♫ We’re strictly tourist and we couldn’t care less! ♫

Okay, this is the journal I forgot to write a couple weeks ago about our last two days in Paris before the bus trip…

Saturday, May 29

After class I went shopping for a couple things for my roommate, and then we headed to the flea market! It was part of one of the walks, but it was an optional walk, so we didn't formally do it. We just walked around the flea market. Some of the stuff was really cool there! I bought a couple souvenirs at a really good price! We walked around the antiques part of the flea market and saw a couple really insane chandeliers… And that was about it. Oh, the vendors were ridiculous! Especially the ones walking around. They were worse than flies! Never leave you alone. Lol. And the other vendors did anything and everything to get you to come into their store and buy something.

Then Paris and I went to the Musée d'Orsay. I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't really my favorite. I'm just a classical art-lover. But we got in free and didn't have to pay nine euro! That was happy. I love it when they do that. :) In the Musée d'Orsay, I just felt like there was a lot more artwork where they tried to be lewd and disrespectful…. The impressionist paintings were pretty cool, though. And some of the statues (which were more classical style). Although….a lot of the statues showed people lying on the ground dead. I don't really get why they liked sculpting dead people so much. I did like the Jeanne d'Arc statue, though. That one was really pretty (and she wasn't dying, lol.)

Then Paris and I parted ways and I headed back to the Louvre. I saw some sculptures we missed last time and I went through the Italian Painting gallery again. I sat in front of a Raphael Madonna and Child painting and wrote in my journal for a while. I love the Louvre. That's my kind of art. Someday I want to go back and arrive at the Louvre right when it opens and stay until it closes, just walking through the sculpture gardens, sitting in the paintings gallery, going through the Egyptian section. I'd love to walk through and not be worried about seeing as much as possible. I just want to completely enjoy the experience.

Oh, I found out the name of one of my favorite paintings! Le Sommeil de l'Enfant by….somebody whose initials are B.L. I wrote the name down in my little green book. Lol. It's such a beautiful painting….

I was a little surprised that the Louvre closed at 6 p.m. on Saturdays! That seems so early…. No matter. I went back to the Devarennes' and did stuff in my room. They were having a big dinner party that night, which sounded like lots of fun, but I didn't appreciate the added smoke. Lol.

Sunday, May 30

I think this day was supposed to be a stake conference, but it was a strange one! Lol. Because they divided the young single adults from the regular wards. So we had our own Relief Society, Sunday School, and Sacrament Meeting, all the young people. It was funny. Lol. And made for a really long meeting! We were at church for four hours! Plus a long time after, because they had a lunch afterward. We ate sloppy joes. Lol. Which was funny, being in France. That seems like such an American food.

Paris and I left shortly after finishing our meal so we could go pack for the bus trip. It was so weird putting all of my stuff back into the suitcase! And taking a shower in the bathtub for the last time!

Dinner was lamb and fries. The lamb was a little too done because Madam Devarenne got distracted. Lol. That's so her! Afterward we took pictures with the Devarennes and they gave us parting gifts, which was so sweet of them! I'm going to miss them a lot. They were so much fun to be around! I hope the next time I come back to Paris, I can get in touch with them…

♫La mer bergère d’azur infinie♫

Frère Le Bras said today's wind was so strange for Nice, but I've adored it. It's so strong, I almost get blown away standing in it! It does beautiful things to the ocean, though! I may not be a beach person, but I love watching the sea. Today it is so, so blue. Absolutely gorgeous blue. The brightest azure you can imagine. And the waves are huge! Walking on the street, you can feel the sea spray, even if you're not close to the railing. They closed the beach off because the waves were so rough. But white caps on such a blue sea are just so pretty…

After class I hit rue Jean Médicin for some of the best shopping in Nice! I loved walking down the street and seeing all the fancy stores and all the little shops with hand-crafted shoes and jewelry and scarves, freshly made cookies (with free samples!) and smooth, sweet gelato. Despite the cool ocean breeze, the sun was pleasantly warm and beautifully bright. The perfect setting for the perfect day. :)

And it was today I decided that I do like Nice and I am enjoying myself. I loved the history of Paris and all the beauty, but as far as people and atmosphere go, Paris is just a little too high class for me sometimes. I switch back and forth. Lol. This week, Nice is the place for me! People aren't as rushed in Nice. It's just more relaxing. :)

First I went to Nice Etoile, the mall on Jean Médicin. I think it's the only one in Nice, actually. I went to Jennyfer and bought pants I made fun of a couple days ago. Lol. Aladdin pants. Because they looked so comfortable on one of the girls in our group. Mine were shorts, though. They're one of the latest fashion statements in France, so I guess I should feel cool. Lol. I just bought them for around-the-house, lazy day pants. (They were pretty cheap, so I don't feel bad about that.) I was very happy about that purchase.

Then I left the mall and went to H&M, which is so European. Lol. They have those stories EVERYWHERE! But I like them. I've got some cute things there already. ;) I found a button-up shirt there that fits me PERFECTLY!!!! *sigh* That is one of the best feelings ever, finding a shirt like that. And they had tons of different patterns of that shirt, so I bought three of them. Lol. I justified it because I need some nicer shirts for when I intern with BYU Athletic Comms. I also found a cute pink shirt with ruffly sleeves and flowers on it.

Following my big purchase, I headed back out to Jean Médicin and turned on a side street that led to the Boulevard des Anglais. I saw a little shop that sold products from Provence (the region Nice is in). I stepped in for a quick look and saw some of the cutest little girls' dresses ever. Oh my gosh. I almost bought one. They were adorable. When I have daughters, I'll have to find somebody going to Nice to get a couple for me. They were so beautiful. But I refrained. I bought a little bottle of Provence perfume instead. There are a couple of things that you can't leave France without buying, and I decided that perfume was one of them.

Then I walked all the way back down Boulevard des Anglais to our residence. That was a long walk. Lol. But kinda cool, because I had to battle the wind the whole way, and I had a great view of the ocean!

On the way back, I stopped by a boulangerie called La Princesse and bought a baguette and two mini pastries. The baguette was a little piece of heaven! It was straight out of the oven, so it was so crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and warm all the way through. It was definitely one of the happiest moments of my life in France. Although, I was a little disappointed when I got home and found that opera pastries have coffee in them. :P Oh well. I ate my religieux, and that was happy.

And I decided I'm going to be daring this summer! (Or maybe over Christmas break…) I'm going to attempt to make macarons! Not because they're my favorite French dessert, but because I think they look cute and because they're supposed to be really hard to make. I think I could consider myself somewhat accomplished if I figured out how to make macarons. That will be fun. Lol. Yay for experimental cooking!

We went out to dinner as a group tonight. It was the last big group activity. :( Sad! This group has been so much fun! The people are awesome! And the professors have been excellent too! I'm definitely going to miss my time here, even if I am excited to go home. I just realized that today. I will miss it here, sooner than I expected. I love the feel of being in Europe, especially in France.

After dinner, we walked to this little gelato shop and everybody got gelato. I was so full, but I ate three scoops anyway. They were peach, melon, and banana. I decided that I needed a little more tartness, though. The peach was a little tart, but the banana and melon were so sweet! And I finished the peach first, so by the end I was all sweet-ed out.

I walked home with Paris, which was really fun. We walked on the sidewalk by the beach. The water had calmed by then, and there was a little breeze, so it was really nice. This was my second long walk on Boulevard des Anglais today… Oh well. Maybe it will make up for not running. Lol. It was fun talking to Paris. I decided I'd miss our long chats. Lol. Even though most of them were on the same subject and almost always had to do with the men in our lives. :) These will be good times I'll always remember and treasure.

Monte Carlo, Baby!

After class this morning, we all hopped on a bus and left France! No, really! We actually left France! For Monaco! Which is a French speaking country, technically….I think. But still its own country! It's one of the smallest countries in the world, as it's only one city, and you can walk from one end to the other in about an hour. There are about as many people in Monaco as there are at BYU!

Monte Carlo is beautiful! It doesn't really look that different from Nice, but still… And it has beautiful cars! Oh my gosh…. Every tenth car that passes on the street is a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. There are a couple Porshes and Bentleys in there too. (Is that what they're called? The car that Sarah really likes…lol.) We passed a couple dealerships that had awesome Lamborghinis! Everybody in the group stopped to take pictures. Lol. I wouldn't mind a car like that, not gonna lie. Maybe someday we can have a Lamborghini to go with our cute French cottage which would house our four poster, curtained bed. Lol. ;)

The weather was great today, too. It was warm, not too hot, and a cool breeze was blowing in from the ocean. It wasn't chilly at all, though. Maybe a tad bit windy, but I didn't mind. Of course, I didn't have a skirt on like all the other girls in the group, so it wasn't a problem for me. I did feel like a tomboy, though. Lol. All the girls (except Paris) were in cute, little dresses or frilly skirts and flip flops or flats. I was in a plain black capsleeve, jean shorts, and tennis shoes. Lol. With my hair in a quick ponytail. Oh, well. :)

We started off with a stroll along the harbor, which led us past a line of the hugest yachts I've ever seen! They were ridiculously big! And so fancy! My favorite was the Zeus. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of it. I could believe how big it was, though. It's like a floating mansion!

Then we went to the Japanese garden. It was kinda pretty. I love the flowers around this area, because they're so colorful. I think I've said that before…but it's still true! And there was a waterfall and bridges that were really cool there, too.

Nearby was the Monte Carlo film festival? Or TV festival? Or something? I dunno. They had a red carpet and were filming something, and there were a bunch of reporters and fans. (And by a bunch, I mean like 20.)

Then we walked toward Monte Carlo, the famous casino in all the movies. It was a really pretty building! I even poked my head inside, so I can say I've been in Monte Carlo. Lol. The lobby was beautiful. Classical style, but made with dark wood and green and red marble. Yay, Monte Carlo! That was exciting…. But that reminds me, the title of this blog is from Audrey Hepburn's first movie, just in case you wanted to know. Except it's "Monte Carlo Baby", not "Monte Carlo, Baby!" I just played with the punctuation. :) It wasn't her very first movie, I guess, but her first movie playing a major role. I haven't actually seen it. I guess I should go see it, now, just to say I have and so I can talk Jeff's ear off about how I've seen all the places in the movie.

After Monte Carlo, the group split. Jessie and Richard went off who knows where, Paris and Ryan went to the aquarium, and I went with the rest of the girls to the palace. Although, we stopped and bought food first. I didn't really like the cheese pastry that I bought… Everybody else got a weird pizza. Lol. With peppers (gross!) But, I also bought Pago, which I'm going to miss when I go home, because it's like drinking fruit. So divine! And I also bought Prince cookies. I've decided they have a really good marketing strategy. Who wouldn't want to buy cookies that have an attractive Prince handing you a cookie on the package? (Who cares if he's a cartoon?) And princes on the cookies themselves! The cookies are pretty good, too.

After eating, we found our way to the palace. We couldn't really find out how to get there on the map, so we started walking toward the castle-looking thing in the distance and found it! Although the stairs to get up there were terrible! :P No me gusta. They were like a ramp and stairs combined! Ew. But we finally made it to the top. And there was a great view of Monaco and the harbor. And the ocean, of course, which is beautiful. We didn't actually go in the palace, because nobody I was with wanted to go to another palace. Lol. They were sick of palaces.

We did go through the souvenir shops on the castle hill, though. That was fun. :) I bought a little green teacup with the castle on it. I fell in love with it, and besides, Jeff said that I should go buy nic nacs today, so okay!

After shopping, we went to the cathedral where Grace Kelly was buried. That was cool, I guess. There were some pretty roses on her grave. But the cooler part was the little shop inside the cathedral! (Why it was inside, I don't know. That was kind of strange.) They had a bunch of regular Catholic things that you can get at every cathedral, but there was also a whole table of those little Russian nesting dolls! And they were gorgeous! And I had to buy one. The one I bought has gold and sparkles on it, and it has pretty exotic flowers on the front. :) I love it.

The nun who sold it to me seemed very impressed when I talked to her in French. I think that's funny.... It seems like Francophones are always impressed when Anglophones speak French in France, but Anglophones (or at least Americans) just expect people to speak English in an English-speaking country. I wonder why that is.....

Then we tried to find our way to the bus by going down the hill through the gardens. We saw a really cool tree there! You'll have to look on Facebook to see my picture, because I don't even know how to explain what it looked like. It's almost like a bunch of different branches twisted together. We also saw a really awkward statue on a dock below the hill. Straaaaaaaaaaaaange.

We tried to find the bus back to Nice, but we couldn't find the right stop. So we asked a couple well-dressed gentlemen how to get back to Nice. Well, Meredith asked them. And the one who answer said that she spoke French very well, and then proceeded to give us instructions in English. Lol. Okay…… He told us to take the train, so we went to the train station. But my credit card wouldn't work on the little machine (because we were going to buy them all together), so we went to the actual caisse and bought the tickets. Well, it was a group ticket. I felt like Professor Erickson. Lol. The funniest part about the train was getting on. Lol. Joy and Meredith and Andrea got on the train (which wasn't supposed to leave for 10 more minutes) and the doors started closing, so Katherine and I panicked. She squeezed between the doors and forced them open a little, and then I barely made it in after her. We went and sat down, and realized upon seeing more passengers get on the train that there was a button to open and close the doors. The doors were just shutting until the next person came on. Lol…….. Oops. That was embarrassing. Freaking out and jumping on for no reason. I was afraid the train would leave and the other girls wouldn't have the ticket! Because I had the only ticket. I definitely didn't take into consideration the fact that the train didn't leave for a while.

After we got back to Nice, we walked a ways until we found Boulevard des Anglais, and then we took a bus to our stop and walked home.

Ugh! The mosquitoes are eating me alive! :( Why do they keep the lobby door propped open?

♪La mer au ciel d’été…♪

Tuesday morning I awoke to my entire body protesting every move I made. So what did I do? I went running. Lol. :) And….had a really hard time staying awake in class due to tiredness/soreness. Oh well.

Despite not really liking the beach, I decided to go because everybody else was going and I didn't want to just sit around the hotel by myself. And I really wanted a nap, and I decided I may as well nap at the beach. Although…it wasn't a very restful nap. I was listening to my ipod, so that probably didn't help me fall asleep. And I didn't want to burn, so I had to keep waking up and putting on some more sun screen. I did get slightly burned, but it wasn't bad. I couldn't even feel it. And it was kinda splotchy and really small spots.

The rest of the people in my group weren't so lucky. Lol. Most of them only put on sunscreen once, and really only on their face. Some people *coughPariscough*didn't put sunscreen on at all! They definitely came home looking a little lobster-ish. Or a lot lobster-ish. Lol. They got burned all over! No wonder, because we were out there during the hottest part of the day! I didn't even get a tan line on my legs like I was hoping. :( Oh well. I guess that's better than increasing my risk of skin cancer. Lol. And I don't envy any of them! They all look so sore…

After spending a couple hours doing nothing at the beach, I came home and worked on my journals. I got a lot done, too, in case you haven't noticed! Lol. Happy reading…

♪ La mer qu’on voit danser le long des golfes clairs…♫

My body wasn't too happy with me after my run Monday morning. Lol. Not very happy at all. My stomach was killing me most of the run, and just stopped hurting before I got home. Then I pushed it further with crunches and stuff. Lol. I was so exhausted by the time I got to class, but despite being worn out and sore, I felt wonderful!

And to add to feeling wonderful, after class we walked up two huge hills and walked to a Russian Orthodox Church! (Yeah, after my run this morning, I realized I had no clue what exhaustion was yesterday…) It was a fun day, though. :)

I bought a wheat baguette at the store before walking to Old Nice. It was kinda weird. White baguettes definitely taste better. But it was good enough that I kept eating it as Beth and I searched for the old part of the village.

It was really fun talking to Beth. Lol. We hung out a bit in Paris, but haven't really talked since leaving Paris. We realized we have a common friend, Heidi Olsen, who used to be Beth's roommate. Lol. Everybody else in the group had a funny friend connection to Beth, so I felt privileged to be included. Beth is awesome, because she talks to everybody in the group and is so friendly and fun. She's someone you can be instant friends with.

We found the old city, finally, after a long walk. Lol. But it was an enjoyable long walk. Going into the old village, you were hit by the bright colors all over again. And all the streets in the old village were so steep! Lol. We started the hike up to the "chateau", and my legs started complaining. If they spoke English, they would have said, "Rachel, what are you doing to us? No more, no more!" But I told them to be quiet and toughen up, and luckily they obeyed me.

So, the chateau isn't really a chateau. Lol. It's actually just the ruins of a wall that used to be part of a chateau. Now it's a garden/cemetery. Still beautiful with amazing views of the ocean and the city. But definitely not a chateau. Lol. There was also a cool waterfall on one of the paths. That was fun to take pictures by. This was also a fun little excursion because we met up with other people from the group and took some pictures. On the way back down we stepped into the cemetery. It was pretty cool. We were in the Jewish section of the cemetery. I didn't know this before our class reading last night, but France has the largest Jewish population in Europe. Cool, huh? Although, one thing that I'm still a little confused about. Why do Jewish people put rocks on loved ones' graves? I haven't figured that one out yet. Most things have symbolism in the Jewish religion, so I feel like it should be some sort of symbol. Maybe not, though…

Then we hopped on the tram to go to the Russian Orthodox Church. That was a pretty cool church! Very different from all the other churches I've seen on this trip, because it was Byzantine style, not Gothic or Neo-classic. It was a nice change. The murals on the walls of the church were very beautiful! Like all the other religious stuff we've seen, there was a lot of symbolism. One part of the decoration showed the Russian/French friendship. A lot of the Russian royalty liked to come to Nice, so they built a church there at the end of the 1800s to be able to worship the way they were used to. This was one of the first Russian Orthodox churches built outside of Russia.

I was a little appalled by one woman I saw there, though. She went up to one of the painted panels and rubbed her hands all over it! Hard! Doesn't she know that that thing is an antique? Oil paintings (or tempera, I couldn't tell which it was) do not last if people rub them! It's one thing to take photos when three or four signs at the entrance to the church say "no photos at all", but touching the paintings? Goodness…

Everybody went to the beach after getting back from the church. I didn't, though. Lol. I did laundry (for an arm and a leg! So expensive…) and then dozed by the pool. It was getting a little bit late, though, so I didn't really get any sun. Oh well. Lol.

We ended the night with FHE! Beth gave a lesson about President Monson's message from the Ensign. I loved the talk! And her lesson, too. It was a great reminder that sometimes the poorest and weakest and least pretty among us have the most beautiful souls. We need to remember everyone's potential as sons and daughters of God and treat them with the love and respect they each deserve. That's something I've struggled a little bit with this week in more than one way. It was a good reminder and a good time to reflect on how I've been doing.

We ended with a birthday party, celebrating Paris and Caitlyn's birthdays and all the people whose unbirthdays we didn't catch. (We have a birthday party every Monday and celebrate unbirthdays, as well as any birthdays that happened during the week.) Professor Le Bras bought pastries for everybody! Strawberry tarts and réligieuses and éclairs and a bunch of other things I didn't know the name of. I had a réligeuse. So yummy! It's basically a cream puff sandwich. The bottom layer is a big cream puff filled with chocolate cream, then there's a layer of chocolate ganache on top of that, topped with some sort of cream cheese-tasting icing. On top of that was a mini cream puff with the same chocolate cream and ganache on top of that. YUMMY!!!!!!!! And so fattening. All the good effects of my painful run, out the window! Oh well. Lol. I only have a few more days left of eating real French pastries!

Coming Down the Home Stretch

I just realized that every time I type a smiley face, it shows up as a J on my blog. Oops. Lol. I've been writing these on Word, not my blog, because I can only use the internet in the lobby, and that's a little annoying. So…I'll try to go back and change the J's to :), but we'll see if I get around to that. Just know that J=:).

Talking to Jeff was a great start to Sunday. Lol. After that, everybody was supposed to meet at 8:00 so we could go to church, but Professor Le Bras didn't get there until 8:30. Lol. So, we got to church really late. Lol. Fifteen minutes before Relief Society and Priesthood were over, so we just sat outside until the first meeting was over. It was really hard to focus during Sunday School, though. Lol. I was so tired (as was everybody in the group) so listening and trying to translate things into French was hard. The lady who taught was really interesting. At least, her outfit was. She wore a long, frilly shirt with a flowery pattern, then a pink skirt with big flowers on it, then baggy, Aladdin pants with a different flowery pattern under that. She topped it off with a mustard-colored sweater. SO interesting. Lol. I've never seen anybody dress like that before…even here in France. (Although the Aladdin pants are becoming really popular around here. They seem like they're a new thing, just coming to the scene. That and tube top coveralls which are really strange….)

Sacrament Meeting was a little better. Although it definitely seemed longer than normal. Sunday was the anniversary of D-Day, so a lot of the members talked about that and their gratitude for the Allied Forces and all the French people who died to liberate France.

After church, a bunch of us hit up the two museums we had to visit in Nice. Well, we had a list of museums that we had to go to, and everybody chose the Matisse and Chagall museums because they were within walking distance of the church. Happy day, they were both free! :)

I did not like the Matisse Museum. Lol. He's just not my favorite artist. I think all his stuff looks like kindergarten painting, which is cute when a five-year-old does it, not so much when it's from a grown man. The colors were fun, but other than that… It wasn't very exciting.

The Chagall was a little better. Still not my favorite, though. I prefer more classical art, I guess. Not the modern stuff. Bleh. Lol. Chagall was kind of cool, because he had a lot of religious art. And the color in his paintings was amazing, I'll give him that. I did like how he used different colors to express different emotions. I thought it was funny, because all his angels looked like fairies. Lol.

After that I came back to the residence and worked on journals and stuff like that. It was a pretty relaxing Sunday. :)

But can I just say I hate Kiss FM? Ugh! Stupidest radio station ever. Lol. It plays the same five songs over and over! And they're all English songs. Then they play a couple French songs in between to break it up. I'm so tired of hearing "Blame it on the giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirls. Blame it on the boooooooooooooooooys" and "I gotta help myself…soon!" and something about a shark in the water all day long! They play that radio station at the grocery store and in the lobby all day long! Ew! I hate it. I'm pretty sure they over play songs way more than American radio stations do. And they don't even understand what the songs are saying! I've definitely heard some pretty bad swearing on these radio stations, and it's in English. Or maybe they just don't care about what words are said on the radio.

And speaking of weirdness, I thought of another thing I didn't like about the beaches. Lack of clothing. :P So much of a lack that it makes a bikini look modest and our group of BYU girls look overdressed. It's sooooooo gross! :P I feel bad for the boys in our group. I don't want to see that. I can only imagine how much they don't want to. It just adds to my not wanting to go back to the beach….

There are great things about being here, though! Lol. Sorry. Not all of this visit to Nice is annoying. I love the weather. It's been hot, but not overpoweringly hot. It's been perfect hot. I've loved it. And old Nice is beautiful. I think I might go there Thursday or Friday and just walk around instead of going to the beach. :)

Au revoir, Paris!

Saturday we boarded our last autocar for the airport with all our luggage to start the last leg of our France adventure in Nice. I was so excited! Not because we were going to the beach, but because it meant there was only a week left until I got to see Jeff and my family!

Don't get me wrong. I've loved France. It's been an awesome experience for me and brought me huge blessings I almost didn't think possible. I've enjoyed myself. But sometimes you just miss American home-cooked meals, sleeping in your own bed, seeing the people you love, refrigerated cheese that doesn't make you sick.

On the flip side, there are definitely things that I'm going to miss about France. Bread that is so fresh and so delicious, to-die-for pastries, castles, class with Professor Le Bras and Professor Erickson, apple sauce pouches, the Devarennes, eating lunch in the Champs de Mars by the Eiffel Tower, cookies, Pago.

We got to the airport way early. Lol. So we had a long time to wait before our flight. Going through security was weird though! They didn't have you take off your shoes. Lol. But they went through my stuffed backpack! :P That was so annoying. Lol. Oh well. At least I didn't get the pat-down like Paris. Lol.

Funny thing about the trip, two people from our group lost their passports! The first one dropped his when we were walking to the gate, and there was a huge mess with the airport trying to find it. Luckily they found it before we boarded! Lol. Then a girl left her passport on the plane! And she didn't realize it until we were at the baggage claim waiting for our luggage and talking about Richard losing his passport. Lol. Oh, man.

The residence we're staying at is only 10 minutes from the airport. It's…ok. Lol. You have to pay for every little thing, though! Ugh. You had to pay eight euros for towels! Insanity! It's nice to have our own kitchen, though. And the bathroom isn't too bad. But the carpets are…..non-existent. Lol. It's not a carpet, it's a straw mat! Lol. The entire apartment except for the kitchen is covered with hard, scratchy straw stuff. And it's so dirty! If you walk across it a couple times with bare feet after a shower, your feet get black! The beds are okay….about the same as every other bed. Good thing that I've been exhausted every night, so I fall right asleep. Lol.

Nice is beautiful. J And so colorful! The flowers around the residence are the most brilliant shades of pink and purple. All the houses are yellow and orange with bright window shutters and roofs. The water is so blue, too! The only unfortunate thing is that the beaches are all rocky. Only pebbles, no sand.

Right after settling in at the residence, most of the group headed to the beach. It was fun to just relax, but I realized something after getting back from the beach. I'm not really a beach person. Like…going to the beach is fun one day, but after that I'm good with not going back for a couple months. Lol. I prefer the sight-seeing vacations, especially castles. Lol. I think one of my favorite parts of this trip is going to be the bus tour, definitely not Nice. Besides the castles, I loved seeing the little villages surrounding the castles. J Those are my favorite.

Oh, the other dumb thing about the residence is that internet costs 15 euro! :P For a week. Oh, well. I haven't spent that much this trip, so it wasn't terrible. But I can't even access it in my room. Lol. I have to go down to the lobby to get internet. Lame… (As Paris would say.)

But I'm surviving. J It will be a great last week, and then home! J