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the first week part 2

im totally reverting to everything i was doing my first week here……

because i move out of the dorms tomorrow im been cleaning.. and my room looks brand new.. all my cooking utensils are gone (i threw a bowl away yesterday because i didnt want to wash it…oops!) so ive been eating prepackaged stuff… also i packed all my clothes so i neglected to think about the weather (hellooo leggings for 4 straight days) and ive been hanging out with my first friends here. 

i remember on my first day in the monp i was frantically looking around our isep meeting looking for people i would steal and force to be my friends. i poked the girl in front of me and said “hey my name is andie.. where are you from?” those two girls in front of me ended up being my best friends here and teaching me so much. this year has been such an emotional roller coaster on so many levels…. and honestly could have been so horrible had we not all stuck together. 

today after they left my room raiding what they could salvage of my leftover food/ lb of garlic.. i cried…i realized that in a couple days they will be leaving for good. i hate this bullshit people always say like “oh you can keep in touch” and blah blah blah, because its not the same, and even if/when we all reunite again.. it will never be the same. we will never be the same people we are now, in the same situation.

i hope to gain some perspective/optimism from this situation soon… because right now im just depressed… even when i know i have amazing things waiting for me at home. 

19!!!!!!!

I cannot believe I have only 19 days left in montpellier!! It sounds so stupid and i am almost sick of hearing myself saying “this year has just flown by” SO many times throughout the year… but It continues to scare me how much can change in such a small amount of time. But hey, im feeling self-reflective today, so indulge me loyal readers (all 5 of you). 

I know these last couple weeks are going to be beyond stressful between finals, saying goodbye to people who have been not only my friends, but my surrogate family for past year, CLEANING, and lastly shipping boxes on boxes home while trying to squeeze my new european wardrobe into two giant suitcases… this is going to be hard. I have been so excited to get home and start yet another new life that I have neglected to think about how much I am going to miss this place. 

Im going to miss ordering my morning cafe and croissant from angry middle aged french women.. who STILL pretend like they dont understand my accent while squinting their eyes in intenese conversation while i say the same damn thing ive been saying all year “un croissant avec un grand cafe si vous plait”.. like… not that hard. I will miss going to les halles with patty to buy fresh (and a taaad overpriced) veggies, i will miss wasting time talking about nothing and everything with laurie and kelsey, i will miss cooking with random ingediants we all have in our kitchen to create the most delicious meals, i will miss learning about people, different cultures, even about different parts of the states, different personalities, different perspectives, and i think most of all i will miss not having everyday of my life be an adventure. It’s crazy to think about the person I was when i came, and who i am when im come home in a couple weeks.

I had no idea what to expect when coming here.. but i am beyond happy with was it has become. My study abroad advisor told me that when you go abroad you will have higher highs and lower lows. That statement is beyond true. This has not been easy. but so beyond worth it.. but in a weird way I cannot even begin to put into words…. and probably wont be able to for a while. 

I wish there was some big, exciting point to all of this.. or I could offer some wise words to sum up what has defnitely been the best year of my life.. but I dont have that.. and I’m kind of glad i dont.. I dont want this to end. Yes, my year here has to, but I want to live in this mentality my whole life. All the incredible, beautiful people I have met here will always have a place in my life… even if I never see them again. 

OH and yeah i went to spain.. it was pretty chillin.. more on that later loyal readers…

So these past couple of weeks have been pretty good. Last week Patty and I went to Marseille on a whim.. now that I have a cheap rail pass it makes traveling within France way cheaper (I am totally kicking myself for not buying this in September!) Marseilles was a pretty cool place, although I can confidently say I have no desire to go back… The whole thing just felt kind of dangerous.. i spent a lot of time watching my valuables. We were only there for a day so we decided to take the tourist train to see the city quickly.. that was a good idea. Also, Marseille is the only place in southern france with a Starbucks.. so obviously we had to go there. 

This week I had midterms which was weird because i actually had to study. I almost forgot how.. that is not a good sign. But, I managed to remember and think I ended up doing fine on all of them. 

In other interesting news (please pick up of my sarcasm here people) one of my good friends here went vegan.. which as you might be able to imagine.. is VERY difficult in France. Since we often cook together I’ve started to discover some delicious dairy alternatives.. they are equally delicious, and even better for you!

I’ve stopped using creme fraiche and am now using soy cream instead (it actually tastes creamier), i’ve started to buy soy burgers instead of meat (the are much tastier AND cheaper than meat.. and im finally actually getting some protein!) and i think the biggest change is my switch to soy milk.. i LOVE it.. regular milk here is steralized.. which has always kind of freaked me out.. and a couple weeks ago I think I bought some bad stuff and was throwing up everywhere. AAAAND soy milk comes in more delicious flavors than real milk! Now don’t get me wrong I am in no way vegan… but i feel a lot healthier since I’ve started eating like this.. and will definitely try and keep this up in Portland. 

oh and last night i went to the coolest opera I have ever seen (thanks dad) Einstein on the Beach. I really have no words for it because it was very, very bizarre and new age. I have never heard any 20th century classical music before.. and it almost had electronic undertones. It was 5 hours which was a bit rough.. but Kelsey noted that the long duration of time added to the tedious nature of the performance and the overall theme of the piece. It was absolutely beautiful and the ending was very moving. Everyone should google Philip Glass, the man has got to be some sort of genius!

Patty and I are going to try and make it out to Bordeaux one of these weekends for a day, so hopefully I’ll have some actually exciting news to share not just my eating habits.

(oh and I lost my camera.. whoops, so i will not have any news pictures for a while :(.. hopefully i can borrow friends though.. we shall see)

its hard to come up with witty titles for these things…

So this weekend my friend from Willamette, Allely came to visit me!!!! She is studying in Aix-en-Provence and just had her Spring Break this past week and went to Madrid with her friend from Cornell, and they were making their way back to Aix with many stops.. Montpellier being one of them. Having them here was so nice! I love seeing people from WU because after being gone for so long I feel realllllly disconnected from it. It was fun to catch up and gossip. 

I showed them around town on Friday, and since montpellier is relatively small it didnt take very long. Hosting people is hard sometimes because I wanted them to have a good time, so i was racking my brain trying to come up with things to do.. but they insisted they weren’t expecting much, since Allely was a little sick everything worked out perfect. 

On Saturday when we were in town we went to Les Halles (a market) and bought veggies to make a delicious curry for dinner. Can I just say how good I’ve gotten at cooking! Well, im not great.. but im surprising myself a lot! I actually really love it… and cooking for people is so much fun! Everyone loved the curry.. which made me SO happy. Maybe I should go to culinary school and throw my 200k education out the window? If only..

Saturday night we went out for a bottle of wine at this trendy wine bar in town. It was filled with late 20’s hipsters and really cool art everywhere. When we were leaving I saw a plate of abandoned DELICIOUS looking food that was just LEFT there.. I decided to take a bunch while no one was looking and eat it on the way home. I mean.. who orders a 30 euro plate of appetizers and just leaves it??? soooo wasteful.. and i was soooooo hungry. not one of my finer moments I’ll admit. 

Anywaaaaaaays, this weekend was awesome for some many reasons. Now i am going to sleep for 4 years because hosting people is tiring and i did A LOT of walking this weekend. Night!

the middle part and other life changing events… (kidding)

so these past week has been typical. i went to class where the teacher was unprepared and ended up making us talk about america for 30 minutes to kill time. School is school. I suppose i should enjoy the simplicity before i begin what is sure to be the academic year from hell which i will have next year at Willamette. 

The sun is out in montpellier! the other day me and a couple friends went out to this deserted beach a friend from first semester showed me. I love it there, theres only ever locals, if anyone. it’s so quiet and serene. Even though it was only 65 degrees and windy.. we attempted to tan. The sun is hotter here, so i definitely did get some color… it was red.. but still color!

Other exciting news is my water consumption. I have decided (thanks to patty.. hey shoutout) to start drinking more water. When its not hot out i feel as though the majority of my water comes from food.. and when i choose a drink, its always unhealthy. So i decided to drink 7 50cl bottles a day. I keep a running total on my wrist throughout the day… besides the fact i pee non-stop, i feel so much better! My skin has cleared up, i have tons more energy (i didnt need coffee this week! i mean, i wanted it.. but didnt NEED it) and the best part is im not always hungry. I can actually recognize my hunger. Its a really positive thing, and that has kind of spiralled into a series of healthy decision making. I hope it lasts!

Also, im parting my hair in the middle now.. big news everyone! 

the alps!

So on tuesday morning Patty and I left for Annecy, France which is a small ski town in the french alps. From scanning a couple tourist brochures we learned it has been inhabited since around 4000 BC. WOW. The town was absolutely adorable. The first thing we noticed was how everyone was SO nice! When we got off the train we stopped in at a cafe to get some coffees, then we asked for directions to our hostel. The men working at the cafe were stunned that we were going on foot, and insisted we take a bus. We decided to do it on foot (because were poor) and after the initial jont through town we basically scaled two walls vertically. I mean, I thought I was in shape…….I was painfully mistaken. Later that night we got fondue (which is a regional specialty……. well, its technically swiss.. but we figured it would be cheaper in france) It was delicious, but we ate WAY too much and were in cheese comas after, we literally did not eat cheese AT ALL the rest of the trip.

Wednesday was all about touring Annecy. For a small town, it was full of things to see, the had the l’ile du palais which is an old prison

we also saw the lovers bridge, and for lunch stopped at a cafe to drink soup/ avoid the cold for as long as possible. I dont know why I don’t think mountain ranges are not going to be cold…………….

We then went to a chateau turned historical museum (where they have a lot of otters- we couldn’t quite figure that out), some churches (interesting fact: since annecy is so close to switzerland, a lot of swiss catholics refuged here during the refromation.. so there are A LOT of churches.) We thought since it was ash wednesday we could jump in on a service somewhere… no such luck. I swear to god the french are the worst catholics in the world. I bet mass would include carefully timed smoke breaks like my lectures.

on thursday at 6am we headed to Geneva. We didn’t want to stay there for the whole time because we had heard from several people that you only need around half a day to see the city… THEY WERE RIGHT.

I’m still trying to describe what I think of the city. I can confidently say I am happy I am studying in France instead. Geneva is obviously a very international city, but no real sense of culture, no eccentricity! Also, because Geneva was the the center of the Protestant Reformation (which in essence tried to put an end to the opulence of religion) the city was almost (dare i say it) boring. 

Regardless, we did pretty much Geneva had to offer in a couple of hours. We went to the UN, unicef headquarters and WTO. Then we went to the old city to see some churches and walk around for a while. We saw the Reformation wall (and I took a ton of picture for my dad), and the Protestant Museum.

Geneva is a very wealthy city without appearing ostentatious. Lots of luxury brands and private banking everywhere. We then got chocolate for gifts and headed home 2 hours early confident we had seen pretty much all Geneva had to offer.

Also, it is in the high 60’s today, Montpellier is BEAUTIFUL! Life is wonderful, I went on the BEST run today and caught myself looking retarded with a huge smile on my face. THAT happy.

(see dad it says CALVIN)

(the leaders of the Reformation)

barcelona!

So on wednesday I left for barcelona to see me friend from Willamette, who is studying there. Irene is mexican, therefore a native spanish speaker, so naturally I was a bit confused that she didn’t understand what was going on around us. She quickly explained to me that they actually speak catalan in and around the barcelona area. Now, i know i have heard this before, but i had no idea how different the two languages are.. its kind of like a mix of french and spanish, but with a lisp. Irene explained to me how the catalan people have A LOT of pride, and really don’t like to be identified as Spanish (that is, in part, why the FC Barcelona/ Real Madrid Soccer rivalry is so intense.. it goes beyond soccer!) Anyways, I thought that was interesting, haha

When I got there I dropped my bag off at Irene’s apartment (which is HUGE and SOOOO nice) and I met her roommates who are all super nice and more than hospitable. We then left to walk around las ramblas (a major commercial street that runs to the beach) I have heard about a million and a half times to watch my stuff on las ramblas because it’s sketchy and blah blah blah.. so I spent most of the time clinging to my wallet and assuming everyone around me was about to attack me. Nobody did, and I actually think I looked insane. Whatever. We walked about the stores and i discovered that Spain is also having insane national sales.. so I bought a pair of boots for 10 euros! I was so excited! Woooooo. Then we ate some delicious tapas and went back to her apartment. 

That day I went to school with Irene because she had a midterm she couldn’t miss. I understood NOTHING. It did make me appreciate my own study abroad program a lot, the students in Irene’s program are the type of people that give Americans a bad name abroad. They don’t make any effort to speak spanish, they are rude to the natives, and very loud and disruptive. Irene and her friends were obviously exceptions to this, but i was amazed at the lack of respect. That night we went to the Ice Bar, which is on the beach. It was like a room made entirely out of ice. They gave us coats and gloves, it was cool but a tad overrated if you ask me… and i was in tights and heels.. so obviously a bit cold. But i did enjoy the montage of penguins in the background, definitely my favorite part. 

Friday we went to Montserrat everyone should click on this link and read about it! I’m too lazy to explain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat_(mountain)) But basically it is the BEAUTIFUL coastal mountain range in Catalonia. We took an hour and a half train ride to the mountain, then another train that basically vertically scaled the mountain. It would randomly stop and I would freak out, but calmed myself down by thinking this won’t be the worst place in the world to die, haha. When we got to the top there was this abby that monk’s built. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life, I feel bad that my camera does not even begin to do it justice.

(ok so tumblr wont let me post the others…coming soon)

Then today we slept in and went to see the Sagrada Familia (also something everyone should google) AMAZING. I actually am kind of at a loss to explain it… here ya go

(tumblr still wont let me post pictures. UGH…. later i promise!!!!)

So I’m back in France and even though I love barcelona dearly, I am beyond happy to be in a country where I can speak the language, and understand the culture. 

Sorry that was long, miss everyone so much!

tout seul

Im having the best week i’ve had in sooooo long. 

Before i came abroad i had a HUGE problem spending time alone. I mean, at home im practically attached to my sister at the hip, and at school i always have people i work with, have classes with, go out with, go to the gym with, etc. I have truley been blessed with amazing friends, no doubt. Yet, I discovered this summer that I was miserable when i had no one to hang out with, being alone for more than 20 minutes would give me anxiety. That’s why when I learned that I had about 3 days of vacation that NO ONE i knew in Montpellier was going to be here (which is saying a lot, i know a fair amount of people at this point) i freaked out! What the hell am I going to do!!

but like, I’ve literally had the best time. I actually did know one person, my friend Andre, who is a 26 year old on the University of Minn. program. He’s super nice, and a totally well connected person, so we got drinks on Saturday night and he introduced me to some of his friends, we then went to his place, where I passed out on the couch (after Patty got mugged NO WAY am I walking home in the dark)

Sunday I went running, which feels AWESOME after being so sick.. my lungs havent fully recovered from my flu.. but I’ll get there. I also cooked pretty much ALL the veggies in my fridge to try and use them up before I leave on wednesday. It was pretty gross. I drenched them in cumin and chili pepper, but definitely not one of my best creations. 

Today we did the last day of Les Soldes, which is a month (mid jan to mid feb) where the entire country goes on Sale. I managed to get some adorable things at zara for a total of 10 euros! We also spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find him shoes (he wears a size 12 in america.. which is not weird.. except in france where everyone is apparently a midget) No luck there.. we got coffee then I went home and skyped with Lauren (Hi lauren) and Jake. That’s probably part of the reason these past couple days have been so awesome, I got to talk to my dad, lauren, and jake. Three of my favorite people in the world. Talking with them fills me with joy and reminds me how incredibly lucky I am to have them in my life. I’m so happy I’m here, but I cannot wait to be back with my family. 

Spain in 2 days!!! Don’t worry I’ll give you a play by play