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