Busy Little Bee

Have I mentioned how busy I am? New post tomorrow for sure!

xoxo

Just Another Day in my French Life

September 25, 26 and 27
Ah, coffee, hot chocolate, croissants and cheese. Now just separate all those things by about 8 hours each.... that's my eating schedule. No wine, I know. It's shocking. Saturday and Sunday were spent in the printmaking lab. And that's really about it. 6 1/2 hours on Saturday and 13 hours on Sunday. I love art school homework.

Today though, I did another fashion photo shoot with my friend Hannah, and really happy with it. The one that I did with Sunni I think I'm going to re-shoot, just to get it exactly how I want it, plus she just bought a beautiful lace vest in Nimes on Friday. I'm still high on life about swimming under the Pont du Gard, it was truly wonderful. I've been so exhausted since then though. I can't believe that we're in the third week here, that means it's 1/3 of the way over. Which I don't want to talk about. It's amazing here, and sometimes it all feels like a dream. Fall is hitting the Luberon Valley and the air is crisp and cool. Soon all the leaves will change, the vineyards will be harvested and before I can blink, I'll be back in Savannah.

Pont du Gard

September 24 and 25
Yesterday was truly amazing. The entire campus had a field trip to Nimes, a Roman city about an hour and a half away from Lacoste. We had about 4 hours free in the city after we toured the amphitheater that is still around from the Roman times. It was beautiful. After that I wandered around the center of the city and to the outskirts with Katie, Bridget, Breece and Alex. We got caught in the rain but ended up in the Roman bath houses near the Temple of Diana. We went to go eat at this little cafe where I had the most amazing ham and goat cheese sandwich. We found a bakery after that and got chocolate croissants.

We headed back to the bus and everybody was there (thankfully) and we headed to the Pont du Gard (a Roman aqueduct) where we had been told we could go swimming. The water was Tahoe temperature, but felt amazing. Bridget, Alex, Eric, Marissa, Catherine swam up-river to the actual aqueduct and swam underneath it. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. We climbed out and walked back, though it probably would have been faster to swim with the current. It was so refreshing though. Everybody piled back into the bus, and when we were almost to Lacoste, the was setting, and the entire sky looked like it was on fire (more rainclouds) and the second we got off the bus, it started pouring rain and everybody was running up the hill to get to the cafeteria and when we got inside it started hailing.
Today was a work session all morning (5 hours in the studio, printing on fabric) and then watching movies, dinner and then wine and more movies. But yesterday was one of the most amazing days of my life, swimming under the aqueduct was so beautiful and refreshing that I couldn't help but be in shock at how life is going for me right now.

Exhaustion

September 22 and 23

The craze is finally setting in. We have 10 days until Paris(!) and campus is mad. There are critiques in both my photo classes next week, as well as having a huge project due for Working Class Studio. But. In the last two days, I've gone to Avignon and worked my butt off for my other classes. Travel photo went to Avignon yesterday and we were there for about three and a half hours. We're pretty much just told to go and photograph, handed a map and given a time to be back. The freedom is wonderful, but there is so much pressure to not take the same pictures as everyone else. I ended up going to the Palace of the Popes, where the former Popes lived from 1309 to around 1417 ( I think, don't quote me on it), and it was beautiful. It was almost 10 euro for entrance, but it took me about an hour and a half to walk through with the self guided tour. The architecture was amazing, as were some of the decorations. I wasn't allowed to take photos of the rooms with frescos in them, but it was beautiful none the less. A lot has been re-built due to fire, but the reconstruction is beautiful as well, blending modern and ancient.

A bird fountain bird bath :)

Today was a long day as well, though I took the opportunity to sleep in. I'm pleased with the way that my printmaking is coming out, I've put a lot of time into this project so far. In Seminar II today we had an open work session, and I had a short critique with Liz. And by short I mean an hour. Sometimes it's so hard to please professors. Everyone has a different aesthetic that they like, and sometime your work just doesn't mesh with theirs. Liz is big into post-production of photos, and though I agree that sometimes it can thoroughly enhance your work, it's not my style. I'm still going to try it though. I'm certainly not as well versed in photoshop as I should be, and my tablet is still in Savannah, so it's going to be a little difficult to edit, but I think that it will be a good quarter to learn. Thankfully, every lab here is open 24 hours, so I can do work whenever I like.

After my critique with Liz, I did my second fashion shoot with Sunni. It went well, and of course now has so much editing to be finished, but I'm pleased with the way that it turned out. After the shoot was dinner, printing contact sheets and then printmaking until midnight. The hours are just flying by. And now that makes Paris in 9 days!

The Grand Hall in Palace of the Popes

Coming Soon...

Promise to w7:30 write tonight, it's been crazy here! Class until 7:30 every day is wearing me down, especially when we travel during class and then spend 3-4 hours walking!

Playing Catch Up

Helene in the dead sunflower field

September 20-21












Ah! So much going on. There aren't enough hours in the day in France. Well, there aren't really enough in the US either, but my time here is shorter so I feel like it's even shorter! Monday was a long day as usual. I didn't have class but I slept in until a little before lunch. I hadn't gone to bed until 5:30 am, so I was catching up on sleep. In the afternoon we had a trip to the fabric store outside of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, which was so overwhelming. It was a huge warehouse and we were in the process of trying to figure out the conversions from centimeters to inches to feet to meters to euro to the dollar. It was crazy. Plus, there was so much! And they didn't speak any English, so we had to have Eleanor translate everything for us. It was a fun trip overall, but we got back just around dinner time, and the two photoshoots I was planning on doing didn't happen at all. After dinner we went up to the chateau and laid in the minty grass and looked at the moon and the chateau itself. When I came down from the chateau, I planned out the outfit and location for my first shoot. Styling here is interesting... It's kinda a montage of everyone's clothes plus random little things from my own stuff. But overall, I think it's going to look like I'm photographing a collection, and that's what's important.

Today, I got up early and went to breakfast and then met up with my model and friend, Helene. It's her 22nd birthday! We grabbed a couple of bikes and all of the clothes and such that we needed and biked (well, coasted really) 5 km down the hill to the valley floor to a field of dead sunflowers. We did a fashion shoot that looked awesome(yay!) and started back up the gigantic hill. It took us about 45 minutes to get back up the hill from the very bottom and we biked more than half and walked up the really steep parts. Talk about mind over matter. I couldn't focus on how much more we had to do, just what was in front of me. It was super intense though, and such a good workout. We got back, took showers and headed to lunch. After that, I had working class studio and then Project Seminar II, where we took a trip back to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and actually got to see the town. It's and island town, the river pretty much flows all around it, and it's so beautiful. It's a little bit bigger than the hilltop towns around here, and really visually interesting. I took a bunch of pictures in the gorgeous cathedral in the middle of town. From there I wandered by myself and found a bakery and bought a little pizza (so good!) and a huge meringue (orange flavored. I'm still working on it, it's like the size of my face). We headed back for dinner, and then down to Cafe du France for Helene's birthday drinks. And then back up the hill to have a skype date with my mom! :) What a day! Tomorrow holds a trip to Avignon for Travel Photo, and lots of work to do there!

This cat and I were having a good time making faces at each other today... But a pigeon flew by when I took this.

On a Side Note

This is my best friend Whitney :) I love her, she's absolutely wonderful. Just thought everyone should know. She makes me laugh more than almost anyone else, and she's a beautiful person, inside and out. <3 She's my sister-friend :)

The Best Part of Waking Up Early

September 19
The best part of waking up early? Fontaine de Vaucluse. Liz was going there this morning and had a sign up sheet last night at dinner. Bridget, Marissa and I all signed up so we could go exploring. We really had no idea what to expect. When we arrived in the town, this big beautiful river was flowing through it, and Liz explained that it's all from a natural spring that we could hike up and see. We walked up along the river, which was so amazingly clear, it reminded me of Tahoe. You could see everything in the water. There were a bunch of river-weed type plants growing along the bottom, but they were a beautiful and bright green. We hiked up to the source, and water was literally just flowing out of the rocks, it was beautiful. Bridget and I wandered around the town for a while, taking pictures and looking at all the little touristy places. We went to a park that was on the other side of the river than where we started and dipped our feet in the water... It's about Tahoe temperature, or colder. But it felt so refreshing. When we got back, we went to lunch at the cafe, and then I took a three hour nap (it was needed!).

After nap time, Sunni convinced me to work on my printmaking, so I finished my last peacock feather block and hand printed tests of all five of them. They turned out really well, but I think I'm going to do one over again, the carving isn't exactly how I want it, and it will only take a half hour or so. I stayed in the print shop until dinner, and then ate the funkiest burger I've ever seen. I think the attempt of American food in the cafeteria wasn't the best, but as usual there was plenty of bread and brie to make up for my lack of burger. Bridget and I wandered up to a terrace and talked for a little bit and watched the sun set until it got too cold, and then went down to Helene and Lauren's room to watch Braveheart. I think Lauren took a picture... we were a funny sight. we had 9 girls crammed into two twin beds and a couple of chairs, and an itty bitty computer screen that we were watching the movie on.

And now, it's off to bed. No classes tomorrow, but plenty of work to do.

 

 

Bridget sticking her feet in the freezing water

Art School Chic

Me, Marissa and Bridget with some of Andreas Kock's work

September 18

Me and Sunni, my roommate

Becca, Hannah, Marissa, Bridget, Sunni, Lauren and Gracie all dressed in "art school chic"

The sunset over the Luberon Valley

Today was a fantastically long day. I woke up early to go back to the marketplace in Apt for a few things. I needed a new purse, sunglasses and razorblades so that I could finally shave my legs. I wandered around the marketplace with Lauren, and managed to find everything I needed. We were in the grocery store for a little bit, and I got colored pencils and some other random art supplies that I hadn't even thought about when I was packing from the States. We came back for the very end of brunch and after that I started my workstudy in the library. I organized all of the books that had come in from Savannah, and had a skype date with my parents. They were so funny, in their bathrobes and up so early in the morning to talk to me. From there, I went to go get ready for the exhibition that we had to attend wearing "art school chic". It was so much fun. The exhibit was beautiful, and everyone looked wonderful. The wine was flowing for everyone and I even managed to not die in my stilettos on the hill (though Melissa did convince me to take them off). After the exhibition everyone went down to Cafe du France, and kept up with the wine. Becca found a baby scorpion and put it on our table, and when it started coming toward me I spilled my wine. From there, the rest of the night went by fast, and I ended up in bed around midnight, after Bridget had eaten my crackers and cheese, and left crumbs everywhere....

Our scorpion friend that made me spill my wine