Which photo best describe you

The modules are quite out of touch with my career but just powering through to the week. Luckily, there are things that are also worth my time.

After the training, I met Sophie at Starbucks Libération where I had my third dose of coffee (and yet still feeling sleepy), finished my book - that reminds me, I need to mark that in Goodreads - and got to start on my new read: When.

I finally got a hold of a new wifi password and so I am able to stream Friends to keep my company. I love this revolving chair, I should get a photo and hopefully secure one at home. I also like the layout of this dorm, yeah, I should have this one made for my room. Actually, if I’m not mistaken, it’s about the same size as that of my room except for the bathroom so this might work.

So Jethro joined us and at 4:30 PM, I left to go to Hema. I bought new cables for my gadgets, awesome find, a bigger toothbrush, shampoo and conditioner. Then I went to my tram stop and passed by Monoprix hoping to buy some red fruits. Ended up buying Ben and Jerry’s and (my good ol’) yogurt. The heat made me crave for the ice cream but I guess, since I’ve decided to cut dairy in my diet, I’ve grown intolerant of its taste. First the milk tea and then now the ice cream. I have no appetite. I feel like I’m craving something salty. I prepared and sliced the cucumber - leaving the skin on (is that healthy?) and the tomatoes in the hopes of preparing my tuna sandwich. But I just felt like throwing up. I want some chips. But as I am already dressed for bed and did my night skin care routine (I’m breaking out mostly in the mouth area!), I didn’t want to leave to buy chips in the nearby Leader Price.

I went to Body’Minute and decided against the pedi/mani because 20-35 EUR? No thank you, I’m already way past my budget. So I’ll probably just have the epilation demi jambes (half-leg wax) before I leave but then - what if I just shave?

Not so motivated, but yes, a bit too. I hope to journal in the new notebooks I acquired from the organizers but wouldn’t that be redundant of what I have here? I bought scotch just in case. What do I do with the tickets I have left? I’ll go through them and throw some away.

In the morning, I met a Ukranian woman, Viktorija, who was just joining us for training. I get to talk to her about the Crimea thing, same discourse as of that of Nadia and the rest of the Ukranians. Interesting. So timely too because I get to watch The Last Czars and get a little bit of perspective.

Oh and I managed to squeeze in a 10 minute yoga session this morning using my Aquasorb towel I got from Go Sport at 8 EUR. Not the best and wise buy but, oh well. Serves quite its purpose for the beach and now this.

Paid Madame la coordinatrice the room fee and I should get the receipt sometime soon.

There was an interesting ice breaker in the first module today with our Canadian instructor, Christine. She posted four photos on the wall of this artist, Harris Burdick.

Photo 1 : photo of a window from the inside of the house
Photo 2 : what looks like a cellar
Photo 3 : 4 children in a train ramp on the road to the unknown
Photo 4 : photo of a river, in nature

I was torn between Photos 3 and 4 and felt that both describe my present situation somehow. How I want and I project my life to be Photo 3 and where I actually am Photo 4. Somehow Photo 1 spoke to me on discussions about settling down. That made me realize something about myself - how I still stick to my expectations of the past and wanting something different and not entirely focusing on the present. I still feel like I have some sort of unfulfilled task here in Nice and can’t tell which is it so I can’t quite make an action plan. But now as I am writing this, I am also realizing that my point of view and desires have changed. I am no longer 21 or 25 and I can and seem to have no inclination of doing what I wanted to do back then. And that should be okay.

NICE, THE THIRD TIME AROUND

The second and last time I was in Nice was in August of 2015. Since then, I have not thought nor planned about going back anytime soon. So when I was granted a free two-week training in Nice in summer of 2019, I grabbed the opportunity right away. I was hesitant at first because my plans (not to mention budget allocation) was set entirely for one month in Lithuania. Even with a generous scholarship, going to both France and Lithuania for summer would mean going beyond the budget. Fortunately, certain circumstances made it possible. And so I was off to France for two weeks before I left for Lithuania for a month.

This entry is an excerpt of a one-week-and-a-half-worth of notes I managed to document at the end of every day.