It's Carnaval!

It's been raining like mad here lately - the only sign that it is, in fact, still winter. While most of this week has been pretty wet, Friday was gorgeous. We went to see a dance on Friday night in La Bocca, and it's still unclear to me whether La Bocca is a neighborhood or suburb of Cannes. Anyway, it was modern dance called Aphorismes, meaning adage or proverb. There were three of them, the first was La Maison (the house), followed by Moustache, and then Un sanglier, chaque nuit, voyage en grand secret (A wild boar, each night, travels in secret). I enjoyed the first and last most. Funny side notes: there were two guys doing the first dance, wearing tighty-bluies (or aqua-ies?) and t-shirts, occasionally suit jackets or tux jackets. Twas funny. The third one was performed in varying degrees of nudity, with the original two guys and also two girls.

Saturday was also a really nice day, and I went into the city to see the markets (no photos yet, but I'll get some soon!). There's a fruit, flower, and fish market that's pretty large and in a really cool space, as you'll see once I get my act together and take some photos. Also, closer to the sea there's an open-air market with artists' and artisans' stuff, as well as antiques. I got some awesome earrings there and tried on a hat that I really want to go back for. I got told that I have "a face for hats" by the woman selling them. See photo here! (Scroll down a little ways).

And that brings us to today! We went to Nice for Carnaval today, which was great but, unfortunately very windy and rainy! The floats were great, but my favorite thing was definitely seeing all the adorable kids.

Tiny pirate!

Favorite float - I loved the details

Not a real person, thank god!

Caught at a somewhat awkward moment

Silly string is a big thing at Carnaval

My favorite catch of the day

Yes, that is Darth Maul that you're seeing there

Another favorite - such a cutie

Otherwise, at le collège, I've been planning out what seminars I'll be taking. I'm now signed up for French Artists 19th and 20th Century, in French, and French Cinema, also in French. I may also be taking a drawing class, although I'm still deciding whether I want to pay for it. This week we're going bowling on Tuesday, so I'm excited for that and, of course, for FLORENCE! We leave Friday morning and get back Sunday. Super super super super 'cited.

To close, three stereotypes about the French that are, in fact, true:
1. They're skinny. Ok, so not everyone, but I've only seen some people that are slightly overweight. Definitely not like the U.S. I feel like everyone here has especially skinny legs, too.
2. They're big on PDA. Yes. It's everywhere. Stop making out in front of me, plz?
3. They dress in black. Tis true - at least for the most part. Dark, anyway.