I just got back from Les Estivales, which is basically like a giant party for all of Montpellier. L'Esplanade, a long, narrow park that is right downtown (le centre-ville = downtown minus all the skyscrapers) is always filled with vendors and performers, but at Les Estivales it is filled to capacity. Les Estivales happens every Friday, but today was the last one, so it went all out.

Highlights of the evening are wine tastings (and you get to keep the glass!) and crepes. I finally fulfilled my dream and got a Gran Marnier which turned out to be so not worth it. The first half was delicious, but the last half was like eating straight up alcohol - not so good.

After walking around tiny French streets, I finally feel like I'm in France, while before it felt more like a vacation where everyone just happened to speak French. I think this will change even more later when the actual French students get here, because so far, the entire university is populated by American exchange students.

Tomorrow we are finally going to the beach. Even though Montpellier is technically "on the Mediterranian" it's about 10 km to get to the coast. While this wouldn't be a problem at home, not having a car really sucks, especially since it's about a 20 minute walk from the closest bus station to the beach. This time we're getting a fancy bus as part of the program, but I'm not holding out hope for anything like this ever again. But tomorrow, yay!!

Day 1

Exhausting 24 hours. Even though today was only orientation day, it's really hard to get back into school mode, especially when that means having things to do and places to be at 9:30am. Hopefully my jetlag will adjust accordingly, but so far it still sucks.

First impression of France - so freaking hot. Got off the plane at midnight and was already sweating 2 minutes later. The morning was thankfully overcast so I decided to wear pants because I realized that I wouldn't be able to wear them for quite a while... It was still 80 degrees outside though, so I was burning up. AND the promised beach trip got cancelled due to a supposed thunderstorm that never came! And even with the overcast skies and supposedly "crappy" weather, the beach still sounded like a great idea. Will go soon!!

The dorms are okay. Everyone is complaining about how crappy they are and can't wait to move out, but compared to Lander, it's a freaking palace. I have my own bathroom (it's small enough that I can shave my legs in the shower while sitting on the toilet, but it's still my own bathroom!), a bed with sheets, and a huge desk/shelf combo. There's also a mini fridge, but I unplugged it because it was generating too much heat. I also had to move rooms after the first night because they accidently put me in a room reserved for someone else? All my stuff was still packed though so it was no big deal. Biggest bummer about the dorms - no toilet paper.

Two people asked me for help at CDG airport but my French is completely useless. I got a little bit more faith in it after talking to the French program coordinators and taking the placement test, but I'll only find out the results tomorrow. PS Having class at 9 am sort of really sucks.

Exploring after the placement test/orientation was a lot of fun. Finding a bank that partners with Bank of America took forever though, but I think it's more fair to say that we took the scenic route because Montpellier is beautiful, with tiny little pedestrian streets and typical French architecture. Went shopping.... Bought a SIM card and some minutes! Most exciting purchase of the day though: PEACH SCENTED TOILET PAPER. Now my bathroom (and tushie) will smell amazing.

After hanging out at the Place de la Comedie for 2 hours, decided it was time to call it a night. I'm turning 20 today but am turning in at 9pm like an old lady. That is all, except the internet somehow tracked me down and now all my webpages are in French (Google, Blogger, etc). It's a bit overwhelming.