I'M REALLY SORRY THERE IS ONLY ONE PICTURE. THIS WEBSITE AND INTERNET IS BEING RETARDED AND NOT LETTING ME UPLOAD THEM. I PLANNED FOR MORE, I PROMISE!! IN THE NEXT UPLOAD I WILL HAVE THE PICS, BUT I WANTED TO UPLOAD THE POST FIRST.
Caution...long post ahead
I'm back in Toulouse! My 7 days in the Côte d'Azur went by way too fast, but I also miss my friends at school so I'm glad to be restarting (opposite to the usual of me
dreading the end of vacation)school on Thursday. The French are geniuses in making all these vacations evenly spaced throughout the year..so smart!! Like 7 weeks,
break, 7 weeks, break..x4 throughout the year! Genius! My host brother in Woostock was feeling jealous, and now my host parents keep asking me if I felt deprived of vacations in the US....no not really, I guess I never realized we didn't have that many throughout the year. But I do remember the week long break last year in February b/c of the snowstorm..ahh how nice. Anyways, here's a little (well I'll make it as short as I can as not to bore my dear readers) summary of the past week......
...I'll put the days of the week in french so you guys can build up your french vocabulary as it might be needed in the future when english disappears from my brain....
Dimanche: I helped with the marathon, handing out massive amounts of water and gingerbread as people ran past the 25Km marker. I got soaked a couple times and felt like a failure when I was instructed to cut lemons by the president of my rotary club and then sliced my finger on the first one! Luckily we were located right next to the first aide tent! Then we drove all the way across the South of France to Vence, located a little ways NE of Nice. I still can't believe we drove all the way across in the whole bottom of the country in a little less than 6 hours. Insane! My brain is still stuck on US size proportions. This whole week we stayed at the house of a couple who are friends of my host parents from college. They had 3 sons, none of whom were there, they are all of studying and working other places.
Lundi: In the morning we took at hike to La Gaude, a village near by. All the towns in this area are all beautiful and renaissance looking, with gorgeous views of the sea, and then the snow covered alps in the other direction. In the afternoon we walked around the town of Antibes, like Cannes but with one less dosage of luxury steriods, then we walked around the Cap d'Antibes, the cape that was super pretty. It's all rocky and the whole inside is the property of a gigantic mansion. Talk about money! I think they should tear down the pointy walls and video cameras and make it a big park, that would be useful.
Mardi: In the morning we went to Vieux Nice, the old part, the part I'd never been to before. All of the buildings were pretty shades of yellow, pink and orange and the Italian influence was evident. We went to the market and had bunches of yummy snacks for lunch that come from that area. All the streets aren't wide enough for cars and were bustling. I can only imagine what it would have been like there when a rugby world cup game was there. I also heard and saw the most number of Americans since my time in France. We're pretty easy to pick out, guys! We hiked up to the ramparts of the fort of Nice, giving us tons of pretty views. It's so pretty! Then we drove over to Eze, hasn't really changed since I went there in March, except it now costs 5€ to enter to the exotic garden on the top, when in March it was free. It's such a beautiful place and I'm amazed at how everything is built up there...how did they get all the rocks up there to build the buildings?? Then we drove on the top cornice (there are 3 of them at 3 different levels that allow you to drive along the coast, since it's basically all a big cliff) and went to a big park that is for bird watching. Since it gets dark so quickly with the time change, by 5pm it was already dusk. All the fog rolled in to so it was kind of erie. The picture of me with just white fog is funny, behind me is a big drop off then the Med. sea.
Mercredi: This was the day where Nadine and Chantal stayed home and made foie gras and grape jam, so Antoine took me to Monaco. Somehow I managed to visit everything else in the 2 sq. miles of this tiny country that I didn't do last time, so that was good. The weather was strikingly the same though. I will always remember when we went there though, Antoine really wanted me to see the changing of the guard in front of the palace at noon, and since it took us almost 2 hours to get there, we pulled into a spot in the parking garage at 11:56am. We proceeded to sprint up to the palace, running though all the little cute streets to get there. If you are at all familiar with Monagesaue geography, you will know that it is situated on a cliff, and the parking structure is inside the cliff. As with most palaces/castles, the palace of Monaco is located on the highest point in the prinicpality. Using some basic logical reasoning, you may now see that my little workout that was see the changing of the guard began with a couple hundred uphill stairs. An american family was blocking the stairs, so I said "excuse me, can I just squeeze by, I'm in a hurry", they all turned around looking stunned, but bu that time I was already past them. I will always remember that. Antoine yelling aller! aller! vite! depeches-toi! But we did make it and so here are some pics to prove it. The guards were even playing things that looked like mellophones! yay! Then we went on a tour of the palace, like a mini Versailles, complete with audio headsets. I was stuck in the middle of a tour group of British 70 yearolds. It was slightly amusing to watch them figure how to "press the green button" when we got to the next room. Princess Grace Kelly's portrait was everywhere. Then we visited the Musée Oceanagraphique (I know that's spelled wrong), that was started by prince Albert I, and now prince Albert II went on the same expeidition in 2005 to commemerate the 100 years of it. The aqaurium was pretty, and I used the aquarium setting on my camera for the first time! It was full of fishes from the Med. sea and Indian Ocean, a smaller version of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I founnd the museum on top floor more interesting though. It was full of cool artifacts from his expedition in the land around the north pole in 1905. It was very interesting, and was about science and discoveries in the past century in general. They had the first submarine there! It was used in the Revolutionary War, interestingly labled "the American War for Independence" on the sign next to it haha, as in all the English in museums and whatnot is by British standards. I didn't see any evidence that it was halloween until we went in the cathedrel and there was a guy walking around the balcony wearing a yankees hat and a really scary mask. I find it kind of funny and ironic that the only halloween I saw was in the church. Grace Kelly's and her husbands tombs were both beautiful decorated with flowers..but then all the other like 7 former prices and spouses had nothing...don't their spirits feel left out? We checked out the real estate prices for kicks, almost as high as Aspen. I read that there are only 40,000 people that live in Monaco, but only 7,000 have Monagesque nationality, therefore live a good life and don't pay taxes, what brings the others there then? The part my the palace was so clean and perky looking, almost like Dinseyland renaissance town. Antoine was joking that we should have alerted the police when we saw trash on the ground. We drove back to Vence and carved my pumpkin! It was so funny because until I carved a hole in the top and started pulling out the insides, they all (the 4 adults who were so utterly oblivious of pumpkin carving) thought they we were going to be baking it at some point! Chantal even had the oven on! We made a grimacing face and it was fun. Then we lit it and put it outside. No trick-or-treaters this year or tons of candy, but that's ok, I made up for it in cheese and deserts. Yum.
Jeudi: We started off the day by driving and visiting St. Paul de Vence, a beautiful town made famous by many artists like Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne and others. It was so pictuesque and beustiful I thought I was in a movie. Overridden with tourists, I'm glad I was not there in the summer, that must be insane. Every other store was an art gallery. Then we went back to the house and ate lunch before heading out again for hike. We hiked from at town called St. Jeannet to the top of the cliff (baou) above it, 800m up. The temperature was perfect that you got warm in the sun, but then the cool breeze in the shade cooled you off. We we got to the top and man slipped on a boulder and dislocated his shoulder pretty bad, it was not a pretty sight and his arm was not well. So a helicopter came and got him, it landed on a piece of rock that was just big enough. The man seemed in pain, and the helicopter did not come fast enough, but I think he'll be ok. I want to be a helicopter pilot! That would be so tight to have to land on those dangerous places and save people. Then we continued on our hike around and down and around. The mountains were so beautiful and we stumbled upon the remains of a house from the 17th century that never really got finished being built. It was way out there so I can understand that transportation for all those rocks would be hard, but boy, talk about the view. Dinner was especially amusing that night as we were all a little sunburn and tired, there was a lot of laughing.
Vendredi: Italia! We went over to San Remo and got a little taste of la vita bella. It was interesting going to another country in Europe with Europeans. It was as if Italy was as foreign to them as it was to me, coming from the US. I think I had even been to Italy more times than they had. I mean, its only 30 Km away, yet this was only the 2nd time they had come. They kept comparing things to France, yet in my eyes, things were almost the same. Yes the mail boxes changed from yellow to red, and the lines on the road seemed to fade as the driving became borderling insane, but the architecture and currency was the same. Yes it's a different country, but to me it seemed like we were still in the same place, yet not, b/c we were in Italy. San Remo was very charming and full of boutiques. I found a purse and some shoes to buy, and saw that Italians come in more shapes and sizes than French people. I had spaghetti carbonara, but hate to say it, liked my mom's better:) But the gelato for desert was delicious. We walked around the whole old part, plus the beach, and got good use out of the shopping. My brain got a good workout because when the sales ladies spoke Italian to me I don't really know what language came out! It was a mixture of French and English and gibberish. A majority of the shoppers were French, but then when they saw and heard that my brain and tongue weren't really on the same page with eachother, they spoke English. Blah. I had a headache. Then we drove back and had some dinner, followed by a game of Camelot, my new favorite game. They were all making fun of me because I won both games, and they said at the beginning I had the whole innocent façade of "I don't understand this game b/c I don't speak French etc....", but then I whooped their butts! What can I say...beginner's luck.
Samedi: We started off the day by a pleasant little game of pétanques, or boules. They had a little court thing of dirt in the corner of the yard. Again I was a clutch player and scored all the points for my team (we played girls vs boys), but we unfortuneately got beat in both games. Now I know all the rules...so get ready for the first annual C-U pétanques tournament next summer. In the afternoon we walked around Vence, a beautiful charming town, part of the church dates back to 230 AD..that's pretty dang old! Everything is provençale and all charming. People playing pétanques in the square, then of course the teenage boys dancing techtonique off in the corner. The dance has me laughing everytime, but people here are pretty serious about it. Techno music blasting and crazy arm movements. The clothes, the haristyle, its everywhere. We also visited the chapel that Matisse decorated, very beautiful. After watching Gasquet lose and Nadal win in the tennis masters at Bercy on their giant TV, we played another couple games of Camelot. I wasn't as sucessful as the night before, but did snag one game. This is a picture from their yard.
Sunday we drove home and ate at the grandmas, today we ran some errands and went shopping in Toulouse. I got a coat! Now I offically look French. And it's black. Colors in outerwear is not permitted here (I'm kidding but it seems true).
So this week was fun, getting to see my host parents in a different house and atmosphere was good. Everyone was so relaxed, and I don't think I've laughed so hard recently. Antoine is so funny, when we went to Italy we spoke French with an Italian accent the whole day, it was funny. All 4 of them mixed English words into their sentances the whole time, leaving us all laughing the times where I didn't even catch they were doing it. I did much explaining, and I still feel like I'm a disappointment. I'm not the repulican, 5 meal a day, never have travelled, and does't know anything, american that they all want to me. They keep telling me that I'm an excpetion. But no! Americans are a mixture of people, and I am finding it extremely difficult to define a country when they ask me such general questions about the US. Yes I am different, and just because I lived in France for a year already doesn't make me any less or more american than someone that has never been out of their state. They seem annoyed that I already have tasted things and know things...but sorry. We ate raclette on Wednesday night and it actually reminded me of home. Except for the partirdge eggs that went with it...not those. But they were quite tasty. It was interesting living with other people for a week, see the changes. They had a giant TV they had 400 channels (Antoine and I went though each one and saw that 200 of them came from Germany), ate we ate an apéro every night, but no entrée. That bit of alcohol before dinner was probably why they were so funny. The deserts were amazing, créme brulée, tirimisu, and i made the cheesecake, many others but I foget them.
As a response to the questions left as comments, yes le canard is delicious, in confit or magré or anyother way. I don't know how they made foie gras, but it's good that way too. I think Nadine bought foie that was not gras, they they put stuff with it and let it sit for 3 days, et voilà! its gras! To the second question...umm I think the french people I'm with think americans are a friendly folk who don't know much about the rest of the world. honestly. that we are closed off and live in our own universe of strange sports such as baseball and football, and have a horrible economy (at the moment it sucks like crazy!). I agree with them on this. I think americans are slightly mysterious. And to be honnest, most people in France think americans are like the cast of desperate housewives and prison break. These are just my observations so I hope they don't offend anyone :) But keep the comments coming people!
I changed the title of my blog because Liz in France was just a temporary one until I thought of something more local and original. It was good to talk to my real parents on skype when I got back to Toulouse, yet I did chat with them at night online in Nice, plus I had many enlightening and memorable chats with friends online (you know who you are) so I didn't miss people too much. I have to give my presentation about Champaign and myself etc. on Friday at Rotary so I should be working on that now.
Peace,
Liz
Lots of Love,
