A Very Special Birthday!

I have never enjoyed having my birthday on Christmas Eve.  Many people like to say things like, "Oh, I bet you get combo gifts (Christmas/birthday gifts)," or "Oh boy! You get double the presents!" But in reality, or in my own reality at least, it's not about the gifts.  It's about the people.  Usually I can't ever get all my friends together on my actual birthday because of Christmas gatherings with families and other holiday celebrations.  But this year was a little different and special.....

The day before my birthday, Alex and I were trying to get ready for our quick trip to Rome and decided to get dinner fairly early in order to get to bed early.  We went out with his classmate, Tatsuya, and had some cupcakes as a little celebration of our own (I, apparently was the only one not aware of the plans for the night).  After dinner, Alex told me that one of our friends from Ecuador, John, had something for me and we needed to go see him.  We waited outside the apartment forever waiting for our friends to let us in, but once inside, I discovered that it was a surprise birthday dinner for me!  

This was huge.  Alex has never EVER been able to surprise me since we've been together.  I think I am getting rusty in my old age!  Our friends from Ecuador and Brazil (John, Gabriella, and Henrique) had planned a dinner and made a very tasty one at that.  We even had two guests who John had met and invited that day from Mexico and Venezuela.  The food was great, the company was great, and in this foreign country the timing couldn't have been better.  We ate the birthday cake until there was no more left and we laughed and talked about world issues until midnight came and it was officially my birthday.

On top of this wonderful surprise, I also had an All-American birthday dinner at a local American 50's dinner with all of my new found friends from around the world!  We had a great time laughing and shoving our faces full of greasy hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes.  Highlight of the conversation: talking about what roosters say in different languages!  Thank you Rami for fooling us for about an hour in saying that roosters in Egypt say "babada."  These moments will remain in my heart forever, and so will the knowledge of creating things on Wikipedia for personal conversation advantage ; ) .

Thank you my friends and my sweet husband!  I will never forget my first ever surprise birthday at the oh so wonderful age of 29!

A Last Minute Christmas in Rome

http://youtu.be/UPwdJMyg3Ew

Click the link above for a special Christmas video we made of our travels so far!

Alex is now officially half way through his global MBA program at EDHEC here in Nice, France and with a whole 3 weeks free, we did not know where to even start when it came to exploring Europe even more.

We decided about 3 days before Christmas Eve that we should visit the place of all places to spend Christmas......Rome!  Even though we are not Catholic, we have a huge love for Pope Francis (Papa Francesco as they call him in Italy) and could not think of a better way to spend a Christmas in Europe than to be present with the Pope at the Vatican for Christmas Eve mass and the Christmas Day "Urbi et Orbi" message.  Needless to say the experience of being at the Vatican with so many people, listening to an angelic sound from the choir, and seeing the Pope and all of his passion was overwhelming.  So many good things have been accomplished through Pope Francis already and I hope that he continues to allow his bright light shine on humanity.

As soon as we got to Rome, we ate at our host's father's restaurant which was absolutely amazing Italian food (they specialize in fish dishes).  After dinner, we attended Christmas Eve mass at the Vatican  where both Alex and I were awestruck at the beautiful architecture and lights.   One down side to being very short is that when you are short and in a large crowd, you just see heads and shoulders.  At one point I managed to hop on Alex's shoulders and I could see for miles......tall people have great views!  At another point I managed to buy some rosary beads, hoping to catch the Pope to bless them (perhaps even in the Pope mobile) but no such luck.  And in the end, we felt blessed just to be able to be there.

On Christmas Day, we woke up and ate breakfast at a nearby cafe right before going back to the Vatican for the "Urbi et Orbi" message.  The Christmas Day crowd was much larger and there were flags being flown from different people from around the world.  Brazil was in full representation!  Near the end of the message we started walking towards the exit because there were so many people. Little did we know, there was only two small exits and as soon as we got to one, the message ended and the huge crowd turned and was walking towards us.  We somehow were shoved through an exit and managed to escape the trampling that ensued thereafter, and decided to walk.  And walk we did!

We walked from the Vatican City all the way to the Colosseum!  There were so many interesting and historical sites to see that we didn't even realize we had walked so far until our feet started to hurt.  On this day we saw; the Vatican, several Egyptian obelisks, several churches,  Castel St. Angelo, Piazza Navona (had lunch here; best pizza of our lives), the Pantheon, St. Ignazio di Loyola, Fontana di Trevi, Spanish Steps, Villa Medici, and the Piazza del Popolo.  On this night, we ate at a restaurant very close to our place called "Rendez-vous" which was quite a deal and had quality food.  We returned to the Rest Guest House ready for "rest."

On our last day in Rome we woke up fairly later due to our death march we had completed the day before.  It was pouring rain, so we decided to utilize the Metro to get across town quicker and to save our feet.  We ate at the cafe that serves breakfast for the guest house again and headed straight for the Metro in the rain.  We hopped a quick ride to the Colosseum and walked around these sites: the Colosseum, Archo di Costantino, Palatino, Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II (went to the top of the monument where we could see the entire city and beyond), and lastly to the Piazza Della Repubblica.

All the museums were closed the time we were in Rome, but we felt like we saw so much and that made it worth the trip.  Alex's favorite site was the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, but he also liked several of the fountains throughout the city.  My favorite site was St. Peter's Square in the Vatican because it was so unexpected and beautiful, but I also liked the winged cats on the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II as well : ) . 

For those of you who want to experience a great place to stay in Rome:

We had a wonderful stay at a bed and breakfast type lodging called, "Rest Guest House."  The building the Rest Guest House occupies was a former monastery and had a secret underground tunnel that led into another monastery in the Vatican.  It is located right outside of the Vatican City and was recently remodeled and modernized this year.  The owner has grown up in Rome and was very hospitable.  He made us reservations at his father's family style Italian restaurant during one of the busiest nights of the year, waited on our table himself to ensure we enjoyed the food and service, and even allowed us to keep our things in the room past check out since it was raining hard on our last day.  If you ever need a good place to stay, we recommend this place.
Via Sebastiano Veniero, 8
00192 Roma
www.restbandb.com

Surf Safari in Biarritz

I know it has been awhile since the last blog posting, but things have been pretty routine and relatively uneventful around Nice.  Alex has been going to school for at least 8 hours a day, which has proven to be a very intense program.  I have been making my rounds about Nice and occupying my time by discovering new dessert shops and even counseling a bit.

Just when we started to get into the swing of things....Fall break came and we found ourselves on a short plane ride to Bordeaux.  We flew on an early morning flight to Bordeaux and rented a Fiat "Panda." Yes, that's right, a Panda.  Not only was it a tad combersome like a big fat bear, but it would twitch a little going down the road when it saw a bamboo forest (or maybe it was because it was a rental and it had been jumped a couple times). 

The first place we took our Panda after Alex rode around in the Bordeaux countryside while I slept in the passenger seat was to the Dune de la Pyla.  This huge sand dune is the largest in Europe and one if the biggest in the world.  We came on the most perfect day as there was a cool breeze and little fluffy cotton clouds covering the deep blue sky.  We hopped a fence to get to the path up the dune and once at the top, we could see for miles.  The dune had already swallowed a hotel and a large amount of the nearby forest.  They say that it grows by 15 feet per year.  At that rate, the nearby forest and neighborhoods do not stand a chance.  

We loaded back into the Panda and trundled down the road to a French truck stop for lunch where we discovered that they serve about the same type of food as the truck stops in the South.  Needless to say, I stuffed my face with a chocolate eclair to cleanse my palette of the truck stop taste.  As we pulled up to our place we rented through Airbnb.com, a siamese cat greeted us and would greet us ever morning and night from there on.

As we arrived in Biarritz, the good weather continued, which was a pleasant surprise from the weather reports a colleague in the area had been giving us via Facebook.  This place was magical.  It was like a Disneyland for surfers.  Never in my life have I seen such a surfer friendly town.  Huge breaks dominate the coast of Biarritz in the Fall/Winter an this is what we witnessed as we pulled up to the local break.  As I looked around, I realize that I had seen the local breaks in surf videos I had watched as a teen.  As we sat on the wall watching the surf at the Cote des Basques I remembered seeing the castle on the point in one particular surf film.  When we went to the Grand Plage, I remember seeing the huge rocks with the surfers navigating surf through them as well.  It was like coming to a place that I deep down knew existed but thought I would never see.  And yet, here we were.  

We spent the next 3 hours driving around town looking at all the surf spots and going through so many cool tunnels.  We walked across a bridge to a huge rock in the middle of the ocean that had its own little environment an it reminded me of the Hobbit.  The whole town was so clean and seemed to have an emphasis on nature and beautifying the town through natural means, I loved it.

We met up with Alex's friend from EDHEC, Tatsuya (from Tokyo) to go surfing and Tatsuya and I found ourselves amongst giant waves!  Eventhough the surf was smaller on this day, it still was incredibly huge to what we both had surfed before.  We paddled out at a beach break called "Ibiarritz" East of the Cote des Basques because high tide came and took the waves from that particular spot.  It had been awhile since I had paddled out in surf that big and I found myself exhausted by the time I came back to the beach.  Luckily, Alex fueled me up with a Nutella and whipped cream waffle that I did not hesitate to eat in order to get the salt out of my throat.  Tatsuya seemed to be just as tired as me, so we packed up the Panda and headed back to the Cote des Basques in hopes that the tide would come back down and bring better waves.  We were right, the waves were much better here and we caught some rides right before having to return the board.  

The French surfboard rental guy was an interesting one.  When we first rented the board he seemed to be a bit rude, but upon return, he was friendly and chatted me up about California and eventually invited us to a huge Halloween party on the beach.  Of course we accepted the invitation and figured out it was a costume party.  I had 2 hours to figure out a costume given a small bag of clothes and everyday make up I had brought with me.  I used black eyeliner, a pearl shade of eyeshadow and red lipstick to create a half of a sugar skull face.  The guys weren't so festive.  

We went to dinner with Tatsuya and ate at a great place called Tikia which had basque food and amazing desserts.  At the party, it was so packed full of people (around 400) that we decided to stay  for awhile to watch but then left fairly early.  There were great costumes an the majority of the surfers that showed up utilized their "snuggie" like surf blankets to create costumes.  

The next day we ate at the local market and drove to San Sebastián, Spain.  It was beautiful and also had amazingly huge surf.  We took some go pro footage of our drive up a twisty hill where we stood on top and could see a panorama of the ocean and the city.  Again, another wonderful mixture of beautiful architecture and nature.

When we came back into Biarritz for our last night, we were turned away from multiple restaurants that were completely full and ended up at a brand new place where we were 2 of 4 people eating.  Despite the lack of customers, this place was great.  We had an amazing meal and the chef personally shook out hands as we walked out the door.  

The next morning we found ourselves not wanting to leave Biarritz.  Even as I write this blog, I wish we could still be in that wonderful place.  We eventually got ourselves together, visited the waves one last time, and got in the Panda to head to Hossegor (another very popular surf spot).  The town of Hossegor was attractive and had its surf culture thing going for sure.  However, when we made our way to the waves, the hotels and shops on the sand were covered in graffiti and made the place look dirty.  The break was great but again, at least double overhead.  I could see why they host the championships here.

As night time approached we found ourselves back in Bordeaux to catch our flight.  We ate one last meal at a place when translated into English means, "Happy like Alex."  It was a fondue restaurant and it was tasty.  After dinner, we ate ice cream in the rain and travelled back to our hotel to get some needed sleep before our early morning flight back to Nice.  This trip had been in the top 3 experiences of our lives.

A Rainy Train Ride & New Friends

Alex and I have been utilizing the vast public transportation system of France to visit some great places around Nice.  We frequently use the buses to get to places across town and Alex to school, but we also use the train to get from Nice to places like Cannes, Antibes, and now Menton.  

One rainy Sunday, Alex had an itch to get on a train and ride to the Italian border to a place called Menton.  We didn't know much about it other than it was known for its citrus fruit.  We ran, or rather Alex ran and pulled me through the rain all the way to the train station and we rode to Menton.  As soon as we were off the train, we saw some orange trees and beautiful architecture.  

Everything was closed in town, so we just took some time to breathe and walk alongside the sea.  We saw an amazing rainbow and of course, spotted a cat.  

We ended up eating at the only restaurant open in the town near the sea, but it had great food an even better dessert!  

After a rainy weekend, the sun peeked out and it was brag weather again in Nice.  After meeting more of Alex's classmates and their wives, one of the wives joine me for lunch and some sun on the beach.  Gabriela and Henrique are from Brazil and they are both very nice people.  I am so happy to meet another girl who is as short as I am! We are not short, just vertically challenged.  We went to my favorite place, Emma's Cupcakes, for lunch and well...you know, cupcakes.  I had to share the love of this amazing place!  Then we went to the beach and what was there to greet us?  Our flags! It was so amazing that the Brazilian flag was right next to an American flag, but even more amazing that the American flag had a California flag attached! It was meant to be.

I have enjoyed getting to know Gabby as the weeks go on and it is fun to have a partner in crime! 

 

Another great pleasure we had recently was to meet up with our friend (Bailey) from Hickory's sister and her family.  Anna, Nico, their two boys (Liam and Lucas), Nico's mother, and some of Nico's old classmates joined us on the beach one evening to talk about how things had been going in Nice.  The family lives near Nice in Aix en Provence. It was great to see some familiar faces!  

Places of Great Heights

Alex went on an overnight trip to the Alps with all of his classmates as part of the required curriculum at EDHEC.  This was meant to be a team building exercise, but Alex came home with so much more.  He started his day at 5am where he caught a bus to school with a backpack full of snacks and overnight clothes.  From EDHEC, the students boarded a bus that drove them to Mercantour Park in the Alps.  They stopped to have breakfast at a village before hiking up to their base camp.  

Alex said that they scaled a Summit that day (8,400ft) and he and the other students were very tired that night.  They stayed in a refuge where they ate dinner and students entertained eachother with songs on their guitars and dancing.  Alex went to bed early because he was so exhausted, but quickly realized that he would not be getting any sleep due to the large amount of snoring that was already taking place around his room!

After a long night of never sleeping, Alex went downstairs to play a horse racing game at 5am.  They ate breakfast together, then quickly began to hike again.  On this morning, the students saw a cattle farmer hearding his cows along a stream and also stumbled upon a cheese maker high in the Alps.  Alex thought that because they hiked so far the previous day they would not be hiking too far the second day, but he was wrong.  Again, they Summited a very tall mountain (9,000ft)!  He said that the paths were so tiny that you had to cling to the mountain to keep from falling.  Only 12 people made it to the top that day.

As a side note: One thing that has astonished both Alex and myself is how much the French will allow people to do.  I guess this comes from a society where it is pretty difficult for someone else to be held liable for your own stupidity.  We witnessed this when we visited Point du Hoc 2 years ago, where the French would allow anyone to walk into the large craters left by bombs and also inside the bunkers that had also been bombed.  And on this trip to the Alps the French figure if you are going to be a show off or do something stupid that you know you are not capable of doing, its your fault if you get hurt.  I like this philosophy!

When Alex finally came home, dirty and tired, he said that he had learned many things from the trip.  He now understands why his father has enjoyed hunting and being in the wilderness for days on end.  He also sees the value of getting to know each individual in your team and the importance that has on beling able to work together and accomplish something big.

The weekend after Alex came back from the Alps, we decided to visit another scenic place situated high upon a cliff on the sea, called Eze.  Eze is probably the most beautiful village I have seen so far.  It looks like it is sitting on a cloud, hovering over the sea.  There are all types of little shops with art, jewelery, and other nic nacs, a hidden garden overlooking the sea, and a very old church.  Our favorite spot was on the path of Nietzsche.  The view was ovewhelmingly beautiful and a great place to just sit and think.  I reccommend going to Eze to anyone who comes to the South of France.

September of New Beginnings

September has been a very busy month for us, here in Nice.  We moved into our apartment (where we will remain until the end of June), settled into our place by gathering neccessities and comforts, explored our new neighborhood to figure out where to get groceries/etc, and Alex started school on the 10th!

We call our apartment, "the box".  It is 28 meters squared (about 280 square ft) but is very comfortable and cozy.  It is very easy to clean "the box" which makes it seem like I have accomplished so much at the end of the day when the groceries are in, dinner is made, and I have even snuck in some beach time.  Yes, it is true, I am not a very domesticated female by any means but this isn't half bad.  Most of the time I will use my longboard skateboard to pick up things we need around town, which makes it seem more like an adventure rather than an errand.  

We are doing a good job of connecting with the local shop owners/workers around our neighborhood and they are beginning to recognize us, which is pretty exciting because it makes us feel like we are a part of the neighborhod community.  The one shop that has come to know me best is Emma's Cupcakes, which is a Salon de The (Tea shop) two streets down from us that also serves soups, sandwiches, salads, coffee, tea, and as the name suggests...cupcakes!  Alex has a hard time staying away from the Lebanese restaurant a street over and I don't blame him, the food is delicious.

Our pharmacist, one building down in the Meyerbeer pharmacie, is amazing.  He speaks English and his understnding of disorders/conditions is wonderful.  Recently, I posted a blurb about our experience on FB.  To make a long story short, both Alex and myself came out from the pharmacy with medicines to treat our ailments without insurance companies needing to approve of anything and we will be reimbursed for our costs at a later date for our out of pocket expense (mine was 8 euros and Alex's was 27 euros). And did I mention that the medicines actually worked well?

On Alex's first day of his MBA program, I got up early and made him a big "American" breakfast with some pancake mix and syrup we had purchased from a specialty store.  He said the eggs were very good, but apparently the pancakes were not that great at all.  What's the saying?  "It's the thought that counts?"  : )  He really is enjoying the program and says that he did not expect to enjoy it this much, but he does.  The program is very practical and teaches a global, forward thinking type of philosophy which is refreshing. (Below is a picture of the view from the MBA floor at EDHEC)

On our first weekend since Alex has been in school, we joined a group of fellow students on a trip to Antibes (15 mins by train from Nice).  The beach was beautiful.  White sand, crystal blue water, and you could touch going out to sea about 200 yards.  It was great getting to know people from such different parts of the world.  On this trip the nationalities that were represented were: Japanese, Indian, Lebanese, German, Columbian, French, Russian, and Brittish.  It is very interesting to converse with so many different nationalities about what is happening in the world and what they want out of the program at EDHEC.

An Evening in Monaco

With Fitz and Kayla still in town and our curiosity peaked about the infamous Monte Carlo casino, we decided to head to Monaco for the evening.  Kayla had chatted up a local shop owner who had suggested some amazing restaurants, one of which was in Monaco.  Alex and I took the coastal highway all the way to Monaco whereas Fitz and Kayla decided to leave earlier to tour the area on Fitz's BMW motorcycle he had rented.  There were some gorgeous views of the ocean and surreal tunnels cut out of the coastal cliffs.

We rendezvoused with the motorcycle duo at 8:30pm at a wonderful restaurant called Avenue 31.  We had appetizers of non and ordered enough sushi to feed a small army, but it was very delicious!  It made us miss our favorite sushi restaurant in Hickory, called Umi, and the Miyazaki family who has always been so very good to us (we miss you, Satoko!).  We were also delighted with the amazing desserts, I mean, who says 5 types of chocolate is too much in one dessert?!  We were all loving the music at dinner that the restaurant dj had created special just to set a certain mood in the place, but Kayla was having an out of body experience.  So, just before we left, she managed to purchase 2 CD's from him so that she could have the music to play when she is jamming out in her new Prius back in the states.  We also toured the bathrooms because Alex came back from them, telling us that they had golden "thrones" and golden walls...wow.

We were stuffed and ready for a nap but our curiosity had not been satisfied just yet.  We walked from the restaurant, down through the immaculately clean streets and alleys, past the yellow, red, and white Lamborghinis, past the black Aston Martin and Bentleys, and arrived at the Monte Carlo where a variety of all of the above plus some Ferrarris mixed in sat, daring us to enter.  And after doing the typical tourist thing of grabbing some other tourist to take our picture in front of the monstrosity, we entered the Monte Carlo. 

It was beautiful and very ornate, but we were very surprised over the lack of gambling tables.  It seemed like they had set out a few tables just for the tourists to get their experiences and leave whereas the real gambling was happening behind closed doors in the bountiful private rooms.  So Fitz came out on top in Black Jack and Alex and Kayla tag teamed the Roulette table for twice the profit.  It was a good night! We decided to call it a night at that before we took Lady Luck for granted.