An Introduction to Away to Me and You

I've been trying to decide what to do with this blog. Just leave it up and stop posting, take it down, start a new blog, keep writing about France-related things in this one. Ultimately I decided I wanted to keep this one, the set up and the general theme, but shift my focus a bit more to the life journey I am now, not the physical one I was on. I wanted it to include all of the France parts though, because France was definitely the introduction to this chapter of my life. I want to keep exploring this chapter, writing about it and sharing discoveries with you. I've discovered I have found myself - or at least the version of myself I am meant to be right now - and I now feel ready to go out and find other people. To explore my faith a bit more and offer my talents and time to other people. And, honestly part of that is also finding the kind of love I've yet to have in my life. It is just all a part of this time in my life - my last year in college, my first time working in positions that can pertain to my future career, my strengthened focus on my creative writing, and my preparation to enter the infamous "real world."

Thank you for taking part in this journey with me. 

Returning to the List

Well, now that I've been back in the states for a while and have finally settled in with new life things here, I wanted to come back to my check list. I'm pretty happy with how much I accomplished, and just wanted to share it with you all in one place.

1.      Become fairly fluent in France...CHECK-ISH...I'd say "fairly" is a good description of my fluency. I can understand most conversations in French, and can respond minimally. 

2.      Find and attend a French church...CHECK-ISH again...I did go to church once (in addition to the finding a church in Cannes deal) but I did not end up going every week. 

3.      Stay in touch with all of the people I love in Washington...CHECK

4.      Legally have a drink with: breakfast, lunch, dinner, at a bar, with Julia, without Julia, bought by a boy, bought by a girl...CHECK (all 8 things)

5.      Go skinny dipping...CHECK

6.      Go hiking...CHECK

7.      Go sailing...NOT REALLY...I didn't make it sailing, but I did go on a river boat tour in Copenhagen. Counts for something, right? 

8.      Go to a French concert...Unfortunately this never happened. I did listen to many performances by English men at the Hop Store and Irish men in Ireland, but no French singers. 

9.      Watch a sunset and sunrise...CHECK many times, on the roof of Resideal and from a bench in Flavigny, which was the best sunrise I've seen thus far. 

10.  Spend a day biking through French country side and writing. NO...I never ended up getting a bike, but did do quite a bit of walking. And even more writing. In a solo train ride from Antibes to Paris and back again I did quite a bit of writing, however. The train ride is 5 hours and provides gorgeous landscape for most of the journey. 

11.  Spend a day in a small town and learn something from the locals...CHECK this happened in Flavigny for sure, where we met the lovely Sarah Page who invited us into her home. I also visited the small village of Biot to watch some glass-blowing. 

12.  Walk barefoot through a field in Ireland or France...CHECK in my favorite place that is a re-occuring theme here - Flavigny. 

13.  Visit a small winery in the country...CHECK I actually got to have dinner with the director of a wine-cooperative in Visan, a small village in the Rhone Valley. Definitely a highlight of the trip. 

14.  Make a dinner for our French/international friends...CHECK several times. We often had family dinners in Resideal, dinner with our group of international friends, and dinner with the French host mom of two of our friends. I love me some dinner parties. :) 

15.  Befriend someone on a train...NO, unfortunately. But I did make many friends in different places. 

16.  Befriend a small restaurant/cafe owner...SORT OF...I made friends with a local artist who had a gallery in Antibes; he reminded me very much of Picasso and my parents kindly bought me a piece of his original work for my birthday. :) I also got to know the owner of the winery in Visan and his wife. 

17.  Ask someone interesting to a meal... CHECK that is how I got to know my friends from Australia, the DR, Slovokia, and Italy. Just asked them over for dinner. We also had coffee with Isabelle and the director of our program. 

18.  Eat at an outdoor restaurant... CHECK many times over. 

19.  Try every food offered to me... CHECK and I'm so glad I did. There were not many things I did not like. Oh, and I tried every wine I was offered as well. ;)

20.  Become more knowledgeable about France’s political process... NO...I spent more time on the beach than thinking about politics, though I did ask French people for their opinions on the French election. 

21.  Volunteer to assist some local group/project/person... CHECK I assisted a French student with his essays and Isabelle with the translation of and marketing for her book. 

22.  Read a famous piece of French literature or poetry...DIDN'T happen in France, but this is on a list for my lifetime. 

23.  Write poetry in French...NO...but same situation as #22

24.  Complete a short story...CHECK CHECK CHECK...and working on a longer story...or string of stories...time will tell. 

25.  Do something I don’t think I can do...CHECK many, many things. And I plan to continue doing so. 

26.  Do three completely spontaneous things...CHECK booking trip to Copenhagen, skinny dipping, several Nice shopping trips, stopping and talking to an artist, and others as well. 

27.  Buy something I can wear that makes me feel fabulous... CHECK leather jacket :) 

28.  Dance in the rain... CHECK at the bus stop at school, no less. 

29.  Find and attend a lindy hop venue... NO, sadly. 

30.  Lindy bomb a music bar... CHECK, often. 

It's Here

Well, it's here.

The beginning of post-France life. The beginning of the next decades of my life in which I will start stories, "once, when I lived in the south of France..."

Ever since 7th grade when I first heard about studying abroad, the possibility of it, my life has been a build up to living in another country. I was sure it would happen, had to. Every person I talked to about it said either it was the best decision they made in college or it was the one thing they wished they had done.

In the months leading up to leaving for France I had to also plan a bit for the year that would follow my semester abroad, and that's when I start realizing life after France was also soon. I wondered how that life would feel almost as much as I wondered how life in France would feel.

And now it is almost here, in less than 24 hours I will go from France with the people I have grown so close to in 5 months to America with people I have loved all my life. All in one day. What a change that is, how huge.

It is so huge, all of this. Everything I feel and have experienced and learned. I can't understand it all, can't quite comprehend how to say good bye to people who it will be difficult (but never, never impossible) to see again. I can't comprehend how to explain to people I love who weren't here with me how this all felt, how it has created such an evolution in me.

And I am a person who likes to understand things, how they work and why and what they mean. One of the biggest things I have learned here, though, is at some point you have to stop trying to understand and just live. Just let it all exist, all of the love and beauty and huge huge huge emotion to exist in its entirety, not in deconstructed parts.

In fact, in fact I think I need to do that now. I intended for this post to include every big lesson I have learned and from who and when. But I can't right now. It is too huge for this web page. So right now I will say this:

I am at a loss for words, explanations. Here, I have met people who know me in ways I didn't think I could be known. I have learned about the many different kinds of love and the power of an open mind. I have learned about the power of self-perception and how to break it. I have learned learned learned....

Ah...I want to put this all in words for you so badly. I want to share and have you understand. But I cannot right now. Let's have a cup of coffee together soon, a glass of rosé maybe, and that way I can show you through my manner and my words.

For now, thank you. To this country and to my country and to the people people people who show me new parts of new worlds every day. Thank you for all of your love.

French Grocery Shopping

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping with Isabelle to prepare dinner for the 15 people who were going to be at her house to discuss wine that evening. It was interesting to shop with her and see the products she looked at that I would not have known at all what to do with. While I try and experience as much French cuisine as possible, when I go grocery shopping I always end up buying things I can get at home because I know what to do with them. So I watched her closely and took mental notes.

The meal we had was great for a big group. It is a typical Provencal dish. 

The main part of the meal is the sauce made with garlic boiled in milk,
anchovy puree, olive oil, and a couple other ingredients I'll have to check on.

You can then have an array of things to dip in the sauce. We had vegetables
(pictured above), potatoes, boiled eggs, and bread. 

Oh, and this is the cheese we had as an "aperitif" (appetizer with drinks,
rose wine of course). Not only was it delicious (this picture is making me hungry),
she had the coolest cheese-shaver thing I have ever seen! 

In addition to being French she is also quite organic. When picking out produce, she refused to get anything grown in Spain because they use very harmful pesticides there. She is passionate and knowledgeable about so many things. And if you thought California was in to the sustainability-scene, come to France sometime...specifically to a wine-heavy region. Winemakers are extremely adamant about environmentally-friendly practices. 

Le Vin - And Saying Yes When You're Unsure

Recently I was in the Provencal farm house of a woman who has sold several official wine guides for women in France. I am working for her, or with her, rather, translating her wine guide and coming up with social media and web marketing plans to expose her in America. The other day, though, I ate lunch at her house and drank a rosé made by a winemaker she knows personally. And we spoke in French about movies and food and men. 

Just three weeks ago I couldn't have imagined such a scene. Well, actually, I would have imagined it and not believed it could actually exist. For a while before the internship started, and even in the first few days of the internship, I was unsure of the whole thing. Before I met Isabelle, I didn't have a clear idea of what we were doing, I was scared to constantly speak French, and I was ready to go home. In the first few days of the internship Antibes had a strange feeling since so many people I met here left. Now, though, I am so glad I took this opportunity. I am gaining experience in an area I hadn't considered before, and now I have made contacts and have knowledge that could lead me to whole new places in my future. 

I implore you, do things you are unsure of if you have even the hint of a desire to do so. Just jump into things occasionally and allow yourself to work through feelings of anxiety that come with the unknown. Do not say no to something just because it is out of the realm of things you had considered for your life, or because you think it can't end up the way it sounds. 

Please, please, challenge yourself. It is scary, but what you learn about your capabilities will astound you. 

The FANTASMIC bookcase in the B & B we got to stay in for an evening
when we were in Visan for a wine tasting. 

Because of Isabelle Foret's connections in the wine world, we
were able to stay here free of charge for an evening. 

The name of the town where the tasting took place was Visan. The
name of the wine cooperative that is located there is called Anvis. The
wines produced there are a collaboration of several vineyards. 

This wine tasting was special because it was actually a jury
of 33 women who blind-tested 10 different red wines with varying
grape blends. The favorite amongst the professional wine jury and
the non-professional women was selected to represent the annual wine
called "Femme" (woman). 

L'Universite du Vin (University of Wine) located in Suze-la-Rousse, a
small village very close to Visan. It is one of the best wine universities
in the world. 

Whirlwind Weeks

As some of you may know, I originally was supposed to return home on May 12th. Something I kept forgetting to share with you, is that I received a small internship with a French author of wine guides who lives close to Antibes. A few friends I have made here also received internships with the Cannes Film Festival, and for the two and a half extra weeks we are here, we've moved to an apartment closer to old Antibes. It is gorgeous and so lovely to have a real oven and washing machine in our apartment. Plus, we have built a little family here of people working on the internship, and others who are doing post-program traveling and crashing on our couches.

There is so much to update on as usual, but I am going to trying to summarize the biggest things in just one sentence each.

...

Since May 10th, I have had to say some of the hardest good byes (even though they are really, "until we meet agains") to people who I consider in my realm of close, close friends.

Recently I spent 24 hours in Paris during which I felt like a competent business woman navigating metros on my own and presenting my writing to other world travelers.

In the past three days I have been working with a past model and wife of a French rock-star, discussing the promotion of her wine guide in America, tasted gold-flecked wine with her on a yacht, and been placed on the wait list for a Cannes Film Festival party.

My writing is taking off, I want to write a book I want to write a book I want to write a book and I am receiving a lot of encouragement to do so.

My heart continues to find new emotions - of aching love, of disbelief, of pure happiness, of unexpected disappointment, of anxiety, of wonder.

Growing pains of the heart are more acute than those of the body.

...

I will most likely just be doing pictures for the next couple of weeks. If you have questions about the sentences above, feel free to leave them in a comment box and I will respond. :)

List Item # 7

I had the privilege of accomplishing List Item #7 with my parents. They arrived on the 27th of April, and were here until May 4th. It was exciting to show them around my little corner of France, and just lovely to see them in general.

We spent a couple of days in Aix-en-Provence, and since everything was closed on Tuesday for French Labor Day, we decided to hike around Mount Saint Victoire. It is a beautiful mountain that was the obsession of Cezanne, a famous French artist who started the shift from impressionism to cubism (learned about him in my French Riviera Artist's class...see, I did go to school!)

 It was a nice, leisurely hike, but a hike nonetheless. It also included a little adventure, as Dad was feeling a bit sneaky. We were hoping to visit the building Cezanne lived in when painting the Mt. St. Victoire scenery. Unfortunately, since it was a holiday, and the area where the hut was had a fence around it, we initially did not think we can get in. There was a large section of the fence knocked over, however, and no signs saying not to go through it, so Dad decided we should explore. In doing so we found Cezanne's hut and some gorgeous red rock.

Definitely a highlight of their visit. :) 

When the Sun Returns

While we have had a few bouts of rain and clouds, the sun is back again, give or take a few very large gusts of wind. Regardless, this means lots of time on the beach and visits to Saint Marguerite, an island off the coast of Cannes. We'll do a little picture book tale to sum up the past few days.

Well this doesn't have much to do with the sun, but Julia's parents visited and took us out to dinner for her birthday on Monday. This is the soup de poisson (fish soup) I had, which is a specialty in this area of France. It is the
fish-based broth of the well-known bouillabaisse, but without the whole pieces of fish and vegetables added. Instead you just add rouille (a type of spicy mustard) and hard bread. Quite tasty, if you like fish. 

On Saturday I took myself on what ended up being a two hour walk to find L'Hotel Belle Rives,
which is the name of the hotel where Scott Fitzgerald stayed when he lived in Juan les Pins (a little
town that is a 40 minute walk from Antibes.) It looks like quite the swanky hotel, but I'm hoping
to visit the Fitzgerald Piano Bar when my parents visit. 

On Saturday afternoon I spent a good 4 to 5 hours on the beach, with this view.
The picture really doesn't do the Alps justice, they stand out so crisply against
the sky. And this view of the Picasso museum is a classic view of Antibes that
appears on many post cards and paintings. 

And this is how you warm up one of your friends who spent too long swimming
in the Mediterranean, which is gorgeously blue but not quite warm enough for
too much swimming. We take care of each other on the Riviera. 

On Sunday we took a ferry ride to Saint Marguerite, the island-prison where
the famous Man in the Iron mask was held for 11 years. Its a fascinating story
that I suggest you read about, or watch the movie. 

These red poppies are popping up all over the place, even on the
train tracks in Antibes. 

It was very windy on the island, but particularly on this side.
So many white caps, but on this other beach...

...the water was much calmer, which allowed for a performance
from a CEA girl band. They're fantastic. ;)

It also made great weather for bubble-blowing, made possible by
my parents and their thoughtful care packaging. The bubbles are a big hit. 

Last Minute Trips Out of the Country and Great People

It was Monday evening when a friend of mine here called and asked if I wanted to go to Copenhagen with him and another friend of ours on Friday. By Tuesday evening, I had a plane ticket to Copenhagen and a reservation in Europe's biggest hostel. I'd say that qualifies as a part of List Item number 26, and it turned out to be quite a wonderful last minute trip decision.

Copenhagen is a city I've been interested in ever since finding this CycleChic blog. I was fascinated by the cycling culture and how fashionable everyone is while riding their bikes through rain, snow and sunshine. Plus, the gentlemen who asked me to travel with them this weekend, David (from Australia) and Taylor (from DC) are two of my very favorite people here who I did not think I'd get the opportunity to travel with. So I really couldn't say no.

The city was just as bike - populated as I hoped it would be. Wide bike lanes on every street and people of all ages on all kinds of bikes.

Tivoli Gardens

Canal Tour...Hans Christian Anderson's House

We also wandered through the magical Tivoli Gardens, rode a roller coaster, went to a party with a few people D and T knew from last year, took a canal tour, and went to a couple of gay bars. And all throughout the weekend we had consistent conversations about traveling, life, Americans, growing, and so so many other things. I love the people I am meeting here and the places I get to see with them. I cannot believe how close it is to the end.

David and I 

Me and T

Oap! And here is a tiny baby post for List Item #5...

Let it be known that on the evening of Thursday, March 29 2012, I went skinny dipping in the Mediterranean Sea. It was glorious.

That's all I have to say. :)

An Excerpt from my CEA Portfolio

For the past week I have been putting together a collection of poems and short stories I wrote about my time here (accomplishing List Item #24) to send into a conference the CEA Paris program is hosting. They are accepting creative projects about our time spent abroad, and the people that are selected get to go present in Paris. 

Below is an excerpt from the portfolio I wanted to share because it has little tidbits from our spring break (a wonderful trip which is woefully absent from this blog...there will be more little fill-ins throughout other posts). The second section of the poem below is about a dinner we had in Lyon, and the third is about dessert in Flavigny sur Ozerain (the village where Chocolat was filmed). Hope you enjoy! 

The longer she was there, in this new place, she began to feel culture. She found the nuances in French culture and began accumulating some of the qualities she was lacking due to her American upbringing. Especially about time spent with people.

I

We had dinner together

one of those first nights - 

we made it in a tiny apartment,

fit 25 people in chairs in an oval in a room that could never fit a table big enough - 

but it made no matter.

***

II

We went out to dinner with French friends.

We met at 6 pm and thought we would eat then,

but the French laughed at the thought.

We got drinks first, we sat outside between a group of four 20-something year old men

and two 60-something ladies with hats and sagging socks.

We let the wine warm us to the breeze and discussed  

our evolving definitions of culture.

We learned this was called an aperitif or –

Appero.

We went to dinner at 8 pm.

Five courses.

The Americans drummed their fingers on the table when

they finished eating, searched for a server carrying the next course.

The French looked in the eyes of the people seated across from them,

Told jokes, laughed and worked on their meals bite by bite.

We left the restaurant at 11 pm.

***

III

In a small village

we walked by a woman taking wood into her house.

She talked to us because she was American until she was 26,

then she moved to France,

never left,

became franco-american.

She invited us to dessert at her house.

We arrived at 8 pm, bearing flowers.

We sat at her long, rectangular wooden table at benches and occasionally helped to stoke the fire.

We heard stories about her studies, family, careers, ambitions.

We shared ours.

We stayed until 11:30 pm.

***

III

In two months I will have a single apartment

that will constantly be filled with food and people gathered around the food.

Dinner will only start after an appero,

will include multiple courses served slowly,

will end not because the food is gone,

but because people are warm off of conversation and sharing and that warmth

is carrying them home to their beds. 

A Trip to Grasse

We took a CEA excursion to Grasse today, and made perfume! Grasse is definitely the perfume capitol of the world, 60% of perfume is made there. The parfumerie we went to today was the second we have visited so far, and while I have now learned quite a bit about perfume making, the most interesting thing remains "le Nez." In English, that means "the Nose," and refers to the person who has the job of creating perfumes based on smell.

On average, there are 300 different essences in perfume, and to become a Nez, you have to be able to identify all 300 after smelling. It is a gift one is born with. In the whole world, there are only around 150 Nez's, and 16 of them are in Grasse. They only work from 2 to 4 hours a day, and usually 5 days a week. That seems like a perk at first, but then you hear the following conditions, and decide they deserve it. As a Nez, you cannot drink, smoke, eat spicy foods or dairy products. It is quite the delicate job, and super fascinating!

Ready to make some perfume!

We started with a blind smell test to determine our family of scents, and then sniffed, sniffed, sniffed
and mixed scents all morning. 

After the perfume making we stopped at a few "perched villages" - quite lovely - ate some crepes, some ice cream, and I attempted to fit in with the mustache crew...

...it's not quite the same, but the boys, I'm sorry - the men - appreciated my effort. We ended the day with some hooping (which I'm getting much better at), hot chocolate, and Fantastic Mr. Fox (a quirky little movie I highly recommend!).

Overall, lovely day. 

Another Writing Place...

So I have started submitting some blog posts to "Let's Go Travel Guides," a website with student contributions about travelling and living abroad. Today my very first post is one of the featured articles on the website's homepage: http://www.letsgo.com/ . If you are looking for it on a different day, click here to go straight to the post.

Happy Sunday!

Anglo Invasion

Time time time is running away from me. It is about to be April in a few days, and I am not sure how to handle that. In order to keep you all better informed about my life, however, I am going to attempt to do shorter, more frequent posts about any little thing that is happening here.

Currently, we are under some anglo-invasion. Yachting season is beginning, and therefore the British, Australians, and South Africans are flowing in. Young people who are hoping to work on yachts and older people who own the yachts and therefore get to decide the fates of the younger people.

As a result, more restaurants and shops are opening in old town Antibes - largely English-influenced as well. A bagel place and more pubs and boutiques with lots of khaki.

I like a bit more life in the town, and also dislike it. I am sad to see the French part of this town get pushed even more to the wayside - but I suppose that is what happens when you live in the French Riviera. The longer I have lived here the more I am aware that this area was really built by tourists - by Americans and Brits who wanted to customize a vacation spot for themselves.

It makes me miss Flavigny. 

The village we stayed in during our spring break. 

And it makes me miss cooking with this woman.

Francoise, the host mom of a couple of her friends. We cooked quiche
with her last month. She is one of the sweetest people I have met
here. 

Reflections

Oh man...I've been away from this blog for far too long. Ever since spring (or more like late-winter) break things have been speeding up here. The school work is getting a bit more important and frequent since the end of the semester is approaching, and I have been busy trying to get some things in order for life back in the states. And then of course, there is just the time needed to take walks to the light house or make dinner with friends or go to Ireland for St. Paddy's Day weekend...which was marvelous, by the way. Irish people really are as friendly as I've been hearing, and additionally, I ended up speaking a lot of French this weekend as the French apparently love St. Patrick's Day.

I will give more updates about that trip as well as some about spring break, but for the moment I would just like to share a few reflections...a few thoughts...a few lessons I've learned just by living abroad. They are going to be rather random and brief, but making these little discoveries is one of my favorite parts about being here. And I believe, in fact, that they are the reasons I am supposed to be here.

OpenSpace
France has taught me the value of open spaces - in both time and landscape. In the states I am very good at jampacking every ounce of space in my life with activity. Actually, at first not having as many work or school-related productive things to do here was really difficult for me. Now, though, I see that I need it - I crave it. I've found that I write more here, so much more, which is largely due to being in a whole new world, but also due to the fact that my mind has more room to wander, to create. So, when I get back to the states I need to leave more open space in my time, and find more open spaces outside.

BraveBeyondBelief
You need to leave your familiar, to take yourself out of the space you fit into completely so you can decide which parts you miss most. It takes courage, but if you give yourself the chance, you will find you are brave beyond belief. Your leaving may also be hard for some of the people left in your familiar life, but sometimes you just have to go. As Howard Roark said in the novel The Fountainhead, You have to know how to say "I" before you can say "I love you." Going away is a really solid way to find out how to say "I".

Learning
I get to read more here, and I have discovered one of the many reasons I love reading is because it helps me see things I feel from a distance, and therefore allows me to describe my beliefs, thoughts, emotions in the perfect way.

I understand with a greater depth the old adage that we are always learning. Every time I think I've discovered all of the facets of a place, person, belief, or myself, I find a whole new category of facets.

HomeInAntibes
The cobblestones that make up these streets are so familiar under my feet. My steps are so sure - the definition of the phrase, "sure-footed". And my head is held high too. This is one of my towns now. Not mine, maybe, but I fit here too - with the new parts of myself I have found by being in this place that was once completely unfamiliar, but now is known. The quaintness is expected rather than marveled over. Not taken for granted, just worn in.

GoodCompany
The French know how to enjoy each other's company; to take time over meals and drinks to just be together. Dinner parties are one of my new favorite things. I will host many throughout my life.

GrandDiscovery
What do I most want to do in life?
Be with people I love in places I love, and be constantly finding new places and people to love, and collecting new perspectives and writing about it all. I want to share all that love and the best way I can figure out how is through writing.

A reflection picture taken in the apartment of Emile's mom, where I stayed with an old friend and new friends for spring break. Seemed appropriate to this post. 

And here is a picture just to add variety to all of the text here. 

List Item #12

Well, I didn't walk, I ran through an open field in Flavigny sur Ozerain. It is a small village just north of Dijon, on the east side of France. It is where the movie Chocolat was filmed. It is where I spent a couple days of my spring break with friends. It is where I found open spaces I have written about, but never walked through.

Just wanted to give you this quick update, since I've been absent from the blog-o-sphere for a while. Last night I got back from a 7 day trip through Paris, Flavigny, and Lyon. So many stories to share from all of those places, and not enough time. As it is already March (really not sure how that happened) I need to start figuring out a few things about my summer and next year plans, so I am attempting to be productive for the next few days.

More to come though, I promise! 

Playing Catch-Up Part II

Decided to break the past couple of weeks into two entries. There is just so much I want to share, so please bear with me for the sudden blog explosion.

Apartment Guests:

So last Thursday (which is when my weekends start here) Julia and I had some wonderful people over for dinner. They are the group who were here last semester (plus one who just arrived this semester, but who spends a lot of time with the returners). A few of them are international students, and then the others are from America. I find them all quite interesting, and really wanted to get to know them better, so we decided to have a dinner party (which also more fully satisfies List Item #14, as well as List Item #17). It went really well - all the food was eaten, lots of laughs were shared, and bonds were made. The night ended beautifully at The Quay for some Karaoke as well.

Being a House Guest: 

The wonderful meal...

...the wonderful people...

...the wonderful photo shoot to end the night right. 

I have the great fortune of befriending a person here, Emile (in the plaid), whose family is actually from France. Not only does he help us practice our French (since he speaks it fluently) but last Friday, he also invited a few of us to dine with him at his father's house in Grasse. After about a 45 minute train ride we arrived, and Emile drove us to his father's house, which is everything you could hope for a French house in the country to be.

It was so wonderful to be in a home, and all of the people there were so warm and inviting. Julia and I had the opportunity to practice our French with the groundskeeper and his wife (as they do not speak English), and Emile's father told us all about the history of the delicious traditional French winter meal we ate called Raclette.

Then, on the way back, we were basically the only people on the train. Which naturally equates to photo shoot time. It was a gorgeous Friday evening.

Pain, Chocolate, et l'Amour

A little cappuccino to warm up after the festival. It was chilly in Antibes!

On both Friday and Saturday we went to the Bread, Chocolate, and Love festival that was going on in Antibes. Mostly it was vendors selling sweets, meets, cheeses, and breads, but there was quite a bit to look at. I purchased some dark chocolate with candied hibiscus flowers inside...yum! 

Exploring the Area: 

The rest of the weekend was pretty laid back. Visited Nice again for some shopping, hung out with people in the apartment Saturday evening, and went on a Nice little walk to the Fort Carre that is in Antibes. Julia met a very kind old man there who quite enjoyed speaking with her, and he ended up giving us some history on the Fort. 

The rest of the week mostly consisted of midterm studying (because yes, I do occasionally have to do school-related things), some baking for Valentine's Day, and enjoying the sunshine on Thursday. On Saturday, we are headed for an over-night trip with the CEA program in Provence. I am quite excited! 

Playing Catch-Up Part I

The last couple of weekends have been full of explorations of the area, wonderful food with wonderful people, and a new familiarity with transportation in Antibes. Because there is a lot to update about, I will do a picture-book-type explanation of each, to keep my writing shorter and the post more visually pleasing.

Snow Days on the Riviera: 

So a few weeks ago we had two snow days in a row...not kidding. Funny thing is there was no snow in Antibes at all. The buses announced Monday night that they would not be running Tuesday because of the CHANCE of snow. They just don't know how to handle it here, on the beach.

So, since we couldn't really go anywhere, we stayed in Resideal, and watched the wonders of hula hooping. There is a girl here who just bought a hoop because her and her friends all hoop back in Pittsburg. It is not your average hooping either...more like hoop dancing. We all watched her skills and then tried it out ourselves. It was quite the beautiful day.

Our New Thursday Night Venue: 

Then there was Thursday night Karaoke night! Though most of the SKEMA international students we know like to go to the Hop Store, we discovered The Quay, another Irish Pub with a better ambiance, and of course, karaoke! Also, these beauties were given to a few of my friends and myself on the house. Needless to say this is likely to become a regular Thursday night event.

Buses, Nietszche and Eze:

Friday we set out for Eze, the hilltop village we vsited on our first weekend here. Thanks to train strikes, though, we got to take three bus rides, one being an hour long, just to get to the village.

FUN FACT: Apparently train strikes are very common in France. This one was already the second one since we've been here. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind the strikes are each time, but I think it often has to do with benefits or salary issues. As was the case in October.  

Eze was worth the transportation, though. We found the trail that German philosopher Fredrick Nietszche walked up daily. Apparently the heat made him hallucinate, which is where he got his inspiration. The view was gorgeous, and while we saw snow on palm trees at the top of the trail, we ended up on a beach!

Le Super Bowl: 

Saturday was fairly uneventful, and ended with a night out at the Ondine Villa, where some of our international friends live. Sunday Julia and I hosted a Super Bowl party. This was a great idea in the sense that people brought delicious food to our apartment, and a not so great idea since the game here only started at midnight. Still, it was fun to have so many people over, and I made a rendition of the cheesy potatoes my mamma makes that went over very well. 

The Rest of the Week: 

The week went nicely, as well. Took a quick trip to Cannes before class on Monday and benefited from the massive sales going on here (they started in January and didn't end until February 14) by buying a dress from Zara. Supposedly they have Zara in the states, my little towns have never heard of such wondrous places. The shopping here really is fantastic.

On Wednesday I had a spontaneous lunch date with a friend here, my first French meal out! It was delicious. I have no pictures of it, since it was spontaneous and all, but I'm sure we will go back. In the mean time, you can listen to this song if you are sad about the lack of pictures.