Finals: Last Week of School!

Hi! How is everyone doing? We hope you are all doing great! We are doing well; we are currently in the middle of finals. Our finals began on Tuesday and we have already taken three, one on Wednesday, one on Thursday and one today, Saturday. Our last and final one is on Monday night. We can’t believe how fast the semester has gone by, it seems like we just started school a few weeks ago! School was one of our favorite parts about this whole experience. The kids in our classes were great, always very friendly and helpful to us and we loved hearing them try to talk in English! We have realized that they understand English a lot better than they speak it! The students here do not take school as seriously as they do in America so they were fun to have class with! We are going to miss the hot chocolate vending machines that helped get us through our 8:30am classes, the half hour smoking breaks in the middle of class, the baguette sandwiches we would get for lunch after class, our teachers who were always checking to make sure we were doing well and eating okay, listening to the French students talk about America and hearing about their way of life, and of course all of the friends we made! (Plus the two kisses on the cheek!)

Finals is a completely different process here than it is at Millersville or most schools back home. We were completely shocked when we arrived at our first one! All of our finals were in the masters building instead of in the building where we normally had class so we got very lost looking for our classroom the first day. Even though we arrived about fifteen minutes early we were still two of the last ones to arrive for the exam. (This was a big surprise since the French students usually arrive exactly at the time class started or a little late!) We were required to show our school IDs in order to get into the room to take our final. Once we got inside we were asked what final we were taking and then we were told what color test to look for. There were about four different finals all taking place at the same time in the same room and each final had a different color test. The finals were all mixed together and spread around the room so that the closest person was sitting a few seats away from you and no one was sitting in front of or behind you. We weren’t allowed to have anything with us, all of our bags, purses, and phones had to be put against a wall away from all of the desks. One of our friends who was taking his first final did not know this and he was looking through his notebook reviewing before the test began. One of the proctors asked him in French to put it away. He did not understand what they were saying to him so he asked them to repeat it in English, but instead the proctor grabbed his notebook and threw it against the wall! Once we all found our correct finals the proctors gave directions (in French so hopefully they weren’t too important!) and then they began handing out the tests. It was good that a bunch of us Americans were sitting some what close together so that we could work together to figure out what all of the different papers were for and try to interpret what the proctors were saying! It took a little while to hand out all of the tests since everyone was taking different finals and we were all spread out!

We then had to sign a contract before we could begin the test stating that we would not cheat, leave early, talk to others, etc. while taking the test. (This was another surprise since EVERY French student cheats! I guess it didn’t matter though because most of them already had the answers to all of the questions! None of the Americans could figure out where they always got the answers from for each exam!) There were some proctors walking around and others standing in the front of the classroom to make sure no one was cheating. All of our finals except one are all essay. Usually we don’t mind all essay tests but it is especially hard to write essays here because the paper they provide you with is graph paper instead of lined paper. It is hard for us to read our own handwriting on graph paper; I don’t know how the teachers can read it! You also have to write in pen. The French are all always prepared with about four pens and two white outs on their desks during tests. For the Americans this means lots of crossing out since none of us have white out! You aren’t allowed to hand your test in before a half hour is up, and then once it is you can leave when you are finished. We are anxious to finish finals and be done with studying and school, but we are definitely going to miss going to school and all of the kids in our classes.

When were not studying or taking finals we have been spending time at the beach, shopping, and walking around trying to see some last few things before we leave. Tomorrow we are supposed to go on a boat trip leaving from Cannes with our CEA group, but it is supposed to be very windy and rainy so we will see how it turns out! On Tuesday after finals are over we leave for Rome and Venice, Italy so we will be sure to blog and keep you updated on that! We return back to Antibes on Saturday and then we leave the following Saturday to come home! We are getting more and more excited each day to come home and see everyone! We miss you guys so much and can’t wait to see you! We will talk to you soon, love you!

Love,
Jen and Em


** 1: This is one of the lounges where students can study or use their computers in between classes in the master's building. 2: The hot chocolate and coffe machine which we are going to miss! 3: Ceram 2 - master's building where we got lunch and studied/used the computer lab before and after classes. This is the main building of Ceram.

Aix-en-Provence Day Trip!

Hi Everyone!
On Saturday we travelled to Aix-en-Provence for the day with CEA. Only a few of us went but we had a great time and beautiful weather! We met at 7:45 in the morning and it took two hours for our bus to arrive in Aix where we met our tour guide for the day. Like most towns in France, Aix is separated into an old and a new town and our tour started in the old town and finished in the new town. Our guide showed us where the famous post-impressionist Paul Cezanne attended school, showed us the cute cafes and shops, took us to the famous church in Aix and the main squares, showed us the famous Saturday markets, and the famous university located in Aix. Aix-en-Provence is a very large college town with more than 60,000 students. After Sorbonne in Paris, it is the second best university in all of France. Aix is known as the Paris of Provence and separating the new and the old town is a road similar to the Champs-Elysees with expensive restaurants, cafes, shops and boutiques. After our tour was over we had a few hours to ourselves and we got Panini’s for lunch and walked around, did some shopping and got ice cream before meeting back at the bus where we drove a quick five minutes to Paul Cezanne’s house.

We were very interested in seeing his house because in our art class we discussed Cezanne for many classes and Jen even did her project in that class on some of his paintings. Cezanne lived in the house for forty years with his parents and we were amazed at how pretty and big it was. Three families total had lived in the house, Cezanne’s family was second, before it was turned into a historical site in 2006. Once at his house we were given a tour of the house and the property and we also watched a slide show of some of his paintings. None of his paintings are left in France; even the plaster on the walls in the house on which he had painted had been removed. We sat in the largest room in the house and his paintings were projected on all of the walls around us. We then went to the backyard of his house and were given a paper with the paintings he had done at the house on them and the tour showed us where he had painted each painting and we could line it up and look exactly at what he had painted. It was very cool to see the exact trees and buildings that he had painted and to stand where he stood to paint them.

We then got back in the bus to head back to Antibes. It was perfect timing because as soon as our bus pulled away the sun went behind the clouds and it started pouring and thundering and lightning. It is amazing how fast the weather can change here! All in all it was a great day and along with the tennis tournament it was a great weekend! Twenty days until we come home so we are trying to see all of the last minute things that we can before we leave! We are more than excited to see all of you in person and tell you all about it! Hope everyone is doing well! Love and miss you tons! Talk to you soon!

Love,
Jen and Em

**1-2: The clothes and food markets in the old town. 3: The main road of the town that splits off of the giant fountain in the centure of the giant round-about. It is compared to the Champs-Elysees. 4: Instead of mimosa (the bright yellow flowers) that were everywhere in France, we now have these pretty purple flowers! 5-6: Jen in front of the main fountain and round-about. 7: Em in front of Cezannes house. 8: Cezanne's famous pond that he painted a lot in his backyard.

Rafa Run In!

Hi everyone! How are you doing? We hope you are all doing well; we are getting more and more excited to see everyone as the weeks start to wind down! We are done with classes and only have finals left this week and then two more weeks after that before we come home. On Friday we were lucky enough to have gotten tickets to the quarter finals of the Monte Carlo Rolex Tennis Masters. Each year this tennis tournament is held in Monte Carlo, Monaco and brings with it the best tennis players in the world. The matches for the day were set to start at 10:30 and after catching the train we arrived shortly before 10:00. We decided to watch practice for a little bit before the first match of the day started, and were surprised to see Novak Djokovic walk right past us into a court to warm up! After he was done practicing one of the men working there gave us each two balls that he had used to warm up with. We also saw Nicolas Kiefer and many others practicing and as Kiefer was leaving one of his trainers gave us each one of his autographed players cards. The matches were about to start so we decided to head to our seats. A few of the matches from the day before had been rained out and were rescheduled for Friday.

The first match of the day was one that had been rained out and it was between Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Lapentti. Rafa crushed Lapentti 6-3, 6-0. The next match was the start of the quarter finals and it was between Novak Djokovic and Fernando Verdasco and Djokovic won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. The third match was between Andreas Beck and Stanislas Wawrinka and Wawrinka won with a score of 6-2, 6-4. The fourth match was between Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic and Nadal won 6-3, 6-3. It is incredibly rare for one player to have to play two matches in one day and every one was very impressed by how well Rafa played even though he had already played earlier in the day. The last and final match of the day was between Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko and Murray won 7-6(1), 6-4.

It was so incredible getting to watch some of the top players in the world play. Nadal is ranked number one in the world, Djokovic is ranked number three and Murray is ranked number four. The only player we weren’t able to see was Roger Federer since he had lost his match the day before. We have always watched the tennis matches on TV, but we had never dreamed that we would be able to watch it one day in person! The courts were beautiful and the players were so talented! In between matches we were able to walk around and watch other singles and doubles matches that were taking place as well as practice.

The highlight of our day came after Rafa’s second match. We have always been a fan of his and after he won his match we walked down to where he was being interviewed hoping to get a closer glimpse of him. As he was walking past signing autographs Jen called out for him to come over and take a picture and he walked over and stood right next to us while Jen quickly snapped two pictures. We were on cloud nine! Em had her arm around his shoulder and Jen had grabbed a hold of his arm, but unfortunately she was quickly asked by security to remove her hand! Haha! We each also got one of our tennis balls signed by him! The picture didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped because it was dark and we had to take the picture ourselves, but at least we still have the memory! Rafa doesn’t look quite as excited as us in the picture, but I think he was just tired!!!!

All in all it was a great day and a privilege to have been able to go, we will never forget it! We were extremely lucky to be able to see four different matches, two of which were played by Nadal. (12 hours of tennis!) We miss you all so much but we will see you soon! Hope everyone is doing well at home, take care!
Lots of love,
Jen and Em

**1: In front of the casino, every player had a giant picutre and tennis ball! 2: The court in Monte Carlo which overlooked the water -- very pretty! 3: Em watching practice before the games. 4: Jen in front of Nadal's lifesize picture! 5: Jen in front of the main court. 6-8: Rafa Nadal! 9: Andy Murray. 10: Novak Djokovic. signing autographs. 11: Us with our tennis balls signed by Rafa! 12-13: Us with Rafa!!

Getting Closer to the End!

Hi Everyone! How are you? Today we had our last real class in France! We had a pretty easy week, our class Art on Monday was cancelled for the holiday and then when we got to our English class on Tuesday we learned that we didn’t have class because our teacher was having contractions and wouldn’t be coming in! (A very nice surprise!) Since we had the day off we decided to go to Nice to lie at the beach for the day since it was sunny and warm outside. We are so used to Wildwood’s sandy beaches that we are always surprised at how much it hurts to walk and lay on rocky beaches! Em barely made it back to her towel after she walked down to the water! During our sociology class we just listened to six presentations since for our final project we could choose to do either a five page paper for a twenty minute presentation. (The French students don’t like to write in English so they choose the presentation!) Afterwards we walked around Antibes and went down to our beach for a little bit before it got a little cloudy outside. In today’s film class we watched Fight Club – an easy and relaxing ending to the week!

Last week Kristen and six other students from CEA and us went to Biot, the next town over, to make pottery. We had a lot of fun! We were able to choose any objects to paint, we each chose a vase and little jewelry dish. We sent them to be glazed and will pick them up sometime next week. We are anxious to see the finished product! Not too much else is new, we are very excited for the master’s tennis tournament tomorrow! Afterwards we are going to get ice cream with a friend from our sociology class! We also wanted to wish Jul a happy 24th birthday! We miss you and love you and wish we could have gone to Nashville with you, have a great time! We miss the rest of you as well and can’t wait to see you in a few weeks! We love you!

Love, Em and Jen

**1: Em in front of the old town of Antibes. 2: Our beach in Antibes. 3: The harbor in Antibes. 4: Em (and Jen!) on the beach in Nice. 5: The rocks on the beach. 6: The beach in Villefranche. 7-10: Villefrance. 11: Jen and her pottery in Biot.

One Belgium Waffle Too Many!

Hi Everyone! Hope you had a nice Easter – we missed seeing you all and wish we could have been there! Our Easter day consisted of flying back to Antibes with a panini for dinner and jelly beans for dessert! Our flight for Brussels, Belgium left around 4:00 pm Friday afternoon and we arrived in Brussels around 6:00 pm. We quickly realized that the people in Belgium speak many languages, including French, Flemish, Dutch and a little English. With the help of a nice man, we caught a bus to our hotel and decided to just stay in for the night since we would have to take the metro into Brussels city and Jen wasn’t feeling well.

Saturday morning we took the metro into the city and were very impressed by how pretty everything was. The weather was beautiful, sunny and mid 70’s. The entire city smelled of waffles and strawberries! There were little counters on every corner including in the airport and metro station, selling freshly made Belgium waffles! (This was our favorite part!) Of course we had to try some and got two with hot white chocolate, one with strawberries and whipped cream, and one with butterscotch ice cream. The waffles themselves are coated in a sweet glaze and are so good they can be eaten plain. Every where we looked people were eating waffles! We were also amazed at the number of chocolate stores selling Belgium chocolate of course! Each street had at least two chocolate stores on it and were all decorated for Easter. We had never seen so many chocolate fondue fountains!

We spent the day walking around the city and were able to see many of the famous sights including the Grand Place, (the famous square of the city) The Manneken Pis , (the statue of a little boy peeing) The Gallerie St. Hubert, (an old, covered street of shops, theatres and cafes) The Bourse, (Brussels stock exchange) The Royal Palace and Royal Park, (where the King of Belgium lives) St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral and the famous Atomium (built for the world’s fair, it is a model representing an iron atom).

Sunday morning before our flight back to Antibes, we saw The European Union Buildings and The Cinquantenaire (three arches similar to the Arc de Triomphe) which were located close to our hotel. We had to check out of our hotel at noon so we walked to a nearby park for a little while before heading to the airport. Our flight for Antibes was a little late in taking off and left around 6:30 pm. Since it was Sunday we had to wait almost an hour for the bus from the airport to Antibes and didn’t get back into our apartment until almost 10:00 pm. When we did get back we were lucky enough to be able to skype with Mom, Dad, Jul, Nanny and Pop-Pop and Aunt Lynnie and Steve for a little bit before we went to bed! It was really nice seeing everyone especially since we couldn’t be home to celebrate with them.

Today was warm and sunny in Antibes so we did a little bit of homework and then went to Nice to go to the beach for the day! It was nice to relax after a busy weekend! We hope you all had a great Easter and are doing well! We miss you so much and will see you soon – just about a month left! This weekend we are heading to Monaco for the Masters Tennis tournament on Friday and then to Aix-en-Provence with CEA for the day on Sunday. We will let you know how everything goes! We love you!

Love, Em and Jen

** 1: One of many chocolate stores! 2: Em in the famous square. 3: Jen in front of The Manneken Pis . 4: Different waffles we could choose from! 5: Em with her first waffle, covered in white chocolate. 6: The Gallerie St. Hubert. 7: Jen in front of St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral. 8: Em in front of the Royal Palace. 9: Jen holding our second waffles -- strawberries with whipped cream and butterscotch ice cream! 10: Em in front of Atomium.

Cheers from London!

Hi everyone! We are getting closer and closer to coming home, as of today we only have thirty-one days left! We can’t wait to see all of you! We spent this past weekend in England and had a great time! Our plane took of early Saturday morning and we arrived in Luton, England a little before noon. We took a taxi ride to our hotel and after quickly getting settled and making sandwiches for lunch we went to train station down the road to take a train to the subway station which took us right into the heart of London! As we stepped out of the subway station we were right in front of Big Ben and the House of Parliament, the London Eye and the Westminster Bridge. After hearing so much about these famous sights we were so excited to see them in person. From there we walked to Buckingham Palace and stopped at St. James’s Park on the way. On our way back to the subways station we stopped to see Westminster Abbey. The city was absolutely beautiful and all of the people were incredibly friendly and helpful! (And had the best accents!)

Our hotel room was very nice and once again we were excited for English TV. We spent the night watching a movie on TV. We got up early Sunday morning to once again take the train and then the subway into London. Luton’s soccer team was playing in the soccer championship game that day at one o’clock and the train was packed with fans all dressed up heading into town to watch the game. It reminded us of riding the train into Philly with Aunt Lynnie to see the Phillies World Series parade. Our first stop of the day was Abbey Road where we saw the Beatle’s recording studio and took pictures on the cross walk made famous on their album cover. The road was very crowded both with lots of cars and lots of people trying to impersonate their picture! After a few close calls with the heavy traffic we were finally satisfied with our pictures and next took the subway to the London Bridge and the Tower of London. From there we walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral where Princess Diana was married and where Mary Poppins was filmed. The church was huge and very beautiful. It was nice to be in an English church on Palm Sunday. Parts of the subway station were closed for maintenance so we did lots of walking that day! Next we went to Trafalgar Square to see the famous statue and then took the subway to Harrod’s for some shopping before going to the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre.

Em has been in concert withdrawal especially after hearing about all of the concerts we are missing back home and had been in contact with a girl who had tickets to see Jason Mraz playing that night in London. The girl was studying abroad in Italy and after finding out she couldn’t go to the concert wanted someone to use the tickets so she unexpectedly e-mailed them to Em the morning of the concert! We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Jason Mraz perform in London so we found an internet café to print out the tickets and arrived at the venue shortly before the concert started. We had never seen him in concert before and we were incredibly impressed! He was one of the best performers we have ever seen! The fans in London and all around Europe are crazy for him – they play his music all the time at school! He is bigger in London than the Jonas Brothers or John Mayer is in the United States. He had sold out two nights in a row at the Hammersmith Apollo and tickets were going for hundreds of pounds! (People had been camped out in front of the theater all day!) The theatre was very large with a huge balcony and glass chandeliers everywhere! Our tickets were amazing and we somehow ended up third row, in the pit, in the center of the stage and had a great time -- we always seem to luck out!

We were lucky enough to catch the last train of the night and arrived back to our hotel after two in the morning only to find out that the lock on our door was broken and we could not get in! We waiting for a half hour until the hotel fixed the lock before getting into bed around 2:30. We had to be up at five to catch our flight but the lack of sleep was worth a great night of music! We had a safe flight back to Nice and have spent yesterday and today food shopping, doing laundry and catching up on homework. Yesterday we went to Ville-Franche for the day which was beautiful! Filming for the movie finished yesterday but we did get to see another scene filmed in the town of Nice before we left. The scene featured Katherine Heigl walking down the street to a restaurant to meet Ashton Kutcher for a date. (We actually were in the background for a few takes before a producer realized we were not extras since until everyone else we were not dressed up and we were in jeans and t-shirts!) It was neat to see her up close – she is so pretty! Jen had wanted to ask her if she is leaving Grey’s Anatomy but didn’t get the chance!

We hope everything is going well at home! We miss you all tons and can’t wait to see you! We hate being away from home on Easter, but we hope you all have a great day and get lots of candy! We will be thinking about you!!! We got to skype with Granny and Pop-Pop on Tuesday night and loved being able to see and talk to them! We are headed to Brussels, Belgium on Friday so we will try to update you on that as soon as we get back! Today is also Julie's birthday!! Happy 21st Ju Ju -- we wish we could celebrate with you, hope you have an amazing day and a great time in New Orleans!

We love you!
Love, Jen and Em

A few strange things we noticed about London:
1. Everything is backwards: Because they drive on the opposite side of the car and road, they also walk on the opposite side of the stairs and streets- very hard to get used too and enter the roundabouts on the opposite side.
2. Escalators: when riding on the escalators, everyone forms a single line to the right side so people who do not want to stand still can walk by on the left. We did not realize this until we were the only ones standing on the left side and were politely asked to move over! It is actually a great system and made everything move a lot quicker!
3. Politeness: everyone is so polite! If we were simply standing on the street or subway looking at our map, people would walk over and ask us if we were okay, needed help or directors or were lost! They were also a lot less pushy on the subway then people in France.

*** 1: Jen in front of the London Eye. 2: Em in front of Big Ben. 3: All of the taxis in London were old fashion, Em took a picture of this one for Mom! 4: Us in front of Buckingham Palace. 5: Em in front of Westminster Abbey. 6: London Eye, Big Ben and House of Parliament. 7: Jen next to everyone signatures on Abbey Road. 8: Em in front of the Beatle's recording studio. 9-11: The famous Abbey Road! 12: Us in front of the London Bridge. 13: The Tower of London. 14: Us in front of St. Paul's Cathedral. 15: Jen in a phonebooth! 16: Em in front of Trafalgar Square. 17-19: Jason Mraz at the Hammersmith Apollo!!