The Move

(So, after not blogging for about a year I've decided to give it another go...no promises though.)

I have just moved to Paris. Today!

6 hours ago I stepped off the plane and met my new roommate for the first time at the airport. She has a car so offered to come pick me up. I'm renting a room in her apartment in an eastern suburb of Paris. I had heard that the eastern suburbs were not as nice or 'chic' as those in the west - but this area seems pretty nice. It has everything I think I'll need - a few grocery stores, a bank, pharmacies, and a sushi restaurant on my street!

4 hours ago I was unpacking my suitcases and setting things up in my room. It's already fully furnished and decorated in a fun purple. There is even a mini fireplace - it's fake but still nice :) I'm only going to be living here until the end of January when my roommate's sister is moving in - but this is definitely a great place to stay until then :)

3 hours ago I went wandering around my new neighbourhood. I had checked out the area on Google Maps so had a weird feeling of deja-vu as I went wandering around local streets this afternoon. My first stop was the supermarket. I love French supermarkets. I especially just love looking at all the things they have in the dairy aisle. My first order of business was to buy some cheese and then some interesting looking goat-milk yogurt. Then I stopped at a health food store for a gluten-free baguette - and some random healthy items.

Now after eating a lot of cheese and taking a hot shower I'm working hard to stay awake till at least 10pm. On my last trip overseas I made the mistake of sleeping right away - and it took me a week to get over jet lag. That's not happening this time.

Happy 2011!!

I arrived back in Nice Saturday morning after about 9.5 hours on an airplane. I love flying but I don't really like super long flights - it is too long to sit. I do like the airplane food though. Mostly the cute little containers it comes in. Unfortunately this time they forgot that I had ordered a gluten-free meal. :( At first I thought I'd just have to be hungry but in the end they gave me a business-class meal...which was amazing! Real cutlery, butter in the shape of a flower, salad with goat cheese and walnuts and chicken and beef with a mustard dipping sauce :) People around me were totally jealous ;)

Sunday morning on the way to church I passed the same accordian-playing man sitting at the side of the street that I always see. Every time I walk by he says a friendly 'Bonjour Mademoiselle'. Usually I look straight ahead and walk by quickly. Living in Nice, my creepy-guy radar is highly sensitive and I've discovered that it's better just to ignore someone then to have them try to engage you in conversation. That said, I always felt a little bit guilty ignoring accordian man. This time I decided to be polite. So when he said hello I glanced his way with a smile said a quick 'bonjour' of my own. He wasn't what I expected at all and I have to admit I was a bit charmed. He is the cutest little man, probably a gyspy, with enormous blue eyes and a huge smile. It's funny when people aren't like what you think they will be.

Since being back in Nice I haven't been sleeping very well at all. Prob a lot of this is because of jet lag - but some of it is definitly because of the cats fighting outside my window. I never knew that cats fought so much - or that it could be so loud. I woke up to what sounded like babies screaming and a lot of hissing and growling. They were right outside my window. :P I am super tempted to chuck some water on them next time it happens. (cat lovers: I also love cats and I think that this would be the kind thing to do and not let them kill each other!) I think might start keeping a glass of water by my bed and we'll see.

Anyway, hopefully this will just be the first of many blog posts in 2011 ;)

Rain, Snow and Confetti

Thusday morning I woke up to the sound of torrential rain. These are the kind of days that SO make me want to just close the curtains and go back to sleep. But, as I had a meeting to go to, I got ready and rushed out the door - umbrella in hand.

I am bit self-conscious about my umbrella - it is slowly falling apart and is almost to the point where the spokes poke out by themselves. Not very cool - especially in France. Last time I was out with it I couldn't even get it opened properly so I was holding this barely open, broken umbrella above my head when a helpful Frenchman commented loudly: "MADAMOISELLE! VOTRE PARAPLUIE EST MALADE! PEUTETRE IL A H1N1! (Translation: "Madamoiselle, your umbrella is sick. Maybe it has H1N1") French men are not shy to speak their minds. This was embarassing but obviously still not enough to stop me from using it :) I AM meaning to buy a new one but I am being picky - I want one with blue and white stripes :)

By the time my meeting was over, the rain had completely turned to snow! This is pretty amazing for Nice cause it only snows once every 5 years or something! It was fun because people got very excited and were taking pictures and making snowballs. Here are some photos of the snow from my balcony:

FRIDAY

Friday morning I woke up early and headed out to run some errands before lunch. It was a clear day but still pretty cold and some snow was still on the ground. As I don't have a printer at home I've started running to a local copy shop to do my printing. I found a nice one just about ten minutes walk north of my house. So this is where I headed still feeling half asleep.

I walked into the copy shop and greeted the man at the desk with a 'bonjour' (it is important in France to greet the shop owner when you come in) and asked if I could do some printing. When I had finished my printing and had stood up to pay, another man came in and began chatting with the shop owner. As soon as he saw me behind him, he announced in a very loud deep voice "EST-CE QUE CETTE JOLIE MADAMOISELLE A BESOUIN DE L'AIDE?" (Does this beautiful Madamoiselle need help?) I was immediately jolted out of my half-asleep state. He motioned for me to go ahead of him. I smiled awkwardly, nodded, and mumbled something as I went ahead to pay - I'm definetly not very cool when caught off guard. As I headed out the door to leave he bellowed after me: "VOUS ETES RAVISSANTE MADAMOISELLE!" ("You are ravishingly beautiful Madamoiselle") I couldn't help smiling. There is nothing like being complimented loudly in a copy shop first thing in the morning to get to your day off to a good start. ;)

CARNAVAL

Last night was the first day of Carnival here in Nice! The carnival as it is now has been running every year since the late 1800s - with local artisans preparing floats - but the first documented mention of the carnival was in the 16th century! The first evening is the opening ceremonies where they bring out the floats of the King and Queen of the carnival. They acually burn the king on the last day of carnival - I'm really not sure why.

I couldn't find anyone to go with me so I went down to place Massena myself at 9pm to check it out. The only place I could find left to stand was on the ground as the stands were full. This turned out to be the best place cause I was right in the parade route!

There were tons of people, tons of kids and everyone was spraying neon silly string or throwing confetti! To start off they brought out huge round baloons (like Macy's parade size) held by glowing colourful creatures. One baloon even had an acrobat suspended from the bottom. After the balloons they rolled out huge floats of the king and queen. They were quite frightening looking actually - I might have cried if I was a kid ;) Overall it was pretty spectacular and in the end I did end up running into someone I knew as she danced by me in the crowd. Fun night :)

Swiss chocolate and CERN

It has always been a small dream of mine to live in Europe and travel frequently to many important sounding cites like Rome, Paris, Geneva and London. Ideally in this dream I would also be wearing high heels, a chic black coat and maybe be working for the UN or as some sort of exciting undercover agent.

This weekend my dream almost came true. I was invited by my friend G (mentioned in a previous post) to visit her for the weekend in Geneva. I wasn't wearing heels when I stepped off the plane in Geneva but I did feel very chic in my new black Italian coat (see previous post) and I tried to look purposeful and important as I road the train into Geneva.

My very first stop in the city was at Starbucks. I have been going through Starbucks withdrawal the past few months. It didn't even matter to me that my Grande Frappuccino cost me 8 Swiss francs (approx 8 Canadian dollars). Definitely the most expensive Starbucks I've ever visited. This fact also didn't stop me from going back two more times this weekend. I also purchased a Starbucks Switzerland mug for my collection :)

Ordering Starbuck in French for the first time wasn't very hard - it mainly involved saying 'Grande Frappuccino' with a slightly more French accent. I realized after though that most people in the Starbucks were actually speaking English - probably because Geneva is 40% expatriates because of all the different international organizations that are there.

That evening G and I went to one of her friend's places for dinner. G has interesting friends - everyone seemed to work for either the United Nations or for some NGO like Amnesty International. I met an Italian PhD student, who works for CERN and who offered to give us a private tour on Sunday.

On Saturday we mainly did the touristy stuff in the morning (old town, lake Geneva, Calvin's church etc.) and then went to the house of another friend to prepare four big buckets of sangria for a party they were hosting that night. G is part of a 'Couch Surfing' network. Basically this is where you sign up on a website to let people stay on your couch when they are travelling though and you can stay other places when you travel - they also do social events in different cities and G and a couple of her Spanish friends were planning the sangria night for this.

That night about 50 people showed up with finger food to drink the four buckets of sangria. I chatted with people from Italy, Switzerland (in French too), America, Spain, Germany, France etc. Very cool.


Sunday morning we got up early to catch the bus to CERN for 10am for our tour. Honestly, I don't know very much about Physics, but for some reason I do really enjoy going to sciencey things like this. Maybe somehow it feeds my inner science geek ;) CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research and it where they have an enormous particle accelerator. We visited a number of the buildings including the offices where they invented the World Wide Web. They also have things like their own post office, bank and travel agency onsite - which I guess is pretty handy.

After the visit I headed to the airport - slightly overcaffinated from my third Starbucks - and caught my 45 min flight back to Nice. The view of the Alps from the plane was amazing (see below). Overall a fun weekend :)

Crème brûlée

I'm embarassed that it has been so long since I posted anything :P My resolution for November is to post more often...even if it means that the posts are really short... and maybe a bit boring.

Last week was school vacation! This meant that I got to sleep in a bit and do some different things with my day. On Thursday I met up with my new friend D who is taking French classes in the room next to me at the Fac de Lettres. We became friends initially based on the fact that neither of us can eat gluten. D is a very good cook and she spent an afternoon earlier this month trying to teach me how to cook too. Unfortunately, I don't have the motivation to do so on my own - I haven't made much of anything since then. Here is the cake we made when she was over - it tasted like Nutella cause we made it with chocolate and ground hazelnuts:



Whenever I hang out with D she brings me something yummy and wheat-free that she has baked - so really I don't have to bake so often myself. :) This Thursday I went to see her in Antibes which is about 20min away by train. We went to the Thursdays morning market and then went on a hike around the 'Cap' d'Antibes which took us a totally of 3.5 hours!

Although I haven't done much cooking I have started painting again! M has a bunch of watercolours left to her from a friend so she has invited me over to paint with her from time to time. I think it is fitting to paint in an area where so many famous painters has lived and painted: Rembrant, Picasso, Chagall, etc. I decided to paint one of my favourite things in France. Here it is:



On Friday, we organized a GBU day-trip to Italy! The closest Italian town in Ventimille - 45min on the train and Friday is their all-day market where they sell everything from jewlery to shoes. I bought myself a winter coat for 20 euro (super cheap!) and I had a cappuccino to say I've had one in Italy. It didn't taste any different from the ones in Nice.

Friday night my friend G came to visit. We're friends from University and she is living and working in Geneva now. We did lots of sightseeing in Nice and went for gelato at Finoccino's - one of the best gelato places in Vieux Nice! Here in France the word for ice cream and gelato is 'la glace' and not 'crème glacé' like at home. This must just be another difference between European French and Quebecois French. They also don't say 'fin de semaine' here - they say 'le weekend'. Finoccio's is a good place to have la glace because they have so many different flavours!



Desserts in Nice are pretty amazing. Here another dessert that I ate last week - probably the BEST crème brûlée ever:

Bureaucracy and Beer

In which Rebecca experiences French bureaucracy, participates in a pub quiz and begins her French classes.

(I've been reading a book that M lent me called something like 'How to give yourself a classical education' - that's not the title... but it is something like that. The book gives some good tips on how to read different kinds of literature. Years ago, books and chapters always had very long a descriptive titles which, although they gave away what was going to happen, helped the reader better understand the text. I decided to try it out.)

Carte de Sejour

I was warned before coming that French bureaucracy can be frustrating. That you can wait for hours just to find out you needed a document from somewhere else first. This is true.

Last Thursday I woke up at 5:30am in order to get myself to the Nice administrative centre (which is way out by the airport) in order to get my Carte de Sejour. The building doesn't open until 9am, but because so many people go if you don't get there by 7:30am you won't be able to be seen that day. When I arrived a the centre, there was already about 20 people crowded around a small gate waiting to get in. This was just the outer gate - not the actual gate of the building. Now the document I had read online about how this works said to: be "Prepared for long line-ups" and to be "patient, polite and assertive". This was a huge understatement.

When the gate opened at 7:45am the race began. People immediately started pushing me from behind and the whole crowd broke into a run to be the first in line at the building. I almost knocked over an old man as I was pushed forward. I joined in running and actually managed to get a good spot in line! Then we had to wait another hour before we could get in the building.
When I finally did get in I was told that because I was here on a student visa I was in the wrong place - I actually had to go to another office downtown :P

The rest of the day was spent: going to office #2...waiting in line...finding out I was missing a document...going home to get it...going back...waiting in line again...discovering I was missing photocopies of my documents...getting copies made...going back again...waiting...waiting...FINALLY seeing someone and getting my paperwork done!

Pub Quiz

On Monday night the group of us went out for dinner at an Irish Pub in Vieux Nice. One of our group, E's boyfriend was visiting from England and was staying with some some guys from church so she had invited them along for a thank-you dinner. It was nice going out with other people - it felt like being at home! It feels really weird living somewhere and knowing only a handful of people.

The best thing about this pub is that every Monday night they have a pub quiz! We had tried to get in the past week but it was totally packed. It was a fun evening overall: ordering in English, having a Magners cider, being the only one who could answer the question about Brian Mulroney AND having my team come in 2nd winning 50 euro off our bill!

French Classes

Yesterday I began my first day of French classes. I have class every day at the Fac de Lettres from 9am to noon. I was happy to find out I was in the most advanced class :) There are 17 of us in the class - I'm the only Canadian as most of them come from China, with some from Japan and Russia. Quite a few students also seem to be women who have married Frenchmen and now need to improve their English.

I got to know a Japanese girl sitting beside me and she, I and a few others went out for lunch after class which was fun. I find it feels a bit strange to be speaking with international students in a third language. I'm used to being the ESL teacher who gets to speak in my own language while the other person is at a disadvantage. It is really nice now to all be at the same level - somehow it seems easier to have a friendship this way too.

Suntan lotion and language

After being in Nice for over a week I finally got the chance to swim in the Mediterranean! It is a twenty minute walk to the beach and my flatmates (four of us now) and I headed down earlier this week for an afternoon of sun and swimming :)

The beach in Nice is one long strip that runs along the famous 'Promenade des Angais' and the only down-side is that it is a pebble-beach so it really hurts your feet to walk - the key is to get in the water really quickly and start swimming - which is easy cause the water is so warm :) The sea is also a really deep turquoise blue - a bit lighter closer to shore and then deepening in colour the farther out it goes. It's stunning.

I was excited to wear my new green polka-dot bikini...which was conservative by French standards...there were at least three women on the beach with us who were completely topless. ;)

I love the area along the Promenade des Anglais. There are rows of palm trees, famous hotels, gelato shops, joggers, para-sailors and very tanned people (I wonder if I'll be that tanned by the end of the year). There is and even an old carousel which I absolutely had to ride as soon as I saw it - and dragged one of my flatmates with me. For some reason I get really excited about carousels and Ferris wheels.



Since arriving I've had a number of good opportunites to practise my language skills which has been great and has gone okay so far - except for a brief moment of total embarassment last night...

The four of us went to visit P, the final member of our team at her flat in another part of town. After have dinner there we walked over to a church nearby that held a weekly cafe in the evening where young people gathered to hang out and drink tea and coffee. This was a perfect chance to practise our introduction skills.

Near the end of the evening we were meeting a few more people that we hadn't met yet. Now I've been quite proud that my name (Rebecca) has a good 'R' to start with and I've felt quite French giving it a good roll as I introduce myself to people. I was thinking to myself at this point that I may have been rolling it a bit too forcefully and I decided to take this opportunity to perfect my pronunciation. I held out my hand as a girl came by to introduce herself and began with confidence "Je m'appelle R..." And THIS is where everything went wrong. For some reason as I nicely rolled my 'R' I got stuck on it and it came out as "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr...rrrrrr.rrrrrr...(and 10 seconds later)...rrrbecca" So by the time I got to the end of my name my friends were laughing at me and the girl I was meeting had given up (she probably though that there was something wrong with me) and was introducing herself to the next person! So embarassing. I really don't know what went wrong. I think that after this I'll stick to introducing myself as just 'Becca' and skip the 'R' altogether :P