This experience has been a great one for sure.  I have made new friends, strengthened bonds already made, and learned a lot about myself. The Cannes Film Festival was definitely a great thing to participate in, even if one doesn't end up liking their job assignment.  I must say, as a business student, it was hard to be positive the first couple of days because business students aren't given as much opportunities to meet people compared to some of the other interns.  I worked for Aldamisa International and met a ton of people everyday, but they thought i was with the company i was working for, so never really gave me the time of day. There was a few people who would talk to me and ask me about myself, but usually I had to leave networking for outside of the workplace.  The one thing I can take away from the business side of this internship, is the networking I made with the people of Aldamisa, which is a growing sales and production company.  The last day of work, I gave them my resume and maybe someday when they start expanding, they may consider me as a potential employee.

Now for the fun stuff! Lets see, I met a lot of interns through the American Pavilion.  it was great lateral networking, which was one of my main goals here in Cannes.  I also got to see 5 movies while I was here! I went and saw "Beautiful Boy", which was pretty slow but interesting.  I ending up leaving that one early to go see "We need to talk about Kevin" with Katie at the Olympia Theatre.  That was a good movie, but creepy none-the-less. I would definitely recommend that people go see it if they like scary movies.  Also during the week, I went and saw "The other side of sleep," which was terrible, and then "River Sorrow" which was kinda slow, with bad acting, but it was like a CSI episode so it kept me intrigued. Christian Slater was in the movie, and he looks so different now.  I wonder if that one will make it to the states, probably not.  I also did the whole red carpet thing with Katie, Brittan and Chandler for the movie "The Beaver!" We had heard it was weird but why not go try to see Mel Gibson and Jodi Foster and do the whole red carpet thing? It was a great experience and I'm so glad that we did it! The movie was SO GOOD, and I would recommend people go see it also.  The trailer I remember seeing in the states for it does not do the movie any justice, and might make the movie unsuccessful but who knows.  I cant wait to see how it does.

Also while in Cannes, we did some traveling! Of course we did the whole, "lets walk around Cannes" thing but we also took it one step further.  On Thursday, my first day of not having to work, Katie, Brittan, Salvatore, and Ben all took a trip up to Antibes for the day to visit Carol, a friend that Brittan and Sal met through their jobs.  We took the train to get there, which was fun, and when we got there Carol was ready to show us around.  We went to the market, then to lunch at "Garden Hotel" which was the coolest restaurant I have ever eaten at.  The atmosphere was so mystical, and I would love to make a trip there again if I am ever in the area. It was like eating in a big garden in the back yard of someone's house. After that we explored some more, and ended up walking to the tallest lighthouse in Europe, and up on the same hill was a cute little church that the local fishermen march up to once a year to thank God for all their luck.  There was a shrine probably every 20 feet, that I'm sure the fishermen stopped at to pray and give thanks while walking.  After that, we walked to Carol's house, which was so cozy, and hung out there with everyone, including some of her tenants, who are yacht boys, looking for work.  Ending up leaving there around 12am, and made our way safety back to Cannes via bus.

The next day, we went to St. Tropez.  4 hours of travel time later, which by the way was only suppose to be an hour, we made it to the beautiful city of St. Tropez.  It was the same group as the day before, minus Carol, and we were heading to stay at Ben's friends house.  The town was great, and we had to wind our way through a little until we go to the house.  The house was the prettiest thing I have ever stepped foot into.  It was a 4 story house, with a terrace on top too look out and enjoy the awesome view of St. Tropez.  The house was very chic, and the stairs that lead through the house were spiral stone steps. Absolutely beautiful house, maybe I'll post pictures so you all can see. The next day we got up at 5am and started our journey back. It was a long 4 hours, but  we made it back for check-in at 9am. WHEW. 

Now I'm sitting here in the lobby of Maeva, getting depressed about today being my last day.  What a great experience this was.  I got to learn about how film and business correspond, live in the fast pace film world for a short time, make new friends, explore southern France, and learn new things about myself.  This was a great learning experience, and I'm ever so thankful that I participated in this.

I also want to thank Dr. Dill for the awesome preparation for Cannes. I would never know what a pitch was, nor have a good one, without her, nor would I have had a home base to go to when I needed to be reminded why I was here.

Well, I guess thats it for now. See you all on the other side of the pond soon!

Sara Whitaker