Oxford Cannes

ok, it was more "collecting a new country" than being really interested in Monaco. Strange, when you go there from Nice airport by bus it costs you 18 € one way, when you go from Nice bus terminal it costs 1 € one way. Monaco is a very clean city. I have never seen so many big and expensive cars. I saw the casino and the castle. Nice, but not spectacular.

I know I always write the same...great weather, such a nice city, good food....but I have to say that Nice was a (very) big surprise for me, I can say that it is my favourite city in Europe (ok, number 2 after Lisbon). You have the mountains, the Cote dŽAzur (when you see the water you know why the name is Cote dŽAzur), the market with fresh vegetables, fruits, honey, oil, soap, you have great restaurants ...

... gesture. We can't change the world but we can change the way these children start off in life and who knows where that will lead....

It is less than 4 weeks now until I leave. There is much to do. I am trying to prepare myself for "teaching" 20 - 25 children. A bit of a challenge that. Much as I have known that I have always wanted to do something like this, now that it ...

... for 2 showers each and dish washing water. In France filling up the water tank was pretty easy and cheap (2-3 Euro) via staying in an Aire d'service. In Italy, it was not immediately obvious where we could fill up the water - a lot less signs than in France... but we have found fill up points on the highways and managed a lot more free/wild camping in Italy then we did in France... in fact we have not stayed in a designated campsite at all in Italy. Need to talk to a ...

On this morning we left Switzerland and travelled south into Italy en-route to the French Riviera. The scenery was pretty spectacular, with snow-white capped, jagged mountains that seemed to swallow the highway. Surreal!

When we arrived at our hotel we had about 30 mins to get ready for our trip into Monaco! On our drive to Monaco we crossed the bridge that Grace Kelly was killed on in a car accident. The roads are ...

... and Cannes. Dani was pumped for Cannes as this is where they hold THE Cannes film festival. Unfortunately, just as our luck would have it, the train we took was delayed by almost 2 hours, and we still don't know why. So it took us much longer to get to our first stop on our journey which was Antibes. We had been recommended to have some lunch there and apparently they have an awesome market. However thanks to the aforementioned delay, and our silly Dubcheck moves which will be revealed ...

... Diane Kruger, Mike Myers and many other big name stars.  And that was as close to Brad Pitt as I got!  A giant poster on the front of the Carlton Hotel.
We wandered along the Croisette and watched the spectacle as people waited outside the Carlton Hotel and the Martinez Hotel just hoping for a glimpse of someone famous.  Unless you are staying at the hotel - you ain't getting close.  
It was still a few hours before ...

Everyone! I found that my Google account includes a weblog feature, and decided to consolidate. You can find new blog postings at http://laurenspostgraduateadventure.blo gspot.com/ if you are still interested in my intermittent ramblings on life, Europe, haircuts and livestock. Please follow me to Google. Hugs to all, from Cannes.

... In other news, Italian 1 is going well. We just had our first exam and it went well. My other classes have started and they have both been interesting as well. Definitely doable in terms of courseload. My internship (only 1 credit, or three hours a week) starts next Wednesday and it's looking like it will be very easy and very fun. The cuisine class I signed up for starts on Thursday. VERY excited for that one. Off to grocery shop with roommates. Ciao! XOXO

... Some production group attracting attention was behaving like protestors would on the sidewalk above the beach. Two of the girls got to go Parasailing FOR FREE (for publicity of the company providing it) which triggered others in the group going to do water sports. I was happy on the beach, sleeping and saving my money, hehe. Towards the end of the day, I caught some shots of a bunch of footballers on the beach doing acrobatics. It was ...