Nice and the French Riviera (Originally posted on 30 June 2005)

Bonjour tout le monde! Je suis a Nice! Je suis depuis deux semaines et Je reste encore six semaines! La ville est tres tres belle et magnifique mais c'est trop chaut! J'ai appris beaucoup francais en deux semaines mais je pense que le francais est plus dificil que l'espagnol!!!

Wow, okay did I just write 4 sentences in french? That is definitely more than I have written in the two weeks I've been here, but it gives me encouragement for the remaining six weeks I've got! Well, where do I start? There is so much to say about the past two weeks, but yet so little time. Before I really get into things, I must give a shout out to Sele and Lanre - your joint 25th "Ice Party" was just off the chain! Dang, I had so much fun ohh, chei. It was definitely worth the plane ticket to London! Kai, I heard that things are only just dying down now. Us "youngins" have a tough act to follow, but don't worry, for my 25th we are going to Paris! Better believe it guys, start saving your dosh now, is all I can say.

Before I continue, let me give you all permission to call me and find out how I am doing because I fully admit that this journal is unreasonably long! What can I say, enjoy it while it lasts! When ever again in life am I going to have such time on my hands to write like this? My french mobile number is 0033 678108545 - use it ohh!

Okay, down to business. I've finally left the shores of Spain, and after my weekend trip to London. I arrived in Nice on sunday night. Everything since I got here has seemed so surreal. Is Nice really on the same continent as London? Could such a thing really be possible? Even landing in Nice was a breath-taking experience, the plane seemed to approach the coast directly and then swiftly turn in a parallel line to the beach and until literally the last second before landing, you could see the blue of the sea right under you. The scenery was magnificient - Nice is like a hidden tropical paradise and simply landing there reminded me of a scene of out The Incredibles - funny how real life seemed to imitate art in this case. In non-poetic words, I had good feelings about Nice even before I got off the plane.

For the first time in my relatively long history of living with host families, I was greeted in the arrival lounge with a big sign with my name on it - The couple seemed very nice and the guy could speak english, so they warmly welcomed me, took me to their car and gave me a tour of the town even before we got home. After kindly showing me where to get all the buses I needed, they even asked me what I liked to eat for breakfast, dinner, etc and I was very impressed by this. When I got home, I thought they had extracted a central london flat and placed it in the centre of Nice! Very spacious, very modern, the shower has like 8 different kinds of power shower, even the glasses and plates are all shaped very artistically. I could already tell that the food was going to be great and the following night dinner did not disappoint! In one day, Daniel and Sylvie managed to put to shame the Spanish idea of the "host family". I mean if it wasn't one woman terrorising her kids and all her students (Carmen Vidal), it was a crazy lonely single mid-life crisis woman whose food was good but manners were terrible (Pilar), and if the single woman was the epitomy of all things nice and sweet, she was a 77 year old widow whose food wasn't exactly appetising (Concha). Finally, I had met a family who were not only very nice but everything was perfect, their home, the food - I mean when even the sugar "cubes" are not cubes but are shaped as hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades - that is what I call picture perfect. I know, what you're thinking, pointless details right? Well, one or two of you guys had suggested that I was complaining too much about stuff, I guess I am glad for once that I have nothing to complain about, and that indeed there is nothing wrong with me. After two weeks there is no trouble in paradise, and I have learnt how much little things can go a long way, just going down to the street to help Daniel with his 15 bags of shopping scored me megapoints! Sylvie says I can live here for 1 year if I want, and I told her I'd be happy to live here for a year (Daniel still half-translates our conversations). That is true, except that I miss London and I can't wait to get back!

So the food is good sha. I might need to steal some recipes from Sylvie so I can show off my southern french culinary skills when I get back. Indeed, these guys know how to eat well. Even the drinks are served in 3 courses - whisky and coke for starters, red wine for the main, and coffee with dessert! Admittedly this is more often when the family comes round, and they have really re-defined the meaning of family for me. I've met Sylvie's two daughters, and their husbands, and their kids, and their friends, and their friend's kids, and even Sylvie's Italian parents. Every other night, someone comes round for dinner and they are all so nice and loving and together. It's really a sight to behold, sitting round the dinner table with these people and just watching them.......(still don't understand a word of what they say.........unless they speak to me really really slowwwwly.......and Daniel translates!).

Okay, enough about the family. I bet y'all wanna hear more about Nice right? Well, what can I say, it is a perfect holiday destination, right in the middle of the beautiful Cote d'Azur (the French Riviera), it is within touching distance of Monaco, Cannes, Antibes and even Italy. I have only yet been to one place called Eze Village so far (not pronounced the Ibo way pls, only one sylable) which was very beautiful, I can't wait to visit all those other towns on my list! This is a very romantic area, guys, surprise your girl and take her to the South of France. But please do your homework so that you can sound very cultured, like you know your stuff - not like you want to start pronouncing Eze the Ibo way! Our you could even save it for your honeymoon, you won't be disappointed!

The school here is cool. I have met a lot of cool people and I am usually hanging out with two sets of people - the Spanish speaking group and the anglophones. Believe it or not, most of the students here are from Germany and Switzerland so you tend to hear more German being spoken than anything. While I am making good progress with the french (in part thanks to its similarity with Spanish), I can't help but feel it is actually much harder to learn than Spanish. With Spanish, you more or less pronounce what you see written. With french however, pronounciation is everything and what you see is nothing, I have found the french accent particularly difficult....my frustration also stems from the fact that I did not take into account the fact that I'd have to go through the "struggle stage" of learning a language again - you know, when you hardly understand anything spoken, where you have great difficulty in expressing yourself. My only consolation is that I won't have to do it again to learn French or Spanish - and I won't be learning any more languages in the near future. The truth is I need to perfect my Spanish anyway. Speaking with the students here from all over the world, I have realised I am not anywhere close to fluent in Spanish. I'll just have to keep working on it when I get back so that my 4 months in Spain don't turn out to be a waste. Same for french, I think I will be satisfied for now if I am conversational after two months here and I can understand most things as I can with Spanish! Needless to say, I slightly under-estimated the task of learning two languages in just six months!

So what else have I been doing in Nice? Well, Fola did warn me that I could get bored here and that they spent most of their days on the beach when he was here. Well the second part is true, I have been to the beach almost every day after school just to chill and take a dip and I must say I am getting quite accustomed to it for someone who has never been a beach person. The night life in Nice seems to be pretty cool, though I haven't really stayed out past 1 am because I prefer to take the last"night-bus" home instead of walking for an hour or paying 15 euros for a cab each time I go out. So I guess I can't say much about the "late night life" as I really haven't been to any clubs. The are lots of tourist bars and restaurants and a crazy amount of tourists. They say that although Nice is a town of only half a million inhabitants, they can get more than 2 million tourists passing through each summer - how crazy is that?

I also managed to find a nice church to go while I am here, International Baptist Church. Looked up the address on the internet and just went on my first sunday I got here. Very different from the pentecostal Nigerian churches I visited in Valencia - more international with people from all over the world and translations into Spanish and French. Obviously I was never going to be held hostage there for 5 hours on a sunday afternooon, so I guess that is a plus. Interestingly, one of the American girls I met at the church remembers Fola from when he was here (I think it was 4 years ago?) and she kept saying how I reminded her of him. I said that we are brothers (well that at least people seem to think we are). Anyway it seems really nice and I've really enjoyed the messages so far, the testimonials and the performances - it's been pretty cool.

Well, I think I have pretty much covered everything so I won't bore you further with minor details. I will leave you with a little interesting anecdote - the difference in culture of the black people I've met here and in Spain is quite amusing...In Valencia and Sevilla, I became very accustomed to nodding at any black person that walked past me. You know, the kind of nod that encapsulates a montage of messages, or perhaps a different message for each person, like "yeah, I know how hard it was for you to get here and how hard it is to do what you do - whatever that is - Respect!" or maybe just simply expressing your excitement that someone else is like you....it kind of reminded me of being back at Uni. In Nice, the total opposite, it kind of reminds me of being back in London. If I so much as smile at another black person, they just look away wondering what I am smiling at! Everybody here just dey mind there own business and hustle their own hustle. It's all good sha, that is not to say the French are less friendly, but hey, I will let you know in like 6 weeks when I can actually have a convo with them and see what the score is.

Well, on that note, I will leave you and say well done for getting this far cos you know I had to write this journal in 3 parts!!! Hope you enjoyed it, enjoy your summer y'all and CONGRATULATIONS to all my people who don finish their exams, especially those who dey graduate - if you're looking for one final summer blast, you know where it's at! I look forward to seeing you all again very soon and having my very own last summer blast back in London!