Festival Day One: A Whirlwind of Emotions

Friday June 19th and Saturday June 18th, 2016

Yesterday, we went to Antibes after class for a day full of fun in the sun. On our walk home to Juan Les Pins, we decided to stop at the local Absinthe Bar. That was quite the drink, can't say I'm a huge fan of the taste but the overall experience with 10 of my peers made it enjoyable.

Today we woke up a few hours earlier than the past week, which was fine because I (finally) went to bed a few (4) hours earlier. The exhaustion this last week brought really caught up to me last night, but the experiences made the lack of sleep worthwhile. But bring on another week of sleepless nights and early mornings, because the 2016 Cannes Lions Festival started today!! Whoop whoop! Today and tomorrow are the "Health Lions" section of it, which consists of speakers and workshops with a focus on health. It was quite nice having the festival start with a smaller section, because it made the entire day less overwhelming.

An overview of my day pretty much went like this:
7 AM- wake up and check the train schedule (yes, the strikes are still going on so they're suuuuuper unreliable)
8:50 AM- take the train to Cannes
9 AM- get a coffee and panini as we figure out where on Earth we were even supposed to go upon arrival to this massive Palais
10 AM- wander the Palais in search of our "swag bags," filled with freebies, flyers, promos and ~swag~
10:30 AM- engage in virtual reality finger painting, this was insanely cool and unlike anything I've ever experienced before. The feeling of being in an alternative universe and creating something like art is just unexplainable.
10:45 AM- watch a talk about unlocking the hidden superpowers of healthcare brands and creating a good brand expereince
11:30 AM- Kaitlyn and I were intrigued by a 3D printer that was in process of printing a brain, so we stopped and talked to the man working on it. We ended up talking to him for about 30 minutes, and see his work. His company works on creating medical devices that do stitches that are cost and time efficient. He even gave us a 3D printed finger (way cooler and less creepy than it sounds.)

3D printed finger

Noon- we wandered into an autitorium not knowing what talk was going on, and found ourselves in a rock show environment. It was loud. But it ended up being one of the most memorable experiences from today, as the speakers were from SNASK, a Swedish company.
1 PM- we found a Virtual Reality experience, hosted by Samsung. You got to sit in a roller coaster chair and wear VR goggles, and it is as if you're actually on a roller coaster. Every emotion and nauseating feeling I get when I'm going up a roller coaster, I was feeling sitting there. VR is amazing, but wow is it weird.
2-4 PM- we sat in on a couple of other speakers, interesting but not entirely my focus in this industry
4 PM- I was stuck with a choice, to go on a Yacht with 20 peers for an exclusive networking event or to see freaking David Copperfield LIVE. To me it was like I was being torn down the middle and could not make up my mind for the life of me. I utimately am extremely happy with my decision. With help from the crumby rainy weather, and my optimistic hopes that another yacht opportunity will arise, I chose to see David Copperfield. And it was amazing. He is not only inspiring but also just really freaking cool and good at what he does. #goals

Overall, today gave me a whole new appreciation and love for creativity and advertising. Each talk jumpstarted new creative juices and ideas, that I can not wait to hear more. After only day one, I know am fully confident that this industry is for me and I am incredibly thankful to my family for this actual once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Now, we are back at the residence enjoying a little evening nap before going out to Antibes for a night of fun. Moderation will be key tonight, since the festival only goes up from here. And I. Can't. Wait!!!!!

xo,
Shan

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY

Thursday June 16th, 2016

Another day on the Riviera, another sporadic torrential downpour followed by sunshine. Today we napped and ate, and napped some more, then ate some more. Really embracing French culture... So, it was a down day, everyone needs those every once in a while. Especially after a night that I will remember for the rest of my life. Everyone on this trip is absolutely amazing and so unique that no matter who you decide to talk to, something interesting and an instant friendship comes out of it. Last night we watched the France-Albania soccer game at a bar around the corner from our residence. Alongside nearly all of the students on my program (57 people) were around another 50~ French cheering on their country to a 2-0 win! The pure excitement and happiness was overwhelmingly felt as we sat their enjoy a drink with the locals.

Grace, Andrew, Na'Im, myself and Julie at the local bar Zapato

After the game ended a group of us went to the beach to just enjoy the rest of the night hours (super early morning, oops.) But really it was such a "When in France" night. Why not embrace this incredible location by jumping into the Mediterranean Ocean at 2 in the morning?? As a group we jumped together, and then Hawk had the wonderful idea of individually jumping while shouting out something we want to give up or change in our life. Honestly, it was so freeing and adrenaline spiking (and cold as ...) but oh so worth it. It was like a cleanse, a fresh start, an experience that we'll never forget. It was a glimpse of what is to come these next few weeks as the Festival begins and we learn more about ourselves, our futures and those around us. Special shoutout to the crazies that jumped with me: Hawk, Andrew and Kaitlyn (from UGA), Mike (from Mercer), and Jose and Robson (from Ringling).

You know when you meet people and think "we're going to be friends forever," well, I just think we may have found that. And in only four incredible laughter filled days. One night we get stuck in a French elevator, the next we jump in the ocean at 2 AM, and now we are heading to Monaco to experience the glitz and the glam of Monte Carlo. Who knows what shenanigans life will throw at us tonight!

xo,
Shan

"Free Wifi"

Wednesday June 15^th, 2016

We had our third day of class today, and slowly we are figuring out the groove of things around here. As it is the week leading up to the festival, our classes are very educational on what to expect during the festival. Such as, what the awards like the Grand Prix and the Titanium mean. Essentially so that we aren’t a group of 60 lost puppies come Saturday when we first get to the festival. I love class here because it is actually information I am interested to learn about. Of course there are assignments, as there should be since we leave the summer with 6 credit hours after having studied on the French Riviera for a month.

After class, Kaitlyn and I decided to take a day to get our stuff together, and by that I mean figure out the French laundry mat. What an experience. After living 21 years with the luxury of a nice set of laundry/dryer combo in my home, coming here was quite a learning experience. First of all, it said “Free Wifi,” that’s used ever so lightly since there is Wifi but it is locked and there is absolutely no password in this building. By the way, this building is rather old and I think these washing machines were made circa 1990. Of course, we stroll in carrying our massive laundry bags- I’ve been here 14 days now, cut me some slack- and there’s multiple Frenchmen slyly laughing at our endeavors. Firstly we can’t figure out the machines, then we realize we didn’t bring detergent, then we don’t have enough change to pay the “payment center.” Honestly, it was entertaining to say the least.

The weather is really crumby today, apparently a huge storm is rolling in tomorrow. We got to watch the weather change drastically over night. Yesterday after dinner we went out to the pier to try to watch the sunset and you could barely stand up the winds were so strong, it was overpowering. The sky was clear as day, but the winds were just absurd. So I guess after the drizzly gray skies today, tomorrow we’re getting the actual storm.

For lunch today we set off to find Sushi and quickly got hungrier and just went to the first Asian place we could find. Our server spoke a mixture of French-English-Chinese as we tried to order things we understood. Honestly, we weren’t quite sure what we were going to end up with. It turned out fine, slightly disappointing on satisfying the Asian food craving but it fulfilled the hunger.

What a day... Looking forward to what is to come.

xo,

Shan

Elevator Bonding, A Must

Tuesday June 14th, 2016

To give you a feel for this week, each day we have class from 11 to 1 pm, it's not all fun and games on the Riviera!. Today we got an overview of the festival, including a review of the top CEO's and prominent names we should be able to recognize once it starts. Our professors have also organized a few opportunities for us to meet and listen to top industry people throughout the week, one of them being Oliver Stone(!!) I'm looking forward to just listening to these incredible people share their knowledge of the creative industry.

After class, we took a train to Cannes for the first time to see where we will be spending next week at the festival. It's a beautiful location right on the beach in the heart of the city. We hiked up to the top of Cannes, where we were treated to a breath taking view of the city as it lies next to the sea. You can see for miles in each direction. It almost looked like a back drop; it's hard to believe it is actually there. Then we stopped to eat at a what-we-thought was going to be a nice little empty restaurant in Cannes. We were wrong, the service was absolutely terrible. As the first (and only) guests in there, we assumed eating our meals wouldn't take long. Our starters came quickly, but we then waited an hour and a half for our meals to come. It was almost as if they had forgotten about us. Everyone else that had arrived in the restaurant after us had already finished their meals by the time we got served. Welcome to France!

The food was good, the atmosphere nice, and it was a great bonding experience.

After dinner, when we returned to our residence for the month, we discovered perhaps the best way to bond with new friends: get stuck between two floors in a tiny French elevator for 30 minutes, with no air conditioning. 

What an experience. 

Seven people in an elevator, staring at a sign that read "holds 8"  (they obviously meant holds 8 Fench people not Les Americains.) Thank God that the elevator had ventilation, because it would be a horrible way to go - slow death through dehydration and starvation just steps from the beautiful beaches of the Riviera! Not exactly what I had hoped for on this trip! Luckily, after playing two or three rounds of never-have-I-ever as we (im)patiently waited for the doors to open, we see these powerful hands begin to pry the door open. They belonged to our very large and strong HERO! 

Viva la France!

Today was one for the memories. I am sure tomorrow we will have more luck! We'll see!



xo,

Shan

Juan Les Pins, Je Suis Arrivée!

Monday June 13th, 2016

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