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
you ate hundreds of crepes?!
ReplyDelete