My first taste of Italy!

Our days are numbered here in France and I've started to realize all the things that I'm going to miss and all the things that I'm excited to go home to. Every day that I wake up and watch the sun rise over the Mediterranean I am amazed at where I've been living and I get sad that I only have a few more days here.

Last Friday night we got free tickets to go to a world music concert in Cannes. There were 2 groups from Corsica that performed. I really liked the first group; they had faster songs and they moved around a lot. The second group, although really interesting, was very long and many of their songs had the same slow sound. The concert was nearly 3 hours long so by the time it was over we were all ready for bed.

Saturday we woke up and took a day trip to Italy. It's a lot of fun to say that I have taken a day trip to Italy and been home in time for dinner! We visited San Remo and Dolceacqua. I love the Italian accent, and we spent a lot of time speaking French with Italian accents. We wandered around the huge market for awhile and then got a pasta lunch at a cute little cafe. After lunch we decided to just wander around to take up some time. I started walking and after taking some random turns and we ended up on a hill with a beautiful view. My friends couldn't believe what we had randomly stumbled upon (they also couldn't believe that I knew where we were and how to get us down...I have the worst track record for directions!).

When we got back into the city we stopped at a gelato shop and bought some really good gelato. I had coffee, pistachio and chocolate. Some of the people I was with were more adventuresome and just pointed to random kinds. It was all good. When we were done eating we got back on the bus for the drive to Dolceacqua.

Dolceacqua is a cute little town with some old "neighborhoods" (buildings all squeezed next to each other with tunnels running in every direction). After choosing a random path and taking a bunch of random turns we ended up outside of town, on another hill. I started exploring and ended up getting close to some ruins (possibly a church). It had been locked up because of construction being done to solidify the remains. There was a gate but it wasn't too difficult to get over and I got some really cool pictures of the inside of the building. When I joined up with my friends again we continued our wandering and then just hung out until it was time to go.

We got back to the college and had dinner. Then we all gathered in the salle de video to watch a movie (Tanguy, the French version of Failure to Launch). It was a really nice night.

Sunday morning I did my laundry and then went to church. After church we went to brunch (I can't believe that I only have two brunches left). I was supposed to do a lot of homework on Sunday but I got really distracted. Caitlin had lent me the book Kite Runner and I was hooked (compared to Crime and Punishment it was a quick read). I ended up reading from about 12:30 until 4:30. I would have continued reading but I had decided to go to our director's house for another cooking class.

I really love the cooking classes because we get to eat way better food than is served in the salle a manger (cafeteria). We had crostini with eggplant and chevre, pumpkin soup, canneloni with spinach and mushrooms, green beans, chocolate chip cookies and custard. I can't wait to get the "cookbook" that Vera is making for us with all the recipes in it. It will be so much fun to eat all of this delicious food at home (and share it with all my friends and family).

Sunday night I finished Kite Runner and talked to Mom and Dad on the phone. I did manage to get some of my homework done and should be working on it instead of typing this. After Thursday most of my tests, papers, etc will all be done and I'll be able to relax and enjoy my last week.

There are times when I thought the last week would never come, and there have been times when I wished it would come faster but right now I don't want to think about it's swift arrival. I prefer to think about the moment I'm in because it's less sad than thinking of the memories I've made here and the fact that I have to leave. (Only one more blog in Cannes...and hopefully a couple from Italy and Paris!)