Où est Melinda Kay?

3 Consonnes et 3 Voyelles, c’est le prénom de RaFaeL

2011-07-15T23:16:00.001+02:00

(Title = Carla Bruni “Rapahel” reference)

I haven’t blogged since the beginning of May. What have I been up to since then? Working 2 jobs, taking exams, writing papers, drinking coffee with friends, going on vacations and surtout hanging out with my boyfriend Rafael.

This blog is to introduce him to all of my friends and family across the ocean, so I’ll try to do my best to give an informative and delightful profile that will do him justice.

Height: 6’4” Hair/eyes: Brown

Nationality/Citizenship: French, Colombian

Siblings: 4 (2 brothers, 2 sisters)

Has lived in: Bogota, Montpellier, Grenoble, Toulouse, Norway, Paris

Studied: Computer Science and Mathematics

Fluent in: Spanish, French, English

Newest hobbies: Piano and swimming

Other hobbies: Repairs, building kitchen cabinets, cooking, exploring Paris underground, Chess, Toulouse Rugby, enjoying a Guinness, watching House, bragging about his niece Abi, crossword puzzles, Church choir

Volunteerism: Scout leader, French-Spanish translations, Soup kitchen server/organizer

Known for: His amazing chocolate cake

The Common Questions …

How did we meet?

At church my first Sunday in Paris; however, we started dating after some Sunday afternoons, choral rehearsals, Bible studies, crepes, geo-catching attempts, fixing beds and bikes, moving a couch, cutting hair, visiting the Chateau de Vincennes, washing laundry, discussing life over tea/coffee/beer, driving around the Arc de Triomphe (twice), watching rugby matches and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, celebrating American Night, and preparing numerous dinners.

(church Easter picnic w/ aforementioned choc cake)

What do I like about him?

He makes me smile. He takes care of me. He respects me. He balances me out. He’s intelligent and trustworthy. He is a faithful friend and a servant. He loves when I sing. He teaches me, inspires me, encourages me, pushes me, trusts me, and believes in me. He wants to make me happy.

(Our first picnic outside of the city)

What do we enjoy doing together?

Going on picnics. Riding bikes. Reading stories aloud. Crosswords. Chess. Cooking/baking. Watching movies. Eating pain au chocolats or pain suisses. Going to concerts. Hanging out with friends. Drinking coffee. Riding trains. Listening to music.

(Left: at the Louvre for La fete de la musique)

Our most recent meal together:

Homemade gnocchi Steak hachee Mediterranean salad Strawberries with chocolate fondue

Have I met his family?

In April, Pierre, his little brother, came up to Paris to spend the weekend. The three of us did a lot together including climbing around the catacombs, finding my bike a basket, new wheel, and light from various abandoned bikes in the city, eating lots of bakery items, drinking Colombian hot chocolate, and riding bikes across town until 3 in the morning.

His 2 sisters still live in Colombia, so it’s a little hard to visit and meet them, but I’ve heard a lot about them.

The first week in June, Rafael and I took a trip to the south of France for a wedding and made a few stops along the way.

First, we went to his parents’ in Romans-sur-Isere which in itself is a beautiful old Roman town near Valence on the Isere river. For 2 days we drove around the Vercors mountains on excursions.

Shamelessly picking cherries

La Grotte de Charonche

Museum of the Resistance I drove through that underpass!

St. Antoine l’abbeye

I spy Pierre.

I also got to meet his brother Sebastian, sister-in-law Gladys, and little baby niece Abigail in Orange near Avignon. We also went on an excursion in the mountains just to eat some ice cream.

Where have we gone together?

Montpellier just to chill, play chess, and do crosswords

Toulouse for a wedding…

…and the French championship rugby match between Montpellier and Toulouse

Boulogne-sur-mer just to get away from Paris for a long weekend

and many more places to come … like NC for example :)

Rafael’s birthday was recently and we celebrated by having a picnic Thursday, going to a pub with all of his Paris-based friends Friday, and then a show and champagne on Saturday. This blog is my last birthday present for my wonderful boyfriend.

Joyeux Anniversaire

Chateau de Vincennes

2011-05-05T15:34:00.001+02:00

Now that classes and exams are over and I’m officially on “summer break”, I have some free time to catch up on all of those things that got put off during the business of the semester (reading, playing guitar, swimming, blogging). My first day of break and I’ve managed to do all of the above so far.

Although it’s hard to go through the past 2 months and try to mention everything, I’ll just take it a little at a time.

A few of us from church went to Chateau de Vincennes in March after an American brunch with eggs and lots of pain au chocolat … okay, so maybe it wasn’t as American as it could’ve been, but they don’t have bacon in France. The following pictures are from Chateau de Vincennes which is just outside Paris’ peripherique (the boulevard that encircles the city) on the East. Not as fancy as the Louvre or Versailles, but it’s still beautiful – plus, it was nice to get out of the city (even if it was only 1km).

The Chapel

Jackie and Me

The Chateau

The peacock we saw in the “Bois de Vincennes”

Overview of the grounds

SNAGGED 2 jobs in ONE day

2011-04-21T17:14:00.001+02:00

I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been busy with school and focusing on life here – which, by the way, has been wonderful (minus a few bike issues here an there). BUT TODAY is worth stopping what I’m doing (which is sitting in the library working on one of my 5 final papers) and RACONTER what happened today.

Monday I was roaming around on facebook and saw that Jill Hartline had a new post on her “Found & Found” blog with the last words encouraging its readers to check out 'Craigslist’ for great finds – referring more to furniture and items. I decided to take a trip down memory lane and look at bikes and jobs just because those were the 2 categories I used to check every day. I enjoyed seeing the expensive bikes posted knowing that I only paid 35euro for my flea-market find.

In the job section I laughed at a few ‘adult modeling/photo’ adds but then an ‘au pair – Paris, west coast’ caught my eye.

JOB 1

The add was asking for someone to travel the west coast of France with them during a few summer weeks giving a week of vacation here and there. The dates matched perfectly to my summer holidays from the other family that I sit for every week, so I sent an email which was followed by an interview this morning.

2 weeks: Bretagne (left) 1 week: Vendee 2 weeks:Trouville (below)

Staying in family beach houses along the coast – food, lodging, transportation = paid + “money for candy” as they say in French. There will be 3 children (3, 2, and infant due in May) and each week will be a big French family affair with lots of relaxing, eating, and drinking wine (what the French do best).

JOB 2

After accepting JOB 1, I went to class and discussed “The coming end of the US unipolar moment”, and then went to interview #2. If you go back a few blogs, then you will find discussing my first Parisian job hunt and I talked about 2 waitressing positions. I saw on Craigslist that “Cosi Sandwich” was again looking for part-time servers … I really liked this place and every time I pass by it, I imagine working there. It’s cute, international, and above all “cosi” (very ‘daytime Jack Spraty’ for those of you who know the CH reference). The lady remembered me right away and when I told her my availability and that classes were ending soon, she just said “great, I’m working Saturday – can you be here? Here’s the menu.” SO first training shift Saturday!

Not that I was really ‘worried’ about how I was going to spend my summer or my free days during May and June while still babysitting, it’s nice having it all planned out and knowing that an income will be flowing in…all because of a decision to click around facebook and craigslist on Monday.

“Home is home, be it ever so humble”

2011-03-18T15:35:00.001+01:00

I wanted to wait to write my next blog once I finally felt as though I was settled in and happy … no one wants to hear me complain about the pains of planting my roots.

The checklist consisted of three things in this order:

1. Job
2. Apartment
Bike

The job and apartment hunt were simultaneous, but I wanted to secure the job before committing to an apartment for a few reasons: to know that money would be flowing in, to know how much money would be flowing in, and to know where I should strategically place myself in the city to be closer to my job.

I started gearing the job hunt towards babysitting putting my hopes of working in a café off to another day, because it seemed like there were many people looking for native English speakers and I would have set hours that worked with my school schedule. The two sources of postings were the American Church in Paris which has a bulletin board with both daily housing and job announcements and the other is FUSAC (France and USA Connection) which published a magazine once a month as well as had a website.

I began checking the American Church’s board every day and would then stop by “my hotel” (Hotel de la Tulipe which is right next to the church) for a coffee and croissant/cookies, chat and receive encouragement from Daniel, and internet staying for typically 4 hours. This was my routine after class for about 2 weeks. To spare you from all of the painful details about different places and families I will just say it was frustrating and painful. Feeling as though I’d hit a wall after 2 weeks, I’d had more than enough and asked my bible study group to pray for my situation. During the prayer my phone rang – it was a family asking if I was still looking for a job and wanted to meet me the next day.

MY JOB

The family lives in Sèvres (a little banlieu on the southwest side of Paris). I go 4 times a week for 3 hours at a time taking a 15 minute train ride from the station right next to my apartment. There are 3 girls (Marie 13, Anouke 10, Laura 7) who are all very sweet. I pick them up from school, sometimes walk them to the music conservatory, we eat a snack, play games (guess who, go fish, speed … if you can think of anymore card games we can play, let me know! They’ve been wearing out the ones that I’ve taught them!!!), and bake cakes. They love to eat chocolate and the house is always stocked with milka bars :) Big perks. The main goal is to improve their spoken, every-day English – that’s the most difficult part. I have to avoid speaking French, while thinking of creative, fun ways for them to put together sentences in English. Mamma Mia sing-along has become a favorite. Although, I had to change a class to make the hours work, everything went through last week and all is well! I’m staying with them at least until June, but it’s possible to work with them all next year if I chose to do so.

MY APARTMENT

It’s in the 9^th, which is the perfect central location. I’m a 15 minute bike ride from school, less than 10 minutes from the train I take to get to work, and about a 20 minute ride to church. It’s small, but I have more than enough room for my stuff (after a guy from church helped me raise my bed to put my suitcases underneath). I have a fridge, microwave, hot plates, pots, dishes, silverware, etc. that all came with. I’m on the 6^th floor with an elevator (BIG PLUS) and my window faces the courtyard of my building. There are two locks/doors you have to go through to get in my building as well as a few locks on my own door, so I feel safe. The grocery store is right across the street. I do my laundry at a friend from church’s apartment.

Chez Moi

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MY BIKE

I got my first bike off craigslist. It was white and purple. I owned it for less than 4 days before it was stolen right outside my apartment. I got my second bike for much cheaper at a flea market a little outside the city; it’s black. I’ve owned it for almost 2 weeks and have only had minor problems. I changed the brakes yesterday morning all by myself. The back wheel needed to be tightened, because it got loose and was hitting the frame, but besides from that, it’s been a good bike. I park it inside my building’s court, but there’s nowhere to attach it – I just lock the front wheel to the frame, which is what another bike does as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to hold onto this one longer…

OTHER

My hotel. I mentioned it in a previous blog (the hotel where they let me print my CV), but I’ve been back at least a dozen times since. The second time I went was to stop in and just say thank you again for letting me print stuff and photocopy my visa, passport, student card, etc… Then Daniel asked me if I’d like some coffee, and then offered croissants and cookies…If you give Melinda a cookie … then she’ll visit every day. The hotel is right next to the American church where I went to check for job/apts. I would then walk over to the hotel to get a coffee or tea, use the internet, and discuss life with my best and only friend in the city – Daniel (the Romanian receptionist). He even let me use his cell phone that had an international plan so that I could call my dad in a time of need/decision making. Because of work, I can’t go by as often (only about once a week now). I went by yesterday for some apple tarts, café, and a discussion about crazy Parisians (more of the story to come).

I found my café! It’s called Caféothèque and it’s behind the Hôtel de Ville – discovered through some guys blogs about Parisian cafés. They make/sell coffee from all over the world (any country that produces coffee) and the salon is full of awesome chairs and books and a piano that one of the baristas plays frequently when it’s not busy. I’ve been there four times. The second time I went it was pretty dead and the guys gave me a free latté :) I asked them if they would give me barista lessons and they delightfully agreed (including letting me go behind the bar and make drinks myself!). I’ve been back twice for lessons, but it’s been crowded and the owners were there…I’m planning on going tomorrow.

My bar = St. Georges’ Pub. It’s right down the street and I knew from the name that we would become good friends – kin even. Sebastian, the bartender is from Britanie and knows me by name.

That’s the gist of my settling in…kind of boring details, but necessary to write about and describe before I go on telling more stories about my job, apartment, or bike. If you have any specific questions (just things you’re curious about) let me know!

Kim et Télégraphe

2011-02-11T09:29:00.001+01:00

Kim. I officially met her once for coffee a year ago when I returned from Montpellier, but I feel like we’re the same person sometimes. I’ve been unintentionally following in her footsteps for the past 2+ years.

1. Kim’s parents are missionaries. She spent most of her childhood on Saint Lucia island.

2. Montpellier. Kim studied in Montpellier the semester before me.

3. La famille Barre. A mutual friend suggested Kim’s host family to me in Montpellier since she enjoyed them so much. I befriended her on facebook just to ask her about the family and see if she had any advice/suggestions.

4. The TransAtlantic Masters Program. While I was still with the Barres, Kim emailed Madame Barre to tell her that she was going to attend Sciences Po for a masters … I knew exactly which program she applied for. Throughout my application process, I again asked her for suggestions/advice and if she liked the program thus far.

5. Sciences Po. With our mutual French background, Kim and I both chose Sciences Po as our international consortium university for both semesters. Kim departed from Paris a week or so ago, but she did not leave me empty handed. We got our second coffee together at her Parisian apartment where she handed off pillows, comforters, sheets, school supplies, books, and an envied Graduate School Library card.

6. Télégraphe. Kim also said that if I was looking for a wonderful church, then I should come with her on Sunday. Her mom’s friend knew someone who went there and she’d been attending since she arrived in Paris. “It’s small and kind of far, but it’s definitely worth it!”

I went to the service on Sunday at this little Eglise Protestante Evangelique in the 20th arrondissement and was warmly welcomed by all. There is a pretty large group of people my age (~15) for the size of the congregation (~75), and most of them are French! There’s one other American girl and a Canadian. I am planning on singing in the choir (as Kim did) which consists of 5 people sitting in the back corner. The music director studies as the conservatory in Paris and from time to time whips out his muted trumpet during worship.

On Sunday after church we went to Ana-Joel’s apartment to bake crêpes for Kim’s going away party(below).

My second Sunday the preacher and his wife (who’s from Kentucky) invited me and three others over for lunch at their home and Sunday night a few of us met up for dinner in the city.

I am soooo thankful for Kim and all of her efforts to make sure I have a smooth transition into life here and even more grateful that I have a church so soon upon arriving, and I’m even more thankful for Kim.

7. Future? Kim this past summer had an internship at the OECD – I’m applying for the same … fingers-crossed that the trend continues! And watch out Pittsburg, because you seem to be my next destination.

A good day

2011-01-29T03:19:00.001+01:00

I was waiting for that first good day that Paris had to offer in order to motivate me to blog – those experiences that just don’t happen anywhere else. I arrived Paris on Sunday after a few flight delays and hurdles.

I thought that classes started Monday (which is what my director told me), but they don’t start until next Monday. “At least you’ll be here for the mandatory library tour … it will be very helpful!” (Sciences Po's location - left)

Tuesday’s library tour comes around – basically the only thing I had planned for that day was to tour the library and meet some other students. The tour lasted 10 minutes as the librarian explained how to check out a book and how many books we can check out. “Any questions?” …non. Wednesday I decided to dedicate to an application that is due in a few hours (just so that it wasn’t lingering) as well as perused the Parisian craigslist.

I think I read every job post for every kind of position you can imagine and wrote a hundred emails. One Swiss lady wanted help carrying luggage at the airport on Saturday – I have nothing better to do, so I responded. I guess she already had a taker that beat me to it along with the man that wanted a care assistance for his French mother. What I didn’t get was why the assistant care giver had to speak English – was she really so intolerable that minimal communication/understanding was key?

There were 2 promising waitressing positions – I called for an interview for one and the other had stop in hours today. I transformed my academic CV into a usable French work CV last night and hardly slept a wink due to a combination of my odd sleep schedule, caffeine, and excitement.

“At Les Deux Abeilles you get good food - delicious, homemade and in an atmosphere that was so unique, so French, so original, Paris has changed, I think this is a taste of the old Paris and we loved it. The tearoom was spotless with white tableclothes, something you do not see any more in restaurants or tearooms which I absolutely love. The walls have beautiful floral fabric, there are antique dressers, and in the window a display of beautiful homemade cakes and tartes, I only wish we had time. In all I would say if you want a taste of the old Paris, somewhere where the owners take so much pride to provide an atmosphere where you can enjoy good homemade breakfast, lunch, cakes, tea, coffeee then this is your place and the price is for the excellent food, atmosphere, setting, originality, clenliness, passion for food.”

This morning I woke bright and early to discover that cyber cafés don’t open before 10h or 12h! I went to my first interview without my CV in hand…the first question she asked was if I had a CV. After the interview I spent the next 1.5 hours wandering around the 7eme looking for a place to print ONE piece of paper. There was a cyber café that I remembered close to the Musee Rodin – 8 Rue de Jouy. If you can find it, then you’re a better person than me. 6 Rue de Jouy … 10 Rue de Jouy. Did I miss something?

I started to head back to Les Deux Abeilles and stopped in a hotel to ask if they knew of a place (I’d apparently passed a photo shot that could print). The concierge asked how many pages I needed printed. ONE. Sit here and print it. The night concierge (a Dominican!) was just getting off duty – he glued my picture to the CV and made several photocopies.

Daniel told me that you have to ask the French for a lot to receive a little … so after I handed in my CV to the mother and daughter proprietors I returned to Daniel to get photocopies of my visa, passport, and various other documents that were necessary for my student ID application. He kindly did so without hesitation (even after I asked for multiple copies of each). “Now you can say that you have cousins in Paris – me and Joan (the Dominican)” – Daniel, Hotel de la Tulipe, 7eme

I then went to the Orange phone store, bought lunch at Carrefour, and ate my baguette at the Parc du Champs de Mars gazing at La Tour Eiffel.

After I did the admin stuff at Sciences Po, I walked to job possibility number 2 in the 6eme. “Cosi is wonderful! Fresh hot focaccia bread straight from a wood fired oven... Over twenty fillings: tomatoes and mozzarella, tapenade, goat cheese and cucumber, tandoori turkey, roasted salmon, to name a few... Country wines... Opera music …”

The lady who greeted me was extremely nice (and I was thankful I had a photocopy of my CV with a colored ID photo!). She said the owner was Irish and there were many international people working at the restaurant. It seemed very upbeat and cool next to the quaint, classy salon de the I went to earlier.

The rest of the afternoon was roses as I walked the streets singing to Jason Mraz on my iPod. I even went to the Place de Notre Dame – I wish I had my guitar on me. My spirits were just right to busk my first song in public.

Background

2011-01-28T23:36:00.001+01:00

Who: Moi, Melinda Kay.

What: Living in Paris and studying at Sciences Po (The French Institute for Political Science)

When: January 2011 – December 2011 (as far as I know … maybe more, maybe less. Goal = be home for Christmas)

Where: PARIS

Why: Why not? And my program (the TransAtlantic Masters Program) has multiple European consortiums to choose from to do coursework at for the 2nd and 3rd semester – it’s even possible to get my M.A. degree from one of these universities as opposed to UNC.

How: Saving money through random jobs, homelessness, and being thrifty. Getting on a plane with 40lbs. more than the allotted amount via one “little man” (Harry = 25+ pounds), a guitar stuffed with the heaviest clothes I could find, and physically wearing on my person an extra 10+ pounds of clothing.

Just wanted to put a map up, because I’m going to refer to the arrondissements a few times in my blog.

I’m staying right now with a family in Malakoff – the very bottom of the map – which is only 25 minutes by metro to my university which is near the 6eme.

I’m looking for an apartment within a 3k radius of my school, but of course the closer you get to the center, the more expensive.

I think that’s enough of an intro to my life in Paris.

A la prochaine!

Christmas Break - Montpellier

2009-08-05T13:25:00.000+02:00

UNC Montpellier Study Abroad group celebrating the Holidays together :)

My ORIGINAL Christmas Break Plan:

Toulouse

Loire Valley

Paris

Chamonix

Italy

Rock-N-Roll Santa from OHIO in Montpellier

Student Demonstration complete with sit-ins and chants at the mall

I was going to head from Toulouse to Tours,

France

and bike through the Loire Valley to see all of the Chateaux during Christmas time, but I couldn’t find my passport …SO I had to go back to Montpellier after Toulouse to look for it. After a few days of ripping my room apart, I made an appointment at the US Embassy in Paris to get a new one issued – I NEEDED it to go to

Italy

with my brothers and David. I hadn’t seen it since I left Cork, Ireland in November…

MONTPELLIER CHRISTMAS TIME

Ariel’s host mother (above with Katrina) took us to the beach for a picnic...

to La Grande Motte (above with Ariel), a famous French resort and port, known for its funky architecture...

and to Aigues-Mortes (above) which is 1 of 3 completely fortified cities and was the only Mediterranean port during the Middle Ages.

Beautiful French Candy store chain in Aigues-Mortes "La Cure Gourmande" = cured from eating a lot! ;)

That week, Clément and I started dating...

We enjoyed rollerblading around town (under Montpellier's Arc de Triomphe)

But we had to say "Au revoir" since I left for 2 weeks :(

We all went Ice Skating a lot...

Indoor skating rink with disco lights!
(Becca, me, and Sarah)

Outdoor rink at the Esplanade in the center of town
(me, Rebecca, Ariel, and Chris)

We went out dancing a lot ...

(above)
Ana Carolina - Brazil, Jennifer - Washington State, me, and Juliana - Brazil

Ariel and me at Macadam pub

Celebrating Rachel's 21st Birthday!

Juliana and I at a house warming party for Asof (English guy)

Hanging out at O'Carolan's (second favorite bar) with Anoop (London) and Tom (Wales)

Christmas party at the Vert Anglais, our favorite bar!!!

That week in Montpellier turned out to be one of the most enjoyable, because I got to experience Montpellier during Christmas time without classes!

Christmas Break - Toulouse

2009-08-04T23:20:00.000+02:00

("Elves" creeping around the city playing Jingle Bells in a minor key...kinda scary)

Currently I'm sitting with holes in my throat where just yesterday my tonsils used to be...I thought it would be a great opportunity to write a few blogs :)

SO I am continuing my blog 7 months later, because I enjoy recalling the memories just as much as sharing them with friends and family - although this blogger and I don't get along very well!

For Christmas break, the French universities give 3 weeks and I made a lot of last minute decisions ...

TOULOUSE - La Ville Rose

Toulouse is called the Pink City, because of the color of all the brick buildings. We were lucky enough to be there during Christmas time to experience “La Marché de Noel”, a market that every French town and city has during December. The most well-known marché is in Strasbourg, but Toulouse has an awesome one also.

(Becca, me, and Rebecca - only picture of all three of us)

Two other girls from UNC wanted to see more nearby French cities, so Rebecca, Becca and I went to Toulouse (the 4^th largest city in France) for 3 days.

(Me using the large mirror to capture the church ceiling and windows)

There is an awesome website/directory called “couchsurfing” which you can use to find people that are willing to host travelers or temporarily people who are looking for an apartment in that city. The system built on trust and recommendations from friends and “surfers”. The organization has grown to be very extensive and popular in Europe, expanding to the United States. Toulouse was my very first couchsurfing experience, but I had only heard great things. Rebecca had found a house close to the train station where 6 Toulouse Rugby players lived (Toulouse is the best Rugby team in France). Mattieu picked us up from la gare (the train station) and showed us our room downstairs next to the garage and washroom. It was full of nasty, stained couches and hookah pipes … a little sketchy, I must admit!

(Beggar lady and Rebecca, right )

That night, we went on a search for the most famous dish from the region … CASSOULET. Everyone said we must try it, but when you asked people to describe it “big bowl of fat/grease” was usually the response. Cassoulet is a rich, slow-cooked white bean stew with pork sausages (HUGE), pulled pork, pork skin, goose, duck, and mutton (hence the BOWL OF FAT!). Cassoulet is named after the distinctive deep, round, earthenware pot called “cassole”. We found a restaurant called Le Table that had the most amazing/only Cassoulet I’ve ever tasted – and it was a FEAT to try and eat it all…3 hours later, we all succeeded!

(really cheesy Santa - I couldn't stop laughing)

The next day, we met up with Anne, the UNC assistant director/Grad student, who showed us the wonderful fresh market (Marché Victor Hugo ) with many hanging rabbits, birds, pigs, fish, and lots of free samples - We enjoyed ourselves. Then Anne showed us an awesome tea store – the lady asked many questions about the flavor you wanted (fruits, flowers, spices, ect) until she found you the perfect tea. We all got some for our host mothers.

(Rebecca on the river)

My favorite part about Toulouse was the extensive river front …

(Me on the River front with Vin Chaud stained teeth!)

...I could really picture what the city looked like a hundred years ago, because I’m sure nothing has changed.

(Le Palais du Justice on the beautiful river front)

The three of us walked around and visited churches, museums, and a botanical garden with peacocks everywhere (above).

We spent several hours in Les Abbatoirs (right), which is otherwise known as the Toulouse Modern and Contemporary Art Center, and it had many really cool exhibits. Becca sat on a piece of art thinking it was a bench … the work was called “Marble box”.

That evening we walked around more churches and ate more foods at the market.

(Market and the Hotel de Ville. The Neon words say "Aligot" and "Truffade")

Another favorite Christmas market food looks a little bizarre at first, but we all decided to try – it was delectable! ALIGOT – How can I describe the texture this Tomme cheese blended with mashed potatoes and garlic (with bacon = TRUFFADE, mmmmm) into an ENORMOUS metal vat? Elastic ribbon… but it’s the best comfort food you will ever find! Vin Chaud (hot wine) was a great way to sip away the chills of the night – the French version of our hot apple cider.

Our final and free destination was the beautiful town hall (full of beautiful murals decorating the walls and ceilings.

I felt a large French/Toulouse pride while walking through those halls looking at all of these beautiful paintings.

The Christmas Spirit had truly begun in my heart during my few days in Toulouse, walking around the gorgeously lit market and watching the kids skate around the outdoor ice rink through the window of the Hotel de Ville.

(Marche and ice skating rink)

Fall Break

2009-02-11T12:47:00.000+01:00

***My camera was stolen on this trip...so not only do I not have many pictures, the fact that I didn't have pictures to post made me very unethusiastic about posting it...(most pics are from the next trip to Paris). Hope you still enjoy! And ALWAYS feel free to comment!***

Fall Break originally consisted of 3 days the University gave + weekend for a total of 5 days of vacation…I decided to extend that and skip a few classes to have 15 days of traveling. :) SOOO I went to Paris, Le Touquet, London, and Cork during those 2 weeks.

PARIS:

(Isn't the sky cool with it's 3 layers?!?!)

I started off the trip by oversleeping - very, very (TOO) normal for me - and having to buy a new train ticket to Paris and not even knowing where I was going to stay when I got to Paris…then everything turned out okay. I heard back from the Tandeau family (Alexis’ family, who we had housed in Cary twice before).

(me at the Louvre)

I went to the Louvre (right) again on Friday night since it’s free for people under 26 and ended up meeting a group of people from Indiana that were studying in Paris. I walked around Paris with them and we ended up in front of Moulin Rouge on Halloween night and then watching “Moulin Rouge” at their apartment. Saturday I went to Versailles to see all of the rooms that I had read about in the false autobiography of Marie Antoinette this summer.

On the train ride back to the city at the St. Michel metro stop, a huge crowd of people surrounded an Italian musician singing a lot of American covers. He was in NYC the previous week recording so I talked to him a little bit afterwards and went to hear him perform at an Australian bar the next night and ended up singing a few songs with him.

(Hotel des Invalides)

It was really great staying with the Tandeau family because we went to an “American Conference” to discuss the upcoming elections (talking American politics with French people always turns out interesting). Sunday morning I found the American Church in Paris and then went to Musée d’Orsay for 5+ hours (it’s free the first Sunday of every month). I loved loved loved it. I think it’s been my favorite museum so far mainly because of all the beautiful impressionism.

Monday I went to Sainte Chapelle (to the right: the Chapel that Saint Louis – the King Saint – built to have an alter for the relic of the crown of thorns. The crown isn’t there anymore, but the beautiful, stain-glass windows are! There are 12 windows, each one containing the scenes from a different Biblical story. Next door I went to the Conciergerie (which used to be the Medieval Castle and then jails where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her execution during the Revolution), and the Palais de Justice (gates in the pic on the right). The whole “Ile de la cité” is cool just imagining that everyone could live within the walls of that one fortress if necessary. (below)

I went to the place de Notre Dame to write some postcards, because it was beautiful outside and ended up meeting 2 musicians (a Belge and Frenchie) and started singing with them, then started singing FOR them (they weren’t really ‘singers’)…we decided to meet up in the same place Tuesday morning to sing some more. It was SOOO much fun! I left them to meet up with Jeanne Fasquelle (the daughter of the Député (like our State Representatives) of the Le Touquet region who came to Cary in August of this year) and she showed me around the French National Assembly after sweet talking the guard. Differences between it and our Congress building were their left and right parties are in different building with a beautiful courtyard in the middle and that they had massive Renaissance art all over their walls, ceilings, and floors.

I went from there to Montmartre and Sacre Cœur (right) to see the view of the city at night and take pictures of it, but once I got there, I discovered that my camera was missing/stolen!!! – I had taken a few metros that day and hadn’t taken a picture since Notre Dame… - but I just went into Sacre Cœur and thought about how I was in one of the most beautiful churches ever, and then I wrote some more postcards which calmed me down. Tuesday morning I went back to Notre Dame and sang with the 2 musicians again – they let me have most of the money which paid for all my food and metro tickets in Paris and also my train ticket to Le Touquet – SWEEET!

(South African, Belge, Frenchie, American)

LE TOUQUET:
Mrs. Fasquelle picked my up from the train station and we went to eat at Les Sports (a really well known restaurant) and I ate a “Welsh” (lots of melted cheddar cheese on bread). Wednesday I borrowed a bike to see the town. It’s really cute! Although it’s a bustling tourist town, on weekdays in November it’s charming and quaint. There is a beautiful town hall, church, and rosy/white mansion on a little hill – I took my Bible and read for a bit in front of it. We ate lunch at these 2 Italian peoples house – they STUFFED US to death!!! We would think we were done, but NEVER. I couldn’t move for a few hours and we had a very light veggie soup for dinner. That afternoon I went to the glasses store to pick out new frames for Quintin (the 12 year old son) – he trusted my fashionable opinion. On Thursday I met with a lot of people that my dad/family knows through Sister Cities…Martine is the first person to host my dad when he came to France the first time. She took me to Westminster Hotel to have some tea and cake and we just chatted about she remembers when I was 3 years old. Annie is an English professor at the culinary school in Le Touquet and she had been to Cary to take her students while they did their internships. We started off with an apero at her house and then went to the most famous crêpe place in Le Touquet…Amazing! She said in the summer time, there’s always a line going down the street to eat there – I’m really glad I visited in the winter. That night I ate some pastry delicacies with Quintin and went to bed, because I had an early morning departure to Boulogne. Mrs. Fasquelle take the children to school in Boulogne where her law office is, and that just happened to be where I was going to take a ferry across the channel. I had a few hours until my ferry, so I walked around the completely fortified city – making it the second that I’ve been to in France (the first was Carcassonne and there are only three total). When I arrived at the port where the ferry was to leave from…there weren’t any boats. How can there not be any boats?!?! I late found out the company went under, probably that exact day…SO I had to walk to the train station (a good 30 minutes away) and take a train to the next port city Calais. They had boats! But I had to make up Uncle Fred’s address in order to get on it…I landed in Dover and was going to take a train to London, but it was about half as much to take a bus. Unfortunately all the buses were full until 6pm or so (a 4 hour wait). I waited.

LONDON:
When I arrived in London, I had yet to talk to Uncle Fred about my stay in London…he knew I was coming, just not when. All I had was an address and directions from the train station…but I was coming from the bus station. I walked around and saw the Westminster Abby and Buckingham palace … It started to rain and I was lost, but I was on Good King George Street – that was a good sign. When I got to a rather large, familiar clock and building that was blown up in “V for Vendetta” I sat down on Winston Churchill’s statue. It was raining and I had no umbrella and I couldn’t get in touch with Uncle Fred. Finally I got a call from him and was safely directed to his apartment! Victory! Friday I went to a lot of free museums inside because it was raining (but luckily Nathan and Angela had left some rain boots, along with other shoes, with Fred on their way through London). I spent a large amount of time in the National Portrait Gallery to see all of the people I had been reading about in Anne Boleyn’s false autobiography - Henry VIII, Mary Boleyn, Katherine of Aragon, Cardinal Wolsey, Bloody Mary, Elisabeth Tudor, ect…That night Fred took me to this amazing Indian restaurant and I learned to eat with my hands as messily as possible! The next day I went to the National Imperial Museum (full of all Britain’s war history) and then the British Library (there’s a room with a lot of original pieces of literature like Shakespeare’s first works, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Mozart’s scores with all of his notes, and even an entire Beatles section with papers and napkins and birthday cards with their song brainstorming…you could also listen to someone reading Dickens or playing Mozart or the Beatles singing while looking at all of the documents – I thought it was cool! That night, Uncle Fred and I took a cab to the Royal Albert Hall to watch Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem to commemorate Armistice Day (the end of WWI). It was so beautiful (the opera house and the performance – the London Orchestra, Choir, and Boy’s Choir!), and we had GREAT seats!!! The next day Fred had the day off, so we walked all around the city, over the London Bridge, through Shakespeare’s church and the Globe Theater (apparently Kevin Spacey is the current Theater Director), Sir Francis Drake’s Pirate ship (not the original…and you can rent this one for parties!)…it started raining so we went back and watch some movies and TV series. Fred had to leave Monday to go to Los Angeles, but it was the first/only sunny day I experienced! I went to see the Changing of the Guards in front of Buckingham Palace and then met 2 guys from Washington State…we went to the Tower Bridge (not to be confused with the Tower of London…) but still cool! And then I went to Hyde Park (Henry VIII’s old hunting grounds) to find Peter Pan’s statue and I also bought tickets to go see WICKED!!! (It’s my favorite musical of all time, although I had never seen it – finally after 5 years I got to see it!!!) SO I was all packed up (because my flight was really early so I would have to leave at 3am from Fred’s house to get to the airport on time), and I left for the show…BUT RIGHT when I closed the door I realized that I’d left the keys inside the apartment and there was one lock that locked automatically!!! (I’m going to give the short version…) I knocked on the lady’s door upstairs and she called a locksmith and then went to get tools from some friends down the street…she came back with a crowbar because one of Fred’s windows wasn’t locked, but stuck. I popped it open and climbed in to see the keys on the kitchen counter. I RAN to the Tube and went to the theater already 20 minutes late for Wicked…and RAN in the theater to the second floor as I heard them singing “Loathing”, the 3rd song on the track…A guy who works there came up and asked if I was okay because I was panting. He looked at my ticket and said “I can get you a better seat than this…follow me.” SWEEET! So although I was about 20 minutes late, I got really good seats and it was an awesome show. I can’t believe I almost missed it!!! Well I made it to the airport and my flight okay and got to Cork at 8:30am on Tuesday morning.

CORK:
I took a bus from the airport to the city center after waiting 50 minutes, because I had just missed the previous bus….and then the driver didn’t even drop me off at the bus station where Tyler was going to meet me…he was just like there’s the main street (pointing)…I found a payphone and called Tyler trying to describe where I was…he finally found me like 30 minutes later. Wow. He was so scared that he’d lost me!

We ate a traditional “Irish breakfast” : sausages and puddings that were made from lamb’s blood and other tasty things! I went to his music composition class with him, and it was really really cool and then we just walked around Cork and the college campus. That night we went bar hopping with his friends after Tyler made a delicious dinner with homemade biscuits!!! I had only ordered drinks in French, so they all laughed at me when the bartender didn’t know what I was asking for. The next day we went to the Blarney Castle and its gardens where the witch lives. I walked up and down the wishing steps and kissed the stone, so I’m supposed to be all blessed and eloquent this year…we’ll see. Then we went shopping at the Blarney Mill, and I bought a ski suit…I still wasn’t sure how I was going to pack it, but assumed that I’d have to wear it on the plane (I only had to wear the jacket, not the pants). That night I went to Tyler’s Gaelic class, which was also really cool. I’m glad I got to see another studying abroad experience. We went out to eat that night to have a nice “Christmas Dinner” (I think we were all a little homesick), hit up a bar for a little bit to have one last amazing REKORDERLIG CIDER (SOOO tasty!), then watched a movie at the house. I left early Thursday morning to go back to London, where I had stored my larger bag, and then headed back to Montpellier that evening.

It felt so good to get back “home” after that long trip!!! I was gone for 2 whole weeks with just my hiking backpack. I’m really glad that I was able to see family and friends on the way! I’ll never forget it!

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

2008-11-23T01:15:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-10-19T20:09:00.001+02:00

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

2008-09-19T17:29:00.000+02:00

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

2008-09-06T19:19:00.000+02:00

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

2008-08-26T00:00:00.001+02:00

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!

NÎMES

2008-08-25T23:34:00.000+02:00

So since Montpellier is only 1000 years old, they decided to show us some real history on Sunday by visiting Nîmes, which was Nemausus prior to 6th century A.D., and Le Pont du Gard, built in the 1st century A.D.

The most well-known structure in Nîmes would probably be Les Arènas which was built at the end of the 1st century. It seated up to 20,000 spectators, but after the Roman era, there weren’t many spectacles. During Le Moyen-Âge, Les Arènas was turned into a fortress for the town building 2 churches and a house inside. Today, they have bleachers for concerts, corridas, tennis, ect...

Another cool built in the 5th century is La Maison Carrée (“the square house”) – one of the best conserved temples of the Roman world used for political, philosophical, and religious debates.

My favorite part of Nîmes was Les Jardins de la Fontaine (ABOVE & BELOW), which was built in honor of Nemausus with a temple to goddess Diane. It contained endless levels of parks and gardens full of marble statues, staircases, waterfalls. Hopefully my pictures can try to do it justice…

***interesting tidbit BLUE JEANS originated in Nîmes!!!! It’s textile industry created denim during the Middle Ages!!!***

MONTPELLIER

2008-08-22T16:32:00.000+02:00

It is extremely hard not to fall in love with this city. I feel pretty equipped to give you some more background with the 2 hours of culture class I have on top to the tours. Montpellier was the 2nd or 3rd largest city in France during the Middle Ages (Le Moyen-Age), which was when it was built - so only about 1,000 years ago...not too old ;). During the medieval period, the roads weren't constructed with straight lines like Roman or Greek cities...so it's really curvy around here, and the streets weren't made wide enough for cars (bikes and the tram have become the means of transportation through "downtown"). The city is actually shaped like a shield, which is pretty cool. It's the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon of France in the Heroult department. (I think that's enough for now, but if I learn something really cool I'll let you know!)

The climate is definitely the high point and the reason why so many people move here. The city has 250,000 inhabitants and then the banlieue

(suburbs) of the city includes another 250,000. The population has been exploding since 1962, when Algeria gained its independance from France.

I didn't realize HOW beautiful it was until Tuesday when I saw the Petit Arc de Triomphe (BELOW) and a bunch of other cool buildings ... I don't really know what they're for. Le Palais du Peyrou (ABOVE).
I started my Pre-Stage on Wednesday, in which all of the Americans (mainly UNC and U of Minnesota students) review a lot of French grammar, so that we'll be prepared for our direct enrollment French classes at the Universite de Paul Valery de Montpellier (or Le Fac des Lettres, because it's the Liberal Arts university in town). It's not what one would imagine as a French universty...French students only pay 200 euro for tuition, not leaving much money for the buildings and amenities :/ So UNC students miss our campus, but we'll survive by hanging out at La Place de la Comedie (a building BELOW) and L'Esplinade in the center of the city. There is also an amazing section of the city called Antigone full (I mean FULL) of Roman statues and fountains, along with two huge fields (George, my fellow yearlong student, and I looked at each other: ULTIMATE FRISBEE anyone!?!?! - and they do play here!)

My family is exactly the type that I needed to live with for an entire year (thanks to Jeannine who studied here last Spring): flexible schedule, night owls, few rules, great food, and LOTS of people ALL the time (my first night, we had 13 people at dinner! - cousins, grandma and all). Christine, my host mother, runs marathons and has 4 children: Julienne (23), Mathieu (21), Caroline (19), and Charlie (17). They're all so much fun, although a little crazy at times! Unfortunately all smoke, but that's pretty unavoidable in France - even though the cigarette packs say FUMER TUE "Smoking kills". I don't know if I'll ever understand the habit. There is also a big, SWEET, 3-year-old black lab named Tibu. Their father passed away Spring of 2007, but it hasn't been mentioned - only pictures. We don't eat dinner until 10pm or later! We sit down around 9 for l'aperatif (cocktails) with chips and peanuts before the meal. Every meal includes tomatoes, lots of very very good tomatoes, and the cheese = dessert - something I'm getting used to.

The house is much much bigger than I was expecting: wrap around patio/porch thing with a swimming pool, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 toilet closets, and a large kitchen/living room. My room is perfect - a really big closet! I've yet to blow up my excersice ball (Thanks Liz!), but there's plenty of room for it :)

I don't think I've experienced culture shock yet...I do stick out though (blonde and smiles aren't too French). Let me know if there's anything else you want to hear about particularly...

Things are a bit hectic right now, but they'll calm down in 2 weeks after the Pre-Stage and when the French vacation month is over. We did get to go to the beach yesterday (BEAUTIFUL!) and on Sunday we're taking an excursion to Nimes and Le Pont du Gard.

Louis XIV depicted as a Roman general (the original sculptor commited suicide because he didn't put Louis on a saddle...Really?)

La Place du Peyrou (probably my favorite place in the whole city.)

Madrid for 11 hours for 11 Euros!!!

2008-08-22T14:48:00.000+02:00

I'm backtracking a little, because I didn't mean to skip over Madrid as much as I did...Plus the recent occurance at the Madrid airport made me want to post some of my pictures. It was very easy to get around with the Metro system, so I got to the Plaza del Sol (the center square) in a few minutes for 1 Euro. I had maps galor with hostels and restaurants and metro stops ... (TOP: Carlos III, BELOW: Madrid Bear? kissing a tree)

I walked to the Plaza Mayor (I tried to take more pictures, but it was too dark). The Plaza was was an enclosed square full of cafes around a statue of some Prince. The main building had a crown on top of it (ABOVE - kinda dark). Sparing a few details, I ended up eating Paella at one of the cafes with a guy from Cyprus who works for NATO and was just stationed in Madrid. At 2ish the city was starting to calm down with tourists...only the taxi drivers, police, and cleaners remained. A little after 2 I met some students from Ireland who were staying for a year, and I stayed on their couch for a few hours before my flight. Needless to say, my first night in Europe was full of pleasant surprises!

Sommieres - Orientation

2008-08-18T22:45:00.000+02:00

So I survived my flights through London and Madrid, making it safely to Montpellier!!! Although I had a little scare thinking that I left my passport on the plane in Madrid, I discovered it was in my bookbag after running (fast!) back to the plane before it left again! :) I put my luggage in a locker and spent a few hours walking around Madrid to take pictures and to get out of the airport, which was amazing! The city is beautiful and SO clean!

I arrived in Montpellier at the UNC office and left for our hotel (Le Cote) in Sommeires to have an orientation about our stay in France (mainly curteousies with our host families, alcohol/drugs, cultural differences, and our classes at the university). It was great to relax and get over our jet lag in beautiful Sonnieres - and do a little shopping! The rest of the students are very nice and everyone has a ton of personality! Not much else happened in Sommieres, besides the Jazz players that shared the hotel with us...If I never hear a Frenchman play a Jazz song it will be too soon. Lucky us they practiced all the time AND put on a concert for us!!! Their favorite song to play was definitely "Power of Love" - not necissarily our favorite, but it was fun ;) I'll try to post the video clip somewhere if I can figure out all this new technology that I have to work with...
I love and miss everyone! I'll try to be better about posting things! Have patience :)

Packing

2008-08-12T07:50:00.000+02:00

Melinda is packing, so her family is blogging for her. It's 2 a.m., 16 hours until the plane takes off. It's NOT going to be easy! Because she won't be able to take her pink truck, she's tight on space. Putting 9 months of clothes in two 50 lb. bags and a 40 lb. carry-on is really a challenge. (Since her truck is going to be staying here, we can just put the left over clothes in her truck. That's where many of them stay during the school year anyway.) Encourage her to keep updating the blog!