Does that guy have a fish on his butt??

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Here and There...

I usually try not to blog about the same old same old, la vie quotidienne if you will, but I have done a few things of note lately--some of which were too funny to miss blogging about. So, here goes:


Despite the fact that my roommate and I were feeling a little under the weather, we made the trip out Thursday night to go do bar trivia at Ma Nolan's again. It really is a lot of fun, and we have a pretty big group of people now. Funny though--the week before we were all in the top 10, and this past week we were all like 26th and 27th place haha. Guess you can't win them all. Still a ton of fun, but Friday classes are just that much worse the next day when I'm tired. I did some MLK this week which was pretty fun; I let my kids listen to "I Have a Dream," since you obviously cannot be American without having heard that speech. Always good when I can do things like that--limit the amount of time I actually have to talk. I am clearly extremely dedicated to my job haha. I am hoping I can use that lesson next week too. I am at the point where I am trying to stretch things out as much as possible; otherwise, I will run out of things to do before I leave. I also don't want to start something big right before I leave for February break. Oh, and I am lazy 😊

This weekend has been a little more active than usual--sometimes my roommate and I end up sitting around be pretty lazy (usually in an effort to save money and occasionally because we're not feeling too hot from Friday or Saturday night). The weather has been a bit nicer than in the past few weeks so that helped as well. Seriously, I can't wait until March when the weather starts getting nice again and I can go to the beach and swim and go hiking and do all of those fun outdoor activities that aren't feasible or fun in the cold or rain. Anyway, Saturday my roommate and I walked down to Place Massena and wandered around a bit. She was looking for a small carry-on to take on our trip to Ireland, but didn't find too much. Of course, we made the necessary stops in Zara and some of the other stores 😊. We headed towards Vieux Nice and found a great little market in front of Le Palais de Justice--just a little market with people selling old books, cool old photographs, prints, etc, and even some people selling stamps and coins. There were a few guys performing with guitars and singing and a few people dancing (...we think happy hour started a little early for them). It's always cool to wander through the markets though and just look at all the crazy stuff people are selling. It's crazy that some of the things people sell are older than the United States. Definitely worth visiting again, although I prefer the market near the Marché des Fleurs that's mostly antiques. Afterwards, we wandered through Vieux Nice for a bit. I still have yet to completely figure that area out, despite the fact that it's rather small, just because it's so freaking circuitous. Always fun to wander around and peek in all the little stores though, and we found a few boutiques that were really quite cute (you have to find the good and skip over the gaudy touristy boutiques which, unfortunately, have started to overrun Vieux Nice). We ended up at the Snug, a little Irish bar in Vieux Nice that actually has great food. So, we had some wine (I had my vin chaud of course!), some soup, and a cheese platter-yum! Definitely a great way to spend a Saturday.

Last night we went into town to a friend's house, and then out to a party for this guy Harold. I do not know Harold very well, but he was at a friend's party last week and invited all of us out to this birthday. It so happened that one of the girls is dating a guy who was there last night, so we all decided to head over. Let me tell you about this party. First of all, they had Sting on repeat for approximately the first hour that we were there. We all got a huge kick out of that. It was also the strangest conglomeration of individuals I think I have ever seen in my life. Don't get me wrong, everyone was really nice, and we had a good time. Nonetheless, it was just funny. There was one very typically French guy, wearing a hat and glasses and a button up shirt and tie with a sweater and nice shoes. Then, there was a couple wearing basically all Adidas--like Sporty Spice and her boyfriend. Add to that the guy wearing sunglasses, a shirt that seriously looked like the British flag and some weird hat. Then, there's Harold--this big, goofy blonde guy wearing nice shoes, kind of plaid pants and a shirt--likkkee European golfer? His sister was there wearing lace tights, huge like combat boots, a skirt and a furry vest with her husband--they have like 6 or 7 kids. That's not even all of it. Like I said, strangest conglomeration of people ever. That's what you get here though I think. I think it kind of makes things more fun too--definitely more interesting that's for sure. Anyway, we had fun. Good food--an amazing quiche and an awesome birthday cake for Harold, not to mention some good champagne. And after all the Sting began the series of Notorious B.I.G songs--intermixed with some Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, and other various, funny artists. Needless to say, we all got a kick out of it and my roommate and I started ridiculously dancing--not going to lie, there was some running man. All in all, I'd say a successful evening.

Today, I got up a little early for a Sunday and met some of the other assistants from Parc Impérial for brunch. We went to a little Crêperie in Vieux Nice. Amazing crêpes. I had a crêpe complete--that's a crêpe with cheese, ham, and eggs, and then a crêpe nutella. Like I said, amazing crêpes. They were SO good... and huge! It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with all of the other assistants too since I usually don't see the other girls often, except for the other English assistant. There were five of us there today--myself, the other English assitant from Stratford Upon Avon, the Spanish assistant, the Italian assistant and the German assistant. How cool is that? Five girls--Italian, Spanish, German, English and American all eating together and speaking French. It's just so cool hearing about where they are from, what they are doing, where they've been, what they've done--I mean I never get to share a meal with people who are that different in the States. Afterwards, the other English assistant and I met my roommate and we strolled through Vieux Nice and along the Prom for a while. Eventually, my roommate got a little tired and headed back to the apartment, but Hessina and I decided to stay out a bit longer. We ended up running into another friend who was also doing the Sunday wander thing since most everything is closed, and we all walked back along the Prom and around the Port together (always fun looking at all of the amazing boats). BUT, before we ran into her, Hessina and I saw what was quite possibly one of the funniest things I have seen since I have been here. I tried to take a picture, but sadly the batteries in my camera are dead. So, we are walking along the Prom just enjoying the weather when, all of a sudden, we see this guy walking in the opposite direction in a full on dive suit (minus the air tank). Full on dive suit. He was carrying his flippers, and walking barefoot. Barefoot on the Prom--just sick. Of course we have a chuckle and wondered what in the world this guy was doing, but after he passes us we hear all these people laughing. I am thinking what on Earth could be funny about a man in a wetsuit from behind, so I turn around and--no lie-- this guy has a fish hanging on his butt. Obviously a dead fish, but there is a freaking fish like flopping around on this guys butt. I followed him for a good two minutes hoping my camera would work, but it was a no go. I am really just hoping that I see this guy again before I leave and have time to snap a picture. Here you generally see the same people doing the same super weird things often, so I am hoping that holds in this case. It was just great.

So eveyone is getting pretty excited for Carnavale here in Feb, and I think my friends and I are going to try to get our tickets pretty soon. Apparently, La Fête du Citron à Menton is also coming up in February around the same time. (For all you non-French speakers that means The Lemon Festival in Menton--Menton is one of the French towns closest to Italy). It actually looks like it could be pretty cool, so I am hoping we make it out to Menton a couple of times to see the parades and everything that is going on there. (Check out the website to read about it: http://www.feteducitron.com/menton-french-riviera-lemon-festival-uk.html.) February is definitely going to go by fast with Shannon's visit, our London trip, all of the festivals around here and my trip to Ireland with my roommate, so maybe get ready for an onslaught of blogging as well since I will have a ton of things to spill write about!

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