La grève et les pantalons

This Thursday (January 29), French [public] workers held a nationwide strike (or, as the French say, une greve). It was the biggest strike since Nicholas Sarkozy took office in 2007. Basically, the majority of the French population (nearly 70% supported the strike) wants their president to do more about the economic crisis. As a result, dozens of trains and planes were canceled and public transportation was severely delayed. Here in Montpellier the tramway comes about ever 3-5 minutes on weekdays - this Thursday it was running about every half and hour and the service completely stopped by seven o'clock. Also, a lot of professors were on strike which meant few to none classes for students of all ages.

I decided to make it a day of shopping and ended up buying a pair of flats and skinny, black pants. After searching for a few hours and many failed attempts at trying them on, I finally found a pair that fits perfectly! And they were only 7Euros - I love sales! Too bad January is coming to an end...I'm going to miss those cheap prices.
One thing that bothers me though are the sizes in France. While I'm considered a petite, thin person in the US, here in France apparently I'm a complete fatass. Women (and men!) here have the skinniest legs, calves and hips I have ever seen. This made my life severely more depressing while pants shopping because the number on the tag was way higher then I'm used too.

For dinner I had my first taste of French McDonalds. In France it's called Macdo. The menu is exactly the same, except with higher prices. I also treated myself to a McFlurry for dessert and was shocked to discover that it contained peanut butter M&Ms! The one thing in the whole world that I am missing right now is peanut butter. I looked for it in the grocery store last week and found it in the international/exotique food aisle, next to the Mexican and Chinese food. It was 6,20euros for a jar...A MINI-jar, about half the size of what you'd find in the US. And it was Skippy extra-crunch...No creamy JIF in sight. Ridicule!

After a day of shopping I decided to go see Les Noces Rebelles (Revolutionary Road) with a friend. We had originally wanted to see Slumdog Millionaire but were told the wrong time...Anyway, it was an incredibly intense movie. While the actual plot of the film was OK, the performances by Kate and Leo were amazing!

Provence

This Saturday we took a day trip to the region of Provence. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crappy - it was rainy and cloudy most of the day, but Provence was still very beautiful. I can only imagine what it looks like in the Spring! We stopped at four main sights, starting with le Pont du Gard in Nimes. The Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct, built in 50 AD. The view was gorgeous...

Next we were dropped off in an adorable little French town, situated in a closed valley, to see la Fontaine de Vaucluse (the fountain of Vaucluse). For some reason I was expecting to see a fountain...but turns out, la Fontaine is the source of the Sorgue river. It's famous, and quite mysterious, for the fact that the water seems to appear out of nowhere, as if it comes out of the side of a mountain. The real source is an immense underground network of waters which come from rain and snow melt.

The third stop was Les Baux de Provence, which was my favorite part of the trip. Les Baux is a plateau with signs of human life dating back to 6,000BC. One thing I found really interesting were the ruins of medieval castles on top of cliffs. You don't really notice them at first glance because they're so dilapidated and the same color as the rocks, so you always have to make sure you look twice in case you miss one! I find it fascinating that people could actually build castles all the way up there....That is quite a feet today, let alone a thousand years ago. It must have been a lot of work! And the history that goes along with them is always cool to learn about...it almost makes me sad to see them in ruins.

Finally, we saw le Moulin de Fontvielle in the town of Arles. A writer named Alphonse Daudet lived inside of it for years so he could write his novel... From le moulin you can see a row of huge, white modern days windmills in the distance. The contrast is pretty amazing, its like you're seeing the past and present come together.

On the way home we say hundreds of tractor trailers lined up for miles along the side of the road. At first I thought perhaps there was some sort of truck driver strike going on...(because everyone knows the French love their greves!) But, turns out, they were stopped because of this storm. They were forced to pull over and wait it out because of the violent, hurricane-sized winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Further along, around the France/Spain border, trucks were being blown off the side of the road. Seventeen people were killed in related accidents. Of course as we were being told this we were in a tractor trailer sized bus...so the first thought that went through every one's mind was, "omg why aren't we pulling over?". Montpellier is too far east from the storm to feel the full affects so we were fine. Although, as I was walking home I almost got blown over! I've never felt wind that strong before, I can't even imagine what it was like further south-west from here!

Maguelone

Yesterday I went to Villeneuve-les-Maguelone, a tiny town just south of Montpellier. I thought the journey would be short and sweet but turns out it takes quite a bit of time to get there if you don't own a car.

First, I took the tram to a stop called Saint-Cleophas, et apres, I took bus line 32. The bus ride should, in essence, be about 20 minutes long... However, we didn't know where to get off, thus we completely missed our stop. After speaking to the driver we finally made it one and half hours later. "It's only a ten minute walk from here," said the driver. He totally lied to us...It took an hour to reach the cathedral. Turns out the best way to reach the destination, if you don't have a car, is to ride a bike.

The cathedral is located on an island of sorts and access to the entrance is in the back. Soooo, we had to walk to the other side of the island, across the beach. I suppose the walking was worth it because I got to see the sea and the flamingos (they are very loud birds!). I can't wait to return to the beach when its warmer out.

Once we got to the cathedral I was a little tired but in good spirits. It certainly wasn't as big as I thought it would be (I had Notre Dame de Paris or Chartres in mind) but it was interesting nonetheless. Now I have to prepare notes and meet with my group to present our experience with my Civilisation du Sud class.

La nourriture

I just wanted to comment on how much I love la galette des rois. It's a cake that is served to celebrate l'Epiphanie. The actual holiday was last week but the French are still celebrating...and I hope they continue until forever because I could seriously eat this cake at every meal. I've had it five times since I've been here, twice today. The cafeteria at the university served it as dessert at lunch and we had a little party at the program office tonight.

You can buy la galette at pretty much every bakery or grocery store here in Montpellier. A little plastic or porcelain figurine is baked into each cake (often a baby Jesus) and the person who gets the slice with the figurine gets to be the king or queen for the day (Most cakes come with a paper crown). To equal each person's chance of finding the prize, the youngest person at the meal goes under the table and randomly assigns a piece of cake to each person.

Speaking of food...
Overall the food has been wonderful. My host mom really goes beyond my expectations and takes great care of me. I was a little apprehensive before arriving because at home I can be a little picky.
Breakfast is usually bread with jam and a piece of fruit. I buy lunch at the university on weekdays and, depending on the day, I eat at one of two cafeterias. The little cafe is for a simple sandwich if you need a quick bite to eat between classes. The big cafeteria is a great bargain and I try to eat there as much as possible. You get an entire meal (meat, starch, fruit, vegetable, dessert) for only 3euros. Then, I'm back at home for dinner and so far I've liked everything she's cooked. The only food I don't think I want to each again is polpetti. Yea...tiny little octopuses. Tentacles and all. My host-sister was popping them into her mouth like pieces of candy and I was sitting their dissecting them with my knife and fork, trying to figure out which part I should try and eat first. Honestly, it wasn't bad. To me they tasted like saltwater.
Sundays are usually a family affair with a big mid-day meal. This Sunday we took a little promenade along the banks of the river le Lez after the meal...Oh, the French way of life is very gratifying!

La Bise

One thing I definitely wish I knew about before arriving in Montpellier was how to properly perform "la bise", that is, cheek kissing. As an American (a very shy, easily embarrassed American), la bise is something I'm still rather uncomfortable with. Americans like their personal space which is why we settle on a distant handshake or a wave. I had erroneously thought that la bise was reserved for close friends and family members so I was caught off guard when I arrived at my homestay and my host sister's boyfriend was the first to approach me with a kiss. Shoving your face against a complete (really good looking) stranger's can be very awkward.
I had also falsely believed that a double kiss would suffice...But of course not! I am in Montpellier and here you triple kiss. The standard double kiss remains in the north of France (namely Paris) and there are some places in France where the double double kiss is commonplace. Oh, and you don't actually kiss cheeks. You place your cheek against theirs and simply kiss the air.
Lastly, la bise is both a greeting and a way of saying goodbye. Girls kiss girls, girls kiss boys and boys kiss boys.

Et voila, la bise!

Bienvenue à Montpellier!

I flew overnight to Paris into the 2nd of January. From there I took a four hour TGV ride to Montpellier. I spent two nights in a hotel with the rest of the students from my program for orientation, moved in with my homestay family and by Monday I was sitting in class.

Before leaving, I had an idea that the French university would be different from my own but I didn't realize just how different until I experienced it for myself.
In America, students are expected to pay thousands of dollars in tuition. As a result, we have beautiful, clean, modern buildings and are equipped with the latest technology. In France, students do not have to pay nearly as much and their universities are reflective of this. Basically, you get what you pay for. Paul-Valery University is covered in graffiti, the bathrooms are pretty gross and its just overall aesthetically non-pleasing. There also seems to be a lack of organization. At Penn State, for example, we sign up for courses online at a specified date and time. The system is organized and has to be because of the number of students. This week, I looked up my courses in an incomplete course book (some of the classes didn't even have a day or time listed and they were due to start the next day) and showed up to the ones I thought sounded interesting. The professors passed out a sheet of scrap paper and had students sign their names to create a course roster. No worries about class size or anything... I showed up to a film class and there was no teacher. Turns out the class no longer exists and they just decided not to tell anyone. The next day, I went to an 18th century lit class and there was no teacher. After twenty minutes of waiting we found out he's sick.
I guess I'll write more about school later...

In other news, I was surprised to see snow today. I never thought I'd see snow on palm trees... I always have my camera in my purse but I have yet to take any photos.