So many things to share...

I have been very busy this past week or so, and have forgotten to update my blog, so finalllllyyy I will update you all with my most recent stories starting with my trip to St. Tropez! As many of you will recognize, this is the island in the south of France most known for it's celebrity appearances.  As the island is very beautiful, and the only city that faces north throughout the French Riviera, it is very ritzy and high class for college kids, as we all have no money.  We started the trip by fairy, and it took about 2 hours to take us to the island from where we were.  The landscape and scenery there was very beautiful as we rode along the coast.  When we got there, we went straight to the market that is on Saturdays.  Everything was quite expensive, even though the market was supposed to be the "cheaper" stuff.  I did find two very low priced swim suits (and of course cute), as many people are not looking for swim suits anymore... they were 50% off (yayyy). There were many cool trinkets and such around the market, but all much too expensive.  A friend and I walked around the market, trying not to lay our eyes on anything that we really wanted, as it was probably out of our price range!  After looking around the market, we decided to go find something to eat... another challenge, as the food was very over priced as well! After about 30 minutes of searching, we found a cute little sandwich shop for a reasonable price... and by golly, those sandwiches were the best I have had yet! YUMMY!!! After eating our delicious lunch, we headed back to meet up with our advisor, for a tour of St. Tropez! We saw a few of the places where movies were shot, and where celebrities stay when they visit... it was neat to hear all the history of the island as well.  After our brief tour, we went into an art museum... I saw some absolutely stunning paintings! After spending time in the art museum, we waited for the rest of the group, and started heading back to the boat.  St. Tropez had TONS of designer stores, and expensive boutiques for shopping, but other than that, was not everything people cracked it up to be.  I am extremely glad I went, but I don't think I would take the time to go back again!  It was very beautiful, but too ritzy for my taste! 

My next adventure was this past Friday, when I went to Italy for the day. A few friends and I decided sometime during the week that we would head to Ventimiglia, Italy on Friday for the big market that they have each week.  We had heard it was very cheap and had a lot to offer.  The day stated out with me waking up at 7:47 on Friday morning to a friends text asking where I was... the train that I needed to catch was at 7:52am... oh yeah! I texted back asking if the trains were late (they usually are), and of course, it was exactly on time! I jumped out of bed, threw shorts on, grabbed my purse, grabbed a shirt from my closet and left... and this is not a joke! I didn't put on makeup, did not look at my hair... NOTHING! I bolted out my door without my shirt on even! I ran down the stairwell throwing my shirt over my head... and sprinted out of the apartment building to the train station... as I was running, the train was pulling up to Antibes! I ran down the stairs to the other side of the tracks, and jumped on the train with my friends! That is right my friends... I made it!!! We then rode the train for about an hour and a half to reach our destination, Ventimiglia.  Ventimiglia is the first town in Italy on the riviera (just past Monaco).  We got off the train, and were all very hungry (especially me, because I hadn't had any kind of food in my tummy yet), so we went to get breakfast.  Little did we known, italians don't actually eat breakfast... so we had lunch for breakfast! The food was amazing, and VERY reasonably priced! After our lunch/breakfast, we walked to the market... and it was HUGE!!! We split up because I was with all guys, and I didn't want to drag them to all the girly shops! As I walked around, I noticed how cheap everything was... it was so refreshing after the St. Tropez market! Not only was everything cheap... but their was literallllyyyy everything you could imagine at this market! It was unbelievable! I got tons of stuff for less than 60 euros; for example, I got FOUR pairs of sunglasses for 9 euros... I couldn't believe how cheap everything was! After a long time of sifting through the shops, we met up with some more of our friends (who actually DID miss the first train), and went to lunch! We went to a sit down restaurant, and had amazing food for very cheap! We sat there for quite some time, as here in Europe, they do not rush you to eat your meal, at all!!! Afterwards, we did a little more shopping, and then decided we would head back to Antibes.  Italy is very very beautiful, and I loved the architecture more than France! I instantly could tell the difference between the two countries, even though they are SOO very close! The train ride to and from is very beautiful as well, because you run along the coast of the riviera! I plan on going back to Italy very soon as it was so very beautiful.  

My final adventure happened yesterday... when I went to St. Margarite.  This island is just like the island that we ventured to when we accidentally went to the wrong island a few weeks ago... in fact that island and the island we headed to are right next to each other.  We took a short fairy to St. Margarite, and instantly I saw a very big difference between the islands. This island has a fortress on it, where the French have housed their military in the past.  It was also a prison, where the man with the iron mask was kept! The island had lots of history to offer, and interesting facts as well! After touring the fortress and parts of the island, we ate lunch on the beach, and went swimming/snorkeling. After laying by the beach for a while, a friend (Eliza) and I headed back to Cannes, to catch a train to Juan les Pins.  When we arrived, we met our friend Brian, and headed down to the docks... we got in our swim suits, put life vests on, and got in the boat that was taking us out to the sea.  The guy in the boat put a harness on each of us, hooked us onto a parachute, and less us rip! Yes, we went parasailing over the Mediterranean Sea... and it was ABSOLUTELY glorious!!! I can not even describe in words how amazing the view was, and how awesome it was to be that high in the air! The guy driving was very good at his job, and made the adventure EXTREMELY exhilarating as he dipped us in the water many times, making it like a roller coaster! The three of us had an amazing time up there, enjoying the view and looking at the color of the sea! I wish I could describe in words how magnificent this experience was! It was BY FAR one of the best things I have ever done!!! I will never forget that experience... it was absolutely amazing!!!

I am done updating finally... and probably won't update until after this weekend, when I get back from Munich, Germany for the big Oktoberfest celebration! ... I am SOOOO excited to go to Oktoberfest, so be sure to look for that blog next week, as I am sure it will be very interesting!

Sending alllllll of my love to my family... especially for this weekend will be more difficult as we will all be thinking about Dad's death!

Love to all!!!

My Amazing Weekend... plus a little Class Update!

First, I would like to say that sometimes, mistakes are the BEST parts about trips... that being said, I must tell about my adventure to an Island in Cannes (France).  Butttt first, I will tell the short tale of my adventure to Nice.  Saturday morning, a group of friends and I decided we would head over to site-see in Nice! Luckily, I have a train pass and was able to take the train FOR FREE... yay!!! The train ride was about 15 minutes total, and I LOVED it! I think trains are SOO much fun! Once we arrived to Nice, which was sooo easy to get to, we went and found food.  I had my first Kebab, which is almost like a gyro... only better! It was amazing, but only three of us got them, the others wandered off into the shopping part of Nice... after an hour of waiting for them to finish, we finally headed to Old-Town Nice, which is gorgeous! It is very heavily influenced by Italy, but extremely beautiful! We walked around old-town, then headed down to walk by the beach!  The beach was just like ours in Antibes, only farther away and more crowded... so not all that interesting, because we have the same thing!  But the most amazing part was when we hiked up a TON of stairs to see the panoramic view of the city... that is when the beach was most amazing! The water here is sooo clear and beautiful... and at the top of the hike, there was a waterfall! I have a hard time explaining how amazing all this is, but believe me, it is just GORGEOUS! After we viewed the city for about an hour, we headed back down for some yummy gelato! YUMMMIEST gelato experience yet! It was delicious! After our grand experience, it was already time to head back to Antibes.  Nice is absolutely amazing... but Sunday, was one of the BEST days thus far...

To resume my previous story, and for a little refresher, we headed to Cannes on Sunday morning... we went by train and we had plans to meet up with other University students on an island for a picnic. Unfortunately, we missed the train to Cannes that would get us to the ferry on time, but we decided we would go anyway and meet the group out on the island. When we arrived in Cannes, we walked to the port to catch the next ferry to the island... little did we know, we were going to the wrong island!  We headed across the Mediterranean by boat to a tiny little island called Ile Saint-Honorat! As soon as we got off, we decided we would eat our lunch, and then go searching for the others.  I luckily decided to bring lunch as the food there was outrageously priced, naturally!  After our cute little picnic lunch, we started exploring the island, thinking we would run into the big group of SKEMA students... but what we found exceeded all expectations for the day... as we walked around the island, we found a gorgeous church, with old architecture and corridors that lead to a castle tower overlooking the Mediterranean Sea! We took many pictures and were amazed at the things we were finding on this tiny little island... we kept exploring before we finally got hot and decided to go swimming! The water was so refreshing... but what really made this experience cool, was that a sweet man in a boat that we were swimming around, gave us goggles and snorkel gear... it was amazing! He was so generous and kind... the experience we had was unlike any other! The water was also the clearest and prettiest I have seen it since being here! After swimming we laid out on the rocks like mermaids and drank our bottles of wine! As we relaxed in the sun, it was heading to the time the return boat was getting ready to leave! We then realized we all wanted to hike up the castle tower, and quickly scrabbled up our stuff, and swiftly walked to the tower where we hiked about 100 stairs to the top! What a beautiful view we had from there... it was absolutely AMAZING!!! We all soaked in as much of the view as possible before running back down the stairs and to the ferry before it left without us!  When we arrived back in Cannes, we saw a student from SKEMA, who told us they went to a different island... but none of us cared! We all had such an amazing day, and the mistake turned out to be a fabulous trip for us all!!!

Be sure to check out all my photos on Facebook!!!

Now, as for class... Mondays are my long days of class! But it is not bad, as one of my professors is extremely good-looking, and the other is crazy fun! I don't think class will be super hard, but I am only into one week of class! I have a little homework, but nothing to complain about! It's college....

I am having a WONDERFUL time here and love every single second of my experience!

Sending my love to all my friends and family back home!!!

Go Green Bay Packers/ Milwaukee Brewers/ Wisconsin Badgers/ and UMD Bulldog Football!!!

Classes Have Begun

Wellll... now starts the REAL reason why I am here... class! Thus far, I have only attended one class! After two failed attempts at my first day of class... I FINALLY went on Thursday morning! My first failed attempt was on Tuesday... I woke up verrry early to catch a bus to the University (about a 30 minute bus ride).  I went to my first scheduled class, Calculus II, and found that the Professor did not speak English well enough for me to feel confident that I would pass the class!  I ended up walking out about 30 minutes into it, to change my schedule!  The schedule changed forced me to not have ANY classes on Tuesday, so I went back to the apartment and went onto the beach!  Wednesday I woke up feeling AWFULLY ill... I won't go into details, but my abs got a real good workout! I was scheduled to start class at 4, so a friend and I walked to the bus and got on... I was doubled over in pain, and trying not to throw up on everyone the whole bus ride... finally getting off at the University where I could barely move! I ended up passing out briefly before friends took me to a bench to lay down, and gave me coke! A classmate told my professor the deal of me being sick, so I was excused from my class to go home... which is exactly what I did! Waking up Thursday morning for class, I felt SOOO much better! I went to my first class, Elementary French, and I realllly like it already! The professor is hard, but it is very fun to learn French!  After my one and only class, I am done for the weekend! I went to the beach once again, so I am getting quite tan! So far, France has been spectacular! I have met some truly amazing people and am having the time of my life!!!

I miss all my loved ones back home, but we will meet again soon!!!

Love to everyone!

Beautifulllllll Adventure... Nice, Ez and Monaco!

The beginning of this adventure alllll starts with hunger... we woke up early to get breakfast, not knowing that nothing would be open on a Sunday... NOTE TO SELF!!! Luckily what was in store for us was MUCH better than being hungry... As we bored the private bus with hungry stomachs, it started to rain! I was well equipped for this as I was wearing my rain boots and rain jacket and brought an umbrella! We began our journey on the gorgeous road right next to the Mediterranean Sea... what a fabulous Sea, but because it was raining, the water was not as blue as it usually is! As we rode the comfy bus, we picked up our tour guide!  She gave us tons of history and facts throughout the adventure, making the experience much more enjoyable! We toured Nice by bus seeing all the beautiful architecture and buildings that have been created for the rich and wealthy! We saw Elton John's vacation house (awesome) as well as a few other famous U.S. artists.  After the tour, we stopped at a garden near a gorgeous church! We were only able to see the garden, but walking through the beautiful flowers and fountains was amazing! We spent about 20 minutes walking through the garden before departing to our next destination.  Our next stop was the HUGE flower market! Now, most of us were still pretty hungry, but we were unable to stop for food because as we were walking through, it started raining! So we quickly hurried back to our bus, and took off for Ez village in the mountains of France.  The scenic route up was breath taking... gorgeous waters and mountains, it was awesome! As we arrived in Ez, we stopped at the perfume factory, where they hand make all kinds of perfumes.  As we toured the factory, our tour guide told us abut the sniffing chemist... there are MANY rules for them as they need their senses to be able to sniff out what perfume they will create next, it was really neat! After the tour, they allowed us to sample about 15 different perfumes, and buy some at factory price! Now that we were all smelling so fantastic... we walked to the old village of Ez, which was soooo cute! The village was on a mountain and has TONS of cute little shops... it was so well preserved and was absolutely stunning! I adored the little town! After walking through all the cute little streets we were back on the bus, headed to Monaco! Monaco is as big as Central Park in New York... and its own country! It is absolutely AMAZING!!! Monaco residents do not pay direct taxes, and the country is rich... but the property values are INSANE! We were let off the bus just outside the palace where the Prince and Princess live! We were FINALLY were granted our freedom to eat!! OH what a glorious part of the trip this was... we were all STARVED a quarter to death and immediately dispersed desperately looking for food! A few friends and I found a cute little cafe to eat at, which was the best food I had experienced thus far! Afterwards we went through a few of the shops and then returned to the palace for a tour of the surrounding area.  We were given lots of history and information about some of the buildings and the ways of the people, but what I found most interesting is where they burry the Princes and Princess' after they pass! We were lead into a church, a very beautiful church, where we walked around and saw the graves of the past rulers.  We were able to see Grace Kelly's grave, as well as where she crashed.  As for the rest of the family members of the Princes, they are buried in a different church, on the other side of town... very interesting! Our next stop was just a short distance from where we were, Monte Carlo! We drove on the Formula One race track, which is just a few streets in the city that they close off for the race, and saw the famous Monte Carlo casino... I decided not to go in, because it cost 10 euros just to enter, which I didn't want to spend, because my friends and I plan on going back there anyway... after walking around Monte Carlo, everyone was pretty tired, so we headed back to our bus! We drove in a crazy rain storm, but made it back safely to our "home" in Antibes (pronounced Onteeeb)! The adventure was short, but sweet and gave us tons of new information for our up and coming trips back to Nice and Monaco!

Sending all my love to everyone!!!

The Adventure Has Begun

After 30 hours of no sleep, I am finally writing this before I hit the hay! First, let me just throw this out there that people are NOT lying when they say the French stink... WHOOOOWEEEE!!! Some of them SERIOUSLY smell so bad, I gag! While I was in Chicago, not knowing that I needed to prepare my nasal cavity for some awful smells, I bored my first plane to Amsterdam... which was the BIGGEST PLANE EVER! It had two levels of seating, and was BLUE! While I found my seat, I noticed we recieve complimentary blankets and pillows... YESSSS... I was sooo excited!!! Until... I found out that we had the COOLEST tvs to ever board a plane! The tv was an interactive tv (everyone had their own...) which allowed you to choose your favorite tv show, movie, as well as music... oh and games... oh AND language helpers!!! It was sooo distracting that I ended up staying up the whole plane ride instead of sleeping... naturally! But not only was the tv awesome... but the food on the plane was great too... and before you ate, you got these HOT little wet-nap things to sanitize your hands with... soooo cool!!! After this fantastic flight, I was in Amsterdam! Now Amsterdam is pretty cool... so I thought, until I found out I had to go through security... again!!! So of course, I pick the line where the woman in front of me has ALL of her belongings search as well as herself... but not before I waited 20 minutes for her to figure out what was going on with airport security these days... so after her WHOLE HUGE episode... they let me go through security with no problems... plus I got a cool stamp in my passport... which made up for all that nonsense! Now here is where I finally discovered the truth of the Europeans... as we were boarding the next flight, we had to take a bus over to the plane (very weird... I know), and I got trapped between three SUPER smelly people... YUCK!!! After the bus ride to the plane, I finally was able to get away from the stench on the flight to Nice... nobody sat next to me... THANK GOODDDNESSSS!!! As I arrived in Nice, I found my luggage, my ride, and was brought to my awesome apartment off the Mediterranean, where I unpacked all of my belongings, met an older woman who treated me to her beer, and heard stories of her life... allll in FRENCH (making the stories VERY interesting for me haha)! After our beer, I finished packing and my other roommates arrived... and I already LOVE them... they are so so fun!!! Now we are sharing wine together and talking over our trips to come... I will update soon!!!

LOVE to all of my family and friends :)

ps... photos are on Facebook!