The End.

The last nine weeks of my life have passed so fast that it all just feels like a blink. A warm, fuzzy, good feeling but stressful blink.
Hmmmm, how to sum up the last few weeks of Lacoste.
Finals were truly the hardest that I've ever had at SCAD due to the shorter quarter, the weather, the atmosphere of being in France, and of course because of the mountains of work that I had to accomplish. Vernissage was stressful as well, but really successful. The show itself looked absolutely wonderful, and Becks had her senior show set up, which was absolutely beautiful. We made almost 3,000 euros, though I didn't sell anything. Which is really okay, because I was kind of attached to all of the stuff that I had for sale. On top of the show going on, everyone's parents were in town to visit and see everything, and Bridget's mom Susan came and hang out with us :)
When the actual show was over we had the Bon Voyage dinner, which I expected to be really sad, but everyone was in such a good mood and really just happy to be spending time with each other. We really did have a drama free group for the most part, and it was just so nice to be surrounded by my friends and their families when around 7 weeks ago most of these people were still complete strangers to me.
Everyone who has been to Lacoste told me over and over again that it would change my life, and I knew that to some extent living in a foreign country for two months would of course change my life in some way. But the thing that changes your life is the people... That's what I'm going to miss the most about Lacoste. Yes, my classes were wonderful, and I did learn a LOT but this wasn't my strongest quarter in any of my classes. And yes, the landscape was amazing, but as slightly snobby as it might sound, I grew up with a stunning (but very different) view of my own. As gorgeous as South France is, the landscape looks more like California than anything else I've found in the states, and it made me homesick as well as making me want to road trip through California's wine country.
But. The people.
Every single person I met there influenced me in some way. Obviously there are the more prominent people, like Bridget, Breece and Becks, but everyone has opened my eyes in some way. It's hard to put a finger on it, but that's certainly the thing that has changed the most... that and the fact that in less than 2 months these people became my family and took in the flaws of living with me, seeing me cry, seeing me ridiculously silly and drunk, sharing a bed and cuddling, and dealing with my crazy ideas.... and they appreciate it all as just a part of me. They're the most honest relationships I've made in such a short amount of time. And I am going to miss every single part of that.
And of course living in a medieval French village.... that too.
But for now, that is all. I fly out tomorrow morning, and tonight I'm at a hotel in the city of lights just counting the hours until I get home.

It's like it was all a really good dream.

Time For An Update

Okay. Halloween in Lacoste... Crazy.
The French don't really celebrate Halloween, but SCAD puts on pumpkin carving, a haunted house, face painting and a couple other little things. So, lots of children running around. I got roped into face painting (not my strongest area.. because it wasn't real makeup) and did that for about 2 hours.
But, life before that has been crazy. We have so much stuff due this week, travel photos, photo stories and travel journals as well as submissions for Vernissage. We had our last traveling class last week, and we went to Gorge de Oppedette for a few hours and then came back and had a work session.
It's hard to write about these last two weeks because they've just flown by and been so busy!
Saturday night was fun though after the Halloween for the kids. Cafe de Sade put on a party for us with yummy punch (dangerous punch) and a dj so that we could dance, which was really nice. The whole night was just entertaining in general, most of us were dressed up so it was hilarious. It's been really rainy here and that means my motivation has pretty much gone out the window, but I have so much work to finish. I did a couple of photoshoots last Friday though when most of the campus was gone for another field trip (for a class that I'm not in). It was nice to be productive that day, when I had the studio and lab pretty much to myself.

Gorge de Oppedette

So many black cats!

This week has flown by as well, Monday I took a book making workshop where we learned how to different types of stitches for bindings and how to fold and assemble everything we needed. Tuesday was a full work day for both of my classes, 6 hours of paying attention to small details. Wednesday was critique for travel class, which went pretty well (Thankfully). After that it was just more work. On Thursday it was another work day all day, and then I decided to take a break and watch the new Robin Hood with Becca. We had a kind of early night, just working on our sketchbooks and our projects for class. Yesterday, I got to go to Ikea with Eleanor to get the frame orders for people who didn't get the frames that they needed in our frame lottery. Ikea in general is crazy, so Ikea with everything in French was completely overwhelming. We had lunch there (so good, I had salmon) and then headed back to campus. Everyone else was on another field trip so I had the entire studio to myself and got to print a bunch without anyone around. From there it was dinner and a few drinks down at the cafe and then a long night after that.

Halloween!

 

Pumpkins :)

Ashley.. my favorite airplane.

My bouquet of hair :)

3 Weeks?

How are there only three weeks left?
THERE IS SO MUCH WORK TO DO. And not enough time. This week feels like all the others so far, blended together. Sunday was full of photo shoots with Paulina, Bridget and Becca. I'm really happy with the work that I'm turning out, but Liz still isn't too happy with it. But I would rather do stuff I'm happy with than please a professor.
Yesterday I worked all morning organizing the frame cave for Vernissage and then doing some work, but not enough. Marissa and I watched Avatar (the best ever!) before we went to bed and it was a nice way to end the night, especially because it was a long day full of nothing.

Today we had to do proposals for Working Class Studio of what we're doing for our finals. We're supposed to do something Lacoste/Provence/France themed that is marketable to people outside of SCAD. I'm planning on doing a series of clocks that are based around images that I've taken here that are all going to be abstracted into patterns more than scenes.

Seminar II today was a full work session, so I spent 3 hours organizing, editing and printing some photos. I've printed half of one of my photo portfolios for finals, and edited down the images that I'm going to be using for other ones. And now, I'm spending time doing research for classes and for my sketchbook.
But that's all. Nothing new and exciting here!

In The Interest of Art

One of my dear friends is making a film, if anyone has any interest in donating check it out here. Everything about his film is beautiful, I was the set photographer for his first section. The main actress, Bailey Keith, is a phenomenal 13 year old who is teetering on the edge of exploding into a career already and the director, Chris Heady is one of the most talented actors and puppeteers as well as being the one of the most loving and wonderful people I've met in Savannah.
<3

Rock Giant: A film by Christopher Heady
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2023848428/rock-giant-an-independent-puppet-film-thatll-melt

A Week of Critique

September 17th- 23rd

The sun was just right... taken from my doorway to my dorm.

This past week has felt so long and so short at the same time. Monday was work, printing and getting ready to show my edits to Liz for class. I got to go down to the Residence du SCAD (the hotel that the college owns here in Lacoste) to pick up some things to ship to a guest, and I was so amazed at how beautiful the hotel was. I hope to stay there at some point in the future (take note Mom and Dad)  because it is really beautiful and in such an amazing location.

I had so much work to do on Tuesday and Wednesday for Working Class and Travel Photo that the days just flew by. Critique went pretty well for travel, more small technical notes than overall photo notes (which is a good thing) and Liz said that my food shots were the best that she saw out of the whole class. (Yay me!) It's certainly getting colder here in Lacoste and I'm so happy that I brought all the layers that I did :)

The husk of a flower ( I don't know what kind... a little help Mom? ) One of the most beautiful and delicate things I've found in nature

My cat friend

Thursday was critique for working class, which went over pretty well. My main critique was that most of my stuff was too clean, too perfect and I needed to let some more stuff just happen, so I'm okay with that critique. For Seminar we took a trip to Sangion, which is about a 25 minute drive from Lacoste. It's located above Apt (where we go to the market every weekend) and has an amazing view over the valley. The first place we went was the Garden of Curiosities, where most of the things were dead, but it was still beautiful. We were only there for about 20 minutes, but we all got to walk around and take pictures. It's always nice to just be out of Lacoste for a little while. We headed back towards the village itself, and everyone went their separate ways. I wandered through the streets that were all covered in leaves that are changing colors. I ended up making friends with a cat who followed me around for a while until I ran into Alex and we walked up to the little castle at the top of the town. The view of the valley and the entire town was breathtaking, and the sunset was starting to look amazing. It was quite cold though, and the second it started to get shady it started to get colder and colder. We drove back to Lacoste, and just as we were hitting Pont Julien the sky looked like it was on fire. Liz pulled the van over so we could take pictures just because it was so amazing. After that it was back to the cafeteria for dinner and then an early night to get ready to go to Aix en Provence.

Sangion's church and town from the castle.

Sunset at Pont Julien (this is really what the sky looked like, I didn't touch the colors at all)

Friday was a full day trip to Aix, where we really had no specific plans or places that we had to go. I met up with Spencer Myers, who went to middle school and high school with me (for those of you who don't know him) because he's studying in Aix until May. It was really nice to have my worlds collide for a hot minute in South France. I was with Marissa, Bridget and Breece, and when we met up with Spencer we went to lunch and then wandered around looking for a few different shops. Marissa got her nose pierced (which looks so good on her!) and I bought a hoop for my own nose, since I haven't had anything in it for more than a year. We wandered in and out of a bunch of shops and I bought a few birthday and Christmas presents for people and when we finally ended up at the art supply store I got some paper and wrapping stuff for both Vernissage and presents. By the time we ended up back at the bus everyone was exhausted as usual. We had the hour bus ride back to Lacoste, dinner and then getting all dressed up for Lauren's birthday! We had bought a few bottles of wine for her birthday, and all sang before she drank her wine. We headed down to Cafe du France (as usual) and got a couple of karafs of wine bought for us. The wine flowed freely all night, and everyone had such a good time.

Today was a lazy day for the most part. A bunch of us didn't go to Apt today because Working Class and Metals and Jewelry are going to the market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue tomorrow. It's bigger than the Apt market and has more antiques and such. I did a photoshoot again after lunch, a completely different style this time, and then went and hung out in their room. I ended up in Bridget and Becca's room (big shock, I know) and Becks and I watched The Last of the Mohicans while Bridget kind of watched (but more of slept through the whole thing). After the movie, Sunni and I walked down to the vineyards in the valley so that we could take pictures. The lighting was pretty much perfect while we were down there and we took a ton of pictures and then walked all the way back up the hill to our dorm. A definite note; I'm way more in shape than when I got here. All the French food means my figure is still the same (curvy and wonderful :) ) but I'm not panting (as hard) when I walk back up the hills. Which is a good thing. And my calf muscles are amazing if I do say so myself.

So tomorrow is the flea market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and I'm hoping to find inspiration for my final for Working Class, as well as take some amazing pictures. Final critique is the week after next so I have to start figuring out printing and what I also want to submit for Vernissage. I have a couple of photos that I think would do really well, as well as my two etchings (if I ever finish them!) and hopefully something from working class. But, those are things to think about tomorrow. For tonight, I'll edit pictures and watch dvds :)

They're the color of blueberries.

Raisins

There are no more grapes.

Vineyards :)

Oh, hey. This is where I live. No big deal.

Finally Time for Words (And More Pictures!!)

October 9-17th

Okay, so I left off with the last day of Paris (October 9th).

The lady that I followed for half a block because I liked her hat

Everybody was 100% exhausted. We got up early ish and had breakfast and then Bridget, Becca, Sunni, Lauren and I decided to head back to Pere Lachaise Cemetary where I had been with Bridget and Alex the first day. We went back to Oscar Wilde's grave and then wandered to go find Jim Morrison's. We were starving by the time we left the cemetary, so we decided to be really classy and go to McDonald's for lunch. Yes, we were fully aware of the fact that we were surrounded by some of the best food in the world, but that burger tasted real nice. A piece of home if you will. From there we went back toward out hotel and Notre Dame, and walked toward the shopping district. We went into H&M (also, I know I can get this in the states, but shopping in Paris... so expensive) and I bought a new dress and a gray cowl (which is a circular scarf) and then we wandered around with Sunni and Lauren who had big shopping plans. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were three hours earlier than we needed to be, but almost everyone was there and so exhausted.

Repetto Shoes

All of our feet hurt so bad, but we decided to kill some time and walk back down to Saint Germain and get some sushi (making up for the McDonalds). After sushi we went back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage and Becca, Bridget and I went with Cedric (who runs the boutique in Lacoste, but was there as the main translator for the gala) and caught the bus to the train station. We were still really early getting there so we lounged in the sun for a while outside and enjoyed the last bit of beautiful weather that week before we headed inside to go find everyone else. When we finally ended up on the train, we were so tired. I spent most of the 3 hour train ride back typing my previous Paris entry, and reading a little bit and listening to a couple of different symphonies. We got back to the train station about 20 minutes later than planned, and then an hour bus ride back to Lacoste, so by the time we finally got to our house (up the hill, with our luggage) it was around 12:30 am.

Sunday was definitely a recovery day. I slept until noon and then started working on sorting out my pictures (I took more than a thousand in Paris). Not much else happened that day, I think that we watched Pushing Daisies all day and worked on our sketchbooks as well.

Monday morning I was back doing work study in Eleanor's office and helping Cedric in the boutique. I made some schedules for Eleanor and did a bunch of stuff for Cedric, and then ended up going up to the frame cave to start organizing for Vernissage. There are so many frames! It was really dusty up there, and a lot of broken glass, but it was nice to stick my headphones in and just do busy work and not have to think for a little bit. That night found us in one of the lounges again watching movies and hanging out. Mom stood me up on a skype date because I was 4 minutes late, but we got to talk a little on the phone since I hadn't really talked to anyone in Paris at all.

Tuesday morning I helped Cedric again to get one of the exhibitions that had been here over the summer into packages and ready to ship before lunch and class. We had a full work session in Working Class Studio, we are working on creating hand printed stationary that would be sold as a higher end thing in either ShopSCAD or through Working Class. I spent a lot of time sorting out my designs and thinking of phrases, but nothing is set in stone yet. Seminar II class was a trip to Oppede le Vieux (the pictures that I posted the other day) which was only about a 20 minute drive away from Lacoste, but then a slight hike up the hill to get to the crumbling castle on the top. The town was really small, but the ruins were beautiful and fun to hike up to with the class. We were there for about an hour and a half and I got some pictures that I'm really happy with. When we got back we went to dinner, and then I called my dad to say Happy Birthday! It was nice to talk to him too, and he got to go out to dinner and get his favorite thing: fish tacos. :) That night there was plenty more work to do, it seems as if there is never an end to it.

Wednesday's travel class took us to Sisteron, which is in the base of the Alps, and about an hour and forty minute drive from Lacoste. It was such a beautiful drive to get there, and we got dropped off at the Citadel at the top of the hill and just slowly wandered down from there. It was a great place to get a bunch of the shots for our lifestyle assignments, and the Tour de France goes through there, so there was a lot of decorations hung up for that. Sunni and I wandered through most of the town and found Gracie and then just wandered through a bunch of little side streets. There were so many cute houses, and it was such beautiful weather (if you were walking, not sitting. It was wayyy too cold to sit). We wandered into a little Indian jewelry shop where the lady who owned it was from Arizona, so we talked to her for a little while. It's always interesting to meet people here, everyone has so many stories, but we keep finding that no one really knows where Lacoste is at all. They know the area, but it's not a big enough town to be really significant. Until we say something about Marquis de Sade and then people know where it is. :) I grabbed some food on our way out of the town (quiche and a chocolate croissant, though no quiche that I've had here can beat Liam's spinach quiche) and my iPod died right as we got in the car. I finished my book on the way back as well (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, recommended for a summer read) and got to just watch the landscape roll by. The lighting was perfect as we were driving by full fields of sheep and rolling hills, but there was definitely no stopping. I think that's one of the things I'm finding hard about being in Lacoste... not having the freedom of mobility. We have to go where we're taken, and anything else depends on our own two feet or a taxi.  That night was of course movies again, and catching up on other work.

Thursday in Working Class we had a meeting with Paula D. who owns Paris Market in Savannah. She gave us a lot of thoughts on professionalism, marketing, starting your own business, how to sell stuff and so on. It was really interesting and helpful to have someone who is working in the market right now and is coping with the economy in a city that we are really familiar with. After she left we had another work session for our stationary. President Wallace came to our Seminar II class when we were having a work session and looked at a few people's work (not mine unfortunately), but I had a meeting with Liz at the end of class and we went over a lot of my new work. She gave me a lot of positive feedback, and it was nice to know that I was finally doing something right. She was even encouraging about my fashion work (which I need to work on, but it's pouring rain outside, so that makes it a little hard). After dinner that night we went down to Cafe du France because Alex, despite being the wonderful and amazing person and student that she is, had gotten in trouble in Paris for being late to check in one morning. Due to a no tolerance policy for absences in Paris, she was getting sent home from the program, and it was her last night in Lacoste. We all were down at the cafe for a while and then headed up to the chateau to carry on our amazing send-off. Thanks to plenty of wine, I don't remember much towards the end, but I'm very thankful for Bridget and Alex and my roommate Christina for taking care of my hot mess of a self.Anyway.

Friday morning we had a field trip for printmaking to go to Les Baux to see Louis Jous' work in a museum there. The town was about an hour away and it was another little hill/castle town. It was so cold and windy though, and none of us were ready for the cold. We took shelter in a few of the little stores around (mainly the candy store), and when we finally got to go into the museum, I think all of us were a little shocked. The museum is kept as Louis Jous' house was, with walls upon walls of his engravings (all of the blocks, not just the prints) and prints from his personal collection. He a bunch of Goya's work as well as many other artists, but the sheer amount of his work, and the amazing condition that it was in just astounded me. It really was beautiful (I'll have pictures of it soon, they're still on my camera). When we were finished at the museum we were able to walk around in the town a little, and we took refuge from the wind in a little restaurant that had a really good crepe menu for pretty cheap. I was with Bridget and Sunni, and we were so excited for our crepes (and coca cola). They came out of the kitchen unlike any other crepe we had seen, and they were absolutely huge. I got smoked salmon, creme, lemon and herbs and both Bridget and Sunni ordered goat cheese, creme, olive and tomatoes. None of us could even finish them because they were so rich and huge! When we got back to Lacoste, most people took naps, but I cleaned my bed and our stairway and got some work finished before dinner and then got to talk to Maddie for more than just a minute. We were back up in the lounge after dinner watching Pushing Daisies, and I got to talk to both of my parents again, my mom for a decent amount of time (she kept telling me to go to bed because it was 11 pm... as if that's late). I eventually went to sleep around one after editing pictures and trying to get things organized.

Yesterday morning we were up early again to go to Apt for the market and of course, the ATM. We all needed to replenish our stock of food from the grocery store, and after that we just wandered in and out of stores looking for Christmas presents and hiding from the cold. I ate the best chocolate croissant that I've had since I got to France, and of course Bridget, queen of the croissants didn't get one, and she was so disappointed. I spent the rest of the day in the studio working on carvings and on etchings, and I'm finally getting to a point where I'm happy with my etching, and I'm motivated to start more. Last night we spent a bunch of time in Helene and Lauren's room just hanging out and talking. We were being lazy for quite a while, and then I decided to attempt to do some more etching work. I came down to the mac lab to print some things out to get everything ready, and then the power went out. There were quite a few people being really immature and loud about multiple things, including the power outage, so I just went back to Helene and Lauren's and crawled in bed with everyone else (and my etching) and we all watched Grey's Anatomy. I went back to my room and edited for a while to get ready for printing, and then crashed in my bed.

This morning I had a print time at 8 am, and everything in Lacoste was so quiet. It was so nice. I had two full hours in the Mac lab with no one else, just my headphones and my pictures, and I printed until I had no more paper. I  walked back to my room and the lighting was absolutely perfect in the valley and above Bonneiux. I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of pictures and then crawled back in bed until almost one. I ran to breakfast and grabbed some bread and then headed up to the jewelry studio for a workshop that I had signed up for. I went with Helene, and we learned how to do enameling from the jewelry girls, and there were quite a few people there. We all made charm bracelets from our enameled stuff, and even though they're not exactly my style, it was fun to learn how to do. Since then, I've been catching up on computer homework and trying to figure out my classes for next quarter. Which seems way too soon. Today has been a bit of a dreary day, the kind where you don't want to leave your bed and you get homesick easily, so the plan for tonight is, you guessed it... movies in the lounge :) This upcoming week holds three critiques (right after midterms, as if those weren't stressful enough) and plenty of work. This is our last critique before finals, which makes time feel as if it's flying by. I can't believe that I've been in France for five weeks. It honestly feels like five minutes, but my body knows otherwise. We do so much here, it's truly exhausting. But next week we get to take a full campus trip to Aix en Provence where I'll get to meet up with someone I went to high school with for lunch, and that will be nice :)

Oh, and a tid bit of information, you can click on any of my pictures to make them bigger than they already are if you want to see more detail! :)

Words to Come Later

Sisteron

Sisteron

Sisteron

Sisteron

Sisteron

Sisteron

... When I have time to breathe, I'll write. But these are the photos from the last two days of class taken in Oppede le Vieux and Sisteron.