Le week-end

I can't believe it's already been a week since I've been here! It's gone by so quickly but at the same time it feels like I've been here longer.

This past weekend was fun. Thursday night we went out to some bars around le centre ville and met a group of British kids studying abroad, but they were only here for three weeks and they left Saturday. We went to a bar called Barberousse that's pirate themed and they make their own flavors of rum, very pirate of them.

Friday we had class and then went to the Maison des Relations Internationales in la place de la Comedie (the main part of town). They have a really pretty garden (inset) and we had snacks and met the woman who was in charge of organizing study abroad for students who go to school in Montpellier.

Afterwards, we went to the summer wine festival called Estivales (which means summer festival or something along those lines). They have them every Friday in the summer, but there are only two left! They set up a whole bunch of wine tasting, food and vending tents in one of the gardens in the main part of town and you just go around, taste wine and eat food. It's only 4 euros for a glass and three wine tastings, which isn't too bad of a deal. I didn't have any wine this time because I'm not the biggest wino, but I think I will have some at this Friday's festival.

Saturday we had class :(. It's not so bad because it's only for two more weeks. Actually, this Saturday we go to a museum and get to sleep in til 10:30!! That will be the latest I'll have slept in the entire time I've been here. We swear they don't want us to sleep here because we always have to be up so early. Class ended at 1230 and Melissa, Becky and I decided to go to the beach again. We went to a different part of the beach from when we went with the whole group on Thursday, but it was nice because it was a bit quieter and had more scenic views.

That night we had a night tour of the city, which was cool because we went in chronological order, starting with the oldest parts and ending up in la place de la comedie. It's funny because the French consider Montpellier to be a young city and it's about 2000 years old (I think that's right). And then for the U.S. a young city is like 50-100 years old. It was kind of scary because one of my friends got mugged during the tour. He was lagging behind smoking a cigarette and these homeless people noticed he was dragging behind in a group full of tourists and they dragged him into the shadow and took 50 euro and searched his bag. Luckily they didn't take anything else like credit cards and such-- they were pretty strategic about it. But my friend was okay, just a little shaken up. After that, our tour guides and group leaders were very protective and made sure everyone in the group was together and not lagging behind.

Sunday we went to Nîmes and Pont du Gard. Nîmes was a cool city dating back to the roman times in the BC era, so it's one of the older cities in France. There's a big colosseum where they hold bull fighting events called La Feria. They have two per year and one is coming up at the end of September so we may go check it out since Nîmes is only about an hour from Montpellier. It was pretty hot outside that day so everyone was sweating and suffering in the heat.

Things got better when we went to Pont du Gard, the giant aqueducts not too far from Nîmes. The water was really cold and felt so good. It was also really clear which I wasn't expecting, I thought it was going to be gross run-off water. There were some guys that jumped off the first tier of the bridge and one of them busted his shoulder and then the guards had to stop other people from jumping off. It was at least 30 feet up so that must have hurt a lot. We jumped off some rocks but they were only about 8 feet up so it wasn't quite the same thing haha.

I got a rock in my foot and my skin closed over it pretty quickly so I had to go to the croix-rouge (red cross) and they only spoke French! But I think I did a pretty good job of speaking to them. Also, going back on what I said in a previous post about it being annoying that the people didn't speak French (and by "the people" I mean the two girls who are kind of our group leaders), it's good because I have to talk to them in French and therefore, améliorer (improve) my français. The two girls are really nice-- their names are Flo and Elodie and are both students at the same Université.

Now I am ready for this next week! We go back to the beach on Friday, a museum on Saturday instead of class and then Avignon on Sunday. It's going to be fun!

Also, I'm really excited because we get about 5 days break in between when the pre-stage ends and when classes start and I think we might go to Ibiza for a couple nights and then Barcelona for a night! We have to wait and see what the days for registration are, but I think it will work out! So excitedddd.

Allons-y à la plage! (To the beach!)

Thursday, Aug 19

Yesterday was the first day of classes. I found out I'm in the middle level, which I'm fine with. I'd expect that after 3 months of no speaking French. Hopefully by the end of the presession I'll move up to the C level, which is the highest level. Already I feel it coming back and it's only been a couple days. It helps that on parle en français quelquefois (we speak in French sometimes)- by we I mean the other kids in my program. Taking classes in French for 5 hours a day should get me back up to speed.

Yesterday, we had to go back to the city centre, mind you for about the 5th time this week. While we were there, we saw a man teaching his dog how to ride a skateboard! He would set the skateboard on its side and the dog would run up to it, knock it over so it was flat, hop on and coast down three or four steps. It was awesome! I tried taking a picture, but it happened so quickly, it's a bit blurry.

When I got back last night, I took a shower and my room flooded! Mine is the second room to have done this. The walls aren't sealed properly on one side (I didn't know this at the time) and I had the shower head facing that wall because I didn't want the water leaking out through the bathroom door-- the divet is only half an inch. So when I walked out my entire floor was covered with water. Thankfully none of my suitcases or electronics were ruined, but it was still a bit annoying. I'm going to have to switch rooms which is a bummer because mine is relatively big compared to the others.

Today was fun. After class (we only had two today) we headed off to the beach around 2:30. The beach was about 20 minutes on the bus to the south. The water was a little cold, but so clear and pretty. After playing in the water, we played some volleyball and then took a walk down the beach. The girls in this picture are (from left to right): Heather, Emily, Colleen, Melissa, Becky & me. The middle four go to Loyola in MD and I forget which school Heather goes to.

Apparently tops were optional. But it was elder women not wearing tops, not exactly what you want to see. There were a lot of people out on the beach. A lot of people come down from northern and middle France for vacation in August. The French government makes it mandatory to take of 5 weeks vacation!! We barely get two in America, that's ridiculous. Maybe I should just stay here.

I think tonight we are going out for the first night. This will be exciting because we will get to see a different side of Montpellier, and hopefully a younger crowd. We'll see!

I have homework to do, must go!

Deuxième Jour (Second Day)

Tuesday, Aug 17

Today was much less eventful than yesterday, but it was good because we met everyone else in our program. I'd say there are about 20-25 kids altogether in my program and then a group of about 20 girls from Mount Holyoke who are also doing the IEFE (Institut d'études françaises pour les etrangères= institute of French studies for study abroad students).

There are about 5 kids from Montana State University, and two of them are originally from Butte which is cool because that's where my mom is from and one is from Billings where my dad is from! There are another 5 or so kids from University of Washington, 4 or 5 from Geneseo (sp?) in NY, 4 from Loyola in MD and a couple from University of Louisville. I am the only student from Virginia Tech, but I'm not the only one who is alone from their school.

It was a bit sad because the only reason someone recognized VT was because of the April 16th shooting and that's always a bit hard to hear.

Anyway, we took a placement exam this morning and I find out tomorrow which level of presession classes I am in. Then a whole bunch of us went to the city centre again to get more items and more people got phones so now I have more than one phone number in my contacts!

We were going to go to the beach today but then the errands ran late. Classes go til about 1615 on certain days! Ridiculous eh? But Thursday we are definitely going to the beach because it's on our presession schedule.

This weekend we are taking a night tour of the city and then an excursion to Nîmes et Pont du Gard on Dimanche (Sunday), so I'm excited about that. My friend Steph knows someone in Saint-Tropez and we talked about visiting him later but he leaves next week! So he wants to come to Montpellier Thurs/Fri and then take her (and she invited me too) back to Saint-Tropez but that would mean missing the night tour and the excursion to Nîmes. Who knows!

EN FRANCE!

Je suis ici (I am here)! It's been a long 24 hours-- I've only gotten 3 hours of sleep since Saturday night but rest assured I will pass out tonight.

Yesterday was quite hectic, with leaving packing (somewhat) to the last minute-- thank god for Kelly, Steph & Meggie otherwise I would have never gotten packed on time. My travels started off with me freaking out about not having a watch, buying the cheapest one at the duty free store (and by cheapest I mean $100) and then realizing I never called my bank to tell them I was going out of the country. I was frantically running around Dulles trying to find internet and a pay phone and did not succeed in calling because I had to board. Needless to say, when I got on the plane I was close to tears because of apprehension and nerves.

I calmed down on the flight, thanks to Date Night and How to Train Your Dragon (don't knock it til you see it!) and made it to Paris at 530 a.m. local time. When I arrived in Montpellier this morning at 9 a.m. I was dead tired, having slept only 45 min throughout the night. When I located the people who were supposed to meet me, it was a bit annoying because they didn't speak English! You would think the international student program would send someone who spoke English to explain things but that was not the case. Anyway, me and two other kids took the Université bus back to the dorm area and spoke to more people who didn't know English.

I passed out for a few hours and then got up and decided to go explore. When I was leaving the dorm, it just so happened that a group of about 8 other girls were going to the city center so I went with them. We took the tram in, which only takes about 10 to 15 minutes and explored for a bit.

My favorite part was riding the little carousel right next to the tram stop. This is a picture of me and two of the other girls riding it. The one in the middle is Justine and on the right is Stephanie. Both of them go to school in NYC, but at different schools and Stephanie is originally from Dominican Republic, which is cool. We walked around for a bit and explored some of the close monuments-- there's an arc that looks like a mini Champs Elysées.

We headed back around 530 or 6 and brainstormed travels plans for when we get a few days break in between the presession and when classes start. Everyone's a bit confused on this though-- some people think classes don't start til the 19th but some think it's the 13th so if the latter is correct then unfortunately we wouldn't have a lot of time to travel. Anyway, if we do get to, we thought it would be fun to head to Barcelona for a few days and then fly over to Prague and go from there to Berlin, Zurich and Geneva-- Justine and another girl Katie have friends studying abroad in those places.

When I got back to my room I just hung out for a few hours and skyped with Diane (skype me!). Then Stephanie and I decided we were hungry and as we were leaving, two of the girls from earlier-- Becky and Melissa were heading out too so we took the tram back to the city centre and ate at a little café. (In the picture Melissa is far right, Becky is next to her then Stephanie then me.)

Now I just got back and I am super tired-- it's 11:45 almost! So I need to go to bed because we have to be up early for a placement exam. I think we might head to the beach in the afternoon though, since we're done around 2 or 230.

One thing I am not a fan of: no screens on the windows, so a lot of moths are buzzing outside and it's a bit annoying.

Bonne nuit!

11 Days

The countdown continues...11 days until I depart. It's unreal how close it is. I'm going to be living in another country for FOUR MONTHS WHOOOO!

While I am getting to the point where I am uncontainably excited, I must ask myself, "Where has the summer gone?" It seems to have flown by. It seems only a couple days ago that I was returning from school and awaiting gleefully for my 21st birthday. That quickly passed and now a few short months later, here I am a week and a half away from starting my adventure.

Twitter constantly reminds me that I will be missing football season, thanks to friends who are counting down the days until the Virginia Tech vs. Boise State season opener. And while I know I will be having a blast spending my semester abroad, part of me is sad I won't be at Tech in the fall.

Reason number one is football, of course. I think VT has a lot of potential this year and it would great to go see the Hokies destory Boise State. I mean come on, no one really thinks Boise State is going to win, do they?

Secondly, I am going to be a senior (WHAT?) and I am sad I won't be there for the first semester of senior year. Although I will be a super senior for at least half a year so I will gain a fall (and football season) back.

Thirdly, it would be nice to enjoy finally being 21 at school and being able to go DT like everyone else- especially after football games to celebrate.

And now I am going to stop complaining because I know that I am going to be having more fun in France.

11 DAYS!!!!