Ciao, Firenze!

Dearest readers, in the words of Buddy the Elf:

I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!

I'm sorry Cannes... but I fell in love with Florence. It was marvelous. I'm not sure what exactly about it appeals to me so much, but I didn't want to leave. Plus there's all the food: pizza, gelato, pasta, gelato, coffee. And did I mention the gelato? I had some each day I was there (flavors eaten: tiramisu, cioccolato, nocciola (nutella), caffè). In addition, I had some really, really thick hot chocolate. If you've seen the movie Chocolat, then you know how thick I'm talking:

Oh, sorry, I meant this (but I know you were also thinking this blog needed more Johnny Depp):

The stuff she serves to Armande - which looks like it's just melted chocolate. (Be jealous, Namita).

Om nom nom

So the trek to Italy started with a 6 hour bus ride, which was broken up with a stop in Pisa. To be honest... I was that impressed with the tower. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be - but don't worry, that didn't stop me from taking a picture of me trying to push it back up.

Buckling under the weight

Other Pisa stuff included (of course) a church! And lots of vendors, selling leaning mugs and leaning olive oils and leaning magnets and leaning magnets of leaning mugs (not kidding). It looked like a pretty cute town, too.

Someone was lucky enough to have their skull put in the church

Not in Florence, but I was informed that almost all churches in Florence have stained-glass windows, whereas in Rome very few do

We arrived in Florence right at sunset and went to a place where we could see the entire city

Purity

Our hotel was in a pretty good area, we were close to the river and just had to follow it to get into the old town area. So, picture yourself wandering through streets where there are lots of shops and lots of good smells (waffles, pizza) and LOTS of tourists and then BAM

there's a frickin' giant church. The Duomo, to be exact. My lens was not wide enough to capture it's magnitude, but hopefully this gives you an idea of how ornate it is. The inside is very nice, too; I particularly liked the little candle trees.

Little boy lighting a candle for someone

I was hoping I could recall someone of my Latin to help me speak Italian, but no such luck

Other good parts of the city included a random carousel and the markets. And gelato. That's the last time, I swear.

I wouldn't be me if I didn't creep on some little kids on the carousel

There are really only three stalls at every market, just over and over. Leather, scarves, and random touristy trinkets.

Actually, the fourth stall could be food.

The river (though you can't tell from this photo) was a strange shade of green

So, now my legs are ridiculously sore from all the walking plus being cramped in the bus. But it was definitely worth it. I'm hoping that there's more Florence in my future.

It's Carnaval!

It's been raining like mad here lately - the only sign that it is, in fact, still winter. While most of this week has been pretty wet, Friday was gorgeous. We went to see a dance on Friday night in La Bocca, and it's still unclear to me whether La Bocca is a neighborhood or suburb of Cannes. Anyway, it was modern dance called Aphorismes, meaning adage or proverb. There were three of them, the first was La Maison (the house), followed by Moustache, and then Un sanglier, chaque nuit, voyage en grand secret (A wild boar, each night, travels in secret). I enjoyed the first and last most. Funny side notes: there were two guys doing the first dance, wearing tighty-bluies (or aqua-ies?) and t-shirts, occasionally suit jackets or tux jackets. Twas funny. The third one was performed in varying degrees of nudity, with the original two guys and also two girls.

Saturday was also a really nice day, and I went into the city to see the markets (no photos yet, but I'll get some soon!). There's a fruit, flower, and fish market that's pretty large and in a really cool space, as you'll see once I get my act together and take some photos. Also, closer to the sea there's an open-air market with artists' and artisans' stuff, as well as antiques. I got some awesome earrings there and tried on a hat that I really want to go back for. I got told that I have "a face for hats" by the woman selling them. See photo here! (Scroll down a little ways).

And that brings us to today! We went to Nice for Carnaval today, which was great but, unfortunately very windy and rainy! The floats were great, but my favorite thing was definitely seeing all the adorable kids.

Tiny pirate!

Favorite float - I loved the details

Not a real person, thank god!

Caught at a somewhat awkward moment

Silly string is a big thing at Carnaval

My favorite catch of the day

Yes, that is Darth Maul that you're seeing there

Another favorite - such a cutie

Otherwise, at le collège, I've been planning out what seminars I'll be taking. I'm now signed up for French Artists 19th and 20th Century, in French, and French Cinema, also in French. I may also be taking a drawing class, although I'm still deciding whether I want to pay for it. This week we're going bowling on Tuesday, so I'm excited for that and, of course, for FLORENCE! We leave Friday morning and get back Sunday. Super super super super 'cited.

To close, three stereotypes about the French that are, in fact, true:
1. They're skinny. Ok, so not everyone, but I've only seen some people that are slightly overweight. Definitely not like the U.S. I feel like everyone here has especially skinny legs, too.
2. They're big on PDA. Yes. It's everywhere. Stop making out in front of me, plz?
3. They dress in black. Tis true - at least for the most part. Dark, anyway.

Life's a Beach

First, an anecdote. Actually... I suppose this whole thing is lots of anecdotes.
Anyway, in class on Friday we somehow got onto the topic of popular names for babies, and someone mentioned that Edward and Bella are now popular, à cause de Twilight. However, instead of "twilight" my professor heard "toilette." An easy mistake to make, in the case of that particular book. This misunderstanding was furthered by all of us talking about how disgusting the book was or how much we hated it. En bref, tons and tons of laughter ensued, and I don't think we every really moved on.

So, the weekend. And what a weekend it was...

Friday night I went out on the town pour la première fois (the first time). As in to bars and whatnot. First, some of the girls and I tried to get into an English pub called - surprise - The Black Pearl. The bouncer, not my favorite Frenchie, said, "Ce n'est pas possible" and other things about how we were too young, despite all of us being over 18. Looked like all the people there were in their thirties, though. So, we went a little ways down the street to Sun7 (sun-sept... sunset - clever, no?) where we just waltzed right in and ordered some gintos (that's gin and tonic for all you non-French speakers). In case you're curious, drinks are really expensive here. For real - it was 7 euros for one drink! So, we had to be up early for our trip to Monaco on Saturday, and planned on going back maybe a little after midnight (walking home, by the way, the buses stop early) but instead we left around 2:30 a.m. Whoopsidoodle!
Sun7 is pretty small, but there were lots of people there, especially after midnight. And although it's not really a club, there's a live DJ and people were dancing in the small area that there was. And by people were dancing, I mean girls were dancing while guys were standing in a circle around watching. Slightly creepy. As we were leaving, a couple of French girls started chatting me and a couple other girls up, asking where we were from and why we came here (french accent: "Cannes eez sheet" - I guess they don't really like it here). It was cool to get to talk to locals, at last. (Other random thing - I had been pronouncing Cannes "cahn" for ages! Apparently "cahn" is the city of Caen, and "can" is Cannes. Now I know!)

Another thing I've discovered about Cannes ("can") is that it's sorta like the Florida of France. People seem to come here on vacation because it's warm and beachy, but otherwise it's sort of just inhabited by old people. And the famous. Bien sûr.

I got up early on Saturday in order to wash the smell of bar off of me, then hopped on the bus for Monaco, about a 1.5 to 2 hour drives from Cannes. It was a gorgeous day and Monaco was really beautiful.

Outside le palais, there was a lovely garden, where we ended up eating our sack lunches.

 

We also got to see the changing of the guards, which, I must admit, was not ALL that exciting.

This is my roomie and the sunglasses she got in Cannes

For some reason there are stacks of cannonballs all around the palace

Obligatory "I'm in Europe and am visiting tons of Cathedrals" photo

Creepy shadow of a bust

Afterward, we went to the oceanographic museum in Monaco. There were some aquariums and some cool eels, but it really didn't compare to the Henry Doorly in Omaha. The building was beautiful, though.

Des Jellyfish!

Narwhal skeleton

Super awesome octopus coming down from the ceiling

Après ça, we went to Monte Carlo, the famous casino in Monaco. You have to be 21 to gamble, but you can get into the slot machine room if you're 18. Also, you have to pay to go into the actual game room, something like 10 to 15 euros, so I didn't go in there. I didn't play any of the slot machines, but one girl with our group did and won 100 euros!! I was super jealous, but I knew I would just lose my money.
From there we all went to Eze, which is back towards Nice and Cannes, and is a small town on top of a mountain with really great views and a TON of stairs to climb up! The view was incredible, and the photos can't really capture it, but:

Some mountains and ominous clouds

Giant chessboard!

It was a really cute town - note the little fish on top of the sign

So, Sunday has been quite a lazy day. However, I learned that brunch here is AMAZING. There are croissants, chocolate croissants, cheese, fruit, juice, and you can order omelets, crepes, and eggs. Seriously, I ate so much. And I don't have to sit at the vegetarian table at brunch and breakfast. And, we learned today that there are too many vegetarians for the table, so tomorrow there will be two tables! Triumph!