Monaco and Eze

The weekend before last, we visited two of the most beautiful places in the world. I've decided that I'm moving to Monaco and living in the Saint Martin's Gardens. I have no idea how I'm going to support myself yet, but I will build a treehouse and live there with my pet duck. I'll also own a yacht.























These are from around Monte Carlo. I didn't go in, because I didn't want to pay and check my camera at the desk, especially when I wasn't planning on gambling. Money saved!





And then we went to Eze... soooo gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of Dolceacquas, in that everything was built up high so that pirates couldn't get at it. You could see everything from the top. (:

Isle de San Marguerite

This is from Wednesday before last Wednesday... I'm slacking, sorry! We went to the Isle de San Marguerite as a group. That's where the kept the Man in the Iron Mask. The museum there was about the prison, as well as artifacts found on or near the island that had to do with Roman ships/civilization/ancient trade. We took a ferry to the island and didn't stay there for very long, because the ferry only came once an hour and it was too hot to just walk around the island. Here are some pictures:

there are no sharks in the mediterranean!

There aren't any sharks in the Mediterranean Sea. But do you know what it does have? Waves, salt, and jellyfish. These things become particularly frightening when you try to swim to a platform that's a bit far out. I was sitting on the beach, writing postcards, when I decided that I ought to swim out to the platform. It has a ladder so that you can climb onto it easily, and it's there so that you can swim out and rest on it, or dive off of it. There are several of them along the beach in Cannes.

I think I should preface this story with the fact that I'm not a very strong swimmer. I know how to swim. But I'm not terribly great at it. So, I figured the platform wasn't very far, and started to swim out to it. Wrong! I got about 3/4 of the way there and realized that I was very, very tired. Treading water seemed like it would take up more energy than it was worth, so I alternated between floating on my back to rest and swimming to the platform. When I got there, my legs were jello. It hadn't helped that the water was really cold, or that I had had a headache before I'd even gotten to the beach. So... I sat on the platform for about 3 minutes, and then decided that it was in my best interest to just head back.

Svetlana just asked me if the water was still cold when I got back to the sand, and I told her it wasn't so bad because you kind of got used to it. (It was a lot colder than usual, though.) And then she and Dasha and everyone else and I went back to Le College. (It's across the street from the beach.) When I got back to the room, Sarah said I looked very tired, which was a very reasonable assessment, and then it was dinnertime.

At least I got a good workout out of it?

I think my English grammar is doing weird things due to the French. Additionally, I've started translating things into Spanish in my head. (There are a lot of Spanish-speakers here, but the three that were in my class got switched out because our class had too many people in it.)

Le sigh...

Movie time.

la vita è bella!

I spent my Independence Day in Italy. (: We visited the cities of Sanremo and Dulceacquas. I liked Sanremo, but this might have been just because I thought it was cool that we were in Italy. Ducleacquas was really, really very cool. It made me think of Pirates of the Caribbean because it was full of stone corridors and lots and lots of stairs- there are so many stairs in Italy! They built everything up high so that invaders and pirates couldn't find or get to it. (: The only thing I bought in Italy was a shirt/dress/swimsuit coverup; I'm not entirely sure what this article of clothing is supposed to be, but it's cute and it was 5 Euros. I also bought the requisite postcards for my collection. We had real Italian gelato (yum!), and I am pleased to report that I did try the wine. I made an attempt. (Aud bought everyone a glass of wine.) And it was bitter, as wine is, and I suppressed a yuck-face, and I poured the rest into Elena, Carmella, and Sarah's glasses. Apparently it was very good wine, so I think it's safe to conclude that I do not like wine at all. Not cheap pink wine from Wawa, not Mom's wine, not very nice wine from Italy.


View from the top of Sanremo.


Dolceacquas!

On the 5th, we just hung out at the beach and then sat. Cannes is very pretty, but there's not a lot to do at night unless you plan on staying out really late. I can't go out at night by myself, and most people don't really want to go anywhere. I miss dancing!! Maybe next weekend I'll be able to convince people that they'd rather go dancing than be hermits? If we spend 4 hours in class before lunch, and take the time to do homework and study, shouldn't the rest of the time be vacation? I'm getting tired of the Internet. ): One can only spend so much time on Facebook, really.

i LOVE it here!

Bonjour, mon amis! Our luggage came a few days ago in the morning, and since then, I've been having a great time! The beach is so pretty... look!



We've explored that area, the old part of Cannes, and the new part of Cannes. My classes are going well, and I'm learning- I can talk about what I like and don't like, what my name is, where I'm from, and how old I am. I can conjugate a few verbs, too, and describe a person by how they look. The class is a very diverse group of people; there's another girl and an older woman from the US, some boys from Madrid, a few Swedish people, a girl from Russia and one from the Czech Republic, two Irani boys, and a girl from Paraguay. That's it if I haven't forgotten anyone, and there are about 15 people in the class.

They don't believe in A/C in Europe, so it's really hot in this room, which kind of makes me disinclined to leave my computer on. But it's on a lot, so if you want to catch me online to talk, I'm here! The best way to do that is gmail chat. Skype is second-best.

I can see the Mediterranean from my room, and my roommate, Sarah, is awesome. We figured out that we have a few acquaintances in common at home, because I went to middle school and elementary school with some people she knows from high school or college. The other people in the program are pretty cool. Sometimes it's difficult to explain to the students from other countries that our group came here together, but we didn't know each other before the trip. Oh, well. Not terribly important!






Enjoy the pictures... and I'll write more later! Au revoir!