Festival et Carnivale

Two things! #1- I am sick. So is the entire College. It has sparked conversation that if someone had strep, we'd all get strep and die. We're big big fans of rumors here at the College. People believe that thousands of foreigners are moving in, that we all have to move rooms, and that somebody has herpes--all before 9AM. So the epidemic is lending itself very well to that.

#2- I went to shit tons of festivals this weekend. The first was in Cannes, at the Palais des Festivals (where the film festival is in May), called the Festival

International des Jeux. It is, in essence, French ComicCon, complete with people dressed as Naruto characters and zombies and characters from Team Fortress 2. I will not call them nerds, because I knew exactly who they were supposed to be, so I won't throw stones in my glass house. It was vastly, vastly entertaining though. Jenn and I were sort of having a slob day and blended in with the hordes of sweaty nerds playing Settlers of Cataan.

We had a blast, and just looking around at everything was awesome. There's so much cool shit!! My dad and brother would have fairly died of joy several times, and I very much appreciated that. The big thing everyone was excited about at the festival though was a new version of Monopoly Cannes that they were revealing there. It was 45euros, and alas, not worth it, especially if no one at home will appreciate the significance of the streets, so we just took lots of pictures with the giant display. The second festival of the weekend was on Sunday, the Carnivale de Nice, which I guess is the closest thing France has to Carnivale, and they take it very seriously.

The theme this year was sports, and the majority of the floats reflected this. Nice is an unbelievably beautiful city. The Promenade des Anglais is a long wide sidewalk next to the seafront (where the water is crystal clear blue). I could almost be persuaded to take up jogging were I in Nice. Or perhaps roller-blading, which is also a big thing. Nice is about 45 minutes away from Cannes by bus, to give you some perspective. The Carnivale was really, really fun, and very foreign in a weird way. It's really interesting to see how other cultures make cartoon people, the sense of humor and the artistic style, the floats were unlike anything you'd see in America. Also, they

give cans of silly string to small children, and hilarity ensues. Check out my album on Facebook for pictures of all of this, as I could not possibly show them all here, but they're all pretty amazing. Political correctness

basically doesn't exist in France, as I might have mentioned, and the same rules of conduct don't necessarily apply in certain situations. For example, you can run into the street during a parade and join in or dance with the performers, and they can spray you with almost destructive amounts of silly string.

Drag queens are obviously a necessary component of any good celebration, and there were a LOT. After the parade we went to this little carnival set up in the city square, which for some reason I was really surprised by, "Why is there a carnival here???" Molly-"At Carnavale?" We had a little dinner at a sports bar before

getting back on the bus. I spent the evening trying to Skype with my family with The World's Worst Internet--AND, buying tickets!! Because I have travel plans now, and it is very very exciting. Unfortunately though the 4+ hours of very high stress trying to buy literally over 4 different plane tickets with EasyJet did a toll on my sickness, which definitely set back my recuperation by a lot. I really need to go downtown and get a lot of errands done, including but not limited to getting a sim card that can call the US--which I thought I wouldn't need if I had internet, but APPARENTLY NOT. The trip downtown is a long walk though, and I was really lightheaded and dizzy and ill all morning, which you didn't really need to know, but at this point you've read this far so may as well. March is going to be an extremely busy month of travel for me. This weekend I am going to Glasgow to visit the effervescent and charming Melanie Ward, (but have yet to figure out exactly how to get to the airport with the express bus), the following weekend AIFS is taking us to Paris for four days (madness will ensue), the weekend after that I am going to Amsterdam with the equally effervescent and charming Evan Revak. The weekend after that I get to rest, and then the following weekend my spring break starts!! I am officially going to Barcelona and Lisbon with Mel and then to Strasbourg with Evan and perhaps onto Germany. I'm very very much looking forward to spending time with people other than the same 60 of us in AIFS, who are basically laying in a metaphorical pile coughing on each other while speaking half-French. Plus also I GUESS I'm a fan of Evan and Mel. Even if they are not fans of each other. At least on Skype.

If I get a good sim card that lets me text America at reasonable prices, I will let you know. And then you can occasionally text me. Maybe even when you're sober. I applied for a Cannes Cinephile pass today which will allow me into screenings at the Festival if I'm not supplied one by my internship. In the letter part of my application I made sure to specify that I am responsible and will conduct myself well at the screenings.

Jenn: Why would you need to tell them that?

Me: Because the College International isn't exactly considered to be a bastion of academia around these parts...like you know how they have those videos on the AIFS website with kids being like, "Oh, I love how we're so close to the beach and can talk to locals!" but the real video is like, someone asleep in bed at 1pm with a half-drunk bottle of wine next to them, "Welcome to the College! Am I really drunk at 11am? Why yes I am!" and then the obnoxious deafening loudspeaker comes on like MADEMOISELLE ALLORY G A LA RECEPTION! MADEMOISELLE ALLORY! ♫ BEE-DEE-BOO. and they're just like UGH FUCK and fall back asleep with their face on their laptop, all muffled, "Let's go to the Foyer. I want fries."

THE END.