In French,”J’ai attrape un coup de soleil” simply means that “I got a sunburn”, which is true as I really did get a terrible sunburn today. Even though it may imply that I stupidly did not put on enough sunblock this morning, there is an even greater significance behind my sunburn… Fun. After the past two days of exploring the different marches, epiceries, and boulangeries of St-Laurent-du-Var, the other students and I learned enough French kitchen vocabulary and found enough French recipes to travel to a small hotel on the sea in Saint Jean to make a large dinner for ourselves and our teachers. Between our shifts as cooks, we went to the beach across the street from the hotel. It was between my time at the beach and my time in the kitchen that I got my sunburn. I was too caught up in the smells, the sounds, the cool feeling of the sea (even after swimming in it for an hour), and, most especially, the joy of being with twenty four other awesome kids to put on anymore sunscreen. It was much more fun to swim to buoy after buoy with friends, prepare the crust of a tarte tartin, sing French Celine Dion songs with a teacher, and laugh throughout an entire dinner. Sure, I may regret it all tomorrow morning, but, at the moment looking back on my day, it was well worth it. -Brendan
