Saturday, September 24, 2011

Finding Nemo

WORD OF THE DAY
les haricots: beans

I thought it was the 22nd all day today, which makes me sad because 23 is my favorite number.

But now it makes sense really, when you think about it. Because today was great.
I was productivity incarnate, and it feels fantastic.

'Lil Recap:

-I went to an English grammar class this morning, thinking it would be working on phrases and clauses and conjunction junction type stuff. Well, needless to say I already know the difference between "to know," "to be," and "to do." Because I know that I need to be in another class to do something a little more challenging. See that? Piece o' cake.
-Then I went to the post office to mail some forms to some office so I can eventually travel outside France blah blah blah...
-Then I went to the $bank$ . . . oh wait . . . to the €bank€.
-Then I went to the bus office to buy a yearlong bus pass. All by myself!
-Theeeen I went to the grocery store! Note to readers, don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry and you've watched too many cooking podcasts on iTunes. But I am so proud of my purchases! I got:

*knife
*corkscrew
*can opener
*fingernail clippers
*2 reusable grocery bags (because the 1 I brought was NOT enough)
*wooden spoon
*a pot (I realized the indefinite article was necessary.)
*1 liter EVOO
*4 DIFFERENT KINDS OF PASTA
*2 different tomato sauces
*oatmeal
*4 yogurts
*2 bananas
*2 pomelos
*2 avocados
*12 apples
*lettuce
*chick peas
*green beans
*lentils
*tomatoes
*8 tortillas

. . . all for . . . (drumroll please) dugududugududugududugududugudu (triple tonguing)

59€49!

Seriously I should have my own show. "How to spend money without actually spending any money."
It's brilliant.

-Then I dropped a paper off at the bank. (Yes, this is still my recap. Sorry. Almost done.)
-Aaaaand then I brought everything back to my dorm and scurried off to my archeology class at 4.

Whew~ (as I wipe my brow)
-------------------------------------------------------

So this week's been pretty average. Still a lot of administrative stuff to do. So that's fun.

1. Last Saturday evening, Helen and I went to the grocery store and bought fun stuff like grapes and cheese and crackers and wine and hummus, and we had ourselves a French night! It was great. and super delicious. (Also we met a guy in the wine section who was from Toronto like Helen. Very charming. So, Toronto #2, if you're reading this, Helen is looking for you. Thus, by association, I am looking for you. For Helen. So um, yeah.)

2. Then, Sunday we were going to go to Cannes with some friends, BUT (she says angrily) it rained. I mean, obviously. So we decided to do something fun in Nice. I use the word "fun" lightly.

The Parc Phoenix. Sounds great right? Beautiful plants, some exotic animals, one of the largest greenhouses in Europe . . . what could be more cheery?

Essentially this was a zoo with everything you don't look at in the other zoos. Plants, birds, fish, and bugs. But is that enough to make me unhappy? Not even close. You just have to work a little harder to enjoy yourself.

View from the entranceway

Well this is peculiar.

Black swan?

Fairy grotto :)

Shout-out to my family in Arizona! woot woot!

Because, like concerts, I know how much people like to look at pictures of flowers.

---------------------------------------------------

Everything I learned in the French "aquarium," I already learned on Finding Nemo.



2. We wandered around a little after the parc and the complementary Asian museum at the entrance (?) and happened on a collection of office buildings where French people work . . . allegedly.

Art installation? Or phone lines?

"Autres Directions" means "Other Directions."
Why, thank you, road sign. Look how helpful you are.

I'm sorry, please notice the road sign in the background saying
NICE CÔTE d'AZURE is on the right now.

Ultimately the rain was good.

3. Lastly, my theatre class. Seriously, most of the time I have no EARTHLY idea what's going on. I just follow everyone else until I (hopefully) begin to understand. On Thursday, my professor was saying something about how stepping onto the stage is like stepping into a different time, an imaginary place (or at least this was the sense I injected into it). So then we started walking around the stage, either super fast or super slow. Again, just following suit. By the end of the class we were supposed to listen to the people around us and react to the sounds and behaviors of others? So, for instance, if someone clapped their hands, everyone else would start clapping too. This eventually translated into tribal war chants, an asthma attack, and a zombie resurrection. Are you confused? Well, there you go.

Wow. This was a long one. Even I went to sleep before I could finish it. Jeebus, if I couldn't make it through, how can I expect you to? Of course, the internet shut off at about midnight, so that . . . yeah that was probably why.

Well, if you did make it through, or if you just skipped to the end, CONGRATULATIONS!! You have a longer attention span than I do. Or you cheated. But I'm not pointing fingers.

Amitiés :)

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