Ventimiglia and Bikes

I find myself in an anxious time. Both wanting to go home, but not wanting to leave. I really hate leaving: saying goodbye, packing, traveling, knowing that the next time I come to Cannes my life here won't be the same.

The festival is over now, we have to wait until 7:00 tonight to find out which movie recieved the Palme d'Or, the highest honor at the festival.

Being free of my duties from the festival I have been able to explore some more around the area. Friday I ventured to Ventimiglia- its a town right on the border of France and Italy- technically it's in Italy. There's a large open air market. It's supposed to be cool, but I didn't really like it- mostly knock off purses and bags, dyed fabric, kitchen gadgets, belts, but a lot of the same repetitive stuff. I did enjoy walking around the streets, noticing the blending of French and Italien cultures.

My favorite part of the day actually turned out to be the train ride there:
Lauren and I were waiting at track 1, waiting for the train, ready to leave Cannes because we had enough of all the anglais speaking foreigners invading Cannes- when two dudes (depicted above) approached us. "It's so good to hear other people speaking English here." oh- haha. However they were friendly enough, and the four of us quickly became friends- we explained that we were students at the college international and not just here for the festival- however I added that was probably the reason I was here to begin with. They (Jeffrey and David) explained that they were from NY. Jeffrey-the guy with glasses told us about his short films he had in the festival and his comedy club in NY. David-his sidekick told us about his short films he also had in the festival (short film corner) and about his entertainment law career. Jeffrey entertained us with his explaination of the chakra colors and proceeded to analyize our personalities from there. David had just applied to attend Chappytown for his MFA- so I answered his questions about what Chapman is like (the best I could remember at least). I asked Jeffrey if he had a pen, so we could exchange information, he did, and pulled out a foot long pen from his bag. Needless to say the time on the train went by very quickly. David and Jeffrey got off at Monaco because the Grand Prix also happend to be going on this weekend.

Saturday I rented bikes!!!! A fantastic idea! I should have done this earlier. We were able to see so much. And I LOVE bike riding. It had been a long time since I last was on a bike. We started in Cannes, biking around the city and the Palais passing official festival cars and weaving around motorcycles and scooters, we proceeded East along the coastline, pass La Bocca, we crossed a river (which I didn't even know existed until then), then we stopped at a castle and climbed around- I have no idea what it's historical importance was, then began the challenging part of the journey- the road became much curvier, narrow shoulder, along a mountainous cliffside over looking the Riviera. I'm sure we looked ridiculous to all the professional bikers who passed us wearing their colorful spandex. We had to walk our bikes up some of the hills, and experienced some extreme speed going downhill. Fatigue caused us to pull over in the shade by a sewer opening, where we had a picnic lunch of olive baguette, herbes de Provence salami, pink lady apples, cherries, and plenty of water. We returned back to campus with enough time to jump into the sea cooling our hot skin before taking the bikes back. I got really sunburned.

Today I did a bunch of nothing. : )

This week should be fun- making the most of the time we have left.