Bonjour from Provence!

NOTE: Apologies in advance for spelling or grammar errors, the dictionary is kind of...half-French, half-English, so if it auto-corrects something to not make sense as I type, I do apologize.

Ok, so I'm attempting to Blog now. NO PICTURES THIS TIME for the simple reason that I am not on my laptop, and I only just now got my pictures uploaded onto it back down the hill in my room. In under an hour, we're having a tour of the class buildings here in Lacoste, so I didn't want to worry about managing the laptop up the hill, down the hill, toying with the connection, making it on time, etc.

I have pictures, though, and they're gorgeous. You'll be super jealous and want to visit, and that's cool. Be envious. I'm also planning to take videos and upload them onto YouTube which can then be watched by y'all. However, I didn't realize that I hadn't installed my camera software onto my "new" replacement MacBook Pro this summer, so while the pictures upload just fine into iPhoto, the videos are currently trapped on my camera until fortune smiles upon me and I can work out some way to get them onto my computer. Don't worry though; lovely panoramas await you, assuming I don't screw it all up horribly. Also, I'm here with the Fashion Program; the other majors this quarter are Illustration and Photography...so with any luck, some gifted photo kiddos will snapshot me and some lovely scenery, and then I'll post those on here too to share with you all.

Day 1/2: Leaving Houston

My flight left at 4p, or 11p France time, or, more accurately, 23:00 France time, Thursday September 13. Before leaving, I tried to exchange money, with two disappointing roadbumps: a horribly inflated exchange fee (like, 20% higher than it should be), and a new development where apparently my debit card has a new pin number, and I don't know it. Suffice it to say, no money exchanged. I landed in Paris after a 9.5 hour flight, which was exactly 5000 miles. Super cool. I napped approximately ONE hour on the plane. I caught the connection to Marseilles at the gorgeous and industrial Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and sat in the EXIT row, right next to the door. No problems, though. I met up with Justine and Nicole while boarding the flight, the first two SCAD students I had seen. I also sat next to a nice couple, he from Marseilles, she from Singapore (worked for Google, very cool). They told me the great places to hit in Paris (Maison du Chocolat...best in the world? we'll see) and complimented me on my accent when I spoke to them in [broken] French to ensure I was adequately prepared should I be stranded in a train station. In Marseilles, Nicole, Justine, and I walked out and met pretty much everyone else. I SUCCESSFULLY got us food with vocabulary and some pointing (hella awesome), and then I finally got to exchange my money for the some overblown markup as in the Houston airport. Oh well. I got 130 € for my $200 cash.

Day 2: En Provence

We got on the bus at 15:00 and took off for Lacoste, about an hour drive. The scenery was lovely (lots of pictures, lots of houses with blue shutters). Arriving in Lacoste, we were presented with our home for the the next two months: a graudal incline littered with houses on slanted tiers up the side of the hill. At the top, the Marquis de Sade's former Chateau, now property (and home) of Pierre Cardin, who's turning it into a museum for its famous former owner. He's bought a lot of homes in the village, empty buildings, but no one's sure exactly of his plans. He walks around though, apparently, 86 years young, sharp as a tack and with the personality of a teenager. I'm ecstatic to meet him. We moved into our awesome rooms, all sorts of variations of stone-walled crypts mixed with plaster-walled lodges. My favorite building (of SCAD's) so far is by far the library. It's three stories, converted from the old Boulangerie, or Bakery, and incerdibly modern in its décor. I plan on taking pictures and a video in there for a virtual tour sort of experience for you all. I sat up there ...well, that's Sunday. We met for dinner, walked around and settled in.

Day 3: Apt Entertainment (Saturday)

Our first full day in Lacoste, we woke up EARLY for an 8:30a trip to nearby town Apt. We strolled through a market, featuring everything from vintage posters to fabric bolts to vegetables to coin banks to homemade soaps...and more. I bought three stock-card poster things with vintage designs [re]printed on them, and a present! for someone. I went by the bank, still with no pin number, so I couldn't get any additional money (damn). I had to give 100 € as a deposit when we got here, so I've got about 20 € left. We also hit the grocery store before heading back, where the girls and I stocked UP on some coffee pudding and some chocolate pudding, and I got something called "Agrùm Schweppes" with orange, mandarin, grapefruit, and "citron vert", which I thought meant limes, but apparently just means green lemons. :\ I haven't cracked it open yet, though, but our candy bar with crazy filling is AMAZING. Elizabeth is from Canada (Toronto?) and is VERY good with the French. She's been super helpful with translating for the parts we don't know. Funnily enough, those of us with French experience all hang out together: Elizabeth, Hansel, me, and sometimes Gwen. Callie also knows French, but she's clustered up with other people. For dinner we went to Café de Sade, operated by Lily, who apparently welcomes SCAD to Lacoste every quarter with a wonderful meal. We had an authentic French soup which takes eight hours to make. It had pasta and the kinds of beans and some sort of Egyptian plant...Balsilic? I don't remember the name, but I hadn't heard it before. Anyway, the soup was awesome. The night was bittersweet, though, as Pierre Cardin had bought her restaurant, and after 32 years, she is retiring in one week. We were her last SCAD dinner. She was so sweet and the faculty gave her a picture that she apparently recognized from ...maybe a former Lacoste student? She said something about "Stephanie" when she saw the framed photo, and it was apparently just the right gift. Crazy afterparty of Uno in the girls' room, then walking around and enjoying the night in random groups that sort of met up and grew outside my room, and then bed around 3:24.

Day 4: Lazy Lacoste

Sunday Sunday, and I'm up by 8:30 for breakfast, but I chose not to go on the deep-into-the-valley nature hike for three hours. Even after hearing that they possibly saw Demi Moore's house with the pool and tennis court, I'm still not disappointed in my choice. It was also the first day of hunting season, so there were a few feathers littering the sides of the road and a couple of gunshots, I was told by the hikers. I finally got to get on the computer and let people know I'm alive (the internet had been down), and then I went to the Library and sat in "my window" (picture soon) and read a book of Christian Dior's beginnings as a designer on and off for about an hour and a half. I put it in my room later for finishing. We don't have to check books out of this library with stamps or anything, so that's cool.'ve been typing for about thirty minutes, and there's a tour coming up where we're going around the classes at 14:00, and it's 13:54 right now. So, thanks for reading, pictures soon, and à bientôt (see you later)!