My Room at the College

We are studying at the International College de Cannes. It's an absolutely beautiful campus. Palm trees? Yes, indeed. Palm trees! That's the life when you life a block away from the Mediterranean Sea!

When we arrived, we were treated with such service. Two college students met us at the bus and helped us take our luggage out from the bus. Then, since I was the only one to bring two full-size suitcases, a smaller carry-on suitcase and a backpack, one of the guys helped me with my stuff. It's all about the little things in life. We then got our keys and were shown our room. The teacher from St. John's helped me find my room, and also helped with my luggage. Unfortunately for him, neither of us realized I was on the top floor of the building... After the fact, I realized I could see my room from the parking lot as you enter campus. See the room way up there with the towels? Yup, my room. I've nick-named it the "Penthouse Suite". (Notice the palm trees?!) On the main floor is the cafeteria, and above the cafeteria are more rooms.

As I've been thinking about how to describe my room, a Mastercard commercial seemed to be the perfect fit, so here goes! (Warning: I just moved in, so forgive the unorganization of my room...)

Number of steps up to the room: 72 (yes, I counted)


Number of rooms on the floor: 2
Average tempertature in the room: 400 oF
Number of people per room: 2


Number of outlets in the room: 1 (seriously, one outlet and two roommates?)
Number of times the power has died: 2 (See below)
Amout of cubic feet in my closet: 8 (and check out the hanging space...)


Number of steps to the shower: 22 steps down (Yes, the floor below)
Average running time of the shower before having to push it on again: 45 seconds

But the silver lining:
View out the only window: PRICELESS!!!

Yes, that is the Sea you can see from my room. It's beautiful. Now, if it would only cool off here, then hopefully my room would cool down. When I lay in bed at night, I drip sweat from my legs and my head. I've never known heat like this. And, one day there girls on the trip from CSB were complaining about the heat and how they wanted fans. Now, fans were provided from them from the College, however, consequently I've been trying to tough it and show I don't need it. The heat break is supposedly around the corner, so I'm hoping it'll get better.

It's a rather funny story about the power outages. We had gone on trip around Cannes the other day, and when I got back I had plugged in my computer with my power strip and converter. However, I noticed that the light on my computer charger was not lit (and it should be). So, I checked the lights and realized there was no power. I told the front desk, and later that day power was restored. So, later that night, I had plugged in my computer with my power strip and converter, but it was night time. Well, upon plugging it in, the lights went out. I was the source of the problem... So, I had to go back to the desk, and talked with the guy on duty and checked whether it was acceptable to use powerstrips. I ended up going to get my converter and power strip and he was completely overwhelmed by this power strip. While it's works just fine in the States, I now know it's not usable here. But when you only have one outlet, what are you supposed to do!? (The one outlet is of particular interest because the other students here have rooms that have been re-done complete with new paint on the walls [I have carpeted walls...] and more outlets than they know what to do with...).

So, the man at the desk talked to another guy on duty who contact Bernard, the one who fixed the power the first time around. He was so not pleased. I heard the next day that it was originally to have been his evening off, but he had already been called in to fix a problem in the cafe here on campus, and then had to fix power in the dorm as well. (Note: My room is in a seperate part of the campus. It's connected to other dorms, but it's its own tower, that's on it's own power source. I don't know if he's joking or not, but M. Villette, our teacher from CSB/SJU, tells me it's where the servants lived back in the day when the school was a hospital for sick children. It's all so interesting, really.) Further, he had to return at 2:30 that morning to fix a water pipe that burst, leaving us without water for most of the next day. Either way, I felt terrible. So, to make ammends with Bernard and the other guy who had been dealing with this earlier today as well, I bought them a beer from the cafe and proceeded to have one myself while journaling in hopes of being able to sleep that night. I felt awful! It's already getting easier to laugh at, and I know that will continue. After all, it's a good story.

The Flight to Nice

I'm on my third full day in Cannes, France and so much has happened already. However, in the words of a very wise woman: "Let's start at the very beginning." After all, it is a very good place to start.

My parents dropped Fernando and me off at the airport at a little after 2:00pm on Wednesday 19 August from the International Terminal at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago. The flight was due to leave at 5:25pm, but rather than make goodbyes even more difficult, we opted for this early drop off.

Fernando is a friend of mine from St. John's, and he came to Chicago so that we could fly together. I will say, international flying is much easier when you have someone you know along. That way, if no one else will speak to you, or if they don't speak English at least you have someone else with you who does and also makes the time pass in a much more enjoyable way. Thanks Fernando!

While I've flown through O'Hare multiple times, it was the first time being in the International Terminal, as well as being my first time out of the country (not counting Canada). I was scared out of my mind. My heart was pounding like I've never knew it could. I couldn't even cry. I was just paralized. It just didn't seem real, and in so many ways it still doesn't. Anyway, I decided to take a picture right outside of security. The flags are quite lovely, n'est-ce pat?

Fernando and I thought arriving early wouldn't be so bad. We knew that airports have places where you can gain a little liquid encouragement, which would help the flight overseas. However, as you can already see by our faces, bars do not exist beyond security. It was an unfortunate realization to have once you have gone through security. And, being it was the first time traveling international, I was not about to see what would happen if we left security, only to go back through later after having a drink. It just didn't seem like a good combination. And, it was probably a wise conclusion.

But the question still remains, what is one supposed to do in the flight gate area when there isn't even so much as a restaurant? Well, I had a pack of cards and it was time to teach the Fernando how to play some card games. We played the good ol' games of Crazy Eights, Kings in the Corner, and Speed. He managed quite well with the games and was kind to put up with my memory loss on just exactly how you play Kings in the Corner...

We finally boarded the plane a few hours later. While Chicago had been having nice weather all day, wouldn't you know a rainstorm came right as we wanted to leave. So, if the flight wasn't already going to be long, we sat on the plane for a good 30-45 minutes before even leaving. Planes can't fly when there's lightning, well, shouldn't.

Shortly after take off, they came through with the beverage cart. The joy of international flying that I had only heard about came to fulfillment when we were offered alcohol free of charge. It's not a myth! I imagine it's the airline's way of keeping people happy while being crammed in coach. My dad told me when I got to France to have a glass of wine and toast him. Well Dad, I'm sure I'll eventually have a picture of me in a French Cafe with a glass of wine, but for now, here's to you!

Dinner wasn't too terrible, as you can see below, and to be honest, I was actually quite impressed. Cheese-filled tortellini with spinach, side salad with a balsamic vinagrette dressing, a dinner roll, cup of water, piece of cake, and yes, another little bottle of wine. All while watching Knowning, the new movie with Nicholas Cage about the world ending. What I have to say about it is, while the myth of free alcohol came true, so did the myth of bad movies on an international flight.


I was able to sleep for a couple hours on the plane. They shut off the lights at what was 9:00pm back home, so my body was not ready to sleep then, but I did a little bit later.

Getting in to London was a mess. They were overbooked getting in to London, so we circled for probably about 45 minutes. My stomach was not too happy with me by this point. Miraculously though we arrived on time, I suppose airlines have gotten used to allowing for plenty of extra time to allow for such delays and still say that you arrived on time. Alas. So, we arrived at 7:00am their time. We got off the plane, then had to board buses. The London/Heathrow airport is a mess. There is so much construction, and either because of when we arrived or what gates we opened, they just dropped us off via bus. Either way, we got in to the airport and had to go through screening again. Our boarding passes were checked and we had to go through another security check point, the entire time being herded like cattle around the airport.

All in all, Fernando and I had about 45 minutes to spare before our flight to Nice. So, we went to a pub and had a beer. Yes, it was 7 am in London and everyone else was eating breakfast and having coffee, but for us it was still 1 am. Having made the journey over the large lake, we felt justified in our choice of beverage. The flight to Nice left on time, and we arrived in Nice just fine, though rather warm weather. Below are two pictures out the plane's window. I'm not sure now which part is Nice and which one is Cannes, but I'm guessing the more populated area is Nice.

It was an extensively long day. By the time we arrived, we knew it was 12:30 in France, 5:30 back home, and it was 20 August. However, I had been up for almost a full 24 hours, and didn't end up sleeping for about the next 12, so I don't know what day or time I actually thought it was. It's absolutely amazing what an effect adrenaline has on the body. We were quite happy to have Landed in Nice, and snapped this photo as we approached the gate.