pictures!

here are my pictures from the trip! one album is all black and white photos from my 35mm camera and the other is all color photos from my digital camera. some of the pictures are out of chronological order, but they all came from either paris, nice, or monaco. enjoy!

black and white photos

color photos

im home!

just wanted to let everyone know that i made it home safe and sound last night. from start to finish, i traveled for about 26 hours! all of my flights were on time, even after a half hour bomb scare at charles de gaulle airport in paris (someone left a backpack by the train--not a bomb though!). not too jet-lagged yet! i have presents for everyone, so see you all soon!

Winding down

Hey everyone! Its been a busy couple of days--we had thunder and pouring rain here last night, followed by france losing to italy 2-0 in eurocup. Today I went to school, then our group spent the rest of the afternoon in monaco (only 15 min away by train). What a fabulous country!! It is super clean and very ritzy--we hiked up a hill to the prada, valentino, hermes, and gucci stores, then went to the monte carlo in monte carlo. A prada ad was being shot in front while we were there, but I loved seeing a ferrari, a rolls- royce, a bentley, and a maserati parked less than 20 feet away from each other in the valet parking. I took pictures of course. We made our way back to nice and had an amazing dinner at a nicoise resto near my part of town. Vero managed our money well enough to make it so that we could each have a three part, 26€ meal--i started with an assortment of vegetable beignets, then followed with roasted rabbit, ratatouille, and pasta. My host mom made fantastic ratatouille the other night for dinner, but this ratatouille was good too. I had a lemon tarte for dessert, so perfect! I can't even begin to describe how much I loved the rabbit--it fell off the bone before I even cut into it and was like butter! Tomorrow I have school, and the afternoon/evening plans are up in the air. I'm hearing rumors of shopping, but I can't think of many more things to get before I head home, so we will see what happens. Friday is my last day of school and my last dinner with my family, then a chauffer is picking me up at 4:30 am on saturday to take me and a few others to the airport for our 6:30 am flight to paris. I leave from paris at 1:30 pm and land in london at 1:45 (gotta love the time change), then I leave for la at 5:00 pm. My plane is supposed to be in around 8:15 pm at lax saturday night. I've had so much fun here and have made some fantastic new friends, but I'm excited to come home and develop my pictures (I've got three rolls of black and white film shot up in addition to 150+ pictures on my digital camera) and see everyone! It feels like I haven't been home in ages, yet I can't believe the end of my trip is here already. Ill post pictures here once I get them uploaded and everything. In 72 hours ill be back on pacific standard time!

xoxo b

ps--don/judy/ally: have fun and stay safe on your trip! we will swap pictures when you get back :)
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happy fathers day!

happy father's day to grandpa, russ, john, and don!! have a fun day!! xoxoxo
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pictures!

the picture of the boats is from antibes and the picture with the blue lights is of downtown nice, about 5 minutes from my house. the brioche was at monoprix in paris, and the rest is self explanatory :)

finally on a real computer

im in a cyber cafe by my house right now, so a quick update since its 1 euro for every 15 minutes.

-we went to vence the other day (not provence or venice), hiked more than expected, and went to a church that henri matisse designed. pretty neat.

-i started school on tuesday, its fun. i start at 8:45 am and go until 12:45 pm. i have two classes, grammar and conversation, with a 15 minute break in between. there are 7 people in my class: a lady from russia, a girl from croatia, a boy from denmark, and a girl from sweden, then rachel and chelsea and i from chapman. i have a test tomorrow and supposedly am getting moved up to another class level with everyone next week.

-went to the beach and the modern art museum in nice yesterday after school--it was wayyyy cool! the modern art museums here are so awesome.

-my host mom made this cool dinner last night...i forgot what its called, but its basically a table top grill that has little trays under it. she put chicken and steak on the top level to cook, then put slices of a gruyere-like cheese in the trays on the bottom to melt. she also baked potatoes to go with it. to serve, she peeled the potatoes and we all took a potato with some meat and then poured the melted cheese from the tray over the mixture...it was soooo so yummy. the grill was made by t-fal so it cant be that hard to find.

-we went to the fragonard fragrance museum in a town called eze today...it rained then was extremely hot. the weather has been so wacky--there have been rumors of thunderstorms for a few days but it has yet to happen.

-tonight we are going to thor to watch the germany vs. croatia euro cup match...it should be a good game! afterward we are going to a pizza place for dinner.

we are going to take a few day trips this weekend since it ended up being next to impossible to take the train to italy like we thought we were going to do since there is a train strike this week. we are planning on going to the beach, taking a trip to aix-en-provence (the real one) and possibly st. tropez if time permits.

ciao ciao!

Oops

Nevermind, we are actually going to the town of vence today, not provence :( provence is 2 hours away by train and vence is only an hour by bus. Apparently the trains here are on strike anyway. Bummer!!!
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...

Of course by "here" the national anthem, I mean "hear"...and I forgot to mention that the bar sets up everything outside in a plaza area. Okay ciao ciao for reals!
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Quick update

Hey all! I had my placement test and an orientation at my french school today (its called france langue and its in nice...google it maybe?) and I landed myself in intermediate french with two girls from my group. After school, we went to out local english pub called Akathor to watch the euro cup for the third night in a row. Last night we watched germany beat poland, and tonight there were two games: france vs. romania and italy vs. holland. France and romania tied (so sad...we all bet a euro that france would win) but I don't know how italy and holland did. Its so fun watching soccer games here! The bar sets up plasma tvs and tons of seats so tons of people can come. I also got to here the french national anthem today before the game, what a lovely tune. I'm not sure who is playing tomorrow, but we are going to provence after school on the train and will be there for the rest of the night, so we will find a place to watch it there. My host family has been making great food, last night was mexican rice with chili and tonight was a quiche with mushrooms, ham, cheese, and eggs. Mom: they have the same steak knives we do...the ones with the bees! I've been pretty homesick but am still having a good time...12 more days seems like a long time but I know it will go by fast. Well I have to get to sleep so I'm not a late mess tomorrow--i woke up late for school today (typical) and nearly missed my placement test. Ciao ciao!


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Cannes/Antibes

Today we took the train to Cannes (about 30 min away) and Antibes (about 15 min away). They are both beach towns, and both super great! I definitely loved Cannes--we are thinking of going there for our long weekend next week instead of italy, since its cheaper and wonderful. There are restaurants everywhere, the beaches have sand instead of the rocks that the Nice beaches have, and the water is gorgeous. Its so good that I actually went in the water today (I have photo evidence if you don't believe me--i just have to find a computer in order to post it :)). The sand sparkles and the weather is fantastic. I came home for dinner with my host family (steak and french fries) and learned a lot of stuff about them, such as:

-the brazilian students are married and expecting their first baby in september, it will be a boy named antu. They wanted to study in a foreign country for fun.

-the little boys name is kevin, he likes david beckham, wwe, and hates apple ice cream (our dessert today).

-the baby's name is amelia and she likes a show called "la petit princess" on the tiji channel

-the brazilians speak spanish, portuguese, italian, and as much french as I do, and andrea (the wife) speaks english...thank god.

We talked about politics and sports and popular names and tv/movies today, all in french, for about an hour...I guess I'm learning?

Tomorrow our group is going on a hike but since I got blisters in between my big toe and the toe next to it today on both feet from my cheap flip flops, danielle and I are spending the day at the beach. We may also go to the mark chagall museum if we can find it.

Provence after school on tuesday, monaco the week after next. I have a placement test on monday morning to determine what french class I will be in, but real class starts at 9:30 on tuesday.

Ciao ciao (equivalent to bye bye around here)--b
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On the way to Nice!

Right now I'm on the train to Nice and we should be there in about two hours. We are right along the coast right now and we stopped in provence along the way. So pretty! The weather is beautiful, a few little clouds and about 85. We ate at a fabulous resto called pizza momo and I had 4 cheese linguini. Yesterday we went to the top of the eiffel tower (the elevator ride was scarier than than actually being up there) and I ate fabulous pistachio ice cream on a huge cone. We fit in the last few things to see on our list last night, which was basically the champs-elyssees, the louvre, and the bastille. Oh, and versailles. That was probably my favorite site of the whole trip so far besides sacre coeur. I tried to walk down to the bottom of thlake from the palace, but after about an hour of walking, I gave up and turned around since the lake is actually t-shaped (I had no clue). it sounds like we are headed for the beach tomorrow, then cannes on saturday. Ill be at my host family's house for the rest of the time we are here, so hopefully Ill be able to post a few pictures. Au revoir!
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More reasons you can all be jealous of my life right now (in case you needed some)

I have to write quickly since my phone has to be charged and the computer in the basement of our hotel is straight from 1998. Bullet points for everyone!

Today:

-had a chocolate croissant and a baguette for moi petit dejeuner (the french love their carbs)

-heard about 1,587,965 whining ambulance sirens

-went to the pantheon and saw victor hugo and louis brailles tombs

-went shopping at montprix and had a lunch on the seine that was too fabulous to describe...pictures forthcoming. My lunch included a chocolate beignet--yay carbs!

-saw my life flash before my eyes while crossing the street - a peugeot almost hit me. I hate crossing the street here even more than I do in the states.

-went to the museum of modern art--the top floor is one of the tallest viewpoints in paris.

-ate a chocolate banana crepe with whipped cream while watching the light show at the eiffel tower, followed by the worlds best french fries. Literally the WORLDS best.

-finally bought shampoo and other toiletries. Garnier ultra doux with henna and blackberry is my new favorite shampoo, along with the african brand of fig body wash that starts with a u. Ill bring home as many bottles of all as possible!

I have to go write in my journal now but I am having so much fun. Pictures probably won't come until I get to nice on friday. :( miss you all!

xoxoxo-b
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A little more about where I'm staying-

We are staying in the MIJE hostel on rue de falconnier in the 4th arrondissment (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). The 8 of us girls are sharing a cozy two story apartment on the second floor of the building where we have two private showers and sinks, and one private toilet. We also have plenty of closet space and a little desk area! There are 6 beds upstairs and two below and red velor carpeting! My bed is actually pretty comfortable--if it wasn't so humid here I probably wouldn't have woken up. Our hot water wasn't working yesterday, so I've been opting for cold showers while everyone else is using the showers of an unoccupied room that the hostel gave us a key to until our water gets fixed today. Today we are going to Franprix (a grocery store across the street from us) and Montprix (basically French Tarjay) to pick up basic toiletries and neat souvenirs. We are planning on picking up some crepes and a bottle of champagne (sorry Mom--when in Rome, right?) later tonight and camping out on the lawn by the Eiffel tower to see the lights sparkle since we weren't standing still long enough to see them much last night. They have some crazy cheap stuff here--the light up Eiffel tower statues for €1 have been my favorite street sale so far, with the bottles of wine and champagne being sold on the street (literally--the bottles are sitting on the ground under the Eiffel tower until they're sold) but lucky me has only spent €2,50 on a cold bottle of Evian from a vending machine on La Seine and €8,50 on a metro pass. I'm gonna go spend some more money now at Fran/Montprix (eat your heart out Eric)--au revoir!

xoxo- b
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Day 1

Hi everyone!! I'm currently sailing past the Louvre on a cruise tour down the Seine. My flight was great, barely slept but had good food. No jetlag so far! France is humid and warm. Oh, and its almost 10pm here and the sun is just starting to set. We ate at our hostel for dinner and I think I ate coleslaw? I also ate chicken cordon bleu that was super yummy. We saw the Eiffel tower before our cruise and we are going to Notre Dame tomorrow. I think Versailles is Thursday. I've been having a few small problems with my phone--my emails and texts come in hours after they are sent. No big deal though, they come through eventually! Internet on my phone has been working fine--I saw pics on cnn.com of the fire at Universal Studios. The sun is setting and I want to get some pics so au revoir!

xoxo-b
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