bonjour!

hello from nice! it is monday morning here, and the kids are taking the placement test at the school they are going to attend in the mornings. this means that i have internet access in a computer lab at the school. this is a weird keyboard - i guess a french keyboard? - where the letters are in a different order on the keyboard. somehow, though, if you don't look at the keyboard and just type how an american keyboard works, you're good to go. in other words, the letters on the keys don't match up to what they will actually type. i am extremely confused by this, but i'm not complaining. this is when keyboarding in 9th grade (that dad made me take and has definitely paid off since) comes in pretty handy, because i can type without looking at the keys.

nice is BEAUTIFUL - i don't know if i'll be able to post pictures here, but i'll try. the city is right on the beach, but there are mountains just a little bit in land. i am staying with an older woman, madame kurzenne, who speaks approximately 100 words of english. it was pretty tragic for the first half of yesterday, when we arrived, because we really can't communicate very well at all. she lives on the 6th (which is the top) floor of an apartment building about 5 minutes from the beach. it is a two story apartment, with a living room, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and bathroom on the first floor, and a den, bathroom, and bedroom on the second floor (this is where i'm staying). she has a terrace on both levels, and from the terrace on the top floor (right off of my room) you can see all of nice. it was breathtaking when i first saw it, and she was very amused by how i was trying to communicate this to her. she got me a little folding chair, and i can sit on the terrace and read or nap or whatever.

probably the funniest moment of our day on sunday was when she was making a vinegrette for our salad and she asked if i wanted mustard in it - apparently the last american she had stay with her LOVED mustard. i said i just wanted un peu (a little - i know you are impressed by my french skills here), and there was only un peu left, so it worked perfectly. she then apologetically used some vinegar to rinse out the mustard jar to get more mustard, and i somehow communicated to her that my mom does the same thing, so she shouldn't be embarrassed. we giggled a lot about that.

the BEST moment of the day yesterday was realizing that she has another person staying with her who is taking classes to learn french just like my students are. her name is patricia, she is german, and SHE SPEAKS NEARLY FLUENT ENGLISH. i could have cried when i realized this, because it was a little overwhelming and lonely not being able to communicate and being alone in this apartment with madame. patricia is great. she is about my age and knows french, spanish, german, and english, and wants to get a job doing translating at some point in her life. she and i chatted a lot, and she also helped translate for madame and i. this is about the best thing ever. madame has been so wonderful about making vegetarian things for me, but she seemed really confused about why i would want that. i told patricia to tell her that i grew up on a farm, and that we ate lots of fresh vegetables, so i like le legume en general (i think this means "all vegetables"). madame said, in french, "so this is why you are a vegetarian - because the animals are like your pets!" and now she doesn't think i am crazy. hooray.

now gerard (the other chaperone) and i are going to buy bus and train tickets for field trips for this week. the kids will take classes in the mornings, and then in the afternoon we will travel. i think today we will just go to the beach, but tomorrow we are going to monaco, and later in the week we are going to ez (that is how the city is pronounced, but probably not how it is spelled) and villefranche. the weather is beautiful - sunny and hot during the day, but it cools off at nice.