Second Sunday of Lent

I successfully attended the Anglican Church in Cannes today. Props to me! This is even more of a miracle because I decided last night to at least pretend that I have a life in Antibes. My Canadian Counterpart asked me around 20:00 if I wanted to get a drink. Seeing as it was still early and I hadn't done much of anything all day I said yes. We left the house around 22:00 and wound up at the place I always go to when I decide to get a life, The Drinker's Club, and nursed one cider each until a little after midnight. The Drinker's Club is a nice refuge from the usual places here, which are mostly "Irish Pubs" catering to the yachting crowd or people who can't get into the discos in Monaco. They're expensive meat market type places and I get overwhelmed with anxiety just walking past them on Saturday nights. Skipping these places does not make one immune from male advances however, as Sam found herself the subject of compliments and inappropriate questions before we had even gotten our evening started.

So I got myself up at 7:30 this morning in spite of my bed calling me back to dream world, and made it to Cannes with lots of time to spare. When walking from the gare routiere to the church I saw a cycling competition of some sort, complete with teams and outfits.

Even cooler was when I saw this military vessel out in the water and was transported back to Haines, Alaska in 2008 when I saw a Coast Guard cutter anchored in the bay near my campsite. I have no idea the origin of the ship in the picture above, but the sensation was pretty cool.

The Coast Guard cutter in Haines.

Then I stopped to read a little bilingual Micromegas before the service started. It was kind of cold with the wind and threats of raindrops, but still a lovely morning.

The church I attended was very nice. I shared my pew with a little old lady from Denmark in a very large fur coat and her teeny, tiny dog. The dog and I made friends immediately when she licked my hand upon sight and then looked at me with her sad little eyes until I pet her.

People kept introducing themselves to me and asking me the basic "who are you" type questions, which I found very nice. The service was almost word for word what I grew up with at the Episcopal churches of southwest Virginia, which was both a little odd and comforting at the same time. After the service there was coffee, etc and then I caught the bus back to Antibes. Ultimately the experience was not only painless but quite nice. It's now 14:00 on a Sunday and I have actually accomplished something today, but I believe a nap is in order before I start thinking about doing some lesson planning.

Hopefully I will get enough done today so I can justify an excursion to Monaco tomorrow. So far I have not been to Monaco even though it's only about 30 minutes from my home here. How lame would it be if I went back to the US after 7 months here without managing to visit Monaco even once?

Yeah, pretty lame.