« Messieurs
et Mesdames, nous sommes arrivés à Nice. »
But first, lets rewind 24 hours…
Friday morning consisted of a lot of goodbyes, a snowy drive to D.C. (with a short and tearful goodbye stop in College Park), and three
stressed-out members of the Witt clan maneuvering shoes, straighteners,
backpacks and sweaters between three suitcases and a backpack.
After a summer of applications to the Maryland-in-Nice
program, a fall of tough decision-making and a winter of preparation, the day
was here. It was January 25 and I was about to leave for France for four and a
half months.
My amazing parents waved goodbye as I walked through
security at the Washington-Dulles airport and two of my TriDelta sisters and I
got ready for the experience of a lifetime.
Our flight was expected to stop in Amsterdam on the way to
Nice, but the flight in Amsterdam had been cancelled. We were able to get onto
a jam-packed flight to Paris (where we had a seven hour layover…) and head to
Nice the next day. We landed in the early evening as the sun was setting over
the Mediterranean, which I missed because I was sleeping (quelle surprise).
But now we’re here! Its been a little bit of an adjustment
having a small space and not having Wi-Fi or a phone to be able to call home,
but we’re getting there! I spent one day figuring out how to get a small,
portable Wi-Fi. Take your worst experience you’ve ever had at Verizon. Now put
that in another language.
Our apartment has two bedrooms, a very small kitchen with
odd appliances consisting of two toasters, a mini fridge and regular fridge and
no oven, a futon (which has already had a couple of guests) and a teeny-tiny
bathroom (with no outlet. What?! Looks like my hair is au naturel for
the next four months).
We live on a small walking street above billions of cafes,
cute boutiques and tiny marchés. Its about a 35 minute walk to the Université
de Nice where we’ve spent the past few days preparing for multiple
placement tests. Classes won’t start for some time but I already feel my French
improving just from being here and trying to communicate with so many people!
I don’t have too many pictures of the city yet. We were told to “blend” so we didn’t look so American. But gosh, it’s obvious. We try to fit in but we stick out like sore thumbs next to these Niçois Anyways, I’ll try to snap more pictures soon. The next post I promise to have more apartment pictures and street views!
Tomorrow will be close to 70 degrees, so if you’re looking
for me, I’ll be on the beach.
Beaucoup des baisers !
A
P.S. Blogging is a lot harder than I thought it would be.. forgive the format. Its going to take some time to figure out!
(C’est un peu d’ajustement. Je manque ma famille, mon
petit ami et tous mes amis. Mais, cette ville est très belle et je suis
chanceuse d’avoir cette opportunité ! Tout le monde qui j’ai rencontré est
incroyable ! Je ne peux pas croire que c’est ma ville pour quatre
mois. à bientôt ! )
