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.
25 February 2009
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!
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