Bonne St-Valentin!

I don’t really have a whole lot to say about today, as it was fairly laid back.   But alas, its Valentine’s Day, and I felt I couldn’t go through my day without at least wishing everyone who reads this a lovely day.

Today is also Olesya’s birthday, and she brought a tarte aux fruits for us to enjoy during our coffee break today.  C’est magnifique!

After class, I had to go buy a new charger for my laptop, which was frustrating, but alas.  Basically, the SmartCharge charger I had failed to perform within its given voltage range, and the transformer box thingy exploded.  Okay, not like, shards of plastic and electrical fire sort of explosion, but one of the circuits did break and the thing melted.  Chinese piece of crap.  Ugh.  So after picking one, opening the box, and realizing that it might not actually have an adapter for my laptop, we rushed home to try it just to find out that it sort of did.  When I say sort of, I mean it charges, but it doesn’t have the same… “hook” the other one did.  The old one wouldn’t fall out if the wind blew, this one probably would.  But alas, we have it all set up, and I just have to refrain from using the laptop while its charging… Sounds way too complicated and annoying for something I’m going to have to replace when I get back to the states anyway, but alas.  So, my future travelers, if you have an extra charger for whatever reason, bring it just in case.  Always check the maximum input voltages on your electronics; just because you have something that converts the plug type doesn’t mean your US electronic device won’t explode when you plug it into the 240 volts they use in Europe.  Now, my charger was “supposedly” good up to 240, but whatever, done venting about that.

I also had to spend a little more money on a new coat.  Now, I have a rather nice, black wool peacoat that I just love, but here in Nice, its really been sort of a pain in the rear.  The weather here is sort of frustrating.  In the shade, its too cold to go without the coat, but when in the sun, its too strong to wear it, but then the wind is too strong to go without it, you follow?  Basically, I needed a coat that wasn’t as warm as the one I have, because the only other thing I have, and brought with me, are light cardigan sort of sweaters, which do nothing when the sun goes down.  Now, I only came to this conclusion after consulting Nice’s Wikitravel page to find out that the temperature is only going to go up about 5-10 degrees during our three months here.  Not much at all.  So we went shopping again.  I was quite successful, and its even sort of semi-water-impermeable.  I would not call it a rain coat… but water does bead on the surface should I find myself umbrella-less in a light drizzle.  Pretty sure I’d be soaked in a downpour though.  So there’s travel tip number two for the day: bring a coat that can work in a wide range of temperatures, and that can be easily layered with a sweater for more warmth.

Okay, sort of a ramble-y post.  My apologies.

Bonne St-Valentin!