Tea and other Important Things

Coming from a British background, I have been raised on tea and have been brought up on the notion that embracing tea is part of life. Tea in the morning before breakfast, tea after lunch, tea during the day, tea after dinner, tea when watching my favourite show, tea when playing scrabble with my nana, etc. There has definitely been an overwhelming domination of tea in my life. Don't get me wrong though, I still enjoy a nice cappuccino every now and then, but for the most part I am all for the tea.
So since moving here to France, I have had to overcome the obstacle of finding the perfect tea place. And, I think I've done well. Aside from the usual Choopy's visit (see Choopy's post below) I have also been buying different loose leaf varietals at this cute little shop in the heart of Old Antibes. The place is called "Cafes au Negus Blanc" and it's on Rue Republique which is kind of like the gateway street between the Old Town and the not-so-new town. It's right across from the Carousel. The inside is not very big, but just big enough to hold many wonderful teas, coffees and chocolates. I have personally bought a couple different Earl Greys here, wish is my favourite, along with the current special: the Prince William. Yes, I bought it just for the name because I completely adore Prince William. But, it actually tastes quite nice, go figure. I have also bought the most perfect little pink floaty tea steeper from this store, and I love it!

We have also managed to score these amazing mugs since being here, we found them at this department store called Maxi Bazaar. They are vintage-looking and are basically cereal bowls with a handle. This is perfect for me because I love big cups of tea. I'm the kind of girl who orders a Venti from Starbucks. I'm probably a little weird over here in that sense, because everyone here seems to enjoy their daily dose of caffeine in a little espresso cup.
So to anyone traveling Antibes in the near future, if you run out of anything practical - be sure to go to Maxi Bazaar.

I will finish off this post by saying that lovely tea is available everywhere, even in the South of France. If a confused, non-French speaking exchange student from Toronto can find excellent tea, just think of what you can do.

The Secret to skipping an exam in the South of France

Pray for snow!
It's about 7 degrees and raining in Antibes right now. It's 8:45 in the morning and I just waited for over half an hour in the rain at the bus stop waiting for the Envibus 100 Express to take me to school. It never came. I had an Advanced Macroeconomics final exam at 8:30 this morning, so I'm kind of freaking out! Apparently, the bus company has cancelled all its buses today that go to Sophia Antipolis (the area that my school is in just north of Antibes and in the mountains) because of a small chance of snow.
Of course, it never snows here. And it's not right now, and it probably won't at all today because it's supposed to stay about this temperature all day. It seems like with even a small hint of bad weather, the French Riviera goes into lockdown and cancels everything. I think this is kind of hilarious, especially coming from Canada when a day like this in January is nothing compared to some snow days we've had.
Obviously, they are not as equipped as us in Canada to handle the snow and don't have things like snow plows here so I guess it's kind of understandable. It just sucks it happened to fall on the one day I have a final exam.
But, in another light, it's sort of like a blessing in disguise. I get extra time to study for this calculus based economics class that I'm already so lost in anyways. So I will take this as a blessing, and go back to studying! That's apparently what I'm in France for in the first place I suppose...