The Best Part About Grad School:

So this post is like 4 months late but it needs to be documented so here we go:

MED SCHOOL & LAW SCHOOL PROM!!

Seriously, they are the BEST. 

Okay so they're not officially called "prom" (mine was "UUSOM Semi-Formal" and JP's is called the "Barrister's Ball") but let's be honest, it's basically prom for grown-ups and they are awesome!

We've gone to JP's law school prom every year so obviously we had to go to the final year (see the post from the first year we attended here!) and it didn't disappoint! They serve dinner, give out awards, have a photographer, and a DJ! It was a blast. 

<<<<<>>>>

I was put on the prom committee for my med school (of course I was, I think it's because I wrote about my love of throwing parties in my personal statement of my application...) so I got to help plan it and it was awesome! The theme was "out of this world" (so think like space/aliens/etc.)

We had food, a photographer, a DJ and people danced all. night. long. It was incredible! 

And JP definitely won a fantastic-husband-award that night because he came to the party for a couple hours even though he was taking a part of his law school bar exam the next morning! 

Law school prom:

 ^^^ we're on the far left!

Med school prom:

^^^ presenting the future doctors of America! #classof2018

^^^ med-school besties! we call ourselves #medicallyblonde

^^^ yeah... for some reason the photographer took a lot of pictures of me dancing.... I think it's because of how awkward I usually look! haha

^^^ prom planning committee!

^^^ this picture kills me every time hahah

JP Graduated!

We now have a lawyer in the house!!

Well, basically. 

He just has to pass the bar at the end of July and then bam! Full fledged lawyer husband. 

I am so so proud of JP and how hard he worked these past 3 years. He handled the stress and pressure of law school amazingly well, navigated through externships and foreign study programs and even working in a firm part-time for the last 2 years, AND made lifelong friends along the way!

He's looking forward to being a criminal defense attorney and finally having an income after 7 years of college/grad school haha (no more student loans for him woohoo! Unfortunately I can't say the same for me... #debt)

Here's to you JP! You're my favorite person in the whole world and you're going to absolutely kill it as a lawyer!

^^^ I honestly have no idea what's going on here

^^^ they both thought they were really funny

^^^ JP found a selfie stick and it was the greatest day of his life hahaha

^^^ my parents, me, and JP!

^^^ class of 2015!

^^^ nieces! this is my most favorite picture EVER. 

A quick pit stop and then onto San Sebastian, Spain!

After our time in Villefranche was up, we started looping back around the country to our final destination - San Sebastian, Spain. 

However it's like an 8 hour drive so we decided to split it up!

We stopped for lunch in Aix-en-Provence (we ate lunch at the most delicious burger place! I think Europe has just recently discovered the magic of hamburgers because almost every single city we went to had a gourmet burger restaurant that was like the highest rated restaurant in the city! But anyways...)

we might have also accidentally stolen the shop owners keys.... but we have full intentions to mail them back to them! #JPsfault

Then that night we pulled into Carcassonne and stayed at the cutest bed and breakfast in the world! It was run by a husband and wife who had retired from Paris where he used to be a pastry chef! 

Needless to say, it was an amazing little place and there was also a real life castle in the town so that was pretty incredible to explore too!

(except getting to the correct town with our bed and breakfast was not the easiest thing we've ever done... turns out there are lots of tiny french towns and google maps likes to think that walking paths are actual roads so... we got into a tight situation more than once, literally haha) 

After a fantastic nights sleep we got up and continued to San Sebastian!

Which is seriously the hidden gem of Europe. You should probably google pictures of it right now because my pictures are not going to do it justice. 

It's like Newport beach meets Barcelona meets Paris. And then cooler than that. 

There are white sandy beaches, waves that you can surf, cobble stone streets with hundred year old buildings, it's considered to have the best food in Europe and it's nestled between 2 mountains so the views are like whoa!

Seriously we were blown away with how incredible of a place it was and are already planning how we're going to get back there!

Carcassonnne:

^^^ JP just going in for a hug and kiss goodbye hahah

^^^ the cutest B&B!

San Sebastian!

^^^ JP was sooo happy about this meal haha you won't meet anyone who likes meat more than him!

^^^ I wish this did the view justice! 

But this brings us to the end of our European road trip! It was honestly the trip of a lifetime and we feel super lucky that we were able to go and that our BFF's were able to go with us! 

Gorges du Verdon aka Grand Canyon of France!

(There's absolutely no way the pictures can do it justice, but I'll try anyway!)

About halfway through our trip we spent a day at Gorges du Verdon, an absolutely gorgeous river canyon who's water is bright turquoise due to the limestone that the canyon walls are made of. 

You can rent boats, go hiking, drive to lookout points, and rock climb all through the canyon and it is awesome. 

We were pretty lucky that we made it to the canyon and ended up having such a great time given the fact that:

>>  driving through Nice is a lot harder than we realized, 

>> there *might* have been spiders falling from the ceiling while we ate lunch in smallest town at the top of a mountain, 

>> and lets just say winding mountain roads aren't great if you're prone to car sickness (like 2/4 of us are...)

So I mean, if we can have a fantastic day even despite all that, you know this place must be pretty magical ;)

And then we stumbled upon the Grand Prix in Monaco...

At this point in the trip we were all looking at each other like "What's the catch?!"

We'd had perfect weather, seen the Cannes film festival accidentally, and now we were in Monaco for the Grand Prix (unplanned!).

Talk about some amazing luck!

Monaco is the neatest country. Oh my goodness. 

(also I'll just embarrass myself here and throw out there that I definitely thought Monaco was a city in France before this trip... Turns out Monte Carlo is the city and Monaco is the country soo... I'm not really earning any geography points at this point in my life haha)

It's nestled between 2 mountains and is packed full of million/billionaires so everywhere you look there are Ferrari's and Maserati's and Rolls Royces (at one point JP turned to us and said "I think I've seen 10 Rolls Royces in my life and 9 of them were tonight." haha!)

Due to some bad-turned-out-to-be-good luck (we weren't planning on going to Monaco until the day of the race but jumped on the wrong train coming home from Cannes and whizzed right past our train station stop in Villefranche and ended up in Monaco at 10:30 PM the night before the race haha) we found ourselves (with about half of Europe) on the streets on Monaco and the entire city had become a massive party. 

We got to walk on the race track, see row upon row of super yachts bigger than my house and private parties and body guards everywhere with DJ's playing music and dance parties galore. 

It was nuts! I just kept thinking "is this how people actually live?!"

It was so entertaining and so much fun to be a part of. We ended up hanging out in Monaco until about midnight when we finally caught the train back to Villefranche and collapsed into our beds. 

The next morning was the actual Grand Prix race so we jumped on the train again (it was so easy - Monaco was a 10 minute train ride away from Villefranche!) and got to hear the race and see a little bit of it by peering through cracks and over bushes (tickets were 400 euros each and the city officials had put up barricades around places where you could catch a glimpse of the race for free so we had to get creative!)

The atmosphere was incredible and we settled ourselves down at this fantastic french bistro that had a widescreen TV so we would eat and watch the race while still hearing the cars zoom past and bystanders cheering in real life!

Villefranche-sur-Mer

Let me tell you a little bit about the little town we made our home base (that I mentioned in my last post).

Villefranche-sur-Mer

aka

"French City by the Sea"

(the literal translation and also the perfect description)

It is DARLING. You drive through Nice (people seem to really like Nice and we all agreed it was a bit overrated and also kind of old and dirty...) and then right on the other side in the next little harbor/cove is the beautiful city of Villefranche!

AH everyone should go there because it's amazing. Cobblestone streets, beautiful homes, flowers everywhere, and the most gorgeous harbor!

We rented an airbnb apartment  with a balcony that overlooks the harbor, went on beautiful walks, ate at the cutest little restaurants, and basically couldn't believe this was reality.

I could probably live there except that everything closes at like 7 PM and the city is on a hill so you get a massive workout every time you go out (actually that'd probably be a good thing...)