After a eight hour flight and four hour nap, I, along with
some of the Abbey Road students going to Nice and some to St-Laurent-du-Var
(they are literally right next to each other, on opposite sides of the river),
arrived in Nice, France. It’s absolutely gorgeous here along the sea, and the
weather is perfect: sunny and around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Compared to the 90- 100 degree humid weather
in the United States, this was breezy and perfect for me. To put this
temperature acclimation in perspective, Mme Mulet, our homestay hostess,
mentioned how it was so chaud aujourd’hui – hot today. I went outside, and I was like: Wow, this is
such nice temperature! Even before I
departed for France, people who attended the St-Laurent program before warned
that St-Laurent would be “hot and humid” in July, but when I compared the
averages of Richmond to St-Laurent, I saw that Richmond was a good ten degrees
(approx. 80 degrees F) higher than St-Laurent (approx. 70 degrees F); Richmond
weather, I’m sure, would be sweltering compared to here. Similarly, I remember
how last year I went to London, and it was also 70 degrees and they remarked
how it was so hot. I suppose that people are accustomed to different
temperatures, and that’s just a part of the culture too.
Rachel (my
roommate) and I were welcomed by Mme Mulet, an extremely nice and welcoming
lady. She and her husband (and her three sons, all of whom are 20 and up and
have left the house) has a very roomy, comfortable house, I’m assuming bigger
than most houses in St-Laurent-du-Var. One thing to note about houses in
St-Laurent is that they are not “houses” in the typical sense with separated
buildings. Instead, imagine a village with shops underneath and apartments on
top, along with narrow alleyways. We took a siesta after our lack of sleep on
the plane and then ate a quick lunch (first croque monsieur! – grilled cheese
and ham) before heading out to la mairie
(the town hall) to meet up with the rest of the group. There we did a little orientation about
safety, practical stuff, rules, etc.
Overall, I’m
so excited to be in France and smell, taste, hear, see and touch another
culture. The French (or the French along
the Riviera), as I have noticed, are more laid back than Americans—or maybe it’s
just that mentality being besides the ocean. Cups of coffee in France are super
small, as I noticed when Mary, one of our Abbey Road teachers, got one—I looked
at that cup, and … it looked like one of those sample size Dixie Cups you get
to fill up when you’re sampling coffee at Trader Joe’s. Again, although the
U.S. always does it bigger, France makes you savor what you’re eating/drinking.
But by far,
my favorite part of the day was just sitting with my roommates and M and Mme
Mulet and just talking in French—despite many errors in our speaking skills.
They were so understanding and they tried to make sure we understood them too.
We talked about everything from how French people usually do not go far from
their home; we Americans like to travel for everything: college, work, play,
etc. etc. For them, St-Laurent-du-Var, Nice, et Cannes sur la Mer are perfect:
1 hour in the car is the maximum for them. They love their region and they love
France because they have it all: good weather, the beach and the mountains.
They go to college in Nice, they work in Nice, and go on vacation in Nice. And
they’re satisfied. Whereas in the U.S., I’m traveling five hours in the car to
live in Philly for college; they would never dream of that. We also talked
about le chômage, or unemployment in France, but above all in Spain and Greece;
we
talked about global warming, about how all the bees are dying across the world
because of pesticides, and how our fruits are going down with them (M. Mulet is
an agriculture-lover!) It just nice having a conversation, and know I could
communicate with them!
Now it’s
night, and I’m tired, so we’ll see what’s in store tomorrow! It’s July 4th
tomorrow, so we are going out to eat and celebrate as Americans. J
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