First few days of life in Cannes

Sorry for the slowdown in posts. Somehow it is harder to find time to sit down and write when we are finally settled in here than it was when we were on the go all the time in our vacation trip. So far, everything has been going very well here. We have spent tons of time laying on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean (the beach is just about visible from my room) and trying not to topple in this strange heat. But we've kind of been doing more than just beaching. On Saturday we took a group trip out to a villa near Nice, which overlooked the sea. The place was huge, and a demonstration of wealth. We walked through the mansion, checking out all of the different parlors (there was even a room called a Monkey salon, where the lady who owned the place kept her pet chimps) and out into the gardens. This was probably the most spectacular part, as the villa hosted about 4 acres of gardens, split up into 9 different sections representing different areas of the world. There were Spanish gardens, Chinese gardens, Provencal gardens, a beautiful rose garden, etc. In front of it all was a giant set of fountains, which performed a water show in time to the favorite music of the villa's owners.

Yesterday, we took a ferry to a place called Ile St. Marguerite. This was an island that was originally founded as a monastery for a group of nuns, but eventually turned into a sort of fort. The real claim to fame was that the island supposedly housed the famous prisoner The Man in the Iron Mask, who's cell we spent some time in. After having explored the fort, Hayley, our friend Taylor, and I decided to explore the island a bit more. We went to its rocky southern shore and climbed the rocks and watched the sea for a while. After a while, we started to miss our own stretch of sand and came back home to hit the beach.

This morning was a little bit more hectic. While classes have yet to start, this morning we took a placement test, which was what would decide which 3-hour per day grammar class we would start in. The system is designed so that you take this test, get placed in a class appropriate for your level, then each month you get a chance to be re-evaluated and bumped up a level. The test went pretty well for both of us, despite the fact that neither of us studied (as our professor advised us not to). The placement scale looks something like this:

A1  - beginner (lowest)  B1- Low intermediate  C1- University level (For native French people)
A2  - semi- beginner      B2- High intermediate  C2- Expert native French

The test was comprised of three main parts- reading comprehension, grammar/writing, and a short oral exam. When I had finished, the lady  who did my oral exam (who also had by then graded my other work) said that I was kind of hard to place. On the one had, she said that my spoken French was outstanding and that I should be somewhere around C1, which is like intro-university level, but that she thought that my writing could use some work. In the end, she decided to place me in between and put me in the B2 level, which I am happy with. It will be nice to be able to review some of the things I know, but don't know well, and to be able to test up to the C1 level with a bit more confidence. Hayley did much better than she had expected. She thought that the grammar part was especially much easier than she had thought, although the reading comprehension and the oral exam were still a little rough. She thinks that after a week or so of having to speak French all the time, she should be doing much better. She was surprised to be placed in the B1 class, along with some of the other lower-level students who had taken a semester or two more than she had. Our grammar courses start tomorrow at 9 a.m. and we begin our course with our CSB|SJU professor (which meets on Tues/Thurs in the afternoon) which covers French cultural history or something like that.

The food at the college has been pretty good. It is kind of frustrating because on the weekends, you eat brunch at 10 a.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. which is such a frustrating distance to go without eating anything. The French don't snack as much as we do back in the U.S. We've had some really good food and some kinda iffy food. We've had really good stuff like a kind of steak steeped in a really good beefy-sauce (kinda like a much better version of Hamburger Helper), some lamb in a different nummy sauce, really good breakfast stuff with bacon, French omelets, and bread of all sorts. One night, the main dish was Kalamari. It isn't something that Hayley particularly enjoys, and Taylor and I both doubted that we would be able to choke it down, so we went into town and had dinner at this really delicious and incredibly cheap restaurant. Don't worry, though. This isn't likely to become a regular thing whenever fish is on the menu. I've been really good at eating whatever food is available, regardless of how weird it is. I even forced myself to choke down a salad today, even though I have always found them distasteful.

Regretfully, I still don't really have any pictures to put up. We forgot to bring the camera along on our day trips over the weekend and every time we've gone to the beach, we have left it behind. Soon, though, I promise I will put some up on here. If you guys have any questions about how things are going or if I didn't cover something you were curious about, feel free to leave a comment on this post. I know some people who have wanted to do so have been confused about the process, so I'll try to explain it again.

About an inch below this chunk of text, there should be a small thing in gold-ish letters saying "No comments" or "2 comments" or whatever. This is a link. click on it. It should open up a little text box for you to write a message in. Type out what you want to say, choose the "Anonymous" option in the little drop down bar, and then click "post." You may have to do one of those weird word fill in things, but that is all there is to it!