la côte

My last excursion in France meant I travelled four hours by train to Antibes, where I met my dad's cousin Terry. I had stayed with her in Biot for three weeks back in 2001, my only previous experience in France, so I felt it was only right I should see her again since I was so close.

I arrived Thursday afternoon, and after having a quick lunch at her home, she took me to Tourrettes-sur-Loup, a perched village overlooking the river known for its abundance of violets.
The town was very medieval, and quite gorgeous. We tried the local specialty of violet flavoured ice cream, which was surprisingly good - I've never really thought about flowers as flavours before, but I suppose it makes as much sense as fruits or things like vanilla!

Later that evening we went with her son Derek (who is about my age) to an Indian restaurant in Antibes. I'd never really had Indian food before, excepting anglicized and Japanese curries. I was pleasantly surprised by my tandoori lamb seasoned with creme and saffron - quite delicious.
This is quickly turning into an ode to food!

8 Mai is a holiday in France marking the end of World War II - known as V-E day back home. It's obviously much more important here, since even after it ended in Europe the US was still fighting in Japan, while France could finally celebrated its true liberation and the end of several years of struggle. I guess the closest equivalent in America is Memorial Day - the stores here closed early, and most people had the day off which they used to barbecue or go to the beach. We had to go to Valbonne to get groceries in the morning, since they would be closed by the time we got back in the evening. It also meant veteran's ceremonies as well, which we passed by whilst driving along the coast.

We had decided to spend the afternoon in Saint Tropez, which is generally considered the western end of the French Riviera (Menton being the eastern), so we took the coastal route to get there. This meant passing through Cannes, where they had begun setting up for the film festival which begins next week. The setup was impressive, the red carpet was already out, and many of the movies being shown had posters around the town and on the fancy hotels where celebrities would be staying throughout the festival. I can't even begin to imagine how crowded it must get - even just for the beach holiday it was full of people.

As we got further west, we noticed a large number of police vehicles - turns out they were escorting coach buses of diplomats and veterans returning from a 8 Mai ceremony in Sainte Maxime. This caused a slight diversion in our route, where we noticed yet another anomaly - motorcycles. Dozens. Hundreds. Eventually we passed the reason: a Harley Davidson euro festival, some sort of rally I could only assume. The licence plates came from all over Europe, so I guess this was perhaps one of the big meetups, Europe's equivalent of Sturgis or Daytona bike week. Apparently there was to be some sort of Parade in the city centre on Saturday as well... Very interesting. This mass of cycles continued all the way to Saint Tropez, where many of the restaurants had Harley-themed banners and were full of bikers. We ended up stopping at a pizzeria for lunch and wandering around the city, climbing up to the citadel and getting a spectacular view of the city.

Friday evening was dinner and a movie, staying up too late but there wasn't a whole lot to do in the morning. My train was just before two, so we spent the morning in the village of Biot, touring the old city and the glass blower for which Biot is famous - they make a special kind of glass here that is infused with soda, so that the glass has small bubbles in it. Apparently many famous people have gotten their glass here; they even had a special colour that was commissioned by Jackie Kennedy.

We had lunch afterwards, and then Terry took me back to the station in Antibes. I have only one evening left in Montpellier, which of course will be consumed by packing and cleaning. I can't believe it's almost over!

I think I have sand in my camera...

Yesterday I finally made it to the beach, and do I ever have the sunburn to show for it! I went with my friend Bridgette, with the intention of studying a little for our German test while sitting on the sand. I ended up playing in the water (which was absolutely freezing) while she was sunbathing, then sat to dry whilst looking over my textbook for a little while. We didn't end up staying very long, mostly out of boredom but also because the wind kept blowing sand everywhere - it was starting to get annoying.

On the bus back to Montpellier from Pérols (where the beach we went to is located), we stopped off at a mall in Lattes, which was dominated by a Carrefour, a gigantic French store which is sort of like a super wal-mart or some such, except about three times as big, and actually worth going into. There aren't any in Montpellier itself so I wanted to check it out. We ended up getting granitas to cool off and wandering around in the lovely air conditioning for a while before heading back to do some real studying. It's too bad I only went to the beach once, but honestly I don't think my pasty white skin could take any more than that!

May Day

Today's a national holiday in France (fête du travail - labour day) which means absolutely nothing is open, the buses and trams aren't running, and of course there's a protest at the Comédie. Now, I'm hiding in my room trying to finish my last paper, but I know of this because people have come around knocking on all the doors in the dormitory handing out fliers and encouraging everyone to "venez nombreux" in support of whatever cause they were fighting for this time. I'm down with "fighting for your rights" and all, but it seems to me the more often you do so the less effective it probably becomes. What do I know, though. I'm just another frustrated foreign student who's simply hoping she can take her German test next week since she's leaving a few days later for good.

Can hardly believe that - 10 days until I depart France, 5 more and then I'm home. Time has flown by, but it hasn't seemed to accomplish much. Speaking of which...

back in the saddle

Since Sam's spending her summer in Florida, I went up to Birmingham for one last weekend of mayhem in order to spend a little more time with her. Saw a few movies, ate some good food, went back to Cadbury World... We planned on hitting up a scifi convention but it was just too far from the city centre, such is life. Thus was my sixth trip into the UK this semester, my last real one, and probably a good thing the way the immigration people have started to get suspicious of me... Hehe. Spent Thursday night in Stansted airport before heading by train to Brum, staying in the coffee shop which was thankfully open 24 hours. Coming home was a Sunday night flight from Birmingham to Marseille, where I decided to splurge on a hotel near the airport since my train for Montpellier wasn't until eight this morning and I got in by 10... A good night's sleep is never unappreciated before class.

Except there was no class. Sometime over the weekend the strikers had come back and reblocked the campus; I waited for 20 minutes outside a barricaded classroom for a Prof who never showed up. I just got word my lit test for Wednesday was cancelled, so I'm writing another four page paper after all. And I have no idea what's going to happen with German, and if I should even bother getting up tomorrow... At least this is almost over. Being here with no class at least means I can see everything I missed in Montpellier whilst I was busy travelling everywhere else in Europe. So worth it, though.

The Beginning of the End

My last day of spring break, last day in Belfast, was spent staring at the river, wandering about the city and pretty much just relaxing. My flight was scheduled for six thirty, but delayed two hours so it was almost midnight by the time I got to the airport in Paris, and almost 1am when I got to the Gare de Lyon, where I would have a 6 am train back to Montpellier. What I unfortunately didn't know is that the station closes between 1:30 and 4:30, so I was left sitting on the benches outside, wandering the streets of Paris in the middle of the night, going to the police prefecture to use the toilet... Interesting night.

I got back to Montpellier a few hours before my one Monday class, so I dropped off my bags, changed into some cleaner clothes, and went to class more tired than I could imagine - luckily we were just going over our last test.

This week was finals and classes, from here out all I have left is a lit test and several more German classes. It's nearing the end!

April in Paris

So despite sort of staying there back in January after Disney, this is really my first time seeing Paris; odd that I'd see so much of the rest of Europe before finally seeing the capital of the country I live in! We got in from Luxembourg in the early afternoon, our hostel being a short walk from the Gare de l'Est where our train arrived. I guess we didn't realize when we booked it, but this wasn't really the nicest part of Paris... This is definitely the worst hostel I've ever been in... It was dirty and creepy, but it was livable for the one night we were there.

After dropping off our bags we bought a metro pass and headed out to see the main sights: Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower... The Louvre is sadly closed on Tuesdays but knowing us we probably wouldn't have paid to go in anyway. We saw the outside at least, which is quite impressive in itself.

In the evening we met up with Stevie's friend who was now living in Paris, she and her boyfriend showed us around near the Bastille and we ended up getting dinner and then sitting for a while in a café in true Parisien fashion. I got a few more nice pictures and we took the metro home, going to sleep later than usual.

We got up and headed for Charles de Gaulle airport, and arrived quite early for out flight to Glasgow. It was nice to relax though, and now that we're in Scotland we're trying to figure out what the rest of our trip holds... Hard to believe we have only a few days left!

Research

I actually got to campus early for once, so I sat down on the lawn outside my building. All of the sudden a lady comes up to me and asks if I'd like to participate in a research project. Well, I didn't really have anything else to do, so I agreed and went with her. It was some sort of cognittive research, I had to trace a line I couldn't see over and over with the same finger and then draw the line. Pretty easy.
Then I found out my teacher isn't there and I have no German this week. Awesome.

Boat...cruise...?

This weekend I didn't have my own excursion planned, good because I have plenty of homework to keep me busy. However, Saturday was a sort of day trip sponsored by the programme, where we were supposed to be going on what they called a boat cruise on the Canal du Midi from Grau d'Agde on the Mediterranean to Marseillan further east along the coast. We were a little hesitant to set out at eight in the morning on the first cold and rainy day in weeks, but still we piled on the bus. I think our instincts may have been right on this one.


We got to Grau d'Agde a little before the boat did, so we walked toward the sea. I was the only one insane enough to be wearing shorts and sandals, so I walked on the beach a bit, collecting a few seashells. Most everyone else went to the end of the pier to look at the lighthouse, and before long it was time to embark on our journey.

This was a small boat, and there were easily 70 people on it. I think calling it a cruise may have affected some people's expectations of what the boat would be - this was clearly a fishing boat with some seats put on it. I sat near the back, which was fine at first. We went first into the sea and past an old fort, and then up the river Hérault to Agde, where we stopped for a three hour lunch.

As we were disembarking at Agde the rain really started. I went with a few others on a search for a relatively inexpensive place to sit and eat for the whole time - harder than we'd thought as being Saturday in March most everything in this small town was closed. We finally found a pizzeria where I had an onion soup and we sat for the entire lunch break, save stopping for dessert in a bakery on the way back to the port.

It was still raining rather hard so everyone tried to move into the covered part of the boat, which was quite crowded and made seeing the sights narrated to us a bit difficult. We started to navigate the canals from here - what I remember is a lock unique in the world in that it is round and has three levels of water; one to the Atlantic, one to the Mediterranean, and one to the Hérault. We were supposed to have passed through a bird sanctuary as well, but it was hard to tell. By the time we disembarked in Marseillan we were all cold and tired and maybe a little seasick. Not the best day I've had, but still, another experience.

Luttons! Pour nos droits!

After several weeks of classes cancelled due to strike, a few weeks ago students blocked the campus. This basically meant the doors to all of the building except the library, cafeteria, and institute for foreign students were blocked by chairs, tables, and angry students. Every general assembly since then has voted to keep the blockage going. I can't claim to completely understand the situation, but it does seem like they're looking at things a bit out of proportion. However, I'm not French, these reforms aren't affecting my schooling beyond this semester.

This strike has, however, deeply affected my current semester. We haven't had classes except the ones run by our programme, so obviously there's not much to be graded on. To make up for this, they've gone through a couple of steps, first having us write 8-10 page papers for each integrated class we have (I have three) and then making us attend additional lectures arranged for American students so we have "something to do". Uh, what? Most of these have nothing to do with what we're not studying, and honestly the two I've been to so far have not been informative at all - one was basic stuff I learnt in linguistics and another similar to an intro journalism class I took. Neither are related to any classes I have here. And the papers? Well, my literature professor still expects us to do a dissertation, and luckily if I stretch it to eight pages it will count for that one. The fact that we still mostly have our translations class (the professors weren't ever on strike, only missed for the blockage) and that it's nearly impossible to write eight pages about beginning German means that it will be the only one I have to write, which is a relief. Even though I have fewer classes, I still feel overwhelmed with what I have to do. I know travelling so much probably doesn't help, but I made these arrangements before I knew there would be a strike of this magnitude and honestly I thought the classes as they were at the start would be pretty manageable. So I won't change any of my plans, but I just have to be more serious about using my time during the week for studying. I think I can handle it. In any case, we have to turn in the papers before spring break, so it won't be hanging over my head the whole time. Good.

There apparently will be another general strike on Thursday, which for me only means that bus and tram services will be severely disrupted, but seeing as I have a grammar class and the second half of the linguistics lecture to go to, I'm not really bothered. Just hope I don't get caught up in any protesting. As much as I like France, I'm starting to think I'll never really adjust to the French way of life. Oh well, just another experience to add to the backlog that defines this crazy, crazy person I call me.

Ticket to ride

Well, I bought a Eurail pass intending to use it for spring break, but since I had extra days I set out Thursday night for a long weekend in Italy.
A weekend isn't enough time to make it as far east as Venice or as far south as Naples or Rome, so I decided to spend one night each in Milan and Florence, as well as a few hours in whatever cities I hit by train along the way, due to a lack of direct routes that didn't require an extra charge.

It took a bit of effort just for me to get to Italy; I had to change trains in Marseille and Nice before arriving in Ventimiglia, known in French as Vintimille, just on the other side of the border. It was after midnight by the time I got there, and the train I would be taking to Genoa didn't leave until 5am, so I pulled out my blanket prepared to sleep in the station. It worked for a little while, but around 2:30 or so I just couldn't stand sitting on the hard ground, so I decided to get up and go for a walk outside. The station was less than half a mile from the Mediterranean, so I walked to the rocky shore and sat for a while, just staring at the ocean. I walked around a bit longer getting back to the station around 4:30 and finally got on the regional train for Genova Piazza Principe.

I got into Genoa around 8:30 am and had about three hours until my next train, so I went for a walk around the city. Something about the ancientness of Italy made me want to take lots of pictures in black and white. This isn't to say other places I've been were un-ancienty, just maybe not in the same way. (And yes, un-ancienty. That's exactly the word I was going for. Bonus points if you know why.) This took care of my time there and soon I was on the train for Arquata Scrivia, where I had 40 minutes before the train to Milan.

I had a hostel booked for Friday night in the northern half of Milan, so after arriving at Centrale station I navigated the metro system to Affori to find it and drop off my bags. It was a little hard to find because it was on the grounds of on old psychiatric hospital. Still, it was pretty nice and relatively cheap so nothing to complain about... I then took the train back into town and went to the Duomo station, right in the centre of the city. There I found Milan's magnificent cathedral - absolutely gorgeous both inside and out. There was also a sort of antique car show going on in the plaza just outside of the Cathedral, so I watched that for a while, my one semester of Italian enough to barely grasp the commentary. After that wandering the streets of Milan, the centre of Italian fashion, eventually finding dinner and then some gelato before heading back to the hostel to get some sleep, recovering from the night before and getting ready for Saturday.

I got up Saturday, packed my things, and headed back into Milan, wandering for a bit before making my way back to the Centrale Station. With no real plan except my hostel reservation that night in Florence, I was free to take my time riding the rails without going directly there, which is also cheaper since I didn't need a reservation for regional trains. I went through Piacenza, Bologna and Prato, spending a little time in each before finally getting to Florence in the late afternoon.

I dropped my bags off at the hostel, which was luckily quite close to the Santa Maria Novella station where I had come in. I starting walking hoping to hit the monuments highlighted on the map the reception had given me. I passed many gorgeous churches - Florence is in fact a city known for its artists and architecture, so this isn't surprising. I went through a street market and ended up buying a cashmere scarf, which upon wearing was apparently enough for people to stop assuming I was a foreigner - I had a few people coming up to me and asking for directions in Italian! I tried to help if I could, but it was mostly Mi scusi, non parlo italiano. Many more plazas later I found the Ponte Vecchio, a famous old bridge that from the side looks like another row of houses, not something suspended over water. Quite remarkable. I had a florentine pizza for dinner and went back to the hostel when everything started to close. One of the girls in my room was from Paris, so I talked with her in French for a while, we even went for a late snack in a nearby café. I went to bed before too late because I knew Sunday was going to be rough...

No matter how early I left Florence, there was no way I would be able to get to Montpellier the same night. So I took my time to some extent, going to a 10:30 am mass at the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the main duomo in the centre of Florence. This was actually really interesting, because it was mostly in Latin with gregorian chants, excepting the scriptures and homily in Italian. I was glad I went because otherwise the cathedral wasn't open to tourists on Sundays, and moreover I didn't really want to pay €8 to get in anyway.

From there I went to a café in the Piazza Indipendenza for lunch, and then headed to the station, where I caught the first train to Pisa. I was hoping to be there long enough to see the tower, but I only had an hour before the train to Genoa that I needed to take, and it just wasn't close enough to the station to make it on foot. Instead I walked as far as the river and took some pictures before getting back to the station and the train back.

Through Genova and again to Ventimiglia, where I caught a regional back to Nice. On the train I met some Japanese girls who were students in Nice, so I got my monthly Japanese conversation thing on (hahaha) and chatted with them until they got off in Eze-sur-mer, then finally getting to Nice around 9:30. There would be no more trains to Marseille until the morning, and having no real desire to sleep in a train station for that long, I walked a bit until I found a hostel with open rooms to sleep in until I could get a train. The hostel was run by some old ladies who were also running a restaurant, but being a Sunday night they really had no clientele for either; just two customers for the restaurant and me. I chatted with one for a time whilst she filled out my forms, she seemed really impressed with my French abilities, but really, I've been studying the language for over 10 years, so I hope I can hold a conversation by now.

I had an eight bed room to myself, but I went to bed as soon as I got there so I could leave around 5:30, get to the station and take the 6:02 to Marseille. I had an hour layover there so I took some pictures of the cityscape, finally getting on the train for Montpellier and getting back around 11, thinking I'd have about 15 minutes to get ready for class once I got back to my dorm. I hurried to get ready - but contrary to the email my programme had sent the campus was still mostly blocked and my professor never showed up. Oh well. At least I had a great time in Italy!

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!

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....

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!

Provence

Yesterday our programme organized a day trip to see some of the historical sights of Provence, namely the ones it would be hard for us to get to on our own. We all piled into the two buses they had arranged for us and headed out on an hour long trip toward Nîmes for our first stop.





The Pont du Gard is part of the remains of the Roman aqueduct system, which was built in the first century AD. It's huge, and the view both of it and from it is absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately because our schedule was so tight we didn't have much time to climb and look around.







Next up was Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, a small village named for the magnificent waterfall which is the source of the Sorgue river. The water had a fascinating bluish green colour, and the fountains which gave access to the water for drinking tasted so clean and refreshing, I was glad I had brought my water bottle with me and filled it up.








After that we headed towards Avignon and Les Baux de Provence. This is an area that has evidence of life dating back to 6000 BC, as well as the remains of a 10th century castle destroyed in 1632, but the medieval city around has been restored enough to house shops and cafés. This was another example of medieval city/way of life, although not nearly as large or nice as Carcassonne.






For our last stop we headed toward Arles and the Moulin Saint Pierre, the most famous of the windmills of Fontvielle. Also known as "Ribet" or "Alphonse Daudet's windmill" it was built in 1815 and was functional until the first world war. It was then restored in 1935 and has since become a symbol of the writer Daudet. We didn't have very long to stay here, but we at least got to see this piece of history!




Afterwards we got back on the bus for Montpellier. It had started raining again, and we saw an amazing rainbow out the window... Biggest I've ever seen. However, the wind had also started picking up, and for literally miles there were semi trucks on the side of the highway, told to stop because closer to the Spanish border the winds and rain were so strong that trucks had tipped over. I heard later on the news that at least 15 people had died in Spain and France because of this storm, which didn't hit Montpellier with full force but I could definitely feel on my walk home... I saw a dumpster blown out into the road!

Day Tripper, yeah

Those of you who don't know me personally, and some that do, may be surprised to learn that generally I travel by myself. Many people ask me isn't it boring/lonely/dangerous etc., but the truth is I actually prefer it. I'm the kind of traveller who takes lots of pictures and just tries to soak in the scenery, see absolutely everything I can in the time I have. When I travel with someone else, I always feel like I have to follow their schedule, which can sometimes be a downer. That isn't to say that I never travel with other people or don't enjoy it when I do; it's just worth noting that most of the pictures I'll post will be scenery because most of the trips I take will be toute seule.


So yesterday I went into town to buy my 12-25 card, which is a rail discount card that lets one travel to many destinations throughout France at usually half price. Since it was valid from today and I had nothing else to do (no Friday classes) I decided to take at day trip to Carcassonne. Carcassonne is about an hour and a half west of Montpellier by train, and is famous for its walled medieval old city. The new city, which is where the station is located, is also very old, but not when you consider that parts of the old city were built by the Romans! The walled fortress here is so magnificent that it even inspired a board game.






I walked all around the fortress as well as the castle within, braving the rain in order to see all that I could. The city itself really isn't all that big, so I was able to cover both sides easily in the 10 hours I was there. Over all it was a fascinating trip, not a bad outing for the last minute on a Friday!

Le Zoo

Today, we thought, was a good day to go stare at some animals. So I went with a couple other people to Le Parc Zoologique, which turned out not to be very far from the campus. It was a pretty nice day, so walking around the zoo was actually rather lovely, but a zoo is a zoo. Monkeys playing around, antelopes staring at you, and so on.

Anyone who wants can see more animal pictures here.

Laser Tag

One of the programme assistants, that is, French students who are liaisons to our American programme, organized a trip to the Odysseum to play laser tag tonight. Not many people showed up, since it's Friday night, but I decided it sounded like a lot of fun and so I went.
We met up at the Comédie around nine and took the tram to the Laser Game (as it's called here for some reason). We all chose ridiculous nicknames and put on the heavy vests, headed in for half an hour of trippy lights, techno music, and smoke machine fog. It was great. Out of the 11 people there, I placed 4th. Not bad at all considering I haven't played in years...

L'Epiphanie

Well, it was only a week late, but today we had a small party at the programme office for Epiphany. In France it is celebrated with a special cake, la galette, which contains a small figurine in each cake, placed randomly. Whoever is lucky enough to find it in their piece gets a crown and is the king or queen for the day! Of course, we had a lot of people and so there were several cakes and therefore several royalty... Not me though.
The cake, on the other hand, is delicious.