Bon Voyage

Well, it was about a year ago that I was getting ready to leave for France. I had no idea what to expect. I remember being so nervous about so many things. What to pack? Who will be there? Will I be able to make friends?

Looking back on it, I can see that there really was NO reason to be nervous at all. The people there were amazing! And it didn’t matter what clothes I brought.

Being back here for a little over 6 months now, I wish, more than anything, that I could go back. What a beautiful little town with such beautiful people. I made a promise to myself the day I left that I would get back there one day. I just hope that I am able to return sooner rather than later.

It is hard to explain to people who have not studied abroad. I feel that the people who study abroad (in any country) seem to have an un-said understanding with one another. We have experienced something unique, something life-changing that no one can take away from us. I will always remember my amazing 4 months in France. It has shaped the way I live my life now and I will carry those memories with me forever.

italiaaaaa asked: Hi!

I work for AIFS and I just started making a sort of demo tumblr blog since it is new for us. I am trying to put up our own content and link up with other people who went on programs or just traveled to the cities themselves. You have a really amazing blog! Great picture, really interesting content -I really enjoyed reading it. Do you mind if we put a link to it on the facebook page or website? I think it would be so helpful to students thinking about going abroad. Feel free to message me back or e-mail (sjacaruso@aifs.com). Thanks!

Of course! I would love for students to see my amazing experience! I so wish I could go back! I loved it there so much—what a life-changing experience!

Well although it was a while ago, I finally have a few minutes to write about my spring break. It was at the beginning of the month, for 10 whole days. Most of my friends had their families come see them so they were traveling with them.

I however, did not. At first, I was really upset about the fact that I would be alone for a whole week. But in actuality, it was a blessing in disguise. I was able to stay at my school in my room for the week. There were no meals served, but this gave me a chance to experience some of the local cuisine at the restaurants in the areas.

I did have a few friends who stayed here for the week as well so I was not completely alone, but it was still so nice to have some peace and actual quiet. I was able to spend most days completely on the beach, reading and getting lost in my own thoughts. Although I was not with my friends having a crazy time like most spring breaks are, I was extremely happy with the alone time. I took a nice walk every morning along the beach to start my day and ended each day looking at the sunset. Not too shabby I’d say.

I was so happy that I was able to discover this area even further. On the first day when I woke up and all my friends were out somewhere across Europe with their families, I decided that I would not be sad about this. After all, this is a place where people come to vacation and I am LIVING here! HELLO!! From that moment on, I was so content with staying in Cannes. This is my life in the French Riviera and my life is good.  

So, I finally have a minute on this beautifully sunny Saturday to write about last weekend’s trip to Paris.

I have wanted to go to Paris ever since my first French class in 7th grade. And that was about 8 years ago. So, part of me was nervous to go; I wanted it to live up to everything that I hoped it would be. And it did. It was amazing! I love everything about that city, from the people, to the transportation, to the culture, to the food. Everything. I believe that this is a city that everyone should travel to at some point in their lives. However, be forewarned, it is rather expensive.

Aside from that though, the city is amazing. I was very impressed by the overall cleanliness of the city. Growing up near Boston, and traveling to NYC a few times from school, I figured Paris would be just like those cities. I was wrong. The streets were very very clean. The Metro also surprised me. It was so easy to figure out! It was easier to figure out the Metro in Paris than it is to figure out the T in Boston (and the Metro is in another language!!) We were lucky enough to have day passes purchased for us through AIFS, which made everything so much easier. This way, we didn’t have to pay for each ride we took (even though each ride is only 1.60 Euros, it can add up).

I was also surprised at how nice the Parisians were. I have heard stories about how people in Paris hate Americans and do not tolerate our behavior very well. I found all of this to be not true. I was pleasantly surprised at the kindness that was extended to me and my friends in the hotel, cafes, bars, and even on the streets (and not just the men, many of the women were courteous as well).  

So as far as the things that we did; we obviously did all of the touristy things like going to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. But I also made it a point to eat lunch on my last day in a cafe in the center of La Bastille section of Paris, and just sit there and try to take it all in.

We also went on many tours of the city both by boat along the Seine and on foot/bus. We also were given many tours of museums in the city like the Louvre and the Orangerie. We also took a trip to Versailles, Napoleon’s Tomb, and Notre Dame.

I had so much fun in Paris, I cannot wait to go back. I hope that someday I will be able to have an apartment somewhere in that beautiful and interesting city. It would be my dream to have a job and live there for a few years after graduation. I have always wanted to live in Europe, just to get a different experience from the US. And that would be perfect!

One of the days, me and some friends climbed L’Arc de Triomphe. This was amazing! From the top, we got beautiful views of the whole city extending out in 360 degrees. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance as we looked down the Champs Elysees.

The whole experience was just so amazing. I feel so accomplished for finally making it to Paris. I feel like I just cannot say it enough. I love that city!

Well, just a quick update: it is 6:30 am here on Thursday morning and we are leaving for Paris in one hour. I am so excited to finally be going to Paris!! We will be there until Sunday :) I have wanted to go to Paris since my first day of French class back in 7th grade. The day has finally arrived. I am excited to act like a tourist and take everything in. (Also, I am fully prepared to enjoy my first cup of Starbucks coffee since leaving the states!) That is all for now—pictures and stories to follow when I return Sunday night. Bon Voyage mes amis! <3

This past Saturday, me and three friends went into Nice for the night. We managed to find a cheap-ish hotel room for the four of us to split (77 euros=about $105) and took the bus to Nice. The bus takes about 45 minutes while the train option takes only about 20 minutes. However, because we are cheap and will do anything to save a penny, we took the bus for 1 euro each as opposed to the 5 euro train-ride.

Once the long ride was over, and after having stopped at every street corner from Cannes to Nice, we arrived at the block where our hotel was. Now, when I say hotel, I do not want you to get the wrong idea. This was no “hotel.” It was more like a small motel. Which for four 20something girls is fine for one night. That is exactly what I kept telling myself as we were told to walk around the back of the building and down stairs only to unlock our door and set our eyes on bunk beds and a tiny window. We kept telling ourselves this as we put our bags down on the bed and said this is the time in our lives when situations like this are okay and we should make the best out of it. After all, the only thing we are doing in that room is sleeping. That is what we kept telling ourselves as we soon realized it was probably best to keep our shoes on at all times while in the room. Oh well…right? On the bright side, we had our entrance and a private terrace-like space…

(our one creepy window)

Well we decided to not think about our “room” and go out and explore. We have already been to Nice a few weeks ago for La Carnaval, so we kind of knew our way around. We were on the hunt for a good restaurant and some bars to go to later in the night. And that is exactly what we found…

But before that, we found a place with the BEST gelato. I chose one scoop of coffee and one of hazelnut…AAABsolutely delicious!!!

We then found a good restaurant we had read about online before we left for our trip. We could not go in until 6pm because most restaurants in this area are closed from about 2pm until 6pm. So needless to say, we were first in line. After ordering a cheeseburger (something that I have not had since I left home) and some drinks, we asked the people around us if they knew of any good bars/clubs in the area. We got a few names of good places from people, and were satisfied with the results. After we ate and ordered a delicious dessert:

we headed back to the “hotel” to shower and get ready for a fun night out together in a new place. We bought ourselves a bottle of champagne to split while we got ready. It was nice to be away from school for a night all together.

We went to a few different bars and met some really interesting people. We ended the night at a famous dance club in the area…High Club. I have never seen so many people all in one place. There I met a Spanish man (who’s name I cannot remember, not sure if he even told me) who told me that he was in Nice/Cannes on vacation from his professional football (soccer) career. I doubt that anything he told me was true, but he told me I was beautiful so who cares! (I thought that I would be prepared for the men here, but I was not..that subject needs a whole post all to its own.)

So we left the club at about 2am. Now, one of my friends wanted to go back to the hotel to sleep before we went in. So we walked her back and gave her the one key to the room that we were given. We specifically told her to either a)not lock the door or b)do not fall asleep, we would be home in about an hour. She did neither of those. She locked the door and fell asleep. Great. And to top it all off, none of us have cell phones and the reception to the hotel is closed from 1am until 7am. And it was now 3am. Great. So we began to knock on the door to try to wake her up. Nothing. We knocked harder. Nothing. I went to the tiny window and peeled back the screen and tried to wake her up that way. Nothing. We then woke up an angry man who lived next door with our knocking. He yelled at us in Spanish and we apologized but kept knocking. He then threatened to kill us. And honestly, I did not doubt that he wouldn’t. So we stopped knocking and walked around to the front of the hotel. We tried not to cry and tried to think of how we could solve this problem. We were hoping that a police officer would drive by and somehow help us. They did not. Then we noticed a doorbell at the door of the “hotel” that we rang. About 10 minutes later, a short, creepy man came out to ask what the problem was. We tried to explain our situation and he brought us inside. After many sexual comments and us not laughing at his weird jokes, he got the point. He found another key and took us to our room and let us in. He then tried to come into our room with us. I was in no mood for jokes so I elbowed him in the ribs, slammed the door in his face, locked it, and gave him a rather rude gesture from the door. However, we were a little worried to go to sleep now that he also has a key. Great. We all got into our beds and tried to calm down. It was now about 4am and I think we fell asleep for a few hours before waking up around 10, getting dressed and checking out.

We needed something to eat before we got back on the bus to head back to school. However, it being a Sunday, everything is closed. Everything that is, except the Shell gas station. So yes, that is right, I ate breakfast from a Shell station. In France.

Regardless, me and my friends laughed a lot and had fun the whole time. We may have been forced to sleep in the hotel basement, wear shoes while we slept, and eat food from a gas station, but I think we are better off for it. And looking back on it now, I can’t help but laugh. Even though when it was happening, I was extremely far from laughing. Oh well…right?

Well, it has been 3 full weeks that I have been in France. I was thinking yesterday that this time last year, my life was so drastically different. I feel that I have learned so many invaluable things in the past year.

One year ago, not only was I a whole year younger, but I was so much less aware of the world around me. I can honestly say, which I am pretty sure I have said before, that I have learned so much more in the past 3 weeks than I have learned at my whole time in college. If anyone has spent more than a week in another country, I am sure you know what I mean.

I thought I knew what it meant to be happy. And I did, sort of. But I truly believe that it took me pushing myself to do something so totally outside of MY world to see how good life can be. Coming to a new place, it is very easy to get bogged down on all of the things you miss about home—the food, the people, the comfort of knowing the language, having a car, etc… But I have recently realized that those are the things that really have no bearing on your life. I mean yes, I would seriously consider spending my life savings on a serving of my mom’s baked ziti right now, but that is not what brings life meaning. I have decided to have a new outlook for the rest of the trip. Though I desperately miss my family and friends, I will be returning to them eventually. At first, 4 months in a foreign country seemed like a ridiculously long time. However, it has already been almost a full month. And for the next 6 weeks, we have plans for each weekend. Meaning, when all of those trips are over, it will almost be time to leave. When I first got here, I couldn’t help thinking about how badly I wanted to go home. Back to my house with my own bed, my family, Annie, and good food that I have taken for granted. However, now that I have made real friends, learned so much so quickly, I can’t help but think how hard it is going to be to leave this place. But that is something for another time…I still have so much time here. So, my new outlook is going to be to embrace each situation and each new person that I meet. Do not take ANYTHING for granted, and be grateful for each minute I am able to have such a life-changing experience. I know that when I return home, I will only e that much more grateful for the wonderful life I have there. My friends and family at home can wait, this time is my time and I am going to make the most of it.

That is what I think l’essence de la vie is all about. Fully live in each moment and do not take anything for granted.