Enjoying my fabulous day at the beach downtown!But that's besides the point.
It's finally a huge relief to be able to use MY OWN computer over here. Although I'm still not using it at home, it's the weirdly-placed keys that I remember and the programs I've installed, along with the ability to download whatever my little heart desires. Strangely enough, I keep wanting to hit the Q button in place of the A because -- among many others -- those two are switched on the French keyboards.
And as weird as it feels to sit in a McDo (that's McDonald's to you in the States) on my laptop, I have no objections. There's a specific breed of people walking around town you can pinpoint. Basically we're all walking around the city with backpacks and unloading our hardware in McDonald's. I'm not the only one eating fast food, with headphones, using Skype or what have you on my laptop here. It's kind of a different feeling. At first, I had to muster every single ounce of energy NOT to order a glass of wine here. I feel like that's the most typical thing you could purchas at a French McDo. Instead, I opted for the "McFlurry Crunch," and lesson learned, I'm never ordering food here again.
After being in the bathroom for quite a while (sorry, too much info, I know) I can now enjoy the Internet as long as I want! Well, not entirely, since it closes at 11 p.m.
But my day off was quite productive. I might make a habit of doing this every Wednesday! I started off the morning making a trek-and-a-half out of a trip to find the next grocery store on my list, Carrefour. It's within walking distance of my house, but I swear all my maps are out-of-date. What should have only been a 25/30-minute walk ended up taking me nearly two hours. And I take back my last comment, Monoprix is NOT the Target of France. Carrefour most definitely is. And it's cheap! Now that I've signed up for a carte de fidelité, I'm probably going to do all of my shopping there. AND THEY HAVE SKIPPY -- very, very expensive peanut butter, but a treat nonetheless.
So after making my way home, I got back just in time to throw together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cookies, pear, and a bottle of water to make the noon bus downtown. For the third time in my 10 days here I had a nice and quiet little afternoon at the beach.
And now here I am at 5 p.m. sitting in a McDonald's. The whole evening looms in front of me, as I plan to at least take another exploratory run and then make dinner.
I've also been thinking, that despite the NUMBER of people that initially have mistaken me for a local -- living in the hills has its perks -- I feel SO out of place here. For example, the only thing everyone wears here is black! And if you know me at all, you know that I have a thing for very bright colors. So today here I am in my bright blue beach cover walking around the beach, city and hills, passing blacks and browns all along the way... tant pis.
Tomorrow we're back in Nice and I can't wait! Until then...
It's finally a huge relief to be able to use MY OWN computer over here. Although I'm still not using it at home, it's the weirdly-placed keys that I remember and the programs I've installed, along with the ability to download whatever my little heart desires. Strangely enough, I keep wanting to hit the Q button in place of the A because -- among many others -- those two are switched on the French keyboards.
And as weird as it feels to sit in a McDo (that's McDonald's to you in the States) on my laptop, I have no objections. There's a specific breed of people walking around town you can pinpoint. Basically we're all walking around the city with backpacks and unloading our hardware in McDonald's. I'm not the only one eating fast food, with headphones, using Skype or what have you on my laptop here. It's kind of a different feeling. At first, I had to muster every single ounce of energy NOT to order a glass of wine here. I feel like that's the most typical thing you could purchas at a French McDo. Instead, I opted for the "McFlurry Crunch," and lesson learned, I'm never ordering food here again.
After being in the bathroom for quite a while (sorry, too much info, I know) I can now enjoy the Internet as long as I want! Well, not entirely, since it closes at 11 p.m.
But my day off was quite productive. I might make a habit of doing this every Wednesday! I started off the morning making a trek-and-a-half out of a trip to find the next grocery store on my list, Carrefour. It's within walking distance of my house, but I swear all my maps are out-of-date. What should have only been a 25/30-minute walk ended up taking me nearly two hours. And I take back my last comment, Monoprix is NOT the Target of France. Carrefour most definitely is. And it's cheap! Now that I've signed up for a carte de fidelité, I'm probably going to do all of my shopping there. AND THEY HAVE SKIPPY -- very, very expensive peanut butter, but a treat nonetheless.
So after making my way home, I got back just in time to throw together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cookies, pear, and a bottle of water to make the noon bus downtown. For the third time in my 10 days here I had a nice and quiet little afternoon at the beach.
And now here I am at 5 p.m. sitting in a McDonald's. The whole evening looms in front of me, as I plan to at least take another exploratory run and then make dinner.
I've also been thinking, that despite the NUMBER of people that initially have mistaken me for a local -- living in the hills has its perks -- I feel SO out of place here. For example, the only thing everyone wears here is black! And if you know me at all, you know that I have a thing for very bright colors. So today here I am in my bright blue beach cover walking around the beach, city and hills, passing blacks and browns all along the way... tant pis.
Tomorrow we're back in Nice and I can't wait! Until then...
1 comment:
Hey Mo, thanks for the comment. You'll get there! It sounds like you're doing quite well already; in fact, i'm finding myself to be a little jealous of your French adventures (and your guts for doing this in the first place)... it makes me want to go to Spain to teach. Anyway, I'm really enjoying reading about it!
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