My Old School

I think I've been here long enough now that I can tell you about the Université Montpellier III Paul Valéry, where I am supposedly studying this semester.

Now, I say "supposedly" for a few reasons. First, two of the five classes I'm taking this semester are through my exchange programme, so the University here has nothing to do with them. Then of the three remaining classes I have, one is designed specifically for foreign students whose native language is English, another is a beginning German class taught by a professor from Germany, and the last one has been cancelled so often due to the professor's illness or one of several strikes that I haven't had it more than I have. Still, now that I'm travelling every weekend I'm on the campus every day that I'm in Montpellier, and I'm starting to get used to the way things work here.

The campus itself isn't that big, although when it's closed and I have to go around it instead of through it to get back to my dorm it seems huge. And whilst the University system here dates back to the early 13th century, the Fac de Lettres that is the Paul Valéry campus was only established in the late 1970s, and that is definitely reflected in the architecture. It also seems as though nothing has been replaced since then... Desks and restrooms are defaced, and there is enough graffiti around that it could be the set of an early nineties sitcom. Then there's always posters and notices pasted over one another on every wall of every building... Most seem to advertise yet another general assembly or occupation of one of the amphitheatres, prefacing more unrest in the system and another strike or protest. It's a good thing that the class I'm missing is only graded on a final test... Otherwise I might feel bad that I'm not getting any work done! I guess this is simply a cultural lesson for me, so even without actual class I get to learn about French politics.

There are a few places to eat on campus, relatively cheap but as long as I live so close I prefer cooking for myself, which is even cheaper. There are lots of vending machines, including the amazing coffee ones that are 1/3 of the price and taste just as good as what you get in cafés here.

Everytime I walk to class I have to pass through one of the two main gates, and without fail there is some student group hassling people to take their pamphlets. I try not to because it's wasteful; I'd never read them and they probably wouldn't affect me anyway. The ones I have ended up inevitably are about organising together and marching for student's rights, which are clearly being violated. I don't want to get too deep into my opinions here, suffice it to say that it seems to me they overreact to every little move the government makes. But then I'm not usually one to stir up trouble.

Overall I'm enjoying the classes I have, and I do think this is a lovely campus. If only I had been here during a semester where there wasn't so much unrest!

Winter Break

The French sure do love their time off, and I can't complain, since that meant this past week was filled with travel and adventure instead of classes.

I left Montpellier on Friday the 13th (scary?) on a short flight to London. After taking the train to Victoria station I met up with my friend Jamie with whom I would spend the next two days. We dropped my bags off at her flat and headed out in search of food. Walking past Trafalgar Square we saw a huge gathering of people; it almost looked like a protest. We asked a police officer and he said it had something to do with facebook... Never did quite figure that one out. We ended up walking through Leicester and Chinatown before finally deciding on pizza, and then getting ice cream later on. Those are two things I really can't find in Montpellier, and when I do they're quite different, so it was a nice treat.

Saturday we were constantly reminded that it was Valentine's day, a very awkward day for people like me. She made me a little card like we were in elementary school, and generally walking around there were some assumptions, but I am so not even bovvered. We wandered around London for a while, deciding to check out St. Pancras and King's Cross stations, both of which are reputed to have lovely architechture. King's Cross is also home to a secret platform that Jamie wanted to be photographed with... We took lots of pictures there and outside the stations then went to a sushi bar in St. Pancras station for lunch, followed by cupcakes (called "fairy cakes" here) in a nearby bakery. A few more pictures inside then we headed back to her flat.

I stayed in a hostel Saturday night because I had to wake up very early for my flight and didn't want to bother Jamie. Improvement works on the London underground meant about half the tube lines were down, including the Jubliee line on which the nearest station to my hostel was located, so I had figure out my way by bus. London buses seem confusing, but I think they're more straightforward than a lot of places I've been... Plus they're big, red, and have two levels. Awesome. The hostel I was staying at was cheap, but an odd format... The reception was inside a pub and therefore didn't open until 7pm on Saturdays, and I had gotten there aroung 4:30 - giving me a few hours to kill before I could get in. I took a bus back into town and decided to see Hyde Park since I missed it last time, and then wandered about near Covent Garden and Leicester square before finding a bus back to the hostel. I thought I would go to bed early since I would have to leave around 5am, but the rooms weren't too soundproof and there were a few people hanging out in the common area right outside my door playing guitars and singing. I thought I'd just try to sleep through it, but then they started playing "Hotel California", and couldn't seem to get through the second verse. I thought "hey, I know the words to that song!" and decided heck with it, and went out there to help them out. I ended up staying up with them until almost midnight, me with my knack for remembering lyrics and them with their guitars. It was a fun time, although I was quite tired when morning rolled around...

Because I couldn't take the tube, I had to catch a bus just after 5 to get to Gloucester, where I caught a coach bus to Stansted airport. I got to the airport with plenty of time to check in, and then I was off for Dublin!

Since I know it's the one thing I have from both my parents' families, I'm probably more Irish than anything. So I thought going to Ireland would probably be a really good idea, and really, it was. I got into Dublin around 11 am, took a bus into the city centre, then walked along the river Liffey until I got to the Temple Bar area, where my hostel was located. I dumped off my bags and wandered off in search of whatever first piqued my interest. In this case it was leek and potato soup. I went into a small café and had a bowl, every bit as good as I remembered from the Irish pub I used to frequent in Orlando... Better, of course, because I was actually in Ireland! I wandered around the streets of Dublin a bit more, taking in the sights. I decided to go back to the hostel for a shower and a nap, since I was still a bit exhausted... This turned out to be the best decision I could have made! When I woke up, a few other girls staying in the same room had arrived, and we got to chatting. One of the girls, Katy, was from Ohio and invited me to go to dinner with her and her friend Adam. I didn't have any plans, so I did. We went to a pub where I had a delicious Irish stew (lamb slaughtered that very morning, the menu claimed) and we listened to jazz music while just talking about our travels, they were on their way back from two months in Africa with a group from Ohio State. Seemed like a fun time. I told them about France, Korea, Japan... I'm not sure how it came up but I said something about the Critical Language programme I had done in Korea. Katy was intrigued, wasn't that what Theresa had done? ... It turned out that one of the people they had just been in Africa with was my roommate from my summer programme! We were all just so shocked at the sheer coincidence of it that we couldn't even talk. The number of factors that went into this happening... Well, it was enough to make my head spin. Thus I ended up with travelling companions for the next three days.

We went to another pub afterwards and listened to the slightly more modern musical stylings of two guys on guitar and bass. It was still a nice cultural experience I suppose... Pubs in Ireland are different from anywhere else in the world, but that's true anywhere. The next morning we set out intending to see Dublin's museums, only to find out that most are closed on Mondays! We ended up walking to the other side of town to see the Bodies exhibit, which was a little pricey, but very informative. I don't think I would go again, since it made me twitch a little. It was still interesting, though. Then it was more walking around Dublin, seeing the buildings and statues, and the shops. After lunch we split up and I went back towards the hostel, after stopping to post a few cards. A few more people had moved into our room, including two English girls, Bryony and Christine, and another from Australia, Bel. Bel and I ended up going to the grocery store together for our dinner and the next day's meals - trying to save money and whatnot. Ham, bread, cream cheese... Perfect for cheap + filling. After getting back and eating it was getting late so we just sat in the lobby reading and chatting, making plans for the next day.

Tuesday we were sure to make it to the museums, since they were now open. Bel joined Katy, Adam, and me for first the archaeology museum and then the art gallery. The national museum was unfortunately closed for renovation. The archaeology museum was home to exhibits on the history of Ireland as well as ancient Egypt. There were also several human remains that were found mostly preserved in bogs in Ireland... A little creepy but still pretty cool! The art gallery was massive, and took quite a while to get through, so we finished there and went back for lunch, after which we headed toward St. James' Gate. This is where 250 years ago a 9000-year lease was signed for the property which is the home of the Guinness storehouse and brewery, which is a sort of museum in its own right. We toured it, learning about the history of beer, complete with samples of roasted barley and of course the brew itself. The coolest part was near the end - your ticket entitled you to a free beer in the upstairs bar which boasted a 360° view of Dublin from one of its highest points, OR, and this is what we did, you could use it for a free lesson in how to pour the perfect pint. We got behind the tap, where they show you how to hold the glass, when to tip it up and let it settle, and then how full to top it up. Then you wait until it's black and enjoy... (For those of you wondering, I did drink the whole pint I poured. It was only right, I wasn't going to pour one and make someone else drink it. For those of you wondering why this matters: as a general rule I don't drink. So it was a little odd for me, yes.)

Tuesday night was visiting a few more of the historic pubs in Temple Bar... More live music, and Bryony and Christine joined us for our pseudo-pub crawl. I left around midnight since I had to fly back the next day, but overall it was a good time.

Wednesday was pretty much just a day of travel - I started out taking a bus to the Dublin airport around 10, flew back to Stansted, took a coach to Victoria, then another up to Birmingham where I arrived around 9:30 pm and spent the night in my sister's flat.

Thursday I went with my sister to her one class (the professor was also her programme director who I had already met, so he didn't mind me sitting in) and then we went to the train station in city centre to catch a train for Liverpool. We got there about one and started walking from Lime street station trying to find our hostel... Took us a little longer than it should have since I missed the fact that Hunter and South Hunter are not the same street... But we made it and were lucky enough to be upgraded to a private room for the night, which made it easier for us to spread ourselves out a bit and rest for a little while.

We then headed toward the river Mersey and the Albert docks. We passed by Liverpool's Chinatown, which has quite the large impressive gate... Near the docks is an exhibition called the Beatles Story, so of course I had to check it out. We spent a good hour inside, just admiring all the history of my favourite band, which Sam has been known to tolerate on occasion... From there we headed towards Liverpool city centre, filled with shops and statues... Of course I had to find the Cavern Club, and get lots of pictures of anything Beatle-related... After exploring a bit more and having dinner, we headed back to the hostel and called it a night.

Thursday we went around Liverpool's museums mostly, and a full English breakfast at a pub, and pretty much took it easy until we caught the 20:48 train for London Euston...

When we arrived in London it was almost midnight, too late to get a room, but Sam had a plan.We took the tube to Victoria and spent the night outside the Apollo Victoria theatre, camping for the £25 front row tickets for Wicked. I do enjoy a good musical, but I can't say this was one that particularly called out to me. However, the price was much less than you would expect to pay for even a bad seat, and this was London's West End: only Broadway is better for seeing musicals. Besides, it wasn't as if I had anything better to do for the next nine hours... We got tickets as soon as the box office opened (we were first in line, but others did start showing up around 5am). We decided on the 2:30 matinee, and so we didn't stray far from the station. Jamie ended up meeting us for lunch as long as were weren't too far away, and then it was time for the show. It was absolutely amazing... I never imagined I'd be so close to the stage for a professional show. After the show I walked Sam to the coach station so she could get back to Birmingham, and I headed toward my hostel for the night. I ran into a group of girls from my programme there who had also been wandering around throughout break... We decided to meet up in the morning since we were all on the same flight this afternoon. Because again the tubes were under major engineering works (and one was suspended due to "a person under a train" - hmmm) we had quite a roundabout way to go to get to Gatwick airport. I've managed to figure out the underground system pretty well by this point, so I got us there on the shortest route possible... Nice to feel useful. We got back around 4 and shared a taxi back to the Comédie... Then it was a tram and walk home. It was a great week, but it's nice to be back to relax!

Le Théâtre

Tonight was a little theatre outing, to see a two woman comedy show.
I was amazed that I understood about 90% of it.
Sadly, I did not understand what made it funny.
I think the lesson here is simply this: if you're going to see a play in another language, see a drama. Humour just doesn't translate well.


Next week we have off for winter break, so I'm headed back to the UK! Here's hoping I don't get snowed in again....

I can no longer say I've never been to Spain...

On account of one of my ancestors on my dad's side came from there, I knew one place in Europe I would have to go was Barcelona. Luckily for me it's only about 4 hours by train from Montpellier, so I decided to spend my weekend there.

My train arrived in Barcelona about noon on Saturday, after which I bought a subway pass and headed for the hostel I was staying at. The staff there was very friendly, and gave me a tourist map of the city, pointing out some of the places I should try to visit and giving me directions via subway. The first place was within walking distance; the Sagrada Familia, an elegant church designed by the architect Gaudi. Unfortunately it was covered in scaffolding, so it wasn't as nice of a view as it could have been. Still, it was quite impressive.

From there I took the metro towards the Passeig de Gracia, and walked to the Museu de la Xocolata: the chocolate museum. This was quite an interesting (and delicious) exhibition, telling the history of chocolate as well as displaying elegant sculptures carved from chocolate. Some of them were quite complex; I was impressed!

I then headed to the nearby Parc de La Ciutadella, home of the Barcelona Zoo and the Catalonian Parlament building. It was full of gorgeous statues and monuments, and the archtecture was also quite stunning. From there I made my way to the Catalonian history museum, hoping they'd have some sort of record or document room where I could try to trace my roots... They did, but unfortunately it was closed on weekends so I didn't get the chance to check it out. I don't really know any Catalàn anyway, so I'm not sure it would've done any good even if it was! The museum itself was open and luckily free for students, so I did take some time to explore it. As I left the museum the sun was starting to set, so I headed towards the sea to sit on the beach and watch it go down over the water...

On the way back to the hostel I stopped to take a picture of Barcelona's Arc de Triompf...

After a good night's rest I headed out Sunday morning for the Castell de Montjuïc. Since it's located on the top of the mountain, there is a cable car service you can take to get there. It was closed for maintenance, so there was a bus replacing it. This was noted by a sign in Catalàn, Spanish, and English, but while waiting for the bus I noticed a pair of very confused Japanese tourists trying to figure out how to get to the top. I used a little of the Japanese I hadn't yet forgotten (haha) to explain to them what was going on and how to get where they were headed. This is how I ended up with my travel companions for the day...

Yumi and Masako came from Kanazawa, which is close to where I stayed in high school. They were so grateful for my help that we spent the rest of the day seeing the sights. From the castle on top of the mountain we walked down through some of the botanical gardens, past the sites of the 1992 Olympics. We then went to the Catalonian National Art Museum, and saw exhibits from the 10th century up through modern times, including quite a few pieces by Picasso. We went also to the port and the monument of Christopher Columbus, after which they treated me to lunch as a way of thanking me for help translating - written Catalàn is somewhere in between French and Spanish, and I was able to parse enough to figure out most signs and whatnot, whereas they spoke nothing but a small amount of English; not really that helpful. They walked me back as far as the metro station so I could get back to Sants Estacio in time for the train back to Montpellier. We exchanged email addresses so they'll send me some of the pictures they took. It's always nice to make new friends! It's funny to think that this is one of the benefits of travelling alone.

Time to see the sea

Today I went out for another day trip, this time east to the coastal city of Toulon. It was once the site of a famous prison (where even Jean Valjean was supposed to have been incarcerated) and is still the home of a large naval base and a bustling port on the Mediterranean.

After changing trains in Marseille I arrived in Toulon around noon, hoping to see as much of the city as I could in the short time I had before going back to Montpellier. I decided to start out by finding the office of tourism, hoping as was the case in Carcassonne that they would give me a map of the city, complete with places to go. The office was right on the harbour and they did have maps for tourists. So I started walking from there toward the naval base, where I found the Maritime Museum. Student admission was four euros, which isn't too bad, so I decided to check it out. The museum had lots of models of old ships and displays of the history of ocean travel, particularily in and around Toulon. It was apparently the site of an important naval battle during world war two, with many ships sinking and burning in the harbour. I found all the exhibits quite fascinating, but as the museum wasn't too big it didn't take me long to see it all and start moving along.

I walked past a few monuments and plazas, including the Place de la Libérté, a monument to fallen soldiers of the second world war, as well as the Place Victor Hugo, home of Toulon's theatre and named in honour of the famous author. By this time it was starting to rain, so I took shelter in a café and had lunch.

After the rain had let up a bit, I went toward the Porte d'Italie, an old gate of the city. I couldn't see much of the gate itself, however there was an art gallery nearby so I decided to look around there. Following the maritime nature of the city most of the paintings depicted the sea or boats, but were still quite lovely. After that the rain had started again, so I decided to look around the mall near the Palais de Neptune. Even though Toulon is smaller than Montpellier, it seems they have more exotic stores... But I'm not really one for shopping so I used the time just to enjoy the similarity within the differences. Okay, maybe that doesn't make much sense, but I find that when I see something that's so close to American culture (like a shopping mall?) it's much easier for me to notice the little differences that make it French. With something radically different, I know it's different, so details always seem to escape me.

The rain seemed to finally disappear, so I spent the rest of my time wandering along the harbour absorbing the sea breezes of the mediterranean - it was about 60° F with a light wind, so it felt wonderful. While walking back to the station, I took the time to admire the architecture and landscaping. Overall, it was quite the lovely outing!

University Strike

I mentioned the strike yesterday, but today I find it in full force. The professors are upset over changes being made by the French President to the public university system, so they've voted to strike. The campus was filled with signs declaring it "en grève", on strike. There were gatherings and demonstrations, including a large one I sort of ran into whilst heading toward the Comédie...

This large group managed to disrupt bus and tram service for a little while. Since I'm still exhausted from my ordeal in London, it was nice to have an extra day off - though for me it meant no classes this week at all!

Three day weekend... And then some.

The weekend started out so lovely, and spiralled downhill rather quickly. I flew to London Friday afternoon to meet my sister, with whom I took a coach bus to Birmingham where she is currently studying. I was supposed to be back in Montpellier by Monday morning but here it is late Wednesday and I've only just gotten back, by a couple of hours. To blame is the worst snow storm to hit London in 18 years. This paralysed the city, stopping all trains, planes, and coaches, and frightening other drivers out of going anywhere. This left me stranded at Victoria Station, with no way of getting to the airport to even check the status of my flight.

I'll start off with the good parts of my trip. We got into Birmingham late Friday night, and took a bus back to her flat. Saturday she showed me around Birmingham during most of the day. We saw mostly the famous shopping areas and parts of the city halls and medieval churches. Part of this included Bullring, a large shopping mall which attracts many visitors. We saw a film and had dinner at a Japanese restaurant before going to the Birmingham Hippodrome for the main reason I came: the Pantomime. Panto is quite a popular form of theatre in the UK, and Brum is supposed to have one of the best, if not the best. Adding to that was the fact that the star of this year's show (Robin Hood) was John Barrowman, an excellent singer and actor, whom the nerd in me absolutely adores for his roles in Doctor Who and Torchwood, two of my absolute favourite scifi shows. This was the closing weekend, and therefore my last and only chance to see it - my sister had already been four times! The show was absolutely amazing, and we ended up buying tickets for the closing performance on Sunday evening as well! Since it's Panto, the show is slightly different every time so it's worth it to see it twice.


Sunday we started out by going to Selly Sausage, a restaurant near the University of Birmingham campus that serves American style pancakes - "pancakes" in Britain are actually crêpes. It was a nice treat, and thus I was quite full as we headed towards our next destination: Cadbury World. Birmingham is home to the main factory of Cadbury chocolate, and they offer factory tours with plenty of exhibits on the history of chocolate and the company itself, as well as free samples. This is honestly the only kind of milk chocolate I will eat - I'm usually a dark chocolate snob. I'm not sure what they do here, but they have such unbelievably tasty chocolate! And of course, there's a little shop at the end so I bought some crème eggs and jelly babies. After that we had a little time to kill before going to the theatre, so Sam took me to the local comic stores so I could totally nerd out: they have so many Doctor Who toys here (which makes sense, since it's British) which are nearly impossible to find in the states! It was a great time killer, just staring at them all... Panto was great again, and after the show we went back to her campus, where we joined with other people from her programme to watch the Super Bowl. I was a bit disappointed in the outcome but overall it was a good game and I was glad to have the chance to watch it, even if it meant no sleep Sunday night.


So I took a coach back to London Victoria in the wee hours of the morning, expecting to get there just in time to hop on a train for Gatwick airport. The bus was running just on schedule, but I was a little surprised looking out the window as we were getting into the city to see it snow - I had heard it didn't snow much in England; but it was still kind of pretty, especially since I won't be seeing it again in Montpellier. We got to the station with plenty of time to spare so I ran towards the platform. Imagine my surprise to find what was pretty much a ghost town, save a large mob of people around a few screens. All services were suspended, the screen said. I was shocked. Back in Minnesota, this tiny amount of snow wouldn't even faze us, and here they were cancelling trains, schools, flights? Amazing. The people working at the station were just as lost as the rest of us, and any alternative transport was unavailable as well, but finally around noon a single train left for the airport, and I was on it. The problem of course, is that my flight was supposed to have left before that, and I had no idea whether it had been cancelled or if I had just missed it. I did know that I had already missed my Monday class, no hope for that one. Getting to the airport, I found queues miles long, and employees telling me my flight was one of the few that had not been delayed or cancelled, and had indeed left (I later found that this wasn't the case - after shelling out €100 on a new route.) The next flight for Montpellier wouldn't leave until Friday morning, being a flight that was only offered 4 times a week. I ended up booking the first flight to the south of France, 7am today to Toulouse, and reserving a train ticket to get back to Montpellier. There was absolutely nothing I could do about any of it, so I decided to stop worrying about the classes I was going to miss and instead enjoy this extra day in London I had been given.


I took a train back to Victoria, getting there around six. Since I hadn't slept in almost 36 hours, I decided just to find a cheaper hotel or B&B in the area and crash for the night. There are a lot of hotels nearby, but they are all quite small and it took some doing to find one with vacancies that wasn't too expensive. I finally found one and settled in, watching the BBC for a few hours before falling asleep. Tuesday morning I had breakfast at the hotel, then returned to Victoria to make sure I was able to get back to Gatwick (luckily I was able to use the same ticket on account of the weather delays) and leave my bag at the left luggage counter. This left me free to explore the city. I walked first to Buckingham Palace, then Wesminster Abbey and Parliament where Big Ben is, which is also near the London Eye. I had no real aim after that so I ended up walking all the way along the Thames to the Tower of London. It was quite a long ways, and I was exhausted! By this time, the underground was again running normally so I took the tube to Canary Wharf, where I basically just hung around a while, then again to Piccadilly circus. I had been there once before, but that was over ten years ago and I didn't really remember it. It's probably changed too, I'm sure.

I decided to walk back to Victoria from there, which took me near Hyde Park and past St. James Park. Unfortunately, by this time it was dark and the park was closed, but I was amazed at the statues and such I did see at Hyde Park Corner. I took the train from Victoria around 10, getting to Gatwick just before 11. Since I could check in around 4am for my flight it was easier just to wait at the airport trying to sleep a little there than to get a room anywhere. After that my trip was uneventful... Early morning flight to Toulouse, from where I took a bus to the train station and a train to Montpellier. I had only about half an hour in Toulouse, which is too bad because I probably won't get back there. I tried to enjoy what little of it I saw - it is a nice looking city, but so are most of the cities I've seen in the south of France. I got back into Montpellier only to find out that from today there is some sort of strike; the classes I thought I would miss were actually cancelled! That of course doesn't help with the ones Monday and Tuesday I did actually miss, but luckily I know other people in my programme who are able to help me catch up. So I guess now I've had quite the travel experience... Even if it disrupted what I was supposed to be doing and horribly deprived me of sleep, I still managed to have fun in London!