So Busy

I’m surrounded by so many people here that want to go home and it is starting to get to me (that among other things). But I’ve still been trying to stay afloat and I do enjoy it here. Europe

is just one of those places where you can drive two hours away and find a completely different place.

This past week I’ve gone to several places. Let’s see.. last Tuesday I was supposed to go to a place called Grasse, but the bus never showed. So, I went back to class. Then Wednesday I went to an island just off the coast of Cannes called Ile St. Marguerite. It is basically a place people go to in order to spend the day on a different beach, so there isn’t much there. But the thing that is there is, in my opinion, pretty interesting. There is a building there that used to be a prison (sort of like an Alcatraz of centuries ago), and it is where the Man in the Iron Mask spent some time in jail. So now I can say I’ve stood in the room where the Man in the Iron Mask was kept. Cool, huh? The majority of the prison was also a museum dedicated to artifacts that have been found from shipwrecks around here. That was about it.

Thursday the bus to Grasse arrived. Grasse is considered to be the perfume capital of the world (they told us that about 20% of all perfume is made there, and I think they are the home of Chanel 5). When we arrived, we went to a little museum area where they tell you the history of perfume, and then we actually mixed our own perfume. All of the ingredients where in French or had a different name, so we didn’t actually know what we were putting in. Well, it turns out one of the scents was cedar, and I put way too much of that in mine. So if I ever where it I will smell like a cedar tree :-). After we mixed our perfume, we walked around the city a bit. It is really high up, so there were a few amazing views. Then we went to Fraggonard which is still a functioning perfumerie. We had a mini-tour where we saw the process behind making perfume (it actually reminds me of making wine). So that was pretty cool. I enjoyed Grasse overall.

Friday was Bastille Day. I thought everything might be closed, but I was wrong. I went into town to buy a fan, but all the places I found that sold them were sold out. So, I went to go see La Retour de Superman (version Francaise). I think I followed it pretty well. Sometimes I even forgot it was dubbed. But I would like to see it again, en anglais, after I have seen the ones it is supposed to follow again. Oh, and then today I noticed that in the school, they have a board with local activities, and they post what movies are playing there. There is a theater, I think a couple of blocks from the one I went to, that was playing Superman Returns in its original version. Oh the luck :-). I was told that theaters here don’t play original versions. But it Pirates of the Caribbean comes here, I’ll definitely see that one in English. It’s just wittier that way.

Saturday I went with a couple of people to an open air market in Cannes, and then to Ventimiglia, Italia. I did not like the market we went to in Cannes. Some of the vendors were okay, but there seemed to be a lot of them that shout out to you, which I just don’t like. And then at one point I was walking with the other people, and this man at least 30 years my senior bumps my arm. I don’t look at him, just keep walking, and he says “Bonjour, ca va?” and I say “Oui,” very quickly and walk away from him. Then for the next ten minutes or so he continues to follow us/staring at us. I definitely stayed with my group after that little encounter, but they didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But I’m telling you, he was very creepy, and definitely following us for a while even though no one else thought so.

But after that encounter, Ventimiglia was good. It is basically the first stop of the train in Italy. The beach there was rocky, but it was cool anyway. The people I went with had gone to Monaco the previous day, and while they were in Monaco they went to a market and bought cherries from a vendor, and then stayed to talk to him for a little bit. I am telling this because as soon as we start walking on the beach in Ventimiglia, there he is. Apparently he lives in Ventimiglia and works in Monaco. Small world, eh? Besides the beach we also went around shopping (I found a fan! And about 20 euros cheaper than I would have been able to find in Cannes!), and we also ate lunch and dinner there. I had Pizza and Ravioli, respectively. Yum.

And finally we get to Sunday. Sunday we went to the Gorges du Verdon, which is basically considered the Grand Canyon of Europe. It isn’t as spectacular, supposedly, but it is still very impressive. To get there, we took a lot of winding mountain roads that seemed very dangerous. There were several times our big bus had to stop in order to get by some vehicles. But the mountains were gorgeous. After we went to the Gorges, we went to the lake at the end of the Gorges. The lake was pretty, very blue. We arrived, and there were some people that needed to change. So we went up to the restrooms. I was standing outside, and it started to rain. I thought, oh, this is just a summer storm, it’ll be over in a couple of minutes, and there aren’t even clouds. Nope. It continued to rain. And to pour. I decided with a few other students to go back up to the bus. It was locked, and there was no bus driver to be seen. There were stores across the street, so I went up there and ran into some other people. They were standing outside of a café area that sort of had a roof, but there was still a lot of rain coming down. After about 15 or more minutes, the bus driver got back, and we all got onto the bus. Good times. Needless to say, we decided to come back to the school instead of going up into the village. But it was gorgeous, and very much worth seeing.

Today I had my first test. I think it went all right. And now I am just hanging out. I don’t have any plans right now. I think I like it that way too. It leaves my options open for reading, or watching a movie. It looks like clouds are rolling in, so that takes away the option of the beach. But that’s okay. So, I’ll update again sometime :-).