11/06
My last day in nice! It’s really sad. This whole past week of nothingness has been amazing. Nice is so much more fun sans les lecons. Lets see.. Friday night after cazaux’s oral final craziness we just sat around because we had just took 8 finals in 4 days so we were dead. I watched movies online! I hadn’t seen any movie since spring break, and those weren’t even ones I hadn’t seen before. So I stayed up way to late doing that, then the next day I went shopping on jean-medecin and got a drink from the mccafe as an end of finals treat. Lindsay went to pick up her boyfriend at the airport so I didn’t see her much that day. Then when I came home I watched another movie and then met up with Christine and Rachel V and Maddie at the plage. The next day I went to the beach for like 4 hours and realized that I got really burned. That night I met up with a bunch of people at the plage again, this time opera (instead of sporting). I don’t know what it is about Sunday but it was soo crowded. Right away this guy came up to us and tried to talk to us. We pretended that we didn’t speak French and it turns out that he was Romanian so he didn’t speak English. Despite the fact that we told him over and over again that we didn’t understand him, he continued to ask us if we understood him and kept trying to figure out why we were there (on vacation etc). He sat there for at least 30 minutes, mostly in awkward silence while we talked about him in English in front of him. Finally he started yelling up to his friends and was inviting them down so we just decided to leave. We moved down to a different part of the beach where a goth looking guy in a long trench coat came up to us almost immediately and asked us for “du feu”. We said we didn’t smoke and he was surprised (they always are) and he asked us where we were from, so we said America and he gave us a weird look, said thanks and walked away. Later on a drunk guy came up to us and asked us for the same thing. He wouldn’t leave and the guy from earlier saw him and came over and said that his friends had a lighter he could use, which was nice. But then that guy ended up sitting down with his friends and the trench coat guy sat down with us. He talked with us for a minute (he was Canadian, lived in france for 2 years, was in a band) and then realized that the drunk guy was bothering his friends so he got up, took off his coat and asked us to watched it. We realized that he was going to confront the dude so we just decided to leave and go to paddie’s, some irish bar. Some of us had never been/didn’t know where it was, and then these American guys stopped us on the way to ask directions to wayne’s and we ended up losing the people that knew the way. We called them and asked them to meet us outside of wayne's, and then ended up going in there for all of 3 bad songs before calling it a night.
Monday I got up, walked to Carrefour and went in some stores on the way. That afternoon we had a crepe party at julie’s, and I had both a chicken and mozzarella crepe and a strawberries and whipped cream one. They were so good! After that it was off to orange to try and get our internet cancellation stuff figured out. Later that night we went back to the plage. There were a lot of people out again and a lot of umd people came out too. We ended up meeting some funny Canadian guys and a couple of british guys as well as a girl from Vienna and a guy from Virginia Tech – small world! The purpose of Monday night was to go to checkpoint/wayne’s for dancing, but somehow our little beach circle grew and the night got away from us. We finally decided to go back to ben’s at around two, where we hung out for a little while.
The next day I went to Antibes while Nate and Lindsay went to Monaco. We got a late start though so we didn’t get to spend much time in there and then we needed to be back by 8 for dinner at ben’s. We picked up some wine and our favorite baguettes and ben made us an amazing meal! Mac and cheese from scratch, a salad with homemade dressing, a cheese course, and an apple tart to finish it off. So good! We hung out there for awhile then went home.
Wednesday we had to pack and clean. Any free time I had I spent at the beach (maybe not a good idea since my burned skin is now bubbling). Then we went and dropped of lindsay’s suitcases at letzter’s, handed in our livebox at orange, and were late for our etat de lieux with Laurent, but it was stupid anyways because he just walked in asked if we broke anything and then left. That night was our last plage night, and no one showed! I guess with no internet/phone money everyone’s plans got messed up. Still we met up with ben and nick for a little on the beach where they had their blanket and candle. We ate the leftovers of our cabinets (nutella, mixed nuts and mints) and I sprayed them with silly string I had left over from carnavale. We also brought along our leftover laundry detergent and decided to put it in the Place Massena fountain! I was so scared, so I placed it behind me and we made it look like we were taking a picture as I accidentally knocked the bag over with the open detergent bottle. I dropped the bottle in though and it started to float away so I grabbed it then these French guys started yelling in our direction and I thought it was at us so I yanked it our of the water, getting detergent all over ben (sorry)! There was still a lot in the bottle, apparently, so Lindsay took it and just walked over and poured it in (so not as discreet as me). Then she threw it out and we waited a bit. Not much appeared but as we were leaving we noticed some suds! Not a ton, but still a success. And the fountain smelled nice for once. Then it was time to say our goodbyes (for now) and go home to go to bed to get up early to pack some more.
The morning of my train I had a ton of stuff and no where to put it. After strategically shoving a few things in corners of my suitcase, I got most of it to fit. I had to shove everything in one suitcase but I didn’t think it would be a problem since Allison took a whole suitcase of my stuff. Apparently it was a problem, though, because I packed it to the brim and the suitcase was so big it could barely fit through the door. It also weighed at least 75 pounds, because I couldn’t pick it up and the scale went all the way up to 75. everything else was shoved into my backpack, which i guess ended up containing mainly food from my cabinets that i wanted. it was also packed full, possibly more so than it was for spring break if that is even possible, and weighed around 30 pounds. oh and then i had my purse, which wasn't heavy, but it was just another bag to carry. i somehow managed to squeeze it all in and had some time so i went to quick to use the wifi. i bought my last softy praline, which is usually a euro, but the price had gone up within the last 2 days (as the employee informed me) and was almost double. to top it off, the wireless didn't even work. after moving around in the restaurant a little, i found a table in a corner upstairs that could pick up a hotel's network, so i got to use that, but only for a little since i had to go back to the apartment, eat the rest of my food in the fridge/freezer and then leave for the train station.
i planned on leaving an hour to get to the gare, even though it is a 15 minute walk. it was a good idea, because the bag was insanely heavy and i had to stop multiple times for a break. finally, i could see the train station in sight, all that was left was the hill up to it. a guy stopped and helped me with my bag up the hill, tells me his name is adam, tries to get me to go out for coffee with him (even though i explained i had the train to catch) and then finally gives me his number and tells me to call him when i get back to nice. to top it off he said "kiss" when i left.. while this may work in french ("bisous") it was just creepy to have him say that while staring at me. i crossed the street made it into the train station and slipped on the just mopped floors. great start. it didn't hurt, it just sucked to have to pick up the stupid bag, and no one even offered to help or ask if i was ok. i went to the regional ticket machine to buy my ticket to ventimiglia. the first machine took 3 euro of my money and gave me no ticket and no change. ughhh. the next one didn't work at all, the third one finally did. i took the escalator down to the platform (really more train stations should have these) but reached my platform which only had stairs. after standing there for a minute and staring up, some nice american guy offered to take the bag up for me, yes! while waiting on the platform i saw some weird guy licking papers and sticking them to a wall. gross. but i caught this other guy's eye watching him too and we had a little laugh about it. when the train came someone helped me get my bag on, which was nice, except that it scraped over my feet and really hurt. i really should have thought my shoe decision through a little better, sandals were a bad idea. 45 fast minutes later i was in ventimiglia. luckily the train and the platform are on the same level so getting the bag off the train wasn't a problem. the 2 flights of stairs down and 2 up to the other platform were, however. everyone had left the platform so i had to try and do it myself. i started dragging the bag down the stairs one step at a time, which seemed like a good idea. however, the momentum built up and i lost hold of the handle and the bag started to roll down the stairs, right when a girl started walking up them. luckily it stopped at the middle landing, but it may have hit the girl a little, i couldn’t tell. she seemed fine and i apologized profusely. then i found a better way to take the bag down; turn it so that it was on the side without the wheels (the front) and then drag slowly. that’s what i did the rest of the way down. then i made it to the bottom of the other platform, where i only had to stand for a minute before 2 trenitalia guys saw me and offered to take the bag up, so that was nice. then i got down to my car where i actually had to stand for awhile and was about to turn around and find those guys again, when a passenger helped me. i was on that train for 3 hours and i feel asleep because that stupid bag was heavy and i felt like i had just had the workout of my life. one of the passengers said that my bag was not a suitcase, but a camper. pretty true.
made it to genova and had to do the stairs thing again. dragged them down fine and waited until last possible minute to get up to the platform since they were changing platforms all the time and i didn't want to have to do it twice. waited as long as possible and had to start dragging the bag up myself. it was hard, but i did one/two stairs at a time and it was ok. i made almost all the way up when someone offered to help me the rest of the way. then the train came and the trenitalia woman helped me get it on the train, and another worker helped me get it in the car. there was one other woman in my 4 person cabin at the time which was nice because we had alot of space. she spoke italian really well even though she was russian. she asked about my travels and school and stuff. the train was really nice, it had ac and a plug, so i plugged in my laptop, wrote some stuff and then watched a movie. 2 more people got on in pisa, so the car was full, but it wasn't too bad. the ac shut off sometimes though, which made it really hot (or really cold if it was on) sometimes at night.
everyone in my car got off much earlier than me, like around 5 or 6 am, so i was up by then. i was supposed to get in at 9:30 but it was late, probably because of the boat. the train breaks up and gets on a boat to go over the messina strait, which is really cool, but time consuming. i ended up arriving around 11:30 and was really scared that i had missed it or would miss it since i didn't know the stops before hand. luckily everything was fine and gianni was at the station within a couple of minutes to pick me up. and thus begin my summer adventures in sicily...
things i will miss about nice (made on the train ride leaving nice :( ) :
- boulangeries/patisseries and the best baguettes and pastries EVER
- the way the medeterranean is sooo blue. it never gets old! And surprises me everytime.
- rue de france; OUR street, full of cute shops, little restaurants, the zone pietonne, and last but not least, our prostitutes. also one block from the beach!
- the view of the coast from school, not to be confused with actual school (the building and classes), which i will not miss at all
- cute towns nearby (eze, antibes, beaulieu, etc)
- scenic walks
- le chateau
- seeing the alps and the beach while standing in one place
09 September 2009
la suisse!
umm yeah so nice is over?! but i still have a million blog entries to write from spring break through the loire valley trip. i really want to say i will get to it, but the next school semester has already started so who knows when that will happen. luckily, at some point over the summer i did manage to write an entry for our last trip to geneva and annecy and the last week i was in nice.. so here they are!
28/5-31/5
Geneva!
Last trip of the semester :(! We had a late flight out of nice that ended up being even later due to a delay. We ended up getting into Geneva pretty late, around midnight.
The next day, we woke up at like 9 or 10, which is late for traveling (for us anyways), since we didn’t have anything in mind to see really, this trip was pretty chill. So we just walked around a lot. I remembered the amazing coop grocery store I went to in Zurich, so looking for those was on the top of our priorities. There was actually one right near the hostel but it wasn’t really that great. So we went to the lac to try and see the landmark jet d’eau but it was so windy that it was turned off. Then we wandered around the old part of town, through a parck, to the cathedral and went up the tower, which had a great view of the city. After that it was back to our quest to find a coop. the lets go Europe book talked about one but we had trouble finding it. Finally after basically walking circles around it, it was right in front of us. It was even better than a coop, it was a coop city, which is kind of like monoprix or a department store because it had a little of everything: clothes, toys, cosmetics, all in addition to an amazing grocery and an awesome little food stand. It also had an amazing chocolate section, which was exactly what we wanted. The 45 cent chocolate bar I got there for breakfast, however, was also really great quality, which was good since some of the fancier lindt bars cost around 4 swiss francs. Chocolate (and dr pepper!) in hand we were prepared to resume our wandering. We also checked out another grocery called migros, which was across the street (why do they do that?) which wasn’t as cool, but did have trolli bright crawlers which took all my strength not to buy.
The next day, we took a bus from the gare routiere to annecy in france. The hour 1/2-ish bus ride went right over the border like it was no big deal (even though france is schengen and Switzerland is not) and through the mountains (alps). It was described as being a picturesque town (the “Venice of france”) and it certainly was. We even saw wedding photos being taken there. There is also a large lake in annecy with really blue water and baby animals, like ducks and swans. That day, some sort of volleyball tournament was going on, stretching across several fields by the lake. We walked back through different streets in the cute town where we, of course, had to get gelato. I got struomph (smurf-blue) flavor ice cream, just because I was curious as to how it would taste. It ended up to just be vanilla dyed blue (lame). So then I ended spending more money on sweets/candy/food (story of this weekend) and bought granita, which is like a fancy Italian word for slurpee/snow cone type drink, that costs way too much, but I really wanted it. In annecy we also walked up to the chateau, but didn’t feel like paying to go in. so we continued our walking (story of this trip) and started going down streets with shops, and stopped in an h&m (other story of this trip). I was looking for specific top that the nice h&m didn’t have, so I thought maybe Geneva would have it. Geneva had at least 5 h&ms and annecy had like 2, but they still didn’t have what I wanted. the mall in annecy was pretty nice, though small, but we found these random free internet kiosks by the bathroom and spent some time on the touch screen (slow!) computers checking the essentials (gmail & fb). When we got back to Geneva there was a new girl from Australia in our room. She seemed nice, especially since the girl the night before started out with “are you guys Canadian?” and after we said no, American, she seemed disappointed. After she heard we were from the dc area she asked if we went to Georgetown.. as if every student from the dc area goes there. We didn’t even get the chance to ask her a similar question because she left, but we didn’t think she really liked us.
The Australian girl had such crazy stories, she was on her second gap year (the first year she spent saving) and was traveling in Europe for a couple of months. She also came with no plan and just went where she felt like going and with people she met along the way. She was cool but I think we were a little too low key for her… since we were super tired and just went to bed. Oh and didn’t have crazy Turkish adventures like her.
The next day we started out wandering outside to find that EVERYTHING was closed. This was really sad since we left our major chocolate buying to this day, and now we couldn’t even do that. So we walked to the un and then through the botanical gardens. We also tried to find some special buildings designed by cool architects but we couldn’t. so we just sat around in the park a lot instead. We even ended up going to the airport early so we could try to find chocolate/food. There were like 2 stores in our terminal both of which had chocolate and took euros (we were out of swiss francs) which was good, but they were expensive, so I just ate some of erin’s which was probably enough. All in all, we ate a lot of chocolate, did a lot of walking and went in a lot of stores. But Switzerland is cool!!
28/5-31/5
Geneva!
Last trip of the semester :(! We had a late flight out of nice that ended up being even later due to a delay. We ended up getting into Geneva pretty late, around midnight.
The next day, we woke up at like 9 or 10, which is late for traveling (for us anyways), since we didn’t have anything in mind to see really, this trip was pretty chill. So we just walked around a lot. I remembered the amazing coop grocery store I went to in Zurich, so looking for those was on the top of our priorities. There was actually one right near the hostel but it wasn’t really that great. So we went to the lac to try and see the landmark jet d’eau but it was so windy that it was turned off. Then we wandered around the old part of town, through a parck, to the cathedral and went up the tower, which had a great view of the city. After that it was back to our quest to find a coop. the lets go Europe book talked about one but we had trouble finding it. Finally after basically walking circles around it, it was right in front of us. It was even better than a coop, it was a coop city, which is kind of like monoprix or a department store because it had a little of everything: clothes, toys, cosmetics, all in addition to an amazing grocery and an awesome little food stand. It also had an amazing chocolate section, which was exactly what we wanted. The 45 cent chocolate bar I got there for breakfast, however, was also really great quality, which was good since some of the fancier lindt bars cost around 4 swiss francs. Chocolate (and dr pepper!) in hand we were prepared to resume our wandering. We also checked out another grocery called migros, which was across the street (why do they do that?) which wasn’t as cool, but did have trolli bright crawlers which took all my strength not to buy.
The next day, we took a bus from the gare routiere to annecy in france. The hour 1/2-ish bus ride went right over the border like it was no big deal (even though france is schengen and Switzerland is not) and through the mountains (alps). It was described as being a picturesque town (the “Venice of france”) and it certainly was. We even saw wedding photos being taken there. There is also a large lake in annecy with really blue water and baby animals, like ducks and swans. That day, some sort of volleyball tournament was going on, stretching across several fields by the lake. We walked back through different streets in the cute town where we, of course, had to get gelato. I got struomph (smurf-blue) flavor ice cream, just because I was curious as to how it would taste. It ended up to just be vanilla dyed blue (lame). So then I ended spending more money on sweets/candy/food (story of this weekend) and bought granita, which is like a fancy Italian word for slurpee/snow cone type drink, that costs way too much, but I really wanted it. In annecy we also walked up to the chateau, but didn’t feel like paying to go in. so we continued our walking (story of this trip) and started going down streets with shops, and stopped in an h&m (other story of this trip). I was looking for specific top that the nice h&m didn’t have, so I thought maybe Geneva would have it. Geneva had at least 5 h&ms and annecy had like 2, but they still didn’t have what I wanted. the mall in annecy was pretty nice, though small, but we found these random free internet kiosks by the bathroom and spent some time on the touch screen (slow!) computers checking the essentials (gmail & fb). When we got back to Geneva there was a new girl from Australia in our room. She seemed nice, especially since the girl the night before started out with “are you guys Canadian?” and after we said no, American, she seemed disappointed. After she heard we were from the dc area she asked if we went to Georgetown.. as if every student from the dc area goes there. We didn’t even get the chance to ask her a similar question because she left, but we didn’t think she really liked us.
The Australian girl had such crazy stories, she was on her second gap year (the first year she spent saving) and was traveling in Europe for a couple of months. She also came with no plan and just went where she felt like going and with people she met along the way. She was cool but I think we were a little too low key for her… since we were super tired and just went to bed. Oh and didn’t have crazy Turkish adventures like her.
The next day we started out wandering outside to find that EVERYTHING was closed. This was really sad since we left our major chocolate buying to this day, and now we couldn’t even do that. So we walked to the un and then through the botanical gardens. We also tried to find some special buildings designed by cool architects but we couldn’t. so we just sat around in the park a lot instead. We even ended up going to the airport early so we could try to find chocolate/food. There were like 2 stores in our terminal both of which had chocolate and took euros (we were out of swiss francs) which was good, but they were expensive, so I just ate some of erin’s which was probably enough. All in all, we ate a lot of chocolate, did a lot of walking and went in a lot of stores. But Switzerland is cool!!
28 May 2009
torino
9/4-12/4
It’s finally the weekend when I get to go to torino and visit my usac friends from last semester! I’ve been planning this one since before they even moved there, and more realistically set this date of Easter weekend when Tracey came to visit all the way back in February. Since it was a long weekend, I had lots of time there which was great! The trip started out Thursday evening with a (slow but beautiful) train ride through the Alps! This was on of the prettiest train rides I have ever been on, which made it really hard to concentrate on the homework I brought along. The train goes along the French/Italian border for a couple of hours before finally crossing over into Italy and then heading over to torino. Some of the stops that I wrote down as being the most beautiful (and that I really want to go back and visit) are tende, limone, cuneo and fossano. After the train ride, I arrived in the torino porta nuova station and was greeted by Tracey, who I knew would be there, and Sarah, which was a nice surprise! Emily was off in Paris that weekend (of course she goes to France when I go to Italy)! We got on a bus and went back to Tracey’s nice apartment where her roommate cooked us an awesome dinner. Then we went to this awesome little pastry place, nicknamed “illegals” by Tracey since it is in a back alley behind an unmarked door.. but once you go inside it just full of amazing pastries! After that it was time to say goodbye to sarah already since she was heading down to viterbo in the morning (so jealous!).
The next day we got up and did lots of touristy things in torino (there’s so much to do)! We walked around the coolest piazzas, went up in the mole antonelliana and spent some time in the cinema museum, which was really cool because some rooms were movie sets that you got to walk through and be a part of. There were also lounge chairs where we got to sit and listen to the speakers in the headrests while watching a movie on a big screen; really a cool museum. Why didn’t we ever take a field trip for Italian cinema last semester? After that we went and got a torino specialty, bicerin. It’s like hot chocolate, but better! I think there is coffee in it too; it is very good whatever it is. We drank it in this really old café that has been making bicerin forever. So cool! Then we walked around and saw the roman wall (of course the Romans were there too) and the duomo with the shroud, which is (apparently) very famous (Shroud of Turin ring a bell for anyone?). We continued our tour with a stop in the Egyptian museum, which was interesting, but also kind of weird that there was an entire museum of Egyptian artifacts in torino. After that we went to big piazza right on the river po and had aperativo, a great little Italian tradition where you usually drink this (nasty) drink which is called an aperativo (though we didn’t do that part) and eat from this big buffet that the bar lays out. After taking our time and eating a lot (so Italian of us) we headed to an Irish pub called waxys and spent a couple hours there before taking a bus part of the way home (it just stopped and said that it was done) and then trudging through the rain huddled under one umbrella for the rest.
The next day we got up and went to a huge market! I have never been to a town in Europe that does not have a market and I have really come to enjoy them, even though there are some things that I would still never buy there (underwear and electronics are the first two things that pop into my head). That’s something that I will definitely miss about Europe! We got some more pastries and donuts from the market and then after eating too much decided to go into one of the palaces downtown. We decided to go into the palazzo madama, which was really cool. After that, me and Tracey went back to her place and then walked around the mall near her called lingotto, which is in the old fiat factory. We also checked out this place called eataly, which is like whole foods only bigger and better! Unfortunately it’s expensive so we only looked and did some actual grocery shopping at another place down the street where we got ingredients to make French toast for Easter brunch the next day (amazing idea)! After our sight seeing filled day we went to a restaurant near by and got some good pizza (you just can’t get it as good or as cheap anywhere else but italy!). Then we met up with some of Tracey’s friends and got this other amazing hot drink called hafa café at a place called hafa café. I don’t even know how to describe it; it had something like cinnamon and chocolate in it, it was just so good. When we had all finished our hafa cafes we went to the train station to meet up with ken, another viterbo usacer who decided to come to torino this weekend as well! Even after hearing his horrendous trenitalia horror story, and how he had basically been up for the past two days, he still decided to join us at the bar we were going to called shamrocks. Luckily Tracey wanted to dance, so we picked out a place accordingly and even though almost no one else wanted to join, ken did, which was fun! I had an amazing drink there too, called a Cinderella, which was strawberry vodka and lemon soda. The only bad thing was that people were allowed to smoke in the bar there, so I smelled like an ash tray afterwards. We also stopped at another Irish pub down the street called Murphy’s (there are a lot in torino I guess) where Tracey was friends with the bar tender and I got some other fruity drink that was also good. That was a really fun night, and when we got home it was super late. The next day, however, we didn’t have to be anywhere until like 12, so we got to sleep in. then we went to the train station to meet yet another friend and then we all headed back to Tracey’s where she and her roommate prepared an amazing French toast brunch (well it was really like 2 pm) and we watched the end of the classic 90s movie Kazaam (yes the one with shaq) dubbed in Italian. Somehow the day (and the weekend) just flew by and it was already time for my train back to nice! :( It was the same beautiful ride, and this time, even though I had a connection, both the trains I took were the nicest trenitalia trains I have ever been on (and using the adjectives nice and trenitalia in one sentence is already saying a lot). It was such a fun and relaxing weekend, and a great chance to catch up with some old friends one last time before we all go our separate ways! oh and torino is a really cool city. Definitely different than viterbo; more northern italian (obviously), like milan but better :)
It’s finally the weekend when I get to go to torino and visit my usac friends from last semester! I’ve been planning this one since before they even moved there, and more realistically set this date of Easter weekend when Tracey came to visit all the way back in February. Since it was a long weekend, I had lots of time there which was great! The trip started out Thursday evening with a (slow but beautiful) train ride through the Alps! This was on of the prettiest train rides I have ever been on, which made it really hard to concentrate on the homework I brought along. The train goes along the French/Italian border for a couple of hours before finally crossing over into Italy and then heading over to torino. Some of the stops that I wrote down as being the most beautiful (and that I really want to go back and visit) are tende, limone, cuneo and fossano. After the train ride, I arrived in the torino porta nuova station and was greeted by Tracey, who I knew would be there, and Sarah, which was a nice surprise! Emily was off in Paris that weekend (of course she goes to France when I go to Italy)! We got on a bus and went back to Tracey’s nice apartment where her roommate cooked us an awesome dinner. Then we went to this awesome little pastry place, nicknamed “illegals” by Tracey since it is in a back alley behind an unmarked door.. but once you go inside it just full of amazing pastries! After that it was time to say goodbye to sarah already since she was heading down to viterbo in the morning (so jealous!).
The next day we got up and did lots of touristy things in torino (there’s so much to do)! We walked around the coolest piazzas, went up in the mole antonelliana and spent some time in the cinema museum, which was really cool because some rooms were movie sets that you got to walk through and be a part of. There were also lounge chairs where we got to sit and listen to the speakers in the headrests while watching a movie on a big screen; really a cool museum. Why didn’t we ever take a field trip for Italian cinema last semester? After that we went and got a torino specialty, bicerin. It’s like hot chocolate, but better! I think there is coffee in it too; it is very good whatever it is. We drank it in this really old café that has been making bicerin forever. So cool! Then we walked around and saw the roman wall (of course the Romans were there too) and the duomo with the shroud, which is (apparently) very famous (Shroud of Turin ring a bell for anyone?). We continued our tour with a stop in the Egyptian museum, which was interesting, but also kind of weird that there was an entire museum of Egyptian artifacts in torino. After that we went to big piazza right on the river po and had aperativo, a great little Italian tradition where you usually drink this (nasty) drink which is called an aperativo (though we didn’t do that part) and eat from this big buffet that the bar lays out. After taking our time and eating a lot (so Italian of us) we headed to an Irish pub called waxys and spent a couple hours there before taking a bus part of the way home (it just stopped and said that it was done) and then trudging through the rain huddled under one umbrella for the rest.
The next day we got up and went to a huge market! I have never been to a town in Europe that does not have a market and I have really come to enjoy them, even though there are some things that I would still never buy there (underwear and electronics are the first two things that pop into my head). That’s something that I will definitely miss about Europe! We got some more pastries and donuts from the market and then after eating too much decided to go into one of the palaces downtown. We decided to go into the palazzo madama, which was really cool. After that, me and Tracey went back to her place and then walked around the mall near her called lingotto, which is in the old fiat factory. We also checked out this place called eataly, which is like whole foods only bigger and better! Unfortunately it’s expensive so we only looked and did some actual grocery shopping at another place down the street where we got ingredients to make French toast for Easter brunch the next day (amazing idea)! After our sight seeing filled day we went to a restaurant near by and got some good pizza (you just can’t get it as good or as cheap anywhere else but italy!). Then we met up with some of Tracey’s friends and got this other amazing hot drink called hafa café at a place called hafa café. I don’t even know how to describe it; it had something like cinnamon and chocolate in it, it was just so good. When we had all finished our hafa cafes we went to the train station to meet up with ken, another viterbo usacer who decided to come to torino this weekend as well! Even after hearing his horrendous trenitalia horror story, and how he had basically been up for the past two days, he still decided to join us at the bar we were going to called shamrocks. Luckily Tracey wanted to dance, so we picked out a place accordingly and even though almost no one else wanted to join, ken did, which was fun! I had an amazing drink there too, called a Cinderella, which was strawberry vodka and lemon soda. The only bad thing was that people were allowed to smoke in the bar there, so I smelled like an ash tray afterwards. We also stopped at another Irish pub down the street called Murphy’s (there are a lot in torino I guess) where Tracey was friends with the bar tender and I got some other fruity drink that was also good. That was a really fun night, and when we got home it was super late. The next day, however, we didn’t have to be anywhere until like 12, so we got to sleep in. then we went to the train station to meet yet another friend and then we all headed back to Tracey’s where she and her roommate prepared an amazing French toast brunch (well it was really like 2 pm) and we watched the end of the classic 90s movie Kazaam (yes the one with shaq) dubbed in Italian. Somehow the day (and the weekend) just flew by and it was already time for my train back to nice! :( It was the same beautiful ride, and this time, even though I had a connection, both the trains I took were the nicest trenitalia trains I have ever been on (and using the adjectives nice and trenitalia in one sentence is already saying a lot). It was such a fun and relaxing weekend, and a great chance to catch up with some old friends one last time before we all go our separate ways! oh and torino is a really cool city. Definitely different than viterbo; more northern italian (obviously), like milan but better :)
11 May 2009
Aix-en-Provence et Marseille
4/4-5/4
This weekend was our last cuefle trip, this time to aix-en-provence. I’d already been, but me and Lindsay were tres intelligentes and decided to use the 5ish euro tip to aix as an excuse to go to Marseille for cheap at the same time. The train tickets to Marseille, which is only about 2 ½ hours away, are pretty ridiculously expensive and cost at least 30 euro one way. This way we were in aix, only 45 minutes and a 5 euro train ticket away and we’d only have to pay for the expensive train ticket one way. So we had to get up at the crack of dawn, as usual, for the cuefle trip with no chance to sleep on the bus, of course, because of daniel’s incessant commentary. At least I knew nothing he was saying was important so I really just tuned him out the entire time. After a couple of hours on the bus, we stopped just outside aix at a fabrication de santons, those traditional little figurines that they make in provence. I’d already done something like this before, too, but it was still cool to see again. They can make and paint even the tiniest santons. Then it was back on the bus to go into the center of aix. We had a little walking tour checked out the main cathedral, complete with the wood carved doors that they opened especially for us and then broke for lunch. They gave us a ton of time, as usual, so we had lots of time to walk around the markets and cute little streets and see some weddings happening at the hotel de ville. We met back with the rest of the group later, but that was when we they were leaving to go to cezanne’s atelier and we were staying in aix. So we said goodbye to our good friend Daniel and headed to the hotel to drop off our stuff. Then it was back downtown to walk around some more, go into some shops, buy some shoes (me) and just basque in the sun during one of the first nice days in awhile. We were trying to avoid going back to the hotel since we had nothing to do, no tv or anything, but finally we did and I worked on homework (aka write a stupid poem for poesie.. horrible!) and then went to bed. The next day we got up and went to the train station to get our train to Marseille. We got to Marseille quickly, but then found that not much was open since it was Sunday (typical). So we just walked around (also typical) and then made our way up to the notre dame de la garde. It’s this big cathedral on top of a huge hill and it definitely has the best view of Marseille. There were lots of people out around the various churches we passed in Marseille because it was Palm Sunday. Some people even tried to sell the palm leaves along the street. We slowly made our way down and walked around the old port area, checking out some other churches and sights mentioned in our guide book. We ended up having a bunch of extra time, and just sat at the port like many of the other local marseillais were doing. Then it was back to the train station to take our tgv to nice.
This weekend was our last cuefle trip, this time to aix-en-provence. I’d already been, but me and Lindsay were tres intelligentes and decided to use the 5ish euro tip to aix as an excuse to go to Marseille for cheap at the same time. The train tickets to Marseille, which is only about 2 ½ hours away, are pretty ridiculously expensive and cost at least 30 euro one way. This way we were in aix, only 45 minutes and a 5 euro train ticket away and we’d only have to pay for the expensive train ticket one way. So we had to get up at the crack of dawn, as usual, for the cuefle trip with no chance to sleep on the bus, of course, because of daniel’s incessant commentary. At least I knew nothing he was saying was important so I really just tuned him out the entire time. After a couple of hours on the bus, we stopped just outside aix at a fabrication de santons, those traditional little figurines that they make in provence. I’d already done something like this before, too, but it was still cool to see again. They can make and paint even the tiniest santons. Then it was back on the bus to go into the center of aix. We had a little walking tour checked out the main cathedral, complete with the wood carved doors that they opened especially for us and then broke for lunch. They gave us a ton of time, as usual, so we had lots of time to walk around the markets and cute little streets and see some weddings happening at the hotel de ville. We met back with the rest of the group later, but that was when we they were leaving to go to cezanne’s atelier and we were staying in aix. So we said goodbye to our good friend Daniel and headed to the hotel to drop off our stuff. Then it was back downtown to walk around some more, go into some shops, buy some shoes (me) and just basque in the sun during one of the first nice days in awhile. We were trying to avoid going back to the hotel since we had nothing to do, no tv or anything, but finally we did and I worked on homework (aka write a stupid poem for poesie.. horrible!) and then went to bed. The next day we got up and went to the train station to get our train to Marseille. We got to Marseille quickly, but then found that not much was open since it was Sunday (typical). So we just walked around (also typical) and then made our way up to the notre dame de la garde. It’s this big cathedral on top of a huge hill and it definitely has the best view of Marseille. There were lots of people out around the various churches we passed in Marseille because it was Palm Sunday. Some people even tried to sell the palm leaves along the street. We slowly made our way down and walked around the old port area, checking out some other churches and sights mentioned in our guide book. We ended up having a bunch of extra time, and just sat at the port like many of the other local marseillais were doing. Then it was back to the train station to take our tgv to nice.
07 April 2009
faisons la greve
30/3
Today the grevistes came right into the middle of our class to “protest” in a way. They walked right in the middle of our phonetics/linguistics class and started pulling chairs and tables into the hall. No explanation, no nothing; they just asked us to move our stuff off the tables that we weren’t actually sitting at. Our teacher was having a conversation with on of the students at the front of the class so she didn’t even notice it was going on until after they had taken most of the furniture. Then she started asking them what they were doing and tried to make them stop, but the guy, somewhat angrily, replied that they were en greve and this was they way they were protesting. The teacher said that she was also en greve, but that she still came to work and that our class was a different part of the university (the cuefle with international students) and that we paid more, etc. This didn’t stop them however. So they promptly took all the chairs and tables that we weren’t using and noisily pulled them out into the hall then promptly closed the door right after before the “head” guy said, “resume your lesson”! He also looked kind of old, like doesn’t he anything better to do with his time? Recently the students have been pulling all the chairs and tables out of classrooms to make some sort of point, and maybe it doesn’t matter to them since they don’t go to class anyways, but for us, who do still go to class, its annoying to show up and find that there are no tables or chairs in the room at all. As we were walking out of the building we noticed all the tables and chairs stacked in the lobby. So they even took all the chairs all the way downstairs and I’m just really hoping that tomorrow morning I don’t have to drag tables and chairs up several flights of stairs just so I can go to class. What is this even accomplishing?!
Today the grevistes came right into the middle of our class to “protest” in a way. They walked right in the middle of our phonetics/linguistics class and started pulling chairs and tables into the hall. No explanation, no nothing; they just asked us to move our stuff off the tables that we weren’t actually sitting at. Our teacher was having a conversation with on of the students at the front of the class so she didn’t even notice it was going on until after they had taken most of the furniture. Then she started asking them what they were doing and tried to make them stop, but the guy, somewhat angrily, replied that they were en greve and this was they way they were protesting. The teacher said that she was also en greve, but that she still came to work and that our class was a different part of the university (the cuefle with international students) and that we paid more, etc. This didn’t stop them however. So they promptly took all the chairs and tables that we weren’t using and noisily pulled them out into the hall then promptly closed the door right after before the “head” guy said, “resume your lesson”! He also looked kind of old, like doesn’t he anything better to do with his time? Recently the students have been pulling all the chairs and tables out of classrooms to make some sort of point, and maybe it doesn’t matter to them since they don’t go to class anyways, but for us, who do still go to class, its annoying to show up and find that there are no tables or chairs in the room at all. As we were walking out of the building we noticed all the tables and chairs stacked in the lobby. So they even took all the chairs all the way downstairs and I’m just really hoping that tomorrow morning I don’t have to drag tables and chairs up several flights of stairs just so I can go to class. What is this even accomplishing?!
31 March 2009
Saint-Tropez
22/03
Saint-Tropez, Port Grimaud, Le Dramont, Corniche de l’esterel/d’or
Today we went on the cuefle trip to Saint-Tropez. It was with other people who take classes at the cuefle and only cost 5 euro. Down side – we had to wake up at 6 something to be at the fac at 7:30 am to leave. When we arrived I expected to see some 20-something person who would be leading us, but no, instead I find 4 really old French women and one middle-aged French guy who are in charge. The women are so funny, counting us every time we get on and off the bus and giving us snacks throughout the day. The guy on the other hand, was so annoying. He said he was a volunteer, which was nice, and was clearly passionate about what he was doing, but he narrated and commented on every single thing we saw or came across the entire day!! I was thinking that on the 3 hour bus ride to Saint-Tropez we’d be able to sleep, but no, he took that time to explain everything we saw out the window or anything about the town we were going to over the microphone in a loud voice! Needless to say, I just tuned him out and listened to my I-pod. After he said we were going to be arriving soon about a million times, we actually arrived, and got off the bus near the water in Saint-Tropez. When I thought of Saint-Tropez I thought of exclusive beautiful sandy beaches where all the celebs go. However we didn’t see any of that. Turns out the beaches are on the outskirts of the city, not really within walking distance of downtown Saint-Tropez, and we weren’t even going to see them. In addition, Saint-Tropez is really touristy, except only in the summer, so it was basically a ghost town. We started our tour at a museum called l’Annociade which was an old chapel turned into an art museum. It was pretty small so we were done in there pretty quickly. Afterwards we had something like 3 hours just to walk around on our own, eat lunch, and make our way up to the citadelle. So we walked around, saw the port filled with yachts, saw some high end designer stores (all closed) and found a market. Then we at lunch on a bench, went to a gelato shop, and walked through the little streets up to the citadelle. Then we still had like an hour, so we just sat on a bench, trying to keep warm, since it was an overcast windy day. That is when we noticed one of the peacocks that lives at the citadelle. Peacocks, by the way, make the weirdest noise. Finally it was time to start our guided tour of the citadelle. The guy knew that we were all foreign students so he decided to speak really slowly, which I thought was funny. After the citadelle it was back to the bus to our next stop, Port Grimaud, which is also called Petite Venise. I can understand why the call it that (all the houses are on the water, lots of bridges, everyone has boats) but Venice was way, way cooler, for the record. This town was so small, also touristy, but also only in the summer, so we just walked around, went in the church, and then waited until we could get on our boat tour. The boat tour took us around the “city” but it was so much colder on the boat because it was so much windier! So it wasn’t so much fun. After Port Grimaud we headed to Le Dramont, one of the places where the allied forces landed on August 15th 1944 under the American General A. Patch. There was a big boat (?) type thing when we got there that said us on it with a plaque next to it, and then we walked down to the actual beach where the rocks were supposedly blue. I guess they were a little blue tinted, but really they still looked grey to me. After a history lesson from our favorite guide, it was back on the bus, with two stops still to go. We stopped on the corniche twice to see different (slash really the same) views of the rocks, water and trees. The second time I didn’t even bother getting out, I was so tired and it was so cold and we were running so behind schedule. Then it was back to Nice, and I thought we were safe from the narrated bus ride back, but no there’s apparently always something to say. Finally, we make it back, around 7:30 pm at the fac.
Saint-Tropez, Port Grimaud, Le Dramont, Corniche de l’esterel/d’or
Today we went on the cuefle trip to Saint-Tropez. It was with other people who take classes at the cuefle and only cost 5 euro. Down side – we had to wake up at 6 something to be at the fac at 7:30 am to leave. When we arrived I expected to see some 20-something person who would be leading us, but no, instead I find 4 really old French women and one middle-aged French guy who are in charge. The women are so funny, counting us every time we get on and off the bus and giving us snacks throughout the day. The guy on the other hand, was so annoying. He said he was a volunteer, which was nice, and was clearly passionate about what he was doing, but he narrated and commented on every single thing we saw or came across the entire day!! I was thinking that on the 3 hour bus ride to Saint-Tropez we’d be able to sleep, but no, he took that time to explain everything we saw out the window or anything about the town we were going to over the microphone in a loud voice! Needless to say, I just tuned him out and listened to my I-pod. After he said we were going to be arriving soon about a million times, we actually arrived, and got off the bus near the water in Saint-Tropez. When I thought of Saint-Tropez I thought of exclusive beautiful sandy beaches where all the celebs go. However we didn’t see any of that. Turns out the beaches are on the outskirts of the city, not really within walking distance of downtown Saint-Tropez, and we weren’t even going to see them. In addition, Saint-Tropez is really touristy, except only in the summer, so it was basically a ghost town. We started our tour at a museum called l’Annociade which was an old chapel turned into an art museum. It was pretty small so we were done in there pretty quickly. Afterwards we had something like 3 hours just to walk around on our own, eat lunch, and make our way up to the citadelle. So we walked around, saw the port filled with yachts, saw some high end designer stores (all closed) and found a market. Then we at lunch on a bench, went to a gelato shop, and walked through the little streets up to the citadelle. Then we still had like an hour, so we just sat on a bench, trying to keep warm, since it was an overcast windy day. That is when we noticed one of the peacocks that lives at the citadelle. Peacocks, by the way, make the weirdest noise. Finally it was time to start our guided tour of the citadelle. The guy knew that we were all foreign students so he decided to speak really slowly, which I thought was funny. After the citadelle it was back to the bus to our next stop, Port Grimaud, which is also called Petite Venise. I can understand why the call it that (all the houses are on the water, lots of bridges, everyone has boats) but Venice was way, way cooler, for the record. This town was so small, also touristy, but also only in the summer, so we just walked around, went in the church, and then waited until we could get on our boat tour. The boat tour took us around the “city” but it was so much colder on the boat because it was so much windier! So it wasn’t so much fun. After Port Grimaud we headed to Le Dramont, one of the places where the allied forces landed on August 15th 1944 under the American General A. Patch. There was a big boat (?) type thing when we got there that said us on it with a plaque next to it, and then we walked down to the actual beach where the rocks were supposedly blue. I guess they were a little blue tinted, but really they still looked grey to me. After a history lesson from our favorite guide, it was back on the bus, with two stops still to go. We stopped on the corniche twice to see different (slash really the same) views of the rocks, water and trees. The second time I didn’t even bother getting out, I was so tired and it was so cold and we were running so behind schedule. Then it was back to Nice, and I thought we were safe from the narrated bus ride back, but no there’s apparently always something to say. Finally, we make it back, around 7:30 pm at the fac.
Viterbo e Roma!!!!!
12/3-15/3
This weekend I got to go back to one of my favorite places ever, Viterbo! The weekend was amazing, even if it didn’t start out so great. We bought all our tickets online, thinking that would save us time, and it ended up being the biggest cause of our problems. Our trains were as follows: Nice – Ventimiglia, Ventimiglia – Genova, Genova – Rome (overnight). We went to the nice train station to pick up the first batch of tickets and found out that even though we paid with an international credit card online, we couldn’t use this credit card in the machine to pick it up (no does it say that, all it says is that the card can not be read, so we just figured there was a problem with the magnetic strip). There were only one or two people working in the ticket line so we tried any way to get the tickets out of the machine or buy new ones, but those machines also only accepted French credit cards or coins (we didn’t have 7 euro each in coins). Finally we decide to stand in the line since we clearly have no other option and end up missing our train and the next one won’t get us into Ventimiglia with enough time to make the Genova connection. The woman at the window isn’t exactly helpful either.. apparently we needed some reservation booking number that we didn’t have. Why can’t they just look it up on the credit card? We finally got the tickets, but we knew we wouldn’t make the connection so we tried to convince the train people to call Ventimiglia and hold the train for 5 minutes. They said no, that they didn’t really want to call Italy and that they would only do it if there were lots of people on the connection. We said maybe they were, and they said that all those passengers would need to go up and inform them of that then. They also said that there were no more connections to Genova that night, so basically we would be stuck in Ventimiglia, but that we might as well try it because Italian trains usually run late (you’re telling me) so maybe we had a chance. So we tried to think positively, got on the next train (that was conveniently 10 minutes en retard.. really?!) We took the train, got to Ventimiglia and there were no trains in sight. Ughhh. We were only 5 minutes late! Looking at the departure bored there were no trains to any city in Italy until the next morning, our only option was to take one back to nice. So about 3 hours later we end up back in our apartment, after having been to 3 countries (France, Monaco, Italy)! We decided to take the next train to Rome leaving at 6:30 from Ventimiglia so we had to take a 5:15 train from Nice and decided to get there plenty in advance in order to not miss anything. So we got up around 3:45 and got on our train from Nice to Ventimiglia, then our straight train from Ventimiglia to Rome (6:30-2pm) where we had the 6 person car all to ourselves up until the last 30 minutes when some guys came on and offered us part of their lunch.. We finally made it to Rome at 2 then had to wait for our Viterbo train which left at 2:50 and got in at 4:45. Peter was supposed to meet us at the train station.. but thought that the train would be late so we ended up calling and he rushed over then walked us to Aaron’s. After we got to Aaron’s we walked around Viterbo (passegiata time!) and then came back and Aaron invited all the old usac-ers over (minus Hana who was in Rome) and they all made dinner for us. We didn’t lift a finger the whole weekend, Aaron was the best host! Anytime we tried to help with cooking or dishes Aaron was all like no, you are a guest. After dinner we went to Katie’s to hang out. So we hung out for a bit, and then went to Shu, where they had a really loud live band, which was not what we wanted. So we headed to the piazza della morte, where a bunch of the former and new dorm kids were hanging out. Then it was off to Try. We walked around a bit looking for people and made our way outside where I met some more American kids (they are like all from umd this semester!). The next morning we got up went to the market, and just chilled around Viterbo. I went to the pasticceria and got an amazing cappuccino (the one that gives you the perugina choclate) and it was the nice guy working this time! He was so excited to use his one English phrase, “yes we can!” Then we just walked around a bit but it was already pausa time so everything was closed and we just ended up sitting outside on the steps of Aarons apartment for awhile, waiting for him to come back so we could leave for the hot springs. So we went to the terme later, which smell like rotting eggs, are much smaller than I thought (the free ones anyways), were only luke warm that day, and were filled with creepy old, speedo wearing and topless Italian people. It was basically one big joke. But we stayed for like 2 hrs because that’s how often the bus came. Then we had to ride the bus back all smelly and wet which sucked. But then we got home all took showers and went out to ninja pizza for dinner. It was crowded so we decided to take it to the pope’s palace and eat outside. So we had some wine then played quarters aka 20 centesimi. Then we played f the dealer (again) and then his roommate came home and spent like 45 minutes talking about how women were stupid. After heading back to Aarons and staying up even later to sit around and chat we finally go to bed. The next morning we awake to peter and Aaron making us breakfast! I love them, they are awesome. After the amazing breakfast we only had a little bit of time and then it was off to the train station! :( So we were running a little late and the train was there all ready to leave so we get to the train, say thanks to Peter and Aaron, big hugs and baci all around. So sad to leave (it doesn’t get easier the second time around, I guess); I had such a good time! I love Viterbo and had the best time last semester; I really hope we can make a reunion happen in the future, especially if it’s in Viterbo!
The rest of our last day in Italy we spent in Rome. We went to St. Peter’s and climbed up the crazy amounts of stars at the cupola! There are 320 stairs from the roof of the basilica.. so all in all like 500 total or something? I have no idea; it seemed like a ton, especially with our huge backpacks with everything we were carrying that weekend. The view from the top was luckily well worth the tiny slant-y, vertigo inducing walk (work out) up. After doing that and walking around the basilica, we made our way to the metro, got some gelato, then metro to the train station, trained it to the airport, checked in, went through security, got some food, and got on our 50 minute flight back to Nice!
This weekend I got to go back to one of my favorite places ever, Viterbo! The weekend was amazing, even if it didn’t start out so great. We bought all our tickets online, thinking that would save us time, and it ended up being the biggest cause of our problems. Our trains were as follows: Nice – Ventimiglia, Ventimiglia – Genova, Genova – Rome (overnight). We went to the nice train station to pick up the first batch of tickets and found out that even though we paid with an international credit card online, we couldn’t use this credit card in the machine to pick it up (no does it say that, all it says is that the card can not be read, so we just figured there was a problem with the magnetic strip). There were only one or two people working in the ticket line so we tried any way to get the tickets out of the machine or buy new ones, but those machines also only accepted French credit cards or coins (we didn’t have 7 euro each in coins). Finally we decide to stand in the line since we clearly have no other option and end up missing our train and the next one won’t get us into Ventimiglia with enough time to make the Genova connection. The woman at the window isn’t exactly helpful either.. apparently we needed some reservation booking number that we didn’t have. Why can’t they just look it up on the credit card? We finally got the tickets, but we knew we wouldn’t make the connection so we tried to convince the train people to call Ventimiglia and hold the train for 5 minutes. They said no, that they didn’t really want to call Italy and that they would only do it if there were lots of people on the connection. We said maybe they were, and they said that all those passengers would need to go up and inform them of that then. They also said that there were no more connections to Genova that night, so basically we would be stuck in Ventimiglia, but that we might as well try it because Italian trains usually run late (you’re telling me) so maybe we had a chance. So we tried to think positively, got on the next train (that was conveniently 10 minutes en retard.. really?!) We took the train, got to Ventimiglia and there were no trains in sight. Ughhh. We were only 5 minutes late! Looking at the departure bored there were no trains to any city in Italy until the next morning, our only option was to take one back to nice. So about 3 hours later we end up back in our apartment, after having been to 3 countries (France, Monaco, Italy)! We decided to take the next train to Rome leaving at 6:30 from Ventimiglia so we had to take a 5:15 train from Nice and decided to get there plenty in advance in order to not miss anything. So we got up around 3:45 and got on our train from Nice to Ventimiglia, then our straight train from Ventimiglia to Rome (6:30-2pm) where we had the 6 person car all to ourselves up until the last 30 minutes when some guys came on and offered us part of their lunch.. We finally made it to Rome at 2 then had to wait for our Viterbo train which left at 2:50 and got in at 4:45. Peter was supposed to meet us at the train station.. but thought that the train would be late so we ended up calling and he rushed over then walked us to Aaron’s. After we got to Aaron’s we walked around Viterbo (passegiata time!) and then came back and Aaron invited all the old usac-ers over (minus Hana who was in Rome) and they all made dinner for us. We didn’t lift a finger the whole weekend, Aaron was the best host! Anytime we tried to help with cooking or dishes Aaron was all like no, you are a guest. After dinner we went to Katie’s to hang out. So we hung out for a bit, and then went to Shu, where they had a really loud live band, which was not what we wanted. So we headed to the piazza della morte, where a bunch of the former and new dorm kids were hanging out. Then it was off to Try. We walked around a bit looking for people and made our way outside where I met some more American kids (they are like all from umd this semester!). The next morning we got up went to the market, and just chilled around Viterbo. I went to the pasticceria and got an amazing cappuccino (the one that gives you the perugina choclate) and it was the nice guy working this time! He was so excited to use his one English phrase, “yes we can!” Then we just walked around a bit but it was already pausa time so everything was closed and we just ended up sitting outside on the steps of Aarons apartment for awhile, waiting for him to come back so we could leave for the hot springs. So we went to the terme later, which smell like rotting eggs, are much smaller than I thought (the free ones anyways), were only luke warm that day, and were filled with creepy old, speedo wearing and topless Italian people. It was basically one big joke. But we stayed for like 2 hrs because that’s how often the bus came. Then we had to ride the bus back all smelly and wet which sucked. But then we got home all took showers and went out to ninja pizza for dinner. It was crowded so we decided to take it to the pope’s palace and eat outside. So we had some wine then played quarters aka 20 centesimi. Then we played f the dealer (again) and then his roommate came home and spent like 45 minutes talking about how women were stupid. After heading back to Aarons and staying up even later to sit around and chat we finally go to bed. The next morning we awake to peter and Aaron making us breakfast! I love them, they are awesome. After the amazing breakfast we only had a little bit of time and then it was off to the train station! :( So we were running a little late and the train was there all ready to leave so we get to the train, say thanks to Peter and Aaron, big hugs and baci all around. So sad to leave (it doesn’t get easier the second time around, I guess); I had such a good time! I love Viterbo and had the best time last semester; I really hope we can make a reunion happen in the future, especially if it’s in Viterbo!
The rest of our last day in Italy we spent in Rome. We went to St. Peter’s and climbed up the crazy amounts of stars at the cupola! There are 320 stairs from the roof of the basilica.. so all in all like 500 total or something? I have no idea; it seemed like a ton, especially with our huge backpacks with everything we were carrying that weekend. The view from the top was luckily well worth the tiny slant-y, vertigo inducing walk (work out) up. After doing that and walking around the basilica, we made our way to the metro, got some gelato, then metro to the train station, trained it to the airport, checked in, went through security, got some food, and got on our 50 minute flight back to Nice!
17 March 2009
Genova & XXmiglia
7/3-8/3
This weekend we decided to go on a random italia trip! final plans were made Wednesday night (or maybe even Thursday) to leave Saturday morning for Genova, stay Saturday night there, and then head back Sunday and spend some time in Ventimiglia before heading back to nice. This was my first trip back to Italy since December when I left, and in a way it felt like I was going home. After all my traveling last semester I felt like I could live in a number of different countries and cities, however I did feel like I could rule Italy out of the running. France, for instance, is still the number one choice and I‘ve always felt like I can identify the most with their culture of all the European ones. While I love Italy, I’m definitely not the loud, social extrovert and I need a little more time structure (though I’m sure I would just get used to nothing being on time ever.. I mean I kind of all ready did). But upon returning to Italy this weekend it made me so happy! It felt like going home. Because even if it was hard to get used to in the beginning, I adapted to the Italian way of life and Italy was my home for that period of time. And now, even if I’m clearly not Italian and am not trying to be, I have a sense of belonging in this culture. I have an understanding of it. And I have stories about it that make me feel like I fit in. I loved seeing little things that reminded me of my stay in Italy. All of these things reminded me of good times I had last semester. This was also sad, because all these good times were shared with amazing people that are now located all over the world. It’s so hard to go from seeing someone everyday, to never seeing them! And it’s not the same to go back and experience those things that you loved together, by yourself. This is what makes me a little apprehensive about my viterbo trip. I miss viterbo sooooo much. but I don’t know if it’s the town I miss or the people, or both (I think its both). Because the town without the people is empty and sad, but the people in any other place just doesn’t even seem right. How I wish we could have a reunion soon! It also doesn’t help to relate personal anecdotes to everyone about how this sign in Italy reminds you of this other time you lived in Italy and had a great time when they weren’t there. I am sure I am boring people with all my stories, which to me seem funny and nice, but to them mean nothing, sorry! Anyways in Genova we walked and walked and walked. We must have gone down every street at least 3 times. We started the trip off right with some gelato and foccacia from a foccaciaeria! It was probably the best foccacia I have ever had. Then we did little pieces of some walking tour on the back of our map and then decided to head up to the hostel to drop off our stuff. The hostel looked far away on the map but we assumed it was just the map that made it seem that way. Well it actually was incredibly far away, and thank god we took the bus. It was on the top of some mountain, completely set off from the city center. It would have been an impossible walk. The hostel looked like an old mental hospital, very stark and white, but at least the rooms were big and clean. It isn’t well marked though, because we missed it on the bus up and had to wait for the bus to turn around and then take it back down. After dropping our stuff off we got back on the bus and went back to the city, to walk round and look at the water, the centro storico, the old palazzos and Christopher Columbus’ house. There was even an ice skating rink right next to Europe’s 2nd biggest aquarium! Then we decided to get dinner at a pizzeria and then went on a search for gelato all around the city, only to find that everything was closed. It was probably for the best, since we had just eaten a ton of food anyway. Then we took the bus up the mountain again, but it was a night bus that took a slightly different route, so we got off too soon and ended up having to walk up the last stretch of the hill only to see the bus meet us there later. When we got in we quickly got ready for bed because someone in our room was already asleep and we were also tired. The next morning we got up early and went back down to the train station to get on our train to Ventimiglia. On the way I had an amazing Italian cappuccino, oh how I missed those! After the 3 hour train ride along the Ligurian coast (Italian Rivera) we arrived in Ventimiglia and spent a couple of hours walking around the new part of town near the beach, getting massive gelatos and then walking around the older hilly section which, although small, contained at least 4 churches. Ventimiglia is really cool because it’s right on the beach like Nice, but you can see the snow capped alps right behind it! And it’s so Italian, despite the fact that you can see French towns from the coast. Well it was a nice weather weekend and I got to practice my Italian so all and all a good trip!
This weekend we decided to go on a random italia trip! final plans were made Wednesday night (or maybe even Thursday) to leave Saturday morning for Genova, stay Saturday night there, and then head back Sunday and spend some time in Ventimiglia before heading back to nice. This was my first trip back to Italy since December when I left, and in a way it felt like I was going home. After all my traveling last semester I felt like I could live in a number of different countries and cities, however I did feel like I could rule Italy out of the running. France, for instance, is still the number one choice and I‘ve always felt like I can identify the most with their culture of all the European ones. While I love Italy, I’m definitely not the loud, social extrovert and I need a little more time structure (though I’m sure I would just get used to nothing being on time ever.. I mean I kind of all ready did). But upon returning to Italy this weekend it made me so happy! It felt like going home. Because even if it was hard to get used to in the beginning, I adapted to the Italian way of life and Italy was my home for that period of time. And now, even if I’m clearly not Italian and am not trying to be, I have a sense of belonging in this culture. I have an understanding of it. And I have stories about it that make me feel like I fit in. I loved seeing little things that reminded me of my stay in Italy. All of these things reminded me of good times I had last semester. This was also sad, because all these good times were shared with amazing people that are now located all over the world. It’s so hard to go from seeing someone everyday, to never seeing them! And it’s not the same to go back and experience those things that you loved together, by yourself. This is what makes me a little apprehensive about my viterbo trip. I miss viterbo sooooo much. but I don’t know if it’s the town I miss or the people, or both (I think its both). Because the town without the people is empty and sad, but the people in any other place just doesn’t even seem right. How I wish we could have a reunion soon! It also doesn’t help to relate personal anecdotes to everyone about how this sign in Italy reminds you of this other time you lived in Italy and had a great time when they weren’t there. I am sure I am boring people with all my stories, which to me seem funny and nice, but to them mean nothing, sorry! Anyways in Genova we walked and walked and walked. We must have gone down every street at least 3 times. We started the trip off right with some gelato and foccacia from a foccaciaeria! It was probably the best foccacia I have ever had. Then we did little pieces of some walking tour on the back of our map and then decided to head up to the hostel to drop off our stuff. The hostel looked far away on the map but we assumed it was just the map that made it seem that way. Well it actually was incredibly far away, and thank god we took the bus. It was on the top of some mountain, completely set off from the city center. It would have been an impossible walk. The hostel looked like an old mental hospital, very stark and white, but at least the rooms were big and clean. It isn’t well marked though, because we missed it on the bus up and had to wait for the bus to turn around and then take it back down. After dropping our stuff off we got back on the bus and went back to the city, to walk round and look at the water, the centro storico, the old palazzos and Christopher Columbus’ house. There was even an ice skating rink right next to Europe’s 2nd biggest aquarium! Then we decided to get dinner at a pizzeria and then went on a search for gelato all around the city, only to find that everything was closed. It was probably for the best, since we had just eaten a ton of food anyway. Then we took the bus up the mountain again, but it was a night bus that took a slightly different route, so we got off too soon and ended up having to walk up the last stretch of the hill only to see the bus meet us there later. When we got in we quickly got ready for bed because someone in our room was already asleep and we were also tired. The next morning we got up early and went back down to the train station to get on our train to Ventimiglia. On the way I had an amazing Italian cappuccino, oh how I missed those! After the 3 hour train ride along the Ligurian coast (Italian Rivera) we arrived in Ventimiglia and spent a couple of hours walking around the new part of town near the beach, getting massive gelatos and then walking around the older hilly section which, although small, contained at least 4 churches. Ventimiglia is really cool because it’s right on the beach like Nice, but you can see the snow capped alps right behind it! And it’s so Italian, despite the fact that you can see French towns from the coast. Well it was a nice weather weekend and I got to practice my Italian so all and all a good trip!
arles
27/2-1/3
This weekend we had a trip with our entire Maryland group, all paid for and everything! We even had “permission” (meaning Mme Letzter just told us to skip) to miss our Friday class. So we met Friday morning at the gare and took a train to Arles, which took about 3-4 hours. When we arrived in Arles, we walked to the hotel and got to put our stuff in our room. It was a cute little hotel, with a courtyard and a castle-like tower. We had what was dubbed a “secret room” because there were these little stairs that lead up to it. Really, it was just a normal room, though, but we had our own beds (rare) and a flat screen TV with French, German and Italian channels! I took advantage of that later to watch Italian game shows (for some reason we have just about every channel but an Italian channel in Nice). After a break for lunch we left to meet at the office de tourisme to start our guided tour. On the map it looked really far away; in fact it was on the other side of the town. So we left adequate time, but ended getting there way early. Arles, it turns out, is way small. So while we were used to seeing things on a map of nice and knowing that it’s far, in Arles, the farthest thing was like 15 minutes away. On our walk we passed the Van Gogh café, famous as the subject for one of his paintings, and walked through little squares, narrow alleys, and by some roman baths. The big things in Arles are Van Gogh and roman everything. The town was founded by Romans forever ago, so there’s tons of that stuff everywhere (where weren’t the Romans? Needless to say, after a semester in Italy next to Rome, I’m a little roman’ed out). Van Gogh used to live in Arles and the inspirations for his paintings were everywhere. Little plaques with replica paintings were at the locations so you could see how it compared, however there are no Van Gogh paintings in Arles whatsoever. And I think there is only even like one in France. So our 3 hour Van Gogh-centric walking tour basically just walked us around the city to the little plaques, though we did get to see the arena, like a mini coliseum as well. We walked around, literally the entire city, saw some roman walls that used to surround it, a van Gogh site here and there, including his house location, which is now an ugly BNP (why would they do that?), walked along the Rhone, went into a courtyard that showed that under Arles its basically roman ruins everywhere and then ended in some place called espace van Gogh, where I think they have art classes or events or something like that. Then we had a couple of hours to go back to the hotel and sit (no more walking!) before dinner. We met as a group and left to go to the Italian restaurant for our really good dinner that was all paid for! We got a big pizza all to ourselves, salad, bread, a drink, and a lemon torte desert. And it was good pizza too, just like in Italy. I noticed that the woman taking our order sounded like she was speaking French with an Italian accent, so I mentioned it to Lindsay, and on our way out, we decided to ask if she spoke Italian. Turns out she does, because she was Italian and we had a brief little convo in Italian with her, which was fun! After that we went back to the hotel and then went out and hung out by the water, hoping to see the starry night depicted in the van Gogh painting, with no luck. Instead it was just cold and windy (mistral!). The next day we had the morning free so we just walked around Arles (all the same streets.. again, seriously its not that big), and ended up at the market, which was huge! You could buy anything and everything there; it reminded me of the Viterbo market, except way bigger. I took that opportunity to get a good slice of pizza to eat for lunch later. After a couple of hours we met at the bus and headed out to la Camargue area. We stopped in a place called Pont de Gau, where a bird park was, and spent some (way too much) time there. We all walked around the park, looked at all the birds, and mainly looked at the flamingos. Also on the way there we saw bulls, another native animal to the region (I’m guessing). After the park, we headed to Aigues Mortes, which is an actual city surrounded by a wall, and had actual things to see, except we didn’t have the time to see them since we had spent so much time in the bird park. So we had 20 minutes off the bus there, and just walked to the center of the town, saw some wedding photos being taken (the bride had a green dress) and then went and got gelato. Then it was back on the bus where we drove around the walls of Aigues Mortes and then headed back to Arles. That night we were on our own for dinner, which sucked because even though it was a Saturday night, NOTHING was open. Arles is like a ghost town. I think we ended up just getting snacks from a gas station. The next morning we were up early to check out of the hotel and go to the Arles antique museum. There we had a guided tour with our same guide from before, and she loves to talk. So we had another 3ish hour tour with more roman stuff, statues, artifacts, mosaics all in a very modern building that resembled an Ikea. Then it was off to find lunch/snacks (on a Sunday – and in Arles- this is always a challenge) and then we walked to the train station to wait for our train. The train back had a connection in Marseille, so we left the train station for a minute and went outside to see the view. She said we could walk down the (approximately) million stairs to the bottom of the hill, but then we would have to walk back up and I didn’t want to do that. So we just chilled in the train station then got on the next train and made it back to Nice. That night was the last night of carnaval and we went and watched the parade on the prom and the burning of the king statue followed by fireworks on the beach!
This weekend we had a trip with our entire Maryland group, all paid for and everything! We even had “permission” (meaning Mme Letzter just told us to skip) to miss our Friday class. So we met Friday morning at the gare and took a train to Arles, which took about 3-4 hours. When we arrived in Arles, we walked to the hotel and got to put our stuff in our room. It was a cute little hotel, with a courtyard and a castle-like tower. We had what was dubbed a “secret room” because there were these little stairs that lead up to it. Really, it was just a normal room, though, but we had our own beds (rare) and a flat screen TV with French, German and Italian channels! I took advantage of that later to watch Italian game shows (for some reason we have just about every channel but an Italian channel in Nice). After a break for lunch we left to meet at the office de tourisme to start our guided tour. On the map it looked really far away; in fact it was on the other side of the town. So we left adequate time, but ended getting there way early. Arles, it turns out, is way small. So while we were used to seeing things on a map of nice and knowing that it’s far, in Arles, the farthest thing was like 15 minutes away. On our walk we passed the Van Gogh café, famous as the subject for one of his paintings, and walked through little squares, narrow alleys, and by some roman baths. The big things in Arles are Van Gogh and roman everything. The town was founded by Romans forever ago, so there’s tons of that stuff everywhere (where weren’t the Romans? Needless to say, after a semester in Italy next to Rome, I’m a little roman’ed out). Van Gogh used to live in Arles and the inspirations for his paintings were everywhere. Little plaques with replica paintings were at the locations so you could see how it compared, however there are no Van Gogh paintings in Arles whatsoever. And I think there is only even like one in France. So our 3 hour Van Gogh-centric walking tour basically just walked us around the city to the little plaques, though we did get to see the arena, like a mini coliseum as well. We walked around, literally the entire city, saw some roman walls that used to surround it, a van Gogh site here and there, including his house location, which is now an ugly BNP (why would they do that?), walked along the Rhone, went into a courtyard that showed that under Arles its basically roman ruins everywhere and then ended in some place called espace van Gogh, where I think they have art classes or events or something like that. Then we had a couple of hours to go back to the hotel and sit (no more walking!) before dinner. We met as a group and left to go to the Italian restaurant for our really good dinner that was all paid for! We got a big pizza all to ourselves, salad, bread, a drink, and a lemon torte desert. And it was good pizza too, just like in Italy. I noticed that the woman taking our order sounded like she was speaking French with an Italian accent, so I mentioned it to Lindsay, and on our way out, we decided to ask if she spoke Italian. Turns out she does, because she was Italian and we had a brief little convo in Italian with her, which was fun! After that we went back to the hotel and then went out and hung out by the water, hoping to see the starry night depicted in the van Gogh painting, with no luck. Instead it was just cold and windy (mistral!). The next day we had the morning free so we just walked around Arles (all the same streets.. again, seriously its not that big), and ended up at the market, which was huge! You could buy anything and everything there; it reminded me of the Viterbo market, except way bigger. I took that opportunity to get a good slice of pizza to eat for lunch later. After a couple of hours we met at the bus and headed out to la Camargue area. We stopped in a place called Pont de Gau, where a bird park was, and spent some (way too much) time there. We all walked around the park, looked at all the birds, and mainly looked at the flamingos. Also on the way there we saw bulls, another native animal to the region (I’m guessing). After the park, we headed to Aigues Mortes, which is an actual city surrounded by a wall, and had actual things to see, except we didn’t have the time to see them since we had spent so much time in the bird park. So we had 20 minutes off the bus there, and just walked to the center of the town, saw some wedding photos being taken (the bride had a green dress) and then went and got gelato. Then it was back on the bus where we drove around the walls of Aigues Mortes and then headed back to Arles. That night we were on our own for dinner, which sucked because even though it was a Saturday night, NOTHING was open. Arles is like a ghost town. I think we ended up just getting snacks from a gas station. The next morning we were up early to check out of the hotel and go to the Arles antique museum. There we had a guided tour with our same guide from before, and she loves to talk. So we had another 3ish hour tour with more roman stuff, statues, artifacts, mosaics all in a very modern building that resembled an Ikea. Then it was off to find lunch/snacks (on a Sunday – and in Arles- this is always a challenge) and then we walked to the train station to wait for our train. The train back had a connection in Marseille, so we left the train station for a minute and went outside to see the view. She said we could walk down the (approximately) million stairs to the bottom of the hill, but then we would have to walk back up and I didn’t want to do that. So we just chilled in the train station then got on the next train and made it back to Nice. That night was the last night of carnaval and we went and watched the parade on the prom and the burning of the king statue followed by fireworks on the beach!
25 February 2009
monaco et carnavale
20/02-22/02
Tracey came to visit! And we decided to day trip it out to Monaco! And Erin came since she didn’t want to get up at the crack of dawn for the CUEFLE trip. We took a bus from the gare routiere and got off in Monte-Carlo. There we got to see the famous casino, lots of fancy cars, and people dressed way better than us. There were expensive stores and nice apartment buildings everywhere! After walking around a bit, we headed down to the port in Monaco, where we found an outdoor ice skating rink! It was like at least 55 degrees and sunny, so I don’t know how that was even possible. Then we walked up to the older part of Monaco, complete with royal palace. After walking around the quaint little streets we ended heading back down to the port for lunch. After that, we headed back to Nice; only about 4 hours in Monaco, and we had seen it all! In Nice we decided to all climb the colline to the chateau, and it was good timing because it was a nice sunny day and the sun was beginning to set. After we made our way down we walked along the (super crowded!) prom and saw some people doing bike stunts off the pathway. Then me and Tracey decided to go on the Ferris wheel! That was also good timing on our part, because the sun was still up, but it was a nice sunset at the same time and the Ferris wheel goes really high and you can see a lot! After that, we continued our carnival themed date with popcorn and a massive amount of cotton candy and walked through a park nearby on our way back to the apartment. Shortly after we got back, we met up with Lindsay and went and got Chinese food near the station. Later that night Erin came over to hang out and brought some (always) good French wine. Sunday, Tracey and I got up to go to the markets in Vieux Nice (Cours Saleya). This was the first time I made the effort to get up for them, before I had only seen them when they were shutting down. This time was prime market time and it was insane! There were so many stalls all selling fresh fruits and fresh baked breads, everything looked so good. We both got some strawberries and then continued our walk through Vieux nice, where (even though it was 11 am) we had to stop and get some gelato (which was the best gelato I’ve had in Nice yet)! After this it was time to go back, because Tracey had a train to catch for Torino. On the way to the train station Tracey stopped and got the lunch of champions (or, uuh, French people) – a baguette and some cheese.
Later that day I went to see the Carnavale parade with Lindsay. Carnavale here has attracted so many tourists, it’s crazy. And I think there were all at the parade. After seeing the parade and some of the festivities, I believe that Carnavale de Nice was created as an excuse for children, and also (mostly) adults to do whatever they want all the while watching disturbing floats pass by. Carnavale in Nice equals massive amounts of silly sting and confetti, which doesn’t seem to go along with the French “waste not and recycle all” attitude. The streets are littered with the debris right now and I bet you could find silly string from Nice Carnavale in Monaco; that’s how easily it is tracked around and how far it can go. Parents submit to their children’s whims and buy them massive amounts of this stuff, only so that they can spray it on the innocent passerby without being reprimanded. Not to mention anyone in the parade is fair game. I saw children and adults alike spray silly sting at people in the parade (marching bands members, people on floats, dancers), sometimes in the eye or face, as well as punching any float or costumed person. This, unfortunately, does not give me the best impression of French children. Also I felt that it was rare to find anyone around my age, it was mostly crazy older people or crazy younger people. Each float in the parade was weirder than the last, and usually had no correspondence with the theme of this year’s Carnavale, or just didn’t make sense at all. Either way it was super crowded, and some of the prep for the parade happens just down the street from our place, so we can hear people walking and screaming and yelling all the time right now. I am so happy we didn’t have to drive any where and we could just walk the couple blocks back to our place! It was an interesting experience, but I think it’s safe to say that I (still) barely understand the event that is Carnavale de Nice. Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of religious meaning embedded in there somwhere? I guess that got lost in the wild tourist attraction of Carnavale de Nice.
Tracey came to visit! And we decided to day trip it out to Monaco! And Erin came since she didn’t want to get up at the crack of dawn for the CUEFLE trip. We took a bus from the gare routiere and got off in Monte-Carlo. There we got to see the famous casino, lots of fancy cars, and people dressed way better than us. There were expensive stores and nice apartment buildings everywhere! After walking around a bit, we headed down to the port in Monaco, where we found an outdoor ice skating rink! It was like at least 55 degrees and sunny, so I don’t know how that was even possible. Then we walked up to the older part of Monaco, complete with royal palace. After walking around the quaint little streets we ended heading back down to the port for lunch. After that, we headed back to Nice; only about 4 hours in Monaco, and we had seen it all! In Nice we decided to all climb the colline to the chateau, and it was good timing because it was a nice sunny day and the sun was beginning to set. After we made our way down we walked along the (super crowded!) prom and saw some people doing bike stunts off the pathway. Then me and Tracey decided to go on the Ferris wheel! That was also good timing on our part, because the sun was still up, but it was a nice sunset at the same time and the Ferris wheel goes really high and you can see a lot! After that, we continued our carnival themed date with popcorn and a massive amount of cotton candy and walked through a park nearby on our way back to the apartment. Shortly after we got back, we met up with Lindsay and went and got Chinese food near the station. Later that night Erin came over to hang out and brought some (always) good French wine. Sunday, Tracey and I got up to go to the markets in Vieux Nice (Cours Saleya). This was the first time I made the effort to get up for them, before I had only seen them when they were shutting down. This time was prime market time and it was insane! There were so many stalls all selling fresh fruits and fresh baked breads, everything looked so good. We both got some strawberries and then continued our walk through Vieux nice, where (even though it was 11 am) we had to stop and get some gelato (which was the best gelato I’ve had in Nice yet)! After this it was time to go back, because Tracey had a train to catch for Torino. On the way to the train station Tracey stopped and got the lunch of champions (or, uuh, French people) – a baguette and some cheese.
Later that day I went to see the Carnavale parade with Lindsay. Carnavale here has attracted so many tourists, it’s crazy. And I think there were all at the parade. After seeing the parade and some of the festivities, I believe that Carnavale de Nice was created as an excuse for children, and also (mostly) adults to do whatever they want all the while watching disturbing floats pass by. Carnavale in Nice equals massive amounts of silly sting and confetti, which doesn’t seem to go along with the French “waste not and recycle all” attitude. The streets are littered with the debris right now and I bet you could find silly string from Nice Carnavale in Monaco; that’s how easily it is tracked around and how far it can go. Parents submit to their children’s whims and buy them massive amounts of this stuff, only so that they can spray it on the innocent passerby without being reprimanded. Not to mention anyone in the parade is fair game. I saw children and adults alike spray silly sting at people in the parade (marching bands members, people on floats, dancers), sometimes in the eye or face, as well as punching any float or costumed person. This, unfortunately, does not give me the best impression of French children. Also I felt that it was rare to find anyone around my age, it was mostly crazy older people or crazy younger people. Each float in the parade was weirder than the last, and usually had no correspondence with the theme of this year’s Carnavale, or just didn’t make sense at all. Either way it was super crowded, and some of the prep for the parade happens just down the street from our place, so we can hear people walking and screaming and yelling all the time right now. I am so happy we didn’t have to drive any where and we could just walk the couple blocks back to our place! It was an interesting experience, but I think it’s safe to say that I (still) barely understand the event that is Carnavale de Nice. Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of religious meaning embedded in there somwhere? I guess that got lost in the wild tourist attraction of Carnavale de Nice.
Beaulieu et St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
15/02/09
Today we had a planned excursion to two nearby towns. We met early at the train station to take the 5 minute train to the first town, Beaulieu. In beaulieu there is a cool villa made to look Greek (Villa Kerylos), funded by some rich people (the Rothschilds?) as a vacation home. Beaulieu means beautiful place in French, and it totally was! I can see why everyone (including celebrities) wants to live on the Cote d’Azur. After we toured around the house, we started our walk to St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. This is where the Villa Ephrussi is located, a house owned by the Rothschild family. The villa is also located on the water, like Villa Kerylos, in a beautiful location on a hilltop and the villa itself is amazing. We ate lunch in the tea room, which was so cool. Then we toured the villa and its extensive gardens! There were gardens of all types – Japanese, Florentine, rose, etc. After the villa tour, we walked to the water in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, along a path made into the stone cliffs along the water. This was pretty cool; cool views as well as cool in the way that there was a path right there for everyone to just walk along the water on. From the beach we could even see Italy! And we were close enough that everyone received text messages from their phone providers saying “welcome to Italy” even though we were still in France!
Today we had a planned excursion to two nearby towns. We met early at the train station to take the 5 minute train to the first town, Beaulieu. In beaulieu there is a cool villa made to look Greek (Villa Kerylos), funded by some rich people (the Rothschilds?) as a vacation home. Beaulieu means beautiful place in French, and it totally was! I can see why everyone (including celebrities) wants to live on the Cote d’Azur. After we toured around the house, we started our walk to St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. This is where the Villa Ephrussi is located, a house owned by the Rothschild family. The villa is also located on the water, like Villa Kerylos, in a beautiful location on a hilltop and the villa itself is amazing. We ate lunch in the tea room, which was so cool. Then we toured the villa and its extensive gardens! There were gardens of all types – Japanese, Florentine, rose, etc. After the villa tour, we walked to the water in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, along a path made into the stone cliffs along the water. This was pretty cool; cool views as well as cool in the way that there was a path right there for everyone to just walk along the water on. From the beach we could even see Italy! And we were close enough that everyone received text messages from their phone providers saying “welcome to Italy” even though we were still in France!
18 February 2009
mon emploi du temps
After sitting in on the two electives today, I’ve decided that I will take them, so my schedule is now set. I don’t know if they were particularly more interesting, though the profs did seem more dynamic, but I felt so much more awake since I didn’t have any class before hand, so I will take them for that reason alone. Alors… my schedule:
Monday
10-12: poésie, théâtre
1-2: grammaire descriptive
2-3: phonétique
3-4: linguistique
5-7: FREN 399 with Mme Letzter
Tuesday
11-1: langue écrite
3-5: langue orale
Wednesday
4-6: approche géo-économique et sociale de la France contemporaine
OR (they alternate weeks): les grands débats de l’actualité
Thursday
9-11: commentaire composé/roman
Friday
2-4: pratique de la grammaire
Monday
10-12: poésie, théâtre
1-2: grammaire descriptive
2-3: phonétique
3-4: linguistique
5-7: FREN 399 with Mme Letzter
Tuesday
11-1: langue écrite
3-5: langue orale
Wednesday
4-6: approche géo-économique et sociale de la France contemporaine
OR (they alternate weeks): les grands débats de l’actualité
Thursday
9-11: commentaire composé/roman
Friday
2-4: pratique de la grammaire
Le deuxième jour des cours
17/2
Unfortunately this day was just as long as yesterday! And everyday this week is going to be like a first day of school, because all my classes are only offered once a week (some once every other week). However, don’t think that that means that I don’t have a lot of class, I have like 11 classes! And contrary to what I’ve been told, they are hard, they do have homework, and even if the attendance is optional, they do seem like I will need to go in order to do well. Bummer! Today started out with langue ecrite. This class is usually only supposed to be 2 hours, but the professor already had to cancel a lesson in the future, so she decided to add on an extra hour to this week and next weeks classes. So our first class today was 3 hours, from 10-1. I was hoping that she wouldn’t actually make us write anything today, but I wasn’t so lucky, because we started off with a mini-autobiography. I guess as topics it could be worse though. The prof seems like she has a system and she wants it followed, as far as her approach to writing goes. She seemed very organized. To me, she seems like the least French prof that I have! She started off by telling us what the course would be like and what our exams would be like (3 ½ hours of writing and reading a text… gross!) which no other prof has done here yet, especially without specifically asking. The class seemed pretty intense, probably just because the teacher kind of laid it all out there and was like I want you to write like this, according to the way I want it to be. So hopefully she will help us out with all that, I just hope it’s not too crazy. After that we had an hour break before langue orale. We were only supposed to have 2 hours of langue orale today because we were supposed to be broken into smaller groups, and have one hour of a large group class and one hour of a smaller class. However no group lists were posted so we all showed up for the first group hour and she made us all stay for 3 whole hours of class, une heure de cadeau, she said, yeah right! I’m not sure if the teacher liked us. She was funny but also seemed like she had a strong personality, and wouldn’t be so forgiving with our errors. Plus she assigned us this crazy huge enquete project that we work on the whole semester, where we choose to research something about French culture and we have to talk to at least 10 French people in order to have real research and in order for her to make us talk to French people. In addition, we have to give oral presentations starting next class. Also, she talked the majority of the first class about what she wanted from us, so we barely talked. Hopefully this will get better. So I had that class until 5, which really means I was there until 10 after, because nothing ends on time, and then I had to rush to my elective that I’m thinking of taking, histoire politique de la france contemporaine. Well in English that means contemporary political history of France, but when I walked in to the class he was talking about ancient Gaul, which is way back as far as French history goes. So I walked in a little late to whatever he was teaching, and he continued whatever he was teaching, which was apparently a very quick history of France. He talked non-stop, not taking a break, and not pausing for a breath or anything, for the entire hour of class! It was like he had a text book in his mind. I can’t understand how he did it. And since I was so tired and came in late to his lecture I couldn’t make myself pay attention as he recounted facts that I had learned before. Also he talked pretty quickly and my brain was practically mush. I don’t think I’ll end up taking it.. just because I don’t want to take a history class and I don’t think I’ll be able to pay attention in his two hour class after my other two intense classes on Tuesday. Demain, 2 possible electives, that don’t start until 4 pm!!!
Unfortunately this day was just as long as yesterday! And everyday this week is going to be like a first day of school, because all my classes are only offered once a week (some once every other week). However, don’t think that that means that I don’t have a lot of class, I have like 11 classes! And contrary to what I’ve been told, they are hard, they do have homework, and even if the attendance is optional, they do seem like I will need to go in order to do well. Bummer! Today started out with langue ecrite. This class is usually only supposed to be 2 hours, but the professor already had to cancel a lesson in the future, so she decided to add on an extra hour to this week and next weeks classes. So our first class today was 3 hours, from 10-1. I was hoping that she wouldn’t actually make us write anything today, but I wasn’t so lucky, because we started off with a mini-autobiography. I guess as topics it could be worse though. The prof seems like she has a system and she wants it followed, as far as her approach to writing goes. She seemed very organized. To me, she seems like the least French prof that I have! She started off by telling us what the course would be like and what our exams would be like (3 ½ hours of writing and reading a text… gross!) which no other prof has done here yet, especially without specifically asking. The class seemed pretty intense, probably just because the teacher kind of laid it all out there and was like I want you to write like this, according to the way I want it to be. So hopefully she will help us out with all that, I just hope it’s not too crazy. After that we had an hour break before langue orale. We were only supposed to have 2 hours of langue orale today because we were supposed to be broken into smaller groups, and have one hour of a large group class and one hour of a smaller class. However no group lists were posted so we all showed up for the first group hour and she made us all stay for 3 whole hours of class, une heure de cadeau, she said, yeah right! I’m not sure if the teacher liked us. She was funny but also seemed like she had a strong personality, and wouldn’t be so forgiving with our errors. Plus she assigned us this crazy huge enquete project that we work on the whole semester, where we choose to research something about French culture and we have to talk to at least 10 French people in order to have real research and in order for her to make us talk to French people. In addition, we have to give oral presentations starting next class. Also, she talked the majority of the first class about what she wanted from us, so we barely talked. Hopefully this will get better. So I had that class until 5, which really means I was there until 10 after, because nothing ends on time, and then I had to rush to my elective that I’m thinking of taking, histoire politique de la france contemporaine. Well in English that means contemporary political history of France, but when I walked in to the class he was talking about ancient Gaul, which is way back as far as French history goes. So I walked in a little late to whatever he was teaching, and he continued whatever he was teaching, which was apparently a very quick history of France. He talked non-stop, not taking a break, and not pausing for a breath or anything, for the entire hour of class! It was like he had a text book in his mind. I can’t understand how he did it. And since I was so tired and came in late to his lecture I couldn’t make myself pay attention as he recounted facts that I had learned before. Also he talked pretty quickly and my brain was practically mush. I don’t think I’ll end up taking it.. just because I don’t want to take a history class and I don’t think I’ll be able to pay attention in his two hour class after my other two intense classes on Tuesday. Demain, 2 possible electives, that don’t start until 4 pm!!!
le premier jour des cours
16/2
Today was a long day filled with French! It started off with my 10 am literature class on poesie et theatre. We were a little late because the bus was insanely crowded and the door temporarily broke because people kept prying it open to get on. That class lasted for 2 hours. It was pretty interesting; today we talked about the origins of the French language. Some of the texts he referenced I had already read, so that was good. This was my first taste of French class and I’ve got to say I’m not really sure how it’s all going to turn out. There was no syllabus or grade break down or full calendar or exam date given. There’s no text book so everything is in handout form, so I’m not really sure whether we’re supposed to be reading things outside of class that are given to us or not… in addition, the entire grade of the class is based on the final exam. Former students have said that they didn’t feel it was necessary to go to class (attendance isn’t mandatory), but I can’t really see how you can miss it, since everything is basically based on being in class. Also he explained that our exam would be analyzing a French text we had never seen before, for 2 ½ hours. Um, that doesn’t exactly sound easy! The entire class was practically UMD students. After that we had an hour break, and then it was on the grammaire descriptive. This professor had the funniest way of talking! He sounded like he could be a TV/radio announcer; he was very expressive with his intonation and his voice. The class is just like a pretty intense grammar class, which is cool with me, so I think I will like it. Directly after that was phonetique, which I felt was the most interesting class of the day. One of my French classes at McGill had phonetics in it and I thought it was really useful to know how certain sounds were correctly pronounced and learn the International Phonetic Alphabet. Having done it before should make it a little easier this time around too. Right after phonetics was linguistique with the same prof, in the same room. This class, however, was not so great. She went off on horribly long tangents about colors and other random things from her main topic of how language creates peoples identities and shapes the way they see the world. This class dragged by. Hopefully next week will be better. That concluded the 5 hours of class I had at the fac that day, but then I had less than an hour to get home and get my book for our two hour class at the rd’s apartment. It was an interesting discussion as always, but I was so done with class by the time 7 rolled around.
Today was a long day filled with French! It started off with my 10 am literature class on poesie et theatre. We were a little late because the bus was insanely crowded and the door temporarily broke because people kept prying it open to get on. That class lasted for 2 hours. It was pretty interesting; today we talked about the origins of the French language. Some of the texts he referenced I had already read, so that was good. This was my first taste of French class and I’ve got to say I’m not really sure how it’s all going to turn out. There was no syllabus or grade break down or full calendar or exam date given. There’s no text book so everything is in handout form, so I’m not really sure whether we’re supposed to be reading things outside of class that are given to us or not… in addition, the entire grade of the class is based on the final exam. Former students have said that they didn’t feel it was necessary to go to class (attendance isn’t mandatory), but I can’t really see how you can miss it, since everything is basically based on being in class. Also he explained that our exam would be analyzing a French text we had never seen before, for 2 ½ hours. Um, that doesn’t exactly sound easy! The entire class was practically UMD students. After that we had an hour break, and then it was on the grammaire descriptive. This professor had the funniest way of talking! He sounded like he could be a TV/radio announcer; he was very expressive with his intonation and his voice. The class is just like a pretty intense grammar class, which is cool with me, so I think I will like it. Directly after that was phonetique, which I felt was the most interesting class of the day. One of my French classes at McGill had phonetics in it and I thought it was really useful to know how certain sounds were correctly pronounced and learn the International Phonetic Alphabet. Having done it before should make it a little easier this time around too. Right after phonetics was linguistique with the same prof, in the same room. This class, however, was not so great. She went off on horribly long tangents about colors and other random things from her main topic of how language creates peoples identities and shapes the way they see the world. This class dragged by. Hopefully next week will be better. That concluded the 5 hours of class I had at the fac that day, but then I had less than an hour to get home and get my book for our two hour class at the rd’s apartment. It was an interesting discussion as always, but I was so done with class by the time 7 rolled around.
Le jour de St. Valentin
14/02
It’s Valentine’s Day in France! But we didn’t really notice so much, I feel like we aren’t as bombarded with commercial stuff here as in America. But anyways me and Lindsay went to go see a chick flick (yay!) in its original English, titled “He’s Just Not That Into You”, or in French, Ce Que Pensent les Homes (what men think). I thought it was really cute! There were so many famous people and it was really funny. The movie theater wasn’t so bad, the seats were really nice, the ticket was cheaper than in the US, the only bad part was that it wasn’t heated. So I was freezing afterwards! Also there was no popcorn! And that’s my favorite part. After that we went to the gare routiere to take a bus to Eze since a lot of people were going there that day. So buses go to two different places in Eze: Eze village, and Eze sur mer. Well I had already been to Eze, but I didn’t know the difference between the two locations because I didn’t have to make the arrangements. The next bus was going to Eze sur Mer so we got on that. Um that was big mistake of the day number one. We got off right in front of the Eze train station, right on the water (as sur mer would indicate). Well that was a problem because Eze is a medieval hill top town, and we were no where near a hilltop. So we look up and figure its somewhere on top of one of the mountains nearby, but assume that there’s a transfer or something to get up there. Well we walk up to the map and see some other English speaking tourists with the same problem. The map shows the only way up to the village as being a 60 minute chemin, which is a path. The other tourists asked a cab driver how much it cost up to the town and they said 30 euros. So we decided to just take the path, how bad could it be? Mistake number 2 of the day! The “path” wasn’t so well marked, so we actually went up the wrong path until we made it to someone’s house and almost went into their gated property. Then we turned around, after we had already gone up this big hill, and found the real path, which was like a crazy rocky almost non-path. As we started our hike up, a French woman who was winded walking down the path wished us “bonne chance”. Little did we know how much we would need it. The path was particularly bad because every time you made it up a steep incline with almost non-existent steps, the path turned and you had to start the process all over again. Lots of times the path was around the mountain with no railing or anything and you were looking right over a cliff. We had to stop a lot, because it was really steep and like one of the craziest work outs over. I had to take off my coat because I was so hot. Finally after an hour we made it to the top of the top and were so tired! We walked around Eze a little bit and spent the majority of our time sitting in this really cute restaurant. After that things started to close since it was Saturday and we went and met the rest of our group that we were originally supposed to go with to Eze at a café that was really cutely decorated for Valentines Day. The person who owned the café was so funny and gave us lots of advice about how we shouldn’t say “oh my god” because it means something else in French and how we shouldn’t get married young and all sorts of things. Then it was off to the bus stop to take a bus back to Nice.
It’s Valentine’s Day in France! But we didn’t really notice so much, I feel like we aren’t as bombarded with commercial stuff here as in America. But anyways me and Lindsay went to go see a chick flick (yay!) in its original English, titled “He’s Just Not That Into You”, or in French, Ce Que Pensent les Homes (what men think). I thought it was really cute! There were so many famous people and it was really funny. The movie theater wasn’t so bad, the seats were really nice, the ticket was cheaper than in the US, the only bad part was that it wasn’t heated. So I was freezing afterwards! Also there was no popcorn! And that’s my favorite part. After that we went to the gare routiere to take a bus to Eze since a lot of people were going there that day. So buses go to two different places in Eze: Eze village, and Eze sur mer. Well I had already been to Eze, but I didn’t know the difference between the two locations because I didn’t have to make the arrangements. The next bus was going to Eze sur Mer so we got on that. Um that was big mistake of the day number one. We got off right in front of the Eze train station, right on the water (as sur mer would indicate). Well that was a problem because Eze is a medieval hill top town, and we were no where near a hilltop. So we look up and figure its somewhere on top of one of the mountains nearby, but assume that there’s a transfer or something to get up there. Well we walk up to the map and see some other English speaking tourists with the same problem. The map shows the only way up to the village as being a 60 minute chemin, which is a path. The other tourists asked a cab driver how much it cost up to the town and they said 30 euros. So we decided to just take the path, how bad could it be? Mistake number 2 of the day! The “path” wasn’t so well marked, so we actually went up the wrong path until we made it to someone’s house and almost went into their gated property. Then we turned around, after we had already gone up this big hill, and found the real path, which was like a crazy rocky almost non-path. As we started our hike up, a French woman who was winded walking down the path wished us “bonne chance”. Little did we know how much we would need it. The path was particularly bad because every time you made it up a steep incline with almost non-existent steps, the path turned and you had to start the process all over again. Lots of times the path was around the mountain with no railing or anything and you were looking right over a cliff. We had to stop a lot, because it was really steep and like one of the craziest work outs over. I had to take off my coat because I was so hot. Finally after an hour we made it to the top of the top and were so tired! We walked around Eze a little bit and spent the majority of our time sitting in this really cute restaurant. After that things started to close since it was Saturday and we went and met the rest of our group that we were originally supposed to go with to Eze at a café that was really cutely decorated for Valentines Day. The person who owned the café was so funny and gave us lots of advice about how we shouldn’t say “oh my god” because it means something else in French and how we shouldn’t get married young and all sorts of things. Then it was off to the bus stop to take a bus back to Nice.
15 February 2009
Day at the IUT – Institut Universitaire de Technologie
09/02/09
Today we sat in on some classes with our parinage, our conversation partners and pen pals who go to a special school part of the Universite de Nice, the IUT which is a two year program where they get degrees in various business fields. Today was the first time that I met my partner, Severine, who is a second year student at the IUT studying business. She is so nice and her English is so good! Unfortunately for me her classes weren’t really in my subject field, but it was still a fun day, albeit long (9-5)! The first class was marketing, which is coincidentally enough is called marketing in French as well. I, however, don’t understand marketing in English, so that didn’t really help. My partner made us sit front row center and thought it would be a good idea to take notes (hers were way more detailed..). After and hour and a half of that, we had a 3 hour break since she didn’t have a class in the next block. The class schedule was like high school; everyone has the same classes together who are in the same group and they go to school like all day. They don’t even know their schedule for the next week until the Friday before! So after we sat around for a little in some business club office (or something) we went to the cafeteria for lunch and then sat outside with some other Americans and French people and spoke English/French. We talked about all sorts of things: travels, where we’ve been and would like to go or live, the school system in general, prices in the states and things like tuition and healthcare. Finally it was time for our next class, math (gross) from 2-3:30. This class was probably worse than the first, even though I understood what she said, I have definitely emptied my mind of all that math stuff (today was limits). Plus I don’t know the French terms for things like that. The professor told me I should sit in the middle of the room so that everyone could talk to me, but luckily Severine said she didn’t think that was a good idea. The teacher referred to me as “the American” most of the class, mostly while threatening her students that “the American” would come and teach the class in English” since, just like in high school, the students talked and texted during class (my girl did her nails). Then she asked me, in English, if I wanted to teach the class and I said no. I think she thought that I actually knew what was going on because this French guy sitting next to Severine said to the teacher that I was very good at math, as a joke. After I said no, the class tried to get her to teach it in English but she said she didn’t know how. When she made the rounds later I made sure to tell her that I study languages, not math. After math there was another class right away, gestion de la relation client (client relations management?) which was like another math class. This professor was pretty interested in talking to me, mainly about school, like how we pay a ton, and they only pay 250 euros a year! I didn’t really get the exercise but the teacher said that Severine should explain it to me. She didn’t really get it either, though, so I guess that made me feel a little better. All the classes were with the same people today, so I saw a lot of the same faces. Then finally, after I had been at French school for 8 hours, it was time to go home!
Today we sat in on some classes with our parinage, our conversation partners and pen pals who go to a special school part of the Universite de Nice, the IUT which is a two year program where they get degrees in various business fields. Today was the first time that I met my partner, Severine, who is a second year student at the IUT studying business. She is so nice and her English is so good! Unfortunately for me her classes weren’t really in my subject field, but it was still a fun day, albeit long (9-5)! The first class was marketing, which is coincidentally enough is called marketing in French as well. I, however, don’t understand marketing in English, so that didn’t really help. My partner made us sit front row center and thought it would be a good idea to take notes (hers were way more detailed..). After and hour and a half of that, we had a 3 hour break since she didn’t have a class in the next block. The class schedule was like high school; everyone has the same classes together who are in the same group and they go to school like all day. They don’t even know their schedule for the next week until the Friday before! So after we sat around for a little in some business club office (or something) we went to the cafeteria for lunch and then sat outside with some other Americans and French people and spoke English/French. We talked about all sorts of things: travels, where we’ve been and would like to go or live, the school system in general, prices in the states and things like tuition and healthcare. Finally it was time for our next class, math (gross) from 2-3:30. This class was probably worse than the first, even though I understood what she said, I have definitely emptied my mind of all that math stuff (today was limits). Plus I don’t know the French terms for things like that. The professor told me I should sit in the middle of the room so that everyone could talk to me, but luckily Severine said she didn’t think that was a good idea. The teacher referred to me as “the American” most of the class, mostly while threatening her students that “the American” would come and teach the class in English” since, just like in high school, the students talked and texted during class (my girl did her nails). Then she asked me, in English, if I wanted to teach the class and I said no. I think she thought that I actually knew what was going on because this French guy sitting next to Severine said to the teacher that I was very good at math, as a joke. After I said no, the class tried to get her to teach it in English but she said she didn’t know how. When she made the rounds later I made sure to tell her that I study languages, not math. After math there was another class right away, gestion de la relation client (client relations management?) which was like another math class. This professor was pretty interested in talking to me, mainly about school, like how we pay a ton, and they only pay 250 euros a year! I didn’t really get the exercise but the teacher said that Severine should explain it to me. She didn’t really get it either, though, so I guess that made me feel a little better. All the classes were with the same people today, so I saw a lot of the same faces. Then finally, after I had been at French school for 8 hours, it was time to go home!
08 February 2009
la première semaine
1/2/09
Our first real day in Nice (- yesterday’s jet lagged, headachy overwhelming craziness)! We didn’t have to meet until 12, thankfully, for a little brunch (pizza and focaccia and espresso drinks like cappuccino.. um I thought we were in France!) before a guided walk around the city. We got lots of info in the little meeting; Madame Letzler talked a lot about homestays and French family vs American family differences. She talked seulment en francais! We are definitely being bombarded with French… which I guess is a good thing, but its kind of hard right now after a semester of little French. The year long students are so good! And I don’t even know if they have all had as much French as me. The resident director’s child is also being raised bilingual. She is so cute (and lucky)! Then we went on a walking tour of Nice and saw the downtown area (basically where we live), Vieux Nice, the library (huge and has tons of books, movies, cds, etc) and the theatre. Then we monter’d the colline (I like franglais) and got a great view of Nice (this was in my guidebook and actually on my list of things to do). It was so pretty! But then it started to rain. It’s still beautiful here, though, even in the rain. And it’s not like the torrential downpours in Viterbo so that’s nice. After the tour we went to Spar (Despar – the de) and got some groceries, including a baguette fresh out of the oven! After that we went to the resident director’s apartment, where she graciously let us use her internet and phone. Tomorrow (and every other day this week) we’re up early for a pre-stage at the university!
2/2/09
Je veux que le soleil brille! It poured today in Nice. Like torrential downpours Viterbo-style (I guess I spoke too soon about that). I thought I had left all that behind. I soaked two pairs of pants and 2 pairs of socks and a pair of shoes. Gross. I wouldn’t even care if it wasn’t sunny, I just want to walk around and explore so badly! And take lots of pictures! Because it’s so beautiful here. Though, it would probably be hard to find time for that actually because we are really busy with this pre-stage stuff and everything else! Today was our first day and we actually got to take the bus (yes!) instead of walk 45 minutes uphill in the rain. But we did have to wait for everyone who did walk, in the “batiment h”, which was kind of boring. Oh did I mention that we had to meet at 8:45?! And that thanks to the time change, I probably didn’t fall asleep until 4. However, I have to get up even earlier tomorrow to be at the school (instead of the RD’s apartment) at 9.. aka leaving here at 8:15 to walk to catch the bus (we don’t actually know when it comes…). And I thought the pre-stage would be like an introduction to the university, but no, it’s like actual French class to get prepared for the placement exam. And we have homework! Already! Due tomorrow and Friday. Apparently the fall students asked for it (why?!). I guess it’s nice that it’s not nice out… because I can just do my homework. Well I tried to make that sound good/positive, but it’s not really. We have class again tomorrow for like 3 hours. And then something in a computer lab. Everyday! And they said we’d have afternoons free but then they added in mandatory computer lab stuff and an extra class and café polyglotte.. so we’re pretty busy. In between all that we managed to get our cell phones, sign our lease, go to a bunch of different grocery stores and unpack and make our apartment all nice (pun intended). But I still feel like I have a lot of free time, I guess traveling like every weekend and doing a bunch of schoolwork at the same time in Italy will do that to you. I want to get to the point where I really know my way around and know everyone.. basically skip past all the getting to know you/the city stuff. And have a routine. But whatever, this part isn’t all that bad either. I’m in France! I can’t really tell if it’s sunk in yet. I can tell that having been in Italy/Canada has really helped. It just doesn’t really feel like a big change (/I just feel at home here).. but that could also be because I’m really a French girl at heart ;).
I also got my cell phone (portable) today. I did this one all by myself! That was kind of nice; as I can only vaguely remember the torture that was trying to get my Italian cell phone, and of course our bff at the Tim place (really, he hated us). I ended up getting a new phone, which is even crappier (can you believe it) than my Italian one, just because it was cheaper than a sim card and came with 5 euro of credit on it already. However, I have already changed my sim card out into the old Italian phone because the French one doesn’t even have a vibrate option and I have missed calls and can’t get the alarm to work. Getting the phone was kind of fun though, I walked into the SFR store and talked to the really nice clerk who told me about how the phone was cheaper and then when he saw my American passport he got all excited. “Ohhh USA! Obama!” He commented on how the passport was so pretty, with a big picture of an eagle, and asked why it was there (national bird, I explained). He also asked if I liked Obama, if I voted for Obama, if I was in the states when Obama won.. etc. I have yet to meet a European who doesn’t like him! Apparently I also have the same birthday as his wife and he also commented on how I have a French first name. Then he decided to practice his English which was also fun (he was very good).
3/2/09
I love the soldes that are going on right now! I went into Galleries Lafayette and a bunch of stores on Jean-Medecin and everything was on sale! Oh and our H&M is like the perfect size, not too big and overwhelming, but big enough to have a good selection. I also saw a 1,90 euro store. Pretty awesome! Today we also got our bus passes and got a similar reaction to our passports as the cell phone guy gave us; he commented on the pretty pictures drawn on the passport and saw that we were from the DC area and said that we were lucky and lucky to have been there during the inauguration.
5/2/09
Café polyglotte
Today we had some French/English conversation time with French students at l’IUT. They want to practice their English and we are supposed to practice our French. We talked about a number of things with our two French students; what we were studying, films and TV in the us, music, accents and dialects of English and French, travels, and even French music/dance styles – including tektonik! I am so going to learn it this semester. The 2 hours went by really fast because it was interesting and fun and we’re going back on Monday to sit in on their classes and then on Thursday for another discussion. The only bad part is that their school is up on the top of a steep hill just like the fac and the bus stop is so far away!
7/2/09
Today we went to Cimiez, a very exclusive part of Nice to visit the Musée Matisse, the Musée Archeologique the arènes and the thermes and then a non-successful visit to the Chagall museum, which was ok since I went already. All the museums were interesting and the roman ruins were really cool (well nothing too shocking, basically what most places in Lazio look like) and pretty intact and the park that they were located in was pretty, filled with olive trees all lines in geometrical patterns (which I learned in class is how all French gardens are). After the museums we went to see the Franciscan cathedral (complete with relic, which I had to explain to my resident director, was yes, in fact an actual body) and a beautiful garden where lots of people get married all the time, since its on the top of a hill overlooking nice. There was a couple, in fact, celebrating their marriage with cake and drinks in a gazebo in the park. It was so cute and they even invited us to join them! All 27 of us! Then we walked down the hill to go to the Chagall Museum which turned out not to be free (it will be in April) so we decided against it and headed back Jean-Medecin to take advantage of the last days of soldes. Lindsay went to Carrefour and I went to some other shops on Jean-Medecin and then upon walking back I had a creepy French man experience, which I will probably end up using for my French/American differences writing for my class. So this man stops and asks me where Vieux Nice is, and he is walking in the wrong direction, so I tell him it’s the other direction. Then he asked something else so quickly in a different accent that I couldn’t understand, so I was just like I’m sorry I don’t understand. He then asked if I spoke English, and I said yes and he proceeded to continue in very poor English that I could barely understand through his weird word choices and heavy accent. I don’t know how him asking for directions turned into him interviewing me about my life, but it did. The conversation topics went something like this: oh you’re American, why are you studying in Nice, why are you studying in France, why do you like France, do you like Obama, what do you think about Obama, what do you think about Bill/Hilary Clinton, who has more experience, why does the American government feel like it needs to be involved in all of the world’s affairs, why did they go to war in Iraq, what do you think about the war in Iraq and American politics, who did you vote for, are you going to move to France (this one asked several times); then came the part of the conversation when he must have assumed that I was a travel agent in my free time, he asked: what was there to do in Nice (he is thinking of moving there), had I ever been to Marseille (he was from there),where had I been in Europe, what was the best country I had been too, where had I been in the States, what should he do when he visited the States, is it safe for him to visit the states since he is French and he heard Americans don’t like the French, is it safe in general, what about from terrorist attacks, should he stay one or two weeks, should he stay in one city or visit several, could he eat well there (because he had heard the food was horrible), did I cook, had I eaten at any good restaurants in France, why didn’t I cook more, I would need to learn to cook for my kids, which according to him I was definitely having, possibly soon (you never know, he said), had I seen any good movies lately, do I like Johnny Depp, why hadn’t I been to the movies in so long, do I not like movies, do I like French or American movies, I seemed nice and calm, my parents must be nice, my parents must be young, do I have any siblings, are they younger or older, is my sister nice, was I 23, what have I been doing in nice for the week I had been there, why do I have to go to class, am I going to travel this semester, have I been to Monaco, what is there to do in Monaco, what is there to do for Carnival, how long does Carnival last, what is there do to in Menton during the Citron Festival, etc etc etc. there’s probably more, but this is all I can remember!
Then when we finally walked by my street and I said I needed to go, he asked me to put his number in my phone, which I cleverly played by saying I didn’t have one so then he wanted to write it down but I didn’t have a pen. He seemed to think that was very stupid, but he didn’t have a pen either, so he asked an old man behind him who looked at him like he was crazy, and then he asked a person selling something in a smart car who gave him one and a piece of paper. Then he, Marco, gave me his number and said he would wait for my call!
Our first real day in Nice (- yesterday’s jet lagged, headachy overwhelming craziness)! We didn’t have to meet until 12, thankfully, for a little brunch (pizza and focaccia and espresso drinks like cappuccino.. um I thought we were in France!) before a guided walk around the city. We got lots of info in the little meeting; Madame Letzler talked a lot about homestays and French family vs American family differences. She talked seulment en francais! We are definitely being bombarded with French… which I guess is a good thing, but its kind of hard right now after a semester of little French. The year long students are so good! And I don’t even know if they have all had as much French as me. The resident director’s child is also being raised bilingual. She is so cute (and lucky)! Then we went on a walking tour of Nice and saw the downtown area (basically where we live), Vieux Nice, the library (huge and has tons of books, movies, cds, etc) and the theatre. Then we monter’d the colline (I like franglais) and got a great view of Nice (this was in my guidebook and actually on my list of things to do). It was so pretty! But then it started to rain. It’s still beautiful here, though, even in the rain. And it’s not like the torrential downpours in Viterbo so that’s nice. After the tour we went to Spar (Despar – the de) and got some groceries, including a baguette fresh out of the oven! After that we went to the resident director’s apartment, where she graciously let us use her internet and phone. Tomorrow (and every other day this week) we’re up early for a pre-stage at the university!
2/2/09
Je veux que le soleil brille! It poured today in Nice. Like torrential downpours Viterbo-style (I guess I spoke too soon about that). I thought I had left all that behind. I soaked two pairs of pants and 2 pairs of socks and a pair of shoes. Gross. I wouldn’t even care if it wasn’t sunny, I just want to walk around and explore so badly! And take lots of pictures! Because it’s so beautiful here. Though, it would probably be hard to find time for that actually because we are really busy with this pre-stage stuff and everything else! Today was our first day and we actually got to take the bus (yes!) instead of walk 45 minutes uphill in the rain. But we did have to wait for everyone who did walk, in the “batiment h”, which was kind of boring. Oh did I mention that we had to meet at 8:45?! And that thanks to the time change, I probably didn’t fall asleep until 4. However, I have to get up even earlier tomorrow to be at the school (instead of the RD’s apartment) at 9.. aka leaving here at 8:15 to walk to catch the bus (we don’t actually know when it comes…). And I thought the pre-stage would be like an introduction to the university, but no, it’s like actual French class to get prepared for the placement exam. And we have homework! Already! Due tomorrow and Friday. Apparently the fall students asked for it (why?!). I guess it’s nice that it’s not nice out… because I can just do my homework. Well I tried to make that sound good/positive, but it’s not really. We have class again tomorrow for like 3 hours. And then something in a computer lab. Everyday! And they said we’d have afternoons free but then they added in mandatory computer lab stuff and an extra class and café polyglotte.. so we’re pretty busy. In between all that we managed to get our cell phones, sign our lease, go to a bunch of different grocery stores and unpack and make our apartment all nice (pun intended). But I still feel like I have a lot of free time, I guess traveling like every weekend and doing a bunch of schoolwork at the same time in Italy will do that to you. I want to get to the point where I really know my way around and know everyone.. basically skip past all the getting to know you/the city stuff. And have a routine. But whatever, this part isn’t all that bad either. I’m in France! I can’t really tell if it’s sunk in yet. I can tell that having been in Italy/Canada has really helped. It just doesn’t really feel like a big change (/I just feel at home here).. but that could also be because I’m really a French girl at heart ;).
I also got my cell phone (portable) today. I did this one all by myself! That was kind of nice; as I can only vaguely remember the torture that was trying to get my Italian cell phone, and of course our bff at the Tim place (really, he hated us). I ended up getting a new phone, which is even crappier (can you believe it) than my Italian one, just because it was cheaper than a sim card and came with 5 euro of credit on it already. However, I have already changed my sim card out into the old Italian phone because the French one doesn’t even have a vibrate option and I have missed calls and can’t get the alarm to work. Getting the phone was kind of fun though, I walked into the SFR store and talked to the really nice clerk who told me about how the phone was cheaper and then when he saw my American passport he got all excited. “Ohhh USA! Obama!” He commented on how the passport was so pretty, with a big picture of an eagle, and asked why it was there (national bird, I explained). He also asked if I liked Obama, if I voted for Obama, if I was in the states when Obama won.. etc. I have yet to meet a European who doesn’t like him! Apparently I also have the same birthday as his wife and he also commented on how I have a French first name. Then he decided to practice his English which was also fun (he was very good).
3/2/09
I love the soldes that are going on right now! I went into Galleries Lafayette and a bunch of stores on Jean-Medecin and everything was on sale! Oh and our H&M is like the perfect size, not too big and overwhelming, but big enough to have a good selection. I also saw a 1,90 euro store. Pretty awesome! Today we also got our bus passes and got a similar reaction to our passports as the cell phone guy gave us; he commented on the pretty pictures drawn on the passport and saw that we were from the DC area and said that we were lucky and lucky to have been there during the inauguration.
5/2/09
Café polyglotte
Today we had some French/English conversation time with French students at l’IUT. They want to practice their English and we are supposed to practice our French. We talked about a number of things with our two French students; what we were studying, films and TV in the us, music, accents and dialects of English and French, travels, and even French music/dance styles – including tektonik! I am so going to learn it this semester. The 2 hours went by really fast because it was interesting and fun and we’re going back on Monday to sit in on their classes and then on Thursday for another discussion. The only bad part is that their school is up on the top of a steep hill just like the fac and the bus stop is so far away!
7/2/09
Today we went to Cimiez, a very exclusive part of Nice to visit the Musée Matisse, the Musée Archeologique the arènes and the thermes and then a non-successful visit to the Chagall museum, which was ok since I went already. All the museums were interesting and the roman ruins were really cool (well nothing too shocking, basically what most places in Lazio look like) and pretty intact and the park that they were located in was pretty, filled with olive trees all lines in geometrical patterns (which I learned in class is how all French gardens are). After the museums we went to see the Franciscan cathedral (complete with relic, which I had to explain to my resident director, was yes, in fact an actual body) and a beautiful garden where lots of people get married all the time, since its on the top of a hill overlooking nice. There was a couple, in fact, celebrating their marriage with cake and drinks in a gazebo in the park. It was so cute and they even invited us to join them! All 27 of us! Then we walked down the hill to go to the Chagall Museum which turned out not to be free (it will be in April) so we decided against it and headed back Jean-Medecin to take advantage of the last days of soldes. Lindsay went to Carrefour and I went to some other shops on Jean-Medecin and then upon walking back I had a creepy French man experience, which I will probably end up using for my French/American differences writing for my class. So this man stops and asks me where Vieux Nice is, and he is walking in the wrong direction, so I tell him it’s the other direction. Then he asked something else so quickly in a different accent that I couldn’t understand, so I was just like I’m sorry I don’t understand. He then asked if I spoke English, and I said yes and he proceeded to continue in very poor English that I could barely understand through his weird word choices and heavy accent. I don’t know how him asking for directions turned into him interviewing me about my life, but it did. The conversation topics went something like this: oh you’re American, why are you studying in Nice, why are you studying in France, why do you like France, do you like Obama, what do you think about Obama, what do you think about Bill/Hilary Clinton, who has more experience, why does the American government feel like it needs to be involved in all of the world’s affairs, why did they go to war in Iraq, what do you think about the war in Iraq and American politics, who did you vote for, are you going to move to France (this one asked several times); then came the part of the conversation when he must have assumed that I was a travel agent in my free time, he asked: what was there to do in Nice (he is thinking of moving there), had I ever been to Marseille (he was from there),where had I been in Europe, what was the best country I had been too, where had I been in the States, what should he do when he visited the States, is it safe for him to visit the states since he is French and he heard Americans don’t like the French, is it safe in general, what about from terrorist attacks, should he stay one or two weeks, should he stay in one city or visit several, could he eat well there (because he had heard the food was horrible), did I cook, had I eaten at any good restaurants in France, why didn’t I cook more, I would need to learn to cook for my kids, which according to him I was definitely having, possibly soon (you never know, he said), had I seen any good movies lately, do I like Johnny Depp, why hadn’t I been to the movies in so long, do I not like movies, do I like French or American movies, I seemed nice and calm, my parents must be nice, my parents must be young, do I have any siblings, are they younger or older, is my sister nice, was I 23, what have I been doing in nice for the week I had been there, why do I have to go to class, am I going to travel this semester, have I been to Monaco, what is there to do in Monaco, what is there to do for Carnival, how long does Carnival last, what is there do to in Menton during the Citron Festival, etc etc etc. there’s probably more, but this is all I can remember!
Then when we finally walked by my street and I said I needed to go, he asked me to put his number in my phone, which I cleverly played by saying I didn’t have one so then he wanted to write it down but I didn’t have a pen. He seemed to think that was very stupid, but he didn’t have a pen either, so he asked an old man behind him who looked at him like he was crazy, and then he asked a person selling something in a smart car who gave him one and a piece of paper. Then he, Marco, gave me his number and said he would wait for my call!
04 February 2009
IAD-LHR-NCE
30/1-31/1
Friday night I had a late night flight to London with British airways from Dulles. I had never flown this airline and was pleasantly surprise when 1) I was able to check in online (despite being in the country longer than allowed for without a visa.. I didn’t really get that, since AF and United I know do not allow it), 2) I got to just drop my bags off after waiting in a one person line, 3) even though both bags were surely overweight, they only “noticed” one and therefore only charged me $45!, 4) I got my boarding passes for both flights and then when I got to the security line, it was non-existent! After going through that I got straight on the mobile lounge to the gate and there I was with plenty of time to spare. Things started off well with an announcement by a person with a British accent! And apparently all the British people in America are hanging out on BA flights, as it was chocked full of them. Yay for accents! All the flight crew were also British and we got to hear such lovely messages from them like “it was a pleasure indeed to have you aboard” and the word “journey” said like a million times (because apparently its not a trip, flight, ride, etc - whatever “journey” is cooler)!. After we made it to London, on a short 6 hr flight, we had to circle around in a holding pattern (I’m thinking like 5 times maybe, it was awhile) and I could see London in the distance!! After we got to the airport I was bombarded with things spelled with “u’s” and Cadbury chocolates and people talking in accents so thick I almost didn’t even recognize it as English and I knew I had to go back. This semester for sure! Heathrow is an insane airport. It is so, so big. I don’t know how anyone can complain about Dulles; Heathrow is like its own city. And inside terminal one where my nice flight left it was like a mall. Harrods and everything! However the with the horrible exchange rate I soon realized that everything was out of my price range, and became bored waiting for my gate to appear on the screen, apparently they only assign it 30-40 minutes before take off, so everyone just waits in this big general holding area. Finally we get the gate and all the other university of Marylanders show up. Then it’s a quick 2 hour flight to nice. The plane goes from London over the channel and then over Paris and over the Alps, finally down to Cannes where the last bit is right along the water. So pretty! Landing in nice was also beautiful. I got my 2 huge bags and went right out, met our realtor and a year long student to take us to our apartment and got right on a bus with my new roommate to find our apartment. The bus trip was a quick one right down the Promenade des Anglais. The weather was a balmy 55 F and the sun was shining and the water was a crystal clear blue reflecting the sun beams. I forgot how very French the architecture and town seemed to me, even despite its beachy-touristy rep. We got off the bus on the Promenade, walked one block up, and there we were on our new street, rue de France, one of the cutest streets I have ever seen! We pass Chinese and Mexican restaurants (you mean they have more than French food in France?!) and a souvenir shop and a post office until we get to our building right next to a pharmacie, with a purple door! The lobby is really cute and our names are already on the buzzer and mailbox. A guy who worked for the agency helped us with our bags and showed us to our apartment on the deuxieme etage. It also has a purple door, and although we hadn’t really seen any photos of the place before hand, turned out to be a great place! It’s open and has a cute little balcony, our room isn’t too small, and I’m surprised by the amount of space in the bathroom. One of our biggest issues thus far has been space! There is one wardrobe and a little chest with 2 large drawers and 2 small. We both brought tons of clothes and had to be creative to fit it all in. There are tons of shelves in the living room without anything really on them, and there is even a TV! Bad news is that our fridge is miniscule and the freezer is nonexistent. The French guy continued to ramble on about every detail of our apartment in French to us after we had gotten off a series of 2 international flights; I think we’ll be lucky if we remember it all. At this point it was somehow already 5 pm so we went to the Monoprix off of Rue Jean Medecin (right near our old hotel for the France trip) and got some (aka too much.. more than we could carry) groceries. The street we walk to get there, Rue de France turns into Rue Massena and it’s so cute; filled with cafes, ice cream places and shops. And Jean Medecin is also impressive, big name stores and a new futuristic tram that rums right down the middle. I’m glad that nice has so much to offer besides the beach. It’s truly a big city and is so French and I love it!
Friday night I had a late night flight to London with British airways from Dulles. I had never flown this airline and was pleasantly surprise when 1) I was able to check in online (despite being in the country longer than allowed for without a visa.. I didn’t really get that, since AF and United I know do not allow it), 2) I got to just drop my bags off after waiting in a one person line, 3) even though both bags were surely overweight, they only “noticed” one and therefore only charged me $45!, 4) I got my boarding passes for both flights and then when I got to the security line, it was non-existent! After going through that I got straight on the mobile lounge to the gate and there I was with plenty of time to spare. Things started off well with an announcement by a person with a British accent! And apparently all the British people in America are hanging out on BA flights, as it was chocked full of them. Yay for accents! All the flight crew were also British and we got to hear such lovely messages from them like “it was a pleasure indeed to have you aboard” and the word “journey” said like a million times (because apparently its not a trip, flight, ride, etc - whatever “journey” is cooler)!. After we made it to London, on a short 6 hr flight, we had to circle around in a holding pattern (I’m thinking like 5 times maybe, it was awhile) and I could see London in the distance!! After we got to the airport I was bombarded with things spelled with “u’s” and Cadbury chocolates and people talking in accents so thick I almost didn’t even recognize it as English and I knew I had to go back. This semester for sure! Heathrow is an insane airport. It is so, so big. I don’t know how anyone can complain about Dulles; Heathrow is like its own city. And inside terminal one where my nice flight left it was like a mall. Harrods and everything! However the with the horrible exchange rate I soon realized that everything was out of my price range, and became bored waiting for my gate to appear on the screen, apparently they only assign it 30-40 minutes before take off, so everyone just waits in this big general holding area. Finally we get the gate and all the other university of Marylanders show up. Then it’s a quick 2 hour flight to nice. The plane goes from London over the channel and then over Paris and over the Alps, finally down to Cannes where the last bit is right along the water. So pretty! Landing in nice was also beautiful. I got my 2 huge bags and went right out, met our realtor and a year long student to take us to our apartment and got right on a bus with my new roommate to find our apartment. The bus trip was a quick one right down the Promenade des Anglais. The weather was a balmy 55 F and the sun was shining and the water was a crystal clear blue reflecting the sun beams. I forgot how very French the architecture and town seemed to me, even despite its beachy-touristy rep. We got off the bus on the Promenade, walked one block up, and there we were on our new street, rue de France, one of the cutest streets I have ever seen! We pass Chinese and Mexican restaurants (you mean they have more than French food in France?!) and a souvenir shop and a post office until we get to our building right next to a pharmacie, with a purple door! The lobby is really cute and our names are already on the buzzer and mailbox. A guy who worked for the agency helped us with our bags and showed us to our apartment on the deuxieme etage. It also has a purple door, and although we hadn’t really seen any photos of the place before hand, turned out to be a great place! It’s open and has a cute little balcony, our room isn’t too small, and I’m surprised by the amount of space in the bathroom. One of our biggest issues thus far has been space! There is one wardrobe and a little chest with 2 large drawers and 2 small. We both brought tons of clothes and had to be creative to fit it all in. There are tons of shelves in the living room without anything really on them, and there is even a TV! Bad news is that our fridge is miniscule and the freezer is nonexistent. The French guy continued to ramble on about every detail of our apartment in French to us after we had gotten off a series of 2 international flights; I think we’ll be lucky if we remember it all. At this point it was somehow already 5 pm so we went to the Monoprix off of Rue Jean Medecin (right near our old hotel for the France trip) and got some (aka too much.. more than we could carry) groceries. The street we walk to get there, Rue de France turns into Rue Massena and it’s so cute; filled with cafes, ice cream places and shops. And Jean Medecin is also impressive, big name stores and a new futuristic tram that rums right down the middle. I’m glad that nice has so much to offer besides the beach. It’s truly a big city and is so French and I love it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
