Where did the nice weather go!?!?

So I think it will be a common theme of once a week updates for the rest of the semester.
Last Saturday October 25
I went on an excursion with the college to a town named Cassis. We took one of the schools vans so there was the guide and 8 students. I was the only one from CSB/SJU which I thought was cool. My roommate went with as well, the rest: two Swiss-German girls, a girl from Norway, a girl from Germany and an American girl and her aunt that who was visiting her! It is about 2 hours west of Cannes by car. The ride was kind of long but between napping and watching the scenery, it wasn’t bad. It is a neat little town on the sea. Like everyone town on the sea, it has a cool port and some fun shops. We had free time and wandered around the town, ate lunch on the beach, wandered into a book store and met back up for a boat ride at 1:30. On the boat ride, we saw the white rock cliffs that Cassis is famous for. There were pretty cool and the water was more turquoise here than anywhere I’ve seen while in France. I saw a bunch of people rock climbing and hiking around when we were on the boat ride. It made me really want to go rock climbing!! The other Laura got information about a rock climbing place in Cannes but we haven’t made it there yet! I hope we find the time soon! After the boat ride we had some more time to look around before heading back to the college. It was a really relaxing day which is exactly what I needed! We just got to take in the nice town at a leisurely pace, go on a nice boat ride and get back in time for dinner!

On Sunday October 26th, I went to Ile St. Honorat with Michelle. Ile St. Honorat is just a 15/20 minute boat ride from Cannes. I almost wasn’t going to go because I had a lot of homework and other stuff to work on but I decided to go and I’m really happy that I went!!! We spent about 3 hours on the island which was the perfect amount of time! We just chose a direction and continued until we had gone around the whole island! There isn’t a whole ton to see on the Island, 5 chapels, an old monastery and the current one. However, it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day and had a great time! Next to the second chapel that we came across was a cannon furnace! Totally wasn’t expecting to see a cannon furnace-well, I didn’t know they existed but that’s beside the point. The coast line was rocky I love! Michelle and I made a couple stops on our journey around the island to sit on the rocks and just relax with our feet in the water. We saw some jelly fish, small crabs along with a variety of small fish.
The old fortified monastery was really cool! There was room after room (with nothing in them) and great view after great view! We spent a little bit of time on the top just admiring the beauty of the island and the sea around us! Basically, it was another relaxing and wonderful day!


So we ran into Eeyore's house!

On Sunday night, I booked a plane ticket and hostel in Rome! I am officially going to Rome Nov. 7-9th! I am going with Michelle and Jeff, who are both from CSB/SJU! I’m really excited!
This week the weather had been horrible! Cold and rainy almost every day!! Yuck!! Our director went to Italy with her family this week because her girls didn’t have school so we didn’t have senior seminar this week!!! It was really exciting to finally have a class canceled since we only get one day off this entire semester!!! Normal French schools, and the French students who go to this college didn’t have school last week but we did! I really wish we had had the week off! I could have gone somewhere and escaped the rain! We figured that it is because most people who come here only stay for a month or so and therefore they don’t need the week off. They just pay for the weeks they want and come. Not having a break makes it easier for people who aren’t staying the whole semester to come. I’m sure it is totally a business reason because I’m sure the profs would love the time off!

I skipped my phonetics class on Tuesday (October 28th) because for some reason I felt horrible after lunch. I had a bad headache and was really cold so I just napped until I was supposed to have class. I was feeling pretty much better but decided not to go to class and just stay in my room and take it easy. I figured a little more rest would probably be a good idea.
More theater this week, I got two more scenes worth of lines and now I really need to work on memorizing!!!!!!!! It is going well but it isn’t easy! Patrick is writing the last two scenes this weekend so by the end of next week I should have all my lines for the whole play. Yikes!

Halloween was yesterday. I didn’t bring Halloween clothes besides toe socks so I wore those all day. There were only 4 people in my grammar class, one girl went home for her sister’s wedding and the other 3 went to Italy for the weekend so we watched a movie. It was pretty good but not great and it was cold in our classroom! Most people didn’t show the Halloween spirit until night time. One of the girls from CSB came up with the idea of being a rainbow so 6 of us each picked a color, I was purple, and together we made the rainbow! It was a creative idea and then no one had to go out and buy a costume (and no one would have wanted to because of the rain!). We hung out in the bar on campus playing cards and talking until it closed at 10:30. I had all intentions of going out but it was cold and wet and raining off and on and I didn’t feel like it anymore so I didn’t go out. Ashley and Trevor didn’t feel like going out any more either. We had heard that the water was really high/the road had flooded so we wanted to go see what the sea was like. Miraculously it wasn’t raining and we went across the street to the beach (we could tell that the road had flooded but it wasn’t flooded anymore). It was CRAZY how high the water was and how high the sand was pushed up! My camera batteries were dead so I didn’t have a camera last night or else I would have taken pictures! There is a cement/rock wall at the back of the beach that is normally really high but now we could climb over it if we wanted and the water comes within a few feet of the wall instead of being way out! We went out on some rock and just watch the waves crashing and spraying, it was SO COOL! Then we headed back to the college and watched a movie. Not the most exciting Halloween ever but it was still good.

Today (November 1st!!!!!!!!!!!)
I can’t believe it is November!! Crazy!! I slept in, went to brunch (Yum!) and have been doing homework most of the day. I went to the beach for a few minutes with Michelle because she wanted to take some pictures to send to her hockey team, they have their first game today, and played some volleyball but other than that it had been reading “Atlas Shrugged” and other homework. Well, I better get back to the homework!