That's right, we're here!!!! All settled into our little "extended stay" style apartments right by the beach in Juan-Les-Pins, France. The last ten days have been so incredible I feel like I've been traveling forever because of all of the places we've been. After 5 amazing days in Paris, I met up with Kaitlyn in Nice for a night at a 4 by 4 sized Studio apartment in the heart of Vielle Nice. Luckily the living space wasn't an issue since we spent most of the day outside exploring anyways. Then we took a bus to Monaco to stay with one of dad's friends. First of all being back in Monaco, a place I spent 5 of my younger years exploring and figuring out, after 10 years... is W-E-I-R-D. Especially when they've torn down your cute little 5 story apartment building that you made some of your favorite memories in (Bartlings and Danarajs <3), and built up a massive 12 story one. Exploring Monaco again was just a constant flashback after flashback every turn I made, needless to say it was pretty cool some of the things I had forgotten about that came back to me. After 2 great days here we headed to Bordighera, Italy. Funnily enough this is only as far from Monaco as Gainesville is from Athens. Man, I love Europe. Everything is so close and accessible. We stayed in an airbnb in the center of the old village, which is still the same as it's always been which is wonderful, rustic and just kind of old. Here's a tip: check to see if the cute little airbnb that's on the 4th floor has an elevator. Oh, it didn't. And yes, Kaitlyn and I are those evident Americans with 3 bags, 1 being twice the size of the old Italian man who let us into the Studio. Anyways, it was a wonderful place with little english, so we really felt like we were in non-tourist-y Italy. And I'd go back again in a heart beat.
This brings us to yesterday, arriving in Juan-Les-Pins. We managed to take a train from Bordighera with no issues, regardless of all of the train strikes going on (lol because if they did this in America it'd be utter chaos and here it is the norm.) This is where we will be staying throughout our UGA Cannes Lions Festival Study Abroad (isn't that a mouth full.) This first week we will be prepping for the festival, next week is the festival and the third week is reflection. Our first class meeting was today and we have 4 teachers, 2 TA's (trip mom's), and 58 students to meet. How exciting.
We got new phones, pause right there though because I’m
not talking about the latest iPhone 6. We got track phones that have games like
Snake on it. After a few struggles my T9 texting skills are coming back to me
slowly. Isn’t funny how things like that are minor skills that we will forever
maintain in the back of our minds?
Tonight’s meal was catered to us as our welcome dinner for
the program. We all met up in the lobby, wine bottle in hand (each their own),
and set off to a local Boules court to find a couple nice long tables set up
for us to eat. What fun it was, meeting new people and sharing delicious French
cuisine and enjoying our 1.70 euro bottle of wine. It is cheaper and tastes
better than Franzia, and I will leave it at that.
We’re headed out to a local bar with most of our group,
bonding.
PS: if you want some background as to what this Cannes Lions Festival is: www.canneslions.com. You should check it out, it's actually really cool and I'm not just saying this from my inner creative nerd. People like Gwyneth Paltrow, Anna Wintour and CHANNING TATUM(!!!!!) will be there.
xo,
Shan
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