Highlights

So I’m aware a lot of my posts have been centered on one particular subject and thought I’d just post some of the highlights of the last week or so here.

1. Officially book some of the flights for my spring break trip! A group of us are hitting up Prague, Salzburg, and Munich for the 9 day break!

2. Also book a random weekend trip to Barcelona in two weeks!

3. Sung “Man I Feel like a Woman” with my friend Jake at karaoke night at this Irish Pub called “The Quay’s” (technically this was 2 weeks ago, but it was awesome).

4. Went to Monaco and visited the first casino ever built.

5. Started seminar class. I’m taking “La Société Française” and Cinéma which are both incredibly interesting

6. Made a spur of the moment decision to run and jump into the Mediterranean with my incredible roommate before dinner one day since the weather was amazing and it just looked so pretty from our room. (It was really cold but worth it and we got a lot of funny look jogging to the beach in our swimsuits).

7. Went to a café with a local French person through this “Échange-Langue” program they have here which was awesome!

8. Spent lots of time appreciating how gorgeous it is here (especially when it’s sunny).

9. Continued to eat bread at every meal every day.

10. Met some amazing people from all over the world; which I have to say has probably been one of the best parts of the trip. The people here are truly incredible. 

So I guess you could say things are pretty fantastic here!

I got a little sick because there’s definitely been something going around and we went out all weekend so I needed a break. Feeling better today though! Other than that I feel like everything is going by way too fast! Just starting to book trips is so exciting but we’re quickly realizing we don’t really have that much time here (or so it seems).

I’ll probably write something a bit more in depth again soon, but thought this would be nice for now!

À bientôt!

10,000 Reasons

I found this quote the other day in a journal which my friend gave me for the trip:

“Around me when I look, His handiwork I see;

This world is like a picture book to teach His love to me.” –Jane E. Leeson

I honestly just can’t even fathom that I’m here sometimes. I found myself walking along the beach after a meeting and had this enormous urge to just go sit on the beach and watch as the sun started to set. I probably sat there for 20-25 minutes just trying to etch every detail into my brain and wrap my head around the fact that I’m here. Sitting on the beach on the French Riviera. Me, Amanda Marcus. This 19 year old girl from Long Beach, California. And in all honesty this is where, in trying to express my thoughts and feelings around all that I just become speechless.

I just was sitting there. Content. Thankful. Amazed. Dumbfounded. A little chilly. With the prettiest blue water in front of me. Probably one of the most spectacular views I’ve seen—something people see in magazines and pictures—that few people will ever get to experience in their lives. Something that only I will ever get to experience in the same way, with the same mindset and place in my life that I just did.

And all these things are adding up in my brain and I just keep asking, what in the world could I possibly have ever done that I’ve been so blessed? Really, though. I try very hard—to be kind, to be loving, to be an example, to be a “good” person. But I’ve messed up. I’ve fallen many a times. I am nowhere near perfect nor will I ever be. And yet, “Around me when I look, His handiwork I see.” Everywhere. Everywhere I looked in that moment—the millions of grains of sand, the Lord-knows-how-many molecules of water making up the sea in front of me—I just see God. Carefully designing all of these little things (and I’m sure having a blast doing it). But why? And why am I lucky enough to experience all this?

“This world is like a picture book to teach His love to me.” Wow. Well that’s got to be it.

And all I can do at that point is pray. And be thankful. Because when I ask myself that question, I just feel peace and imagine God laughing to himself and telling me, “You didn’t do anything. In fact, you didn’t need to do anything to deserve to be here. You deserve it simply because you’re you. You’re Amanda. You’re one of many of my daughters, and I love you. So enjoy.”

So I continued to sit. I listened to a few worship songs. I tried to continue to wrap my head around all these things. That here I am, one of billions of people here on this Earth in this weird but incredible human body, feeling the cold of the wind and looking out at the world through this crazy things called eyes. What an experience this place really is. How crazy is life that I should be here in this moment. That I should be here at all.

So although I could probably continue on and on, needless to say I’m in a place where I’m feeling incredibly thankful. Overwhelmingly so. And I think the only appropriate way to wrap this up was with some of my favorite song lyrics from the song “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman because it was my favorite one I listened to on the beach. And let’s face it—I am very fortunate to have already experienced that many, if not more, examples in my life of how I’ve been so incredibly blessed. And I’m just excited to see how many more reasons  I continue to find in the months ahead here in France and in wherever direction He takes me.

“Your rich in love and you’re slow to anger,

Your name is great, and your heart is kind.

For all your goodness I will keep on singing,

10,000 reasons for my heart to find…

Bless the Lord, oh my soul,

Oh, my soul.

Worship His holy name.

Sing like never before,

Oh, my soul.

I’ll worship you’re holy name.”

-10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

La Nourriture

So, I figured I should dedicate at least one post to this, especially since I’ve taken a lot of iPhone pictures of the things I’ve been eating but have yet to really post any.

Realistically, I haven’t eaten out all too much. We’ve gone out a few times; however, I’m trying to save money by using my meal plan and eating as much as possible in the cafeteria.

Breakfast is served from 8:05-8:55 and generally consists of what’s in the photo:

There’s a buffet style table with lots of bread, a toaster, jam, fruits, cereal (usually a chocolate kind, honey smacks, and corn flakes), yogurt, hard-boiled eggs (which have a tendency to be hit and miss as my roommate, Sky, has found out the hard way), milk, orange juice, coffee, and  hot chocolate. It’s always the same, but I have pretty simple taste and don’t mind the repetition.

Lunch is a bit more unpredictable. I have a tendency to get there late because my class runs over a bit. So I typically end up sitting with random people because I’ll miss the mad rush where everyone grabs their seat. Mais ce n'est pas mal. I enjoy talking to new people it’s just slightly more difficult if they don’t speak either English or French, which I’ve experienced with a group of Japanese students and a bunch of Italians who were here for a week.

ANYWAYS back to the food. There’s always a salad bar and bread. Then they bring the main course out to the table. It varies all the time. Today was beef stew. Sometimes it’s fish. Sometimes chicken. One time we had lasagna. Another we had this potato, cheese, and bacon casserole thing that I LOVED. Surprisingly. Because for those who know me, I severely dislike potatoes. But these were incredible.

Dinner is a different story. It’s starts at 19:05 (7:05) and is a buffet. However, recently it’s been the biggest/randomnest mix of things. They’re all good though! Last night was croque monsieurs, onion rings, French fries, little sausages on a stick, and pasta. With bread, of course. 

Also, there’s brunch on the weekends which is the breakfast bar but with some additional things like deli meats, cheese, croissants, and sometimes scrambled eggs or bacon.

So, there’s a little slice (yes, pun intended) of daily life here at the Collège International de Cannes. I’ve been just trying to be open minded and embrace it! You guys would be proud of some of the stuff I’ve been trying!

Outside of the college I’ve had some amazing carbonara which was served with a raw egg yolk in it! I've also had some incredible desserts and some amazing pizza. We're pretty close to Italy here so pizza and pasta are pretty common in town. 

Also, I took a cooking class where we learned how to make this really good dish with duck in this yummy sauce with mashed potatoes in truffle oil. And we made chocolate soup for desert topped with a caramel whipped cream made from scratch and a mint leaf. 

I’m sure I’ll have to do another post along these lines soon—but thought it would be fun to let you guys in on my incredibly carb filled diet. I haven’t gone a single meal without eating French bread the entire time I’ve been here… and I plan on keeping things that way. 

Monaco

Currently working on posting photos.. I’ve decided to post the best ones on my slickpic site (link below/on other pages). Other more fun ones will be on Facebook!
http://www.slickpic.com/u/AmandaMarcus

Anyways today was exhausting but fun! We took an excursion to Monaco! Took the bus to the capitol where the prince currently lives. There we watched the changing of the guards and tried to protect our packed lunches from the seagulls who have apparently attacked students before. We walked around for a bit before hopping on the bus and going to Monte Carlo! We went to the casino there (yeah… the one where they filmed Casino Royale) which is interestingly the first casino that was EVER built in the world! And it’s GORGEOUS. Unfortunately my camera had died by then so I snapped some photos on my phone. However, we couldn’t take any inside anyways. 

From there we went to a small town called Èze. It’s referred to as Eagle’s Nest because it’s basically a town built on this huge mountain sort of thing. The fog was pretty thick so it was also hard to take pictures but it was great! Would love to right more but I really am beat and I think the pictures explain better than my words can.