C'est Nice

Hey sports fans.

So... christ. Three days... these blog thingies are demanding! It's like a child, or something... it needs to be fed like, every other day. Christ. Oh, dear, I'm sorry. I meant: Jesus Christ.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. The weather here has cooled down a good deal, which is blissful. The first few days here were prettty chaud... I spent most of that time sweating (mmm! fun!) so... that was cool. I keep saying I'm going to back-track with my storytelling of how it all has gone down, and then I fail to do so... but here's going to be a valiant effort.

So I departed on Saturday evening, a week and a half ago now. It was a stressful deal getting to the airport because I missed my train (I was heading to Newark), and after a brief bit of panicking, grabbed a taxi, and, 60 bucks later, arrived, admittedly on time, at the airport. Air India, while blissfully cheap, was rather unorganized in terms of, you know, boarding. I waited in line infront of the gate for at least 45 minutes. The plane, which was a double-decker jumbo jet, was packed to the gills. I gave up my seat 3/4 of the way back next to a window (my prefferred location) for the best friend of the old woman sitting next to me, and ended up on the aisle (which was better than the middle, of course... but still) in the second to last row of the plane... I felt it was probably the worst kharma possible to deny an old Indian woman her best friend's company.

Anyway, I arrived in Paris somewhat sore and sleep deprived. After some mild confusion as to which bus to take to the RER station at the airport (I got to take a scenic bus ride to Parking Lot X) I found that I was able not only to procure my ticket into Paris, but also my ticket to Nice. So, once I got to Paris and dropped off my bag at Gare de Lyon, I was able to spend a (admittedly very fatigued) few hours in a cafe just outside. Then it was onto the TGV for a five-hour ride to Nice. I treated myself to a first class seat (with my youth discount, it was only marginally more expensive than second class) and alternated between napping and watching Tokyo Godfathers or Homicide: Life on the Street. I arrived in Nice after dark, and I was picked up by Allison and Emily, the Director and Asst. Director of the program. I was shuttled to the Lycee Massena, where our program is based.

I don't have any pictures of the Lycee at the moment, but I will take some and update them here, so stay tuned for more info on that.

When I reached the Lycee, dinner had already finished, so I put my stuff up in my room (a small, european student type deallie) showered, and headed out into the Vielle Ville for dinner, thinking that, like Paris, tout le monde would be closed, as it was a Sunday night. I ran into my co-RAs, who had been out for a post-dinner stroll, and met them all for the first time in almost total darkness (awkward?). Anyway, I continued on and found plenty open in the Vielle Ville... in fact, it was difficult to tell that it was Sunday night at all. Anyway, to make a long story short (too late), I ate and went to bed.

The next few days were devoted to orientation, and getting to know my fellow RAs. Here's a group picture of all of them sans Reggie, the only other male staff member. From left to right, that's Anne, Suzanne, Emily, Sabina, yours truly, Meaghan and Amanda. Everyone, as I think I've said before, perhaps(?) is very nice, and it's a very comeraderic (making up words is fun!) atmosphere.

I'm forgetting the details of the orientation now... my fault for not writing this part earlier. Anyway, needless to say, it was a nice start to the program, and now we've all got this us vs. the world mentality which is nice. Collective front, and all that.

All right, well, let's see... The past few days have been relatively more chill than the weekend. The kids have finally started classes, so they're settling in to something of a rhythm. We've had to do a considerable amount of hand holding for some of them (particularly the girls) which is obnoxious and somewhat frightening... what are these kids going to do when they get to college? As Douglas Adams might say, though, that's an S.E.P... somebody else's problem.

Here's how this week has gone down so far: Monday was very low-key. I had internet duty, which involved hanging out in the Lycee for 2.5 hours and supervising the internet room (tons o' fun). Tuesday, I walked with a few students to the Russian Cathedral, pictured here. This Cathedral, the largest Russian Cathedral built outside of Russia, was built just before the Revolution for all of the Russian Aristocrats who summered on the Cote d'Azur. The cathedral was right near the Lycee where I'm going to be teaching this fall, so I stopped by there and met the woman who seems to be in charge of everything. I confirmed that I have a room there, and that I'll be living with other language assistants from various countries, so that's cool. The school is nice, kind of perched up on a hill, but still within walking distance of most of Nice.

Wednesday, I took a whole bunch of kids to this little peninsula just outside of Nice called Cap Ferrat, where we hung out on a gravel beach. You may laugh, but after the harsh underfooting of the Nice beach (large, potato-sized rocks... no sand whatsoever), this was something of a relief. After heading back to the Lycee, we had a cheese tasting, followed by a (rather poorly attended, and poorly played by myself) poker game.

Anyway, that brings us up to today... hopefully this will tide you over... or at least, bore you some. :-D To try and make it up to you, I've included a picture of me dancing. Enjoy.

Charlie.