So before I get into what I've been up to, I believe there are some cultural differences I need to bring to everyone's attention. The bubble of space that you like to keep to yourself because anyone who gets in that bubble would only succeed in making things awkward, yea they don't have that here. Waiting in lines, walking by, meeting someone, they are all up in the bubble, and I'm not a fan. I mean, I'm not like snooty about it, but I'm easily awkward, sooo I think someone should enlighten them on that fact. Secondly, the French have tried replacing the usage of ketchup with mustardy-mayo. It is not going to hOOppin. There is no substitute for fries and ketchup, so let it go. Lastly, CJ, I am sorry, but the hot chocolate in Cannes puts your microwave mess to SHAME. Bow your head and walk away. I never even considered myself a big hot chocolate fan, but I feel like its the hot chocolate you always wanna try in the Santa Claus (Becca I know you know), but never could for the shear reason that its a movie.
Alright so that's that. So this is the end of my second week in Cannes, and I have to say I feel like I've been here forever. I know that when people say that, it sounds like a bad thing, but that is not the case at all. My days are always filled with so many different activities that I just feel like I've done so much. Which is probably because I have. Donc, (French word meaning so, therefore, alas) here's the latest updates.
Last weekend was a busy one to say the least. I had my first discotheque experience, went to Monaco (where the famous Monte Carlo Casino is) and went to Eze (a medieval town located at the top of the mountains that overlook the Mediterranean). Last week, my friends Erin, Sara and I went to Morrison's Pub to have a drink and attempt to speak only French to anyone we met. After having a water bottle of wine (just go with it), I became confident enough to talk to anyone who approached me in French and by the end of the night, English was completely out of my head.
-At Morrison's-
We ended up meeting some nice boys and asked them what parts of the town they liked to hang out at, etc. So being the French gentlemen they were, they invited us and a bunch of our friends out the next night to show us the highlights. So Saturday night, six of us girls made the trek in our heels (RIP beautiful new high heels) to Morrison's to have a drink and make our way to the discotheque with our escorts. By 1:00 am we started wondering if we were ever leaving, and when I finally gained the courage to ask them why we were still at the pub, one of the guys look at me funny and was like, in French obviously, "the clubs don't even open until 1 or 2." Ohh. I told him that everything closes in the States at 2 and he just laughed with his "oh you Americans are adorable." Sooo by the time we were actually ready to leave, it was close to 2, and we walked another 15 minutes to la boite (the word discotheque is out...duh) and went to a place called Caliente, which was probably the cheesiest club name I ever heard, but it was actually pretty nice inside. They had private areas for people to sit and a big dance floor, etc. Soooo naturally we left at 5:00am. Oh geeze. Good thing we had to be up at 8 for Monaco...
Monaco was absolutely gorgeous, just as I remembered it from when I was there a few years ago on my last France excursion. We saw Grace Kelly's grave inside a church with all of her ancestors, and watched the changing of the guard. The guards there arn't like the English ones, they are more lax about their movements and they can move their heads to look around. This makes sense to me because how are you supposed to look at suspicious characters anyway without moving your head. Right. So, Erin, Sara, Paige and I walked around taking pictures and ate lunch (AIFS packed us a lunch which was so cute). We found a seagull that drooled and I swear that is not normal and I think that thing had rabies. And during this gross experience, I learned Sara despises birds (fun fact). After pictures and such, we went to the aquarium/ museum of Monaco, and then to the stupid, stupid casino. Outside Monte Carlo there were some of the most expensive cars I have ever seen. And I've been to both NYC and LA. People just get out of them and leave them for valet, and I dunno if that's normal, but I think they are just a little too over confident with their car's future. I mean ish would go down if they tried that in Philadelphia. So anyways, we went inside and I tried the slots and lost 10 euros. FML. And then I thought I lost another 20 euro just because I dropped it (Sara John don't judge me right now) but alas I just found it in my Hollister zipup (that Annie loves wearing oh so much :o) ) today in class! Sooo the album on my facebook is now a lie.
-Monaco-
After we finished up in Monaco, our bus took us to Eze. We took pictures at the top of the mountains and looked at all the medieval stones and settings. It was kind of cold up there too, so we went to a cafe for hot chocolate and I ended up trying a chocolate crepe instead, whiiich was probably one of the best decisions of my life. It melts in your mouth.
-Eze-
This past week in school, our little 7 person class has gotten closer and we all join together to mock our teacher Claude and its pretty fun. I mean learning about prepositions is really boring, but we get by. This week we also had our dinner out with AIFS at a local Italian restaurant, and the pizza was simply the best I ever had. Yes, it beat brothers. And saying that its good is saying a lot considering I don't even like pizza. Actually, its pretty interesting that since we live so close to Italy, I should mention that Nice (which is right by us) wasn't even a part of France until the mid 1800's, which says a lot considering how old France's history goes. Also, this week was the last one for the winter soldes (sales). Since Cannes is oh so popular in the spring with the festival, they have a lot of sales at this time to get rid of their winter lines. I bought a really pretty black and white dress, and two scarfs and some jewelry. I also went to buy dental floss (because I obviously flipped out when I saw that I ran out) and fun fact, the French don't floss. The woman had no idea what I was talking about when I told her about it, even when I used the actual French word, and after a while she finally understood (or so I thought) and she handed me what I thought was a little container of floss, but OH NO. It was tooth picks. I was so salt that whole night after brushing. My little French girl laughed at me later when i told her the story because she said they only even know what floss really is because they think its cute when American do it in their movies. My response to that... Gew.
Speaking of my French exchange girl Sixtine, this was her week to speak only English at our 2 hour meeting, and she was just too cute. She was completely afraid with how she would sound that she spoke only a few times and I had to revert back to French a lot. It actually was kind of cool to be on the other side for once, because I remember that I was the exact same way when I was 18. :-)
Last big thing that happened this week, SNOW. Snow is the "big news" as Claude said today when he showed us the newspaper. We got an inch of snow in Cannes on Thursday and it was probably the coolest snow ever because it was so compactable and clean. Erin, Sara, Paige and I made a snowman (un bon homme de neige) by the ocean and had a snowball fight with random people. The snowball fight was really cool because French people were getting out of the cars and just throwing snow at each other because snow hasn't seen Cannes in over 15 years! It was also really cool because we had Americans, Mexicans, French, and so many other cultures just laughing and throwing snow. There was no talking just smiling and hand motions and it was a really awesome experience and a great image of symbolism (Shannon you know how I like my symbolism).
-Us and Tut Tut-
So on that note, I will leave you. It's vendredi (Friiiiday!!!) and I got some fun I have to have tonight. We have a crepe soiree that AIFS is throwing us, and then we go to a bar that has specials for us since we are AIFS...and because we are awesome. This weekend is the Nice Carnival so I will soon update you with that experience and more.
As always, thanks so much for reading. I miss you all.
Peace and Blessings (we watched that youtube video wayyy to much). :o)
symbolism...hahaha
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