Church and Olivio

I first wrote this post on Saturday night, when I was going to say how I had forgotten what it was like to be cold. Well, Sunday morning brought torrential rain and a thunderstorm, so I had to delete my first paragraph. The sunshine is back now although I can feel that autumn is on its way…

I’ve been here two weeks now and I think I’m finally starting to look the right way when crossing the road, so I’ll be culturally adapted in no time! Starting to notice subtler differences between France and England, apart from the ‘It’s hot and they speak French’ ones. For example, what we would call road rage in England is more road slight annoyance (although maybe we are just more passive aggressive) Living above a fairly busy road, you hear cars tooting at all times of the day. And it isn’t a mild, tentative ‘I think you haven’t realised the light is now green, Mr-car-in-front’, oh no! French drivers like to play a tune on their steering wheels, which I suppose is channelling their anger into a creative outlet. It also brings people together – I have seen one car toot at the car in front for some minor offence, the car in front then toots back to tell the car behind to leave it alone, and then the cars behind them join in quite happily – I think they might feel left out otherwise. On a different note, I will never take seedless grapes for granted again.

La Colle sur Loup

But aside from making such in depth cultural insights, what have I done this week? I took the bus up to La Colle-sur-Loup, which is the tiny village where my school is. I must admit, I didn’t think little villages like that existed except for in Olivio adverts – lots of narrow, sunny streets. It also has a spectacular view, you can see the beginnings of the Alpine mountain range. From there I went 5 minutes on the bus to St Paul de Vence, which is a super famous village perché with even narrower streets that circle round and join each other. It reminded me a lot of Mont St Michel and the school trip there when I was 14. Very pretty but a lot of tourists, everybody seemed to be English there and/or an artist. It was great to wander around and to see the sea and the mountains at the same time.

You can just see the sea behind the hills on the left...

I’ve also managed to fit in the standard beach/ice cream/sightseeing routine, but part of what has been great about this week is beginning to see the communities I will be a part of. On Sunday I was invited to go along to the Eglise Protestante Baptiste de Nice, and I didn’t really know what to expect beforehand. I had been warned that French church services were usually a lot longer than in the UK, so that was the only thing I had a vague inkling about. Well, I arrived and was immediately welcomed in, people were introducing themselves and making conversation with me. The style was very informal and the worship was lively. I particularly liked the prayer part where anybody could (and did) pray out. There was a bring and share lunch after the service which was a great opportunity to meet some people close to my age, and I think I am going to stay there! Finding a good church was something I know a lot of people were praying about for me, and it’s great that God got me there for my first Sunday in Nice!

This week has also included some planning meetings for the GBU (Groupe Biblique Universitaire) and one deciding what the events are going to be for la rentrée (similar to Freshers’ Week events). I’m looking forward to helping out with that and meeting some French students. I’m really grateful to the couple who head up the IFES team in Nice, who have invited me to church, fed me, let me hang out with their 9 year old daughter (SO much fun; we made pizza and drew dogs!) but more importantly have just made me feel so welcomed here.

Now for boring things like setting up bank accounts…

Settling in

Well, my first few days here can be measured in a number of ways:

Apartments rented – 1

Berets seen – 3 (of which worn non-ironically-1)

Trips to the beach – 7

Ice creams consumed – 2

Tiny tiny dogs spotted – 139024859034854³

I managed to get hold of an apartment really quickly (grâce à Dieu), which is pretty central in Nice. It’s quite old and charmant in that French ever so slightly dilapidated way, but I do have my own balcony, complete with wooden shutters for at night, so it does feel very French. I’ll be living with two other girls but I haven’t met them yet. I think it is also the best decorated room in the whole of Nice, thanks to many going away presents! It’s amazing that God has provided me with this.

                         Baie des Anges

This meant I could spend some time relaxing and sightseeing. I have made plenty of trips to the beach, and I don’t think that is ever going to get old for me, I love being beside the sea. The sea here is so clear and so blue, hence the name Côte d’Azur (Azure Coast). It also shelves pretty quickly in places which can be a bit of a shock and gets me acclimatised to the water pretty quickly! There is no sand which means I don’t bring half of the beach back with me, but the pebbles can be painful to walk on, so I think I’m going to have to invest in some glittery jelly shoes that the locals sport (women only).

Especially for Nicola, who wanted pictures of food…

Sightseeing has included so far lots and lots of walking round! There are lots of pretty residential buildings in Nice with pretty stonework so it’s really easy just to wander for hours and hours. I also took a lift up to the Parc de la Colline du Château where you could see the whole of the Baie des Anges, the main bay of Nice. There has also been more than one opportunity to sample the ice cream made by Fenocchio – they have an amazing range of flavours! Some are tasty, like the White Chocolate one, some I am scared to try – tomato, basil and avocado amongst others. I did brave a scoop of lavender though and that was surprisingly tasty, delicate and sweet to begin with but then it has a really strong perfumey taste afterwards (pretentious food critique over) so maybe I’ll branch out a bit over the next few months.

Yesterday was Lou Festin dou Pouort (La Fête du port or Port Festival in the Niçois dialect) so I wandered along to take a look. There were lots of lights everywhere and four stages playing all kinds of music – I particularly enjoyed the French rock band that did Arctic Monkeys covers, complete with attempted Sheffield accents. It was actually quite convincing. My favourite musicians however were a group of old Niçois men who had traditional instruments and sang local, French and Italian folk songs. One of them even serenaded me , which I videoed and will be on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2266855547446), but the song was called Bella Bionda (Beautiful Blonde) so maybe his eyesight was impaired.

Next time I write I will tell you about the church I went to today in more detail, but in brief it was so friendly and they welcomed me like family – great!

It all begins…

DISCLAIMER – Yes, I’ve joined the bandwagon of blogging. Please don’t feel obliged to read this, but I thought it was a little less intrusive than clogging up your inbox with what I ate for breakfast, this way you get to choose to read about what I ate for breakfast. Everyone’s a winner!

My Year Abroad begins tomorrow. And no, it’s not a gap year! I will be working hard! (Except I will be working hard in the sunshine by the sea…boast over, I promise).

I think I am all packed now, and I have that feeling where I am itching to get away and explore a new place, after two years in Cambridge it feels like a welcome break from the intense treadmill that is the Tripos system. But here’s the rundown of what I’ll be doing this year…

I’ll be working in a secondary school with 11-15 year olds as an English Language Assistant, where I will be mostly working on the children’s oral expression. It’s part of my role to introduce them to British Culture too, which has proven interesting  as it feels quite hard to define without reducing it to lists of fish and chips, the Queen and tea. There is of course a difference between BRITISH CULTURE(capital letters, Shakespeare and Radio 4) and our own individual cultures, so I’ve found myself checking whether aspects of culture and language are indeed national, or rather regional or even my family-al. (Turns out people outside of the North-East don’t have a clue if you tell them you just got wrong. That’s without the typical ‘whyaye man’ etc etc.)

So I’m super excited for the move! But I think I would be lying if I didn’t admit that there is a little bit of fear, or more accurately nervousness mixed in there. Once I get settled and find somewhere to live I think I will be fine, but the idea of going to a foreign country by myself where I know next to nobody is a little daunting. The great thing is that God is with me wherever I go so even though it feels like little old me is off in the big wide world all alone, I’m not. Pretty good stuff.

I’m looking forward to getting really stuck in to a church community, and I think that’s a great way to remember that we are all part of the body of Christ, which is so encouraging and makes any unknown place a little less frightening. It’ll be great to be a part of the GBU (Christian Union) there this year, I feel like God has given me so many opportunities to serve and I can’t wait to see what he’s going to teach me this year!

I had better get an early night for all my travels tomorrow, so I’ll leave it there. Please let me know what you’re doing, I’d love to hear from you! Plus prayers for safety, settling, and learning appreciated 🙂