Le tentative de ratrapper

It has been a long time since my last post, and much has happened. Since then, I've travelled to 3 different countries, taken a few exams, finished a few papers, and met some new people. I'll sum up the highlights in this post, but I know I won't capture everything.

• I went to Rome to visit my friend Colin from Rice. It was a spectacular city, and he was the perfect tour guide because he is a Classics Major doing a program there studying the history of the city itself. The museums were great, the weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, and I got to meet some of his friends in the program who were fun.



In front of the Trevi Fountain

• I've adopted the strange practice of going to McDonald's to study. Ok, maybe I've only done it a few times, but it's a remarkably good location partly because of the free wi-fi and partly because it's not my bedroom and I can actually get work done there. Also the University libraries here are far away, crowded, and close at 7pm.
• Jeremy and I took a weekend trip to Geneva. Switzerland was almost like a cleaner, better organized, and all around nicer version of France, but it didn't really have as much character. We were surprised by a few things: when cars stopped to let us cross the street, the cleanliness of our hostel (and the fact that they gave us free chocolate), and the price of everything (extremely expensive). My favorite things were the Jet d'Eau (a 500 foot tall geiser-fountain thing in the middle of Lake Geneva) and the modern art museum. Probably the biggest fail of our trip was the hiking excursion that conveniently fell on a rainy, cloudy day. Up in the mountains we couldn't even see 10 feet in front of us, ruining the supposedly gorgeous views of the Alps. Life is hard...



Fail.

• We've found a spot on the rocks near the beach that is a great hangout spot at night. The combination of the city lights, the sound of the ocean, and the moon reflecting off the water is unbeatable.
• I took a trip to London and Barcelona with Jeremy for our spring break which I may or may not cover in a separate post (too much information for this little bullet point. Here's a few pictures to give a quick summary.

• 

  Finally realizing my dream of entering the wizarding world...
  

  

  In front of Buckingham Palace with Louise, our lovely host
  

  

  Group of us (Jeremy, Ian, me, Katherine, Hannah) in front of Cathedral de Barcelona
  

  

  Gorgeous fountains in Barcelona



Spectacular Sagrada Familia by Gaudi



View from the Cable Car over the bay in Barcelona

• Tonight was the "deuxième tour" of the French presidential election (aka the one that matters). My host family had a group of people over to watch the results live on TV while eating some delicious food. I was studying for an exam and came down just a few minutes before the results were announced. It was one of the times when I've felt most immersed in French culture during my semester here because it was such an important moment for the country as a whole. I was suddenly very aware of being a foreigner observing from an outsider's perspective. That's not to say that it was a bad feeling; on the contrary, it was really eye-opening. It made me really appreciate the opportunity that I'm getting by studying here.

Marseille, Arles, et Montpellier

Last week, I went on a trip to Marseille, Arles, and Montpellier with a some friends from my program. It was a fantastic voyage, but instead of writing lots of words about it, I'm going to do a photo narration!

Marseille

Jeremy and I in front of a big church that we walked up to.

Me at the top of said church, amazing view of the city.

Liz and Colin hanging out in our awesome youth hostel.

The group of us drank some wine by a fountain...

And then we took a boat to a really cool island and frolicked around for a while as the sun set.

Amazing sunset over the water from Frioule Island.

Arles

Delicious lunch of baguette, cheese, and sausage. Yummmmm

Roman ruins in Arles.

Me in the Roman coliseum in Arles. They still use it for bullfights!

Ayresleigh and I by the river in Arles.

Montpellier

In Montpellier, we met up with the wonderful Mary Allen, a long-time friend from USN who is studying there for the year. She gave us a fantastic tour around the city!

Montpellier's version of the Arc de Triomphe.

In a park in Montpellier.

Violent behavior in the newer part of Montpellier by the river.

Cool new city hall in Montpellier, very modern.

Overall it was a great trip! It was interesting to see 3 very different cities in France because they all had something completely different to offer, and the group of us had a great time traveling together.

Sur le pont d'Avignon

Long time no post, but I wanted to document our group's trip to Avignon because it was so much fun. I think the best word to describe the trip is intense: our program director is an ambitious tour guide, to say the least, and our trip was packed with activities.

We took a train on Sunday from Nice to Avignon, which is a small city also near the coast. It's mostly famous because the pope briefly moved the Catholic headquarters thing there in the 14th century. So when we arrived we visited "le Palais des Papes" (pope palace thing) which was pretty large and interesting.

Another thing about Avignon is a famous wind that affects the whole region called "le mistral." It was quite something the first day we were there. We walked up a hill to a garden/park area and the wind was a force to be reckoned with. The weather was wonderful though so the wind wasn't too cold, and I actually found it really exhilarating. I think this picture of Liz and Rachel's hair blowing around begins to illustrate:

We stayed in a YMCA there, but it was NOT what I was expecting. The rooms were actually pretty nice, and the food was shockingly good. We had a dinner there that consisted of delicious salmon, some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever had, and ratatouille. It was really fun to spend a lot of time with the group of the 9 of us. We had some great bonding time. Here's a photo of some of us on the famous Pont d'Avignon (from the song, if you know it).

On Monday night we had an interesting experience at a little Irish Pub that we found in Avignon. First we randomly ran into a group of American college students from New Hampshire who were on a choir tour. It was fun, and a weird coincidence since Avignon is so small.

Then we tried calling a cab to get back to the YMCA with the number that our director had given us for a taxi service. We succeeded at first, or so we though, and waited about 15 minutes for a cab. We called again to make sure they were coming because we needed to get back by midnight, and they reassured us that they were coming (all of these interactions are in French, btw). We called one last time, and they suddenly said that there were no taxis anymore, sorry. We then realized that we had been calling the wrong number, called the right one, and a taxi came within 5 minutes. Turns out that there is only one taxi service in Avignon, so the current theory stands that we happened upon some mischievous French people who thought got a wrong number call and thought it would be fun to troll a bunch of clueless foreigners. So that was fun, but it all turned out ok in the end.

On Tuesday (our last day), we went to a giant Roman aqueduct called the Pont du Gard. We happened upon the same group of Americans when we first got there, and they grossly overreacted to the coincidence of seeing us again. We were slightly weirded out when the whole group of them screamed "WHATTTTTTT" and ran over a little too excitedly to see us. It was somewhat reassuring to know that we weren't the most annoying group of Americans there that day, though.

But the aqueduct itself was awesome; it's pretty amazing to think that such epic structures were built so long ago before the advent of many of the technologies that we have today. I think this picture of Martha and I is a winner (I also got new sunglasses from H&M that I am proud of):

Now it's off to Marseilles, Arles, and Montpellier with 5 friends for the rest of our spring break. I love traveling!!!

La randonnée

On Saturday, a small group of us went on a looooooong hike around a small village called Eze that is a little bit east of Nice. It took about 5 hours in all, and we were climbing on rocks and other intense hiking things! I even got stabbed by a thorn and fell over multiple times.

But the main reason for this post is to post pictures of the views, which were AMAZING. The first view we saw was of Monaco from above:

Then there were some great views of the coast:

And then we were walking and we ran into this villa with an infinity pool overlooking the coast. Ohhhhh that would be the life. Maybe one day when I'm rich and famous:

Anyways, this post was mostly inspired by Kelsey, with whom I was skyping when she received a giant container of cheese balls. I wanted to shift the balance of power back to her being jealous of me rather than me being jealous of her for her cheese balls.

Troisième semaine

Highlights of this past week:

1. Last Sunday the group of us went to Monaco to see a symphony concert in the Monte Carlo Casino. It is literally a NARP (not a real place). The weather was pretty bad (cold and rainy) but we walked around a little bit and it was quite a luxurious place. I definitely want to go back when the weather is better, especially since it takes 20 minutes to get there and the bus ride only costs 1 euro (omg). Here's a picture of Jeremy (friend from my program) and I in front of the casino area:

2. On Monday afternoon Jeremy and I didn't know what to do with our free time, so we walked around for more than 4 hours and found some Roman ruins and an old church. It's so cool to live in a place with so much history, and we also got some great views of the city, which never gets old.

3. Tuesday night the group of Americans went to a soirée at the apartment of 3 "French" guys. Turns out that "French" meant one American guy, a Moroccan guy, and another guy who was half-French half-British. It was extremely fun and became even more so when we found out that our Art History class at 9am the next morning had been cancelled! It's interesting because we're starting to reach a balance between speaking French and English, and it's actually pretty fun to mix the two. My "Franglais" is getting really good.

4. Thursday night at dinner 3 of us went to a very authentic Niçois restaurant. I was feeling adventurous so I ordered Beef Tartare (aka raw beef). I knew what it was but I was still surprised when the waitress put down a plate in front of me with what looked EXACTLY like a raw hamburger patty. Likewise, it tasted pretty much exactly like you would expect a raw hamburger patty to taste like. I ate a decent amount of it, but I think my face in this photo sums up my feelings towards this meal:

5. On Saturday I went skiing with two of my friends from the program, Colin and Rachel!!!! We took a bus to a ski resort about 2 hours northeast of Nice in the southern French Alps called Isola 2000. It gets its namesake from the fact that it is more than 2000 meters in elevation: these are some serious mountains, y'all! Considering that the only other time I had been skiing was on a Rice ROPE trip in New Mexico last year (with mostly fake snow and only one small mountain), the Alps were a big change. It was awesome! Even without considering the amazing views of the mountains, the slopes themselves were fantastic. I tend to have no fear going down the mountain despite the fact that I am not an experienced skier, which means that I get going really fast despite my lack of skill. So I wiped out...a lot. But all three of us had a great time, and the whole trip was a huge success.

6. Today I met one of my host family's daughters Tiphane, who is married and also lives in Nice with her 2 year old daughter Nino. It was a fun day: we ate literally hundreds of crêpes for lunch and played a board game together. It was great to see the family dynamic and I had to really concentrate hard to keep up with everyone talking at once! Also, small children who speak French are really cute.

That's my summary for the week!

Au revoir,
Joey

Les Cours

I finished my first week of classes in France! This week was definitely tiring, but after figuring out my schedule, I'm really looking forward to what this semester will hold.

It's interesting to see how the French system is different than what I'm used to at Rice: most of my courses meet for 2 hours at a time once a week, and in general they are lecture-based. There's far less daily work and quizzes than at Rice, but the final exams count for more in our grade and we're expected to keep up on readings throughout the semester. It's also quite different to have all of my lectures in French. It definitely takes a higher level of concentration, and there is one professor that I have a hard time understanding, but I'm enjoying the challenge so far.

So I will be taking 2 courses in the JYF Program with the 9 other American students: a Writing Workshop and an Art History Course. The writing workshop is very useful because we are learning how to write in a style for French professors; it will take a little getting used to but our professor is great. It's also extremely helpful to have a brush-up on all the intricacies of French grammar! The Art History course is also interesting because the majority of the class consists of exploring various art museums in the city and looking at different styles of architecture present in Nice. Here's a photo of a group of us in the garden of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, one of the museums that we visited in class:

Apart from those two courses, I will also be taking 4 courses at the University of Nice: a Music History course on the Baroque and Classical Eras, a Literature course focusing on fairy tales and how they emerged in Europe, another Literature course focusing on French Literature of the 19th century, and, finally, a choir class where I will also be learning some conducting.

Everyone else will be taking 5 courses in the University, but I'm replacing one of my University courses with the internship that I talked about earlier at the Palais Lascaris. It is a museum focusing on historic musical instruments, and they have a really interesting collection. One of the curators at the museum also happens to be the husband of the director of my program, so it just ended up working out that I could be an intern at the museum for this semester! (Side note: I've been thinking in French so much lately that I just forgot the English word for curator as I was writing this...had to look up the translation of the French word in a dictionary)

Anyways, had a tiring but interesting first week of classes; now I'm hoping to have some adventures this weekend! The group is going to Monaco on Sunday (nbd). Can't wait!

Au revoir,
Joey

Première semaine

First week in Nice complete! At the beginning of orientation last Monday, our program director warned us that at first this experience can feel like a vacation. She was right. After getting to know Nice and traveling this weekend, I really do feel like I'm just on a wonderful European vacation.

But reality has to start sometime (or does it?) and, thus, my classes start tomorrow. I am looking forward to this week though, because it's a sort of shopping period for the classes I'm going to be taking in the French university. I'm going to be trying out a Music History course, 2 or 3 French literature classes, a history of Theater class, and then a choir that I might sing in here. Other than that, I take two classes in the program with the other American students which are a writing workshop and an Art History course.

I'm a little worried about logistics because the campuses are quite confusing here. We took a tour of the main humanities campus, but I still forsee having difficulty in finding all of my classes. Luckily I have the help of the other people in my program, who are just as new to this as I am.

Back to this past week, though! Orientation consisted of various outings to get to know the city and the public transport system as well as meeting the professors that will be teaching the two program courses. It was also a great chance to get to know the group of us 10 American students. I'm getting along really well with people and I'm really glad that we seem to have a good group so far!

On Saturday we went to a small town close to Nice called Antibes, where we saw a really cool Provençal Market with all sorts of vegetables, cheese, meats, and spices. It was an awesome experience, and we had fun exploring the town. Then we went to the Picasso museum there. This was interesting enough, but the real highlight was the view of the ocean that was right next to the museum. Everything is so picturesque here that we're all just in disbelief of how beautiful it is. Photographic evidence:

Then, on Sunday we went to a wine tasting at a vineyard near Nice. The bus ride was full of amazing views because we were going up into the mountains and could see the beautiful valleys below. It was interesting to taste wine even though I know absolutely nothing about it, shout-out to friend Laura (viticulture/winemaking major in California) who would have appreciated this even more than I did. (artsy wine picture stolen from Jeremy)

This place really is too good to be true. It sounds cliché, but I really do have to pinch myself frequently; it's just not real life. More updates to come after this week of classes!

Orientation

After 3 days in Nice, it's starting to set in that I'll be living here for the next 5 months. Yesterday was the first day of orientation, and it was great to meet everyone on my program. Including me, it's 10 people in total (7 girls, 3 guys) all from different American universities. Seems like a fun group so far; I'm getting along well with everyone! And the director of our program is also great. She has a LOT of energy and a lot to say but she seems really dedicated to the group of us. Here's a picture of the group on top of a small mountain where we walked up to a famous chateau:

We've been going around the city a lot these first few days and I feel like I'm getting to know my way around. There's a tram really similar to the Houston light rail that's really convenient, and you can pretty much walk anywhere which is great!

I also had a meeting with the director today to choose the courses that I will be taking in the French university here. I will be trying out a few French literature courses, along with a few other courses that I thought would be interesting like a music history course and a history of theater course. She also talked about the possibility of doing something with her husband who works at some sort of music history museum that has lots of cool instruments, so that could be potentially interesting.

Right now it really feels like a vacation (especially with the beach), but I think that will change once classes start. Today a few of us went to a little café for lunch to get sandwiches which we took to eat on the beach. The coast is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and it's just unbelievable that I'm getting the chance to be here for 5 months. Here's a picture of me on the beach with the two other guys on the program, Jeremy and Colin.

Everything is going great with my host family also! I think I really lucked out: not only do they live in a big house (compared to most of the host families who live in tiny apartments) but they also have two sons (20 and 23) whom I get along great with and my host mother cooks great food (just finished tonight's dinner which was delicious salmon and gnocchi). Last night we had a great dinner conversation about food because my host brother was talking about a hamburger restaurant here that has a challenge to eat different levels of giant burgers. I told them that I was surprised to hear such things existed in France, and then proceeded to explain the show Man vs. Food (or "Homme contre la nourriture," en français)

More updates hopefully after this weekend!

A bientot,

Joey

Premier jour

I have arrived in Nice after approximately 15 hours of traveling! I'm exhausted, but the first day has been great so far. I first went Nashville to New York, then New York to Barcelona (where I had the pleasant surprise of having a row of 2 seats all to myself), then a quick flight from Barcelona to Nice.

My host mother was waiting at the airport to pick me up, and she is great. My whole host family is really relaxed and they made me feel instantly comfortable at the house. They live in a beautiful old house on a really narrow street close to downtown. They have two sons, Ambroise-Marc and Luc-Simon, who are 20 and 23, respectively. They're really cool and I've already had some really cool conversations with them. Another interesting note: none of them really speak any English at all! I'm feeling fairly confident with my French so far, though; I've received a few compliments already and I think it will only improve from here. Here's a picture of my room and the view out my window:

After I unpacked for a little while we had lunch together, and then I went on a short tour of the city with my host father and one of my host brothers. It was really cool to explore Nice. It's hard to express how beautiful it is here! I feel like I'm walking through a painting. It really doesn't feel real, although I think the surreal apsects of it were amplified by the fact that I am severely sleep-deprived. We took the tram around and walked on the Promenade which goes along the ocean.

Is this for real??? It definitely doesn't feel like it. We then walked around an old part of Nice which apparently is a really cool place where a lot of young people hang out. There were all these cool shops and narrow streets. Everything about this place is so picturesque.

Then I returned to the house and relaxed in my room. I kept telling myself that I needed to stay up until normal bedtime here to adjust to the time difference, but then I made the terrible decision of laying down on my bed just to read for a while. You can probably guess what happened next.

I didn't sleep for too long, though, then I had dinner with the family and met up with a girl from my program named Liz who lives just a few houses down from me! She was really nice and we took a little walk around the area around our houses. It was weird to speak English again even though I had only been in the French mindset for about 8 hours or so! We had a good walk and it was nice to talk to someone who was in as much disbelief as I was about the fact that we will be living here for 5 months.

I'm getting close to crashing again, so I'll wrap this post up. Our first week of orientation starts tomorrow with a tour of the city so we can get to know the area. I can't wait to meet the other people in my program!

Exhausted but excited after a great first day,

Joey