[france] has stolen my heart

st. tropez.
otherwise known as where johnny depp has a summer home.
sadly, he was not spotted.









what a little day trip.

traveling the world has wiped me out.
goodnight dudes.
-wildchild

p.s. sorry to my facebook friends who look at my albums and also read this, 
therefore seeing a lot of pictures twice. 
i have to keep all my fans happy.
you'll live.

what a life.

it's crazy over here kids.
there's so much to squeeze in when you're only on the rivieria for two months, you know?
[i say that like everyone is lucky enough to come over here and do their thang]

for one, there's tanning to be done.
currently, i'm a lobster.
a walking, talking lobster.
my friend emily calls us twizzlers.
but soon i will be a bronzed goddess.
just you wait.


secondly, there's food to be eaten.
oh, the food.
you know those movies where french people walk down the street 
with baguettes in hand?
it's true. 
they're the accessory that never goes out of style.
the gelato is out of this world.
so creamy and heavenly and chocolatey.
[cause of course i always get at least une boulle du chocolat. of course]
and my latest discovery, turned obsession?
speculoos.

i don't know what this stuff is, but i bought it thinking it was peanut butter and
 it has changed.my.world. 
breakfast: fruit and pieces of my baguette with speculoos on it.
lunch: a sandwich and scoops of speculoos on a spoon.
dinner: pasta and some baguette with speculoos.
dessert: speculoos gelato.
it's some sort of creamy spread; possibly crushed up airplane cookies, possibly heaven in a jar.
we'll never know.
we do know, however, that losing weight on this trip will not be happening.

thirdly, i might be a professional people watcher.
during summers on the riviera, people from all over swarm here, 
so it's an international affair every day.
also, my school is a language school, so there are no french people in classes [since they're pros already]; it's only international students.
i've met people from sweden and switzerland and the czech republic and brazil and mexico and india and it's just so cool.
also cool is seeing what everyone wears.
there are so many things here that would never fly in america.
at least in my small town in new york.
not with my boyfriend.
these, for example:
 
google image

it's crazy.
emily and i have decided that the trends right now are birkenstock sandals, super flowy clothes and bright bottoms. like neon bottoms. even on boys.

lastly, one fascinating thing over here that i'm not sure i like is the couple upstairs.
they're british, so that's strike number one.
i hate british accents. with a passion. 
there are a few tolerable ones, like johnny depp as captain jack sparrow [of course], but mostly, they make my skin crawl.
and strike number two is that they fight every single night. 
for at least an hour every night since we've been here, sometimes even starting early in the afternoon, the crazy woman is screaming awful, terrible, hurtful things to the man she lives with [undetermined if they're married, engaged, or just dating].
sometimes he yells back, but usually he seems to just take it.
the times i do hear him, it's telling her to turn the karaoke down.
the crazy british woman upstairs loves her karaoke.
lady gaga, brittany, madonna, katy perry- she loves them all.
almost every night.
i've heard her proclaim that maybe she has awful hair, face, teeth, and body, but at least she has her amazing singing voice.
i have to disagree. she doesn't have that.
my roommate and i fill each other in on what's happened when the other one comes home.
it's like our own little soap opera.

one last thing: our german washing machine.
i put a load of laundry in almost two hours ago and it's still going.
i don't understand.
i thought i came to france?

that's all for tonight.
our little day trip to st. tropez wiped me out.
but i did get two new bracelets and a new bathing suit!
and gelato, of course, but that didn't make it twenty steps away from where i got it.
bonne nuit mes belles.
-wildchild

nuit d'amour

"if a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance"
-bern williams

i have to agree.
especially here.






the proof is in the heart carvings.

i wish b was here,
but i'm off to make the most of this beautiful june evening.
hope you're all having a warm, lovely summer so far.
-wildchild

oh la.

to start off, i just want to warn everyone that this post is mostly for my family.
they've been asking for pictures of my apartment and since my e-mail is being lame and will only let me send one at a time, i'm just gonna do it here.
once it's not raining and miserable, i'll take some pretty pictures that i'm proud to show you all :)

but to start, i'm here!
getting here yesterday morning was beautiful, 
[i guess antibes boasts something like 300 days of sunshine a year, so this chilly, thundery day is unusal]
and the city is so pretty and so alive with people everywhere.
my apartment is in a perfect spot just outside of the main town square, 
Place Nationale, which also happens to be just literally right around the corner from the beach!
everyone in my program seems really nice and i'm just so excited for everything i'm going to experience in the next two months.

i don't like taking out my camera and feeling like a tourist, so i have only a few pictures of the city, but i promise i'll just suck it up soon and take them anyways.
i want to remember everything i can about this trip.
but here goes:
this was the view coming in on the plane- 
mountains in the back, palm trees and a view of the city

this is the cute little road i live on. 
my apartment is in this building, obviously, and you can pick it out by those cute little red shutters on the left. 
as i've said, i'm right around the corner from the beach, so people are walking by all the time, looking in our windows. it's so cute saying hello to them- i feel like i'm in the village scene of beauty and the beast :)

right by the market, there's an ocean view.
i was too busy thinking how pretty it is to listen to our site director tell us what exactly is on this hill.

just another pretty view.
those big ol' clouds are our thunderstorm rolling in i guess.

those gray hills in the back, on the right?
that's italy.
my friends and i already have plans to hop on the train and head over there asap.
biggest yacht port in france or something.
it's just pretty with that thunder. 

now for the gross tour pictures: 
this is what you see right when you walk in to my apartment.
well actually, there's a big door that we have a big skeleton key for outside, then a little walkway and another door to actually get into our apartment, and then this.
 these pictures are so dark simply because it's raining today. 
otherwise it's super bright in here and pretty with the sun.

there's this table thing off to the right and then those windows everyone creeps in.
it just looks gross now cause the rain was coming in, so i closed them.
also cause i got soaked by the rain, so my clothes are laying there drying.

random rocks on our wall and mini table.

petite kitchen with awesome little french appliances.
also, the hallway back to the bathroom and our room.

awesome french washing machine.
with words written in german?
all the clothes have to go in this little metal basket inside.
i don't understand.

they don't believe in shower curtains apparently.
or even full doors to keep all the water in.
there's also obviously a toilet in here, in the other corner.
but those things are pretty standard, so no picture.
our bedroom! this is obvi my bed, and then there's a bunk bed on the other side, where my roomie sleeps. there's also a little closet in the corner.
thankfully, there's enough storage for all of our clothes and things around the apartment.
since this post took me forever to write, it's now fairly nice out.
sunnier, but still cold.
but so here's a better view of our adorable windows :)
tres belle.

antibes, je t'aime.
it's time for me to get back out there and explore.
maybe a little nap first.
sorry if this was super boring.
i promise to be more fun next time.
later dudes.
-wildchild

adventure time!

okay kids.
this is it.
in less than 12 hours, i'm leaving for the airport, flying on down to jfk,
 and then i'm on my way to france.
oh.my.gosh.
after packing and re-packing literally all night, i still couldn't fit all my things into 1 suitcase, nor could i get one of them to weigh less than 50 pounds.
i'm aware i don't need so many clothes, but i'm a girl.
so i do.
i'll just be paying extra luggage fees.
whatever.

the next time i post it'll be from the land of romance.
[not that i'll be having any since b's in the land of...lame things]
the land of wine and bread and cheese.
and chocolate.
oh, the chocolate.
a different country, continent, and time zone.
it's really sinking in.

from here

i'm outta here.
-wildchild