days 47 - 51

Day 47: Wednesday, May 6, 2009: Today was very simple and relaxed after a stressful day yesterday. I slept late and ate lunch with Jacqueline on the terrace. After that, I met Lance and we walked to the train station to buy tickets for the weekend. It was 40E roundtrip.
Then we had two classes: history and literature again. We normally don’t have classes on Wednesdays but since there is no school on Friday, we have to make them up today. The literature teacher was absent… so we watched a movie. Can you waste more of my time while I’m in France please?
After dinner and watching the news with Jacqueline and Bernard, I packed a bag for the weekend and did some homework.

Day 48: Thursday, May 7, 2009: Today we went to Juan-les-Pins! We had our first class and we were told that our second class would be immediately following rather than four hours later. We were lied to yet again. Thus we had another four hour break. We bought train tickets planning on leaving right after class. Since the class was later, we decided to skip it because it was their fault for not giving us ample notice of the change. And we are allowed to miss one period of each class – no more. This was our first miss and we knew we would not skip again so we did it!
After the first class, I went to Casio with Lance and we bought stuff to make Skyline dip… or at least we tried to make it as best as we could with what we had. Note to the world: France is the capital of cheese yet cream cheese does not exist here. Cheddar cheese exists but you have to hunt it down. We got lazy and gave up on the cheddar. Also, Tostito’s scoops also are nonexistent or nearly impossible to find, thus we bought Doritos that served a similar purpose.
We went to Lance’s and tried our best to make authentic Skyline Chili Dip with his host mom: we basically failed. The chili was excellent but the cheeses did not do the job. After hanging out with her for a while, she offered to take us to the train station. I went home to get my bag and meet Melissa.
When my host parents’ son slept in my room the other night, he left the key in the door on the interior, thus when I tried to use my key it did not work. Jacqueline and Bernard were not home so I knocked on the neighbor’s door to see if maybe she had a key. Fail. Then I called Jacqueline. Fail. Then I called Bernard. He told me where Jacqueline was but I was confused. Finally, he just met me on the corner and gave me his keys.
So I finally had my bag and walked to meet Melissa. Then we walked back to Lance’s house. I did some homework on the train and we arrived in Juan-les-Pins at about 8 p.m. It was easy to find the hotel and the woman that worked there was very nice.
We put our stuff in the room then walked to the beach and saw the sunset. Then we walked around the town and found a restaurant for dinner. We decided not to go out; our friends couldn’t get on our train and are arriving tomorrow.

Day 49: Friday, May 8, 2009: Today was excellent! I went to Italy! We had heard about this huge outdoor market just across the French boarder on Fridays so we bought tickets and went. We took the TER and it took an hour and a half to get there.
When we were finally there, we found the market; it would have been hard to miss. There were tons of fake goods, sunglasses, belts, bags, whatever you wanted. But you could tell that it was fake. The only thing that I bought was a bottle of Dolce & Gabanna cologne for 6E50.
We walked around and found a restaurant for lunch. When in Italy, you have to have spaghetti. It was weird because we didn’t speak Italian but everyone thought we were French anyway. So at the restaurant, we got the French menu and ordered in French.
After lunch, we walked to the beach to see the sea in Italy; then we found our way back to the train station for the ride home. It was a fun day but we spent as much time in Italy as it took to get there and back. When we got back to Juan-les-Pins, our friends had arrived and we found them on the beach.
We had a light dinner and spent most of the night hanging out at the beach. Sparks flew between Lance and Melissa and I’m now in the middle of a honeymoon of sorts. Total third wheel over here… it is excellent to say the very least. (Sarcasm)

Day 50: Saturday, May 9, 2009: Day 50!? What!? Today was very relaxed and laid back. This is exactly why we came to Juan-les-Pins. It is like a resort vacation here. The sand is excellent and it was so sunny today. So sunny that wouldn’t you know it… I got an incredible sunburn.
After tanning all day, we took showers and got ready to go out. We had a big dinner together then visited a bar for a while before coming back to our room to hang out. I Skyped my family and friends in America. We ended up watching Aladdin on youtube before falling asleep. Yes, we are all actually six years old.

Day 51: Sunday, May 10, 2009: Today started off real well then went to hell real quick. Our friends checked out of the hotel and went to Nice for the day. Lance, Melissa, and I went to the beach again but thankfully, it was cloudy. I still was careful not to get more sun.
After the beach, we went back to the room to shower and change before going to the train station. I read online about the riots at OU’s Palmerfest! The nice woman at the hotel allowed us to stay in our room until 7 p.m. without paying more.
So we got to the train station on time and our train never came. It was cancelled without telling us. We missed our connection to Antibes and watched as our train to Avignon passed us. The woman at the counter was useless and told us that there was no way we were going back to Avignon tonight. Excellent and we have class tomorrow.
We called Christophe and Katy, our program director and his assistant and neither answered their phones. Excellent again! I’m so glad we’re paying you to be on vacation here for three months with your girlfriend and neither of you can answer your phones when your students are stuck somewhere.
We called Jenny, the grad student assistant and explained the situation. We decided to take the next TER train to Nice and try to exchange tickets. If we really couldn’t get home that night then we at least knew we had a place to stay at the hotel from the last weekend.
After failing to get new tickets, I called the nice old woman at the hotel and she said that she had a room for us. I recommend her hotel to anyone travelling to Nice, France! She is excellent!
So here we were back in Nice. But we love Nice! By this time, it was no earlier than 11 p.m. and we decided that we needed some of our favorite ice cream in Nice to make the day better. Then we went back to our room and we were beat. We went right to bed.