m dramatic), we ate at the first Mexican restaurant we could find, and although the French eat everything without spice and flavor in general, it was enough to keep me from slowly sinking from lack of salsa, so I felt better.

That night, we went to a show in downtown Paris with AIFS and we had so much fun! It was Zorro as a French musical, and you can rest assured that by the end Erin, Sara and I were dancing Spanish salsa in the lobby and planned some Zorro-inspired dance moves for our next dance.

Days 2 and 3 were probably the most busy days I have had abroad. We saw so many things that I just can’t believe how much we accomplished. Both days we wanted to just about die, but we made it and it was all worth it. Beth Ann would be proud.

On Friday, we had to be dressed, breakfasted and ready for 10 for our exclusive tour of Paris’ Hôtel de Ville. Now, fun fact, (yup it was only a matter of time) if you go to a “hôtel” in France or Canada it may actually be the “city hall” of the town because a hotel use to be where the mayor worked and decisions were made for a city. The tour itself was a let down because I was hoping to learn many a fun fact to share with everyone, but instead our tour guide just told us things like “this chandler is made of the purist crystal in France.” So, that’s all you get. However, Erin, Sara and I found time to dance around and sing Anastasia for a while, so that helped our fun intake. But the hotel itself was just as elegant as Versailles. Every Provence in France has its own paintings and symbols in each of the rooms, and gold trim lines just about everything.



L'hôtel

After our tour, Sara, Erin, Becca and I went to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Eastern Paris to see some famous, and not so famous graves. The graveyard was so big that we needed a map to navigate everything and as creepy as it was, it was interesting being in a graveyard without having someone I know be dead, so I was able to look at it with a different perspective. It may kind of sound like a deb thing to say, and I’m not saying that you should just walk around a graveyard for a while, but it is interesting. Anways, we saw Jim Morrison’s grave (from The Doors), Frederic Chopin (the pianist), Oscar Wilde (the writer), and Sarah Bernhardt (the actress) to name a few.



I'm gram's Sarah Bernhardt!

I can’t believe we stayed in the Graveyard as long as we did, because by the end we had almost run to Montparnasse, one of the tallest buildings in Paris, because our AIFS group was meeting there to ride the elevator to the top. And guess what mom! I made it alllll the way to the top without crying! So after we snapped a few shots of clear view, we ate lunch, and tried to get to The Catacombs.

We were unsuccessful and got lost.



View from Montparnasse.

So instead Cannon, Joju, Erin, Sara, DJ, and I made a trip to Napoleon’s Tomb, where I was so excited to finally see the grave of one of the coolest people who ever lived and I took lots of pictures and told everyone the fun fact I learned about his tomb..which I will now tell you. Fun fact: Napoleon wanted himself buried in a tomb where you had to look down to see him so your head would be bowing down to him. Yup. I love him. I did a mini solo dance for our video with Napoleon in the background. It was awkward and the the video doesn’t look like much alone BUT wait until you see the video Erin’s working on! It looks great and I cannot even wait to sneak it in to the Cannes Film Festival where it will win first prize.



Napoleon!

After Napoleon’s Tomb, we made it back to the hotel and then we got ready to see The Louvre at night! We took lots of pictures (obviously) and everything looked amazing with all the lights shining and reflecting off of the gold and glass. Erin did her mini solo, which I screwed up, but again it looks awesome in the whole video, and then we went inside and saw Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo...etc.. all those pics are on facebook.

By the time we were done it was well on its way to 10:00 pm and we still hadn’t eaten dinner so Erin, Sara, Sam and I went to a Mexican restaurant (again, I cannot stress how important Mexican food is to me) where I had my first taste of tequila, which was happened by accident because they put tequila in my Pina Colada instead of Malibu Rum which is what I’ve always gotten. After our very filling dinner, Erin, Sara and I decided that instead of going out, once again, it would just be better to pass out. So we did.

On Saturday, we were ready and out the door by 9:30 so we could go to Musée d’Orangerie with AIFS. There we saw huge Monet paintings, which we all thought were fake, but Cannon and Joju proved us wrong (I still don’t really believe them) and lots of other paintings that I included in my facebook.



Monet's wall size painting.

After Musée d’Orangerie was Musée d’Orsay, which is home to many impressionist paintings including works from both Van Gogh and Monet. Fun Fact! Americans always pronounce Van Gogh without the ending "g" because it sounds French not to pronounce it. However, the French DO pronounce it. Anyway, Erin and I walked around together observing everything and I am so excited to say that she is now likes looking at art and that I can say that I was apart of her new view. I hope that her love for art will only grow! (That sounded really lame, but I’m lame sooo its fine).




Van Gogh's self portrait.



Painting that reminds me of something my Aunt Mary Lou would like.

After d’Orsay, we were all museumed-out so we went to one of the coolest places in Paris- The Catacombs! Cannon, Joju, Sara, Erin, DJ, Bonnie, Lena, and Jamie waited in line for almost a half an hour as Cannon and I held a contest for his Irish accent versus my English one to see how long we could both keep it on, and I think mine was so much better :-). No, just kidding he really is good at being Irish, and Bostonian, and British... but I’m not salt or anything :-|



Our Battle.

Anyway, so after a half an hour, we finally made it inside and we saw the bones of over 8,000 bodies from the burial grounds of Saints-Innocents decorated around the walls. The condensed story behind it is that Paris ran out of burial space in the city, so all the dead bodies in the ground, which were buried without coffins in mass burials due to lack of space, causing major water pollution, and soon the grounds were overflowing with bodies and nowhere to put them, so they were taken to the catacombs and left to decompose under the city. It was creepy walking through the rooms of bone walls as tall as me, but I think that it is definitely something to see and appreciate. Kind of like the cemeteries. If you wanna be in to that kind of thing.



The Catacombs.



CATACOMBS VIDEO

When we left the bones and burial mounds behind, we made our way to Sacre Coeur which is an extremely large church overlooking Paris (you need to take funicular up) and then Sara, Erin, Bonnie and I made a quick stop at the Moulin Rouge, which I remembered was close by from my last visit.

That night, big surprise, we went out for Mexican food again and after dinner Erin, Sara, Cannon and I decided we wanted “to mount the Eiffel Tower..drunk.” So, we found the closest bar and started drinking. We only stayed for a half hour and I had two double Cosmos and Erin had her gross Rum nasty and Sara had her fun drink, and we made our way to the Eiffel Tower via the metro. Erin and I then proceeded to have a drunken photo shoot which of course always ends well, and we ended up missing the last elevator up the Eiffel Tower for the night. I mean, we stood no chance getting up there anyway since we decided we wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower at 11 something when it closes at 12, but it doesn’t matter because when we thought all was lost and that we were missing the best view of our lives, we were under the Eiffel Tower when it hit 12:00 and the lights that envelop the entire 1,052 feet tower sparkled for us.



Words cannot express this sight at night.

And since we missed our chance to go up, Erin, Sara, Cannon, DJ and I decided to continue our little party at a Mexican Bar (duh).

The next morning we had a boat tour on the Seine, which we should have skipped because it was boring and I had already been on it and Erin was boat sick and I was tired and everyone was blah. And we left Paris around 4 for our darling Cannes.

This trip to Paris, as busy as it was, was probably one of the most fun things I’ve done in my life thus far and I am so happy to have these memories with me.

Thank you guys, if you actually made it this far, for reading. I had to make sure I didn’t forget anything since this is basically substituting for my journal right now. Miss you and love you all. And thank you mommy for paying for my trip. I will always remember this!

One Month Down!

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last blog, I guess I've been pretty busy...and procrastinating... so I definitely have a lot to say this time. And since I'm catching up on everything, I'm going to have a separate Florence blog, because it deserves its own, and I will hopefully post it tomorrow. So I'll just get right to this catch up blog.

I know that I've been meaning to write a lot about cultural differences in this blog, but I didn't have my black book with me because i couldn't find it...story of my life... but now I do have it and so I only have a few this time. The first is just so European. I walked to the hypermarché (supermarket) the other day and there is an enclosed basketball court that people have turned into a concrete soccer field. The hoops have long been abandoned and the basketball lines on the court have worn away from the sneakers and soccer balls. It's funny really. And I also noticed since I was wearing my sweatshirt and jeans on my walk, that the French always look nice. I know it's a stereotype, but their dress down is a blouse and jeans for girls, and there are definitely no sweatshirts or sweat pants in sight. Oh, and no Uggs here either (sorry Pam). But I can’t really talk because my clogs don’t seem to be fitting in well either. They make that brushing noise against the pavement, and I never thought anything of it, but apparently the French do. Erin, Sara and I counted the looks I got from my shoes scrapping against the ground and it was well above 20. It is not an exaggeration when I say that people heard my shoes, stopped walking, and turned around. It sounds too extreme, I know, but I am not kidding. I dunno if they thought like someone was sweeping the pavement or something but they stared at my shoes and I couldn’t do a thing about it because clogs work like flip-flops except with a brushing sound. If you don’t want the noise then you’d have to pick your legs up in an extreme marching position, so I’m not sure which is worse, me walking regularly and sounding like a street cleaner or me walking like a mentally challenged soldier. Needless to say, those shoes are now in the back of my wardrobe.

Anyway back to the French dressing up all the time, Erin was talking to a French student at the college and he said partly the reason that he can tell if a girl is American is because they wear sweatshirts and sweatpants. This is soo typical United States, because when I think about it, everyone dresses like that; you can even say its trendy. If your not going out for the night, why dress is anything else? Well, I obviously will not be telling French guys anytime soon about Britt, Cait's, and my wearing pajamas to high school everyday. Well, not so much Cait because she was always more proper, but whatever. Andddd I don't know if I mentioned this because I had already realized this from my first trip to France, but the French take their dogs EVERYWHERE. The other day when I was in Zara, I was looking at pants and I bent down and a dog (just like Shannon's dog) came up and licked me. I think its really cool that their dogs are obedient enough to not do anything bad in stores and stuff (because we all know Missy would probably eat the store), but it never ceases to surprise me when their in the most unconventional places in terms of American standards.

Oh, and I do want to mention that dairy is kept at a warmer temperature here and I kind of like it except for the fact that I'm probably going to die of food poisoning. For instance, the milk for breakfast everyday is in milk jugs (sadly not acidophilus Shan) just sitting out at room temperature, and when I bought cheese at the supermarché it was like kind of cold, but no where near as cold as it is in the states. They say that keeping it slightly chilled brings out the all the flavors (just like Iron Hill’s beers temperatures!), which is definitely true and delicious ... but it also brings out salmonella.

Also, its been a month and I'm seriously convinced the people here never work. Not only do shops and restaurants close in the middle of the day, but Sara and I were shopping last Monday at 3:00 pm and the sidewalks were so busy with people, strollers and dogs that it seemed like it was a Saturday afternoon (I'd say it's like Sunday afternoon, but literally EVERYTHING in town, is closed on Sundays: shops, supermarkets, restaurants, movies, arcades, stands, etc, and you can't do a thing) So that's that for this week's culture conundrums.

So back to the real topics at hand, it has officially been a month since I began living in France, and I can happily report that as much as I miss you guys, I have no desire to come home at all. Actually, I already discussed this with Becca, but I found that the only thing I can really bring myself to miss is the river. Lately I was wondering why I miss it so much since I wouldn't be there at this time anyway, but I realized that since its my favorite place in the world, and its where all my closest friends and family go, I think I have subconsciously allowed myself to miss my family and friends through the association of the river. And I know it sounds stupid, but I came to this conclusion being that I told myself I wasn't going to allow myself to think about missing anyone because I knew it would make me sad and I just want to be as happy as possible here. I have been doing pretty well with leaving my past in the past, moving forward and basically living off the advice of 500 Days of Summer, and I really want to believe that I was so dreadfully unhappy the past 6 months before I left so I could be my happiest here.

But enough about the mushy stuff, let's get back to what I am actually doing here. Today we switched classes and got a lot of new students! yay! Now with our tiny American group (minus Sara and Paige who are in a new class) we have two Mexicans, one Spanish, one Chinese, and one Kenyan. It’s so interesting hearing their own accents come into French and I loveeee it. Having all these different cultures combining and sharing different ideas from home is so much more invigorating than having just the seven of us Americans talking about things we already know. So, I think I’m going to like this class better, even if Claude still is my teacher :-).

Last night I also started my art class! I am so excited because as much as I wanted to do the cooking class since I can't cook, I love art soo much more, so I think that this is a great thing for me. Alors (so), Erin and Becca walked me to my class which is at Association des Beaux Arts, right next to museum and the Medieval Tower overlooking Cannes, and I walked down stone steps and into a tiny buiding and met my new art teacher. He is gorgeous might I add. I mean I didn't really think about it at first while he was talking because I had almost no clue what he was saying because I didn't know who I was supposed to be talking to, but then he asked me what kind of art class I wanted to take and stuff and I started getting better. The only thing I'm scared of is that there's a lot of art jargon I don't know (I guess I'll be doing research on it this week) and it really hinders the conversation when I have to ask him what a word means. But in his lax style, he tore off a piece of paper from an old calendar and gave me a list of supplies, which is sucky since I have all my oil paints at home, but yea I'm kind of happy there's no syllabus because it makes me feel better that art doesn't need any sort of organization.

The other exciting thing about this class is that there will be no English whatsoever. None. I mean I've taken classes where we speak in only French, but its always in a room filled with anxious English speakers, speaking in incorrect French grammar, and whispering in English to each other about what some random word is in French. This is different. My teacher couldn't even tell me in English that he doesn't speak good English. And that's hard to find. Tons of French people speak English because they have to start learning it in elementary school, which could get me started on the American school system and languages, but I'm going to choose to refrain. Anyways, so all the students are French and he's French, obviously, and he didn't even know if my accent was English, Australian, or American, and that is a beautiful thing. And when I apoligized for not knowing all of the art lingo and making him explain things to me he said that it was okay because when I start the class I will come to realize that art doesn’t need words to be understood. I’m in love. Forget the math boys (haha Reyna); it’s the artsy ones now.

I also started my Art History class today and I’m already obsessed. Erin, Sara and I are taking it together and I can tell that I will be looking forward to this class every Monday and Thursday. It’s two hours and held in the theatre so we can see the paintings really big. There’s about 10-12 of us and our teacher, Corrine, tells us a little about the period we’re learning about then show us paintings and ask us what we pick up on. I might not know a lot about anything, but this is seriously my life. I would like nothing more than to spend every day talking about art, books, language, and writing sooo this class is going to be fun for me being that it includes a bunch of these topics at once. The cool part about this too is since its all in French, it will help me with my French art vocabulary and help me get a different perspective. Bucci has taught me well, so I am sure that I will be able to figure everything out!

The other thing I wanted to mention is how much I am enjoying RUNNING everyday. Yup. I run. I am a runner. I was run-en. Yeaa so anyway, I run along side of the Mediterranean everyday on the sidewalk for about 45 minutes and it is amazing. I would say that I run along side the beach, but there really isn't much beach right now with the full moon. The waves have gotten to the point where Erin and I were running and a wave came over the railing and soaked us. I really always hated running, and I think everyone knows how I like to bike, but since there's no chance for a bike around here, running has become my new thing and I really like it. I mean maybe in two weeks I'll be like "yea I'm over the whole running thing," but for now, I love feeling the ocean spray, watching the mountains jump and down with each of my steps, jogging in tune to my awkward melange (mixture) of rap songs, and listening to bits of French conversation as I pass by. Maybe I’ll even be able to run with Roo one day. Probably not. But maybe.

And lastly, I just wanted to talk about last weekend’s events. Friday was the most fun because Steph, Sara and I made the 7 mile journey on foot to Le Chateau de la Napoule and it was awesome, and probably one of the coolest things I have done here so far. All the pictures are posted on facebook, I threw in some of the artsy ones and there’s a lot of fun ones too. The couple that renovated the Chateau was a little more than strange, but I explain it all in the album- “But I Can’t Stop Taking Pictures in a Place so Picturesque.” And then on Friday and Saturday night, Becca, Steph, Erin and I went to Morrison’s Irish Pub, and seriously we need a new place to hang out. So we’re on the lookout for a new bar. Other than that, we relaxed on Saturday outside because it was sunny and gorgeous and then Sunday we watched Shutter Island on Erin’s computer. I was scared, obviously, but it was still pretty good.

Ok, well you guys are all caught up on everyday life here, so onto my trip to Florence from two weekends ago! Geeze I’m behind! Thanks for reading, as always, and I love you and miss you all!

And Away I Go!

Bonjour tout le monde! Almost another week has gone by and I finally feel like I am use to the fact that I now live in France. This past week (as can be seen from the pics on my Facebook), I went to the Nice Carnival, had a wine tasting event with school, spent my nights singing with Erin and Sara, anddd read...oh and spoke some French along the way... :-)

Things I would like to point out in this week's "what grinds my gears" is as follows: I'm a big fan of ketchup, as stated in the previous blog, and I just don't feel like the ketchup here is up to par. It's a little too sweet and not a deep enough red. I mean if I want a really ketchupy fry, I can't say that I can do that here because it's just not the same. I mean the fries are excellent... obviously... and at this point in the game I would just really like to compliment the salty with a sweet, but not too sweet, dollop of ketchup.

In other food issues, I have already started ridiculously craving Mexican food (thank God me and Shan wen't to Moe's before I left). There is no Mexican restaurants to be found and I asked some of the French kids I met about it, and they said that Mexican food isn't popular because there's no Mexican influence around. We have our own flippin quesadilla maker at home; how the heck am I supposed to be without it for so long! They don't even have salsa and chips here! And the closest thing to salsa is like a hot sauce which is not hot and is put on their cheese sometimes (they would). By the way, the French do not eat hot, like hot sauce kind of hot, things at all and they think the most mild things are hot, which is hilarious to me (Kevin, you would probably want to kill yourself without your hot sauce for this long haha). I mean I'm not saying I eat hot peppers for breakfast, but seriously, they need to get over themselves.

The next thing I wanna discuss...with myself.... are these Euro coins. First off, thye have not just one cent coins, which are annoying on their own, but they also have TWO CENT COINS. Why? I do not know and I cannot stand it. Every time I am given one I just want to throw it back at them. Also, there are no one Euro bills but just 1 Euro coins and 2 Euro coins. So, when I think I'm out of money because there are no bills, I end up having 10 Euro in change. Now, some of you optimists might be thinking "well finding out you have 10 Euros instead of no money is pretty exciting." Um having your wallets be weighed down by 10 euros of change is just as bad as having no money.

Lastly, I'm having issues with this bonjour/bonsoir thing. Okay, so we say hello in English all the time to people that we pass. Yea, we do say hi, but when it's an adult or someone you really don't know too well (which is basically everyone here), you usually say hello, or at least I do. No one says good day at home unless they are weird or trying to be British. So, for those of you that don't know, bonjour literally means good day and the part where I run into trouble is when its night and I'm still on a bonjour kick. Clearly, one cannot say good day when it's night. And its not just me, my friends and I still constantly find ourselves saying bonjour instead of bonsoir and then getting a "bonsoir" back which makes us feel like reh-tards and cute little Americans. And this whole problem started just because we were always taught in school that bonjour means hello, and you don't think anything of it, and then after 10 years of it being engrained in your head you never think of it as good day but just as hello. I'm just saying It's annoying, and that's it.

Alright, so this week is AIFS trip to Florence, yayyy!! Being the awesome Italian girl I am I will be going knowing how to say the classic "yes," "no," "thank you," "hello," "goodbye," "wipe your mouth," "after a while," and my all time favorite, "like smoke in my eyes." Thanks gram. We'll be doing lots of cool things that I don't really know about since I missed the meeting today to try and sort out my classes for my next semester at WC, but I probably would have fallen asleep anyway sooo it's probably not totally horrible that I played hooky.

So that's enough griping for this blog, hope I didn't complain too much, even though I clearly just spent the past 4 paragraphs ranting, but lets get to the good stuff. The Nice Carnival was such a sight to see! The colors, symbolism and enthusiasm was enough on its on, so getting to wear a mask and feeling completely at ease with all of the crazy French parade-goers was a really awesome experience. At the parade, Erin, Sara and I decided we would start doing our dance moves at every place we visit, and after I tried persuading them to jump in front of a float with me and start dancing, I finally settled for a more low-key setting by some parade goers on the parade road. Once we started, we were immediately met with silly string from some onlookers, and we honestly deserved it because our dancing was not up to par, and I'm only accepting it because it was our first time and we needed to get our priorities in order. From now on, we will be more outlandish and end each dance with our famous dance moves. Next up, The Leaning Tower of Pisa.

This week we were also invited to go to a wine tasting event in the caf. I learned why people swivel their wine and smell it and what to look for in various rosy, white, and red wines. The event wasn't as intense as the wine class at the hill which had like a million wines...yes a million, but it was fun and we learned a lot more about testing and ordering wine, which is better than what I learned.

I also chose my seminar that starts in two weeks... Art History. And I'm going to be taking a French Cuisine class because I'm going to be honest when I say I am only a master of making eggs, betty crocker cakes, and crab dip (miss you hill girls!). I'm also hoping to take a drawing class because I am soo rusty, so I hope Sandrine (the AIFS coordinator) can find a time for me since the art history class and the drawing class collide.

Last night, Erin, Sara, and I spent the majority of our night singing disney songs, Anastasia, and Shake It...and The Prince of Egypt (Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston). We also read Texts From Last Night and cracked up for hours on end. P.S. that is what the fanny pack status is about so stop asking me who I am dating. Mom.

Sooo I'm trying to think of what else I did, and I guess I've just really adjusted to this new lifestyle to the point where I don't feel like there is anything else to really note. But if there is something you want to know about like what foods we're eating, what we do during class, or spare time, Cannes, let me know! Alright that's all for now. Thanks guys for reading! Ciaooo!!!