Hola Barcelona!

On  February 13th to 15th, a group of nine girls from Cannes spent the weekend in Barcelona! We flew on the smallest plane I have ever seen into Spain. (I am not a fan of small planes, but I survived). We arrived in the evening and made our way through the city to the hostel trying our best not to look like complete tourists with our backpacks and maps in hand. We made it successfully to Gothic Point Hostel, which was in a really cool , eclectic part of downtown Barcelona. The hostel was a lot nicer than I had expected, with bright paint and interesting art on the walls, clean bathrooms, lockers, and bunk beds that were separated from the next by a curtain or a wall. It was a bit strange to share a room with strangers and living out of the locker was a pain, but all in all it was not a bad first hostel experience. 

After settling in we decided to walk around the city for a while and we ran into a Starbucks which was so exciting! I ordered a caramel macchiato because I miss them so much! We continued and walked down the main street called La Rambla and saw lots of interesting stores and also a really cool outdoor food market with everything from fish to chocolate to fresh fruit. It all looked so delicious! We continued along the street and Alexandra and I settled on having a "goffre" or waffle with strawberries and chocolate for our snack. Almost everyone we walked by seemed to have one, and it was delicious! After exploring for a while, Alexandra and I decided to head back to our hostel and take part in their planned night out. Basically you got dinner at a tapas restaurant (tapas are traditional Spanish food, basically a mix of appetizers), sangria, entrance to a flamenco show, a glass of champagne at a bar, and a bus to and entrance into a club for 18 euro! We thought it sounded fun and like a good opportunity to meet new people too so we went. It ended up being so much fun!! The food was pretty good and I really liked the sangria. We met a big group of hockey players from Britain and also a group of people from Ireland. It is always interesting to hear about different lifestyles and cultures. After dinner we went to the flamenco show, which I thought was very authentic and interesting. They had a four people playing percussion, guitar, violin, and singing and then one woman danced. After the show we went to a bar that had a DJ and had our champagne and hung out for a while. Then we went on to the club called the Cat Walk, which was down by the ocean. I loved the club, it had three levels and really good music. It was packed with people, and we all had a lot of fun!! We left around 3am and took a bus back to the hostel. We learned that the night life in Spain doesn't start until like 1:30 or 2am, so it is normal to eat dinner around 10 or 11 and then go out until like 6 in the morning and siesta during the day. It's such a different lifestyle! So we tried to live like the Spanish = ) 

The next day we woke up pretty early to start our sightseeing. We decided to do another trip planned by the hostel called the Gaudi tour, and it was such a good decision! We had a guide (who spoke English) and who took us around the city and showed us all the architecture done by Gaudi, which is basically the entire city! From the designs on the cobblestone streets to his own house to the famous Sagrada Familia to the most expensive apartment in Barcelona, Gaudi designed it all! His architecture is extremely unique and is heavily influenced by the waves of the ocean surrounding Barcelona. Nothing he designs has corners or square edges, instead everything flows and seems to melt together. The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Cathedral) was incredible! Unfortunately Gaudi died before he was able to finish it so the building is still underway and is supposed to be finished in about 20 years. There are four sides, each with a different style and theme. Ornate sculptures of biblical stories are nestled in each wall making it virtually impossible to take in each detail. Gaudi's home in Barcelona has wavy walls with no corners and is painted on the outside to look like the dragon in the Spanish story of the Prince saving the Princess from the dragon. It was one of the most interesting buildings I have ever seen! I loved his uniques style. At the end of the tour we took a bus up to a park made in honor of Gaudi's mentor. The park houses the largest bench in the world which is adorned by Gaudi's mosaics. It is also the home of the runway used in cycle 7 of America's Next Top Model (see if you recognize it in the photo below!) After the tour we were all starving so we went to a nice tapas restaurant for lunch and relaxed for a while. Then we indulged in Barcelona's amazing shopping scene for a few hours and each bought some pieces to remind us of Spain. Then we did as the Spanish so and took a short siesta back at the hostel to boost our energy for the evening. 

After our siesta we got ready to go out to dinner for Valentine's Day! We chose a beautiful restaurant on a terrace above a museum that overlooked a piazza by Las Ramblas. The table was candlelit and very cute. We had amazing sangria and a pretty good meal, including a brownie for dessert = ) Then we decided to go out to a club called City Hall to dance the night away. After the club filled up around 2:30, it was a lot of fun! We all enjoyed dancing under the blacklight to the techno music that all sounds exactly the same haha. One again we trudged back to the hostel and got a few hours of sleep before waking up for breakfast the next day. After checking out of the hostel we spend the morning wandering around by the port and doing some more shopping. Then we took a bus back to the airport and flew (on an even SMALLER plane!) back to Nice. Luckily we all made it safely home to Cannes!! It was a wonderful way to spend a weekend here in Europe! I love seeing the dramatic differences between cultures of countries that are next-door to each other. It is also interesting to get used to speaking French here and then be forced to switch gears and use my very limited Spanish vocabulary to navigate the new city. Being there definitely made me wish I could speak Spanish as well as French. Spanish will just have to be next on the list I guess!! Spring 2010 in Barcelona maybe?? 

A picture says a thousand words...

Life on the French Riviera

So I think I have discovered the reason I love life in France so much: I am ALWAYS relaxed and completely content here! It is incredible to have so much free time after being used to an insane schedule of work and school and homework and sorority back at Chapman. Even though I am going to school here, I feel like I am on vacation every day...and it is AMAZING! It has been less than one week, and yet I feel like I could write novels about the past few days so forgive the length of this post...

First...SCHOOL

Despite my hundreds of photos from the city of Cannes and the nightlife, we do go to school at the College International de Cannes. It is a school designed to teach non-natives how to speak French through intensive courses taught completely in French. We took a placement test to see what level we belonged in and classes started Tuesday. I was placed in a class with Professor Annick Merlo. I love her and my class! We go to school from 9am to 12pm Monday through Friday and we will add another seminar class in four weeks (once our French has improved a bit). The three hours go by surprisingly quickly because the subject matter is so interesting! We do dictees to improve our listening comprehension and grammar lessons each day. And we also spend about an hour on vocabulary about things like the French education system and how it compares to that of other countries (there are girls from the UK and Russia in my class who add an interesting prospective), traveling on a budget around Europe, and reasons for traveling abroad. I am proud that I am able to follow intelligent conversations completely in French, and I definitely feel like I am already improving in the language and it has only been a week! Nothing can compare to having intensive French each day taught by a French woman combined with living in France and being forced to use the language to go about daily tasks in helping me to learn the language. I am so glad I was brave enough to study in a country that speaks a different language! 

 

Second...NIGHTLIFE

The whole "going out" thing is very new for me being that you can't really go anywhere at night in The States besides the mall or the movie theater if you are under 21, but it is so nice to be able to just hang out in a bar on a week-night or go out dancing in a club on Friday! Because we get out of school at 12 and we usually don't have very much homework, the trend seems to be hanging out in the afternoon either in town for a Monoprix stop or in the dorm room and then going to dinner at 7:05 on the dot (the dinners for the vegetarians have gotten a lot better lately!) and then going out around 9:30 or 10 each night. It's the kind of life I could definitely get used to! So far we have been to Morrison's, The Crystal Cafe, The Quay's (an irish pub right on the port), and The Station Tavern. I love when we have a big group of AIFS people and we can all hang out together. On Thursday at Quay's they had a live band perform that sang songs in English, since it is an Irish Pub. I also overheard some Irish accents from some of the guys we saw there which was lovely = ) And on Friday night we tried out The Station Tavern next to the train station, which has karaoke! The AIFS people basically took over the whole bar and we looked like such Americans singing songs ranging from Summer Nights to Cotton Eye Joe to the Spice Girls, but we all had a lot of fun. After The Station, a few of us went dancing at a club called Le Chokko. They played a mix of hip hop and techno and had awesome lighting and lots of little lounges with couches. It was so much fun to just be able to go dancing so easily! And our group that night included 5 Americans, two German girls, three people from Spain, and one guy from the UK which I think is so cool! I love talking to people who live in cultures that are so different than ours and hearing such a diverse mix of languages and accents around me! 

 

Third...LANDSCAPE

So I had seen pictures of Cannes before coming here and I knew that my school was across the street from the beach, but I could never have prepared myself for how beautiful every single inch of France I have seen so far truly is! During the week we had very rainy and gloomy weather, which discouraged us from exploring the city, but on Friday AIFS had planned a trip to the Musee de la Castre. Alexandra and I braved the bad weather and climbed the stairs up the hill to the museum and were able to see exhibits ranging from masks weapons from different tribal civilizations around the world, to an ancient Egyptian room, to pieces of art capturing the French Riviera, to a musical instruments room that was in the works. It was a small museum, but I was glad I decided to go. The rain cleared up on the way back so we were able to take some pictures of the beautiful panoramic view from the top of the hill.

Saturday was our first day of sunshine and we made the most of it by walking along the beach on our way into town and taking tons of pictures because everywhere you look you are simply surrounded by the natural beauty of Cannes! The ocean water is a perfect shade of blue and is so foamy along the sand that it almost looks fake. The sun was glorious and its rays just made every picture stunning. I felt like a child without a care in the world besides soaking in every moment. We got to fully appreciate the port and its display of yachts and sail boats floating peacefully in the cobalt water. In the middle of town there was an outdoor market with an array of antiques and books and jewelry and flowers. Every age group was represented amongst its customers and I thoroughly enjoyed spending a while simply people watching as I ate my first crepe du chocolat at a stand called Le Spot. After the market we walked further along La Croisette to see more of the coastline. We walked past Le Palais du Festival (where the film festival will be held) and all of the designer stores and the Carlton hotel. All of the beaches were gorgeous, and once again I had a moment of realization that I am actually LIVING here for the next four months!

So as I said, seeing Cannes on a nice day on Saturday was unbelievable, but seeing Monaco on Sunday was absolutely breathtaking! We had to be up bright and early to have breakfast and pick up our pack lunch at 8:30AM in the cafeteria and then we took an hour bus ride from Cannes to Monaco. From the minute we arrived, I was in awe of the city. Pictures and hopefully a video blog will be posted soon because words just do not suffice to explain the beauty of Monaco, but I will try to summarize our day. We first stopped at the Palace where the Prince of Monaco lives (we all want to meet and marry this Prince just so we can live in Monaco!). And we got to watch the changing of the guards ceremony which was very interesting. Then we walked down a long set of stairs to a little market where I bought some post cards and some authentic Indian earrings. Then we had to walk back UP all those stairs (quite the workout) and we walked around les jardins and ate our lunch and saw water that was bright turquoise and sparkling! It was incredible! Then we visited the Geographic Museum, which had an aquarium and also some exhibits upstairs. The architecture of the building itself was what I found the most incredible. After Monaco we went to the famous Monte Carlo casino and got to go inside and I watched Teeny play a slot machine. She only lost one euro so it worked out well. Again the views around the casino were stunning! And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we arrived at our finally stop of the day, the medieval city of Eze. It is situated on the side of a mountain so we has to climb another long set of stairs through an adorable village that reminded me of the opening song of Beauty and the Beast. Once we finally made it to the top, the view made it all worthwhile! We would see the town below us as well as a panoramic view of the French Riviera. The sun was still shining perfectly on the horizon and every single picture looks flawless. Nothing can compare to standing there with the wind blowing through your hair and the smell of the sea and the sound of the seagulls as you watch the waves crash miles below. I would be content to stay there forever. Today was the most spectacular day, and I have only been in Cannes for one week…I have high hopes for this semester!! 

The newest secret in weight loss: studying in Cannes

I cannot believe I have only been in Cannes for 3 days! It seems like so much longer, I guess because I have been pretty busy all the time exploring and going to little meetings, etc, etc. 

From the moment I stepped off the plane in Nice, it was impossible to ignore the fact that I was now in France. The French language was all around me, spoken by natives as I had rarely heard it before. I struggled to pick up bits of people's conversations, trying to test my comprehension skills. At customs I managed with a simple "Bonjour" at the beginning and "Merci" at the end of my conversation with the man checking my Visa and was so grateful I didn't have to say more. In the departure gate the greetings of family and friends (which always remind of Love Actually) were different with the addition of a kiss on each cheek by those waiting for their loved ones. A bus was waiting for us and drove us from Nice to Cannes, about a 30 minute drive. We saw a glimpse of life on the French Riviera and an architectural style that was drastically different than that of London. From an American perspective, it is incredible that merely two hours away from the UK on plane, this entirely different world exists! We arrived at the school and the palm trees in the courtyard gave us a sense of comfort that dear old Chapman wasn't too far away. We went to our rooms, where we were pleasantly surprised to find our luggage waiting for us! I am rooming with Alexandra and we are right next to Candice and Teeny. The rooms are small but very quaint, decorated with red and yellow linens and a red-painted window frame and furnace. We have two desks, two VERY small closets, and a sink and mirror in the corner. The bathrooms and showers are down the hall, but they are nice enough. My favorite part of the room: that I can look out the window as I get ready in the morning to the Mediterranean Sea! The view is breathtaking! (I will post pictures soon) 

At 7:05pm, we had our first experience in the College's dining hall. Now comes the first reason for the title of this post....all meals here are served at a particular time and there is only one meal option, which they bring to your table of six for you to serve for yourself. Every aspect of dining here is intimidating, 1) the women working there only speak French and they almost always sound angry with you 2) you must always fill up a table before starting a new one 3) the vegetarians (aka me for the duration of this trip because it is safer, Candice, and Teeny for the most part) have to sit at our own table with a green table cloth that is exiled in the corner and no non-vegetarians can sit there 4) you never know what you are allowed to do and what you aren't without first getting in trouble for doing something they think is wrong. They have a salad bar and bread for every meal and have been attempting to make us vegetarian meals which have so-far consisted of vegetables and pasta or potatoes. So basically I barely eat anything because the portions are small to begin with and there just isn't much to eat. But it is a cafeteria, and I can understand that it is difficult to accommodate so as long as the food we do get is edible, I am happy. 

Now on to the second reason for the title of this blog: we walk A LOT! The center of the city of Cannes is about 20 minutes from the College on foot. And obviously we have to go to the city to go shopping and go out and also to sight-see, so walking is just part of the daily routine. The first night in Cannes a group of us decided to go into town and explore so we ended up going to a bar called Morrisons. It is kind of half-bar/half-club with a DJ and strobe lights and American hip-hop music! I really liked the atmosphere and it is nice to be able to go to bars and clubs being that the drinking age is only 18. I ordered my first cocktail from the one English-speaking bartender: a Cosmopolitan, which was bright pink and really good! It was a fun night, I liked seeing the downtown area and the differences between the city of Cannes and London. On Sunday we walked into town again and struggled to speak to a man in Franglais who worked in a cell phone store and realized the prices for a pay-as-you-go plan seem pretty expensive so it looks like the internet will be my main source of communication with everyone. So far I have been surprised to find that not that many people in the city speak English, or if they do they are just as self-conscious of their English as I am of my French. I am happy about that, because I feel like I will learn conversational French so much faster when I have to use it every day for simple things like asking for directions. 

On Sunday we had brunch in the cafeteria (a crepe!) and then we were supposed to have a tour of the city "en petite train" but it was raining and train wasn't running so we decided to....guess what...WALK! This turned out to be a very bad decision. We walked around for about 2 hours in 40 degree weather while being battered by rain and wind. Umbrellas proved a useless hassle because the wind was so strong. And my pumas were probably the worst shoe choice, second only to flip flops I suppose. We saw beautiful parts of the city, like an old museum building which has a stunning view of the ports of Cannes and also the well-known red staircase of the site of the Film Festival. I enjoyed seeing everything and becoming more acclimated with the layout of the city, but I would have preferred to see it in warmer, dryer weather. At the end of the tour, we went to the French version of Target called the Monoprix. We bought pillows and power strips and straighteners and a tooth brush holder to make our petit dorm room a little more comfortable. Then we went into a whole bunch of stores to take advantage of "les soldes" (sales) and buy some shoes more appropriate to the weather. I was so proud because I was able to speak enough French to the saleswoman to try on and purchase a pair of grey leather boots from a store downtown! Then we had a cappuccino to warm ourselves up and then found the bus back to our hotel to avoid more rain on the way back. The city of Cannes is a beautiful beach town with so much to explore and see! I can't wait to return on a sunnier day and take pictures and really take in all the sites. I think I can definitely handle Cannes being my home for four months = )