Kind of random, but goes well with anything

I was reading a scholarship essay for the XRHH freshmen scholarship. We had asked the very creative question of "if you were a food, what would you be and why?" I remember one girl's answer really struck me. She said that she would be nutella, because it's kind of random but goes well with anything [except cheese]. It's now been a week since I have been in Nice, and I gotta say....the group of students here...we are definitely nutella. Everyone is so random and different, but it totally works [tout à fait!]. We are a group of 26 students, mostly from WashU, but also Yale, UC Berkley, Spellman, UPenn, and U Puerto Rico. Friday night, most of us went out to dinner in Vieux Nice [Old Nice] and then out to a bar called "Blue Whales." It was a very fun night, that ended at 1am with everyone looking for a place to use the bathroom and a frantic search for our bus stop. But I did manage to get this picture off the drink menu at the Blue Whales:

Yesterday, a group of four of us decided to take the train to Italy for lunch. I almost hate myself for being able to say that "I went to Italy for lunch." I mean, seriously? It was one of the best experiences ever. If you ever get a chance to explore the french riviera, you must take a train from France to Italy along the coast. I have never seen water so bright blue. It was incredible.

We stopped in Ventimiglia [Vintimille], a cute Italian town. We found a restaurant on the beach, and I got the best. pasta. ever.

 

Also, I learned a lot of Italian words! AND I forgot them all already.  On the way back from Italy, we stopped by Monaco, which is a country, btw. It's the grand prix this weekend, so I got some cool pictures from very....very far away. 

 

Today, I have to finish up medical school application stuff and do a lot of homework.  Or I could just go to the beach. We will see...

Arrivederci!

Beaucoup

Err...so I'm really really pooped. Today was the first day that I met with the rest of the students in the group. I made some badass friends, and I'm extremely excited for the rest of this trip, but right now I am just totally out of it. I start my internship in Endocrinology tomorrow at "Hôpital Pasteur," and so I want to be sure I go to sleep early [I have le décalage horaire]. BUT, I wanted to make sure I put up some photos:

 Ma famille française: Patrick et Veronique Lecoanet

 Ma chambre ici avec le balcon

 L'immeuble où ma famille française habite

 Une promenade au centre ville

Une belle cathédrale 

Eh, bien sûr, la plage. 

Interesting tidbit about the beaches here. There's no sand. It looks like there is...but those are rocks. I'm not talking pebbles...they're rocks. 

I have already started planning trips with my friends, and so once those are solidified I'll update about them but I think that a couple of us are going to go to Monaco for LE GRAND PRIX. How cool would that be? 

A bientôt, mes amis

Aviné

Disclaimer: I think I might start every blog post with a little bit of french. If you can handle it, i'll translate it into english when I'm finished.

 Je suis arrivée à Nice à cinq heures dans l'après-midi. Ma familly française est extrêmement sympa. Le mari, patrick, est comme Monsieur Weasley des livres de Harry Potter. Rappellez comment Monsieur Weasley est vraiment intéressé à les muggles? Monsieur Patrick Lecoanet est exactement comme ça....mais avec les anglais. Il essaie toujours de parler en anglais ce qui est très mignon.

I arrived in Nice at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. My french family is extremely nice. The husband, Patrick is like Mr. Weasley from the Harry Potter books! Remember how Mr. Weasley is really interested in muggles? Monsieur Patrick Lecoanet is exactly like that...except with english. He always tries to speak english, which is so cute.

OK. It is 9:40pm in Nice, France. I'm sitting in the bedroom given to me by my french family and I must say....wow. Not only is this city freaking AMAZING, this apartment is too. It's too dark to take pictures of the apartment building itself, so i'll post those later, but it's truly incredible. I am having a wonderful time so far, despite being really nervous about my french. Surprisingly, it is just flowing out of my mouth [also I'm a little drunk right now, I won't lie].

I am a jumble of emotions right now. I miss my home and all of the people I love, but at the same time I feel this intense spark inside of myself. If you ever have the chance to come to Nice, do it. Actually, don't just do it. Rent a car and do it [don't take this out of context]. My brother-in-law drove me from Lucerne to Nice, and it was one of the most amazing car rides I have ever experience. This I do have pictures of:

This one is actually the view from my room. Ohh yeah baby.

In any case, thanks for reading. I'm off to finish my personal statement. I'm sure a little wine wouldn't hurt.

Turbulence

It may sound peculiar, but over the past few weeks I have had the recurring thought of "I really wish I had worn pants."

Essentially, what I mean to say is that I cannot seem to dress appropriately for the weather. It is May, and thus I assume that no matter where I go the weather should be warm. I'm going to go ahead and say that means I am an optimist ....or clueless...but I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt [because I am an optimist, see?]

I am currently sitting in my sister and her husband's apartment in Lucerne, Switzerland. Honestly, this could possibly be one of my favorite places in the world. Is it sufficient to say that I just feel comfortable here? The home itself is so white and filled with natural light. It's really beautiful. Not to mention my adorable niece and nephew are here as well:

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time with my sister, which is something I never get to do. We watched a movie and then decided to go on a hike. Lucerne is situated really close to a giant mountain, so I got some really wonderful pictures. Check it:

In a few minutes, my brother-in-law will drive me to Nice, France. Nice is about 5.5 hours from here, and I hear it's a really beautiful drive. So, I'll be sure to take some photos and write about my first impressions of Nice.

A bientôt mes amis

A bientôt

See ya later, USA. I'm about to go spend 5 weeks in France. Wish me luck.

Once you're toast, you can never be bread again

Today's theme is toast.

For starters, I am toast in that I am burned [out]. Since the moment the school year ended, it has been impossible to make myself do anything other than catch up on every television show I missed over the past 9 months. I drove home today to spend some time with my mom before I fly out to France, telling myself I would spend the night working on my personal statement. Instead, I watched season 6 of Weeds. I stole the title of this blog post from an interview with Jenji Kohan, the creator of the show. 

Although seriously...can toast ever be bread again? I vaguely remember a memory from elementary school where a teacher made some reference about how once you boil an egg you can never unboil it. It will never return, it's changed forever. This made perfect sense to me then. Yeah, damnit, you can't unboil an egg! After four semesters of chemistry, I realize now that you can totally unboil an egg. It's just a matter of going against what's thermodynamically and kinetically favorable. So it's just improbable, not impossible [thank you Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy]. Regardless, I for one am all for the change. I say toast > bread, buttered toast > unbuttered toast. 

That was meant to be a statement on embracing change. 

I'll work on my metaphors, I swear. 

Oh, and thanks Hank for my original inspiration: 

A woman in search of a word

Would you judge me immediately if I mentioned that I took the title of this post from a Julia Robert's movie? I watched Eat, Pray, Love last night while I was on RA duty, and I gotta say...not great. Don't get me wrong, props to JR for being a damn fine 44 year old, but the movie itself....meh. Nevertheless, I still found pleasure in some small details of the movie, namely this idea of a woman in search of a word. I feel like it's been my life theme for the past few days [or years]. I've never been much of a writer, and sometimes I wonder if it is because I have nothing to say or if it is because I simply have no way of saying it. If you asked those who know me well, they'd probably tell you I'm extremely lacking in opinion. This is not to say that I don't care, because I do. I do care. But, you'd likely never define me as some sort of fervent protester or sustainability Nazi. Or hipster.

I simply have no agenda. 

Although at times, I do wish I were a bit more incendiary. 

At 8am this morning, my boyfriend flew out to Budapest. In 7 days, I will be hanging out with my sister who I haven't seen for months. In 8 days, I will be starting a rigorous 5 week program in Nice, France taking two courses and working in a hospital. In approximately three weeks, I will be submitting my application for medical school. So...there's gonna be some change in my life. I'd really like to document this time via blogging, but as I said, I'm constantly in search of my words. If you're thinking this is the moment where I make some sort of blogging oath to the Internet community, you're wrong. I've done that a few too many times to fall for my own tricks. A friend of mine with a very prosperous blog tells me time and time again that she blogs only for herself, and so I asked myself "what can I get out of blogging that benefits only me me ME?"

and...well I'm still looking for that answer. 

I hope I find it.

"He went on looking for his words"

-Albert Camus' La Peste