Planning Trips!

Hi Everyone! We don't have much to write, but we are at the interent cafe again (they really don't like us here!) trying to plan some trips! Today we did some wash, went food shopping and walked around Antibes looking for bargains since the sales are ending soon. We wanted to post a few more pictures that we thought you would enjoy! Miss you and love you! Talk to you soon! Salut!

Love, Em and Jen

**The first picture is in the grocery store. We have the hardest time finding food because of all the labels in French. Jen espeically liked the sign for candy, "bonbons!" The second and third pictures are from a sunset out of our two balconies. The fourth picture is of the package Mom and Dad sent us! It was an amazing surprise and full of both delicious and our favorite foods from home including home made cookies! It also had sheets inside for our beds which make sleeping so much nicer! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH MOM AND DAD!

We’re On Strike!

Bonjour! Ca va? Sorry we haven’t written in a while, the wireless internet at school hasn’t been working too well so we haven’t been able to use our laptops. We have a lot to tell you though! On Saturday we woke up early to meet our CEA advisor and some other CEA students for a trip to Monaco and Eze. Unfortunately the day was extremely cold and rainy. For us this has been normal but for the locals this is very uncommon. Before we left we took a bus tour of Cap d’Antibes. It is along the shoreline of Antibes, just a short distance from our apartment. It was very pretty, we were told the ocean temperature was 13 degrees Celsius, warmer than the air, and we even saw some surfers, snorkelers and wind surfers. It is a very rich area full of big houses and giant hotels where all the celebrities stay. Madonna recently stayed there!

We then took the bus about 45 minutes to a small town in France located on the side of a cliff called Eze. On the way we passed by the hotel where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt recently had their twins and Elton John’s yacht- pretty impressive! Eze was very tiny but beautiful. We walked around the old town, where only a few people live today. The streets were narrow and hilly but pretty and filled with flowers and little stores and cafes. We stopped at a perfume factory and had a tour to see how the perfume was made and had lunch in a small café.

Next we drove about 45 more minutes to Monaco. We learned that Monaco is the second smallest country and is the size of Central Park. There is zero crime/burglary so there is only a handful of police officers and the unemployment rate is zero. Jen’s favorite fact was that it is cheaper in Monaco to take a helicopter than it is to take a taxi for one person. Only 70 euro!! Em liked the fact that a studio apartment only cost 1 million euro! We passed the street where Grace Kelly was killed and went inside the church where she was married and buried. We took a tour of the gardens where both princesses have houses, saw the Prince’s Palace (he’s still single, but unfortunately 50 years old!), toured the museum of Oceanography and drove down the street where the Grand Prix takes place each year. Of course we thought of you Uncle Bobby! At the end of the day we drove to Monte Carlo, the largest town in Monaco. The Monte Carlo Casino was split into two parts, one was 10 Euros just to enter and one was free so of course we chose that one! We didn’t understand any of the games and almost all of them were 2 euro per game so we didn’t bet anything but it was fun just being inside! The town was very pretty light up at night but we were exhausted from walking all day, cold and wet so we were excited for the warm bus ride back to Antibes! (Plus we felt a little out of place walking around seeing Lamborghinis and millionaires!)

On Sunday we were planning on going to Nice for the day but got on the wrong bus and ended up in Cagnes Sur Mer. Jen was excited though because we walked to a giant race track near by and saw a few horse races. We also walked along the promenade and saw some of the damage from the waves that crashed on shore during the storm the previous day. The beaches here are made of pebbles instead of sand so there were pebbles everywhere and all of the beaches and stores had to close until everything was cleaned up. During the storm, one of the largest sea bass farms broke open and thousands of the most expensive and delicious fish were lose in the water along the coast for the locals! Our advisors husband went fishing when he heard it on the news and was able to catch 36 of the sea bass in 45 minutes! In the afternoon we were able to skype with Mom, Dad and Aunt Lynnie! It was so nice being able to see and talk to them! It almost felt like we were home!

Last night we went to a local creperie with our adviser, one of our roommates and three other girls for dinner. We had the opportunity to go into the kitchen to make two of our own crepes! The first was made of a thicker crepe and was filled with ham, cheese and tomato. The second (our favorite!) was thinner and sweeter and filled with vanilla ice cream and caramel! We also had their famous home made apple cider. The cook was very nice and put up with our lack of French and crepe making skills! Last week we attempted to make crepes from a box for dinner but didn’t convert the measurements correctly and instead ended up with thick, burnt pancakes and no syrup! These were much better!

Today was the first day of a public transportation strike in all of France. All trains, busses and planes are not running for 24 hours as of now. However, this is likely to go on for much longer. Unfortunately our school is very strict with attendance and after missing two classes or being late twice you automatically fail the class. Of course this takes place on the day we have the one class we already had to miss once during the add/drop period! Our school is a half hour away by bus and we take several high ways to get there so we did not have another option besides taking the bus. A taxi would be too expensive and walking was out of the question! Fortunately for us, one bus throughout France is running today and it just so happens to be the one we take to school! We were looking forward to having a day off but we guess this is better than failing the class since it would not have counted as an excused absence!

Class is starting soon but before we leave we wanted to give you a few more odd things we have noticed about the French! Julie, thanks so much for your card, it was a great surprise and so nice of you! Hope the weather in Wisconsin warms up a little bit soon!
Military time – the time is written in military time everywhere! We still have not gotten used to it and have already gotten mixed up and left for class an hour early! This makes reading the bus schedule even more challenging!
Accents – not American! We find it so strange that no one thinks we are from America. We have gotten asked numerous times where we are from and so far everyone thinks we are either from Australia for England. Not one person thinks we are from America! This is interesting for us since we can recognize those accents so easily!
Cigarettes – everyone and their mother smokes here! The first day of school we thought there was a fire drill since so many people were outside of the building but we realized it was just the French students have one last smoke before class started! We know break is coming when the cigarettes and lighters appear on the desks next to the rulers! We have even seen middle school aged kids and younger smoking.

That’s all for now! Sorry it’s so long but we wanted to keep you all up to date! Grandma came over last night to check on us and make sure we were doing okay. She had been sick for a while but is finally feeling better. We don’t know many of our other neighbors, but recently tried our French on two of them out back which resulted in one closing his blinds and the other disappearing and returning in his underwear to smoke a cigarette. I think we’ll stick with Grandma! We love and miss you more than you could ever imagine! We think about you every day! Hope everything is going well at home! Hopefully we will talk to you soon!
LOVE YOU!
Em and Jen

** Lot's of pictures! The first one is looking over Monaco. Our bus driver stopped and let us take a picture on the drive from Eze. The second is of us walking to the museum of Oceanography in Monaco through a street sign/mirror! The third picture is in front of the Monte Carlo casino and the fourth is of us in the first submarine ever made. The fifth picture is also of us over looking Monaco and the sixth picture is of Jen in the old town in Eze. The seventh picture is of us (and our umbrella since it was raining!) in Eze and the eight picture is of Jen at the Hippodrom, the horse track! The ninth, tenth and eleventh pictures are from our adventures making Crepres with Gen Jaque - the man who owns the Crepere and helped us out! The final picture is from the beach in Cannes Sur Mer, the waves were still a little rough!

Some More Interesting Facts!

Good morning everyone! We are at school, done with classes for the day but just taking advantage of the internet! We had sociology today - sooo hard! It is definitely one of our hardest classes with lots of reading and other work. We just got to Skype with Mom for a few minutes before she left for work and it was so good to see her! If any of you have a camera on your computers sign up for Skype - it's free to sign up and only takes a minute. Jen's username is jen.carp221 or just search for Jen Carp. We would love to see/talk to you! We even got to see Maggie for a second! Not much else has been new the last few days. Last night we watched the inauguration with our roommate Hilary and one of our friends from Canada - he was just as excited as we were even though he's not from America! There was a French interpreter talking over Obama so it was very hard to hear and right after his speech they switched the program, but it was nice to see everyone's enthusiasm and to be able to witness such an incredible part of history! This weekend we are going to Monaco and Eze with our program so we are looking forward to that. We weren't able to watch the game but Dad broke the news to us that the Eagles had lost - we were sad to hear that but they had a good run! Thanks to everyone for all the e-mails and comments - we LOVE hearing from you and it means so much to us! We miss you all like crazy! We wish you could be here! Since nothing much else is new Em decided to continue her list of interesting French observations...

1. Sweatpants: and not just any kind of sweatpants but the old school whooshy, tight at the bottom kind worn by both and men and women of all ages. People here wear them everywhere! (And of all colors too! We have seen bright blue, traditional black, hot pink, rainbow, and yellow!)

2. Toilets: all of the toilets have two buttons to choose from when flushing. Our roommate recently realized the difference between the two. The smaller button is for number one and the bigger button is for number two, more water! Sorry, gross, we know!

3. Walls: the walls here are so thin! It is a law everywhere in France that you cannot make loud noises in your apartments after ten due to the thin walls. Ladies must take high heeled shoes off and everyone must keep their voices, music, tv, etc. down. Many American’s have found this out the hard way from their neighbors after making too much noise at night. We know what part of the house the dog above us is in at all times of the day. We also know the his owners work schedule due to the fact that the ladies shoes wake us up every morning as she is leaving for work. Everyone wears slippers. We needed help with our stove after we blew a fuse last week and all three neighbors came over wearing their slippers to help. At least Grandma next door keeps it down!

4. Bags: there are no plastic bags here. Even when going to the grocery store you must bring your own bag to carry your groceries home or buy a shopping bag at the register. This can get really annoying when you have a lot of groceries, a small bag and a long bus ride. Funny story: the other day when we were going back to our apartment on the bus from the food store our baguette fell out of Jen’s bag, rolled down the bus isle and finally stopped at the shoes of an old, dirty, overweight woman with facial hair sitting six seats back. As she picked it up she screamed “Voila!” and handed it to the lady next to her who began the process of passing the bread up the bus to us. We decided not to eat it and left it for a homeless man. We think it was a smart decision!

Love you!
Em and Jen

**Picture number one is of a dog we saw sitting out front of a store in the Old Village. We added this picture for Pop-Pop since we know he loves dogs and we miss Maggie! The second picture is from McDonalds, you can see some of the prices, everything is so much more money over here! The third picture is from the beach at night. The fourth and fifth pictures are from school. The first is of one of our classrooms and the second is of the main entrance. The sixth picture is of the stree we live on and the seventh picture is of a smart car we saw in Cannes that was interesting looking. The last picture is of us on the TGV on the way to Cannes.

NRJ Awards!

Hi Everyone! Yesterday, January 17th, we decided to take the train to Cannes for the day. We bought two round trip tickets for 5.20 euro. We took the TGV- the fastest train in the world and the ride was only about 4 minutes. The day started out a little cloudy but the sun did come out later in the day. We didn’t know the area so we walked around a little at first. We saw a farmers market and then headed towards the beach. The area was really nice, very expensive with stores like Gucci, D&G and Hugo Boss! We are told this is where all the celebrities go on vacation! We were walking along the pathway near the water when we came to the Hilton hotel and saw a bunch of photographers, news reporters and girls with cameras and paper for autographs. We had no idea what was going on and no one spoke English! We finally found a young girl and her dad who spoke a few words of English- enough to learn that the NRJ awards (similar to the American Music Awards) were being filmed that night in Cannes and everyone was waiting for the celebrities who were staying at the hotel! If you know us, this was right up our alley!

Jen and I had seen commercials for the awards on TV and had planned on watching them at home. Performers like the Pussycat Dolls, Coldplay and Rhianna were scheduled to play so we got really excited! Before we knew it, us and about 20 young girls interrupted Christopher Mae’s breakfast- a very popular French singer and were able to get our picture taken with him! We waited for a few more minutes but decided we should head back for lunch and some warmer clothes if we wanted to watch the celebrities walk the red carpet. We bundled up and arrived back in Cannes around 3:00 and right away ran into another exchange student from America who happened to go to Cannes for the day as well. The three of us decided to stick it out- being the only Americans in the crowd and secured front row spots along the red carpet behind the photographers. We didn’t get to see Britney Spears, Beyonce, Coldplay or Rhinana, but we did manage to see Akon, Duffy, Seal, Miss. France, Jennifer, and a performance from Katy Perry! It was a crazy and cold night but it was fun to watch everything unfold.

Today we attempted wash for the first time. No one in France owns a dryer; everyone hangs their clothes out to dry. Of course we pick one of the few cloudy and colder days to do laundry. Right now we are at the internet café while our clothes are spread out all around our room with a fan hopefully drying, but we doubt it! We might go and watch some of the Eagles game tonight but we still have a ton of homework to do and little money left to spend! We will be thinking of all of you tonight - GO EAGLES! We love and miss you!!!! Love, Em and Jen

**The first picture is of the palm trees in Cannes. The second picture is Em in front of the red carpet. The third picture is of Em with Christopher Mae, a very popular French pop singer. The fourth picture is of Jen and a sand carving. The fifth picture is of footprints in the sand along the beach in Cannes. The sixth picture is of us at the beach and the seventh picture is of Jen and Chris, on the red carpet with Katy Perry and her backup dancers in the backgroup coming down to perform Hot N' Cold. The eighth picture is of Akon and the ninth picture is of Jen in Carrefour, buying groceries! Baskets to pull or carry are free, shopping carts are 1 euro!

School, School, School!

Hi everyone! Our classes are finally over for the week! We are on campus right now using the internet and just met with an advisor to add and drop our classes and finalize our schedule. As we were walking into her office she goes “Hi, Carps!” It’s weird how everyone somehow knows our name! She was really nice and fixed our schedule without any problems. We are taking four classes: Introduction to Film, Introduction to Sociology, French Artists on the French Riviera, and English Composition and Rhetoric II. We originally only had classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but because we just had to add the film class we now have class on Thursdays as well. We think Film will be our most interesting class. Some French kid came running in late with a huge bag of popcorn and when the teacher asked what the smell was he said “Popcorn, it’s a movie class so you have to have popcorn!” We normally aren’t allowed to have any food or drink in class except for water. The school has little vending machines that sell a cup of coffee or hot chocolate that is delicious for .40euro so on really cold days or when we are really hungry we buy one during break!

After we are done here at school we are going to go back to Carreforre (the place we went last Saturday that is similar to Cosco). It is amazing how much money we can spend on food and still have no food to cook at night! We have been living off of peanut butter and jelly since we got here that we packed from home but the last two nights we finally decided to cook dinner after going to the grocery store. It wasn’t too successful! The first night we made pasta and chicken nuggets but the nuggets turned out to be rubber and we couldn’t cut them! Last night we made ham and cheese sandwiches and pizza bagels but the bagels had a mayonnaise like filling that made us instantly sick. Gross!

Em is amazed at all of the weird differences we see here. During one of our movies in film class last night that was in French she started making a list so here it is:
Scarves – EVERYWHERE! Everyone wears them no matter what the temperature is, especially guys.
Rulers – every single French student carries a ruler with them and has it out on their desk every second of class. We have never seen one being used.
Paper – all of the paper here is about two inches longer than our paper at home. We brought folders with us from home so all of our papers stick out of the top and are getting ruined. All of the paper here is also graph paper; they do not sell lined paper so all of the American’s who didn’t bring paper with them are having a very hard time writing!
Cars – all of the cars here are top brands. Even all of the buses are Mercedes.
Toilet paper – the toilet paper here is pink! So far we have gone through thirteen rolls since we have been here! They must be small rolls!
Kisses – everyone kisses! We were so excited the first time one of the French kids kissed us on both of our cheeks! It is still weird seeing two guys kiss each other to say hello though!

I’m sure Em will continue to add on to her list so we will be sure to keep you updated! We love and miss you soooo much! Hope everything is going well at home! Have a great day!

-Em and Jen

** The first two pictures are of the two dinners we cooked. They look a lot better than they tasted! Haha! I guess we can only improve on our cooking! The second picture is of Em at the bus station. We still have no idea how to read the maps and have already ended up at the bus station with only the driver three times now! I guess that can only improve too!! The fourth picture Em took on our way to the bus station of some mopeds lined up and the fifth picture is one we took at the beach. Enjoy!

First Week of School!

Hi everyone! Today is Tuesday, January 13 and we are into our second week in Antibes! This is our first full week of school. Yesterday we had an art class, Artists of the French Riviera from 4-7pm. It was a long class; the teacher was really crazy and went really fast. This morning from 8:30-11:30 we had Composition and Rhetoric II. There was only one other American in the class with us and the three of us ended up in the wrong classroom. We couldn’t read the schedule so we got our first late mark and need to make sure we are on time from now on. Not off to a good start in that class! The teacher is pregnant and extremely odd. She told us that if we caused her a lot of stress we would send her into premature labor. The class basically consists of writing papers for three hours straight analyzing books and poems and doing presentations. Just want we love! This afternoon from 4-7pm we have Religion and Culture of the Mediterranean. Can’t wait to see what that class will be like!

Friday night we went out with our roommates a few other people to an Australian Outback bar. The bar was pretty crazy, but we had fun! We got up early on Saturday morning and went shopping at a place similar to Costco with CEA. (Minus the samples!) People there were crazy and would run into your with their shopping carts if you didn’t get out of their way! The store had everything from TVs and appliances to food and clothing. That afternoon we walked around the town and went to the beach. Later that night we went to watch the sunset with our roommates. On Sunday a group of us met to watch the Eagles game at a pub in Old Town Antibes. We were the only Eagles fans and everyone else lost money betting on the Giants. They were pretty upset. It was so nice hearing American commercials and TV in English!

We miss you all and can’t wait to hear from you soon! Let us know how things are going at home! Our internet is getting installed today but we won’t be able to get connection for about 10 days afterwards. Hope your feeling better Jul! Love you! Em and Jen

** The fist picture is Place d'Gaule, it is the main sqaure in Antibes about three blocks from our apartment. It is where we get the bus from and has a bunch of fountains that run all day long. The second picture is from when we were watching the Eagles game! The third and fourth pictures are for you Aunt Lynnie! There are many stay dogs and cats and people leave food and water outside of their doors for them. You can look closely and see two cats at the top of the fourth picture. The fifth picture is of our two roomates and us during the sunset and the sixth picture is at the Outback bar.

Pictures!

Hi!!!! We don't have much time so we just wanted to quickly add some pictures! We get internet in our apartment on Tuesday so we will hopefully write then! Have a great day, miss you!

**The first picture if of the McDonald's we go to to get internet. It is at a bus stop on the way to school. We liked the mopeds going through the drive through! The second picture if of a street in the old town of Antibes. The third picture is of us and our roommate Molly at the beach. The fourth picture is of our view outside of our window and the fifth picture is of part of the walkway up to our building at school.

Our First Few Days Here!

Hi everyone! We miss you so much! Today is Thursday and we spent most of the day so far running errands. We went to the doctors for a physical for gym class and Em got medicine for her sinus infection. We also rode the bus up to school to hand in paper work and to sign up for an aerobics class. Right now we are in a McDonalds near school trying to Skype to Mom!

On Monday January 4, 2008, our first full day here all of the students in our program met with our CEA advisor, Kristen and her husband, Gerry for breakfast in a nearby café. Kristen explained the program in further detail to us and talked about what trips we would be taking and what school would be like and then we met up with a tour guide who took us on a two hour walking tour of the town we are living in, Antibes. She pointed out grocery stores, appliance stores, markets, etc. that would be helpful to us during our stay here and also showed us the nearby beaches. We can’t wait for it to get warmer out! Most of France including Antibes and Paris is experiencing record cold temperatures and snow fall right now. Monday was the only sunny day and every day since has been absolutely freezing and pouring rain. After the walking tour our two roommates and us went to get bus passes that we need to get to and from school. They cost 24 euro for two months. We also got a few things from the grocery store and bought flowers for “Grandma” our neighbor who was very anxious to meet us. We had to hurry back to our apartment to meet Kristen who was stopping by everyone’s apartments to answer questions and show us how to get our mail, turn the heat on, and use the washer and dishwasher (since everything was in French!). For dinner we went to a café in the older town of Antibes and then stopped by the internet café a few blocks away from our apartment.

On Tuesday morning we had to be up bright and early to meet at 8:00 to catch the bus to our school’s campus for orientation. The school is located in Sophia Antipolis and the bus ride is about a half an hour, sometimes more depending on traffic and the bus stop is about a ten minute walk. The school is split into two main buildings, one that has offices, computer labs, a cafeteria, and classes for the students in the masters program. The second building where we will spend most of our time has advisors offices and classrooms for the undergrad students. The school is located in the woods and unfortunately for us the bus drops us off at the other building. We have to walk up one side of a hill made of rocks and mud, then walk alongside a very busy road, and then up an even steeper hill and then through the woods to get to our building. During the tour of the campus one of the CEA students raised their hands and asked if we were going to school or for a hike at nature camp! With the rain we have had the past two days it makes for a very interesting climb! During the orientation we met with the president of the school who explained the programs it offered, went for a tour of the campus, had lunch in the cafeteria, met with our advisors to adjust our schedules and then had our pictures taken for our ID cards. We didn’t get back to our apartment until about 6:00 and then just made PB&J sandwiches for dinner and then hung out at the apartment for the rest of the night.

Wednesday was our first day of class and we had one class at 8:30 so we had to get the bus around 7:35. All of the classes are three hours long and are only once a week, usually earlier in the week since a lot of people, especially exchange students want to travel over the weekends. We have class on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We had sociology today and out of the thirty-five students only three were American. Two students were other students from our program and one was a student from Hawaii. He was really nice. Most of the French students sat in the back and talked and played games on their computers even though the teacher kept telling them to stop talking and to talk in English when they did talk. We were told that they are ashamed of their American accents so they are afraid to speak in English. The class was really different from what we are used to. After about an hour the French students wanted a break so they left the classroom and didn’t come back for 45 minutes! The teacher just started without them after waiting a half hour! We have a lot of work to do for the class and it seems like it is going to be pretty hard. After class we got lunch on campus and then went to the computer lab and then came back to Antibes to go food shopping and look for adapters and hair dryers. Em is sick; she thinks she has a sinus infection so we are planning on going to the doctors tomorrow. We are also hoping on signing up for a gym class so we need to get a physical from the doctors as well.

Hope everything is going well with all of you! We miss you so much! Have a good week! We love you!
-Em and Jen

**The first picture is of part of our bedroom. We only have about four small drawers each so most of our clothes are still in our suitcases. We have a small balcony that connects to our rommates bedroom. The second picture is of our bathroom, we also have another half bathroom. The third picture is our kitchen, the fourth is our living room- there is also a balcony off of there and the fifth picture is of our roommates bedroom.