Rick and I

I was just looking at the blog in my boredom and realized that I never put up the picture of Rick and I. So, for all you curious minds (haha), here is the picture of WHEN I MET RICK STEVES.



Pretty cool, eh? I like that you can see the world shooting by behind us. I keep this as my computer background and I don't have plans of changing it anytime soon.

Our Film Festival

Over the festival, the Chapman interns thought that the festival poster was really funny. So at the end, in a moment of utter uncoolness, we decided to take photos of ourselves jumping and begged Preston (one of the interns) to photoshop a version of the poster with us in it. I don't think any of us thought it would happen, but behold, Preston came through. You have to check out Chapman, Cannes 2007 take on the Festival poster... it gave me a good laugh.




And now the original:

Berlin Picture

Heya, just found this picture from our Berlin walking tour. The tour was great, despite the terrible rain! You can see Emily and I on the left. Oh yeah, that's the Brandenburg Gate behind us.

Rick, Rick is that You?

...
I suddenly realize that this may in fact be THE Rick Steves, in person. I am so excited, I can't wait for Emily to come back to her seat. When she does I ask her if she knows what RIck Steves looks like, she says no and I tell her that I think it may be him! I debate for a few minutes to approach him and finally decide that if I don't, I will regret not knowing for sure. So I get up, walk into his car (he is the only one in there) and say, "umm, excuse me, are you Rick Steves?" I know, I know, not the greatest opening line ever, but still, I was NERVOUS and I could have just run up to him screaming, "Rick, Rick is that you?" (jk, mom). He said, yes that he was, and I told him I was a big fan of his. We talked about a bunch of stuff including, my trip, being robbed in Provence, mom and dad meeting him in Spain last year, and the rail strike in Germany. He was such an easy guy to talk to! I got my picture with him (it's a self portrait, I hope it turns out, because we have a regular film camera) and he was just really cool. At the end of the conversation he mentioned that when I graduate I should contact him and be one of his tour guides! How AWESOME is that? Afterwards, I was so excited, I sat with a grin on my face for the rest of the day. It's funny, I've met/seen much bigger celebrity (George CLooney, Brad Pitt) and I've never been so excited as I was to meet Rick...seriously, one of the coolest moments of my life. :)

More Berlin and BIG NEWS

I am now sitting in an internet cafe in Munich. Berlin was such a blast, we went on a walking tour of the city, went to the Allies museum, went up the Reichstag, and went to the concentration camp outside the city. We spent five nights in the city and honestly weren't ready to leave. Nonetheless, we headed off at 8 in the morning for Munich. We were quickly stopped however, because the German railway workers were on strike! I think this may be the first time in history that a German train wasn't efficient. We ended up getting a taxi from the U-Bahn station to the main train station and were lucky enough to have our train be one of the only ones not to be cancelled! We got on the train with a big relief and then about an hour in were stopped on the tracks for over an hour and a half. Apparently, the person who changed the tracks was on strike and we had to wait until 11 o´clock until the strike was over. geesh! WE just barely made our connection, and had to sprint to the next train...on which the BIG NEWS happened.

Our train was about to get in (in about 20 minutes) when I see some guy walk past to the bathroom. I look closer (I can´t see very well to begin with) and...I think I see...oh my God, is that RICK STEVES!? oh my, god, I think it IS Rick Steves.

....uh oh, run out of time. To be continued...

Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a donut)

First day down in the big ßerlin (yeah German keyboard!...and yes, I know that symbol stand for double s and therefore makes no sense to pronounce)

The Reedster and I are thinking we may never leave. Berlin is such a beautiful city and so welcoming, that we are having a blast. Today we slept in (comme d´habitude) and decided to just wander the city. We took the U-Bahn, S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz and walked our way back down the city center to Museum Island, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and some other sites. The main part of the city is really well planned out, what with all of the Museums in the same area and a long, wide boulevard with important monuments and buildings to see on it. Tomorrow are going to get up and take a walking tour of the town to get a feel for it. Then maybe some museum trips later on.

Berlin

So we are finally in Berlin. We took a flight from Barcelona yesterday, which was delayed by about 3 hours, so when we finally arrived it was much later than expected. Despite this, I think both Em and I are already in the love with our hostel and the city. To start, the hostel is incredible: the nicest people, the cleanest most well-equipped facilities. It is called the Jetpack City hostel and if you are ever in Berlin and in need of a hostel, go to this one. We are probably going to take one of the free walking tours to get acquainted with the city and then see what we want to tdo from there. More to come later, when there is time.

"Today, we celebrate our Independence Day"

In honor of the Fourth of July, we are wearing red, white and blue and going to have a big American dinner at Hard Rock cafe. It is also our last day with Emily Monaco, as she is heading off to Perpignan tomorrow and we are heading off to Berlin. Although I know we are all having a blast, I think traveling is starting to wear us out and seeing the sights is getting to be tiring. I'm glad that Reed and I are going to be spending so much time in Berlin, so that we can get a bit settled.

I have to say that almost every day of this trip, I have tried to represent myself and my country to people in a good light. It's hard out here, having to fight the stereotypes and the realities of American culture in the lives of others around the world. It's a an uphill battle that I will choose to continue to fight for as long as it takes. I think it's a battle that is important because of all the great things that American people and culture have to offer. We often get the short end of the stick when people around the world view our culture, but I still think it's an amazing country with more opportunity than one can imagine and when people don't see that potential, when they down on it, they make the stereotypes worse, they make the image even more tainted. So, I guess I'm glad to be here and I'm glad to go back, because for me, America is worth the fight.

Gaudí

Went to the Gaudí Cathedral today and boy was it impressive. It was a lot like the way you imagine old Cathedrals to have been. Except now our scope is bigger, so the building is bigger and more fantastic. There are more colors and movement to the design. It makes you realize what it must have been like to walk into a Cathedral during the Middle Ages and how you could see the power of God through the building, because it was so massive, there was so powerful of a presence.

That's the thing about Europe, the way you feel connected to the past here. They don't give up on some of the old things and the old ways of working. When you go to a city in Europe, the likeliness of finding a Cathedral is pretty good. What you realize when you hear the history, is that the building probably took several generations to see the completion of the Cathedral and the people who started it wouldn't live to see the day of its completion. That is how the Cathedral being built today is: Gaudí died in 1926 and still, people work towards finishing this incredible building. There is no end in sight, but when you see it and stand in its massive interior you understand why people are still building and still looking. Europeans aren't afraid of taking time and of going for the long haul. You realize when you are in these buildings that you are a part of history and not just separate from it. The choices you make now are historical, they are meaningful to the past and the future. You are connected to the people who were there before you just as much as the people who will come after you.

Barcelona

aka Barthalona. Those Spanish people love the their 'th' sound.

We took the overnight train to Barcelona and arrived a bit tired and hot to our hostel. Barcelona is our last city all three of us, so it's a little bit bittersweet to be here. Our next stop is Berlin, with just Emily Reed and I. I'm kinda much excited about it :)

We haven't had much of an opportunity to check out the city yet, but I'm hoping to do a bit of touristy stuff, like the Gaudí, Picasso (maybe), and just get to the city center. I'll write more about it later.

Just another thing on my mind: two weeks from now I will be back in the States (NYC, to be exact) I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time, it is sad to leave and see this experience coming to an end. Europe has definitely left an impression on me and I 'm interested to see how it will cross over the Atlantic...I guess that's the thing about life, you just dive in and see where you come up in the end.

España

Hola!
Today we made our way to San Sebastian, a cool beach town in the Basque region of Spain. We are staying at a hostel-type place where the owner speaks no English, but is very nice. It´s also very Spanish, as we arrived at around 1pm and had to wait for our rooms to be cleaned. The explanation: everyone slept in kind of late, so they didn´t have time to clean the rooms yet. So far, the town is really nice, we are probably going to go to the beach a lot and eat a lot of tapas. Should be fun.

The last bit of Bordeaux was nice, the wine tasting/class was very informative, although not our favorite wines ever. We learned about the appellation controlee and why the region produces different wines.

Once again it is Soldes seaon in France, which means everything is really cheap, hooray! It also means that I have been here a very long time, because we were in the midst of the Soldes when I arrived in February. Less than twenty days left, which seems like a long time, but is sure to pass by very quickly.

Long update

Sorry to have taken so long to update, we have had a crazy couple of days in rural France and are finally back in Bordeaux, which is a big city that actually has internet cafés--yay!
I think I left off at Antwerp. Antwerp is a nice city to be in, although Flemish is a strange language that looks a lot like a bunch of letters jumbled together to me! Our last night, we met a couple guys from Southern California and chatted them up a bit. It was interesting to hear some of their stories.

We left Antwerp and on our way to Normandy. The most obvious thing to do in Normandy is to see is the beaches, but alas, we never made it to them. Originally, we intended to stay in one of the bigger villages, such as Bayeux, but could not find accomodation to fit our budget. So after some internet research, we found a place that was in a neighboring village carhagne which was within our price range. It is very common in the French countryside for people to have inherited big farm houses that they renovate and rent rooms out of. This is what our place ended up being, which was a very welcome change from having to share a giant room with ten other people and one bathroom (yay hostel life!). The only kink in our otherwise genius plan was that the bus that we were relying on to take us into Bayeux didn't run on the day we were there. So, we ended up taking the day to recuperate in a nice, basically private house with free computer, tv, and adorable pets to play with. Later in the day, we took about an hour walk to the next town and bought a picnic dinner at the grocery store. We then decided to hit up the local bar (what else is there to do in a small town?) and ended up with the five older, local blue collar workers who spoke with thick Northern accents. It was incredibly funny and probably one of the most authentic experiences yet. We tried the local digestif, Calvados, and walked back home. Since the only bus into Bayeux was at 7 in the morning (no joke), we ended up spending the day walking around the town, trying the crepes (also a specialty of the region)and going to see the Bayeuw Tapestry. This is the tapestry illustrating the Norman invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror (he was actually known as William the Bastard before his big win, how unfortunate ;)). Monaco, who was a linguistics major at Toronto was especially excited to see the Tapestry, as this battle is one of the most important influences on the development of the English language. About 1/3 of English comes from French and a lot of that is thanks to old Willy, in 1066. And you thought history was dead... ;)

So, on we made our way to Mont St. Michel. The main attraction of this part of otherwise rural France is the Abby and town that is built on an exceptionally interesting terrain. It is basically a town built atop a big hill that, during certain parts of the year, completely floods around the entire base. As a result, you get a very quaint, compact town that has been well preserved because of it's safe location. That, and awesome view of the countryside.

We ended up staying at a B&B owned by a British couple. Our first night there, we made our up the hill to the next small town (about a kilometer) and had some delicious crepes. (Get ready everyone, this is where the craziness begins) After we finish our crepes, Emily Monaco asks us if she looks puffy. Emily has had an allergic reaction to some food before in which she went into aniphylaxis, but the allergist wasn't able to diagnose it, so she travels with an epi pen and taught us how to use it. Anyway... she looks fine to us and we don't think much of it, because she has wondered it aloud before. We decide to have a dessert crepe and then realize that Monaco isn't feeling well. We decide it is best to go down the hill to get her some benadryl, just in case. At this point, we think it is the Buckwheat in the crepes that she is allergic to (Buckwheat is only used in savory crepes, which are rare, except in the North of France, bingo! guess where we are...). on our way down the hill, she starts to have trouble breathing, at which point, I decided to sprint down the hill to get her medicine. By the time I run out of the B&B with the Benadryl and epi pen, there are Reed and Monaco, zooming down the hill, being driven by a French kid whose car they have comandeered and there is Monaco, in full fledged Aniphylactic shock. She epi pens herself, I feed her Benadryl and the kid calls the French equivalent of 911 and we zoom away to the fire station, which is the closest emergcy center around and we wait for the EMTs to arrive. In the end she is fine, and had to go to the hospital. It was pretty freakin' scary though. We all decided that we were glad we had been in France and not Antwerp, because we can all speak the language. We also realized the importance of knowing the emergency numbers in a foreign country. We were lucky that we found that kid to drive us, because we could just as easily been all alone.

The next day, we decided to take it easy because we were all pretty tired, especially Monaco, for obvious reasons. We rented some bikes from the B&B and searched for Monaco's things which had fallen off the car in the rush of things. We also went to a Pharmacy and had the B&B person drive us to a grocery store (this is a service they offer--pretty nice!).

The next day, we biked to the Mont and enjoyed the Abby and the little town. The ride there was about an hour and ok except for a few sprinkles. But on the ride back, right as we were leaving, a storm broke out and an hour and a half later, we arrived, drenched, back at the B&B. The only thing we wanted to do was have a hot shower and some dinner at the local pub/snack place up the hill. The pub was called the Oyster Catcher and was owned by a British man, with a sharp tongue. Right up our ally. We went there two nights in a row and again, got to know the local people, including our savior! The kid who helped us the day before! So that's what it's like to live in a small town...

Finally, we departed Mont St. Michel and made our way to Bordeaux, where we are now. It is a very nice, university town and we all decided right away that we liked it. Today, we looked around and got a sense of the city. We visited the Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and we visited the Aquitaine Museum, which wasn't much to write home about. This evening we went to a concert that was put on in the Cathedral with an organist and a saxophonist. It was nice to listen to the music and think. The Cathedral is expansive and pretty incredible, which is saying a lot, because there are a lot of Cathedrals in Europe. Tomorrow we are going to take a Bordeaux wine tasting class that the tourist information office suggests. Hopefully it will be good. It is the best we can do without a car to get us to the outer regions where the vineyards are.

So there is my ridiculously long update. We are in Bordeaux for a bit, then on to Spain. We are over halfway done and Spain is the last stop with Monaco. Where has the time gone?

Amsterdam, Antwerp and Normandy

Sorry to keep you all wauiting with baited breath :) Living out of a backpack tends to get a bit hectic, and on the off chance that I get to be on the computer, I'm generally tired and not in the mood to type.
Amsteradm was a cool, very different city. I find that I'm impressed by the way the Dutch have decided to handle the less desirable parts of life with a radical way of putting it out into the open. I don't know If I would want it for my own country, though. Our hostel was pretty cool and in the Red Light District. Don't worry mom and dad, there weren't any prostitutes hanging out the window on my stree :) It was actually a good place to be located-we were near the station and also in a big hub of an area. The weather hindered our ability to do a whole lot, and the streets are the most confusing city I think I've ever been in. We did get to go to the Van Gogh museum, which was cool considering Monaco and I just finished our Art History class. We not only knew who the painters Van Gogh was influenced by, but we could tell by looking at them who they were! cool! We also got to see our friend Josie two nights in a row. She lives in Haarlem, which is in the suburbs of the city, so it's a bit of a trek for her to come out. We went to a comedy show that she suggested and just generally had a good time catching up with her.

After Amsterdam, we got on a train to Antwerp. It's not far at all to Belgium, about two hours ride. Antwerp is a beautful city that is quaint and nice to walk around in. The main attraction is Ruben's house, which is the home of the famous artist. We took that tour, which was interesting to get insight on the type of person that he was and how his travels influenced what he had in his home. Much of the style was Italian Renaissance, to which he took a particular liking. I also made sure to eat a Belgian waffle and fries, both of wich were delicious. Our hostel was very interesting as well. The people that owned it were quite bizarre, but incredibly generous people who loved people and nature. It was sort of an old house that had been converted into a hostel.

...someone needs the computer, so must get off.

Toto, we're not in France anymore...

So today started out a bit rocky, but eventually turned out ok. We were planning on going to the countryside today on a tour to check out some of the other sights. The tour was to meet at 9am, so at 9am, we arrived, and no bus. Apparently, we have become quite accustomed to "French time" as Monaco likes to put it, which means that at around 9am ish, we are gonna go in about five minutes. Apparently to the rest of the world, 9am means 9am. Oh well. We sat around for about 45 minutes to see if we could catch the next tour, only to see that it was full. ok, pas grave. We'll make new plans. How about this walking tour? cool. let's go. Oh never mind, we missed that one, too. No kidding. So, a bit grudgingly, we went back to the tourism office and found a walking tour of the revolution of Ireland that was going to start in the bext 10 minutes. We made a dash for it, and ended up having a really cool walking tour of the city. I never really realized how recent the Independence was or how strongly it influences a lot of the cultural identities of the Irish people.
After that, we had lunch at a Hari Krshna restaurant called Govinda that was recommended in the guidebook as well as by a local we met here. The food was delicious and we managed to come out still with hair and jeans in tact. Tomorrow we set out for Amsterdam. sweet.

Church

We went to services this morning at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Since Monaco is Catholic, she mentioned going, so Reed and I said we were up to it and this morning we got all churched up. Turns out that St. Patrick's is an Anglican/Episcopalian church, but it was interesting to go to nonetheless. I particularly found the Sermon part of the service to be the most interesting, as the Priest related the Bible story to modern day situations and spoke about how we could help make our community better and help others. That seems to always be my favorite part of the Church anyway. After, we decided to walk around the city and get a feel for it; we had picnick lunch on the quays of the river. Tomorrow we will probably go to the Guiness Factory, should be fun.

Dublin

We have just arrived at our hostel in Dublin! Based on our first encounters here, the people have been incrediboly nice. Our taxi cab driver chattted us up quite a bit on the way--she wanted to know all about us and told us all about herself. I know that the Irish are notorious for their friendly nature and I can honestly say, I can feel it already. I can't even begin to describe how excited I was to get here--more so than my other roots, I feel most strongly connected to the Irish ones. I think I can already see where the Irish traits in me coming out. It's easy to be interested in people who are interested in you, n'est pas? Well, enough of all this hullabaloo, I must explore the city and see how it actually is, rather than just my impressions.

"Oh Flower of Scoland..."

Reed has been teaching Monaco and I the words to a Scottish song, I'm about two lines in, but I'm hopeful that I'll get them done by the end.

Scotland is a beautiful country and Edinburgh is a lovely city. We are staying at Reed's house and her parents have been incredibly generous to us. The other day, we visited Ediburgh Castle and listened to the audio guides (I generally recommend the audio guide whenever available-they really enrich the experience). Edinburgh Castle, which is still in use for events today, is home to the oldest building in the city as well as the Scottish crown jewels. The thing about the Scottish is that they are very proud of their heritage and still a bit grumbly about losing their sovereignty to the English. Don't make the mistake of calling a Scot an Englishman, or you may end up with a few bruises.
While in the castle, we had a very interesting discussion with Emily's mom about the purpose of the Monarch. It was as much a political discussion as it was an historical one. She pointed out that the Monarch can be seen as an unbiased figure who represents the people, rather than a political party; I quoted some Thomas Jefferson. All in all it was a good little discussion. The more I get to know the people that are my friends here, the more I see the similarities in their families and in the way they communicate and interact with each other. Lord knows there has been more than one discussion on politics in our house! Reed is going to be studying history at Durham next term, and it's no wonder why she has an interest in that.
The same day we went to the Castle, we also had the opportunity to go the the Scottish Parliament. Reed's dad is a judge, so he took us back and showed us his chambers, his robes, and even his wig! We got to sit in on one of his cases for a few minutes and see the law at work. We also got a tour of the building, which was the seat of the Scottish Parliament before joining the UK. It's in situations like these that you can see the difference in age between Britain and the US. There are a lot of situations where they are both equally modern, but to see the lawyers and the judges wearing their wigs, you can see that they are woking under a system that is respecting much older values and tradition than ours. This doesn't mean that one is better than the other, only that they function under a different background.
Besides all that excitment, there has been: a trip to the grocery store, Monaco's birthday take away curry night, chips and cheese (aka french fries with shredded cheese on top), and general lazing about, storing up energy for the big trip. We are going for a hike today, should be cool to see the view.

Last Day

Sorry that I haven't been blogging much, this last week after the festival has gone by so quickly that I've been running around trying to get everything in order before school ended. I'm now currently in Edinburgh, Scotland staying at Emily Reed's house here until Saturday.

The last day of school ended on Friday and my class, which has been together for all four months, had a petite fete with our Professor, Giselle. She is a lovely French woman who has two daughters, around 30 and 20 I think. She used to be an actress when she was younger and she is just one of those stylish, fun people who loves to chat and enjoy the joie de vivre. She is the one who took us to Mougin for a cafe. We gave her flowers and a picture frame as a goodbye gift. It was sad to see her go, but nice to have gotten to spend time with her. I hope that I will get to see her again in the future.

Later that day, Reed and I were able to drop off our extra baggage that we don't want to cart around at one of her family friend's basements. We are planning to come back to Cannes our last day and pick them up.

In the evening we had the Blue Moon Soiree and we dressed up and celebrated our last night at the College with cocktails and a saxaphone player.

At this point, it seems surreal that my time in Cannes has ended. As cliche as it sounds, I have changed. This experience has been so intense and so eye-opening that I can't imagine how someone could come here and not leave a bit different. The French way of living and the constant time for discussions at the college allow you to examine your life a lot and to try to figure out what the important stuff is all about. Also, being away from Southern California has really helped to get a perspective about the rest of the world and what is important. The celebrity stuff and the Hollywood-ness of being so close to LA has much smaller of an effect on the people around the world and I have thought more and more about the point of it all. I don't know at this point how that will effect what I do in the future, but often, it seems, thought leads to action, which is always a vehicle for change.

I'm looking forward to my travels ahead, but the more I am away, the more I look forward to coming home and seeing my family and friends; the poeple who are reading this right now. I'll try to keep everyone updated on where I am and I'll try to put up some of my thoughts about the festival soon.

Just Got a Hold of These...

mmmhhmmm, got these from the Ocean's junket

Super Exciting

Yesterday I saw (close up): George, Brad, and Matt. I don't think I need to give you last names either for you to figure out who I mean. Let's just say they're in a movie called Ocean's 13...it was really freakin' cool.