im still here!!

its been so long i don't even know where to start!!!


I'm so sorry for the tease but it looks like I won't have time to update this blog until after the new year!!  But I will have so much to share it will be worth it!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to my friends and family!!!!


xooxoxooxoxoxoxooxo

<3 K <3

I LOVE TECHNO!!!! (if it wasn't already obvious)

Last weekend I was one of 35, 000 people to survive the festival called I LOVE TECHNO in Ghent, Belgium :) 

THE 

PERFORMANCES

BLEW

MY

MIND!!!!

I barely slept last friday night, because of my excitement (and because I was forced to wake up at 4am to start my journey to Brussels, Belgium).  I caught a train to Marseille, a bus to the Marseille airport, a plane to Brussels Airport, and finally a bus to the city center.  The second I stepped of the bus I heard Kelly and Shivu's familiar voices calling my name as they were jumping and flagging me down : ) I met Kelly at Davis and she is currently doing this same teacher assistant program in Spain.  Shivu is currently a senior at Davis and has an internship at the US embassy in Brussels for fall semester.  Friday was spent mostly inside due to the horrific weather (freezing, rainy, and windy).  A ce moment, Nice me manquait.  I didn't really mind staying in all day because I had already been to Brussels (wow...feels weird and yet totally sweeeeet to be able to say that!).

A pic that I took in October 2008 of the Grand Place in Brussels

We went out Friday night (which really isn't even worth mentioning when compared to Saturday night!)  We left Brussels on Saturday by train in the early afternoon and arrived in a city called Ghent, in Flanders (Northern Belgium).  

Kelly and I in front of the train stop.  Don't exactly know why the city is spelled without an "h"..tricky little dutch people are surely to blame lol

Apparently there is a lot to see in this historic city, however we were freezing, as we were all dressed in our rave costumes, with only a single outer layer.  Instead of sightseeing, we stumbled into a very warm cafe and indulged in our dinner...

Coffee, Belgian waffles with chocolate, and fries with mayo YUMMMMMMM

 After stalling for a while we decided to head over to the Flanders Expo Center early in order to be some of the first people to wait in line for the show!!

SOLD OUT woo hoo!

Doors opened at 19:30...and so it began!

its hard to tell, but this sign is made out of lolly pops!

Shivu, Kelly, and I

I took this video of one of my favorite groups called the Crookers. I know what most of you are thinking, but yes, this is my idea of fun lol 

Us with our new Belgian friends!!

Striking a pose with Tim's sunglasses : ) My hair went up in a pony-tail very quickly...it was so hot!!!

So the rave lasted until 6:30am and we were dancing for every minute of it!!

However, only the strong survived hahaha

We left the Expo Center at around 7am and took a tram back to the Ghent train station.  Naturally the train station was packed with fellow ravers and by the time the train arrived everyone nearly trampled eachother in an attempt to squeeze onto the train at once.  

7:30 am. we are LITERALLY packed like sardines on this train back to Brussels.  Shivu is up on the storage rack.

We arrived safely back into the Brussels train station at around 8:30am and hopped onto their subway to get back to Shivu's apartment.  We started to laugh when we realized that our night had just ended however we were taking the subway with people who had just woken up, setting out for church or other errands on a normal Sunday morning. HA

Well, here concludes my great Belgian adventure.  My journey back to Nice did not go as smoothly as it did the first time. ehem...I will spare you of the horror story that is european transportation.  But rest assured I did arrive back in Nice...eventually...without missing any classes so all is well:)

xoxoxo

à bientôt!

She was a day tripper...well not really like that...

I have already shared my day trip to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat where I visited the Rothschild Villa.  I have also taken a trip to Antibes where I visited the Picasso museum.  Antibes is about a 15 min train ride west of Nice.  (p.s. I believe you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them)

A view on our way to the Picasso museum in Antibes : )

Super cute wall art on a building in Antibes

In case you didn't already know I'm obsessed with french bulldogs. I will have one eventually and name him/her something uber french like Pierre

On the terrace of the museum : )

 

 

"The Joy of Life." All the little happy animals have smiling faces. I loved this one. 

Loved this as well : )

 

After a long night of dancing with my friends, I woke up early and caught a train to Cannes two weekends ago (a short 30 min train ride west of Nice).  We quickly discovered there wasn't much to do in Cannes unless you had millions of dollars, so we just strolled around the beautiful town and enjoyed the real sand beaches (compared to the rocky one's of Nice).

sandy beaches : )

Famous Carlton Hotel- where all the celebs like to stay during the Cannes film festival every May

: )

yummmm....louis vuitton....perfection

A cell phone for 16, 900 Euros??....sure I'll take 2, merci!

dice of life..

..so if your having a bad day, don't worry there's always a fresh pile of dog poop on the streets waiting to claim its next victim and make your day just that much worse.  Texting from your phone while driving is dangerous but debatably equally as dangerous while walking on the streets, as it increases the likely hood of stepping in poop from 10% to a whopping 85% as proven by many of my friends.


I'd like to take this time to announce that I have regained full feeling in the lower right side of my lip!  Before coming to France I had all four wisdom teeth extracted and proceeded to drool all over myself for the following 24 hrs. Quite a sexy look, I must say.  Four days later I became a bit concerned when my lower lip was still entirely numb.  Flipping to the FAQ's page of the patient handout I was given the day of the surgery, I read the phrase, "Call the doctor immediately if you are still experiencing any numbness after 24hrs."  Lovely.  The doctor said that he could make time to see me the following day, however I already had a follow-up appointment scheduled for three days later and after reading all the possible horror stories online that I could get a hold of, I had already concluded that the feeling was never coming back!  My fears were half confirmed after the doctor's visit.  He poked and prodded at my lower lip and chin and came up with an insightful answer. " I believe that the feeling will come back in about 3-6 months," or in other words, "I haven't the slightest clue when the feeling will come back."  But I suppose I can't complain anymore...his roundabout guess was right and I will no longer have to worry about drooling on myself! yay!


After a weekend of intense rain, I woke up early this morning to a day of beautiful sunshine!!! I spent the night at my friend Rebecca's apartment and after both exclaiming at how great the weather was, she turned to me and gave me the, 'are you thinking what I'm thinking' look.  "YES! TO THE BEACH WE GO!"  We grabbed our bathing suits and made it to the beach by noon for some tanning under the hot sun.  We both giggled at different times at how amazing the weather is. It's November!


I love Nice. 


I am truley blessed!


hugs and kisses


xoxo

She came in through the bathroom window....

So I thought I would share with you what any given evening looks like...


I love our little group of assistant friends sprinkled with all of our french acquaintances that so often meet in  old town Nice (very fun night life) or at our own apartments. 

from left to right : Clare, Rebecca, Antoine, Courtney, and yours truly 

These young ladies are all teaching assistants and are all from the US. Antoine was born and raised in Nice, however I became good friends with him when I was studying abroad in Grenoble.  He was one of Alex's (who you now know) roommates and is still a student at the University of Grenoble.  We had previously discussed how I would be living in Nice for the year and it would only be a matter of time before we met up!! I was so incredibly happy to receive a text from him last week telling me he was in town visiting his parents! Long story short, we had a blast that night and reminisced about all our good times together in Grenoble.

(Quick side-note, while I am on the subject of Grenoble, I must mention that I recently spoke to Josephine (the absolutely amazing woman who hosted me during my stay in Grenoble).  We have been frequently emailing each other and my most recent email included my new french phone number.  The next day she called me and just hearing her voice made me sooo happy!!! She really is an incredible person! Anyways, she has invited me and a few of my friends to go to Grenoble and stay at her house.  I cannot wait! I loved Grenoble during the winter and nothing will beat her amazing home cooked meals!)

All gathered for fun and games

The game that we are playing here is called King's Cup.  Everyone takes turns drawing a single card, and then performing the corresponding action.  Number 9 stands for "bust a rhyme."  Everyone goes around in a circle saying a phrase that rhymes with what the previous person has said.  I find this part especially funny when we play with our friends from England.  "caw" (english pronunciation of car) does not rhyme with "bar"!!! hahaha.  

Left to right: Courtney, Rebecca, Clare, Rachel, Moi

Left to right: Tonio, moi, Nicholas, Rebecca

Nicholas is Rebecca's flatmate and Tonio is Nicholas's friend.  They don't speak a word of english so on nights like this we speak only french : )

A bunny and Lady Gaga for Halloween : )

Rebecca has an incredible voice and all the confidence in the world, so when we go to bars she often asks the band to let her sing a song with them.  The response is almost always yes, and Halloween night here was no exception! : )

Well I suppose that is all for the moment! Stay tuned!!

hugs and kisses from Nice : )

xoxoxo

All that she wants

So I'm sparing you all of the horrendous details of the long meetings, never ending paper work and administrative crap that I had to sit through and deal with during the first few weeks I arrived in Nice.  Instead I will show you pictures of the gorgeous Rothschild villa I visited located in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, about a 30 min bus ride from Nice.  

      

The view taken from the bus

This is the villa (apparently the lady Baronne Ephrussi de Rothschild loved pink : )

I know right!?

Had to stop for a café before leaving : )

gros biz

xoxo

sunday morning, rain is falling

When it rains here it pours!  Apparently Nice receives an amount of rain comparable to cities in England however the amount is spread over far fewer days...c'est très impressionnant à mon avis!


 Last weekend I had about 10 of my teaching assistant friends over for dinner followed by a game of scrabble (french and english words accepted haha).  I have an absolutely amazing apartment!! 


Judge for yourself : )

Living room and little tv

The living room : )

The kitchen

kitchen plus the hall

 It is spacious enough to comfortably fit our group of friends.  The best part is the HUGE balcony that wraps around the entire back portion of the apt.  

the door on the far right is from my room, then the one from the living room

I live up a very steep hill (I should be in great shape in no time!) which makes for a stunning view of the entire city and sea!! 

 When my friends were over it began to lightly rain.  Some of my friends started to complain and were worried to walk home in this drizzle, however the fun had yet to begin!  Huge cracks of lightning momentarily lit up the entire city which were followed by the rumbling thunder that literally shook the apt building.  At this point we almost started to laugh at how hard the rain was falling.  I yelled over the loud noise of the rain for everyone to look down my street, where a small river was forming!! It was unbelievable! It was getting late and I could tell they all wanted to leave.  Some suggested to wait it out, but others convinced them it was now or never.  I handed out plastic bags and my one umbrella and wished them all good luck!  I watched them leave all huddled together, letting out squeals when the thunder hit.  I sure was glad to be warm and dry in my own apt that night!  After they left, my roommate and I made tea and sat back to enjoy the storm.  How i do LOVE thunder and lightning storms.  It reminds me of being in Montana when I was young.  I remember one particular time when a storm woke me up while I was sleeping in the living room of my grandparents condo.  There was a large window right above the couch, so I only had to sit up to watch the lightning take over the town.  Montana me manques.  


just a quick little schpeel about the rain...


xoxo

so i guess i'll start from the beginning...first stop, PARIS

"Well my flight gets into Paris at the Charles de Gaulle airport at 9am so I'm sure i'll arrive at Danny's apartment no later than 10:30am.  If I can't figure out how to get into the building i'll just sit outside until you come outside and find me. OH MY GOD I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR ASS IN PARIS!!!!!"

Neither I nor my friend Alex had working cell phones at this point so, we came up with the plan above (with added enthusiasm).  Everything worked out, as it so often does, and i arrived safely at the curb of Danny's apartment.  Danny is Alex's friend who offered to house Alex until she found housing in paris, and to house me for a few days while I visited!  I was greeted by a 'sleepy, yet ready to party and have a good time,' Alex.  We slugged some coffee and decided to venture out on the chilly streets of Paris.  

I had a great time catching up with Alex.  She and I became really good friends when we studied abroad together in Grenoble.  Over the summer we met up with our two other friends from studying abroad and had a great little reunion together in Los Angeles.  When we parted ways it was fun being able to say, "I'll see you in Paris!"  We talked a little bit about our teaching program and both kind of nervously asked each other questions about all the various paper work we had to turn in.  She and I both just laughed when we didn't know what the other was talking about.  I think we both have the same "ehh i'll just wing-it" mentality lol 

That night we shared a bottle (or 2?) of wine and wandered around the eiffel tower at night.  So strange to think about how an iron structure can have such a strong effect on my emotions.  Every time it makes me so happy that it almost makes me feel sad. weird.  

If you know me, then you know i love techno music and it just so happens that a techno festival was jumping on the streets of Paris.  Alex and I took the metro  to the boulevard St. Germain stop and the second we got off the metro we could already hear the music coming from the streets above.  After saving alex from stepping in a fresh pile of puke we made it to the street level.  IT WAS AWESOME!

 The streets were packed and there were different floats going by with different styles of techno.  We followed our favorite floats up St. Germain and Henri V. 

 The parade ended and we started to head back to the apartment to take a much needed nap.  I finally met the generous host, Danny, that evening, when he returned from traveling with his band.

  All three of us went out together that night and had a great time.  

Alex and I at Danny's apartment

Danny and Alex

Danny playing the paparazzi roll in the metro station

The following morning I woke up early (not so fun) and hauled all my bags to the train station.  

I waved goodbye to the rainy parisian weather, and said hello to sunshine and the french riviera!!! 

wooo hooo!!!

gros bisous a tous (kisses to everyone!)

xoxo