Nice/Monaco

Picture 1: My French class lol we were quite the odd group of people!

Picutre 2: Hanging out on the beach!

Picture 3: Monte-Carlo!

Picture 4: Monaco

Picture 5:Melissa on our Castle tour!

This time I didnt have any sort of eventful train rides to Nice lol. We just arrived late and checked into our hotel and slept!

The next morning we woke up and went to the beach and layed out for awhile where we met our friend Clark who was going to hang out with us that weekend. It was really relaxing compared to Marseille so that made me happy! After we thought we could be getting burned, we went back to the hotel to shower and change and shop a little bit! Of course Clark was in no way interested in that, so we went to several European stores and I bought a few things at a store called Zara which was really cute. After that it was dinner time, so we met up with Clark who showed us around the old town and found a cute restaurant where I had the best seafood linguini ever and a cocktail which was actually pretty delicious!

After dinner it was still pretty early by Frances standards so we decided to buy a bottle of wine and go chill on the beach. We went to a tiny wine shop where a cute old French man gave us a chilled bottle from his personal cellar so it would be better on the beach. I took pictures with the wine and then watched my friends drink it haha it was fun!

The next day we woke up early and went to Monaco. It was so beautiful! When we got there we really didnt know what to do so we just started walking till we found the beach and lounged there for awhile until lunch time when we ate a picnic that we had packed for the day. After that we found our way to Monte-Carlo but it was closed for lunch so we took a break at Cafe de Paris across the street and people watched for awhile. That is a very cool thing to do in Monaco because these are the crazy wealthy people with their Ferraris. After it opened we went in and looked around. I was pretty excited when the people at the front didnt ask to see my passport because that meant they didnt think I was a foreign tourist! Monte-Carlo was cool, but would have probably be cooler A. if I gambled or knew how haha and B. if Id seen the new James Bond movie where he stays there!

After Monte-Carlo we hiked up a hill to try to get to the Aquarium when we accidently stumbled upon the Palace of the Prince of Monaco which was really cool! It had beautiful views and gardens and I was very impressed! That definitely made our walk down the other side of the hill more pleasant. The aquarium ended up being really cool and I loved all the fish! But by this point I was getting extremely tired so we headed back for some food.

We went to a place called Stars and Bars which was an "American" restaurant. I was so happy because they had Dr. Pepper! I miss it haha! It was nice to feel sort of like we were back at home again. Clark had a philly cheese steak which ended up coming on a baguette with American cheese, which is apparently wrong? But I've never had one so I don't really know the difference!

This day was the Fete de la Musique all over Paris so we went back to Nice to get ready to walk around. I didn't know if I could make it because I got so so tired! But when we finally left and heard all different kinds of music everywhere it ended up being really cool! Jordan and I sat at a restaurant and listened to some music for awhile till Clark text us and said there was a really cool band somewhere else. So we went and met him and saw a band that was playing all American music with a huge crowd around them. It was so fun to actually know the songs and the words and it was pretty funny seeing the number of Americans present. At one point a USA chant broke out, which I was pretty embarrassed by considering they were in France and that was pretty disrespectful. They were causing quite a commotion and ended up having to leave so I was glad that I wasn't associated with them haha! We stayed out late listening to music then made a late night MacDo run on the way back to the hotel! It was definitely a fun night!

The next morning was our last so we just had breakfast on the beach and layed out till we had to take the train back. We ended up missing out last train to Vichy so we had to walk across the street to the hotel and pay for a night there but it wasn't to bad.

What was bad was waking up the next morning at 530 to catcht the 620 train to Vichy, only to go to class for 5 hours when we got there at 830! :-( But it was totally worth it for our time in Nice because I absolutely loved it!

It will be hard to decide where to study now because OU has an exchange in Nice also!

I miss you all and tomorrow I head to Milan! I dont know when I will have internet and can post again but don't worry because I will be safe and hopefully my italian will improve some!

Bisous!