Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Le Moineau et Le Chiot
Had a rather good time over in Nice (desperately searches for synonyms for nice) - I was greeted by brilliant sunshine, and a drive along the 'Promenade des Anglais' on the way to my host's house. The couple I was staying with was pretty nice (argh!) - they were in fact grandparents, so they did indeed have children & the family came over every now 'n' then for a meal. I soon found out though, that (not as I had requested) I was not the only student staying with them - it seems M. & Mme. Kohl get quite a few students from the language school in, even some teachers from school groups. So when I arrived there were already 2 german girls there, followed a week later by some Austrian teachers.
Laurence, the lady of the house, yes, that's Laurence, always spoke really slowly, loudly and patronizingly. But I soon discovered that was how she spoke to everyone, y compris les Francais, which got a little annoying, but hey. Bernard, the man of the house, was quite kewl - think he was an economics lecturer at Nice uni. Both their english accents were absolutely appalling:P Not that they spoke much english to me at all. They live in a rather schexy part of Nice - called Cimiez. It was a kinda appartment type thang, but in a huge house - about 3-4 families lived there methinks. They had a full 3 floors - mostly open plan, if that's the right way of sayin' it. And 1 floor was entirely for the students! We had our own lounge with TV, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and our own room. Which was obviously kewl, we had our own door as well, could come & go as we pleased. But it did mean that we weren't really involved with the family too much, apart from dinner.
Anyway, here are the first couple o' pics:
The 'Baie des Anges' - so-called possibly due to the infrequent presence of angel sharks, and alongside - the 'Promenade des Anglais' - so-called coz some english dude gave the commuters of 19th Century Nice some shelter along the promenade, during their uber-cold winter.
Here's the view from just about the same place, but in the opposite direction - and you can see Sean Connery's house! Apparently it's to the right of the crane and down a bit:P
So... it was quite a long walk into school every day - about 30mins each way. Had lessons in the mornin', then free to roam about & chill in the afternoon & evenin'. The school, Alpha B (apparently the best language school in Nice), did offer afternoon lessons in addition, and also the possibility of individual tutoring in the afternoon, but I obviously had financial limitations, & those woulda cost quite a bit more.
On the first day, all n00bs got tested - with about 80 multiple choice questions, a letter to write & an oral. The multiple choice starts off with stuff like 'Je suis 19ans' or 'J'ai 19ans'. It then gets harder & harder - I was ok without any problems til about Q60, then things really got tough, but I got a few right. I managed to stick in as many subjunctives & tenses as poss for the letter, thanks to AS jump-through-hoops exams, and the oral went pretty well. After that, they place you in a class - 6 to choose from: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 where A1 is beginner & C2 is post-university (which hardly ever exists). I got placed in B2, which was what I was aiming for:)
Pupils were from a wide range of countries - from the UK to Russia, and quite a few places in between, although mostly Germans & Swiss. We did mostly grammar, with the odd debate, which was a good revision, especially since I hadn't done french for quite a while, what with not taking my A-levels:P But after a little while, it was a bit slow. There were oldies in the class as well - mostly people who had done it at school or uni, then lost it & wanted to pick it up again. Some of them knew quite a few words that I didn't, but things were still slow, & the teacher noticed, so suggested that I move up a class:) so after a week & a half I tried C1. We discussed things a lot more, and did no grammar at all unless there was a problem. On the second day, we went to the Modern Art Museum of Nice, and discussed the art a little - nothing too heavy, just knowing all the vocab, describing our fave works n stuff. There were some pretty kewl paintings - one set by this American dude who painted things like the Garden of Eden, but then camouflaged them with images of a Shell petrol pump or somethin' like that. There were some less interesting works, such as a small, cordoned-off room with a load of bright blue powder on the floor. That was it. Sigh. Anyway, so the new class was kewl, not too hard & we watched french films n stuff, did presentations, more debates & even our own murder mystery in french! I was one of the detectives:P
The school organised visits every week to someplace or other - the first was to a Greek style house in Beaulieu - a couple of train stops along the coast towards Italy, which wasn't bad - then we walked back to the train stop in between, then got the train back to Nice. But the walk was très agréable - took many a photo, my favourite of which is this one right here:
Villefranche-sur-Mer
Also on the walk back along the coast, we saw the stage type thing being built for Justin Timberlake & Cameron Diaz's wedding, which was scheduled for the week after I believe.
Another outing was to Cannes - where they have the Film Festival, and coincidentally, just before it happened. We saw all the marquees, posters & the 'Palais des Festivals' being prepared.
The 'Palais des Festivals' - where the stars ascend the stairs to watch filmz.
I also went to Cannes with the Family on the opening day of the Film Festival, but only in the evening after dinner, and I didn't get to see much, but there were limos a plenty driving around & loadsa people dressed up trying to get picked by film directors 'n' stuff:P
Miss Stone's handprints, one set of many along the pavement by the Palais.
Also managed to get to Monaco, where there's no income tax apparently, but VAT is 80%!!! I suspect most people in that smallest of countries buy their groceries in Nice:P Saw the preparations for the Grand Prix there - 'tis an awesome track - winding around the streets of the city:D
Mika Hakkinen lives in the right half of the building - just opposite the Palace of Monaco, and not far from the racetrack, as you might imagine.
One of the guys in my second class was an english guy called Ben, who lives in Ireland, same age as me - hung out with him quite a bit, and we actually managed to speak french about half the time:P But we were sittin' in the 'Place Massena' - a pedestrian square type thing, near the beach, having our lunch one day, chattin' away, when suddenly I feel a lil tweak at my fingertips. I look down, and there's a frickin' sparrow eating from my hand! I was eating some brioche type stuff, and he just thought he'd come along & help himself. Never seen anything like it before. Anyway, it flew away, but came back to eat from Ben's hand, and I managed to get out the camera just in time:D
t3h 1337 spadg3r
And now a couple of random pics that I just had to stick in:
A Pacman Ghost mosaic!!111!11ein!!einein!!!11! - On the streets of Nice
One of the tiny lil ones in the puppy shop just 'round the corner from the school - excuse my reflection:P
Anyway, had an awesome time - went to the beach quite a bit, swam a couple of times, despite it being rather cold. Ok, very cold, but hey, I did it. When I got back off my easyJet plane at Stansted I could tell I was back in England again:P But I'll be back in the sun mid-July :D it's still in the final stages of organisation, but should be good to go very soon. Hope this is not too long:P and yeah umm... sorry for the delay:P
Mange fruit.
