Winter Break!

We're leaving for a few hours for our winter break vacation in Spain! We will be in Barcelona, Ibiza, and Madrid. Hopefully the weather holds out because right now it is supposed to be 55-65 degrees and no rain all week, so I hope that's true! This would be the first trip where it doesn't rain on us.

Marley is turning 21 while we're in Barcelona, so that should be fun. We're all pretty excited about this trip and have fairly high expectations, so I hope that Spain lives up to it! You'll be hearing back from me in a week, and hopefully with only good stories!

Carnival in Nice

Halloween, meet the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Carnival is nothing compared to American 4th of July parades. It has a creepy factor that is akin to Halloween, and it is normal for everyone to dress up in costumes. Little boys were running around dressed as Buz Lightyear and Spiderman, while the little girls were dressed as Snow White and a series of mermaids and witches.

The city of Nice was not decorated, really. There were a few things here and there, mostly signs, that suggested that it was Carnival time, but I really expected the whole city to be dressed to the nines for the whole thing. Not so. Apparently Carnival itself is a parade, mixed in with some other fun games and events. The parade lasted about an hour and a half, which was much longer than I expected. There was a mixture of gigantic floats, all with moving parts and specific themes, dancers, men on stilts, people in costume, gigantic floating balloons, and other people to run around and shoot streamers at the crowd. It was complete chaos. The spectators are encouraged to buy silly string and confetti, and it is acceptable to throw it or spray it at anyone and everyone. Needless to say, we joined in. The people in the parade are not so happy when you spray them, but the little kids all over love that an “adult” would want to play with silly string with them.

In the States there are all these rules about how you cannot get close to the floats. There are fences, police and security officers, and blocked roads. None of that exists in Nice. We practically stood in the parade. You could touch the floats, you could run in around the people in the parade, or cross the street whenever you wanted. There were also a lot of things that would have been deemed inappropriate in the US, especially considering there are so many children. A lot of the floats that depict women show them topless, or entirely naked. The music that plays is certainly not a radio edit. Christina Aguilera’s “Lady Marmalade” played, with the section that asks, Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir? We’re in France; they can understand that. At least in the States, the majority of children won’t know what that means. American songs played that clearly had cuss words in them, and one man walked in the parade dressed as Tarzan, with a Jane doll that he held at interesting positions. By doll, yes, I mean a blow up doll. But, different culture, different expectations.

So many people participate, that it’s a wonder there is anyone to watch, but with the huge influx of tourists every weekend, I’m sure that they make a killing. Carnival continues for three weeks with different events held on different days. The parade will run every day of the three weekends, but this was the first weekend, so likely the best parade.

While we were there it rained nearly the whole time, which was a little disappointing, but the party continued on nonetheless. The city was trashed afterwards- confetti, silly string, all kinds of trash, and streamers all caked onto the roads, benches, floats, and people.

It was very good to see Nice, which I can only imagine is incredibly beautiful when the weather is good. It was beautiful yesterday, and it was raining and a little cold, so I would love to go back sometime when it is warmer and actually see the beaches. We ate the Niceoise specialty, Socca, which is kind of a crepe that is then roughly cut up. It’s not sweet, and it’s thicker than a crepe, kind of the consistency of something made out of cornmeal, and it doesn’t have much flavor, but with a little salt and pepper, I thought it was very good. Not sure how it became a specialty, but I’m sure that if you mixed something in with it, it would be fantastic.

OM Game

Saturday night we went to Marseille to witness our first European soccer (football) match. Prior to leaving, everyone had warned us that we should really go with a guy because people would harass us a lot, but we figured that a group of 7 girls would be able to protect themselves. While walking in town, we weren’t so much as harassed, but encouraged as OM fans. We got a lot of cheers (“Allez OM!”) and a lot of “I love you”s.

We made our way to the Official OM Gear store, and almost all of us bought jerseys (kids size, of course, so they were only 15 euro). We then went and ate stadium food outside the Velodrome and made our way in. Of course, you can’t enter the arena and then walk all the way around it, like in the States. You have to go to the correct entrance to begin with; otherwise you can’t get to your seats. Naturally, we were at the farthest point from our entrance, and had to walk probably the better part of a mile to go through the surrounding streets to get to the other side of the stadium.
Once inside, the atmosphere is amazing. The fans are incredibly dedicated with each end of the stadium having their own “cheer leader” on a loudspeaker. Sections cheer regardless of what the other sections are doing, and each also has their own music, so there is always a lot going on. Confetti rains down on the spectators and massive flags are waved throughout the entire game.

There was no national anthem, no club anthem; they just kind of started playing. There were about 100 fake injuries during the course of the game, and I have to say the acting was less than convincing, but if the player laid on the ground long enough (most likely while the play was continuing because the ref didn’t believe him) the medical crew would run out with the stretcher, everyone would begin to almost be concerned, and then he would pop up and sprint away. I’m not sure if OM was playing their sixth string, or what, but I have to say that they looked very sloppy and not very impressive on the field. People in the stands started making paper airplanes out of the magazines that they had been given at the door. So while the players were faking injuries on the fields, the stands were going crazy with paper airplanes, some of which even made their way all the way down on to the field.

OM ended up winning 2-0 against Saint Etienne. It was a very fun atmosphere, although maybe not the greatest game in the world. I would highly recommend seeing a soccer match in Europe where the sport means so much more than it does in the States.

Gearing Up For the Weekend

We're gearing up for a weekend in Aix! Tomorrow we are going to the morning market in town to buy OM soccer gear to wear to the game tomorrow night! The atmosphere at these games is supposed to be really great, and we're not going to a game that is against a huge rival, so it shouldn't get violent either (I know that's what my parents are worried about haha). We bought nosebleed tickets for 20 euros, so that's not bad at all.

I couldn't tell you who we're playing, but we met one of the players, Loic Remy, in a club here in Aix. Turns out he's pretty well-known and quite good, so it will be fun to see him on the field.

On Sunday we are going to Nice just for a day trip to see the beginnings of Carnival! I'm really excited for that, but I have to be honest and say that I really don't know what to expect, other than maybe a semi-creepy parade. They really have a tendency to take their costumes and traditional stories here to a level of scary that we would never do to kids in the US. Oh well, that's France for you. Pictures will be up after the weekend!

Paris for Valentine's Day!

We just got back last night from spending Valentine's Weekend in Paris! We saw so much: the Eiffel Tower at night (when it sparkles!), the Catacombs, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, Saint Chappelle, the Gallerie Lafayette, l'Arc de Triomphe (which we went to the top of), the Musee d'Orsay, and even a little bit of Parisian night life (which is ridiculously expensive).

A great weekend, but definitely a tiring one. We rode on nearly every metro line in the city, and probably walked up and down about 5,000 stairs. Shopping in Paris is impressive, but also incredibly expensive, as are the clubs (with a cover of 20 euros and the cheapest drink costing about 15 euros? I don't think so).

I think my favorite thing might have been going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It's a completely different view of the city than from the Eiffel Tower, and even though it was sprinking, it was beautiful.

We also had dinner one night in Montmartre at a piano bar, and that was really cool. My mom and I had visited Paris this past summer, and somehow we didn't realize that you have to go behind the Sacre Coeur to get to the district with all the artists, so this was completely new to me and really exciting. I didn't buy a painting, but I figure there is plenty of time for that.

We bought all the appropriate tourist things, and got ripped off as you are supposed to (of course, nothing is easy here, I don't know why this continues to shock me even after a month and a half). But as far as travelling, we had no problems this time! We took the TGV to Paris and it took about 3 hours, but the trains are very efficient and always on time, so that was great. Plus the Paris metro system is awesome, so it was really easy to get around town all weekend. We didn't even have a problem with the hostel! Someone was there to check us in, like they said they would be, and prices didn't change, there weren't any ants, and generally no surprises!

Maybe Paris was trying to make up for our bad travelling luck from the last trip...

Host Family Dinner

Alright, we are finally over our Malta shock. It was nice to come back to France and feel like it's home, but I do miss the nice people from Malta. French people just really aren't all that nice all the time, although that is a very broad generalization.

We had dinner with our host family last night! It's not so much a family as it is two ladies (and we might be adding a third). They are in their 60s I would guess, but still very young at heart and incredibly charming and funny. We're going to have a great time with them all semester. This was the first really French meal that we have had in France: appetizer and apperitifs followed by second appetizer, followed by meat/rice/potatoes course, followed by salad/cheese course, followed by dessert. The food was absolutely fantastic and we had a really fun time.

The first hour and a half we spend speaking English so that they could practice. English seems to be really hard for them, so it was a bit of a painful hour. We had to speak really slowly and I felt as if we were almost treating them as if they were stupid, but they said they had a really hard time understading our accent.

When we swithced to French for dinner, conversation flowed much more naturally and everyone had a really good time. Their names are Jo and Jos, which is kind of funny, and there was so much food. To start we had appertifs (martinis) with crab cakes and hummus and pita. Then followed an appetizer of some kind of vegetable skewers, then a course of veal, potatoes, and rice. After that we had salad and cheese platter course, and then ice cream with hot chocolate sauce and cookies for dessert! It was fantastic and so French! I think next time they are going to make rabbit.

The two ladies are just friends, and I believe that we will be eating at the other house next time. Although I have to say that I loved this house. Really big for the area, and decorated so cutely. I really should take a picture of us so I can put it up here! Next time!

Malta Continued

We went back to the hostel in the morning, and there was still no one there to check us in! We left a nasty note with our phone number on it so they could call us whenever they decided to come to work that day. In the meantime, we looked for another hostel, and found one completely by chance that only cost 5 euros per person each night. Naturally, this was a huge downgrade from the Intercontinental, but whatever. We really basically just needed a locker to put our stuff in.
That first day we took a double-decker bus tour around Malta. It was a hop-on, hop-off tour and it was so beautiful. The island is not big at all and we probably drove all over the whole thing. Gorgeous countryside, stunning beaches and cliffs; honestly, just an amazing island. We did a boat tour the second day, and that was more amazing views.
We were told by one of our tour guides that France is a beautiful country, ruined by the French. He couldn’t have been more correct when it came to how the people of the country acted. The people of Malta were so friendly and helpful, and just genuinely nice the whole time.
Saturday night we went out on the town and it was so much fun. Malta is like a little Cancun, and the people just rage every day (no joke, even on Sundays!). They have happy hours pretty much all hours of the day, and they’re always handing out little tokens for free drinks.
We bought a bottle of wine from a little store on the strip and asked if he would open it for us because we didn’t have a wine opener at the hostel. He said he would, but then the issue of whether or not it was legal to carry an open container of alcohol in the streets came up. While we’re debating, he just says “It’s ok. I give you black bag.” (Russian accent). That certainly ended all conversation. He intended for us to hide this alcohol under a black bag and just carry it back with us! While there are tons of cops in the street! This was just soooo funny and unforeseen that we just cracked up right there.
Then the last day in Malta we spent at the beach! It was warm enough to lay out even, and we took full advantage.
The island was beautiful and I could not have wished for more from a weekend vacation in February. I would love to go back to Malta someday and I hope that I can!