Arles and Avignon

***Sorry but there are still no pictures...the public library blocks a lot of websites***

Last weekend I went on an overnight CSB/SJU trip to Arles and Avignon.

Friday night a bunch of us went out to this discotheque where we met a bunch of guys who are studying in Aix en Provence. They were all from the US and there were even a couple from Minnetonka!!! It was a crazy coincidence. We ended up not getting back to the college until about 2:30.

We left Saturday morning at 8:30 and drove for a few hours. We stopped at a few touristy spots; like the salt mine (or whatever they call it) and an old Benedictine monastery. Then we got to Arles. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then after a group tour of St Trophime we were free to explore the city.

Sharon, Sarah, Caitlin and I went to the Roman amphitheater, a museum of the history of the area and a museum of Picasso, Goya and a few other people. We met the group for dinner...the best dinner EVER! We had a first course of half a mushroom and ham pizza and salad, then we had a huge piece of lasagna, and for dessert we had flan. We also got bread and wine with the meal. It was amazing and so much food. After that we walked back to the hotel and watched a little French TV before bed.

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel (the first time in a month that I've had my coffee in a cup!). Then we got back on the bus to go to Avignon. It took about an hour to get there. We got tickets to see the French papacy palais and after a really fast tour through the building we had lunch. Delicious crepes with eggs, cheese, mushrooms and ham. We got on the bus again at 1:30 and drove to a vineyard for tasting. We learned a little about the process of making the wine but the factory wasn't working since it was Sunday. Then we had a tasting; the white they gave us was delicious: fruity and citrusy; the red was not good: it was peppery. I bought a couple of different bottles (one of the white that I tried and one of their house wine that is not exported at all).

After the wine tasting we got back on the bus and headed back to Cannes. We didn't get back until dinnertime and after that we started a game of poker (not for real money) in the bar on campus.

Monday I started my theater class which was really scary but I ended up doing fine (although I apparently have a hardcore Spanish accent). I play the part of an old lady with a hat. I don't really understand it all but I make fun of another character because he falls down a lot.

This weekend Jessie, Sharon, Caitlin and I planned a trip to Strasbourg. We are really excited about it and are planning on seeing the only concentration camp in France and also doing a tour of the Kronenbourg brewery, along with other things. My next entry will include info about that and all of my new classes.

Busy weekend!

Last weekend was a pretty crazy one. We were busy pretty much the whole time. It's amazing that we don't have school a lot but we never seem to be bored. Things will change starting next week when we start our other classes (art history, French civilization, theater and continued French).

Friday night a bunch of us went out and had a lot of fun, we didn't get back until almost 3 but we didn't have anything planned for Saturday so it wasn't a big deal. I woke up on Saturday around 9:30 and went for a run; it was pouring and I ended up getting soaked. After a nice hot shower I went to brunch (one of the best meals at the college): cereal, pain au chocolat, yogurt, croissants, eggs, meat and crepes avec nutella!!! A bunch of girls decided to go to Antibes to see the Picasso museum so I joined in. We had to figure out how to take the train; it was confusing because everyone told us different things, but eventually we made it (there were 12 of us).

By the time we got there we were hungry and stopped at a weird cafe place to eat the weirdest sandwiches ever (very large flat white pieces of bread with only 1 slice of tomato, 2 pieces of "bacon" and tons of lettuce). Then we went in search of the Picasso museum...it's closed for a year while they do renovations. So we hung out in Antibes until 6 when we caught a train back to Cannes. We didn't do anything exciting that night since we had our big excursion the next day.

Sunday morning we woke up early to go to Monaco and Eze. We loaded onto the bus and started driving. After awhile we arrived and took a tour of the city/country/whatever it is. We saw the palace where Prince Albert lives, it's pretty sweet. We ate lunch in a cute little park overlooking the water and we fed our gross mush bread to the pigeons. Then we walked around for a little while until we decided to sit down for a little treat and some people watching.

At 1 we met up with the group for a tour of the Oceanographic Museum. It was a lot like the MN zoo but with different fish in the aquariums. Some of it seemed a little inhumane since there was an octopus in a tank the size of my suitcase (I also tried not to remember that we had calimari for dinner the night before!). We went up to the next level and my friend Hillary decided she wanted to go in the gift shop...once you go in the gift shop you can't go back in the museum, so we had extra time to kill and hung out in another pretty park overlooking some more water (there's tons of water to be found in these parts!)

We met up with the rest of the group at 2:30 and then headed off to Eze (we were supposed to see Monte Carlo too but apparently it isn't that cool and we couldn't do anything there because we're poor and we didn't have much time). Eze is a perched medieval city and it is quite the hike to get up there. Once you do you have to pay money to get the best view and the best pictures (I did not pay but once I get the pictures from the people who did I will add them). We also visited a perfume factory while we were there. It was amazing and cleared my head up a lot (I've had a bit of a head cold). It was fun to go around and smell the stuff but it got really hard to tell the difference between different scents. We got back in our bus around 5:30 and headed back to the college for dinner.

That's pretty much it for new things. My class is going really well and I'm hoping to move up 2 levels next week but we'll have to see. This weekend will be another busy one. Friday night there is a big party at the college because it's the end of the session and a bunch of people are leaving and then we are going to Arles and Avignon as a CSB/SJU group excursion. We'll be leaving on Saturday morning and coming back Sunday evening. I really love getting to see all the different places although they are all starting to run together. I have tons of pictures of hills covered in red roofed buildings on the water. I'm hoping to post pictures this week since I've now burned a bunch to a CD so make sure to check back and look through all the old messages to see the pictures!

Les Gorges du Verdon

It's been awhile since I've written here but I've been so busy, there's hardly time to write a short email.

I have started a couple of extra classes in the afternoons in order to improve my French speaking abilities. One is an oral class where we're supposed to talk freely about random things like our favorite books; it was embarrassing since everyone was talking about real literature and I talked about Anne of Green Gables. Also I don't know any tense but present which makes the class more difficult. My other class is phonetics; we repeat what the teacher says into these super cool headsets and then listen to how badly we speak. It's good practice for nasal sounds and vowel differences and it's fun to talk into the microphone!

Last weekend we went to Les Gorges du Verdon which is the Grand Canyon of France (I've never been to the Grand Canyon but that's what people say). It was amazing! We have the coolest pictures of us on these cliffs (it was a little scary driving the coach bus up there and a bunch of people did get sick...they may have been hungover too). Then we eventually got to this lake (Lac du St Croix) and we all ran right in. A few people rented canoes; me, Cody, Amy and Dave got one and went on the river through the Gorge. It was so cool and lots of fun to work the arms a little, although I was so sore for a few days afterwards.

When we got back I went out for pizza with Cody, Amy, Nick and Cassie; it was delicious and fairly cheap. Sunday we went to 3 different markets: food (the most gorgeous fruits and veggies I've ever seen); art (the painting that I wanted of the port in Cannes was 150euro!); and clothing (I keep looking for a great dress or skirt but I haven't found one yet). Then we went to the beach for a little while before heading to mass in town. The French are crazy when it comes to many things (coffee in huge bowls or teeny cups, chili on plates, etc) but they have nailed the short mass; 30 minutes is the norm!

Everything has been really great here; I love it most of the time and it's just starting to hit me that I'll be here for another 3.5 months. This weekend we're going to Monaco and Monte Carlo so I will have more excitement to write about in my next entry!

St Tropez

Let me start out by saying that I would not recommend that anyone go to St Tropez.

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for our day in "sunny" St Tropez. We walked along the water to the port and waited in the hot sun to get on the boat. It finally pulled away from the dock around 10:20 and we were off. It was a fun boat ride, there was a guide who told us about the houses and islands and boats in both French and English (we couldn't really understand what he told us). We got to St Tropez after about an hour and a half of freezing. The gentle rocking was very nice since I'd been out til 3 the night before so many of us took naps.

When we got off the boat it was overcast and chilly so instead of heading straight to the beach we decided to walk to the market and look at what people were offering. It was fun and my friend got sunglasses for €8. We stopped to have a picnic lunch which the college had provided. Then we thought we'd walk around and see some more of the town. There wasn't much more to see but we spent 4 hours walking around talking and looking for celebrities (I probably wouldn't recognize one if they hit me on the head so sadly Julie I have little chance of marrying George Clooney). Apparently I did see Tom Selleck's house though!

Then at 4 we got back on the boat and headed back to Cannes, again everyone went to sleep. Saturday night I hung out at the college and played UNO! Sunday I went to church (with 10 nuns, 3 CSB/SJU students and a fez other random people) it was a half hour long. Then I hung out for awhile before attempting to go into town to do some shopping; except that everything here is closed on both Sunday and Monday and from 12-2 everyday. Then our director invited us down to her house (gorgeous view, 5 minutes from the beach, only €780 per month!!!) and we had pastries and fruit (eclair au cafe are my favorite). Later that night we hung out talking until they closed the courtyard (which happens at 11pm whether it's the weekend or not).

Monday and Tuesday were pretty boring since it was cold and the stores were closed Monday we weren't able to go to the beach or the shops. I figured out which classes I would be taking (French; civilization; art history; senior sem; theater; and an independent project for education). That's about it with me, I'm learning tons of French everyday and everyone laughs at my huge stack of color-coded flashcards but when I leave just as fluent as they are I'll be the one laughing!

Email me or send me mail cause I love to have my name show up on the board and I have to go into the "bar" and say j'ai un lettre s'il vous plait; and then spell out my name. Which goes to show you how much French I know now (yesterday I even ordered the eclairs myself and understood the lady when she told me how much I owed!) It's all very exciting and fabulous and I still can't believe that this is my life for 4 months!