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January 5th, 2007

So, I’m back in Indiana now. How crazy is that? I arrived to the Indianapolis Airport at almost midnight on December 23. My family was there waiting for me screaming “Run, Run!!!” and so I did. I ran over to see them and was engulfed in hugs. I handed out some early Christmas presents that I had been carrying in my carry on bag, and everyone was happy…and tired. It was almost 6am for me.

The first things I did: I ate at McDonalds during my layover in Detroit and got a coffee at Starbucks. So American. I spoke English and smiled at whomever I pleased, knowing that they wouldn’t hit on me or ask for my phone number, haha. I have to say that my self esteem will probably decrease a lot when I don’t have a million guys whistling at me on the street. I never thought I’d miss that…I spoke in English some more and bought a crappy celebrity gossip magazine in English and read it cover to cover.

The first things I realized: I’m in the States. I’m the same as everyone again. I’m not a foreigner anymore. Indiana is kind of ugly…just farms and highways and big office buildings. My family is amazing and they have been waiting on pins and needles for my return since the day I left for France. It was so good to see them, it really was.

The first things I missed: I called my host mom and talked to her. She told me the house seemed empty without me and that she missed me a lot. I really miss her. I really miss joking around with her, in French, and then giving myself an invisible pat on the back for being able to be funny in another language. I don’t think you realize how nervous I was about that.

I spent Christmas with the family and opened a few presents. Got some coal in my stocking…what a welcoming present.

Anyway, I guess this is the last installment that you will get to read from me. I’m really glad I got to write this blog over the course of the semester. It’s cool for me to go back and remember the things that I’ve done and the progress that I’ve made. I can’t say enough what a positive experience it was for me to learn abroad in France. It was really the chance and experience of a lifetime.

My friends and I were discussing before we all left Montpellier, and we were laughing at how strange it is that you learn so much about yourself while you’re actually trying to learn about the language and culture around you. I think that I’ve changed a lot as a person due to living in a different culture. Being taken out of your comfort zone and being forced to realize your own strengths and weaknesses is quite the eye-opening experience. I know I’m a much better and more complete person for accomplishing all that I have. I know I will return to France one day, hopefully in the near future, and maybe one of you will be living there too. If so, my blog actually meant something.

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Leaving Montpellier

January 4th, 2007

I finally decided that I had to pack my bags and get ready to go, after a long talk with my host mom. She kept saying, “I don’t think you’ll be able to fit all of that in your suitcases, you might want to start that so we can send a package if we have to.” Of course she was right and I had to send yet another package home because I couldn’t carry it myself in my two giant suitcases. That’s a total of three packages that I had to send. You’d be surprised at how much crap you accumulate over the course of four months…especially when you arrive back on Christmas Eve. Buying presents is so hard!

During the packing process, my room was a wreck and my host mom kept calling it Beirut.

I have to admit that I was so sad while packing up my stuff, and I cried big time when I had to give my apartment keys back. My host mom gave me a keychain that is just like hers to remember her by which was so nice. I gave her my favorite book, Everything is Illuminated, only translated into French of course. I wrote in the inside of the cover a little letter. Basically it said thank you in a thousand different ways and that this semester has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and it has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life too. It said thanks to her for being my friend throughout, for taking care of me and helping me, for being my host mom, etc.

Leaving Montpellier is something I’ve known I would have to do from day one. I even knew the date and time that I would go. Yet leaving was so difficult. I really have started a whole new life in Montpellier with new friends, a new school, and a new language of course. It’s been so taxing on me at times, emotionally and mentally. And now, I have this perfect thing that I’ve achieved. Something so wonderful and complete; something I have to give up. How terrible is that? I guess it’s not terrible at all.

I got to thinking that there would be a lot of things like that throughout my life especially since I graduate college soon. Actually I’m really lucky that I’ve had and will have experiences like that in my life. I’ll have things that I’ll be able to look back and say, “yeah, I really did that, and I loved every minute of it.” As for the friends and family I’ve made here in Montpellier, I hate to leave them. I have made ways to keep in contact with each of them, even some of my professors. Something about the process of Study Abroad just links you to other people so quickly and so firmly that you feel like you were born to know them. Like you were destined to be friends. So I definitely can’t let people like that slip away.

The morning of my departure, my friends came to the train station to see me off, and my host Mother, Akila, was there with me too. After crying about a million times, I finally said my goodbyes, snapped one last picture, and made my way on to the train.

I forgot how much it sucked to carry those two giant suitcases. Thanks to Pat for helping me load my stuff onto the train. As I sat in my seat on the train, I looked out the window to see Carly and Steph signing to me and waving, and as the train pulled away, they ran after it for a good minute and a half waving and yelling the whole way. Of course by this point, I was crying uncontrollably and the man sitting across from me had officially decided that he had the worst luck ever.

“Il faut pas pleurer,” he told me. “You don’t have to cry.” “You’re coming back, right?” The fact is—I’m not. I won’t be back, not with these friends, not under the same conditions. So, here’s my last blog about Montpellier, the place I’ve called home for the last four months of my life.

Thanks for reading everything I had to write during my short stay here, and I hope that you have at least been slightly entertained if nothing else. One more when I get back to the States. Wish me luck.

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Fancy Dress Ball

January 2nd, 2007

Before our departure, two of my American friends, Zach and Larry, decided to have a party at their apartment called “Fancy Dress Ball.” It was a pretty good excuse for everyone to get really dressed up and have a great time for the last time together. My friend Steph and I got ready together, both wearing dresses, even if they weren’t that fancy, and we headed off to the party drinks and snacks in hand. We bought a bottle of vodka that said “bling bling” on it and thought it was pretty hilarious to find that in France. We took a picture with it in front of the Christmas tree because we are that lame.

The party was amazing and we got to see everyone in our program throughout the whole night (and a few Frenchies that managed to make friends with our crazy bunch over the course of the semester). We all had such a good time talking about how amazing the semester had been and saying things to each other in French back and forth, but I have to admit that we spoke English for the most part. We took a ridiculous amount of photos that night, thinking of how much we were going to miss one another, and each of them is priceless to me.

My friend Karen wrote a song about us to the tune of the Hanukkah song, and it was really hilarious, talking about all of the problems that we went through and how dumb we have looked sometimes in a foreign country.

Everyone loved it. Fancy Dress Ball lasted about a billion hours; really it went from 8pm until about 3am, and I loved every second. I cried a little on the walk back to my friend’s apartment to spend the night just knowing how many cool people I had met that all live so far away from me at home (especially the ones from France!) But, I guess if I wasn’t crying a lot toward the end, it wouldn’t have truly been a success now, would it? The truth is, I love it here; my friends, my life, my new language. I love it. I don’t want to leave. But, I have a lot of people waiting to see me at home, and I surely can’t wait to see them either. I think having mixed feelings like that toward the end of a long journey is normal, at least I’m telling myself that.

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Trip to Vigan

December 21st, 2006

Akila took me to visit one of her friends who lives in Vigan and works as a school teacher. We went to take her some of the leftover couscous. We made way too much! Vigan is not very far away from Montpellier, only one hour, but it is high in the mountains and it was about ten degrees colder than Montpellier!

When we arrived at Francoise’s house (Akila’s friend) it was high in the mountains and had huge windows overlooking the town. It was amazing. Francoise drove us over to a canyon which is called Cirque de Navacelles. It’s a huge canyon that was formed by a river but now has a lot of houses and hotels at the bottom. It was so beautiful, but it was kind of hazy so I didn’t get great pictures.

We drove down to the bottom and went walking around there. Then we drove over to this other place called Cromlech which is a circle of stones like Stonehenge only a bit smaller.

Francoise told us that Vigan dates back to the Middle Ages and there are a lot of things in the county that are original from that time period. It was really neat to see. When we were outside visiting Cromlech, Eva, Francoise’s daughter, found these little red berries that if opened up are really itchy.

I can vouch for that because she opened one to show me and it got on my hand a little bit. It itched for the rest of the night! On the way back, Francoise stopped off at her school to show me a classroom at an elementary school.

I thought it was really interesting to see their school since my little brother is still in elementary school. I thought it was really cute and welcoming. Overall, I loved Vigan and think they are really lucky to live so close to those places. I would visit them all the time if I had the chance.

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Cous Cous Party!

December 20th, 2006

Since I arrived, everyone that I have met has told me how amazing Akila’s couscous is. Of course I believed them, but I was secretly wondering when I would get to try it. Finally Akila told me that she was going to invite some friends over for the weekend and she was going to make her world famous (or at least it’s pretty famous here in Montpellier) couscous.

We woke up early in the morning to go to the market and get some last minute items and then came back and started right away.

She told me that she usually starts getting everything ready in the morning so she isn’t rushing toward the end. The couscous was in two huge bowls on the table and in a pot she had lamb and chicken cooking for hours.

It was really cool to see how she prepared everything, and hopefully I will be able to remember it long enough to make it for my family when I get back. (I know they’re all hoping that too.) Anyway, we got ourselves ready throughout the day, and when the guests arrived everyone was remarking on how good the apartment smelled and that they couldn’t wait to eat it! I have to admit that I couldn’t wait either.

I invited a few of my friends over and Akila invited some of her friends too, and the only rule of the night was that no one could speak English (or talk American, as Akila puts it.) I invited Steph, Missy, and Jess, my friends from the program, and Akila had some of her friends that I had already met at another dinner party I went to last week. I’m quite the social butterfly.

Anyway, the night went off without a hitch and we just talked and had a great time, and at the end of the night Jess played on her guitar for us. My favorite was a song that she had written about her trip to Marseille, and half of it was in French!

It was so impressive, and she has a lovely voice. Anyway, Akila and her friends loved it, and it was an amazingly fun night. I know it’s really cheesy and girly, but I had so much fun that I started to get really sad about leaving here in only a few days. I called my parents after everyone had left and Akila and I finished the dishes, and I told them about how much fun I had and started to get a little choked up even.

You know, I realized right away that I would meet people in France that I wouldn’t be able to see very often because they live so far away, but I never really thought about it with the American friends that I have made here. I just kept thinking, oh, when we get back to the States, we’ll see each other again. But, now that I think more realistically, Steph and Jess live all the way in Pennsylvania which is pretty far away from Indiana. I’m going to have to make a special effort to keep in touch with everyone I’ve met here. They’re too amazing to forget anyway. And hey, I can always write letters, in French of course, for practice.

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Presents Already?

December 18th, 2006

So, it’s December. I can’t believe it. I officially have well under a month left here in France, but there’s no time to be sad because everyone here is preparing for Christmas!

I came home the first day of December, and Akila had decorated our apartment a bit. She told me that she doesn’t put up a tree, but she has a lot of plants from the balcony that she has to bring in during the winter, so she puts lights and garlands on them. It’s so festive.

Also, I received a package in the mail from my family back home. I can’t help but feel giddy like a little kid when I receive packages from them. I jump up and down and open them slowly and carefully, saving each piece of tissue paper and bubble wrap. I’m so lame.

Anyway, at home, my brother and I have “Santa boxes” which are a sort of advent calendar for us. They are little boxes in the shape of Santa Claus, and my mom puts presents in them every day of December, so I was so excited to open a package containing ten Santa box presents for the first ten days of December.

You have no idea what kind of will power it took to avoid opening every package in the box at once, but I promised I wouldn’t do it, so I held myself back.

The first present that I opened was a Christmas CD, which made me so excited! I had Akila listen to them, and she told me that some of the singers on the album are also very well known in France (ones that you would expect like Elvis, Dean Martin, Bruce Springsteen, Bing Crosby, etc.) I also got to listen to some Christmas songs in French, which was really exciting. They have songs to the tune of Jingle Bells and also Silent Night, but the lyrics are much different. My Civilization teacher told us that we will hear the Christmas songs playing in town when they set up the Christmas markets. I can’t wait!

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Les Oliviers

December 15th, 2006

The South of France is known very specifically for things that characterize it and set it apart from the rest of the country. For example, it has its own specific aperitifs like Muskat, which is specific to the region Montpellier resides in and there are certain symbols like the cicada bug, which you can hear when you are walking through the country side. It is also known for the scent of lavender which grows in the wild here and is often used to make soaps or candles, or simply dried in bundles to put in people’s houses to remind them of the region. Perhaps the most well known symbol are “les oliviers” or olive trees, which grow in farm like set ups and are much more beautiful than the corn or soy bean farms that I am used to seeing in Indiana.

Akila and I went walking in an olive tree farm together with her friend Mireille, and it was so beautiful.

Mireille was telling me that it is becoming a very posh thing for French families to buy an olive tree and plant it in their front yard—very fashionable. However, the olive trees are really expensive, which is why it is so posh. She told me that one olivier could cost between 150 and 200 euros. Then she told me that there have been big problems with this because there has been more than one instant where an olivier farmer has woken up and found his whole farm completely gone. People go and dig up the oliviers and steal them in the middle of the night because they can make so much money selling them.

When I got home from the walk, I got a call from home, which I often get on the weekends. It’s hard for me to catch both of my parents at the same time if it’s during the week because of the 7 hour difference. One of them is usually gone or at work or something. Well, I talked to my dad about going through the olivier farm, and he told me that he really wanted to plant an olive tree in our yard after visiting me here. He found them to be so beautiful.

I guess it’s true that people really have the desire to plant them at their houses. Too bad for Dad though, because they only grow in warm, dry climates, so Indiana wouldn’t be very conducive to raising a healthy olive tree. Maybe the pictures will suffice.

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Chateau D’O

December 14th, 2006

I went with Akila to a place called Chateau D’O where there was a small art exhibit that she wanted to see by two different women. She is always really interested by any exposition featuring women or any novels written by women. She tells me a lot about being independent, and I really love her feminist attitude.

Anyway, she took me to this place, and when we arrived we went inside the exhibit to see the first room totally illuminated.

We kept walking through the exhibit which featured mostly modern type art. One room had a copper piece that had pieces shaved toward the center where they were all in a bunch. It was really beautiful. Next to that interesting piece there was this piece of twig that had cables coming off of each of the branches connecting each of them together.

In addition to these more creative displays, there were some paintings and prints that were also really beautiful. I couldn’t take pictures of any of them because the man working there kept following us around. Akila’s friend Mireille touched one of the works of art, so we were pretty sure that’s why he was following us. I figured it might be a bad idea to whip out my camera in front of that guy, so I reluctantly abstained.

One room was really interesting with a black and white painting of a girl playing the piano and looking at the reflection of herself playing in a mirror. On the other wall of the same room, there were close up pictures of certain pieces of the black and white painting that were in color. One specifically of her face, one of her hands playing the piano, one of the dog sitting next to her foot. It was really beautifully done, but I was confused because it was painted directly on the wall. I wonder how she did that.

After we went through the exhibit, we went looking around the premises of Chateau D’O. It is a huge property with lots of outdoor stages where they have concerts in the summertime. Akila says that they put on some theatrical performances there in the summer too. It had a beautiful symmetrical garden right outside of the chateau that the art exhibit was inside.

So far, I am still amazed at how many public places there are like this in Montpellier. There are so many parks and gardens open to the public. Even if there are parks open to the public in Indiana, they aren’t as beautiful or as well kept. It’s so nice to just take your lunch over to a park and have a picnic whenever you please. Not to mention that the weather here is amazing, and it is still between 60 and 70 degrees everyday. Doesn’t get much better than that.

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Chateau Flaugergues

December 11th, 2006

One of our French guides, Marilou, planned a get away to a chateau close to here called Chateau Flaugergues. She reserved a tour for us and also a wine tasting, and it was all free, so who could say no to that?

About 15 people from my program went to see the Chateau, and it was so cool. It is a house that was built in the countryside of Montpellier for the most prominent families to live in, and all of the original furniture is still left in the house, even though there is a family living there right now!

Descendants of the Colbert family! We got to tour around the house first and see the magnificent French gardens (which are known for being symmetrical) and also the English garden that was next to it which was an “all senses” garden with things corresponding to each of the five senses. That was really cool because they had a forest of bamboo that we got to go inside!

In the house, we got to see all the rooms; the bedrooms, the living rooms, library, and dining room. Our tour guide was really nice too and explained each room very slowly so that we could all understand everything. She quizzed us over something in every room, asking us questions about the objects she would explain. In the dining room, she asked us if we knew what this special spoon was used for. We were all guessing things like sugar, medicine, etc. but it was really used for eating bone marrow.

I was kind of grossed out. One room had a bunch of rifles from the time and some original outfits on display.

It even had a letter from Voltaire written to the family that lived there about some poetry that one of them had written. After we were finished touring the property, we went next door to a small wine tasting party. There were several red wines and a white.

I still find it interesting to hear what people can smell/taste in the different wines since I cannot distinguish any sort of aroma/flavor. My friend Brian guessed that one had jasmine in it and won a free bottle of wine!

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Thanksgiving!

December 8th, 2006

I think that the people in charge of our program felt sorry for us because they heard us complaining about how we wouldn’t have Thanksgiving, and we all missed our families, etc. So, they decided to throw us a Thanksgiving party. They said it was going to be traditional food, but after a billion and one French people asking me what Thanksgiving was and what we ate, I was a little skeptical that they would be able to pull it off.

We all met at a tram stop around 7:00 and walked over to a restaurant that they had reserved just for us. After we all sat down, the chef came around holding the turkey that he had made. He was so proud of it. He walked around to each table and everyone applauded.

It was so funny. After that, we all ate turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and they even had cranberry sauce.

It was just like a real American Thanksgiving but with a few French things added…example: excessive amounts of wine. Anyway, it was really nice that they had that for us and they did such a good job preparing everything.

I know that they worked really hard to make it nice for us since we were all missing our families. We all said what we were thankful for, and then we went out for the night to the bars. Just like real Thanksgiving, right?

I thought it was really neat to see everyone from the program together because we have all been split up into different courses, so it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen some of them. It was really fun to go out to the bars with everyone, and we all celebrated the rest of the night.

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