Almost October!!

Well, it is almost October and I don't even know where the time went!! It seemed to have flown by and now the fall weather has descended upon us here in Montpellier!! The mornings are crisp and cool while the afternoons are warm and sunny!! Classes have been going well and I am finally starting to get into the swing of things and start getting a schedule down. I begin my volunteer work at the middle school/high school tomorrow. I will be in two classrooms with students as a teacher's aide, helping with class activities and homework and such. After I have been at the school for about a month, I will begin teaching English classes once a week. They were going to throw me right into the thick of it this week but an experienced teacher at the school stood up for me and told the principal that it might be a little overwhelming for me to do so for the first month or two. I was so relieved because I was QUITE worried about planning lessons and activities and vocabulary and tests!! But thankfully they will have someone stand in for me for the first month and then I will hop right in!!!
The past couple of weekends have been festival after festival!! Between the heritage festivals of 2 weekends ago where EVERYTHING was free to the public to the bull herding on the beaches of Palavas yesterday, it has been a whirlwind of fun times, pleasant company, and DELICIOUS food. I must say that the vacation allure of Montpellier hasnt worn off yet and I still manage to go the beach at least once or twice a week to soak up some sun!! In the evenings, my brain is usually completely mush and I fall asleep to the relaxation of reading my favorite Harry Potter book in French. I just finished my morning reading book, The Stranger by Albert Camus, a very dark and sad book. I am excited because I went to the bookstore and, for the morning ride to the university, I am going to read my favorite Roald Dahl books in French, The Witches and Matilda!!! I think that they will be a much happier and perkier way to start my day!! I am going to put a blog up soon with recent pics of my weekends but forgot the USB today. Soon, soon!!
I am so glad that the students of Mme Zicarri's French class are able to read my blog and enjoy it!! Please feel free to ask me any questions that you have and let me know if there is anything that you would like to see, like pics of the AMAZING pastries here or perhaps what a typical French meal looks like. In regards to the questions posed already, YES I go to the beach often because, surprisingly enough, I don't have as much homework in my classes here as I do at UB back home. I find that I have a lot more free time but, at the same time, i am ALWAYS learning because everything is in French. To be honest, I am not registered to vote which I do not advise for any of you who are 18 because now I have one month to try to register AND receive an absentee ballot. That was bad planning on my part but, at the same time, I had so many things to do before I left that I didnt get a chance to take care of that.
The newest bit of information that I learned yesterday that certainly made me laugh will be my last bit of news for you on this blog. I have told most people that I have talked to that there are dogs EVERYWHERE here. Homeless people have dogs, young people and old alike have dogs, EVERYONE has dogs. I found this bizarre at first but thought that this must just be a dog-loving kind of town. Well, come to find out, the reason that they all have dogs is quite different. I guess that here, and I assume that this is a Montpellier thing and not an entire France thing, if a person has a dog in their possession they are not allowed to be arrested. How crazy is that?!?! So that is why all of these people have their dogs with them all of the time. That and the fact that public drinking is acceptible is just so bizarre to me. They sell beer in McDonalds and even at our school cafeteria!! It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO strange! So that is my bit of strange French culture that I will leave you with today. Tee hee. I love you all and miss you, as always!!

First Week of Classes

Hello all!!

I wanted to type a little blog to let everyone know how my first week of classes went!! I can't believe that the week is over already but, at the same time, I am absolutely exhausted!! I am taking grammar courses as well as oral, phonetic courses for around 15 hours per week. I am also taking two elective courses which will be History of Art and Culture and Heritage. Next week I will start my volunteer work at the high school and that makes me VERY happy!!!
The classes are challenging because there is NO english spoken! I am attending an institute for foreign students so the people in my class are from China, Taiwan, the UK, Norway, Russia, etc. We all have different accents and that makes it difficult to understand eachother but I like the challenge. The professors are much more personable than I thought that they would be and that is pleasantly surprising!!
One interesting thing over here is that every other word about the US involves the political race going on right now. Everyone asks me, "You like Obama, right?" They assume that since I am a young college student that I support him. I tell them that I remain in a state of confusion over it all. Hahahaha. All of the editorials are about how great Barack Obama is and how awful McCain is. The French people that I have talked to and read from DO NOT like Sarah Palin and her conservative ways. I find it very interesting that they take such a strong stand on our politics and yet, if you had asked me about my opinions on the French elections last time, I would have no idea who was running or what they stood for.
I continue to eat HUGE dinners followed by the French version of CSI, which my French host mother LOVES. The nights are a nice cooldown for me and I havent been doing the typical French student thing, which is going out most nights to dance clubs and bars. I have been way too pooped this week and would settle for a night-in and a corny French TV show anytime. So that is all for now--I hope that all is going well for my friends and family at home!! I love you and miss you all!

Week 1

Arc de Triomphe, I am not sure the name, it is just pretty

La Place de la Comedie, A random church that I ran across

Ellen and I at the beach, The Mediterranean Sea

Well week one has passed and it has been quite a week of changes and adjustments. I have loved every second of it all, though. We have travelled to the beach, the aquarium, the zoo, and today there is an art exhibit in store. I love it here because there are always so many things to do and most of them are free!!! I don't think that I will ever be bored here!!!

For those who are wondering, the food has been very tasty. We have only had fish once, much to my relief, and I ate it!! I'll be honest that it was a bit difficult for me but once I got the first bite down, it wasnt so bad. Breakfast is simply a piece of toast and coffee, lunch is a sandwich, and dinner is when the food party hits!! We start with vegetables and then move to meat and then pasta and then cheese and bread followed by a dessert or fruit of some type! There are so many courses to the meal, my stomach is in shock!!! We have had a variety of different meats and last night we had Ratatouille. I asked the couple if they had seen the movie and they had no idea what I was talking about. Im thinking that it would be a great Christmas gift!!! I dont want to write too much because I have some pictures to put in of the sites around here as well as a few from my day at the beach. So I will leave you with those and will write later!! I love you all and miss you!!

Hello there!!! I don't have a ton of time but I wanted to upload the pictures that I do have right now. The first is a picture of my closet. I took a picture of the room with the toilet AND the room with the shower (because in France, the toilet is usually in its own room). The next one is the living room, equiped with creepy stuffed ferret-type animals. The final pictures are pictures of my room. Its quite amazing and large and NOT what I was expecting. The French doors lead out into a porch type thing that overlooks the street and the busy Place de la Comedie below. I miss everyone very much and send my love!!!!

A la France

YAY!! I am finally here! It was a very smooth journey here and now I am starting to get into the swing of things. Today is a testing day for me where I have to sit down with officials from the university and speak with them for 15 minutes and then take a 1-hour written exam this afternoon to figure out where I should be placed in the program. I will be taking grammar and conversation courses, etc, as well as 2 courses which i choose being French literature, cinema, etc. I am also doing volunteer service here for 3 credits in conjunction with a French Society course that i will take once a week. It was really neat how Veronique (an advisor here) told us about the program. She said that young people in France rarely, if ever, do any community service hours and the program hopes that by showing that Americans contribute so much through volunteer work that the young French people might catch on and start helping out their communities as well. It is kind of an interesting concept since in the US, community service is such a norm, and often a requirement and such for college applications, and yet here it is completely absent and WE are the inspiration for others. I am really excited because I am going to be in a French high school and I will assist the English teachers there. For my second semester, I plan on going to a children's hospital nearby and helping to organize rehabilitating activities and help them with their English. It should be quite the experience.
There have only been a couple of slip-ups for me here. When I first arrived at the apartment, my host mother (who is absolutely adorable and SOOOOOOOOOO sweet) asked me where my shoes were when i came out to dinner. Like any American, i took them off in the hopes of not getting the floor and carpets dirty but it turns out that that is actually rude in the French culture.
I will post pics of the apt when i get a chance to get my laptop up and running! I hope that all is well! I miss everyone greatly.

Au revoir!!!

(and no, Katie Morag is NOT coming too)



Well, today is the big day! I leave in less than 9 hours. I am REALLY hopeful that all goes well and that my friend, Hurricane Hanna, doesn't change my plans, etc. I can't believe that the week has gone by this quickly. Celine was a GREAT send-off and I couldn't have asked for better company than to see it with Grandma. :-) I'm going to try to put pictures in this post to show the amount of clothing I had and how much ended up being packed, kind of a nice little before and after shot. I'm thinking that I will go over the weight limit by quite a bit--we'll see if they let me on! Well, that's all from this end, I'll write next from France!! Au revoir mes amis!!