Eight hours ago I was cursing my life and my decision to come to France so late. Now, I don’t think that’s such a problem. Well it might be tomorrow, but I’ll explain.
When I arrived at the relais, it wasn’t going to open for another four more hours! But luckily, my former host “mother” came and met me at the airport to drop me off at the hostel -- which was definitely a 20-minute drive from the airport, so let’s say 45 Euros by taxi. When she saw that the reception desk was empty, she went off searching for someone to help me. In the meantime, I met the three other girls sitting in the lobby equally aimless as me. Turns out one of the girls just came from the same flight I was on. But she’s originally from Romania, one girl from Germany and the other from Spain. The only common language we all shared was French and at best it was adequate. That was definitely eye-opening for all of us, who haven’t spoken it anywhere from six months to three years!
After figuring out the bus system pretty quickly we went to Vieux Nice! And I remembered my way around! However, it’s a lot different than the past two years when I was here because the city-wide tram is finally complete… thus the roads and sidewalks are all open.
After lunch at a really cute café called “Le Pain Quotidien,” we hung out at the beach and the headed back towards the hostel. And apparently all 150 of us were there and ready to go. Needless to say, with a disastrous day-and-a-half of flying, I was ready to give up on the day.
Instead I sucked it up and took a shower. Then we made our way downstairs and started to “mingle.” I only put that in quotes because I was ready to fall asleep at the table and was feeling extremely let down because I hadn’t met anyone from my city. All the girls from earlier were placed in Toulon, which is a.) two hours away and b.) in a completely different district than Antibes. One girl I recognized because she sent me a few facebook messages and it just happened by chance that she was rooming with this girl from Antibes who I’ve been in email contact with!
I sought her out -- and think made a really good friend with lots of similar interests -- and we talked for nearly two hours until dinner. The dinner itself was a trip, because here you have 150 people from 23 different countries all mixing with people who either speak the same language or will be working in the same cities. It reminded me very much of L’Auberge Espagnole. But honestly, it was nice to speak English for the evening with some of the English, Australian and American assistants. Then the next day, Sarah from Antibes and I spent most of today at the orientation workshops together because we’re both teaching at elementary schools in the same city.
A little later in the afternoon, I overheard some other assistants talking about moving from the relais in Nice to the one in Antibes and that would have been SUPER convenient for me to search for an apartment instead of commuting back and forth from Nice. I was already feeling a bit left out, because most people have been here for several weeks.
Sarah has been here two weeks and already has an apartment so when she started going home I accompanied her and figured out the train!! With close to 70 pounds of luggage…
So here I am, sweating in a tank top and jeans, dragging these ridiculously over-packed suitcases through streets that never really intended to have sidewalks. To say it was a nightmare would be a gross understatement! I dreaded the fact that I’m going to have to do that again, but I kept thinking that in two weeks I’ll look back at my misadventures and laugh at how easy I’ll have it in the future.
Maybe 20 minutes later, I got off the voie at the train station and picked up a taxi while Sarah walked home. He told me it’d probably cost 28 Euros to get to Cap d’Antibes where the hostel is. However, upon arrival I realized that it’s closed for the winter! And only one day into October… Fantastique.
Again, I cursed my luck and pleaded with him to take me to any nearby hotel. However, since Antibes is the playground for wealthy British and Americans (see photos of the yacht harbor), there are only four- and five-star hotels on the Cap, from an upwards of 350 Euros per night. He suddenly remembered the Hotel Méditanerrée in Centre Ville and took me there right away, only charging me 30 Euros for the entire adventure. When I tipped him two more, I swear I saw his jaw hit the floor. Apparently it’s included in the overall price. Two Euros isn’t great, but supposedly tipping is a huge gesture here.
The cheapest room I could get was 65 Euros for the night, but the bed is HUGE! Again, I got lucky because since it was October 1st, they were no longer charging hiked up summer rates. And since it’s in Center Ville, I could explore a bit and purchase a French phone. No longer am I isolated from the rest of the world!
And my final piece of dumb luck for the day?
I swear I’ve already found an apartment. (Is it wrong I keep wanting to type appartement, because I’ve been used to emailing so many people about renting in French?) And I didn’t have to fly out earlier or spend beacoup on a hotel for a week or two. It was extremely helpful to have found a few numbers before arriving. So today I went to meet Karina -- who has a car and picked me up -- to check out her place. It’s beautiful actually, and around 530 a month after utilities. When I apply for the CAF (kind of like government assistance for renters) I’ll probably get half that sum back in my pocket.
After falling in love with this entire area, and her apartment to boot, she drove me back towards the hotel and stopped at Chemin Rabiac Estagnol to get a scouting report on my school.
Get this, it’s only 300 metres from her apartment! Damnit, they’re already converting me to metric here. But that’s definitely a walkable distance. It took less than two minutes by car, but that’s because she had to wait through three red lights.
All I have left to do now is call tomorrow and tell her I’m in! Then I can start living comme une vraie française!
And the room has a couch that turns into a bed below mine! So if anyone wants to come visit, she’s cool with it and I have an extra bed…
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