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!!