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