sud de France

Well, I did a lot of stuff, and I don't even know where to start! Let's start with where I left off... was it Wednesday? Man, that was an eternity ago!

I started out my day with a test. I had three hours of sleep because I was worrying over it so much, and if anyone doesn't do well with tests, it's me. I don't know how Rachel does so well, but I know that I'm sure as heck not as good as she is. Anyways. Three hours, went in for my test and did pretty well on it (knock on wood). Of course, I know for sure that I got one wrong. We had to read a brand spanking new poem (in French, mind you) and identify the poet. There was a glaring clue in which the poet referenced "Cassandra," and there's only one poet we studied who wrote about her in his "Ode to Cassandra." And I went and chose du Bellay. Stupid me. It was Ronsard! Dang. Oh well.

Then I had to go to class for Art History. We went to the Louvre. Holy cows and jumping jelly beans! It's incredible there! What's even better is that since I'd had so many art history classes already, I actually recognized a bunch of paintings! Yay!

Oh, and I saw the Mona Lisa, and I have to wonder - why did it have to be that painting that had to become so popular? Why not some other painting, like "La Vierge et Enfant avec Saint Anne"? So much better!

Then on Thursday, Sutton and I hopped on a TGV with 6 other girls (8 of us) to Southern France. The view was spectacular once we got out of the city. Saw the sun rise over the countryside, and it even had a mystical fog over the fields and around the houses. It was magical.

Southern France was amazing. In fact, once I get back to the US, or sometime when it is convenient for my major, I'm going to sign up for an internship to teach English in southern France - preferably somewhere around Nice. It is absolutely beautiful, and a lot like San Diego, CA, only better. We took a five hour train ride down to Nice, found our hostel (it was run by a bunch of Aussies - love the accent!) then headed down to the beach to swim in the Mediterranean Sea. Wow. That water is amazing, and much more breath-taking than any picture you will see. Afterward, we wandered the streets in old-town Nice, had pizza and ice cream (and not just any old ice cream - we had rose, fig, and other such flavors) then headed back to the hostel. The next day, we climbed to Château de Nice and enjoyed the view. There's not much left of it since most of it has been destroyed. Sorry I can't offer more information than that - we didn't get much opportunity to dilly dally. Tight schedule and all.

Then we took a bus to Monaco, since it was half an hour long and only 1 euro. We saw the Casino de Monte Carlo, walked around the port to Palais Princier de Monaco. It was an adorable castle, and I enjoyed seeing it very much. Didn't go inside since a few locals had told us that it wasn't worth the euros, so we walked around the ville and meandered to the Cathedrale de Monaco. Very beautiful and quaint. A lot the churches here are small and have a warm atmosphere. Much more inviting than the tall, austere Notre Dame or St. Chapelle, etc. We continued down to the Musée Océanographique. It was 6.50 euros to get in (cheaper since we were students) and very much worth every cent. Of course, I'm a big fan of the ocean and all of the animals, so of course I would have loved it. Fun fact: I would have been a marine biologist if I wasn't so atrocious at science. When I finally realized that, I gave up on my dream to get into Scripps and settled on English and writing instead.

Then we headed back to Nice and walked around the town and little more. We saw the Monument aux Morts and continued walking down the street towards a lighthouse in the distance. We couldn't reach it, so we gave up on that and headed back to the hostel. We had dinner at the hostel this time (RIBS!! I was right back at home again!) Then we talked until 12:30 with this darling Aussie named Jaquie. It was so fun talking to her. She's been traveling the world for nine months, and now she's on the last leg of her journey. We are now facebook friends, and if I ever get to her corner of the world, I'll definitely look her up and hang out with her.

Then on Saturday, we found the Cathedrale russe (Russian). It was fun picture taking, but three euros to get in. Only one of us went in, and she said it wasn't worth it. So we got on a bus for 1 euro and headed to Cannes. It was a long drive, but well worth the scenery and money. Once we got there, we headed to the train station and got our tickets to Marseille, had an hour to kill so we headed to the red carpet and the walk of fame. Got a picture of Julie Andrews hand prints, and I got in a picture with the Pink Panther's paw print.  Got on the train and headed to Marseille. Our train got in at 5, and one of the girls (the designated mama of the trip, and thereby the leader - this is the whole reason why we went on this excursion, of which I'm glad) wanted to go to the largest cathedral of France, called Cathedrale de la Major. It is, by far, my favorite cathedral so far. Topped the Sacre Coeur by a mile. It just blew me away. I wish I could have stayed inside for longer, but we didn't have the time.

We found our hostel, which was a block away from the train station (awfully convenient when your train is at 6:30 in the morning), then two of the girls ran off to do touristy stuff, which I had wanted to do, but they took off before I could say "Hey!" (Of course, that "hey" would have been followed by "I wanna go, too." Didn't get a chance to fit that one in, though.) So then I went with the other girls to track down a parfumerie (which were all closed) so we headed to Galleries Lafayette and put on some tester lipstick. Then we went out for dinner in Vieux Ville and then went back to the hostel. I really wish I would have been able to see all of the attractions here, but alas, those two girls ran like the Tasmanian devil were after them.

Yesterday (Sunday), we got on our train and came back to Paris. It's strange, but Paris sure feels like home now. It was such a relief to step off the train (albeit into a cloud of smoke - these Parisians smoke like you wouldn't believe!) and know where I was headed. No consulting maps or anything!

And if anyone is worried: yes, I know about the terrorist threats, and yes, I'm being careful about where I go. No worries - I plan on returning to the US all in one piece, not several :)

I'll upload pictures later. I took almost 500 photos in these past couple of days, and it'll take a while to filter through them, but for now, I think I'd better update. Talked to Mom yesterday, and she didn't like the idea of a weekly update and I think the only way to avoid that is to update now. So, voila!