Nice (Encore) or The Fine Print

While my fellow comrades were scoping out Aix-en-Provence this Saturday, I took the train the Nice all by my lonesome. I'm still proud of myself.

Basically, I was freaking out that I would get on the wrong train or not "COMPOSTEZ VOTRE BILLET" like the ticket tells you to (validate your ticket, as it were) in the bright orange or yellow machines (see, I've already forgotten what they look like). 

But Saturday morning I roused myself early and walked over to la gare (train station), went up the the guy behind the counter and requested an "aller retour" (round trip. Just imagine how much French you're learning from reading this!) to Nice. Being under 25, I get a special price - take that senior citizens! I made my way to the side for Nice and was looking around desperately, though trying to seem cool and collected like a young French woman who normally takes the train, for the ticket-stamper. Could not find one.

The train arrived and I hopped on board and sat by some Japanese girls who were studying in Marseille. Their French was quite good, but they spoke mostly in Japanese and I only know how to count to ten and say "Ita taki masu" (I think I got that right... it means 'let's eat.' And, look, now you're learning Japanese). Then I saw someone walking around looking at people's tickets and started internally freaking out again, but she was just punching them with a hole-punch, because of the lack of validation machines, I think. Anyway, I made it to Nice.

More problems arose then, however, because while I know how to walk from the collège to the train station in Cannes, I have no clue how to get around in Nice. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to walk towards the Mediterranean Sea and I had written down directions from google maps. That did not help at all. I ended up asking a random woman where the Promenade des Anglais was (the road I was looking for) and she pointed me straight ahead, so at least I got myself sorted out. Then I think she wanted me to speak French to someone for her, but I was super confused and I think she just gave up with me. I guess she didn't really speak French either. Go figure.

Anyhoo, I ended up on a street with tons of people and finally saw some stuff in front of me that I recognized from being in Nice before. So, I made my way to the trusty McDo and waited for my rendez-vous...

with Andrew! We just walked around a bit and then went to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Chairs on chairs

Shiny dragon!

Rooftop garden complete with mirrors and Nice in the reflection

They had some pretty cool stuff there, for instance:

A Morris Louis

And one of Andy Warhol's Diamond Dust Shoes

And a lot of installation art. And it was free!

After the museum we wandered with Ben (Mosetick) and found a place to eat (I had some socca and a coca. Cola, that is, but I like when it rhymes). We were right across from a really well-known gelateria, which has tons and tons of flavors. There were your normal flavors, then lots of sorbets (which is less common, there are usually only a few options) and then they had a more bizarre ones, such as beer, kinder bar, avocado, tomato basil (Ben had that), and black olive (Andrew had that). Personally, I didn't really want a savory flavor, so I went for the lychee and pamplemousse (grapefruit). It was super delicious - the sweetness of the lychee definitely balanced out the sourness of the grapefruit. Om nom!

So, Andrew and I spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach or walking around the city. It was a beautiful day - so much better than when I was there last. I'm actually planning on returning this weekend for good meals (Indian and Thai) and maybe to find a duffel bag.

Side note: While walking back to the train I was alone and kept having random French men come up to me - des dragueurs (flirts). The ones that I had been warned about. I hadn't really had much experience with them up to this point, but it was actually a little scary. They would come up to me and touch my left arm and ask how I was doing, and then when I didn't respond would ask if I spoke French and random other things. One said I had "l'air charmante" and wanted to know if I was Romanian or Russian. So I would not look at them and not say anything and walk as quickly as possible. It seems silly now, but at the time I was genuinely concerned with getting to the train station as quickly as possible and away from these guys.

But wait - there's more. Today I had to wake up early and go to Nice for a medical exam. This is exam is apparently required for easy travel throughout the EU and a real long-stay visa - however, I didn't know anything about it until a few weeks ago. I also wasn't aware that it would cost 55 euros. And I definitely was not aware that I would be getting half-naked in front of a random French guy (okay, so he was a doctor) in order to do a chest x-ray. But maybe I didn't read the fine print on the visa application...

Check out my heart

This is what it's like to have x-ray vision. Or maybe to be working one of the new airport body scanners.

But now I have the perfect souvenir from my stay in France. A picture of my lungs.

Today we also started seminars. I had my first Histoire de l'Art class in French and I feel like I understand things alright thus far. But listening and writing at the same time is difficult. At the very end of our class we're going to be talking a little bit about French photography in the late 1900s. Henri Cartier-Bresson!

Needless to say, I'm excited.

And other exciting news is that I'm going to Paris next Thursday, and I've decided on what I'll be doing for Spring Break. Berlin to Madrid to Dublin to Nice! A whirlwind adventure.