Le week-end

This afternoon, I visited Saint Paul de Vence with a group of friends from the Maryland program. An hour away from Nice on the 1Euro bus, Saint Paul is a tiny Medieval-esque village by Vence. Similar to Eze, it's a compact community of stone walls and cobblestone "streets," or more like alleys. We walked around the village, grabbed a bite to eat, and even faire-d un randonnee, or hiked a little down a trail before returning to Nice. Like our afternoon trip to Eze, where we spent half of our time sitting at a cafe chatting with the owner, it was relaxing and the weather was so nice! Even though it was like 50 degrees Fahrenheit and I was wearing a tank top, there were still French women in their fur coats. Regardless of how warm it has been, I always see people bundled up all out in their fur...c'est bizarre. The French are so peculiar-even during dinner today, my host mom and the other international students with whom I live were talking about how Americans are wasteful and ridiculous..at least we have laws enforcing people to clean up after their dogs so we don't have to waste tons of water power-washing the same streets every night. It's crazy how they insist that we take short showers, then they turn around power-wash the sidewalks daily. You always have to look out for doggie doodoo on the sidewalks--it's everywhere all the time, cuz the only people who clean it up are the pooper scoopers on mopeds. By the time they reach the poop, its so condensed/smooshed that it has to be vacuumed off the ground...gross!! French people are so funny...the other day on the way to school, students were greve-ing, or protesting as usual, but this time they brought chairs into a busy intersection that doesnt even have lines on the street, causing a traffic jam. anyway, enough for today parce que ju suis fatiguee.