I learned how to focus manually instead of auto focus. This is cool because it lets me do things like bokeh photography and in portraits, I want to start focusing on the eyes instead of whatever is closer to the camera…like the nose. It the eyes aren’t in focus than the photo isn’t. Some other fun things I learned is how to adjust aperture and shutter speed. You can see my Jumping Jackie pics to see exactly how I’ll be using my fastest shutter for.

I’m not one for race tracks.

My friend who I went shopping with:

I hope everyone had a great New Year. I had a pretty relaxing one. I finally got to see some good friends of mine including Liz! We had a pretty good time staying in at her house eating salsa, s’mores, and McDonald’s while playing Mario Cart and watching Thor and the Avengers. Our night literally was that relaxing. No one wore any sparkles and no alcohol, just some good fun.

Oh yes, that is a photo of The William and me! He visited Arizona before reporting to Ft Sill for Field Artillery Basic Officer’s Leadership Course – F. A. BOLC for short. Basically, in ROTC, you are taking simply BOLC but when you graduate and commission, you are assigned a branch such as Infantry, Field Artillery, Military Intelligence, ect. Now as a 2nd lt, you have this branch but you have to learn more about it by going to another school that’s usually about six months. Infantry BOLC would be more tactics and field stuff while something like Aviation would be a lot of in class time and studying. I’m not really sure what FA BOLC is like but today was The Williams first day of class and I’ll see what he has to say! To me, it sounds like a lot of blowing things up so I’m assuming a lot of the course will teach him how to call in coordinates correctly and blow up things.

So, in the meantime I decided to be domestic and cook up some banana bread. Plus, my family in California has a huge New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebration that consists of card playing and most importantly, a lot of food. My family and I decided to stay in Arizona this year but I of course saw a lot of great stuff on Facebook such as these photos:

Delicious looking right?!? Also, that’s my cousin Melissa and yes, she is holding cucumber rolls that she made. We start ‘em young.

Thus, my need-to-bake gene took ahold of me. Plus, we had these bananas and everyone knows when your bananas start looking like that your only choice is to make some bread.

Fun tip, if you have ripening and rotting fruit, don’t let your other fruit touch it. For some reason, it speeds up the ripening process in fruit when they are near other fruit that is doing it. I also hear that if you remove bananas from the bundle, they ripen slower as well.

Needless to say, we didn’t take such precautions so I found this recipe. This was chosen for the fact that I have everything on the ingredients list (even though it called for 4 bananas and I only had 2). I was going to go for another recipe that looked really delicious based on the photos that went along with it, but it called for buttermilk. I don’t have buttermilk. Ain’t nobody got time fo’ that.

I think it’s always interesting to see how the author of a recipe wrote up their instructions. For example, using phrases such as “blend together butter and sugar until creamy” always throws me off because it is a bit subjective in my opinion.

Is this creamy?

Also, I once was making cinnamon toast for myself when I was a small child (cinnamon toast is toast with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top of the butter and bread) and was still learning how to read so I thought that cumin was cinnamon and went through six different pieces of toast before giving up and deciding only my mom was capable of producing such a delicious breakfast food.

She came home and informed me that cumin is not cinnamon and it is actually instead used for chili.

Needless to say, I’m paranoid now. I couldn’t find the vanilla for the longest time and was again confused by packaging much like the cumin incident.

Can you figure out which one is vanilla?

DIDN’T THINK SO.

Luckily, I can both read and smell vanilla so there were no mistakes this time.

This recipe was weird though because it wanted me to take out some of the batter in order to add more brown sugar to a portion of it to create ‘a crumbly top layer’.

I don’t really see a difference between the bread and top layer…

And….drum roll please….THE FINAL PRODUCT!

Tasty.

GENERAL SATISFACTION AND GOALS

I feel like I’m pretty satisfied with my life. I am pretty unsure of the future though probably for the first time in my life but I suppose you just have to be at one point or else you never really figure out what you really want. Earlier this year, I really thought grad school was for me and maybe it is, but I just can’t see me continuing in my education without a break between senior year of my undergrad to graduate school. That being said, I’m still a sophomore but it just seems that time is just flying by.

I set a few goals in 2012. I sort of addressed my goal setting in an old tab I used to have on this blog called ’21 Before 21′ which basically gave me a short framework to complete somethings. I learned that you can’t just set random goals and you really have to have a plan for completing them. I think I work best when I set vague timelines but give a priority to things. For example, I really wanted to study abroad but knew that the summer between my junior and senior year would be impossible so I basically had only two summers to do it and I got it done! At the same time, goals shouldn’t be a laundry list. I completed enough this year but I would like to get slightly more specific this upcoming year.

ORGANIZATION

I threw away my planner at the end of the school year this month as the calendar ends on December 31. I think it is good to know what kind of calendar best suits you even if it means a few not working out for you. This last calendar I had did not work for me. It also served as an agenda which I have been using all my life but for some reason, the first block wasn’t a Monday or something? It just took me for a loop. It’s amazing how small something like that can affect your day-to-day living. While I know you may be tempted to say ‘#firstworldproblems’ it really is a small book that so many people rely on. For some reason, things like iCal and my fancy iPhone just don’t work for me. I really need to see it and physically write it down. That being said, I take my syllabi at the start of the semester and just cut out each individual homework assignment and paste it on the day it’s due in my agenda so I get the word for word description without having that pesky feeling of missing something.

THE JEALOUSIES

I wouldn’t say I’m a jealous person per say. I think I rarely get jealous. When I do though, watch out. This year, I would say I was mostly jealous of people who seemed to get a lot of things without outwardly working as hard as I thought they should for what they received. While they may not be doing any work, I still can’t assume that. I have to constantly remember that I do not know people’s stories and I need to give them the benefit of the doubt. I think this upcoming year I really need to work on simply fighting my own battles and complaining a lot less. At the same time I think venting is natural and healthy but I need to do it in a controlled manner and make each vent session really count. I also just need to run more and listen to more music. Both of those activities really loosen me up.

WORK

I don’t really work I guess but being a student and attending ROTC are my priorities right now and they are both fairly demanding. I think I just need to spend less time procrastinating and I know that is what everyone says but I think I have a plan this year. I need to allow myself to nap occasionally. It doesn’t have to be long but in between classes perhaps? I was pretty good at staying awake in class this semester though but a lot of that had to do with drinking coffee. I think drinking coffee occasionally isn’t a bad thing. What I really need to do though is finish all my homework at night unless I am just not getting anything done. You know those lulls where after three hours you still have the same pile of work you started with? That’s the cue to go to sleep. With ROTC, it is too impossible to try to do homework in the morning. I also work pretty well during the daytime and this semester coming up, I have two days with only one class so what I really need to do is pretend I have an 8:30AM class and just go to the library and hit the books. This way, I can have Saturdays to do fun things like visit sites around NYC or stay at my friend Brittany’s house in Brooklyn (she is the best baker ever).

FAMILY

In college, I call my family once a week and I think that is pretty good for our schedules. I also text my mom a lot. I think this year I would like to see myself going home more often. This last year I traveled so much (and I’m not complaining about it) that I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with my family but in 2013 I think there will be a lot time spent in Arizona. I would like to see myself go on a service trip in the US with Fordham for about two weeks I believe? But that is nothing compared to the six weeks I was in another country. I’ll also probably take another week out to see The William where ever the army sends him. I would also like to see Jackie visit me in Arizona. Jackie visiting me will allow me to still have the comfort at home but also have a buddy to do stuff with.

HOBBIES

This upcoming semester I will be taking a Painting 101 class. I am really excited because since freshman year of high school I have always wanted to visit my visual arts side. I finally have the chance too. I think my next big purchase that I buy for myself is going to be a SLR camera. The one I am looking at runs 500$. I have been looking at it for a few years now so I know it isn’t just a phase. It isn’t a priority though as I will probably be focusing on painting more depending on how this class goes but eventually, I wouldn’t mind taking a digital photography class at school. I think that will be really fun. Basically, I’m in a saving money phase.

FOOD

At the start of this year, I really felt that I needed to eat more healthy and that it would help me. I really think eating more fruits and vegetables would probably help me get sick a lot less, but that means all I have to do is added to my diet. I think I can eat fries and things like that because it really isn’t about dieting. It’s about moderation and life style choices. Right now, I’m still pretty active and intend to be for a while. I hear talk of a triathlon club starting at school. While I don’t think it would be smart to join it right away, there is a lot of opportunity for me to better myself though I see myself to continue joining Ranger Challenge even if I don’t always make the competition team. The training is what’s valuable.

SLEEP

I need to work on that.

This post has been inspired by A Life Less Bullshit.

The reason I mention Jezebel actually has no real meaning to this blog except that to me, writing articles for that website is the epitome of my dream job and I just really wanted to share with you that tidbit.

A Life Less Bullshit on the other hand is written by a girl who really gives females a right to be empowered without that frilly feminist weird stuff. She is funny and motivation even for males. Her recent blog post has a more sentimental tone though as she discusses what it takes to set goals. She has noticed, and I agree, that a lot of people set goals with other people in mind. Instead of simply thinking about what goals they would really like to achieve, they muddle up their resolutions by putting down the goals they think they should have.

I am probably the first one to step forward and admit that I do just that. Society wants me to complete goals x, y, and z so I’ll use my time and energy to do those things.

A Life Less Bullshit shakes you out of that habit and puts you into the mindset of doing stuff for you and by doing that, becoming more productive and happy.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to bullshit you here by just raving about this blog. It’s hard not to be preachy about it though since I do really love the writings on that website.

Anyway, her mini eBook talks about different ways to goal set and to rethink and offers a few exercises and I wish to participate in them.

EFF YEAH 2012 is a way to look at the things I have accomplished this past year and not just dwelling on the things I need to accomplish. This is why blogs, journals, and agendas come in handy. Also, Facebook timeline. When did that even go into effect? I was one of the few who welcomed it in, I should mention.

So, here it goes.

January 2012 was basically exactly where I am now. I was in winter break preparing for the new semester to start and was pretty excited about taking french for the first time. I ended up almost failing french but at the same time, I also ended up learning I had a passion for theology and started to look more seriously into pursuing more classes in that department. I had learned a lot from attempting to join Pershing Rifles D8 and while I didn’t make it, I was at the top of my class in military bearing at this time and had great friends such as Hoblin and Jackie.

February I finally start exploring New York City. I organized visiting Chinatown with Justin, Patrick, Claire, Jackie, Hoblin, and myself. This is the first time I really get to know Justin and after exploring the clogged streets of C-Town, he took us to visit New York University and see his dorms. This is also when I am first starting to have a crush on The William. I remember because I had dressed up for Valentine’s Day and ended up seeing him that day and was pleased at myself for my wardrobe choice… you know how girls are. I was also accepted into applying for the German Proficiency Badge. In order to try for the GPB, Cadre and Senior Cadets had to believe you were capable of achieving the standards.

March is mostly just focusing on school and challenging myself academically. I am also taking a Computer Science course which is hard but this is the first time I make really good friends outside of ROTC and we eat Mexican Food together while we study and work on coding. The William and I officially start dating.

April I am seeing the end of the semester and I end up completing the GPB ruck course at gold standard. Everyone on the GPB team had faith in me but not many of my fellow cadets due to my body structure. I proved them wrong! I also am one of two people who completes the sprint standard on the first try. I go skydiving for the first time on a random spur of the moment idea with essentially complete strangers! I love it!

May comes. This is a crazy month as a lot of drama is occurring within my friend’s group but near the end of may, the drama also comes to a close. It seems that we all have reached a neutral gray area and tensions aren’t as high. Closer feels good and I am back in Arizona and my GPA still is high enough for me to keep my ROTC scholarship and to get interest free loans.

June I see The William and Baik commission as well as a few other I really respect and like. The Army is lucky to have them. I stay around a bit longer so I can go to Pier 40 and see my friend Preza. He volunteers at a kayaking center on the pier that has free kayaking during the summer in order to promote water sports on the Hudson. Hoblin, his friend Jake, and I have a blast. I also get to visit The William in Georgia.

July I am in London for the first bit and am all packed up to go on a six-week study abroad to learn French! London is amazing and I fit in fairly well with the mostly all girls group I’m with (there was one guy). I get to take my photo at Platform 9 and 3/4 before we fly to Cannes. France is amazing and I see places like Paris, St Honorat, and Provence. This includes a cooking class, snorkeling, and excursion to Montmartre to see where Amelie was filmed.

August I am still studying abroad and get to see Italy as well. More specifically – Cinque Terre! It is gorgeous and filled with amazing hiking paths. I head back to Arizona briefly and I have just enough time to pack for school before I am off with the parents to see Niagara Falls and Montreal. Wow!

September I start school again but not before ROTC freshman orientation where I am a Platoon Sargeant for the first time. I end up getting an E for excellent (you can only get an Not satisfactory, Satisfactory, and Excellent). This surprises me and others and I am now confident in my abilities and thankful for the experience. I know my weak spots now. I resolve not to be pushed around in general and take appropriate steps to solve my pushover problem and end up pretty happen.

October is Jackie’s birthday and we are closer than ever. I am off to a rocky start with the other room-mate who is new to us this semester because I had resolved to get better grades and would come into the room without talking, I would get down to business! This room-mate, Maria, and I finally get to know each other though and get used to each person’s quirks. I declare a major in Theology.

November marks the end of Hurricane Sandy I believe as that hit during October. We get days off from school because of the transportation issues and I get to know my friend Collins a little bit better as he is hanging out around Fordham instead of NYU because we have water and power and a lot of NYU dorms do not. He is fine and is partying it up!

December is my birthday month and finals! I am feeling awesome and while my grades aren’t looking amazing, they are the best I have had so far at Fordham so I am decently pleased. I get to go home to Arizona pretty early compared to other kids. The William visited me (he left just a few days ago) and we had a great time together! He said it was one of the best times he has had with me and I couldn’t agree more.

And here I am now!

This year was marked by a lot of travel and a lot of good times! I am thankful for this year and I believe it is a good year to start building off of. My grades are very important to me and I finally feel like I’m starting to get into the groove of how Fordham University works and how to study for it. I really like my friends and I am getting more and more everyday in the Theology department because a lot of the classes I take for my concentration in Theology (faith and culture) only have about 8 kids so we really get to know each other.

Study abroad was obviously a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget.

Basically, I kicked 2012 is the butt.

As you can tell, I am doing quite all right. As far as Hurricane Sandy though, I am mostly only noticing wind damage meaning tress fallen over and aesthetic problems. The Bronx, where I live, happens to be the only borough that is not an island though so that could be a major factor. None of my friends are doing too bad either. I have a few on Staten Island though and they seem to be doing the worst. I also have a couple in Manhattan and the worst for them is the electricity and heat. A lot have family elsewhere though so they managed to get out earlier this week. I had a couple of friends over that wanted to shower and charge their electronics as well.

It is pretty crazy though. Public transportation can be up to a 5 hour wait. Even if you have your own car though, gasoline waits can be 4 hours in the middle of the day and when it is finally your turn, they’re out.

Like I said though, it isn’t bad in the Bronx at all. We were sparred. I almost feel bad too because my university got the week off to compensate for commuters and professors that have to travel in from the city. Hopefully, everything will be looking better monday.

I am interested to see New York City pull off the New York Marathon. While that is impressive they want to and it is the New York way, I’ve already seen four petitions against it and hotels struggling to decide to kick out hurricane refugees for marathon runners.

Courtesy of theramonline.com

Also, I want to see what course they come up with. Maybe they’re better than Disneyland and can have Central Park cleaned up overnight. Even if they manage that, then where will the runners run?

If you live in New York be sure to check out http://www.nycgovparks.org/stormupdate/storm-details.

Lesser things about myself include getting into the swing of things at school. First semester is almost done. I’m so excited! I am also excited for Thanksgiving break (which is sadly shorter than our hurricane break…) because I will be going to Georgia to visit The William.

I also voted in my first presidential election, competed in an ROTC challenge called Ranger Challenge as the only female representative from my school, decided I am someone who deserves to drink Coca Cola whenever I want to, went to the AUSA dinner (with ROTC), went to Good Morning America to see Taylor Swift!

I am also staying healthy (minus the occasional cold).

Not a bad year.

So far.

Maybe that’s why it takes me awhile to update this sometimes. For some reason I wrote four articles today though. I don’t even get graded on my article writing. That kind of makes me depressed.

It is so weird that in the European Union, you can just travel as easy as state to state. Well, either way, I ended up in Cinque Terre by 10PM. It was interesting because my friend and I decided to stay at a bed and breakfast. Back in the day, you could go to Cinque Terre spur of the moment and just knock on anyone’s door and they’d basically have some sort of Inn going on. Now it’s a little more commercialized so we did have to reserve earlier, which meant we had no idea what this B & B looked like until we walking in.

It wasn’t too bad!

The actual breakfast was just bread, cheese, and salami. AKA my three food groups. I washed it down with the best coffee of my life. I seriously drank six cups of it because it was so delicious.

Then, Hilary and I embarked on our trail!

Cinque Terre, which means five lands in Italian, is absolutely beautiful.

I don’t use that word lightly either.

Part of the charm of Cinque Terre is that it is extremely difficult to reach. You must take a local train into the towns and cars can barely get in save a few roads which has been impacted by a severe storm in the area that killed at least 9 people and everything is still undergoing repairs. On our hike through Vernazza, which was one of the most affected areas, we walked by a house that seemed to have been ripped into two and minus the water damage and whole ripping business, everything looked exactly as the owners left it which is kind of scary. That just goes to show you though how hard it is to live here because there really isn’t anything here minus the people who run the shops and B & Bs. You don’t have local car businesses or repairmen on hand.

The trains were in pretty good shape though they were still pretty rugged trails. It reminded me a lot of hiking in the Grand Canyon and other Arizona trails minus the awesome views of the sea and passing through many vineyards growing on the mountain side. The fact that Cinque Terre is five towns made it easy for water restocking as they had fountains in the towns.

Overall, we probably hiked about eight miles.

Of course I ate a lot of Italian food which was awesome. Oddly though, Italian bread is the worst bread I have ever had in my life and that is coming from me, an American who thinks it’s okay to eat Wonderbread. Maybe, I have been spoiled on French bread for so long this was just a shock but I could not eat more than a bite of bread at the restaurants though the B & B had decent bread.

I did have some good lasagna though which is my favorite food. It actually tasted a lot like what I can get on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx, so that was really awesome to know. I’ll have to let the guys in Little Italy, New York know that they are awesome.

Oh, by the way, lasagna is spelt the same way in Italian and English. It is also pronounced the same. The French pronounce it differently. When I order lasagna at French restaurants, they never correct anything but how I said lasagna. Well, I said it right Mr. French Waiter. So, ha!

It is really interesting though to mention that in Italy, at least where I was, everything was either English or Italian. I was assuming I’d have to use French because since the two countries are so close, that’s what they would know. Wrong! Also, the French in Cannes don’t know Italian. It’s your home language and English. People have told me this but I thought they were just being big-headed Americans but it is true! I got moved up in my French class though (which is probably a mistake) and every time I open my mouth, my new French professor is like, I have no idea what you just said. Eventually, she just asked my nationality and when I said American she was like, OOOH EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW.

>:[

Anyway, while in Cinque Terre I did some pretty interesting things. All my life I have been terrified of jumping off of rocks into bodies of water. I know that’s so silly especially since I’ve been skydiving before but for some reason, jumping 10 feet into water really freaks me out.

I did it though.

It was the biggest adrenaline rush of my life.

I can’t claim it was fun though.

I didn’t do it again, but hey, I tried it once and that’s really what adventuring is all about.

The four week students in my program left while I was in Italy. Because they left, I have been feeling pretty homesick but you can bet your buttons I’ll still be living it up here but a month is pretty long and I have two more weeks and one more weekend. I feel like I have truly ‘done Europe’ and I feel way more prepared for my upcoming French classes at Fordham which is a huge relief. It sucks dreading classes and now that I don’t have to, that’s worth it.

How many times can you say that in your life really? I mean, minus the fact that there are over 2 million people who live in Paris and can say the much more bad ass phrase: “I live in Paris.”

I love Paris and Paris loves me. My proof is that for the past couple of weeks, it has been really rainy and cold in Paris. It has been so cold that the French newspaper I got my hands on said tourism was down and most people who live in Paris were taking vacations to Spain and Italy.

Well, I came and Paris cleared up. I needed to wear a light jacket occasionally but otherwise, skirts and shorts! It didn’t rain once while I was there and blue skies were a common commodity.

The first night in Paris, my study abroad group got a tour of Hôtel de Ville which is the building that Paris politics and government reside in.

It’s gorgeous.

Because it is so old and made right after the revolution, it puts the simple clean lines of the United State’s White House to shame. Every surface is painted or shining with gold.

It is ornate.

This was a good omen for the other things to come from Paris. I also visited Saint Sulpice (the church from The Da Vinci Code) and Notre Dame Cathedral. Both were gorgeous in their own way. Notre Dame is darker so all the stained glass stands out. It is also free to enter which means a constant stream of people moves in, around, and out of the place of prayer even during services.

Saint Sulpice on the other hand does not allow people to go in during services so apparently I was really lucky to see it. It was much brighter but with less stained glass (though in comparison to USA churches, it had a lot of stained glass and decorations, let me tell you).

I also ate at a well-known cafe in the Latin Quarter. The Latin Quarter does not mean the place were you can get some good spanish food by the way… It is the place where students hang out and have been hanging out for years. Back in the day, schools taught latin and so the name laments on that fact.

The next day, after a tour of the Seine river, we all went our separate ways. A group of girls put some locks on the lock bridge… which made me lol. For a brief 5 seconds I thought to myself, omg I’m a horrible girlfriend I should put a lock on for The William and I…but that seemed to be cheating, I would want my significant other and I to be there to put the lock on together.

That’s my style of love though.

Classically, one of my room mates put a lock on the bridge but didn’t throw the key in the river so now she is going to go to St Tropez and through it off the boat.

Anyway, I went to Saint Chapelle which is always worth seeing and they are in the process of restoring some of the windows.

I then made my way to Sacré Cœur which has a great view of the city skyline. Then, since I was in Montmartre I of course had to check out some of the locations of the movie, The Fabulous Life of Amelie Poulain which is btw, MY ALL TIME FAVORITE MOVIE.

EVER.

So, even though I was by myself, which was further heightened by the fact that everyone else in Amelie’s cafe was a couple, I ordered some coffee but refrained from getting creme brulee.

Behold my willpower.

That’s okay, that night Hilary and I had our fancy dinner at Bofinger which was delicious. I got oysters, salmon, and creme brulee and had the experience of a real Parisian waiter who may or may not have pushed me into my chair faster than Splash Mountain at Disneyland hurls me into  the Brier Bush.

Just saying.

I liked it.

The next day I spent my time in the Louvre which I’ve been there before…but I still haven’t seen the whole thing. Apparently it would take you three months to see everything in the Louvre.

Whatever, I got this.

Wow, it’s been so crazy in France. My schedule has been jam-packed and I finally just woke up from a nap.

This weekend, my friend Hilary and I took a trip to Arles, France (pronounced Are-luh) on Saturday. I managed to stay awake on the train ride there and got to see the coast of France which differs greatly from Cannes. In Arles, we got a gorgeous hotel right in the Place du Forum which meant we didn’t have to walk far to eat.

Saturday was Bastille day so after spending our day hunting for the locations where Van Gogh painted we just finished dinner and gelato when the booms of fireworks could be heard from the river. It was easy to get a spectacular view and very awesome to be with 100s of other people and then make our way back through the narrow streets to our hotel.

The next morning we woke up to breakfast at our hotel near the outdoor pool. Since it was Sunday, we learned that the French don’t do much on such a day.

We also learned that while Cannes gets less busy from 12:00PM to 2:00PM, there are still many restaurants open. Arles is not quite the same. Most places close and if there are restaurants open, they only serve drinks.

After hanging out in Arles in the morning, we caught a train that was only 30 minutes to Avignon and got to see how the Theatre Festival transformed the city. Flyers and posters were everywhere as well as a hodgepodge of different street performers. We got to see the Palais des Papes which was really cool because I’ve studied European History for a semester in college and then AP Euro in high school so it was neat to finally see the place from books. Hopefully, I will be able to take European Warfare for my upper division history class because for some reason, Europe has always been the coolest to learn about in my opinion.

While it was a lot of fun, all the traveling wiped both of us out. We have a third room-mate and she went to Milan. She was also dead from traveling but had many clothes to show for her weekend. A girl she went with cried when she saw the Milan Cathedral.

I thought that was cute!

I don’t think I’ve ever cried from the beauty of something but I remember vividly that the last time I went to France, I had seen Notre Dame and I still remember the stained glass in that church. The most beautiful church I’ve ever seen though was the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and that is what I compare a lot of things to.

The week before this excursion though, I did a lot of things around Cannes.

My french has really been surprising me lately. I think that half the battle with learning another language is not just knowing every thing vocabulary wise, it is being comfortable enough to speak it. Sometimes, in the rush of a conversation, I can’t come up with a single word but I’ve written pages in French for class before.

Occasionally, I will be asked for a phrase in French and I’ll say the correct words and look around in surprise.

I just said that?

I knew how to say that?

Quick, someone double-check that I actually said the right thing!

It’s cool.

I talked to a decent amount of people around Cannes but sometimes it’s frustrating because shop owners will realize that you’re American or just straight out ask you and start communicating with you in English even though I have yet to say a single word of English to them and have been using French until that moment.

Anyway, my friends and I from AIFS went to the Musée de la Castre which was pretty small but is one of the tallest points in Cannes so we got some panorama shots. I will probably go back here because they host a classical music festival on the outside of this cute museum.

We also had an excursion to Ile St Marguerite which would be my second time there. I got to see the museum there as well as the cells where the mysterious man in the Iron Mask was held. They never filmed the movie there though. I learned that the man may have actually been over 50 different people and just condensed into one from stories.

It’s really interesting staying in Cannes. A lot of the girls keep saying that they would love to live here and while I admit that it is gorgeous here and that some property here is simply breathtaking, I don’t think this is the place for me. I love it for vacation and studying abroad but there is something I don’t like about it.

A lot of wealth is here which is pretty cool. I’ve seen yachts with color changing paint and others with a helicopter on its helicopter pad. There are also some exclusive night clubs to get into if you’re ‘dressed correctly’. Most of my friends get into the clubs by looks but one night, my friend from Texas got asked to ‘step aside’ and we think it’s because she was wearing cowboy boots. In the main club that does this, you can buy booths for thousands of euros and apparently the men that do this just sit around smoking while girls throw themselves at them.

I suppose this kind of thing happens in New York and Los Angeles, just in the states I have to be 21 to get into such clubs.

I decided to skip that display of wealth which the next day, seemed like a good thing I did. You know when something big goes on at a local club because the next day people are missing from class.

I’m not saying clubbing is bad, it’s just interesting to hear the stories and stuff.

I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t have watched that movie Taken.

I spent a lot of money myself though! I bought some clothes (of course) including some golden-colored flats.

I also bought my first ever painting with my own money from San Tropez! I imagine I will own it forever so I thought the 150 euro was worth it.

Next big stop, Cinque Terre, Italy? This week I am also going to Grasse, France to make some perfume and this weekend is Paris!

While in my French class, I like speaking to a woman from Russia. She only speaks French and Russian so I am forced to communicate with her in French. I wanted to tell her that going to Moscow was on my bucket list and when I asked my teacher how to say bucket list in French – Comment vous dit <> en français? she looked at me like I was speaking gibberish. When I tried explaining to her that it is a list of things to do before you die, she thought I meant it was something I wrote to my family explaining my funeral arrangements and wanted to know why I was thinking about death when I am only dix-neuf ans.

It turns out that there is no concept of having a list of things to do before death. Sure, the French want to do things but not in the same sense Americans do. In my class it turns out only the girls from Colombia and Venezuela had similar things to a bucket list but not in Russia, Bulgaria, or  Sweden.

It is so weird to me since I basically have thought of my bucket list since middle school and it has really defined the things I do in life.

I guess the French just enjoy the life that is already laid out in front of them.

Bonjour! It has been busy here, as usual, and I’m starting to feel it. Luckily for me, I have a great mom and she packed me some Zicam to ward off colds. Another good thing is I’ve never been much of a night life girl so I just go home around 9 when everyone else is heading to the bar. I know everyone does their vacations differently, but I really like tackling the tourist sites and the city in the day time – I love to see things! If you set me down in Paris, I could probably get to all the main attractions by 10PM. The only problem is I would be very tired. This is a trait I get from my mom.

Traveling with other people is so much more enjoyable though and I’ve been having to learn how to slow down with people I am meeting in study abroad and just my friends in general. My roommate in New York luckily enjoys sightseeing as well but we have the luxury of four years in New York so I never feel rushed here. When I was in Georgia I wanted to just carry The William to all the places I wanted to go so he would keep up with me.

A three course meal that I made at Les Apprentis Gourmets in Cannes!

When I was younger, ma mère would plan these really awesome trips that took her months to get together. If something took a year in advance booking, she synched her clock and did it. Those are the vacations I remember best and that’s just how I feel like a vacation should be done.

Of course, then I met other people and their vacation is relaxing and that makes sense too.

I’m learning.

So anyway, no nightlife blogging pour moi.

Since I last posted I finally went on a walking tour of Cannes. This also included a trolley ride through the small town with anglais audio. It is funny because a lot of the places here have similar names to places in California such as Long Beach and Palm Springs. Of course, for all I know, California copied Cannes but I don’t think so. Cannes of course also has the famous handprints in the concrete which are part of the International Film Festival. It is a shame though because right now, the building that hosts the film festival, palais des festivals, is under construction so they do not have the red carpet out and you can’t really get a pretty photo of it.

My new friend Hilary in front of the building that hosts the film festival!

That’s okay for me though because I am not that big of a film lover though it would be nice to see it. Maybe I will be lucky and they will be done with construction/repairs by the time I leave which is about 5 weeks from now!

The Romans used to live in Cannes so remnants of that can still be seen throughout the city as well as a giant plague Napoleon put in the city with his name on it.

I also finally got to explore ile de sant honorat in more depth. The monks that live there have taken a vow of silence so many signs on the ile encourage you to speak softly and to not speak at all when touring the monastery. Of course, we also ate there and it was so delicious! We got to try the wine that was made there as well which was kind of interesting. I’m not the most professional or experienced wine taster but I can tell you it tasted pretty good.

We also bought a liquor to bring back to our room and try later.

Speaking of food, I literally just got back from learning how to make a three course meal from a French chef.

He spoke English well which is true of most of the people in Cannes. This city really caters to those visiting from Britain.

It was funny because I guess he really loves Chef Ramsey from Hell’s Kitchen.

I was one of the few people who knew what he was talking about and used to be quite a fan of his shows. I ate at his restaurant once in New York and the chef that was teaching us dreams of going to the Las Vegas one but is currently just settling for New York so I told him about the food things in New York and living on Arthur Ave the best I could. Again, I was speaking Franglish.

We learned to make some sort of mushroom soup, a chicken curry dish, and for dessert we made a pear cobbler.

This is good because my mom really likes that kind of soup and The William likes curry.

I of course enjoy all food and all sweets – so there’s that.

I love good food a lot which is again something I inherited from my mom which is a great thing to love. It is what eats my money up though! It is funny, my friend Hilary and I will eat at a nice place almost everyday and you’ll see the other girls taking advantage of all the fashion sales in France and who have already booked a flight for 210 euros to Milan just to shop.

We all have ‘our thing’.

Some people really enjoy learning French!

While I would never skip a class, it is a shame for my wanderlust to have to wait three hours of peak traveling time. We get out right when everything but food closes down in France. A lot of the businesses close down for 2 hours at lunch. It is a European thing so we lose another two hours of traveling because the boats and things are closed.

Speaking of French, I’m learning a lot I think.

Here are the words I must memorize and learn how to conjugate. I’ve got the memorization down and can conjugate them if I think really hard and can write them out. By the end of the weekend I hope to be able to at least conjugate one-third easily.

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