PARIS TRIP #1 !!!!!!!!

While on the TGV heading towards Paris, I’m clearing my head of my first trip to make room for the second! First of all, I missed my train this morning…it was at 6:23am, so that was my first mistake thinking that I would actually get up. Mistake number two was going to sleep. But I’m finally relaxing in first class (it was only .20 centimes = a quarter cheaper than second!) and just planned out my next 4 days in Paris.

Two weeks ago I went to run the Paris 20km (12.6 miles). Originally it started off with just Sarah and me, then George, who wanted to run the 20km, then Marc whose grandparents have an apartment there, then Ariel, Kaitlin, Rebecca, and finally Becca whose parents were flying into Paris from the states. SO we crammed EIGHT people in a ONE bedroom apartment that’s comfortable for TWO. Three people were in the bed every night, one/two people on a fold out chair, two/three people on the floor…we had a nice rotation going for 3 nights. (The picture of us in the elevator should give you an idea...)

Arriving Thursday night, we just decided to walk around and sit at a café. Friday morning we started out at the catacombs. It was very cool in a morbid kind of way, containing the bones of 6 million unknown Parisians, most of who were killed during the plague – for sanitary reasons the citizens emptied their cemeteries in 1785 into many miles of underground tunnels from limestone quarries. Each transfer/procession from the cemetery was led by a black veiled and then they stacked the bones (very neatly I might add) into piles of 5 ft high by up to 80 ft deep!

A plaque was placed with each cemetery’s bones to identify

where they came from and when – saw my birthday a few times : / At times I wished that I were a little shorter and that I had worn a hat walking under those moist ceilings :) It was a really cool place! Leaving, the security guards checked our bags to make sure we didn’t steal any bones – there was table full of skulls behind them!

Since we only had 2.5 days of tourism to hit up the big sites for the three “Paris newbies”, everything seemed a little fast and hard to take it all in.

From the top of L’Arc du Triomphe (L’Étoile above), to Les Champs-Elysées, to Sarko’s house and the embassies (Kaitlin got yelled at for taking a picture. If you didn’t know, it’s illegal to take pictures of embassies.)

to Le Louvre (below)

(Le Louvre is free for students on Friday nights! I’m definitely going again tonight since it would take about 8 visits to see everything.), and then to and Indian restaurant to complete the day!

Day 2: every large race has “pre-race” activities (free samples, music, ect.) so Sarah, George, and I went there first thing, met everyone else at the Opéra Garnier (left) - more for the attendants to be seen than the actual show = beautiful, extravagant lobbies!!! and Phantom of the Opera’s inspiration - and then Notre-Dame (the same day that UNC beat Notre Dame in football!!! Got to hear some of the Saturday night mass, and then the security guard made me move – I didn’t know why at first, but then the priest walked right in front of me with his little posse!). That night, Ariel made a wonderful “Pasta-Pump-Up” dinner and the runners went to bed early.

Race Day! It was a sight to see people piling on the trams with their numbers pinned to them and their “pusse” (timing chip) attached to their tennis shoes – the whole world has definitely caught running fever. Over 20,000 runners stood under the Eiffel Tower ready – I just wanted to finish :) Marc brought an American Flag to wave for the 3 of when we went by…I got SO excited when I saw them and heard them cheering that I started running towards them tripping over everyone! We ran the first 8km in a park, which was perfect with its shade and dirt trails – I’ve also never seen so many people pee in my life! Coming out of the park we ran along one side of the Seine about 6km and then the crossed by Musée d’Orsay to finish the race under the Eiffel Tower. I really wish I had a camera with me to take pictures - people could tell I was a tourist: I would slow down and run to the other side of the street to look at EVERYTHING! There were bands all along the way to keep our moral high, and I’d say it worked - they sure made me laugh! Although I did almost have an emotional break down at about the 12km…people were lined up at the bridges to cheer, and one (bigger) lady was sitting on the side wall and tried to jump onto the side walk as I was running towards her, but she FACE PLANTED into the road right before a car drove by that almost ran over her head!!! Luckily the driver was paying attention and it swerved. For the next 2km I was on the brink of tears thinking about the fact that I almost saw a lady die and if I would have stopped the race (I was the closest bystander).

After the race while taking pictures by the tower, we saw a “turf fight” between the guys that sell the little Eiffel Towers and the army guys with their big automatics ran over to break it up. With our American Flag and singing of the UNC fight song, we had a blast in front of the tower! I wore my medal as long as possible. We ate lunch in les Jardins du Luxembourg, walked around more, ate dinner at a Couscous place, and then the girls decided to go out on the town!

(below: lost, huge map, no one else wanted to be in the picture...)

We had no idea where we were…but just looked for things that were open (basically nothing on Sunday night). We finally saw a few bars open... 1st bar: I walked in and thought people were going to kill me ("The Black Cave"), 2nd bar: guys making out everywhere (gay bar "The Bear's Den"), 3rd bar: Spanish Tapas, guy working outside that invited us in seemed nice - walked in and sat down and a guy got on a table and started dancing/taking off his shirt ... gay bar as well. We were the only people in there, so we stayed, they played what music we wanted, and we danced with the gay bartenders.

(I had to pee after the race...but didn't know how to work the time capsule toilettes...so Rebecca came to rescue!)

Oh and can I just add the weather was BEAUtiful ALL weekend – just perfect (as you can tell from the pictures).

mmm...Le Tour Eiffel

MA VIE À MONTPELLIER – settled!

I’m sorry for not having posted in a while! I don’t have pictures of everything that’s been going on and thought a post with pictures of stuff would be better…so I’ve been waiting to return to places to get pictures…but that’s not happening.

I’ve finally gotten into the groove of life here!

CLASSES: My class schedule is finally set! For a while I was frustrated and it didn’t look like I was going to find any political science classes at University of Montpellier III. SO the result: the Law School of University of Montpellier I. I’m the first and only “Americaine” taking classes at the oldest university in Europe, founded in 1297. “The Left France” will definitely be my hardest class, but I really like it. My other classes are going well; students here are more “laid-back” (lazy), and I’m usually the most prepared for class (not normal). I’ve already given a presentation in my French Cinema course and I have another one this Thursday for Mediterranean Cinema on Cinema of Contemporary Spain.

CHURCH: If you didn’t know, people aren’t religious in France…mentioning anything religious never gives me a good response. But I found a Reformed Evangelical Pentecostal church. I’ve gone for 3 Sundays and a Women’s Day. Everything SEEMS normal so far…I think people may have been talking in tongues today, but I’m not really sure – it sounded like Hebrew. My favorite part is the worship - I know a majority of the songs in English.

EXTRA-CURRICULARS: I made the University Choir and we’re singing the works of BRITTAIN, so all the songs are in English. After correcting the director’s pronunciation the first rehearsal in front of 70ish people, I now read the lyrics while everyone repeats - then I translate. I started taking a Hip-Hop class that’s awesome – Take it to the Streets style. I look forward to it every week! I’m going to start volunteering at a high school this week to help some students with their English. They are starting internships as merchants in England, so it should be interesting to see what phrases and conversations I’ll be helping them with. Also, once a week the Americans and the Language students at the Fac de Lettres have a “tower of Babel” conversation night that’s themed. We’ve had an 80’s night and this week it’s Halloween costume night! Everyone who comes out is really nice - this is definitely the easiest way to make my French friends! It’s weird not having track practice everyday or CCF events, but I like the way my week has panned out. I have a lot of free time!

NIGHTLIFE: Seeing that it has been difficult to make French friends, I’ve been “sortiring” with Americans, Brazilians (2 below), Mexicans, Spaniards, Scotts, and Norwegians…There is one bar L’Australien that all the foreigners go, because the locals go to the bars outside of the city accessible only by car. I’ve also gone to a Karaoke bar that was sooo much fun. Of course we sang the classic American repertoire (Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys, TLC) - after a few songs the French were into it (I think) and they gave us their hats/canes/helmets?

The concept of going to someone’s house to watch a movie is definitely not French. Friends don’t hang out at the house…you always have a drink and then go out. We’re trying to start a French movie night at George’s house – it’s been successful so far. French cinema is either cheesy or bizarre; they watch a lot of American dubbed films. You will always find people standing alone waiting at the city’s meeting place, the Trois Graces statue in the Place de la Comedie. (Here’s the statue with the Opera de la Comedie behind it…beautiful at night!)

SUNDAYS: Montpellier Sundays are a favorite. Since the first few Sundays in France I spent on those excursions, I’ve just now been able to enjoy them along with the pretty weather.

Most everything is closed and it’s definitely the family day. My Montpellier friend said every Sunday growing up he rode the ponies around the Esplanade.

Bringing many types of people to the Esplanade there is now an awesome Dr. Seuss looking playground (below), a lake, and a giant chess board (the players are serious and always play to American pop music…they asked my to play, but I said I’m just too good).

In the Place de la Comedie there is usually some fair. This past Sunday there was a dog adoption tent – as if Montpellier needed more dogs! They’re everywhere along with their poop; the homeless keep them around because the police can’t arrest them if they have a dog. But they never use a leash!

One dog wouldn’t leave a man eating a sandwich for 20 minutes. (The man heard me taking these pictures, so I would hide the camera and pretend to read – it was not his day.)

The man asked the owner why he’s not holding the leash next to him. “SA LIBERTE!” the homeless owner replied…really the dog’s liberty? The dog followed the man all the way out of the park.

I did go to Paris last weekend, and I’ll write about it in my next post :)

Avignon

Meet Marc. He's our tour guide, since he knows more about the sites than the actual tour guides. That's Avignon behind him.
My last, but not least, excursion was to the city of Avignon, built during the Roman Empire. The city is historically famous, because in the 14^th century the Pope transferred from Rome to the economically flourishing city. (small replica of the palace...I got in trouble for taking this picture. I hope you're grateful.)

Of course this then led to the Great Schism (a time when there were 2 Popes), and eventually the Papacy moved back to Rome. Luckily, the Le Palais de Papes, once the largest Gothic palace in Europe, remains in Avignon for all to tour.

And then there’s Le pont St. Bénézet where something happened with the young Sheppard Bénézet and God, but I didn’t catch what. But everyone goes to the end of the bridge and turns around because of the song “Sur le pont d’Avignon, L'on y danse, L'on y danse. Sur le pont d'Avignon, L'on y danse tout en rond" Somehow I missed that one during my childhood.

After Avignon, we toured a local vineyard while they explained how wine was made…

Into the 2^nd week of integrated French classes, I’m still not sure what classes I’m taking…as of right now I have History of French Cinema, History of Mediterranean Cinema, Spanish Literature, Spanish Text Approach, French Methodology (lots of papers), Pronunciation, and Contemporary History…I’m waiting on some Political Science courses (hopefully Great Democracies since 1945 and International Relations since 1860, fingers crossed). My brain gets a workout during my Spanish classes because the professors speak both interchangeably…my notes look ridiculous. It may seem like a lot, but it comes out to 18ish hours, AND I don’t have classes Wednesdays of Fridays!!! I’m already planning some weekend trips. -- Any suggestions/people you know I could stay with in France, Spain, UK, or Brussels (there’s a deal for 9 euro in October for a round trip through Ryan Air)?

We had a surprise party for Caroline’s 19^th birthday on Saturday night. She already knew about it (ooops, I spilled the beans…when you tell someone about a birthday party, you should MENTION that it’s a surprise! And she could tell from the way her mom was acting: “MAKE SURE YOU’RE HOME SATURDAY NIGHT!”) She still acted very, very surprised. She’s a drama queen with lots of boy "situations" (makes for good conversation). (She's the brunette. Her friend Marie also goes to my University.)

I love her, and we go ice-skating twice to three times a week. I’m getting really good! Double axels by the time I get back to the US!

Once a year, the city of Montpellier has its HUGE Foire des Assosiations with over 1000 tents of different clubs/groups in Montpellier. EVERYONE goes to sign up for their year’s activities. It was this past Sunday and I found a university choir (I have an audition next week) and a few Hip-Hop dance groups that I’m going to check out. I also went to a really tiny church Sunday morning with about 15 people. They were nice, but that afternoon I went to another church that I liked a lot better. I stayed for their choir practice, and I have an audition Sunday. We would sing at a few services and some weddings.

There was a really cool Scottish girl Kat that stayed with us to learn French last week…one week is not enough time. (That's Sarah below...we're running the 20k in Paris together with George!)

That’s all for now…Try to keep ME posted on what’s been going on with YOU!!!

CARCASSONNE

Random city on a hill...there are many of these :)

A lot has been going on the past week and a half! This morning I took my final exam of the pre-stage intensive course, so that’s over and I’m now looking towards my integrated courses. The craziest part about taking classes here is that they don’t register until 3 weeks or so into classes and some classes don’t actually start for 2 or 3 more weeks. To give you one more example of their registration, my host sister was going to go to the University of Toulouse, but THURSDAY she decided to go to my university…so she’ll start classes next week with me. So next week, when classes figuratively start, I’ll have my methodology course (lots of French writing) and pronunciation course. I’ve semi-registered for my Spanish Literature course and I’m looking to take Contemporary History, French Cinema, International Relations, and Grand Democracies…I have to go around to each departments building and look on cork boards for their course offerings, while some departments don’t even have class times or postings at all. It’s way too confusing.


(My own "tasting sink" for my culture course):

Last weekend, I went to the last “Les Estivales”, which is a huge wine and food festival of regional venders, so I’ve been to quite a few wine tastings already. It’s mainly for the many travelers of the summer. Saturday I went to the Musée Fabre to see the Jacques Courbet exhibit, who was a realist painter.


SUNDAY we went to Carcassonne (above), the largest fortress in all of Europe. The city was built in the 6th century before Christ, but the fortress wasn’t until the 13th century A.D. The city truly captures the military and religious architecture of le Moyen-Age. It is now a city classified by l’UNESCO (United National Education, Science, and Culture Organization). We also saw Le Canal du Midi, which is the canal running from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean during the reign of Louis XIV. The canal is 240 km long with 64 écluses (gates) that have to be cranked open, water fills up the area, and then the ships can go through. There are 9 “écluses de Fonseranes” that are the most spectacular because it’s just a big staircase for ships! - This is what I saw.

Ariel et moi at Carcassonne:


Tuesday, my host brother Charli left for Ecuador, so Monday night I went out to eat at a restaurant for the first time in France…we went to Buffalo Grill, which is a more Wild West version of Lonestar. I felt right at home with the country music blaring, everyone eating French fries, and pictures of Native Americans everywhere.
(Night of Charli's departure with my family and Armond's...Caroline, my sister in black turtleneck, Julienne in black button up T, Matthieu in white T-shirt, and Charlie in white button up.)

Wednesday I heard Elie Wiezel (the Auschwitz survivor and writer) speak at the Opera house. It was mainly a big “sondage” (Q & A session) about his new book, his thoughts on humanity, why he didn’t accept Israel’s offer to be their next president, and finally who he wanted to win the American elections. He was very diplomatic about the last question saying that either one would be a good choice, but everyone should pay attention to the elections because they’ll affect us all.


Church in Carcassonne:

That was a small recap of my week…we’re going to Avignon Sunday for our last group excursion. I’m also running in the Paris 20k in October with George and Sarah (two others from UNC) and 4 more are coming up for support and to see what Paris has to offer :D I’m SUPER excited about it!

Le Pont du Gard

In order to get water to Nemausus (present day Nîmes), the Romans constructed an aqueduct 50 kilometers long…SO they built this bridge/aqueduct that’s 275 meters long and 50 meters tall making it the tallest structure in the Roman world. Although the aqueduct stopped working at the end of the Roman reign in the 5th century, Le Pont (bridge) still stands strong.

Although they gave a tour of the bridge…a few of us decided to get a head start on the cliff jumping :D The first cliff was only 10 feet or so high, but fun for a few practice jumps. (all of this was “overlooked” by our directors…don’t ask, don’t tell.) Then I saw 2 guys from U of Minnesota start swimming to the REAL cliff…we checked for rocks below (none) and then climbed to the top. The 2 guys went first and then me (with everyone yelling at me not to do it…IT WAS AWESOME!) It took about 4 seconds to get to the water and my foot stung a little afterwards but it was SO worth it! I’ll try to get a picture of that, but from my judgment it was about 35-40 feet high :D

(the circle on the right is the first cliff, and the circle on the left is the second cliff!)

Me jumping off the first cliff!

Tomorrow I start biking to school…the first of MANY! (I’ve decided to not buy a Tram pass and bike instead.) Also, the Mediterranean is about 4 miles from my house too. I’ve been once so far, and we’re going again Thursday!