On leaving

I’m in Amsterdam now, and the past few days have been a whirlwind of packing up and saying my goodbyes.

It started last Thursday at my Each One, Teach One meeting. It was my last week, so leaving was actually pretty sad. It’s become one of the highlights of my week. I’ve met some really great people there, and I’ll definitely miss them all. Over the course of the next few days and exams, I said goodbye to most of my classmates, too. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to actually be sad.

The worst was saying goodbye to my host family. Though I’ll be back for weekend later this month, Friday was my official last day with them. They had an incredible going away party for me, and that’s when it finally hit that I’m leaving. Sophie made an enormous Indian feast all from scratch. There were 8 of us there, and despite the crowd and the intense conversation, I felt so comfortable being there with them, almost like I was there with my own family and friends. After months of awkward situations and not knowing what to say, I felt like it was my reward for a semester of hard work. John (Sophie’s boyfriend), Jason (his son), and Fabian (Chloe’s boyfriend) were all playing guitar and everyone was singing, dancing, laughing and having a great time. 

Despite the many challenges that come along with studying abroad, It’s been a great semester. I’ve been so looking forward to my own bed, my own room, and just having my own space back, that I keep forgetting all the wonderful things about my day to day life in Nice.

Back a couple months ago I made a list of things I missed from America. Now, a list of things I know I will miss from Nice:

Dinners with my host family- You just can’t beat the home cooked meals every night. I’m convinced that it’s the hours we spent around the dinner table that improved my French skills the most. The guitar sessions afterwards were also one of the highlights of the semester.

The rock beach-Despite the fact that the sun hates me, I really do love hanging out on the beach in Nice. The fact that it’s rock and not sand makes it so much easier to stop off and lay down for an hour without getting disgustingly sandy. I’ve never lived 2 minutes away from any body of water, let alone the electric blue Mediterranean.

Shops being closed on Sundays- Though initially (and still sometimes) frustrating, I love the idea of there being one day each week where almost no one has to work and they can spend the day relaxing with family, friends, or just doing their own thing. Growing up where almost everything (Except Chick-fil-a) is open almost every day, it took some getting used to. Now I’m just not sure if it’s worth it. Anything you’d need in an emergency is accessible. Everything else can wait a day, can’t it?

Cheese and Nutella are cheap- Enough said.

The street market- I love all the fresh produce, and walking through the flower market at the end is amazing. It’s one of the few places in Nice where people will actually always speak French to me. Restaurants and other businesses typically revert to English, despite the fact that I always initiate conversation in French. 

The coins here that actually amount to something- Due to the one and two euro coins, pocket change here is actually valuable.

Speaking French- In case it comes as a shock to you all, I actually love the French language. It’s been a real challenge to communicate solely in French (except for with my American friends), but when I’m with only English speakers I really miss mixing the two languages. Using French in the classroom is just not the same.

More to come on Amsterdam, Geneva, Copenhagen, and Barcelona, as well as my last weekend in Nice, and my return to the USA on June 20^th!

Boat day

I am a terrible person.

Yesterday I forgot to blog, leaving you all in “a world of darkness.” Actually, I’m sure no one is seriously distressed about it…right?

I nearly forgot again today. We just got home from our day at sea, aka “boat day.” I’ve been so pumped about boat day for the past two weeks. Since Monday, every time I am leaving one of my friends I say “Ok! See you for boat day!” and I kept getting reminded that boat day was still several days away and I would see them again before then.

This is really similar to our boat.
The water was also just as blue.

 When I woke up this morning, things weren’t looking so great. But what started out as thunderstormy and miserably dreary day turned out to be beautiful and sunny. Our department chartered a private boat for the group and they took us around Antibes, Cannes, and out near an island, where we anchored and swam around for an hour or so. People dove in right from the boat. The water was so crystal clear, you could see all the way to the bottom. It was also freezing.

Everyone eventually made it back on board, despite our director’s fear of instant death by drowning from swimming too soon after eating. Around 8pm we dropped anchor again and the skipper and first/only mate (?) cooked up a paella feast, complete with full on shrimp (heads still intact, beady black lifeless eyes staring up at us from a pile of rice). Of course cheese and dessert courses followed.

The night ended with an extreme dance off between two guys in our program. Somewhere out there, there is video evidence of this.

We were out for about 8 hours total, and surprisingly my sickeningly pale complexion managed to not attract every UV ray in the sky. I’m only “pretty pink” instead of “sizzling fresh off the grill.”

Picking up the pieces of my dignity

 

Today the tram doors attacked me.

I’m pretty sure it was actually even more embarrassing than I think it was. I was listening to my ipod on my way to school, waiting at the tram stop. Some woman with a stroller was taking forever and a day to get on the tram, so I had to slip in behind her at the last minute. Unfortunately that didn’t work out as well as I hoped.

As the doors closed on me, I felt myself let out a scream, but I really don’t know how loud it was, because of my ipod. I do know that when I squeezed myself the rest of the way through, the entire car was looking at me, so I imagine I may have yelled louder than was necessary. I've made it unscathed for over 4 months, and of course it happens my last week of being here!

How do you come back from that? I tried really hard, but there’s no way to salvage your dignity. It's kind of like when my cat attempts do do something graceful and fails horribly. You just pretend not to notice as she picks herself up and slinks away into the shadows. Unfortunately, slinking was not an option for me. The best I could do was put on my sunglasses, pretend to read the newspaper, and count the stops til I could finally get off that violent tram car.

I sure hope summer school is an option.

Are you already wondering where this post is going?

 

Alright, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news…

The Good News:

I got a new bed. This means no more cot-style thin mattress on a plywood plank. Bad news is, I’m leaving in 5 days. At least maybe I’ll be well rested for my next two days of exams.

The Real Bad News:

Today I had my first round, which consisted of three exams. First was written comprehension. We had an article and had to answer a bunch of questions about it. Not too bad, but quite a bit of writing. Somehow I managed to get ink on my cheek and my shirt.

Next up was oral comprehension. We listened to a radio clip and had to answer questions about it. That’s always a bit challenging because the voices are kind of fuzzy and it’s usually tons of statistics and numbers. Not too bad, though. Today it was about radars and automobiles. By this point I had ink all over my hands and smudgy fingerprints all over the exam.

Then came the last and toughest exam- written expression. We get the prompt (topic) and have to write an argumentative essay in a very specific format. We’ve been working on perfecting it all semester, and my crazy teacher has a list about 10 miles long of required and forbidden elements. Basically even if you manage to write a perfectly cohesive essay and you forget to skip 2 lines between the intro and body, but 3 lines between the body and conclusion, you’re screwed. Things like that frustrate me because they don’t really matter at all.

So there I was, ink covered, hot, itchy mosquito bite on my temple (soon to be an ink covered itchy mosquito bite on my temple), racking my brain trying to remember all my formatting rules, hoping that at least I’d get a winning topic.

This is my topic, roughly translated: We place a lot of value on hygiene as a way to improve our quality of life. Why do we make this tough decision? There are alternative methods to also live a long and healthy life. Explain.

…What?

First off, is being hygienic really that tough? Is it such a challenge to brush your teeth, shower, and wash your hands on a semi-normal basis? I don’t understand how this is a difficult decision, especially when you compare it to the alternatives- rotten teeth, body odor, and constant illness. Those things don’t sound like the ticket for a long life. That sounds like Dark Ages-type living where people died at age 20. We place a lot of value on hygiene because we don't all want to die of the plague. Is that what they were looking for?

What are the alternatives? Green tea? I hope so, because that’s what I said…

Countdown

I leave France in less than one week.

Ok, I’m not actually going straight home, but I will be soon enough. I can’t believe it! Where has the time gone? It’s simultaneously taking forever and flying by. In 3 weeks, I’ll be back in Maryland. Here is my agenda in the meantime-

June 4-9: Fly to Amsterdam. Staying with my friend Rabiah, who somehow lucked out and got a research grant or something to work on her PhD there for the summer. Highlight will be seeing a familiar face, and maybe visiting the van Gogh museum. Or maybe Rabiah’s 3 Dutch guy roommates….hmmm…….

June 9-11: Fly to Geneva to meet Justin, Sam, Heather, and Lori. We will all be spending quite a bit of time in close proximity for the duration of the trip. This is going to be really fun, or we may actually kill each other between June 10th and June 17th. We’ll be in Geneva for 2 days. Right now the highlight is a tour of the CERN laboratory. Physics isn’t really my thing, but the boys are geeking out about it. This should be amusing.

June 11-14: Copenhagen. And Rabiah will be flying over from Amsterdam for this leg of the journey. Highlights include vikings, beer, and a trip across the bridge to Sweden.

June 14-17: Barcelona. I am really excited about this part. Everyone that goes there seems to fall in love with it. The only downer is a pickpocketing problem…and the fact that it’s probably going to be about a million degrees. Highlight- paella.

June 17-19: Back in Nice. Say goodbye to host family, pick up luggage, and try to enjoy my last 2 days on the Mediterranean, despite the fact that the Mediterranean hates me. Seriously, I was out for an hour today and fried. One hour!! Need higher SPF sunscreen, which these Frenchies don’t seem to believe in. I’m starting to think the stuff they market as sunscreen around here is actually baby oil or something.

June 20: HOME, where I'm sure that my cat will hate me forever for leaving her with her nemesis (my roommate) for 5 months.

Starved for attention and begrudgingly sitting in
Lori's lap

 

Grandma Partied Hard

 

I’m pleased to announce that Grandma survived the party last night. In fact, it was really crowded and I was there so late that I saw the end, when the police were called for a noise disturbance.

You should all be proud of me. I was out until 3am.

Needless to say, I’m exhausted. I got up at noon and decided that today was the day that I was going to have pizza, a craving I’ve been fighting for 2 weeks now. The place beside our apartment has really great pizza. It’s torture walking by every day and not caving to the crispy-crusted cheesy gooey deliciousness. We all have our crosses to bear.

The goal was to get some serious studying done today. But after eating the pizza and skimming pages for 20 minutes, this grandma needed a nap. Two hours later when I woke up, I was pretty productive until dinner, which was about a 1-hour window.

Study goal: ~4 hours

Reality: ~1.5

After dinner Sophie wanted to watch a movie. Somehow Cabaret came up in conversation and I told her I’d never seen it, so that’s what we ended up watching. It’s funny to see Liza Minnelli back when she was young and moderately attractive, but to me she will always be Lucille 2, the crazy old vertigo-suffering cougar from Arrested Development. 

The whole movie, I was cracking up and thinking about how much she looks like my sister. We always joke that Liza Minnelli is her celebrity lookalike…minus the spider lashes and crazy eye shadow. 

Do you know the hot dog man?

I was just downstairs with Chloé and her boyfriend for a neighborhood block party. I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I don’t know any of the neighbors at all, and mingling with complete strangers in France is a little awkward.

Fortunately it went better than expected. This old guy seemed to take a liking to me and kept striking up conversation about the type of meats that can be smoked and also kept bringing me hot dogs. It was a little weird, since I don’t really like hot dogs (or care about what kind of meats can be smoked) but I felt strange refusing. At one point I had one bun (=slice of a baguette) and 3 hotdogs crammed in. Eventually I resorted to stuffing the extra wieners down inside my empty beer bottle.

In other news, I’m going to a party tonight, which was a great excuse to stop being fed hot dogs.

Yes, you heard it right- Grandma’s going OUT! It’s a real college-kid type party that doesn’t even start until 10 or 11..way past my bedtime!

We’ll see how I feel tomorrow….

Double dessert

Tonight was a first for me.

We decided to have a Spring Break reunion in the form of a fancy evening out. Unfortunately, we’re all poor, so we went for dessert and wine instead of a full on dinner.  We ended up at one of those touristy restaurants along the water. The pecan brownie won me over.

After our bottle of wine (split 4 ways!) and tasty desserts, we sat back and enjoyed the cool ocean breeze and the calm of the evening. Before long we noticed that the large group sitting at the table beside us had also ordered desserts. The two girls at the end of the table closest to us both ordered particularly delicious looking strawberry shortcake. Being French, they took one bite out of it and were both finished.

My friend (let’s call her Amie), potentially being even more of a dessert fiend than me, kept eyeing the whipped cream- topped glory that was going to waste before our very eyes. Amie kept threatening to steal the dessert, but I didn’t take her seriously.

Until the girls left…

Then things got really serious. All that needed to happen was for the rest of the people at the table to go away. Then the shortcake was all hers. Unfortunately they seemed in no hurry to leave, and eventually we gave up. We stood up and walked to the door of the restaurant. At that very moment, they also stood up and headed for the door. Instead of continuing on out like normal people, we ran back to our table, Amie swiped the shortcake, and dug in.

And guess what? Stolen shortcake really does taste better :)

Say whaaat?

Irrelevant to my post, but this is one of my favorite pics from
Germany. It's in Heidelberg.

The host family/exchange student dynamic is certainly a strange one. It’s weird being “part of the family” but not “part of the family” and sort of “a guest” but not really “a guest.”

For the most part, those feelings of awkwardness have mellowed out. But tonight my host mom and I had a weird miscommunication, which has resulted in me feeling like a dud of an exchange student.

I’m sure it’s not actually a big deal, but I always wonder what they think of me. Sophie has been hosting students for years, and I often think to myself “I wonder if I’m better or worse than the others…”

Last night at dinner Sophie said that there was going to be a performance at Chloe’s school the next evening (tonight). She asked Chloé if it was possible for me to come, because apparently the seating is pretty limited. I wasn’t particularly enthused about going to a high school performance, especially since last night Chloé still didn’t know what they were actually going to perform. But I figured I should do it if she could get me a ticket.

At lunch today Sophie brought it up again, saying she still hadn’t heard back about whether they had a ticket for me or not. I didn’t press the issue, and this evening after dinner Sophie said “Ok, we’re leaving in 5 minutes.”

I assumed it was the “we” that didn’t include “me.”

Then Sophie said “Ok, just close your window and we’ll be ready to go.”

Me- “Moi?...”

Sophie- “Yes, Chloé got a ticket for you!”

Today I am…shall we say unkempt? It’s sweltering and we’ve got no AC. My hair is plastered to the side of my head from sweat. I’ve got no makeup on and I’m wearing dirty clothes [laundry day tomorrow], so I’m pretty sure I probably smell. 

Me- “I didn’t know you had a ticket for me. I’m not ready.”

Sophie- “Oh, this is really casual. You could go like….that…?”

Me- “Ohhhhh, no I can’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

Sophie- “Ok…whatever you want to do. Have a good night, then.”

It wasn’t really one of those sulky “have a good nights.” It seemed genuine, but now I feel guilty that they went out of their way to get me a ticket and then I flaked out.

I wonder what the other students were like. Were they more involved with their host families? 

I’ve been here for 4 months and I leave in a week, so I guess this wouldn’t profoundly impact their opinion of me either way.

Germany pics!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100367443402328.2740421.5738637&l=d002d28705

This is me complaining

 

Ok, France-time to get with the 21^st century. Even me, the technologically challenged geriatric that I am, can handle email.

Seriously, there is no communication at my school here. None whatsoever. It would be annoying enough under normal conditions, but it’s especially obnoxious since the professors like to change things around all the time willy nilly. It’s like a circus…switcharoos left and right, and no one tells anyone anything.

I’m only half complaining, though. Today I was smart and decided to skip class, unintentionally saving myself the frustration of the latest shenanigans.

Rewind to last Monday. We were told that our cinema class for this week (yesterday) was canceled. Ahead of time, and the message was well communicated for a change! Great-I can sleep in.

Wrong. Unfortunately on that same day, my Monday afternoon professor decided to bump our 1pm class to 8:30 am for the following week (also yesterday). Why? No explanation. And by the way, she had no idea where we would actually have class. She said to check with the secretary, who is almost never there…just from 1pm-2pm. These people never work. [Side note-postal service is on strike here.] This is also the third time this semester that this particular teacher’s moved our class. At least it was on the same day this time…

Last night I attempted homework for my Tuesday afternoon writing class. It was a fuzzy photocopy. Half was typed and the other half was handwritten in the margins from where the copier at the paper or something. It was a fill in the blank exercise that was much more complicated that in sounds. I had 30 blanks, 28 words, and no duplicates allowed. Oi.

I decided that since it’s my most hated class I should just save myself the stress and skip the class. Smart move. Come to find out, the teacher never showed up. The kids waited around for a long time (the 15 minute policy doesn’t exist here), and she never showed. This is not surprising…it’s happened before, several times. This professor is a huge hippie. She probably sent out some negative energy or something and we were all supposed to pick up on it and know that class was canceled. 

But seriously...would it hurt to send out an email? A telephone call? A carrier pigeon? Something...

I still love France...

I'm in the process of uploading and posting pics from the past few weeks. Here are links to the photos from Cannes and Grasse. Germany pictures coming soon! 

Cannes Film Festival: 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100366116930588.2740149.5738637&l=5412fa2f9e

Grasse Rose Festival:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100366272044738.2740185.5738637&l=cb9e919d3e

Ich liebe Deutschland

I’ve recently come under fire for my infrequent blogging. The majority of the hounding comes from my mom (hi Mom!), but it’s nice to know people actually occasionally read what I write!

I’ve been in Germany since Wednesday. I just got home late last night, so back to regular blogging for a couple weeks.

I flew into Köln to spend some time with my friend Judith. I know her from America, where she was an exchange student in my hometown for what was probably a seriously long and boring year in the sticks from 2004-2005. My family kind of adopted her and we’ve been in touch ever since. She met me for a weekend in Berlin last month. That was the first time I’ve seen her since she came to visit me in Italy in 2006.

A weekend in Berlin was not enough time to catch up- I’m so glad I made the voyage to Treis, a tiny little village about an hour from Frankfurt. Guys, it makes Dublin (my small hometown) look huge! But the cool thing about Treis was that it was surrounded by other towns and there were things to do. It was a cozy kind of town with bakeries and ice cream parlors all over the place.  Like all of the rest of Germany, it was clean, green, and beautiful.

I got there Wednesday afternoon. Thursday we went to Frankfurt with one of her friends, which was really cool. We went up to the top of the Main Tower and got a great panoramic view of the city. Then we headed to the pedestrian zone and stumbled upon a pretty huge market. Being the wonderful hostess that she was, Judith insisted that I try all of the German food specialties at the market. We literally went from tent to tent tasting delicious German food and beverages. 

Friday we went to Heidelberg. This was probably my favorite day. Despite getting up at the crack of dawn-no, seriously, before the crack, even- it was an amazing day. In a semi-successful attempt to avoid Friday afternoon traffic, we left home at 7 and made it to Heidelberg around 9. It was an old historic town with cobblestone streets, a gorgeous lake and bridge, and a castle with an amazing view.

 

We made it back in time to get ready for dinner with Judith’s family. Having no idea where we were going, I didn’t really have expectations. But this dinner was one of the most amazing meals I’ve ever eaten in my life. Apple wine (local specialty) was flowing like water. They just kept refilling the glasses. The restaurant was out in the country and we sat outside on a porch under a huge tree with Christmas lights and lanterns strung around in the branches. Judith’s parents decided I needed to try all the German specialties and ordered every single appetizer on the menu. It came out on an enormous platter, and everything was delicious. 

As for the main entrée, I had no idea what I was ordering and I was sure everything would be good. I got a basic rundown of all the entrees from Judith and her sister (German menus), but I couldn’t remember what everything was, so when it came time to order I just pointed at something.

Good choice. Whatever it was…

And apple strudel with vanilla sauce and ice cream for dessert. I was pretty sure they were going to have to roll me out of that place. Eventually I managed to get myself out of the chair and trudge to the car where I sprawled out across the backseat.

Saturday was also great. We laid around and did nothing for the first half of the day. Then we had a big barbecue. Judith’s boyfriend was really excited about grilling…what is it with men and barbecue? Apparently he’s the grill master. He got a new set of barbecue tongs for his birthday and he was carrying them around all afternoon, pacing around the grill. 

Fleisch! ["meat" in German]

Saturday night we went to Monkey’s, a dance club (YES! DANCE CLUB!). I know I have said many times that I don’t dance, but it was 90’s night…the temptation was too much to resist. We met 4 of her friends there and it was so much fun. When I expressed my concern to Judith about my (lack of) dancing skills, she said “It’s ok. It’s 90’s music so you don’t actually have to be able to dance.”

Very true. 

90's night! So hot and crowded in there!

 

So that’s a pretty long rundown of the past few days. Other great news is that I got a card reader for my camera, so I can post some way overdue pics!

 

Cannes Film Festival-Red carpet

Grasse, France- Rose Festival

Holy Moly

I think I aged a few years today. Minimum, I anticipate white hairs on my head popping up in the near future.

Me (right) with my friend Allie in Paris...circa last week.

Me today. It's not my birthday, but this picture was too funny.

Remember my post about the creepy black cat that came into my room during the night? The one with the wild eyes that looks like he wants to claw off my face? Fortunately he’s been MIA ever since that night when I woke up and found him staring at me beside my bed…that is, until today.

He’s back, he’s [still] black, and he’s just as scary. There I was this morning, minding my own business, shuffling around in my pjs doing homework. Since it’s Hell Tuesday (the worst day of the week- 7 hours of class, plus this particular week I had a paper, presentation, and tons of grammar exercises due), I decided a second caffeinated beverage was in order, so I headed for the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Plume was in there, being her typical unruly self. She was awkwardly perched in the corner and I figured she was preparing to attack my leg, part of our usual morning routine. But all of the sudden she darted not at my leg, but across the room. The black cat came scrambling out from behind the cupboard, skidded across the kitchen and jumped out the window. It “scared the Baby Jesus” out of me (Modern Family, anyone?). I actually screamed-a scream of pure terror and shock…kind of like the time when I nearly got run over while unknowingly standing in the bike lane in Berlin.

This cat is a menace, and he’s in our house. How can we stop him? You’re probably thinking “close the windows,” but it’s hot and we don’t have AC, so that’s out.

I suppose for the rest of my time in France, I’ll just have to live in fear…or a puddle of my own sweat. 

Take note-This is what you guys will have
to do for me if I keep the window closed.

No photos!

Well, it looks like I won’t be posting pictures for a while.

I just tried to upload all of them from Cannes and my day trip to Grasse yesterday. Unfortunately when I plug my camera into the computer via USB cable it says there is a communication error. This is no good and also really frustrating, since it was working perfectly just last week.

I did some googling and found tons of people who had the same problem. It sounds like I just have too many pictures (~3500), so I need to get a card reader rather than connect the camera and the computer directly. I’m poor, so that will probably wait until I get back to the states. Since I have several more cities to visit between now and then, expect an insane number of pictures all posted within a really short period of time.

Grasse

My time in France is really running out…fast.

This is my last weekend in Nice with my host family. I have 2 more weekends left, but I’m going to be in Frankfurt for this one (Wednesday-Sunday), and my host mom will be out of town for my last weekend here. So she proposed that we spent the day together.

All week, she’s been asking me what I wanted to see or do that I hadn’t done yet. It was a tough question, and we finally decided on the Rose Festival in Grasse, a town world-famous for perfume. Actually Grasse is ruined for me, since I recently read Le Parfum, a horribly disturbing novel about a disgusting guy who tracks down virgins and murders them for their scent. It’s set in Grasse and now that’s always the first thing I think of. 

Movie adaptation of the book- Grenouille (main character), mid-kill

I actually went there with the Maryland group really soon after we got here in February. We all got a tour of a perfume factory and walked around. It’s a tiny sleepy town built up on a steep slope, almost a cliff. It’s rocky and has tons of wildflowers growing out of all the nooks, crannies and crevices.

Today the city was bustling with tents and vendors selling all kinds of crafts. There were also tons of rose beds, each with a sign posted to tell you what kind of roses were in each plot. I’ve always kind of imagined that all roses smell the same, but today I realized that there is a really wide array of “rose” scents. They all smelled completely different from each other, but at the same time all smelled like “rose.”

After the roses, we stopped at a café and were either fortunate or unfortunate enough to end up at an outside table where a belly dancing snake charmer was setting up shop. It’s tough to have fake mother-daughter bonding time in your second language when someone’s waving a giant serpent in your face. Creepy but interesting.

Despite the snakes, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my host mom. I really lucked out and I’m definitely going to miss her when I’m gone.

Polisse

Tonight I was lucky enough to make it into a screening of Polisse by Maiwenn, one of the few big films that I can get in to see without having to show up at 4:00am and wait in line for the last remaining tickets.

The description was really vague and I wasn’t sure what it would be about, but I decided to jump on the opportunity and I’m so glad I did. It was maybe the best movie I’ve ever seen.

The very general description is that it’s about a Child Protective Services unit based in Paris. A photographer tails the unit for several weeks or months to document their day to day lives- what the officers do and how they cope with the traumatic things that they see at work.

The film was so well made and so realistic. The police unit was kind of like a big family. Over the course of the film you saw personal and professional relationships evolve, deteriorate, strengthen. Though really heavy overall, there were quite a few lighthearted moments that showed how the cops were able to unwind and have fun. The end was incredible and completely unexpected. The audience left the theater in almost complete silence. I cried in the middle of the movie and was actually shaking when we left. We lost one of the kids from our program after the movie. It turns out he had wandered off and climbed a tree while we were waiting for the bus home because he wanted to be alone.

The movie’s getting tons of critical acclaim around here at the festival. I’m really hoping it wins the Palme d’Or. 

Maiwenn-Writer, director, actress in
her own film, Polisse

Film Festival

I wrote this post yesterday. Unfortunately blogspot was freaking out on me and wouldn't let me post until now.
____

Today I got the lay of the land in Cannes. I went with 2 other kids from our program to check out the Film Festival. It was a strange experience, from the never ending bus ride there to the conflicting instructions we received about how to get invitations to screenings. In the end we figured it out and are planning to spend all day there tomorrow.

First the bus ride:

Should have known it would be interesting, since when we got to the stop we found a crazy man ranting at someone for asking him if he was American. Since he was loud and definitely had the accent, I couldn’t understand why the guy was all worked up about it. He even said he was from New York. Apparently there’s a big difference between asking whether someone is American or “an English-speaking resident of the United States.” Who knew?

Since everyone and their mothers were on their way to Cannes, the bus filled up pretty fast. Fortunately Nice was the very first stop, so we all got seats. Unfortunately people ended up packed around us like sardines. This teenager standing in the aisle beside me kept whipping her hair in my face. For a while there was also a woman resting her butt against my leg. For some reason, my friends and I were all under the impression that the bus ride was only an hour, but it turned out to be closer to 2. That’s a lot of time supporting a grown woman’s rump on your knee.

Finally we got there. I’m so thankful to have the pass…seriously. Without it, you can’t see anything except for the beach screening at night. We spent the afternoon running around getting schedules and figuring out how the tickets and invitations work. Tomorrow’s going to be a full day. We’re kicking it off with The Slut, followed by a picnic lunch and a couple other films that we should be guaranteed admission to. Then we’ll scope out the ticket booth, which is where they give out leftover invitations for the big movies. None of those are guaranteed, so we really don’t know what we’ll end up with. Basically it sounds like you have to just go by the booth every hour or two and pester them about what tickets they have at the moment.

I would hate that job. 

Unfortunately I didn’t see Johnny Depp or Robert DeNiro. Maybe tomorrow.

Cannes

Freak out face

Holy cow, I am so excited.

Today I got a pass for the Cannes Film Festival. Our director pulled a few strings and managed to get us tickets for “cinéphiles” (film enthusiasts), so we get some extra perks. It’s a badge with a lanyard and it’s valid for the duration of the entire festival. It looks really official! And I can go to as many events as I want. Life is good.

The only catch is just having a pass lets you into about 50% of the events. The other half also require an invitation. I don't know why they don't just call them "tickets," since you don't actually have to be invited by anyone (which is good, since I have zero connections). Instead, you have to show up the day before, wait in line to reserve an invitation for the films you want to see, and then go back the day of to pick it up before the screening. Tomorrow morning I’m going with a couple of friends to request invitations for Friday. I also just heard that Johnny Depp will supposedly be lurking around the premises on Friday. If we're lucky we may see him, but I'm not holding my breath. Knowing me, I'll probably end up spotting Lindsay Lohan instead of anyone actually worth seeing. Hopefully there is still some residual pigeon poo luck headed my way!

This invitation business sounds like a lot of smiling and batting eyelashes, so we’ll see how it goes. Maybe I should wear my sundress...or maybe I should cover my cankles...

What to do, what to do?! 

I'm actually not a huge fan of the Pirates series, but it would be
pretty sweet to see it at the festival, nonetheless.

The trouble with cheap groceries

Freak out

Going to Carrefour is a stressful situation. Every time I know I need to go, I have to spend several hours psyching myself up for it.

It’s like the WalMart of Western Europe (or maybe just Italy and France). As much as I’d like to not support their crappy quality groceries, it’s cheap and I’m a college student. 

That’s really the only thing Carrefour has going for it in my book. It’s farther from the metro and my house, and half the time I go there I can’t find what I need, like decent deodorant. Plus every time I go there, I leave feeling like a complete idiot (How will you be paying? Cash, credit, or self confidence?). 

99% of the time, the same cashier is there. She always yells at me for unloading my basket of groceries in the wrong place. Since there are only 2 possibilities/flat surfaces at the check out, I try switching it up each time, but each time she scolds me because I’ve done it wrong. Last time, the woman actually took my basket from me before I could unload it and started scanning and throwing stuff around. My bread ended up squished under a bunch of bananas. This does not please me. Was it her vengeance for constantly misplacing my items? How am I supposed to know this?  Maybe it’s all about the personal preference of the cashier? Maybe she hates her life? Maybe they like to mess with my head?

Maybe they remember me from the first time I went there- the awkward American girl who somehow managed to almost choke herself with headphones while at the check out? I suppose I’ll never know. I no longer wear headphones while shopping there, though. I don’t want to give them any ideas for the next time I put my turkey breast on the wrong countertop…

I love Paris in the Springtime

 

I was in Paris this weekend with all the other kids in the Maryland program. Where do I even begin? I was so skeptical about traveling with 25 other people, but it was such a great trip.

I always imagined that Paris would be nice, but probably overrated. You always hear about it being crowded, expensive and overly touristy, and the Parisians have a reputation for not being too friendly.

While it was definitely touristy around the big attractions like Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, the rest of the city was so calm, open, and beautiful. Price-wise it seemed pretty much on par with Nice. Maybe even a little bit cheaper. And the people were so nice, too. Customer service rocked, unlike in Nice. Around here you have to repeatedly beg just for a carafe of tap water in a restaurant. Actually flagging someone down to place an order takes hundreds of years.

 My only complaint is that we just weren’t there long enough. We managed to squeeze in quite a bit for just 36 short hours, though. Everyone immediately broke off into smaller groups and went off to do their own thing. My friends and I went straight for lunch, then hopped on a bus to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was incredible. It was totally different from any cathedral I’ve ever visited. I was just at St. Peter’s in Rome last week, and comparing the two is really interesting. Both were gargantuan, but St. Peters was so ornate and elaborate. Every surface was painted, carved, colored, or decorated in some way. But all the elaborate details of Notre Dame were in the architecture, especially the arches and doorways. The walls themselves were pretty bare, but the incredible stained glass windows reflected colorful light on the smooth grey stone.   

Inside Cathedral

From there we went to the Eiffel Tower. Since the program reimbursed us for any museums or attractions we decided to do during the trip, we went all out and bought the ticket to go all the way to the very top.

Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised to learn that the Eiffel Tower is actually brown? I don’t know why I always thought it was a grey-ish green color. Cartoons, maybe?  I was totally amazed by how giant it was, especially at the base. It was so giant, there were separate entrances (North, South, East, West), one at the bottom of each leg. The view from the top was amazing-it was a really clear day and we could see pretty far out.

Looking up from level 1 of Eiffel Tower

We went back to the hotel for dinner and to freshen up, then headed back out for a boat tour. This was probably the highlight of the trip. It was amazing to see all of the sites by night. The tour was a little over an hour and we cruised up and down the Seine on the top of the boat. There were hundreds of people all hanging out along the river dancing, drinking wine, singing, or just hanging out. It seems like such a fun city!

Eiffel Tower from the boat

Notre Dame from the boat

After the tour we went to the Latin Quarter, which was the student-y section of Paris. This is where we had two desserts. Yes…double dessert. I know we should be ashamed (especially since we’d already had a Nutella crepe earlier in the day), but geez, we’re Americans, and double desserts is just what we do. So I put on my bald eagle cut off t-shirt and dug in.

This was me in Paris, except I was yelling "Bring me more crepes!"

Kidding. We did have double desserts, but I was wearing a dress and a cardigan. We had Nutella and coconut crepes and then walked to another place for gelato.

More on Day 2 tomorrow!

Chocolate > Jeans that fit comfortably

This is chocolate. [Berlin]

Chocolate Titanic [Berlin]

Last night I went to dinner with a friend. We went to a pizza place tucked away really close to my apartment. The pizza was good, but the desert was amazing. It was a warm brownie with fudge sauce, an espresso, and a CHOCOLATE SPOON!

Yes…a spoon made of chocolate. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can actually eat your utensils. Genius. I’ve had a serious hankering for chocolate lately- even more than usual…so this chocolate cutlery business was pretty much the best thing ever.

Fortunately, my host family has been “indulging” in chocolate lately. This means that I can do the same, guilt free!

Unfortunately “indulging” means half a Milka bar divided between 4 people. This is almost like a tease. Chocolate fiend that I am, I have a hard time sharing it…let alone having 2 squares and then putting the rest back in the fridge. I want it all. And the chocolate around here is just so good. How do they do it?!

Last week our friends from Vienna came to visit. They brought us each a chocolate bar with layers of pistachios and all kinds of other crazy delicious Austrian chocolate goodness.

It’s been sitting on my dresser and I’ve been eying and resisting it ever since.

Not because I want to deprive myself of delicious things, but I came to France with 4 pairs of jeans. Two of them are so worn now that they have a giant hole on the inner thigh. One of the remaining 2 functional pairs, I bought in November when I was running regularly. Now that I’ve become a lazy American chocolate-devouring sloth, they’re awfully snug. Really I can only wear them if I’m standing up the entire time. No sitting, no eating, no bending. So since I also have no money to buy new jeans, it’s diet time (Or “Il faut maigrir!” as my host mom is always saying to herself).

This is what I've become...I hope you will all
recognize/accept me when I come home. The only
difference is I can't lollygag or lay around in the roads 
here or I will most certainly die.

I reached my breaking point today. I told myself “I’ve been practicing this not devouring an entire bar of chocolate in one sitting thing. I can break off a square and put the rest away.”

Ten minutes later, I had no chocolate. Looks like the jeans will have to sit on the shelf a little bit longer.
____
I'm going to be in Paris for the weekend. I leave tomorrow morning, so I'll write all about it on Monday!