Thursday, February 23, 2012

Happiness is a warm run

There's an old saying, "When it rains, it pours." I think possibly the inverse might also be true.

Like, "When it's wonderful, it's more wonderful."

"When it's a horse, it's a unicorn."

"When it's a hot dog, it's not a hot dog."

"When it's a flower, it's a flower battle."

This brings me to my next point. Yesterday I decided I really wanted to go to the Flower parade downtown, and since I didn't have class I planned on meeting my friend from Arizona and her two sons for the festivities. (Unfortunately, my phone didn't remember her number, and we never got together.)

But, have no fear! It is I, Coincidence! And my trusty sidekick, Fate-boy! Here to save the day!

So after a series of random choices, I ended up at a bus stop down close to the Promenade. When the bus arrived, I hopped on, and who did I see but my Canadians fleeing a stinker from the front of the bus!

So I decided to join them to the parade!

Now the official name of this parade is "Bataille de Fleurs" or "Flower Battle." I guess I never really thought anything of it.

Friends, the Flower Battle is a merciless venture.

Every float that passed by would throw these tiny yellow flowers into the crowd.

Now, there are two types of people in this world. People who talk about flower battles, and people who take flowers from small children.

And, friends, if you thought it was war in the beginning, you should have seen the crowd when they started throwing flowers taken from the float displays (roses and tulips and lilies oh my and other flowers that I can't name because my flower knowledge is less that lacking).

Unfortunately, where we were standing, the sun was RIGHT in our eyes, and it was so bright, you just had to stick your hands up and hope a flower fell gently into them. (I got hit in the head with more carnation bulbs than I care to acknowledge.)

Suffice it to say, picture-taking was the struggle of my life. Since we couldn't see shapes all the time, it was hard to aim the camera. 









These are probably for the Olym--GOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!





These next photos are courtesy of Kendra.


This is me. This is my life.

We had a blast though. And we got SUPER into it. (I even grabbed a flower out of the air over a small child. I felt really bad, so I tried to give it to him. Turns out little boys don't really like flowers. They like catching things.)

Afterward we promenaded all the way back to their flat. (I unknowingly missed my stop, so I just kept on with them.)

I'm gonna try and press some of my flowers. Nikita showed me how. We'll see what happens . . .
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So what other happy stuff has happened?

Oh! So apparently my blog is featured on the UT Chancellor's Honors website! For my academic year abroad! ON THE FRONT PAGE NO LESS!

Molly Kessler is very happy. Molly Kessler "and friend" are very happy.

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On Tuesday morning, I made a mistake. I went to class an hour and a half early. And, you know what? Apparently there's another class right before mine. Same room. Same professor. Same content. It took me 40 minutes to realize I wasn't supposed to be there.

Once I realized that all my friends weren't just "absent," I turned to the girl next to me and whispered, "I just realized I'm not supposed to be here."

"What are you talking about?"

"This! This isn't my class! I'm in the next one!"

"Wait did she call your name on the roll?"

"No! I remember thinking it was weird!"

But it was too late to back out. So I sat through til the end. But I didn't want to be counted absent in my class, so I stayed for that too. (And let's be real, I didn't really understand most of the first lesson. It was good to hear it twice. Redundant but good.)
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Two nights ago, me and the girls got together for a crèpe soirée! It was delicious. It was cultured. It was French. And it was filling.

5 crèpes later, we all returned to our domiciles. Full and happy.

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So I'm leaving tomorrow evening to go to Madrid! And I couldn't be more excited. Which means, I won't be able to update my blog. (Unless our hostels have computers. But even then I'll probably be too busy learning Spanish and butchering Portuguese.) But I will return, mes petits chous. With many many pictures I'm sure.

So have a happy leap year, and keep up those Lent resolutions! Or New Years resolutions, if you're still doing that.

Amitiés :)

Monday, February 20, 2012

Here come the crazies

A trippy riddle:

I only come but once a year,
But you'll be dancing when I'm here.
For two fantastamazing weeks
The streets are drowned in costumed freaks.
The colors black and grey and blue
Have been replaced with a rainboo.
Parades and dancing til the fourth,
And when I'm gone, you'll cry of courth.
You're guaranteed to have a ball.
I also rhyme with Shmarnaval!

What am I?

**SPOILER ALERT**

CARNAVAL!!!

Carnaval started this week in Nice, and it is truly fantastamazing. If you don't know what it is, I'll tell you. There's some history mumbo jumbo behind it dating back to the Middle Ages, but, basically, Carnaval is a 2-week long party leading up to Mardi Gras with parades and festivities and food and parties and flowers and everything extravagant and cartoony and indulgent and wholly un-French.

It's glorious.

I mean Nice really just waves that freak flag.

Proudly.
Buses lined the Promenade

Costumed children are the best kind of children.


MEET YOUR KING AND QUEEN


(We will see more of them later.)

I met up with some friends, and we wandered around town for a bit then grabbed some dinner before the festivus.



They just sat there. Like nothing was weird.

Then came the party hour. The happy hour, if you will.

In the Nice Carnaval, there are 3 different parades: le Corso Carnavalesque (just a regular daytime parade), la Bataille de Fleurs (an exotic flowery parade with thousands of plants and flowers and floats and dancing and music), and le Corso Illuminé (the nighttime parade with lights and floats and a lot of awesome).

We were going to the nighttime one, le Corso Illuminé, la Fête des Lumières, the Festival of Lights!

This year's theme is "Roi des Sports" (The King of Sports). Probably because the Olympics are coming to London this summer. There were quite a few England-themed floats.

We paid 10€ apiece to stand in the middle of Place Masséna, in the MIDDLE of the parade! What I mean is, the floats encircled us, so we were literally inside the parade!

So much was right with this.

Some of the floats were amazing. Others were really neat. Others were probably crafted by an 8 year old with ADHD. But you live some place long enough, you learn not to judge.











And then the parade of, um . . . hypodermic needles?



Paralympics!

Zinedine Zidane! And Obama . . . and the pope?


Dancing through the end


We salute you, Mr. Overnight-Carnaval-Parade-Clean-Up-Man.
Mr. Overnight-Carnaval-Parade-Clean-Up-Man!

But those were all pictures of how Carnaval looked. Here's a slightly different picture of how Carnaval felt.

My brain was a mush of lights, music, and silly string.
A winning combination.

All in all, it was the most fun I've had in Nice so far. Way to go Carnaval.
Way to freakin' go.

Amitiés :)

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