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...
Friday, January 16, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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.
The cake, on the other hand, is delicious.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Week one!
Well dear friends, still no internet in my room, I'm told that should appear in a few days. 
Luckily, though, I have finally received my wifi password for the dorm lobby, so I can at least sit here for a while and update on the busy week I've had in Montpellier!
I left off my last real post Friday the second, shortly after arriving in Montpellier. That evening I went with a few others from my group on a short walk around the downtown area, from the Place de la Comédie where our hotel was located to Montpellier's Arc de Triomphe,
about 1km each way. The weather was beautiful already, and somehow I felt like I'd been here for months. We stopped at a café for sandwiches and tea and then headed back to the comédie.
Saturday we were given a brief tour of the centre-ville, and then we had our orientation at the Corum, which is Montpellier's convention centre. After taking a placement test for our grammar and phonetics classes we split up into groups; half picking their classes and the rest going in small groups around the city to get mobile phones and tram cards. I was part of the group running errands first, which turned out to be lucky for me as I got a nicer phone for the same price everyone else paid for theirs, because they had run out of the kind I had by the time most people had gotten there. Getting the tram card turned out to be more of an ordeal than we thought, since we had to bring our own photos for them to put on the card. My group ended up going to automatic photo machines in the mall and not getting our passes until later in the evening. I'm glad I at least got it that day though - it has been extremely u
seful as it works on both tram lines and the buses, and I can get just about anywhere I could want to go. After all our little errands we spent a few hours trying to choose classes - something that turned out to be much more complicated than back home, but still pretty flexible since nothing was set in stone.
Sunday was the day everyone moved into their permanent housing. I was one of three people who will be living in the Cité Universitaire Vert Bois, also known as the dormitories. I was quite impressed and surprised when I got there; the room is much larger than I expected, and I have both my own toilet/shower and kitchenette. That should making living/eating on the cheap much easier for me. I've already been experimenting... After shelling out the money for a frying pan and a few basic ingredients like eggs and butter, I've made quite a variety of tasty meals for myself. Good to know, I can cook somewhat! (Those who are interested can go here to see what my room looks like.)
Sundays will likely be problematic when I'm not travelling, since here in "provincial" France everything, and I really do mean everything, is closed on Sundays. No groceries, no pharmacies, nothing. Only a few restaurants are open, and unless I'm meeting someone I probably won't be frequenting those on Sundays - last Sunday I took the tram to the Comédie
just to take a walk, and spent .75€ on a baguette since I didn't yet have a chance to buy groceries. I felt so French carrying my bread in it's little tissue paper all the way back to my dorm. Hilarious.
Monday was the first day of classes, and I only had one. Our programme group had a little room on campus for us to meet up and make sure we had a full and non-conflicting schedule, and also so we could hopefully find where our classes were. I went around in circles with one of the programme directors trying to find out where the schedules for Czech language were posted, only to find out it conflicted with one of those courses I had to take, so I'll be taking beginning German instead. Monday I had the first half of my translations class, this part being translating English to French. It's a class specifically for foreign students who are native english speakers, so it was all British and American students. It seems like it shouldn't be too difficult. After classes monday evening is when I took care of my grocery shopping, which was a bit of an adventure in itself. I bought far too much for my own good since I wanted it to last a while, and the walk back to my dorm from the tram stop (which is a good kilometre or more)
was a bit trying, but I'm sure it was good exercise. Add to that that I live on the fourth floor and there's no elevator, and well... I'll probably be losing weight here.
Tuesdays I'll normally have two classes, but the German one doesn't start until next week, so I had just the French to English portion of my translations class. Again, I think this will be a good class for me. Wednesday I was supposed to have my lecture for 18th century lit, but the professor was sick and so that was cancelled. While waiting for my Phonetics class later that afternoon with some classmates, it began to snow. Now, that may not seem that interesting, but the next morning I heard tell that that hadn't happened here in over twenty years. So that was a little impressive, and quite interesting to see in a mediterranean city! Phonetics looks like it will be too easy since I already took pretty much the same class back home, but it's one of two required courses for the program, and I'll get elective credit for it anyway, so hopefully it'll just be an easy A.
Thursday is going to be my busiest day, I have three classes with only an hour between each. First is Grammar and Methodology, which again is very similar to a course I've already taken, but should still be somewhat helpful and is required. After that is my discussion section for 18th century lit, which have specific subjects related to the broad lecture module - mine is on Marivaux and Travesty; we'll be reading two of his plays and doing critiques and anylysing etc. This seems like it'll be my hard class, especially since I'm not especially a fan of literature, and it's an integrated class so the professor speaks really fast in French. Luckily the grading scale is really lenient for transferring these courses back. My last class of the day and the week was the second semester of Italian, which I'm taking to compensate for the fact that German is only 1.5 credits, as is this. I figured since I was taking Italian last semester I might as well continue it.
Fridays I have free, which will be excellent once I've settled in and start travelling. I used my free time yesterday to explore the city a bit more, and then went with one of the girls from my programme to the bookstore to pick up a few textbooks and dictionaries. I went back with her to see her homestay, and her host mother invited me to stay for dinner, which was quite lovely. I decided against a homestay for various reasons but French home cooking almost made me wish I had one!
Today our group was given a guided tour of some of the medieval areas of the city. Some of the buildings here are more than a millenium old, with "updated" façades from the 17th or 18th centuries. The tour ended with us being let on top of the Arc de Triomphe, which gave us a spectacular view of the city. I was thouroughly amazed.
All in all, I'm very glad to have come to Montpellier. I think I'll be adjusted to life here in no time at all. Lots of challenges ahead but I'm ready for whatever comes my way!
Luckily, though, I have finally received my wifi password for the dorm lobby, so I can at least sit here for a while and update on the busy week I've had in Montpellier!I left off my last real post Friday the second, shortly after arriving in Montpellier. That evening I went with a few others from my group on a short walk around the downtown area, from the Place de la Comédie where our hotel was located to Montpellier's Arc de Triomphe,
about 1km each way. The weather was beautiful already, and somehow I felt like I'd been here for months. We stopped at a café for sandwiches and tea and then headed back to the comédie.Saturday we were given a brief tour of the centre-ville, and then we had our orientation at the Corum, which is Montpellier's convention centre. After taking a placement test for our grammar and phonetics classes we split up into groups; half picking their classes and the rest going in small groups around the city to get mobile phones and tram cards. I was part of the group running errands first, which turned out to be lucky for me as I got a nicer phone for the same price everyone else paid for theirs, because they had run out of the kind I had by the time most people had gotten there. Getting the tram card turned out to be more of an ordeal than we thought, since we had to bring our own photos for them to put on the card. My group ended up going to automatic photo machines in the mall and not getting our passes until later in the evening. I'm glad I at least got it that day though - it has been extremely u
seful as it works on both tram lines and the buses, and I can get just about anywhere I could want to go. After all our little errands we spent a few hours trying to choose classes - something that turned out to be much more complicated than back home, but still pretty flexible since nothing was set in stone.Sunday was the day everyone moved into their permanent housing. I was one of three people who will be living in the Cité Universitaire Vert Bois, also known as the dormitories. I was quite impressed and surprised when I got there; the room is much larger than I expected, and I have both my own toilet/shower and kitchenette. That should making living/eating on the cheap much easier for me. I've already been experimenting... After shelling out the money for a frying pan and a few basic ingredients like eggs and butter, I've made quite a variety of tasty meals for myself. Good to know, I can cook somewhat! (Those who are interested can go here to see what my room looks like.)
Sundays will likely be problematic when I'm not travelling, since here in "provincial" France everything, and I really do mean everything, is closed on Sundays. No groceries, no pharmacies, nothing. Only a few restaurants are open, and unless I'm meeting someone I probably won't be frequenting those on Sundays - last Sunday I took the tram to the Comédie
just to take a walk, and spent .75€ on a baguette since I didn't yet have a chance to buy groceries. I felt so French carrying my bread in it's little tissue paper all the way back to my dorm. Hilarious.Monday was the first day of classes, and I only had one. Our programme group had a little room on campus for us to meet up and make sure we had a full and non-conflicting schedule, and also so we could hopefully find where our classes were. I went around in circles with one of the programme directors trying to find out where the schedules for Czech language were posted, only to find out it conflicted with one of those courses I had to take, so I'll be taking beginning German instead. Monday I had the first half of my translations class, this part being translating English to French. It's a class specifically for foreign students who are native english speakers, so it was all British and American students. It seems like it shouldn't be too difficult. After classes monday evening is when I took care of my grocery shopping, which was a bit of an adventure in itself. I bought far too much for my own good since I wanted it to last a while, and the walk back to my dorm from the tram stop (which is a good kilometre or more)
was a bit trying, but I'm sure it was good exercise. Add to that that I live on the fourth floor and there's no elevator, and well... I'll probably be losing weight here.Tuesdays I'll normally have two classes, but the German one doesn't start until next week, so I had just the French to English portion of my translations class. Again, I think this will be a good class for me. Wednesday I was supposed to have my lecture for 18th century lit, but the professor was sick and so that was cancelled. While waiting for my Phonetics class later that afternoon with some classmates, it began to snow. Now, that may not seem that interesting, but the next morning I heard tell that that hadn't happened here in over twenty years. So that was a little impressive, and quite interesting to see in a mediterranean city! Phonetics looks like it will be too easy since I already took pretty much the same class back home, but it's one of two required courses for the program, and I'll get elective credit for it anyway, so hopefully it'll just be an easy A.
Thursday is going to be my busiest day, I have three classes with only an hour between each. First is Grammar and Methodology, which again is very similar to a course I've already taken, but should still be somewhat helpful and is required. After that is my discussion section for 18th century lit, which have specific subjects related to the broad lecture module - mine is on Marivaux and Travesty; we'll be reading two of his plays and doing critiques and anylysing etc. This seems like it'll be my hard class, especially since I'm not especially a fan of literature, and it's an integrated class so the professor speaks really fast in French. Luckily the grading scale is really lenient for transferring these courses back. My last class of the day and the week was the second semester of Italian, which I'm taking to compensate for the fact that German is only 1.5 credits, as is this. I figured since I was taking Italian last semester I might as well continue it.
Fridays I have free, which will be excellent once I've settled in and start travelling. I used my free time yesterday to explore the city a bit more, and then went with one of the girls from my programme to the bookstore to pick up a few textbooks and dictionaries. I went back with her to see her homestay, and her host mother invited me to stay for dinner, which was quite lovely. I decided against a homestay for various reasons but French home cooking almost made me wish I had one!
Today our group was given a guided tour of some of the medieval areas of the city. Some of the buildings here are more than a millenium old, with "updated" façades from the 17th or 18th centuries. The tour ended with us being let on top of the Arc de Triomphe, which gave us a spectacular view of the city. I was thouroughly amazed.
All in all, I'm very glad to have come to Montpellier. I think I'll be adjusted to life here in no time at all. Lots of challenges ahead but I'm ready for whatever comes my way!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Brief Update
I've been without internet since Saturday, and although I have so much I want to write about, it's going to have to wait until I have internet in my dorm room, which should be from tomorrow. Suffice it to say I've been having a wonderful time so far, Montpellier is such a lovely city and I think this programme suits me quite well. Expect a long update with lots of pictures; hope you can sit through it all!
Ta for now!
Ta for now!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Bonne Année 2009!
I arrived in France Tuesday afternoon after an uneventful flight from Minneapolis, a short and rushed connection in Amsterdam, and a quick flight to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I met up with my sister outside of the baggage claim, and we boarded a shuttle for our resort at Disneyland Paris. We spent two nights at the Hotel Santa Fe, the cheapest resort but still rather pricey. It was all worth it though, as we had a wonderful time running around the two theme parks and counting down to the new year in French with lots of fireworks.
New Year's day we took the metro into our hotel, at the Porte de Montreuil in Paris' 20th arondissment. Since Sam had to leave for the airport at about 4am, we just went to eat and then went to bed early. After sending her along in a taxi to the airport, I got my affairs together, had breakfast at the hotel and took the metro back to De Gaulle. There I was able to meet up with most of the group from my programme, where we had a short flight here to Montpellier.
I'm now in the hotel in Montepellier where I'll be staying for the next few days before moving into my dorm. We're free for the rest of the evening, so I'll probably start wandering around the town, find some food and what not. I'm already very impressed by what I've seen, and I'm quite excited for everything that's yet to come!
I'm now in the hotel in Montepellier where I'll be staying for the next few days before moving into my dorm. We're free for the rest of the evening, so I'll probably start wandering around the town, find some food and what not. I'm already very impressed by what I've seen, and I'm quite excited for everything that's yet to come!Saturday, December 27, 2008
Faisons un bon voyage!
Two more days, so this is going to be my last post from the states. I spent a lovely week in Colorado and now I have just a few days to recover before flying out Monday night. My flight leaves at 7:50 pm, I fly first to Amsterdam, then I'm changing planes and flying to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, where I'll be arriving in the early afternoon and meeting my sister who flies in from London earlier that morning. I'm lucky to have flown so much last year going back and forth to Korea that I have "elite status" on Northwest, so I have a really nice seat from Minneapolis to Amsterdam - The first row of coach. Actually, I'm not sure how it works on international flights, but when I flew back from Colorado I was given a free upgrade to first class since it wasn't full.... That was amazing!
Packing is harder than I'd imagined. I'm bringing a lot less than I did to Korea, but since my bag is smaller I'm having difficulties getting it all together. I have an empty duffel bag to put stuff in on the way back, but I don't want too much with me on the way there since the first few days will be rather hectic as it is.
I guess this is it... Nervous jitters as always but it'll be worth it! Next post will be in France - Paris or Montpellier, depending on when I get internet next.
In any case, à bientôt!
I guess this is it... Nervous jitters as always but it'll be worth it! Next post will be in France - Paris or Montpellier, depending on when I get internet next.
In any case, à bientôt!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
French Visa - Acquired
I made the journey down to Chicago in order to visit the French consulate and obtain my student visa for my time in France, valid through the 29th of June 2009. The process was rather painless, but it involved a lot of sitting around in Chicago - which could be fun if the weather weren't so darned cold. The windy city lived up to its name, though, and I tried to spend as little time as possible outside despite the about a mile walk to the consulate from the metra station. I guess getting there five hours early didn't help either, but the trains from Kenosha don't run very often.
Now it's time to finalize packing, make sure I have everything ready. First things first: I still have 2 papers, 2 days of class and four finals to go! Not to mention Christmas in Colorado... It's going to be a busy few weeks leading up to December 29th, but that's nothing new to me!
First order of business in France: Disneyland Paris. My sister and I will be spending New Year's there, before I fly to Montpellier on January 2nd for the start of my programme. Should be a good time. I hope.
22 days!
Now it's time to finalize packing, make sure I have everything ready. First things first: I still have 2 papers, 2 days of class and four finals to go! Not to mention Christmas in Colorado... It's going to be a busy few weeks leading up to December 29th, but that's nothing new to me!
First order of business in France: Disneyland Paris. My sister and I will be spending New Year's there, before I fly to Montpellier on January 2nd for the start of my programme. Should be a good time. I hope.
22 days!
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