bonjour, buongiorno, buenos dias...

i cant believe its been 2 months already!! soon itll be spring break, and we'll only have like a month left in Nice. :( despite the fact that i hang out mostly with other maryland kids, ive noticed some improvement in my French. and im kinda getting used to french keyboards, which are awful. the letters are all mixed up and you have to shift for the period. this past week was pretty low-key. ive been staying in and sleeping pretty early..oh goodness, i must be aging. last saturday, i went to Saint-Tropez and Port Grimaud for a school excursion. waking up at 6:15 AM wasnt much fun, but at least we had our own bus. the old professors/our chaperones were so sweet! they brought us pain and la vache qui rit (the laughing cow, which even tastes better in france). i was so sleepy but couldnt sleep because the tour-guide kept shouting and clearing his voice (omgg!) into the microphone. everytime i heard "mimo-, mimo-, MEEMOSAAA!!!," i thought i was gonna go crazy. we didnt get to see the beach-y nightlife area that Saint-Tropez is famous for--no celebrity spottings, as its only a hotspot during the summer. but we got to spend some time in a museum and the marketplace, which is always a lot of fun. then we got a tour of the Citadel, where we saw some peacocks and they were so pretty! in the afternoon, the professors took us to Port Grimaud, which was a a pretty port where only super-rich people live. Everyone has a townhouse on the water with a parking spot for your own bateau, or boat. we took a 20-minute boatride around the port and then got back on the bus. i fell asleep instantly, until our next stop at a WWII monument where a boat-full of American soldiers had landed. there had been like 200 men in the open-top emergency boat, but when they were found by the Allies, only 10 remained alive. it was only 60 years ago, but technology has improved so much, thank goodness. the rest of the day was pretty quiet. after dinner, i went to bed super-early.

on sunday, erin and i finally went hiking up to Eze with several other maryland kids. even though it was only for 2 hours, it felt so good--the last time i went hiking was last summer. later that night, one of claire's former residents, Victoria, came over for dinner with her boyfriend, Florien. they were Germans, both 20 years old (finally kids our age!) and like quadrilingual. they were so nice and we ended up chatting for 4 hours. It made me miss Lotte, Luisa, and Eliane a lot. dinner is kinda lonely now..Erin and I eat all of our meals in the kitchen and Claire doesnt even eat with us sometimes. Apparently were supposed to be getting Swiss students for a month..def looking forward to more company.

on monday, class was cancelled/i didnt wanna go, so my friend, Rachel, and i went to Italy for the day. We took the train to Ventimiglia, which is right outside of France (45-minute ride). All we did was walk around, attempt to speak Italian even though everyone there speaks French fluently, eat amazing Italian food and of course, gelato!! We took a bus to Bordighera, another cute town, which turned out to be like only a 15-minute ride away, so we walked on our way back. I had some amazing lasagna for 7.50E which was so cheap! (compared to France) and the parmesean was fresh and so delicious!! the gelato was also really cheap and of course so yummy! Im really gonna miss fresh European cheese when we get back to the states.

speaking of cheese, last wednesday, our maryland professor hosted a cheese tasting to accompany my presentation on wine and cheese, which was so much fun researching. she prepared a bunch of cheeses, 4 types of bread, 4 mineral waters, several types of yogurt and fromage blanc (so delish! with creme de marrons, or chestnut puree), cornichons (baby pickles) and some fruits too. it was amazing..like a buffet.

i finally booked my spring break. im going to barcelona, spain; lisbon, portugal; and marrakesh and casablanca, morocco with a layover in dublin with 3 friends. and during Easter weekend, im going to Corsica and were gonna stay in a cozy bungalow by the water. sooo excited!!