February flew by. Maybe because I was having fun or maybe because the last week and a half was our winter break, either way its scary how quickly it went. I discovered a beautiful running route at the beginning of February that goes up into the hills and gives me the most breathtaking view of the city. As beautiful as the promenade along the beach is to look at every day(trust me it doesn’t get old) it is a little to crowded for my tastes to run there especially from my flat in the city center. So instead I go up. and up. and up. I go to a quaint little park next to the Museum Matisse and some gorgeous archaeological?ruins and then i finish my run from my favorite spot in Nice. Its jaw dropping.
Classes here are almost all 3 hours long with a break in between at about the 1.5hr mark. most people go grab a smoke on the terrace or a coffee to stay awake in class. Some dare to goo next door to the grocery store Dia and grab a snack. I tend to get a coffee but I also discovered a tiny little Boulangerie/Bakery a bit past Dia with these yummy little quiche. So on occasion I make that my use of the break. Classes have gotten more challenging and are still spastic with almost no pattern except that certain courses will come in clusters. you won’t have it for ?2 weeks and then you will have it two or threes days in a row. Mostly though if its three days in a row its because the class had a lecture and then a tutorial or because its an elective.
I’ve learned that one thing they could benefit from here is a Sweet Eugene’s Coffee shop or a Muldoon’s or maybe even a West Campus Library for Pete’s sake theres no good study spot after hours. Well…. theres no anything after hours. Everything closes so early here! Its nuts. Oh and trying to find anything on a Sunday is just out of the question. I’m just lucky that I live right next to the 24 hr Pharmacy. Oh yes and they don’t have big grocery store heavens with everything you could ever need like our HEB or Walmart. They have a bunch of specialized smaller stores. Its quite the pain. The closest thing would be a large Monoprix or Carrefour Store if you can find the closest big one in the city….but even those don’t have medicine. Everything to do with health, even over the counter or things like plain eye drops, they are all at the pharmacies. Frustrating I know.
I ended my second month with a trip to Marrakech and Barcelona. We flew from Milan so I saw that for a day but it was raining and deserted on the walk to the apartment, and it poured all night so we stayed in and I can’t really say I saw Milan..just a delicious super super SUPER cheap pizza parlor, they were very nice and helped me with my Italian. Then Morocco was AMAZING I can’t even begin to tell about that or this blog will never end. Flew to Madrid and drove to Barcelona to meet up with the rest of our friends. Barcelona. Wow. Just wow. Thought I was in love. Tapas everywhere!!
All in all it was a pretty good month if i do say so myself.