Lavender fields and weekend chores

Attempting to write this entry, 10 days after my arrival. I didn’t even know what date it was.

This week went pretty long and short at the same time. Now that I think about it, it’s already Saturday and a week and a half after my arrival. Which leaves me just one more week then I’m off to Lithuania. Been feeling quite uncomfortable in Nice despite it being all too familiar, there are just too many tourists. I also don’t really like the fact that I have to interact with unknown people or as Sophie puts it, dealing with bullshit.

I managed to survive a week of training despite it being a repetition of what I have studied in MA and what I have already learned from previous training. I did get some new pistes (ideas) but that’s about it. What made this week worthwhile was meeting Sophie and Lea.

Yesterday, Lea and I drove all the way up to Valensole in search of the lavender fields. The day before that, we had a dip in the sea and the day before that, we went to Monaco and impulsively decided to go to Ventimiglia, Italy where we almost missed our train. Classic Italian story.

Feeling a bit sleepy but I know writing these thoughts down religiously will be something I will be thankful for later.

Today, I managed to make it to the laundry shop (Ma Laverie Shop) in Borriglione, just down the street at 7 AM - opening time. There, I met a nice old (black) man with whom I exchanged some pleasantries with. I had breakfast in the nearby boulangerie (bakery, J. Multari) while waiting for the 40-minute laundry cycle. I had pain au chocolat, noisette (with no extra sugar) and a bottle of (Nestlé) water. I went back to the laundromat to transfer my clean laundry to the dryer and after three 5-minute cycles, I headed back to Jethro’s apartment (Blvd Auguste Raynaud) to fold my fresh laundry, rest for a while, clean up a little bit and I was off the meet Sophie at Garibaldi to catch the bus (81 Pont Saint Jean) to Villefranche-sur-mer (Leopold II).

We stayed there until around past 1 PM and got the same bus back to Garibaldi. We had a kebab for lunch (Chek Kebab) which was copieux (plentiful) but not too tasty. Then we headed to the newly opened ChaTime near Acropolis. I had Pearl Milk Tea again after a long time and the Chinese owners were generous with the tapioca since they ran out the other day we bought one (closing time).

We chatted for quite a while, and by 4 PM, we went back home. From then, I had my shower, cleaned the room and had my siesta. I packed most of my stuff away in preparation of my move tomorrow. Hopefully that goes well because I haven’t settled the payment as we have discussed to do last Friday. According to a text message from the organizers’ emergency number, “tout va bien” (everything’s good) so it should be good for 3 PM tomorrow.

I watched more of Friends and checked out two episodes of The Last Czar. Intriguing but scary. I stopped to attempt to write this down. Prior to that, I had the third phone call of the day with Benoit. I feel a bit tired and impatient writing this all down but again, I know it’ll be worth it. I hope I’ll be able to give 5 minutes of my time everyday to write something down everyday.

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.