Mes aventures francaises

So I went to Paris 2 weekends in a row. The first, I wasn’t there for very long because I met up with my parents at the airport Saturday morning J. The first weekend I was there we stayed in my friend Marc’s grandparent’s apartment. We crammed like 8 of us in a tiny apartment but it was free so it was fabulous. My train ride to Paris was interesting: lady w/ a cat on one side, overly affectionate couple on the other. After getting to the apartment at around 11pm, we still wanted to go out and explore so we walked to Notre Dame which was really close by then walked through the Latin Quarter which is where most students are because the universities are around there. We then walked by the Pantheon then stopped for some wine to celebrate the fact that we were in Paris. Since I only had one full day to be there, Rebecca and I got up really early to cram stuff in. We first went to the catacombs which were really creepy. We got there not long after they opened so there was hardly anybody and at some parts we couldn’t see or hear anyone. It was ridiculous how many skulls and femurs were stacked up on top of each other. There were also quotes about death up on the walls which seemed like they were just there to creep people out. I was really confused when were leaving b/c a guy working there asked to look in my purse… I guess sometimes people must try to steal skulls or something. We then went to the Luxembourg gardens where the building where the Senate meets is to picnic, then to a really pretty church Saint Supplice which was nearby. We then went to the Musée de l’Orangerie which is an art museum- they have massive canvases of Monet’s water lilies there. I was really frustrated with tourists there because they kept taking pictures. First of all, I don’t know why you would take a picture of a work like that because it’s not going to capture it and secondly, people would not turn their flash off even though there were clearly signs everywhere saying to turn them off- it was just annoying because the people working there had to tell people like every 3 minutes not to use flash and there’s a reason for not being able to use flash: it damages the paintings! So yeah I was just frustrated with how disrespectful people were. We then went to the Louvre because it’s free w/ a student ID after 6 on Fridays. After that we got some indian food and then just chilled in the appartment because our feet were sore from walking all day.

The next day I got up ridiculously early to go meet Mom and Dad at the airport. It was great to see them! Unfortunately mom had a cold  We took the train down to Montpellier and got lunch there. I was really excited b/c the weather was nice.  We then headed to countryside. It's weird being in a big city but like right outside is beautiful, beautiful countryside. We stayed in a hotel that Mom found. It was in the middle of nowhere on a farm. We ate dinner there too and it was all local products and lamb they had raised on the farm... it was amazing!

The next day we drove around and explored the Tarn Gorges. It was really beautiful countryside and there were some adorable villages there. To the right is a picture of me and Dad there We got so into exploring that we unfortunately missed lunch hours but luckily we had some snack food.

We then returned to Montpellier where we tried to find Mom and Dad’s hotel. I knew where it was by foot but it’s way more complicated by car b/c there are a lot of one way streets. I then ate dinner at a restaurant in Montpellier for the 1st time... I always just eat w/ my host mom so I had never tried anywhere.

On Monday, I went to class in the morning to give Mom and Dad time to sleep in a bit. We then drove to St Guilhelm le Desert which is a really cute village in the middle of the mountains where there's an old abbey. We picniced and explored.  We then went to another village called St Martin de Londres where there's an 11th century church and then to see the Cirque de Navacelle- it's in the mountains and a meander in the river was there centuries ago and you can see where it was... very pretty. We had crammed a lot of stuff in that day and so wanted to stop to get dinner before gettin back to Montpellier but where we were is very touristy and it's dead in the off-season but finally found a good restaurant where we had another fabulous 3 course meal. I ate very well when Mom and Dad were here. I don't think Mom was as impressed as Dad was w/ the food here. Dad and I ate so much duck, lamb, pâté, and cheese (especially Roquefort).

Tuesday I didn't do anything with Mom and Dad b/c I had a couple classes and volunteered at a nearby high school to help kids with their English. It was not good that week- the kids did not want to be there at all. They were writing resumes and 1 kid wrote that his hobbies were "smoking marijuana and drinking beer and vodka". It was much better this week... they're all really nice to me and 1 guy was definitely trying to hit on me. That night I went out to eat with Mom and Dad which was again fabulous. I then showed them some of the sights of Montpellier that are lit up and pretty at night.

Wednesday was official tour of Montpellier day when I got out of class. I was excited to shw them around "my city" I showed them the old part of town which they were impressed by, the new part of town they were not so impressed by and my campus which they were not at all impressed by. They were expecting old nice stone buildings but the campus looks like it was built in the 60s or 70s and it's not very pretty at all. We ran into some of my American friends so they got to meet them. That night my host mom invited us over for dinner that her and her friend prepared for us. We had some ridiculously good fondue. I got to be an interpreter... I thought that I had told my host mom that they didn't speak French at all but she for some reason thought they knew a little bit. It was actually better than I thought. I thought there were going to be random awkward pauses but conversation was kept up. It was nice for them to meet my host mom and see where I live. I had told mom and dad that dinner would probably last for 2 hours b/c they were tired and my host mom goes to bed fairly early in general but they were over for 3 and a half hours.

Thursday, I went to class in the morning and then headed back up to Paris. I'll write about that next time... this is already are a really long entry!

Barcelona this past weekend was amazing! We took a train in on Friday morning really early- I usually open up my blinds in the morning to let some light into the room instead of turning lights on but that morning I did it and there was no light yet. We got into Barcelona around 1, checked into our hostel, got some lunch, and then went to Camp Nou (the Barcelona soccer stadium) to pick up our tickets and to check out the 3 story store. Communication was difficult since I know no Catalan and my Spanish vocab pretty much consists of words like hola and gracias. It felt weird to be in a country where I don’t know the language- I felt super touristy whereas in France I feel like it’s not my home but I feel comfortable here.

Marc’s friend Hap who’s studying in Seville then flew in to meet us. After he got in, we wandered around the city some and went to the Gothic quarter and to the Catalonian art museum which is in the old Palau Nacional- we were too cheap to pay to visit the art exhibits so we just checked out the building. We then decided to have a nice dinner- I got paella which was amazing. We then went back to our hostel which was sadly kind of far away from the center of town (however, it was near Camp Nou and the train station).

Sat morning we went to the Sagrada Familia which is pictured and was by far my favorite part of Barcelona. It’s a church designed by Antoni Gaudi. Construction was started in 1882 and it’s still not finished. The architecture was beautiful though. There was an exhibit explaining how Gaudi used different concepts he saw in nature like the patterns of tree roots and fruits etc. to model his architecture after. We then walked around and saw some more Gaudi works including the Park Guell which is up on the hill. We had done so much walking by that point that my feet were so sore so we took the metro back to our hostel. We cooked dinner in the hostel that night to save some money and then it was time for the match J

It was an amazing match and definitely worth the money. We were fairly high up but still had a decent view. Barcelona played an excellent game and scored 3 goals in the first 10 minutes. Messi was ridiculous… Barcelona has an amazing roster. My favorite Thierry Henry didn’t get to start but then came on in the 2^nd half. He started off not so hot: he got injured on his 1^st touch and then got a yellow card his 2^nd touch. Eventually he stepped it up and scored a goal for me. Barcelona ended up winning 6-1.

After the match we went back to the hostel to meet up with Kaitlin who’s not a soccer fan and so didn’t come with us. We decided to experience the nightlife of Barcelona which is different than what I’m used to because we got there at 1 and it wasn’t too crowded yet and left at 3 and there were still a lot of people there. Seeing Spanish men dance was definitely entertaining… they were amazing.

We slept in a bit Sun morning and then went to go see the Temple of Tibidabo which was on top of a hill overlooking the city. We took an old train up. The view of the city was great… Barcelona’s a much bigger city than I thought it was. It was weird because there’s an amusement park right next to the church… kind of ruins the panorama but oh well. Then we hiked back down. We cooked ourselves some more pasta for dinner then went out exploring again at night. We saw the statue of Christopher Columbus, walked around the port, and saw the Arc del Triompf (may have spelled that wrong).

Sadly, Monday morning it was time to go. We just barely caught our train because we left from a different station than we came into and the bus ride there took longer than we were expecting.

All in all it was a good trip. It makes my week seem really short though b/c I skipped class on Monday and I leave tonight for Paris where I will meet my parents on Sat morning J.

Interesting things that happened this week:

Tuesday, I volunteered at a local high school to help them with their English. The teacher and the students were so nice to me. Their English is not so good though… they’re in the bac professionel program which means they won’t go to college after they graduate but will get jobs. They’re going to be doing internships in England hence why they need to brush up on their English. Not all of the students were in the class though b/c some new legislation was passed causing some teachers to be on strike. When I told my host mom this she said “Vive la France!” it was hilarious. She was complaining a lot last week about the French mentality towards work b/c she was trying to catch a train and ended up not being able to b/c of a strike and then the next day she went to the post office and the government has decided to privatize the post office so they’ve been striking as well. Luckily, I haven’t encountered problems with strikes yet and hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself. But anyways, I’ll be going to the high school every week now and potentially twice a week.

Other random occurrence: yesterday on the tram on my way home from school this random guy decided he wanted to talk to me and my friend Sarah. It kind of creeped me out and I was making it clear that I didn’t want to talk to him but he kept talking to me. I could see other students laughing at him. He like wanted to get my e-mail address or something so I chose the run away method of escape and got off 2 stops before I usually get off and just walked the rest of the way home.

Exciting news: my host mom’s friend had an old TV she wasn’t using so she gave it to us. Yay for being able to watch TV!

Sat morning at 9, I left w/ my host mom to go to the countryside. She has a house there and is renting out part of it so she had a meeting with the people she’s going to rent it out to. It was definitely nice to be out of the city for the day and see some of the surrounding countryside. It was such a cute house. We ate figs straight off the tree- yum! Then her nephew and wife invited us to eat lunch with them. They were really nice and the food was amazing. It was a very French meal so we were there for a solid 2 hours. I ate way too much. Then my host mom and I went to this bamboo garden not too far from the house that is pictured above. It’s a really random thing to have in the southern French countryside but there’s apparently some sort of microclimate suitable for growing bamboo. It was a massive garden and had all different kinds of bamboo and other Japanese/Chinese plants. Overall, it was a fun day and it was great to do something with my host mom.

Sat night, I went to a park nearby because there was something called QuARTiers Libres going on this weekend so there were a bunch of free concerts/ dance performances/ theatre performances. I love how many cultural activities there are in this city. So Sat night there was a DJ there and then a concert by this very Euro band that was actually pretty good. It was a rock/ electronic group. To set the scene a little bit, the smell of weed was thick in the air and people were getting really into the music, jumping up and down and running into each other. Another thing that made me laugh was that the bass player was this girl w/ fake blonde hair wearing a black leather suit…. Clearly just part of the band b/c she looked good.

Sunday I went to church. The sermon was good and we sang some songs that I know the English versions of like Prince of Peace and How Great Thou Art. I liked the church but I don’t know if I’ll go back b/c it was very Pentecostal. Not that being Pentecostal is a bad thing… I’m just not used to it so the everybody praying out loud at the same time kind of made me uncomfortable… it was like it was building up like a prayer frenzy.

After that I spent the whole afternoon in the park for the QuARTiers Libres again. Highlights were: a show for kids called A Strange Parade that I was very entertained by, a dance group that did this 30 min long futuristic dance that was absolutely amazing and a North African band complete with a belly dancer.

Things that happened early in the week that I didn’t write about:

Tuesday my French cell phone fell out of my pocket and into the toilet at the university. I hesitated but then convinced myself that I’d rather go in for it than pay for a new phone so I rescued it and it amazingly still works.

Tuesday night one of the girls on my program’s host mom invited all of us UNC people and our host families over for a soirée. It was nice to pair everyone’s host families with them and to finally meet some people that I’d heard many stories about.

Wednesday night I finally went to the movie theatre where I saw this film called “Entre les murs” that has won some awards. It was a really interesting film because it didn’t have much of a plotline as such but it was about this middle school teacher and most of it took place within the classroom. It was very realistic and showed how hard it would be to be a teacher.

This past weekend started off with going ice skating on Friday night. It's really sweet  because there's 2 ice skating rinks connected to each other and one's a "disco rink". They have a DJ there who was mostly playing american rap, flashing lights  and a couple areas that you can skate into and dance. However, I'm not really coordinated enough to dance and ice skate at the same time.

Saturday and Sunday were the Journees du Patrimoine. It's a nationwide thing they have here where most museums are free and a lot of cultural/ historical buildings that aren't usually open. On Saturday I went to visit the medical school again because they had a lot more of the rooms open, people dressed up in the robes the professors, and presentations on the history of the building/ people who were at the school. I then went to the Protestant cemetery which sounds morbid but was really interesting becuase there was a guide who talked a lot about the wars of religion. Because of the wars the Protestants weren't allowed to have their cemeteries. It was really funny to be in this tour group though becuase instead of just listening to the guide it was like everyone wanted to participate. Somehow a discussion was started about whether tombs should be ornate and well kept up or not. Then after that I went to the Chateau de Flauguerges which is pictured. It's a house that was built in the 18th century that was a summer house for noble people with huge gardens. The descendants still live there today so I'm looking into if they have any sons around about my age. They also have vineyards on their land so the tour came with at wine tasting.

Saturday night I got to watch the UNC game which was really exciting for a while. It was cool to see the sights of Chapel Hill and also kind of sad to not be there.

Sunday I did some more things  for the Journees du Partimoine... I visited this dance studio that used to be a convent and then a prison. Then last night, I didn't have any plans to go out so I was just going to read a book then go to bed but my 65 year old host mom who goes to bed at 9:30 made me feel like such a loser for not having any plans. It was just funny b/c she was like you have to go out... you should call your friends and see what their doing. So I guess it's good for me to live with her because she'll make sure I have a social life.

Other excting news, I booked train tickets for Barcelona and Paris. I also dropped a sizeable amount of money for a ticket to an FC Barcelona soccer game against Atletico Madrid. It should be a really good game and I can see my favorite Thierry Henry play and an amazing experience because their stadium holds over 90,000 people and apparently Barcelona is viewed as the Catalonian national team so they're all really into it.

So to go all the way back to last weekend. Two of my friends and I decided to bike to the beach on Saturday. It only costs 2 euros to rent a bike and it's about a 30 min ride to the beach. It was really sunny and pretty  but ended up being really windy so we only stayed on the beach for 2 hours because we were getting pelted by sand. So, we decided to bike to a nearby cathedral, called Maguelone which is pictured. It was a nice visit but then after we left, one of my friends said there was a faster way to get home from where we currently were so we wouldn't have to backtrack to the beach where we'd been laying out. So we went that way... and it started off pretty bad becuase we were right by the coast so there was nothing to block the wind and the wind was so intense that it was hard to pedal. Then it went from bad to worse when we ended up on a road full of high speed traffic and no bike lane which we knew led into town but we obviously didn't want to risk our lives. We tried to get away from this but ended up in an industrial park. After 10 minutes of trying to find a way to avoid this we ended up calling our program director to get directions. Unfortunately there was no other way to go than to take the busy road so we ended up walking our bikes beside it. We eventually got to a tram station way on the outskirts of town and just took our bikes on the tram because we'd already been riding around for 2 hours. I went to bed at like 9 that night.

I also went to church for the first time that weekend. The church I went to though was extremely tiny and we were the youngest people there. I was able to understand fairly well though and it was cool to sing french hymns. Last Sunday, there was a huge club fair for the whole town in the Antigone district. As I was walking around I met a girl handing out flyers for a church. She was really nice and told me about an afternoon service they had. I ended up going to that and really liked it.... people were friendly and I agreed with what was being taught. The afternoon service was moreso for nonbelievers so I plan on going back for their morning service.