Saturday February 2, 2008: Nice Trip
This weekend is a trip to the Cote d'Azur for students in IAU who want to go. I think there are 50 of us or something, so it's a big group, but it's not the whole school.
Nice and Cannes are only a two hour drive from Aix-en-Provence, and on the drive you can watch the countryside change from fields and hills into tropics. Throughout the entire bus ride I didn't say a word, but I stared out the window--it was so beautiful. There was Mt. St-Victoire and castles and vinyards. I saw the Alps and then we came to the coast. The water really is the bluest I've ever seen.
When we got to Nice, the sun felt so good on our backs as we walked through markets there. They sold fresh fruit and vegetables and olives and bread and meats and cheeses and everything, so some friends and I bought ourselves a lunch. I bought the most delicious strawberries I've ever had! They were deep red all the way through. We took our goods to the beach and watched the blue waves crash into bright white foam and ate our picnic lunch. The water looked so enticing, we wanted to go swimming!
Then we split off because Bradie and I wanted to climb up to the park and see the waterfall we'd heard about. Right near the beach there were steps leading up to the park, and after a long climb we reached the waterfall. We sat on the ledge and could see the ocean behind us, the Alps to the side of us, and the waterfall just in front. A group of travelers came up and asked "parlez-vous anglais?" and asked us to take their picture. We liked to think, from that incident, we were blending in a little. Climbing up the park a little more you can see the coast so far down and even walk out a little peninsula.
Afterwards we had tea at a little cafe and then walked down the coast to get some gelato. We decided there were six flavors we wanted to try, so we each got three flavors and tried them all. I don't think I know anyone else who would eat that much ice cream with me.
I didn't want to try to make friends on this trip because I'm only going to be here for four months, and I'd rather go off on my own than speak a lot of english with other Americans. But when Bradie and I started to spend all this time together, we started to find out the things we have in common are pretty deep--our morals, our beliefs, our outlook on life. Even though we thought we didn't have much of anything in common at first.
Bradie and I had an awesome day together and we started to realize how much we like spending time with each other. So I guess she moved up from acquaintence to friend. Damn.
Before 5pm all of us students traveled further down the coast to a perfumerie called 'Fragonare'. Everyone marveled at how wonderful everything smelled, but I thought the whole place smelled like an elderly woman's bathroom. I was glad we didn't stay long.
Then we went to our hostel. And from there, anyone who wanted to could take the late bus to see Monte Carlo, Monaco for a couple of hours that night. Bradie and I went, but after seeing the fountains and the casino and all the richesse, there wasn't much to do besides gambling, because everything was closed. So we went to a bar and tried the Monaco beer, which was beer with grenadine and seven up...basically a Shirley Temple with beer in it. Gross.
That night there was to be a 'discoteque' at the hostel for the students in our group, but what I really wanted was a nice long shower. The kind I don't take at Colette's because it's not polite to use lots of water. So I did just that and put on my pajamas and climbed into bed. I felt awesome. But after that, Bradie and I didnÕt much feel like going to the discotecque. To be honest, we didnÕt much feel like going to that from the moment we heard about it, so we used our ÔcleanÕ and ÔtiredÕ as excuses to our roommates not to go and we stayed in and journaled and fell asleep.
Apparently the discotecque was hoppin'. It consisted of only people from our trip and the people who worked at the hostel. They pushed all the tables of the cafeteria to the side and played music and had funky lighting. Then all 5 boys from this excursion and 40 girls danced together, along with the german guys who worked at the hostel. They served alchohol with the idea that it would make it less awkward. Then when they could party no longer, the germans convinced some girls including our other roommates to go back to their room with them where they made out all night and then the girls stumbled back into our room at an early morning hour and told us the story in the morning. Too bad we missed out on that discoteque...
