Aujourd'hui, Chagall est gratuit!

dimanche le 3 juillet

This morning I didn't get to sleep in as I had planned to meet Camille at 10 to go to the Chagall Museum.  We met at the mall and headed up a great big hill toward the Chagall Museum.  There are signs all over for the museum, but I still had to ask directions.  I find that the road signs in France are angled in such a way that makes their actual direction ambiguous.  They are left- or right-arrow signs angled to make it easier for cars to see them, but the angling in actuality makes it so that the sign could be pointing straight ahead or to the side.  In the United States, to go straight, a sign would have an arrow pointing up.  But here, they just have arrows that point to the sides, which just confuses me. 

Anyway, after asking for directions and thinking we were quite lost, we found the Chagall Museum at the top of a very steep hill.  Entry to the museum was free today, so it was actually quite busy.  But the paintings were beautiful.  This museum occupied only one floor of a building and was quite a bit smaller than the Matisse museum, which had artwork showcased on 3 or 4 floors.  But the colors of Chagall's paintings were just incredible. 

Can you guess what this is a painting of?

They were huge - 10 feet tall, and equally wide if not wider.  And the subjects were almost always from the Bible.  And even better, the museum had little placards with descriptions of the artist's work in english.  Now, I know I'm learning French, but it's just so much easier to understand the descriptions in English.  At other museums without an English option, I always try to read the French descriptions.  But I think a lot still gets lost in the translation since I'm not yet fluent.  So I was very thanful for the English descriptions.

Chagall Museum, Nice, France

This museum also had two smaller rooms, situated to the left and right of the main hall with Chagall's work, which were dedicated to Nouveau d'Art, or modern art.  And I find that I'm not that much a fan of modern art.  Perhaps I just don't know enough about it, but I prefer classic art styles which have a more obvious message.

After the museum, we stopped for a quick lunch at a café where I had the worst slice of pizza in my life for 2.50€.  Biggest waste of money since I've been in France, only exacerbated by the fact that there were flies flying all over the place.  Defintely won't be going back to that café.  And I would have thought that, being so close to Italy, pizza here would be amazing.  I guess good pizza costs more.  Call me crazy and anti-environmentalist, but I love how cheap and delicious food can be in the U.S.  Though I suppose we pay in other non-monetary ways.  Though I think the high price of .... well, everything here in Europe is due to the high taxes on gas which causes transportation and shipping costs to skyrocket.  The price of 1 gallon here is around $9... that's enough to make me live in a city and not have a car at all.

After the worst lunch of my life, we headed back to my apartment to see if the new student who was arriving today wanted to walk around the city with us.  I think for some reason I expected her to be jet-lagged and tired from traveling, but really that's only the reality for those of us who must cross an ocean to get to France.  No, Vienna is only a 1.5 hour plane ride away, so the student, Veronica, came out with us to get acquainted with the city.  She speaks English quite well after having studied it in school for many years, and is also quite competent in French.  She is only 17 though, and actually called me old when she asked my age.  That hurt.  I think that's the first time someone's actually called me old.  Oh well - best get used to it.  Though it is nice to know that my sisters will always be older than me! :-)

We spent a few hours shopping, wandering around the biggest north-south road in Nice, Avenue Jean-Medecin.  Everything here is just so expensive that shopping ends up being a pointless activity.  In the US, it's always possible to find a sale in almost every store in the mall.  But in Europe, sales work differently.  Everything is at full price until the sales (aka les soldes), which occur once in the summer and once in the winter.  They can be anywhere from 1 week to 4 weeks of mark-downs, and all the stores participate.  The sales had started in Bordeaux one week before I left, but I still couldn't afford anything.  I think the sales start this Wednesday here in Nice, though I'm not sure if the sales here will really make anything more affordable.  But there really isn't any bargain store here with "brand names for less," like Marshalls.. Again, missing the U.S. and my consumer culture. 

I find that the consumer culture is just as strong here as it is elsewhere.  The stores are always busy, even though that sales have not yet started.  And I see more women here with Louis Vuitton bags and expensive silk scarves than I see in NY (which may be an indicator that I live in the Bronx, not Manhattan...).  Anyway, I think the U.S. has a reputation to be extremely consumer-driven, but I honestly get the same feeling here.  I'm not sure that there's actually a difference between the commercial lives that we lead and the commercial-driven ambitions that the French have.  Alors, je ne sais pas.

After a few hours of walking around, Veronica from Vienna and I walked Camille to the train station and bid her adieu as she had to return to Lille.  She says Lille is not very exciting, and she was sad to go.  Though the tickets are so expensive that I doubt she'll come back to Nice for a weekend.  I hope that I'll get a chance to venture out into Provence, though I'll have to see the price of the tickets before I really make any plans.  The train system may be efficient, but it sure isn't cheap.

Tomorrow I want to go to the antiquities market.  All the travel websites I checked out before I got here marked the Marché aux Fleurs as one of the must-see attractions in Nice.  It's a great big outdoor market in the old village amidst restaurants with outdoor seating.  Every day, people come and set up shop to sell flowers (fresh or silk), spices, cheese, vegetables and/or fruits.  But Mondays, the market changes to an antiquities market.  I'm excited to see what cheap things I might be able to find there for my family, since I can't afford anything in a store around here! 

I'll have to tell you all about it tomorrow.
À demain!

Le Week-End à Nice

samedi le 2 juillet

So, as Jill had described to me from her 3 weeks in France when she was 14, the French thing to do at night in the south of France is to go to the beach.  And it seems that that is what happens.  And so that is what I did with my friends from school on Friday night.  Since you can buy a legitimately decent bottle of wine for 3 euros, it seems silly to go to a bar and pay 7.90 euros for one drink..!  But I have a feeling that my experience did not quite mirror what I imagine to be Jill's magical experiences on the beach those many years ago.  I'm finding myself to be at a strange age where I'm still young enough to actually go out drinking late, but where I find the conversations of 16 and 17 year olds who are away from their parents for the first time to be a little... callow.  I suppose it's good to know that I don't still think like a 17 year old.

Myself and my friend Maddie at the beach, 7.1.2011

After very little time, I grew tired of monotonous conversation with the younger kids and Maddie and I headed back... But on my walk back to the apartment, though I clutched my mace in one hand and never felt threatened, I think I saw a lot of prostitutes.  And upon my return, I googled "prostitution in Nice, France" and was surprised to find out that, yes, prostitution is somewhat common here.  I don't think that I've ever been in a place where prostitution is quite so blatant.  And I don't think I have ever seen a prostitute before this night.  But it was strange to see after half a bottle of wine. 

Today I went to the Henri Matisse Museum with Kerstin from Germany.  She lives in Munich and goes to university in England, so her English is quite good.  Her German accent, though, really dominates her French speaking, and I find it hard to understand her when she speaks in French.  But I'm sure many people find it hard to understand me when I speak French, what with my crude American accent and everything...

The Museum was actually quite large, and I never realized how many mediums of art Matisse actually practiced.  Some of it was very beautiful; and then, of course, thanks to the subjectivity of art, I thought that there were a lot of things that could have been painted by a child.  There was one room that had been decorated with placards painted by Matisse and cut in such a way that, when placed in a certain way together, the deep, bright blue and also the zero-space between the placards created a scene of swimmers in water.  Separately, not one of the placards resembled anything art-like; but together, they formed a wall of depth and movement.  It was quite incredible.  And my favorite painting from the museum was the Femme à L'Ombrelle, an impressionist work that at first appears to be simple, but after a moment it was very obviously a deliberate and planned-out painting that seems to be of the highest difficulty to re-create. 

Femme à L'Ombrelle, Henri Matisse

Le Musée Matisse with the Cimiez in front

After the Matisse Museum, we visited the Cimiez which is the 'park' in which the Musée Matisse is located.  The Museum, and therefore the Cimiez, are located atop a great big hill upon which the Roman town of Cemenelum once existed.  Now, the city has fallen into ruins and become the outskirts of the city of Nice.  Apparently Cemenelum was important, as it was once the capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae.  Once a rival of Nice, now it is a tourist attraction... how ironic.

The ruins of Cemenelum include an arena, an amphitheater, thermal baths and a basilica of paleochristian origins.  I love finding sites like these, so pristine and yet left to be as they are.  In the United States, a site like this would be roped off for excavation or for profit as a tourist attraction.  But I suppose there are just so many ancient ruins in Europe that people don't get excited about them. 

Entrance to the Arena at the Cimiez

Inside the Arena, Cimiez, Nice, France

Through the archways of the Arena

Remnants of the PaleoChristian Basilica, I think...

Wall of the amphitheater

I only found this out after I left, but Henri Matisse is buried in the Cimiez, along with another painter Raoul Dufy and 1937 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, Roger Martin du Gard.  I should have looked in the cemetary of the Cimiez Monastery which we had tried to visit while we were there.  The monastery is a 5 minute walk through a picturesque olive orchard from the Musée Matisse.

Olive trees between the Monastery and the Musée Matisse

The Cimiez Monastery

The monastery is situated on the west side of the great hill that divides the city of Nice and the port of Nice.  Thus, it's gardens overlook an incredible view of the port.  We tried to enter the church, but it was closed until 6pm and we had not planned on staying that late.  Business hours in France are simply inconvenient!

Cimiez Monastery as viewed from their Gardens

Some of the Monastery Gardens

View of the port from the Monastery Gardens

Me in the Monastery Gardens, in front of the port

That night, my friend Maddie had a friend with whom she studied in Chicago coming to visit her who was studying French and chemical engineering in Lille; so we all met at the beach that night.  Luckily, this crowd was 20, so that I didn't feel quite so much like a chaperone.  We bought some wine again and went to the beach for a little bit to unwind for the day. 

Myself, Maddie from Chicago, her friend Camille, and Kerstin from Germany at the beach

Tomorrow my host family is acquiring another student.  She is from Austria, and that is all I know.  Apparently the school doesn't give very much information to the host families about the students that they are to acquire.  My friend Maddie is going to Antibes tomorrow with the Junior Program of Actilangue, so I made plans with her friend to go to the Musée Marc Chagall, a 10 minute walk from my apartment.  It usually costs 7 euros to enter, but the first Sunday of every month it's free.  Since there are so many other free museums in Nice, I'm not likely to visit this one unless it's free, so tomorrow's really my only day to go!

À bientôt!

Déjà Une Semaine à Nice

jeudi le 30 juin

It seems strange not to capitalize days and months, and the first person singular pronoun.  In fact, I find that learning a language has not only been detrimental to my ability to use advanced vocabulary in english, but it has also made me second guess my spelling abilities.  I always prided myself on being a good speller, but now I find myself having to really think on some words.  For example, "razor" in French is "raseur", and to shave is "raser".  So I end up trying to spell "razor" in English as "rasor."  I can't imagine what it must be like to know 4 or 5 languages, with so much vocabulary floating around in your head...

The rest of this week I haven't really been doing much other than going to school, going to the beach, walking around the old city, doing my homework and sleeping.  There are a lot more english-speakers here in Nice than there were in Bordeaux.  And apparently I look and sound like I speak english, even when I try to speak French.  If I go into a shop and ask a question in French, I'll get an answer in English.  I'm sure the shopowners are trying to accommodate the tourists, but really it's quite annoying because I'm trying to learn.  Or maybe they don't have the patience to repeat themselves in French until I understand.  And though it's convenient to know that I can pretty much fall back on the prevalence of English around the world, it's really too bad, because that's also one of the reasons that the majority of U.S. citizens know only one language.  I'm still not sure if it's a blessing or a curse...

Meanwhile, today I had to give my presentation on the United States.  It took nearly 45 minutes; it's really intimidating to talk for that long in French, but there was really a lot to say.  And I think that everyone here romanticizes the United States.  At least, they definitely romanticize New York.  Maybe my experience isn't everyone's, but living in NYC is not like it is on TV shows.  No, instead a life consisting of meeting up for coffee or drinks with your friends, my experience revolved around a lot of schoolwork, studying, working and dodging the cruelty of my roommate.  But maybe next year will be different.

Alas, the discussion on the United States soon turned to "talk about health care and Obama in the United States" or "how about the cruelty of the death penalty?" or "Describe to us the US policies on immigration" or "how hard is it to get a working Visa to the United States?".... Pretty much a bunch of questions which either held a lot of controversy or I simply did not know.  I find that everybody has an opinion on the politics of the U.S., but if I ever gave my opinion on French or Kazakh or Czech politics, I don't think that it would be received very well.  I ended up giving brief descriptions for that which I know, and honestly I have no idea how hard it is to get a working Visa in the States... I've never tried to get one.  Though I have noticed that a lot of the advertisements on websites here are something like "Voudriez-vous avoir un Visa aux États-Unis?! Cliquez-ici!"  ((Would you like to have a Visa to the United States?  Click here!))
I didn't click.

Tomorrow marks the last day of my first week in Nice.  It's very hot here, every day, and every night.  I try to leave the window open most nights, but the apartment in which I'm staying is right next to the train station, and for some reason the trains sound like metal-on-metal.  It wakes me up often in the night.  And there's a highway (la voie rapide) over the train tracks, and on the underside, I think to deter the homeless, there are fluorescent blue lights which tend to filter into my windows.  With any luck, it will cool down and I'll be able to close the windows at night.  Or else, I'll just have to get used to it.

The view out my window!!  Walk for 10 minutes in that direction and you're at the beach!!

Anyway, this weekend I have plans to go to the Henri Matisse Museum, and of course, to go to the beach.

À toute à l'heure!

le 28 juin

Wow, this school moves fast!

The test I took on Monday must have reflected a student who had a good grasp of verb tenses, but they put me in a class at the level B2, C2 being the highest level.  I credit that to my high school French classes, because I really don't have very much confidence in French yet.  At Alliance Francaise, I was placed in level A1, at the very beginning.  I found that the class progressed very slowly which is probably necessary for students who have never studied French before.  By the end of my classes at Alliance Francaise, I passed the exam for level A2, but the teacher only had 2 of us take the exam because much of the class was progressing at a slower rate.  I found myself craving more work, and would often go further in the textbook than was assigned for homework just to get ahead, which is probably why I progressed faster. 

But here at Actilangue, in B2, I am actually intimidated by how quickly we progress.  I love it!  I don't think it's possible to learn a language any other way than to push you to learn at a spead faster than which you are comfortable, because there's just so much to learn. 

The class is currently working on the conditionnel tense.  Unfortunately for me, the conditional tense in english is formed by adding words, and not actually changing the structure of the verb.  But I think the French love to complicate things, because there are so many rules about conditionnel that I had forgotten about.  And of course, the professor listed about 8 different occasions for which you would use conditionnel.  I think the most common, or at least the one that I remember hating so much in high school, is the "si clauses," 'si' meaning 'if.'  I think that I expected these confusing tenses to be easier now that I'm 24 and really want to learn French. 

I was wrong.  It's hard!  And after two days of learning conditionnel in class, I'm finally starting to get a hang of it.  And I've finally realized that it's necessary to understand the rules surrounding the tenses, but of course the only way to really know the tenses is to practice them.  I will never remember all 8 functions of the conditionnel in list form, but as long as I continue to practice their usage, it will (hopefully!) become like second nature. 

After class today, I went to the beach with Maddie from Chicago and Kerstin from Germany.  How wonderful!  Of course, I didn't have a beach towel, and they're about 19 euros around here... Ridiculous!  Even the ugly, not-soft beach towels are that expensive.  And they can get up to 30 or 35 euros... so no thank you.  I bought instead a bamboo mat that rolls up for 3 euros instead.  Glad I didn't have to buy a ridiculously expensive beach towel!

Neptune Plage

And after staying at the beach for about 2 hours, my arms were starting to hurt from the sun, which usually means I'm burnt.  The sun here feels a lot stronger than in New England.  I'm not sure why, or maybe I just haven't been to Watch Hill lately, but I found myself lying on the beach uncomfortably hot, and my arms were starting to itch from dryness... and I took that as a sign to leave.  I think I might have to invest in a beach umbrella soon... only around 7 euros, though I'm not sure how well they stay up on the rocky beaches.



While swimming with my new international friends, Kerstin told me of a story from when her cousin and her cousin's husband, from Liechtenstein, moved to the US.  Apparently, the husband went to open a bank account, but the banker didn't believe that Liechtenstein was really a country and had to google it.  I think she has the impression that all American's are like that.  And I have gotten that feeling from a lot of people here who don't expect me to know where their country is.  It's really sad, but then again, it's hard to get mad about since I probably have similar stereotypical sentiments toward other nationalities.  But it really makes you think about how small you are in this great big world.


It's incredible how much the sun can really take out of you.  I was so tired that night, and grabbed a quick dinner on the way home, did my homework, showered and went to bed.  The only good thing about how hot it is here is that I prefer to take cold showers.  My host mother, Valérie keeps telling me that the hot water heater is small and she apologizes if the water is cold, but really she doesn't have to worry about that at all since I prefer cooler water!  But knowing the way that my dad keeps the house air conditioned, I'm pretty sure I'll have to revert to hot showers when I get home...!

Le Premier Jour à Actilangue

lundi le 27 juin

Well, school took 30 minutes to find this morning.  It's just over a mile away, and it was a little hard to find.  It's on a little road, Rue Alexis Mossa, which is only 2 blocks long.  And after walking up and down the road a few times, I saw three young girls walking into a building, and that is when I noticed the tiny 12" sign that I had walked past three times already.  Oops.  I guess I was expecting a big sign like Alliance Francaise had had in Bordeaux.  Oh well.

The school is on the second floor of an apartment building. In fact, the school is the entire second floor of the building.  It seemed to be much friendlier than the Alliance Francaise, and the director of the program, Paul, and another advanced professeur, Michel, were the ones who administered the test.  It was 6 pages of multiple choice questions.  "This should be a breeze!" I thought....... I was wrong.  The first four pages were good, but then it got really difficult.  I suppose I still have a lot to learn.

The other new students came from all over.  There was a girl with her brother from Slovenia, a girl from Italy, three very pale girls from Ireland who had an unfortunate visit to the beach the previous day, a girl from England and a girl from Chicago.... I was by far the oldest.  Most of the new students were 16 or 17... it's hard to imagine going away like this at that age.  But I suppose international travel is different with how close all the countries are in Europe.  It's still quite intimidating for me, though.

I was placed in a more advanced class than the class in Bordeaux, which was good.  I like to be pushed, and I was starting to feel bored in the AF classes in Bordeaux.  But, unlike the other classes at Actilangue, I was joining other students who had already spent weeks together, so I felt somewhat like an outsider.  The classes here start at 8:45 and go to 10:15, then resume from 10:30 to noon.  There was an option to take afternoon classes, but after my experience at Bordeaux, I didn't think that I needed more than 3 hours per day of instruction.  And plus, learning a language for essentially 3 straight hours is hard.  Those days at AF when I had 5 hours of class were very exhausting.  And on top of that, I want to spend time at the beach!

The testing process, written and then ~30 -45 minutes of oral group conversation during which we were evaluated, took nearly 90 minutes, so I entered the classroom at the end of the break, around 10:25, and then had class for another 90 minutes.  During the afternoon session, the students give 30-45 minute presentations on their home country, and I was told that I would present on Thursday afternoon..... how intimidating.  30 minutes can be a very long time!  Surprisingly, I'm the only American in class.  That way, if I mess up on a statistic, there is not likely to be anyone who can actually tell.  In my class, there are two students from Italy, a girl from Kazakhstan, a girl from the Czech Republic, a boy from Switzerland, a Canadian boy, two Japanese students, a Finnish girl, and a German boy.  Quite an eclectic group!  It's funny to hear all the different accents as we all try to speak French.  I think the Canadian has the worst accent... Hearing him speak French makes me very aware of my pronunciation, and it makes me really aspirate those h's and r's!

Some of the new students that I met in the morning had enrolled in the Junior Program, where they pay an upfront fee to go to different excursions throughout the week for two weeks.  Today was a walking tour of the Vieille Ville of Nice.  And since it's a tour given by one of the teachers at Actilangue, I asked if I couldn't tag along.  They obliged, and we all met back at the school at 4pm to head to the Old City. 

Nice is quite large, and the Old City is a good mile and one half from the school... We walked along the Promenade des Anglais, the large "boardwalk" along the beach and the sea.  The promenade is so named because, in the 1700s, the English spent a lot of time in Nice, generally during the winter.  Along the Promenade (or La Prom for short) are many famous hotels and casinos.

Palais de la Mediterranée - a famous casino and hotel

After about 45 minutes of meandering along the Baie des Anglais, the part of the Mediterranean that abuts la Prom, and many photo opps, we turned into the old city where the buildings are tall and close together, and the shadows are large enough to keep me out of the sun! 

L'Opéra de Nice

The Opera of Nice is a beautiful old building which debuted with Verdi's Aida in 1885.  Maddie, the girl from Chicago, and I grabbed a program... student prices are only 5€!  Next week we're going to come back to see if we can't buy tickets.  I've never been to an opera, but would love to go!  They also have a ballet, Sylvia, in a few weeks, so we'll see what tickets are available when we come back.


The churches in Old Nice are nothing like the l'Église Notre Dame which was large, open and airy.  The churches in the old village are smaller and emit a sense of stuffiness.  They're also extremely ornately decorated.  This is in stark contrast to the minimist ambience from the churches in Bordeaux... though they were grand and beautiful, they were not decorated with gold and rich marble.  These churches almost feel overdone.

Ornate interior of Sainte Reparate, Vieux Nice

Ornate interior of Sainte Reparate, Vieux Nice

But it seems that there's another Roman Catholic church down every little road in the old village. 

L'Église Sainte Rita

After seeing countless churches, we went into the *free* Palais Lascaris, now a museum for music, the arts and popular traditions of Nice and the French Mediterranean.  The baroque-style "palace" was simply an aristocratic residence built in the 1600s and lived in by the Lascaris family until the early 1800s.  By the 20th century, the building had fallen into disrepair, and the city of Nice bought the building in 1943 to become a museum. 

The museum boasts beautiful, grand rooms with original-style decor, decorations and even painted ceilings.  The furniture, upon which it was forbidden to sit, was original 17th century craftsmanship. 

Painted ceiling in the Palais Lascaris

Painted ceiling in the Palais Lascaris

It was really a beautiful museum.  But I'm not sure if it was appreciated by the young students with whom I was touring.  Such is life - appreciation only comes after maturity.

(Poorly lit) Room with old furniture and tapestries in the Palais Lascaris

After the Palais Lascaris, we headed to Colline du Chateau, Castle Hill.  Between the beach area and the port is a great hill which points out to the sea.  Centuries ago, there was a castle there.  And then it was burned down.  And then the castle was rebuilt, only to be burned down again.  This happened numerous times, until the 1960s when the City of Nice decided to re-build, for tourist purposes, the area where the castle had once stood.   Now there is an elevator (thankfully!) which takes tourists to the top of the hill to the only remaining part of the most recent castle, which is an archway.  No joke folks - that's all that is left. 

The only remaining archway of the Chateau de Nice

But the park offers incredible views of Nice and the beach.  

View of Old Nice (immediate foreground) and the Greater Nice area from La Colline du Chateau

Beach + Nice

The beach where I sunbathe every day...

Great view of the 3 mile long beach of Nice

 

Vieux Nice - the Promenade des Anglais is the large boardwalk area to the left of the line of palm trees on the far left of the photo

Myself and my friend Maddie from Chicago with Nice in the background, through the trees

Waterfall atop la Colline du Chateau

For the tourists, the city had built a waterfall which proved to be incredibly refreshing after hours walking in the hot, French Rivieran sun!


Further east from the castle is the port complete with cruise ships and cruising yachts.  I wish Unbridled would pay a visit!!

Port of Nice

Port of Nice - facing East over the Mediterranean

After descending from the Colline du Chateau, I returned home for the night.  It's so nice to have so much sun, especially after Bordeaux's dreary, rainy, cloudy climate... but it really takes a lot out of me!  I have a feeling I'll be going to bed early tonight!

À demain!

Nouvelle Ville, Nouvelle Famille!

dimanche le 26 juin

Nice est très agréable!
My host mother, Valérie, and her son Noé, found me at the train station right on time.  They actually live not even a 5 minute walk away from the train station which was very convenient... especially because I have so much luggage with me.  Even if I hadn't learned anything else here, I have at least learned how to pack for long trips like this one... Because I definitely brought way too much. 

Last stop:  Nice!!!

Valérie is extremely nice, and I am staying in her son Eliot's bedroom.  Her children are going on vacation with their father for the summer, so she takes in students while they're gone.  This is her second year accepting students, and next Sunday a student from Austria will be arriving to stay for three weeks, through July 23rd.  The cat is surprisingly nice, and acts like a dog.  She loves attention and follows me around meowing to pet her, and sometimes she'll roll over in front of you, trying to get you to pet her belly.  I don't think I've ever met a cat so agreeable!

My bedroom has a large desk over which my bed is lofted.  It's quite nostalgic, sleeping in a bunk bed!  I think I always wanted a bunk bed while I was growing up... now I now why my parents never bought one for me.  It's surprisingly loud and creaky, though I'm sure it would be more fun if I were younger.

I'm excited that Valérie's sons have TONS of children's books for me to read!  I'm thinking a couple books a week should put me on the track to learning faster.  It's surprising how much vocabulary is necessary just to read a book meant for a 7 year old!  I dream of having a 7 year old's vocabulary...

Well, today I finally wore shorts, a tank top, flip flops and my sunglasses... IT'S SUMMER HERE!  The beach is a 10-15 minute walk south of the apartment in which I am staying, and though it's not sandy, it is surely beautiful.  I sat right down on the soft, water-smoothed rocks that make up the beach and soaked up the sun for an hour without getting sand in ANYTHING.  Nearby there was a beach volleyball court with a game in full swing.  The sounds and spirits of summer were all around me, and it felt good! 

My first view of the Mediterranean!

Beach Volleyball court on the beach!

Gorgeous water at Beau Rivage beach, Nice, France

I explored Nice for a few hours, went shopping in the touristy shops near the beach, and headed back toward the apartment.  The apartment is located right off of the Avenue Jean-Médécin, where there are 2 grocery stores, a big mall called Nice Étoile, and all sorts of other designer stores in between.  I looked in a few and realized that, unlike in the States, there aren't ever any sales.  I am always guaranteed, when I go to the malls in CT, to find sales in the back of nearly every store.  But not here.  Nothing is on sale, and the dollar is so weak that everything is expensive. 

Spending a few hours in the sun really took a lot out of me, and so I headed back toward the apartment.  I did not pay to have dinner cooked for me while I am here, so I will be on my own for dinner.  So I stopped at the cheapest (though still overpriced) restaurant on the way home and had a sandwich.  I'll have to ask Valérie if I can put some food in the fridge.  When I received my host family assignment from the school, Actilangue, they said that I was not allowed to go in the kitchen, but perhaps that's just a general rule.  Valérie seems extremely accommodating, so I don't think she'll have a problem with me storing some bread and deli meats in her kitchen!

After dinner, I returned to the apartment to change for church.  There is a church only 5 minutes away from the apartment, l'Église Notre Dame.  I think there's a Notre Dame in every French city... Anyway, the sermon was much easier to understand than the sermons at Saint Seurin in Bordeaux... I would say that I understood nearly 40% of the homily...!  That's quite an accomplishment for me.  I think the accent in this city is simply easier to understand.  The French in Nice seem to separate their words a lot more, whereas in Bordeaux all the words seemed to be connected which made it nearly impossible for me to distinguish between the words.  In fact, I can nearly understand everything that my host mother says.  I think that this will be a good place for me to gain confidence in speaking and understanding French. 

While I was out today, I was sure to pick up a map of the center of Nice so that I can find my way to school tomorrow... New school, new people.  Tomorrow will be busy.  Unlike Alliance Francaise, I didn't take a test for this school, so I am guessing that I will take a test tomorrow to be placed in a class.  We shall see, and you will hear all about it!

À demain!

Mes Jours Finaux en Bordeaux

jeudi 23 juin

En fin, j'ai reçu les resultats de l'examen!

When I walked into class this morning, my teacher, to whom I had mentioned having difficulty on the oral comprehension section of the exam, told me that I got a perfect score on that section... can't complain!  I responded that it was because "elle m'enseigne tres bien!" 

So, I received my certificate for passing the exam and that was that.  I'm not sure that I'll ever use the certificate, but it's good to know that I learned something! 

The rest of the day was not very exciting.  I went shopping with Susan from Toronto in the main shopping district of Bordeaux.  I saw a poster of Sperry's and got really excited, so we went into the shop, called Manfield, and soon realized that their boat shoe prices were hugely inflated...!  I looked at one pair, and they were 129 euros; and so I looked at a pair of sandals, logically thinking they'd be cheaper because they required less material, but I was wrong.  249 euros for a pair of sandals... No thanks!  So we quickly left. 

There isn't much in the way of affordable shopping in Bordeaux, so we just looked.  But there was a street vendor selling caneles, a type of mini-cake thta is a specialty of Bordeaux.  I wasn't too impressed, so I didn't buy any; again the prices seemed to be inflated.  So much for the Law of One Price! 


vendredi le 24 juin

The last day of classes rolls around, and I'm really sad to be leaving!  I feel like I just made some great friends and now I have to leave.  C'est dommage.  Mais je pense que Nice aura aussi plusieurs d'occasions de faire nouveaux amis!

After class, I went to lunch with my Korean friends Hyunju and Jinjiu.  It was also Jinjiu's last day, and she was returning to Paris that weekend.  Hyunju plans to stay in Bordeaux for a few more months while continuing to learn French.  Both girls are in graduate programs in France and experience the limitations of knowing only English and Korean in a French-speaking country.  Jinjiu is in the fashion industry and actually worked in NYC, living in Brooklyn, for quite some time until she realized that she didn't like the bureacracy in which she worked.  That's when she moved to France.  Hyunju studies Middle Eastern studies and is learning French to hopefully take classes in French in the future. 

We went to an Indian restaurant and went "shopping" afterwards.  Shopping for us is just looking, since everything in Bordeaux seems outrageously over priced.  We said our goodbyes and Jinjiu and I hope to meet up in Paris in a month and a half.  It would be nice to have someone show Andrew and me around a little bit!

That evening, I went to dinner with Ramon, Fang and Junnan to celebrate my final day in Bordeaux.  Afterwards we went out to a bar to meet up with Linda, a girl we had met during the Fete de la Musique earlier in the week.  It was bittersweet, but I couldn't linger very long since I had to find my way to the train station early in the morning.  But we had a delicious (and "beau marché") meal complete with a delicious chocolate French dessert, and of course with French wine.  The bar was also nice, and we stayed for nearly two hours.  Fang had her first shot of tequila, which seemed to be a nice way to commemorate my departure!  I will truly miss these friends of mine once I go to Nice.


samedi le 25 juin

My train was to leave at 10am, and I had to walk 1.5 miles with all my luggage to get to the nearest tram station that would take me to the train station.  I was a little put off by the fact that my host family did not offer to drive me, considering how far I had to walk.  But alas, after I left the house I made it to the train station with an hour to spare.  Luckily, this train has assigned seats, so I was guaranteed a comfy place to sit! 

The total trip time will amount to 7 hours 53 minutes.... I have a connection in Marseilles where I will have to wait for 2 hours before boarding my second train.  I just can't wait to be in Nice with the nice beaches and warm weather!  I'll finally get to wear all the skirts and shorts I brought!
My host family has two sons, Noé, age 13, and Eliot, age 10, and a cat.  I'll have to fill you in all about it once I get there!

Tout à l'heure!