Our first stop, the old village of Biot, is downright adorable. Most of the shops were closed for lunch when we arrived, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves to snap pictures and wander around. It was lovely and ideally provencale. The map told us that the Leger museum was down the hill in the newer part of Biot so we walked that direction. At the bottom of the hill were the various verreries. We found a great one and did a significant amount of shopping for beautiful glasswares that will forever be treasured in our home. We did not, however, find the museum. The woman who sold us the glass items said it was back up the hill in the village! At this point, we shrugged our shoulders and headed back to Antibes after having enjoyed a nice sunny afternoon in a quiet village and going a tiny bit overboard with our shopping.
Leigh flies back to the US next Thursday morning, January 21, and I won't see her again until the evening of May 3. It's going to be a long time without my best friend and my "favorite person to do stuff with" (it's an official title). Once she leaves I have some preliminary plans to keep myself busy and make the following months pass at a nice clip as we all be productive. My goals and plans are as follows:
1) Get really serious about strengthening my French skills. I have found some excellent online tutorials and my Canadian roommate has an exercise book she said I can use to practice my written French. Additionally, I want to practice my conversational French too, though I have yet to find a constructive resource for this. Maybe I will find something on www.meetup.com in the coming weeks.
2)Exercise more regularly to keep myself busy and focused and to prepare for the hot weather that is coming up soon. Plus I am planning to visit the Czech Republic in April and there is a 12km hike I want to do while I'm there, so I need to be in shape.
3) Take great trips during my holidays. During February I am going to Taize for one week and during April I am traveling for 2 weeks to Prague, Berlin and Barcelona.
4) Work more. Right now I am paid for 12 hours per week, though I spend over 20 hours per week at the school where I teach. I am going to look into getting some tutoring clients or maybe pick up more hours at my school during the February holiday (when I'm in town). I might also look into working in non-teaching positions like with the yachting community, etc.
5) Be more creative/partake in leisure activities. Yes, I know, I lead a very leisurely lifestyle already, however I could do more with this time. For one thing, this is a very beautiful place and I have yet to paint anything since arriving. I would like to buy some painting supplies and spend a few sunny days dabbling in water colors or oils and experimenting with brighter pallets than previously used. I would also like to be more focused about catching up on my reading. I bought a used copy of Bleak House two months ago and have only read about 200 pages of it. There are so many amazing books that I haven't been able to read because of being in law school and I should really take the time to indulge more.
That's about it for me today- just trying to strategize my way through the next three months in France so I don't get too sad after Leigh goes back home and so I can still make the most of my time here. Don't get me wrong, I really like it here, but in many ways I am already ready to go home and start my life as an adult. Mostly, I will just miss the companionship I have so greatly enjoyed these past three months and will have to shift gears back into being a self-reliant young woman with goals to work towards.
Alas, it is nearly my dinner time and I am quite peckish after an afternoon of exploring Biot and enjoying the sunshine after a long spell of rain.
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