Deja trois semaines

It's already been 3 weeks, incroyable!  With prestage language intensive classes, excursions, and exploring the town, I've barely had a moment to sit down.  Tomorrow will be the first morning I get to sleep in since I've arrived so I'm making use of tonight to finally make another entry!

Our prestage classes finally ended on Saturday, thank goodness.  The classes were helpful in reviewing grammar and culture, overall helping us ease into a French student life.  But there's one big thing still missing: French students.  University students are slowly trickling back from vacation since our Universite Paul-Valery courses start this Thursday, but I've had practically no interaction with them so far.  It's been alright meeting other American students but I'm eager to meet French ones!  Mostly these past couple weeks with the prestage I've learned a) how obnoxiously loud Americans can be and on a brighter note b) how truly unique, intelligent, and diverse Mount Holyoke women are.

Pont du Gard

A plus with the prestage was that we had excursions every weekend.  We went to an oliverie where they made olive oil with all sorts of flavors like citron, saffron, lavande.  Then we visited ancient Roman architecture including the arena at Nimes and the aqueduct at Pont du Gard.  In town we saw the Odilon Redon exhibit at the Musee Fabre (which is free for students!).  In Avignon we saw the Palais des Papes and then went to the beach at Saint Marie de la Mer.  Finally yesterday we saw incredible rock formations in  la Grotte de Clamouse and then visited the charming village of Saint Guilhem le Desert.

Saint Guilhem le Desert

Place de la Comedie

Montpellier itself is also such a lovely city.  Every day I find something new and I feel that the city has welcomed me with opened arms.  I love it's unique blend of traditional and modern, old facades and balconies mixed with new shopping centers.  So many cafes, bakeries, and restaurants and also so many people who take the time to enjoy them.  I also can't say how much I love the tram here!  There's the blue tram with painted white birds and then there's the orange tram that I ride home which is decorated with red and yellow flowers.  Inside, the red cushions mixed with light green railings make me feel as though I'm riding along in Willy Wonka's factory every morning.  It makes the 40 minute commute to school so, so much better.  I actually appreciate living in the suburbs, where I can shop at Carrefour (like Target/Walmart) for groceries without emptying my wallet each time.  It's also radically different, in a good way I think, to have such separate lives at school, in town, and at home.  Speaking of home, my housemate Mathilde from the Netherlands arrived this week.  She's super outgoing and it's so much fun hanging out with her.  This week we went ice skating at the disco rink and made a mad dash to the beach for the few hours that it stopped raining on Saturday.  What's more, Mathilde speaks near perfect French which is excellent for me!

My funky tram card

This week is a mini-vacation before classes start, but we also have to make sure our registration is all in order.  The French university is organized so differently from those in the States -- at first it hardly seemed like UPV was organized at all.  The thing is French students already select their major before starting university and so they mainly stay within one department throughout their 3 years of Licence without venturing into other areas.  As a result, each department has it's own schedule and seems to have no communication with other parts of the school.  There is no universal catalogue.  Instead, you have to browse each department's separate labyrinth of a website.  A lot of the time things that you'd think would be important -- class times, for example -- take forever and a half to be published.  Therefore it is near impossible to get a good idea of how your classes will fit together (or clash) if you are a pluri-disciplinary student like we are.  Here in France, the idea of liberal arts or "dabbling" in subjects is indeed foreign.

Aside from UPV courses, there's still a lot of admin stuff to finish such as opening a bank account, getting a doctor's appointment...  But tomorrow should be a fun day the MoHos: visiting the small village of Pezenas and then clubbing -- ladies night at Le Fizz!