little France update from 2 months ago
haha, here's part of an email i sent to the fam on sept 26th, kinda describing my impressions as of right then:
So France is pretty strange. The French are everything people say they are.
Very proud, very pretty, very proper. I stand out like a sore
thumb b/c I am not 5'2", 90 lbs. That's pretty much a standard
description of the women here: very beautiful, very put-together, very
little, very chic. The men are also very short and little, not as
beautiful as the women, though. Minor details.
My host family is pretty cool. Right now it is me, my mom
(Christiane), my dad (Michel), and a french girl from Lilles who is
looking for an apartment (Gaelle). I'm only at home from 7pm until
about 8am, and I spend the rest of my day on campus or downtown. We've
had mostly normal meals so far, so I'm very very thankful for that.
It's a very clean house and I'm not allowed to eat anywhere but in the
kitchen. Which is fine, b/c there is no eating between meals anyway.
Period. Each night there are at least two conversations that happen,
including about 3-5 big subjects. They begin at dinner (7:30 or 8pm),
first we have a cold fruit or vegetable (usually cucumbers or tomatoes,
one time we had grapefruit), then Christiane clears those plates and
brings out two hot dishes, the main one and a little side vegetable
thing. I've been writing down what we've eaten and will make sure to
get some of my favorite recipes before I go home. we have rice
alot, chicken too (I think for my sake), although one night we had
Tielle, which is a specialty of this region (the south). Tielle is kind of like a pot pie, but it's from the
coast, which means it's filled with "fruits de mer", or in English:
seafood. Yep, one of Kaiti's favorites... i'm working on it, i'll
develop a taste for the fishiness before I go back, that's definitely a
goal. after the main dish, we must have something before dessert, so we
have either fromage (cheese, of course) or un laitage, which is usually
yogurt. I've had cheese once so far. yeah, that's another thing I'll
work on. after the laitage, we have "dessert" which is most often fresh
fruit. the only other two desserts I've had besides fruit are a pear and
fig pie (soooo good) and apple sauce. i definitely miss chocolate chip
cookies and ice cream. oh well. that's what I have the states for, when
I go back (looking forward to xmas cookies!!) but see, here's the thing
, after dessert, the meal is still not over. because Michel likes to
have coffee afterwards. so we all sit and drink some water while he has
a coffee and continue the conversation. then we're done.
It's also inevitable that another big conversation will happen,
usually between Michel, Gaelle and myself, simply b/c his computer is on
the way to my room, so when I walk by, i have to say hello, and we end
up conversing. rather, he and Gaelle talk while I listen and make stupid
little comments. As for Montpellier itself, it is an awesome little
city. very very diverse, very very hopping. "downtown" is the medieval
part of the city, right outside of which is the modern "centre-ville",
called la Place de la Comedie, which is kinda where everything happens.
it's the tourist spot, it's where all the bars are, it's got an opera,
it's by the mall, it's where the bookstore is, it's where the
international house is, it's close to the Jardin de Plantes, close to
the cathedral St. Pierre and the old med school (VERY famous and one of
the most prestigious in France still), and it's close to the Minnesota
office (where I am right now) where the Minn kids can go and use the inter
net and talk to Francoise and such. The campus is a 20 min tram ride
away and it's a pretty cute little "fac". we call the univ. "la fac".
the buildings all have names but we call them by their letters, b/c it's
easier. Signing up for classes was madness. all the Minnesota program
people (me included) got tons of help from our advisors, but everyone
else (frenchies and other internat'l students) has to go to the actual
dept of their major, look at classes posted on the wall, and then give
their options to some people sitting at a table nearby. kinda chaotic.
We've gone on a few excursions with our social assistants, being: a
tour of historic montpellier (and yes, we talked about Nostradamus and
his vision of pine trees), Carcassone (the postcard Hillview Drive got)
a sweet medieval city, Nimes (a sweet roman city, where we visited "Les
Arenes", the arena which has stood since the roman empire and which now
serves as a bullfighting arena), the Pont du Gard (underneath which, I
jumped off big rocks and swam around), Avignon (where I took a tour of
the Palace of the Popes), les Beaux de Provence (little village similar
to Busch Gardens, really, very touristy, pretty much famous for its
view), St. Guilhem-le-Desert (a tiny town in the middle of a huge
valley, surrouned by trees and nature, very very cute. Famous for the
pilgramages people would make to go to St. Guilhem's monastery to see a
piece of the real cross on which Jesus Christ himself was crucified.
amazing.)
and that was that for the time being. since then, i've been to paris, Roquefort, Millau, les Cevennes, Aiguemort, Arles, Barcelona, and Dublin. it's excellent. Not looking forward to exams. how can I only have a month left? oh my god, the way time flies is really creeping me out right now. oh goodness. yes, France, Europe, I love you. I want to live here. man, I've been so lucky this semester!!
So France is pretty strange. The French are everything people say they are.
Very proud, very pretty, very proper. I stand out like a sore
thumb b/c I am not 5'2", 90 lbs. That's pretty much a standard
description of the women here: very beautiful, very put-together, very
little, very chic. The men are also very short and little, not as
beautiful as the women, though. Minor details.
My host family is pretty cool. Right now it is me, my mom
(Christiane), my dad (Michel), and a french girl from Lilles who is
looking for an apartment (Gaelle). I'm only at home from 7pm until
about 8am, and I spend the rest of my day on campus or downtown. We've
had mostly normal meals so far, so I'm very very thankful for that.
It's a very clean house and I'm not allowed to eat anywhere but in the
kitchen. Which is fine, b/c there is no eating between meals anyway.
Period. Each night there are at least two conversations that happen,
including about 3-5 big subjects. They begin at dinner (7:30 or 8pm),
first we have a cold fruit or vegetable (usually cucumbers or tomatoes,
one time we had grapefruit), then Christiane clears those plates and
brings out two hot dishes, the main one and a little side vegetable
thing. I've been writing down what we've eaten and will make sure to
get some of my favorite recipes before I go home. we have rice
alot, chicken too (I think for my sake), although one night we had
Tielle, which is a specialty of this region (the south). Tielle is kind of like a pot pie, but it's from the
coast, which means it's filled with "fruits de mer", or in English:
seafood. Yep, one of Kaiti's favorites... i'm working on it, i'll
develop a taste for the fishiness before I go back, that's definitely a
goal. after the main dish, we must have something before dessert, so we
have either fromage (cheese, of course) or un laitage, which is usually
yogurt. I've had cheese once so far. yeah, that's another thing I'll
work on. after the laitage, we have "dessert" which is most often fresh
fruit. the only other two desserts I've had besides fruit are a pear and
fig pie (soooo good) and apple sauce. i definitely miss chocolate chip
cookies and ice cream. oh well. that's what I have the states for, when
I go back (looking forward to xmas cookies!!) but see, here's the thing
, after dessert, the meal is still not over. because Michel likes to
have coffee afterwards. so we all sit and drink some water while he has
a coffee and continue the conversation. then we're done.
It's also inevitable that another big conversation will happen,
usually between Michel, Gaelle and myself, simply b/c his computer is on
the way to my room, so when I walk by, i have to say hello, and we end
up conversing. rather, he and Gaelle talk while I listen and make stupid
little comments. As for Montpellier itself, it is an awesome little
city. very very diverse, very very hopping. "downtown" is the medieval
part of the city, right outside of which is the modern "centre-ville",
called la Place de la Comedie, which is kinda where everything happens.
it's the tourist spot, it's where all the bars are, it's got an opera,
it's by the mall, it's where the bookstore is, it's where the
international house is, it's close to the Jardin de Plantes, close to
the cathedral St. Pierre and the old med school (VERY famous and one of
the most prestigious in France still), and it's close to the Minnesota
office (where I am right now) where the Minn kids can go and use the inter
net and talk to Francoise and such. The campus is a 20 min tram ride
away and it's a pretty cute little "fac". we call the univ. "la fac".
the buildings all have names but we call them by their letters, b/c it's
easier. Signing up for classes was madness. all the Minnesota program
people (me included) got tons of help from our advisors, but everyone
else (frenchies and other internat'l students) has to go to the actual
dept of their major, look at classes posted on the wall, and then give
their options to some people sitting at a table nearby. kinda chaotic.
We've gone on a few excursions with our social assistants, being: a
tour of historic montpellier (and yes, we talked about Nostradamus and
his vision of pine trees), Carcassone (the postcard Hillview Drive got)
a sweet medieval city, Nimes (a sweet roman city, where we visited "Les
Arenes", the arena which has stood since the roman empire and which now
serves as a bullfighting arena), the Pont du Gard (underneath which, I
jumped off big rocks and swam around), Avignon (where I took a tour of
the Palace of the Popes), les Beaux de Provence (little village similar
to Busch Gardens, really, very touristy, pretty much famous for its
view), St. Guilhem-le-Desert (a tiny town in the middle of a huge
valley, surrouned by trees and nature, very very cute. Famous for the
pilgramages people would make to go to St. Guilhem's monastery to see a
piece of the real cross on which Jesus Christ himself was crucified.
amazing.)
and that was that for the time being. since then, i've been to paris, Roquefort, Millau, les Cevennes, Aiguemort, Arles, Barcelona, and Dublin. it's excellent. Not looking forward to exams. how can I only have a month left? oh my god, the way time flies is really creeping me out right now. oh goodness. yes, France, Europe, I love you. I want to live here. man, I've been so lucky this semester!!