Michael, Sara and I spent an absolutely perfect day together in Italy. We visited the enormous market in the morning, ate scrumptious pizza for lunch, lounged in the cafe sunshine, found smooth rubbing stones along the beach and then discovered the ancient, picturesque old town before perching on the rocks to watch the sun slip away over the horizon. On our way home to Cannes, we stopped in Monaco to check out the Monte Carlo Casino and then ate chocolate and cookies all the way home. Hard to imagine a better day than that.

Christmas in Holland 2006

Reflexions

Sarah and Emily's 23rd birthday party in Juan les Pins. That was one crazy fun night...

Rotaract and Northwestern friends Jessica and Nandita- my first visitors in Cannes! It was awesome to hang out with friends from NU- exactly what I needed!

Vieux Port in Cannes

Exploring Villefranche and Cap Ferrat with Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob! I was so happy to see them and spend another gorgeous weekend in the south of France.

Wednesday, December 6^th

I just got my first call about giving private English lessons! And we had the whole phone conversation in French! So about two weeks ago I gave a tutoring announcement to Richard’s mom, who works in the book store across from our apartment. Apparently she gave my contact info to a girl who goes to Stanislas, which is the school across from the bookstore.

I was confused when I first answered the phone because the woman was speaking in French, and it is still difficult for me to switch back and forth between the two languages, but once I realized which language we were conversing the exchange went off without a problem. We set up a render-vous to meet and discuss the lessons tomorrow at 5pm. Now I just have to figure out how one goes about giving private English lessons. Guess I’ll find out what level this girl is at and we can go from there. I can’t wait to get started and make some more money- life in the south of France isn’t cheap!

Sunday, December 3

After a depressing and home sick weekend, my run tonight could not have been more helpful. I set off with no direction in mind but found myself running again along the narrow beach away from the busy center of Cannes. The water was lit an eerie turquoise by the full moon and the departing storm left the rough waves crashing against the rocky shore. With only the sound of the wind in my ears, my tangled thoughts somehow smoothed themselves out and I returned home calmer and happier and ready to face the week.

Cannes in the Rain

It was a cold and rainy weekend... booo hiss. At least it made for some cool pictures...

Impromtu dinner party chez-moi with my lovely travel companions Emily, Sarah and Marci, our friend Ed and my roommate Richard. It was an evening of good food, good wine and great company.

Wednesday, November 22

I walked to Italy today.


To be fair, I should preface that statement with the fact that I decided to take the hour and a half train to Menton for a day of exploring. It just so happened that when I learned I was only 1000 meters from Italy, I decided to go for a meandering walk that way. It was an absolutely gorgeous Mediterranean day, perfect for jeans and a t-shirt and exploring the colorful town.

Monday, November 20^th

I should have started with colors, at least not with the weather… some of my kids are so bright, they are like sponges and soak up everything that I teach them. Others are like brick walls and nothing gets through to them. For the most part, teaching is going really well, aside from the frustratingly different levels of ability. I felt like today went particularly well at Vagliano, with a review of date and days, weather, numbers, age and name. I just clearly need to remember that these are little kids and I need to go twice as slow as I think is necessary.

We have our daily routine almost all set: greetings, which include Hello, Good Morning and Hi, the date, days of the week, numbers and what’s the weather like. We just have to finish up “how are you?” and our daily ritual will be complete. As such we can touch on a little bit of everything at the beginning of each lesson and then continue on with new material. I think from here we will do colors and family. Thank goodness I have elementary kids and not high schoolers who could care less about the weather and colors.

Sunday, November 19^th

Well, plans to Italy got cancelled last minute for this weekend. But then again, they were last minute plans, so it was half expected. Instead of Cinque Terres, I ended up spending a perfectly lovely and agreeable weekend in my ever sunny and charming town of Cannes. Saturday consisted of checking out all the morning markets- flowers and produce at Fourville, clothes and jewelry at Gambetta, and arts and flea market at Allé de la Liberte. I love wandering the markets, and this weekend was particularly fun because I saw several of my students and two of my teachers. I felt truly Cannoise.

After a relaxing and exploratory day, it was a perfect night to try our hand at the night life in Cannes. The first two bars the other assistants and I tried were absolutely awful, but the third was a fun and fully packed Irish pub called Morrison’s. I am sure we will be going there again. Hopefully next weekend we can try there and then Calienté, the salsa club in town. I have been craving a good salsa dance.

Day trip to Eze

It was a long hike from the coast up to the perched village of Eze, but MaryBeth and I made it to the top in about an hour and the views from the top were worth the effort. I guess the best things in life are always worth the effort...

Friday, November 17^th

Well, it was an interesting evening tonight. I finished class at Ecole Mace this afternoon and stayed around for the Mayor’s inauguration of their new multi-purpose room, which was interesting. The Mayor of Cannes spoke for a few minutes, and then everyone immediately started drinking- wine, champagne, vodka, gin- everything. And this was at 4:45 in the afternoon. What a perfect way to end my fourth week of teaching.

Earlier this afternoon, the director of Ecole Mero gave me her invitation to a theater show in Cannes tonight. I didn’t think I would go, but I showed the invitation to Richard when he got back from work, and we decided to go together. We arrived at the Mediatheque, which is a huge, old, antique house that has been converted into a massive library, to find about five other people waiting. I wondered if we were just early to the show, but it was five minutes before the start time. When they opened the door, the “theater” consisted of about thirty folding chairs for the audience with three chairs in front for the three actors. I really wanted to leave and go to the cinema, but Richard was right when he said that would be rude, so we stayed and the piece started.

If I ever said I could understand French, I was lying. It was so hard to understand the dialogue, especially since the play was very heavy in conversation and very light in visuals. I would occasionally find Richard laughing at me because he knew I understood next to nothing. About all I got was that the older gentleman was fired from his job and that he was drinking away his sorrows. Not a lot for an hour and a half long play.

In any case, it was well played, and a different way to spend the evening. When we left the library, lighting was splitting across the sky and as soon as we got in the car it started pouring rain. Thank god we took the car instead of walking! As we were eating our late dinner, I heard an odd sound outside. I jumped over to the window to see golf ball chunks of ice spewing from the sky. As you can imagine, that doesn’t happen often in Cannes. I was glad that all I had on my agenda was to read my French book in bed while sipping a cup of mint tea.

Luxembourg

Nearing the end of our adventures... Halloween in Luxembourg, chateau de Vianden, modern art museum in Strasbourg.

Belgium

The adventure continues... Antwerp, Bruge, Brussels. Drinking lots of beer, savoring freshly made waffles drizzled with chocolate and strawberries and renting bikes for a day... not a bad impression of Belgium.

all about our travels... when i get a chance to post my thoughts...

Four American Girls Travel Europe- Amsterdam

Nine days, six cities, four American girls, good stories. Amsterdam... where the fun started.