10.23.2011

It's been another fantastic week in Montpellier, except for this cold I have. I found out I got an A in the pre-session I was in before real classes started. On Tuesday, some friends and I decorated the Minnesota Program office for Halloween, and watched horror movies. Wednesday night I went to the same conversation group, which was a lot of fun as usual.
On Wednesday afternoon, the students staying for the whole year had to go to a visa appointment, where we got medical exams and had a short meeting where we basically had to turn in a bunch of documents. We had to all wait for about 3 hours, but the actual appointment was 25 minutes.
On Saturday, some friends and I went to a small town called Narbonne, where we walked around, and got to see some underground ancient Roman ruins, an archaeology museum, and a Cathedral.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narbonne

Nothing too exciting has been happening this week, but we have a break coming up, so school is only Monday- Wednesday this week! On Friday, some friends and I are going to Barcelona, so I am very excited for that!

10.17.2011

This school week was pretty normal, nothing too new or exciting has been happening. I went to the conversation group for a second time on Wednesday, which was still a lot of fun. :). I also got to spend my first extended amount of time doing research for a paper on Voltaire and his supposed antisemitic views for my history class. That wasn't exactly fun, but at least it's over now.

I went to London do visit Kelly this weekend, and it was so much fun! I got to see where she goes to school, and got to see major London sites, such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Parliament.  Unfortunately, no Harry Potter themed activities happened, so I'll have to do that when Sam and I visit in December. We also managed to see two Broadway musicals, one of which was "Million Dollar Quartet", and the other was "Blood Brothers". Both were really excellent, and we got student rush tickets, so it was really inexpensive!

Sunday was a little more relaxed, with a trip to the mall and walking down by a canal near Kelly's school. It was really perfect outside, and I got to experience autumn for an afternoon, so that was exciting!

A pigeon pooped on my hair on my way to the train station in London this morning. It was really unfortunate. But Saturday, Kelly had told me that if that happens, it's good luck. I can now say from firsthand experience that this is absolutely true! My history lecture got out an hour early this evening, and on top of that, we have no homework, which would normally consume 8 hours of my week. 

It's been a very tiring, but amazing weekend. :) Also, everyone needs to watch this video of Jerry Lee Lewis. I am absolutely amazed by his piano-playing ability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IjgZGhHrYY&feature=related

10.09.2011

      On Wednesday, I went to an informal conversation group at a bar in Montpellier, where I met a few French students and got to speak French in a non-academic setting for a few hours. It was so much fun, and the people were friendly, so I will definitely be going back as many Wednesdays as I can.
    On Friday I went on an excursion for my Medieval Literature class, along with a bunch of other people in the program. It was one of the best days I've had since I've been here. The 2-hour bus ride ended up being 3 hours with a half hour bathroom break after an hour of driving, as well as our bus driver getting lost. We went to two Medieval castles (or ruins of castles), both of which we had to hike around 2.5 miles to get to. One was called Peyrepertuse:
http://www.chateau-peyrepertuse.com/french/peyrepertuse-citadelle-du-vertige,46,53,section,modules,contenu-mc.html And the other was called Queribus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queribus
After that, I went out to Chinese with some friends and my professor for the Literature class, and then watched "Amelie".
    On Saturday, I went on yet another excursion to a bamboo forest near Anduze, as well as a cave near the city. The bamboo forest was beautiful, and the cave was very cool as well.The city of Anduze itself wasn't all that interesting, but I got some really good hot chocolate, so it was probably worth it. :)
http://en.sunfrance.com/organize_your_stay/visitor_attractions/parks_and_gardens/la_bambouseraie
http://www.vaucluse-visites-virtuelles.com/glvirtualbluepopouts/grotte-trabuc-english.html
    Today I got up to go to choir rehearsal in the morning, and spent the afternoon writing a history paper. I'm going to try to catch up on sleep this week before going to London on Friday!


 

10. 02. 2011

After being here for about six weeks, I finally feel like I have a routine and I love it. I had my first test on Friday for France Au Feminin. It was an essay test that seemed quite easy, so hopefully it went well. I also auditioned for a choir at the college and got in! I am so excited to be involved in something on campus and hope to sing lots of French music as well as meet French students.

There was a teachers strike on Tuesday in Montpellier over planned job cuts,  which affected elementary schools and some high schools, but not the university at all. I couldn't find much news, even in French,  about it but I did find this clip, and below there's a tiny description of what happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zTUTn01pdU

I've had a typical week consisting of reading a little Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (in French of course), putting off homework, and spending time drinking wine and watching movies with friends (both French and American), as well as enjoying the company of my host family. :)


One more thing: It is so hot here. Seriously. It's October 2nd, and it's about 80 degrees. People are still going to the beach and it's ridiculous. I am so excited to be able to wear jeans and a sweater without melting away.