la fin

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

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!!