So after taking a variety of planes, trains, and automobiles (okay, so maybe I didn’t take any trains), here I am, writing to you from the not-of-this world, French Riviera paradise known as Nice. The plane rides over here were fairly uneventful, though the little girl sitting beside me(!) started retching near the end of the Toronto-Paris flight(there was turbulence) and I nearly got vomit on my pants, which was mildly traumatising. Ugh.
When I stepped off the bus to meet my friend Nita, nearly self-amputating my foot with my heavy suitcase, I was struck my the sheer beauty of the place. With the Mediterranean right at your fingertips, bright, hot sun, and humidity that is welcoming and not oppressive, Nice embraces you like a warm hug, and makes you want to stay forever. Which is what I felt. When I stepped off the bus and was greated by that view, I thought to myself, “good Lord, what have I done? Why am I moving to Hong Kong when Nice/France is home?” Truthfully, I still haven’t found the answer. I love being in France. I love the language. And the food. And the fashion. And the people. And… well, you get the idea. I love the travel opportunities, knowing that a place like Milan, for instance, is just a 4 hour and 15 euro train ride away. I ate a sandwich with stinky French cheese yesterday, and revelled in the sheer deliciousness that exploded in my mouth. I love the simplicity of life here, and love that this is a walking culture (which I desperately need to do since I put on tons of weight these last few weeks in Canada).
And Nice is a land of familar faces (both friends and strangers) and places. I am staying with my Italian friend Nita and her French boyfriend Jean-Michel, in their beautiful apartment which is located right next to the school I used to work at when I lived in Nice from 2005 to 2006 (the picture above is the view from their balcony. Gorgeous). As for familiar strangers, I ran into a bouncer from a bar I used to frequent here, many moons ago. And, in a fit of randomness, when I was at the internet cafe yesterday an African guy approached me, talking how we met two years ago. I thought he was just feeding me a line when, before I could even respond, he told me how he knows that I am Canadian and that I used to teach English in the city. Wow!
I also love the culture here, and how everyone speaks a ton of languages, gliding from one to the next effortlessly. Case in point, my girlfriend Nita, who is Italian, and her boyfriend, who is French. We all went out to eat last night and another girlfriend of theirs, also Italian, joined us. It was awesome as the two girls and Jean-Michel spoke to each other in a mix of French, Italian, and Sicilian (Nita and her girlfriend are from Palermo, Sicily, and speak dialect). I only speak about 15 words of Italian, but could sometimes follow their conversation, and would speak to them in Spanish whenever I wanted to participate without shifting the convo back to French. Nita’s friend, who is an Italian teacher here, kept on teaching me words and phrases in Italian, which was great (Io sono Oneika, una ragazza canadense é Io parlo italiano molto bene)!
All in all, it was a lovely evening and has been a lovely time in Nice, thus far. But this morning I am also dog- tired. Hello, jet lag!
I’m on my way to the beach right now with Nita (yay, me!). Tonight we are supposed to be going out dancing, then bright and early I will get up and board my plane to Budapest, Hungary, to start my Eastern European 10-day vacay. Wish me luck!
40 Comments
I went to Nice for the first time towards the end of the year I spent in Paris and LOVED it. I regretted not visiting earlier but definitely plan to go again when I return to Paris next month! What a beautiful, magical little city! Enjoy! :o)
I've been avoiding France, but you make me so want to go to Nice. I'm glad you made it safely and are already having a magnificent time. How cool that you've met up with familiar strangers. Again, so proud of you!
stacy: yes, nice is so nice! love it! it has such a laid back vibe… so different from paris. you should definitely plan on coming back here.
ms. bp: why avoiding? france is the bomb, and is basically the home of the west african diaspora, so you are constantly among people who look like you, which is super cool, lol.
Hey, I've been reading your blog intermittently since I found your post on teaching in Mexico. I absolutely love your blog and look forward to your updates. You are so lucky. Have a great time in Europe.
PS: How do you get to travel so often and to all the places you do?
Hey Aritul,
Thanks for reading! I'm a high school teacher, so I have tons of time off (2 months in the summer, 2 weeks at Xmas, 1-2 weeks for March Break/ Easter). I have also taught in two international destinations so far (France and Mexico), so I always make sure to take advantage of that and visit all the neighbouring cities and countries! And mostly, I make travelling a real priority, because I love different languages and different cultures and figure that you only live once!
An easy payday loan is a type of quick asking for where some the last resort will prolong high-interest credit based on your revenue. Their crucial is normally a portion within your next payday. Cash advance loans request increased rates of interest for interim immediate credit rating. Will not have the labeled payday loans or even check improve fiscal payday loans online.
That’s a great point
Wonderful views on that!
I must thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this
blog. I really hope to view the same high-grade
content by you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has motivated
me to get my own website now 😉
Hello, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i
was just wondering if you get a lot of spam comments?
If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can recommend?
I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any help is
very much appreciated.
Unquestionably consider that which you stated. Your favorite reason seemed to be at the web the simplest factor to consider of.
I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while other folks consider concerns that they plainly do not know about.
You controlled to hit the nail upon the highest as well
as outlined out the entire thing without having side effect ,
folks could take a signal. Will likely be again to get
more. Thanks
Hurrah, that’s what I was looking for, what a information! existing here at this website, thanks admin of this web site.
My coder is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on numerous websites for about a
year and am worried about switching to another platform.
I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it?
Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
Good day! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering which
blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting
sick and tired of WordPress because I’ve had problems
with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform.
I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of
a good platform.
Excellent weblog here! Additionally your web site loads up fast!
What host are you the usage of? Can I get your associate link
in your host? I wish my web site loaded up as
quickly as yours lol
Greetings! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form?
I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having trouble
finding one? Thanks a lot!
Hello! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues with hackers?
My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work due to no data backup.
Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?
Greetings I am so excited I found your webpage, I really found you by error, while
I was browsing on Aol for something else, Nonetheless I am here now
and would just like to say many thanks for a marvelous post and a all round entertaining
blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have
time to look over it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS
feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great
deal more, Please do keep up the fantastic work.
I’ve been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles or weblog posts on this kind of area .
Exploring in Yahoo I ultimately stumbled upon this site.
Studying this info So i am glad to express that I have an incredibly excellent
uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed.
I such a lot no doubt will make certain to
don?t put out of your mind this website
and provides it a glance regularly.
Thank you, I’ve recently been searching for information approximately this
subject for a while and yours is the greatest I’ve found out till now.
However, what about the conclusion? Are you positive
concerning the supply?
It’s amazing for me to have a web page, which is valuable for my knowledge.
thanks admin
Wow, that’s what I was looking for, what a data! existing here at
this website, thanks admin of this web page.
Good day! This is my first visit to your blog!
We are a team of volunteers and starting a new initiative
in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a extraordinary job!
Have you ever considered writing an e-book or guest authoring
on other sites? I have a blog based upon on the
same topics you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers
would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to
shoot me an e mail.
If you are going for finest contents like I do, only visit this website every day because it presents quality contents, thanks
I every time used to study article in news papers but
now as I am a user of net thus from now I am using net for articles or
reviews, thanks to web.
What’s up, this weekend is good for me,
for the reason that this moment i am reading
this impressive informative article here at my residence.
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across
this board and I find It really useful & it helped me out much.
I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.
If you are going for most excellent contents like I do, simply pay a visit this web site everyday for the
reason that it presents quality contents, thanks
What’s up, after reading this amazing piece of writing i am as well cheerful to share
my familiarity here with friends.
Excellent post. Keep writing such kind of
information on your page. Im really impressed by your
site.
Hi there, You’ve done a great job. I will definitely digg it and personally recommend to my friends.
I’m confident they will be benefited from this site.
Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Cheers
Excellent post. I absolutely appreciate this website.
Keep writing!
excellent submit, very informative. I ponder why the other
experts of this sector do not realize this. You
should proceed your writing. I’m sure, you’ve a great readers’ base already!
What i don’t understood is in reality how you are not actually a lot more neatly-liked than you might be right now.
You’re very intelligent. You realize therefore
considerably in terms of this topic, produced me
in my view believe it from numerous various angles. Its
like men and women are not interested until it is something to accomplish with Lady gaga!
Your individual stuffs outstanding. Always deal with it up!
You made some good points there. I looked on the net to
learn more about the issue and found most people
will go along with your views on this site.
I will immediately grab your rss as I can’t find your email subscription hyperlink
or newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly permit me
understand in order that I may just subscribe.
Thanks.
Hello, all is going sound here and ofcourse
every one is sharing information, that’s really fine, keep
up writing.
It is perfect time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy.
I have read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions.
Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article.
I desire to read even more things about it!
I was just telling my friend about that.
Comments are closed.