Meeting the Parents.

I was invited by my host mother to a lunch being held by her parents a few days ago.  It was at their home about 5 minutes from where I am staying here in Montpellier and much of the family was present.  Besides my french mother and myself, it was the grandparents, my host mothers sister and two kids(one boy and one girl), Cyril(host mothers son) and his girlfriend Aurlie.  So this was definitely a decent sized family gathering with me smack dab in the middle of it and everyones attention focused on the new American host student...just what I needed!  The grandpa started me out with a few shots and then poured me a large glass of a type of alcohol that I had never tasted before, but it was pretty good.  This was all I needed, to get drunk over lunch, as I had been out very late the night before with "my girls".  The meal started out with a few snacks like chips and party mix which the Grandmother kept telling em to eat, and of course I obliged.  Then we sat down at the table and they brought out bread, butter and sliced ham.  This was followed by a sliced carrot salad and a large quiche that was very good...so I kept on eating.  Then came the escargot...ohh maan!  I didn't want to be the typical American and turn it down so I agreed to eat them.  They weren't inedible but they did not have a very good taste and looked exactly like bird droppings for lack of a better word...although the sauce that they came in was pretty appetizing.  Then came the wild boar next...this tasted like any other red meat and was very similar to roast beef or pork.  Then when I thought the meal had to be over more bread and about 6 different cheeses were brought out!  This meal kept getting bigger and bigger!  I couldn't believe it, all this food could have fed a small village!!  But they kept offering me food and not wanting to be rude or give the wrong impression I kept on eating...After the bread and cheese came three different deserts.  An enormous fruit tarte thing, a king cake, and some other type of cake.  I tried all three and went back for seconds on the tarte and king cake.  Then to top the what seemed like 15 course meal off, coffee and tea was served along with small chocolates...now these I usually never eat but the grandma and grandpa love them and kept putting them on my plate and having me try each of their favorite ones.  I kept closing the box to try and silently signify that I was done but they kept opening it back up to have me try more!!  I left their house stuffed beyond limit and ready to go to sleep and feeling lazy but instead I headed straight for the gym for 3 hours to work off the incredible amount of food that I had just consumed.  All in all the meal was very fun and full of good food and tons of it.  I got a look into the inner workings of a very french family and how they interact with each other which is very similar to any other family, except I would venture to say that they eat a lot more than most!  Oh, and the grandmother now has me calling her "Mammi".  FYI, I was invited back over to their house tomorrow afternoon for a second round...wish me luck! 

Pool Protocol.

So at this new gym that I am going to there are two very nice pools, one is a family type pool with shallow sections and a water slide I might add!  But the other one is Olympic size and looking like something straight out of the Beijing Games.  I don't swim often enough to even attempt to conquer more than a few laps in that pool...but I have really been wanting to workout in the smaller pool.  So after getting done in the gym the other day I went down to the pool in my basketball shorts with the intention of getting some laps in.  Wrong!!  Before I could even dip a toe into the water to test the temperature one of the lifeguards comes up to me and starts telling me, in french i might add, that I do not have the right bathing suit.  Now this much I could understand in his native tongue, but when I asked why my shorts would not work he was very unclear.  Then I asked him to try and explain in english in which he, nor I did not have much more luck...he proceeded to inform me that the shorts I had on were not a "swim bus" as he put it so eloquently and then repeated over and over again to me as if I would understood what constituted a "swim bus" if he continuously repeated the phrase to me!  I had had enough and was not going to argue with him anymore so I peacefully bowed out and retreated back to the locker room feeling defeated, but already planning on my return to the pool the next day with an actual bathing suit in hand.  

The next day came and I changed for the pool into my recently purchased, in St. Barths I might add, Lacoste bathing suit looking very european...or so I thought.  This time I got my feet into the pool when a different life guard approached me telling me that I could not swim because I did not have a bathing suit on!  This time I was caught off guard even more so because I really did have an actual bathing suit on...and purchased in a french speaking country to boot!  What could possibly be wrong with this suit?  Isn't Lacoste a French company too?!  Ahh, but this life guard begged to differ about my so called "bathing suit"...as he continued to preach that what I was wearing was NOT a bathing suit..."OK" I said, "Hold on, do you speak english?" Yes, a little, he responds.  "I am American" I inform him, "this is what we wear in America, this IS a bathing suit!"  No luck...he just keeps saying "No No No you cannot where that here!"  At this moment an older man emerges form the hot tub next to me in a black thong bathing suit...just nasty.  So I ask him, "What do you want me to wear then?  Do I have to wear that?!!"  And like something out of a Chevy Chase movie he halfway grins at me and laughs a little before the words "yes, yes you have to wear that" fall out like a brick onto my toe.  Ohhh maan...  

Now when I asked him that question about the old man's suit I was halfway joking...but believe me when I say that his response was no joke.  I gladly bow out of the situation at this point to lick my wounds and retreat again back to the locker room this time feeling embarrassed that I had been kicked out of the pool for a second straight day!  And on top of that I needed to go buy a tight ass thong type bathing suit or something similar.  Yes the purchase was made, but NO I did not buy a man thong!  Instead I bought a type of bathing suit that fits like spandex but are much shorter, just not as short as the thong ones.  I made sure to buy the cheapest one I could find because this investment will be short lived...trust me.  So now I'm ready to go swim...or so I thought.  Yes, yet another road block on my way to the pool.  This time I strut down to the pool in my new and tight as can be swimming suit looking european as ever and I get all the way into the water when another helpful french life guard tells me no..."you need a swim cap!"  Damn maan...what the hell is wrong with this place?  Why must one have to cover up all parts of his body in skin tight material?  I come to find out that the french don't want any loose body hair getting into the pool...this is why they make us wear the tight bathing suits and the swim caps.  So I left the pool once again, but only temporarily and went downstairs to buy a swim cap out of a vending machine they were being sold in.  The rest you can probly figure out yourself...I was finally able to swim in the pool!!  

Now I know that these events are in the past but I have to ask...how can the french be so paranoid about the cleanliness of their pools all the while having such a blatant disregard for personal hygiene?  Now let me make it clear that not ALL the french are into the smelly look...my host mother is very clean and well kept!  But lets be honest here...why take the precautions to keep free floating hair out of your pool when the majority of the people using your pool haven't showered in some time?!  I feel like it defeats the purpose...don't you?  And something else that I just thought of...what about all those men who's backs look like vintage 70's shag carpet?  With all that hair on your back you know thats getting in your pool water(no question in my mind), how are you gonna prevent that?!  No thong bathing suit or swim cap can cure that problem...If I could speak french well enough I would have pointed that out to each and every one of the life guards that stopped me from swimming in the pool.  And who knows, I just may by the end of my stay here...

And There's More.

The small unnamed castle ruins that we found in Fontaine de Vaucluse.

The village that surrounds the castle at Les Baux de Provence.  A very cool place.

A view from within the castle walls at Les Beaux de Prvence.

In the village of Fontaine de Vaucluse.

Enough Said.

The castle at Les Baux de Provence.  This place was enormous and the views overlooking the farmlands were indescribable.  This castle was voluntarily destroyed by it's inhabitants due to increased looting and trouble caused by rebels who had taken refuge within its walls.

A view from just outside the castle walls looking down into a valley.

The mysterious source of the Sorgue river.  This river is fueled by underground lakes and rivers that converge at this point.                    

A view form atop a hill that we climbed to explore the ruins of an old unnamed castle in the village of Fontaine du Vaucluse. The town lies behind me.

Pont du Gard

 

This place is B.E.A.utiful.

I went out for the first time in here in Montpellier on Thursday and met up with about 8 of the girls in my program at a bar in La Place de la Comedie, which is the center square of the city.  The bar was pretty small and there were far too many people inside for one to find a seat or even a decent place to stand and drink.  But the atmosphere was pretty cool as it was a lot of young people and other study abroad students as well.  When I first got inside I went up to the bar all prepared to order my first drink, in french of course, but before I could even get a syllable out the bar tender asks me, "What do you want?", in plain english!  Do I evoke such an American image that people can tell that I am a foreigner before I even speak?  And even If I do, couldn't the bar tender have just humored me and let me order my drink in the language of the culture that I am part of for the moment?  But moving on, the drinks were very good that night as I had a Lynchberg Lemonade...never heard of it before that night, but I will be having those again soon and you should as well...trust me.  My girls and I(You like how I call them "my girls" ehh?) then proceeded on to a second bar/dance club that was pretty empty when we arrived but began to fill up as the night went on.  It is open until 5am so people don't start coming in until around 2 or 3 in the morning!  This is something the US clubs should look into and stop closing down at the childish hour of 2am.  Anyways, the night started and ended well...this and studying will be a regular habit of mine while I am abroad!  Friday late morning I went on a tour of Montpellier that lasted entirely too long considering the weather...it was raining and uncomfortably cold.  But we got to climb to the top of the arch that you saw in one of my earlier posts which was pretty cool!  The new gym I found is very nice, it has a big weight room, 2 pools(one being Olympic sized), and a court for basketball and other sports below...although I am still trying to find out the daily hours of the basketball court and how to get down to it.  An interesting aspect of this gym, and I do not know if this is common throughout France, but both men and women have the same communal showering area!  This caught me off guard as I was coming out of the shower one day and this older lady is walking into the shower next to me after one of her workouts.  Early Saturday morning our group started off on a tour of Provence that started at 830am and lasted until 630pm that evening.  We visited the Pont du Gard(A famous Roman aqueduct), the town of Fontaine du Vaucluse, Les Baux de Provence which is a town surrounding a 2nd century castle, the Windmill's of Fontveille.  I will post pictures with more explanations in a post follwowing this one so I wont go into detail about them now.  But I will say that it was an amazing trip which included sights that I will remember forever!  France continues to amaze me with its historical past and scenery that I never knew existed until now.  Check out the pictures in the next blog so you can see what words cannot describe...

Pictures from Nimes.

Part of the panoramic view atop the Roman tower.

A store I visited for my mother but no one was there!

A Church near the center of town.

The tower we climbed up and were able to see the entire city from.

Le Jardin du Fountaine...The Garden of the Fountain.

The city of Nimes, etc.

It has been 4 days since I arrived in Montpellier and I still had not found a gym to workout in, this may not seem like a huge problem to most people but I cannot stand not being able to get to a gym of some sort in order to get a workout in.  So to alleviate the problem I went to the tourism office and got a list of gyms throughout the city that I may be interested in.  Initially the lady sent me on a wild goose chase to a part of the city that was supposed to have a very nice gym, but in term ended up having no gym in sight.  Even a nice old french lady who tried to help me find it had no idea where it could be.  That aside I got home and showed the list to my "french mother" who noticed that one was pretty close to her house.  We then drove over to the gym to check it out and see how much it cost to get a membership...this is where it all goes terribly wrong!  From the outside the gym looks nice, small but nice.  But as soon as I walked up the stairs and opened the door it all hit me like a smack in the face...the entire gym smelled of body odor, sweat, and just plain people who have not showered in what smelt like a long time.  It was unavoidable, no matter what part of the gym you were in the smell was there!  I don't understand why the French, who I love very much as a people, feel it is necessary to not bathe themselves once a day or at least when they start to smell.  Is it a fad or a new trend of some sort? Because if it is, it is not a cool trend at all!  How is smelling like shit ever considered cool or normal for that matter?  Congratulations you smell like you live on the street...your in style!  And to top it all off, there were two grown men in "cat suits" aka tight spandex shorts and tops, with ipods on dancing like two men shouldn't be dancing in the middle of a work out...or at all for that matter.  They were loving it too!  At this point if I did not already know that this specific gym was not for me...i did now.  Good news is i have found another gym that is relatively close to my house that I am staying in and is a lot cheaper and less smelly than the first one, so the problem is resolved.  On a better note, today my class and I took a day trip to Nimes, which is a town about 25 minutes from Montpellier by train.  We went on a guided tour of a Roman coliseum as well as a temple.  We also walked around the town quite a bit too with the extra time we had.  In fact a few girls and I came across a very big and very beautiful garden just outside of the center of town that extended up to an old tower now used as tourist attraction where you can see a panoramic view of the city of Nimes.  We paid the 3 euro it cost to climb to the top and believe me it was all worth it!  The view was spectacular as you could see for miles and miles in all directions just about.  This was by far the best part of the trip and I am fortunate that I came across it.  I even managed to have a quick conversation with some Brits at the top about our new President Barack Obama, who they love and are excited for as well!    

The Homestay.

Today was a very busy day...I think this may be a common theme throughout the first week as we all begin to get settled in this new culture.  My class had to meet at 930 in the lobby of our hotel in order to go to orientation, but I was up at 330am and wide awake!  I fell asleep at 9pm the night before and woke up thinking I had slept a good 10 hours only to look at my watch realize otherwise.  So what does one do at 330 in the morning in Montpellier? Well they surf the internet only to find out that many of the websites that we get in the states do not work in France...at least not with the makeshift internet offered in the hotel.  The good news is that there was a free buffet type breakfast that started at 630am in the hotel restaurant, this made my day.  I went through and stacked my tray full with croissants, yogurt, fruit, granola, cheeses, bread, and jam only to return 2 more times and repeat the process.  The french woman running the buffet kept giving me weird looks as I kept returning for more and more food.  If she didn't know I was American before I started to eat, she had no doubt after I was done.  The orientation was short and sweet and our director seems like a very nice and outgoing woman.  We had a few more additions to the class today but not to worry, my position as sole male of the group still holds strong!  I bought a European phone so that I can keep in contact with my fellow classmates as well as the study abroad office...the cell phones here are very cheap and very simple but they serve their purpose.  The big event of the day for me was meeting my host mother, I had been a bit nervous about it from the start.  When she came to pick me up she greeted me with the cheek to cheek kiss times 3.  I had never done this before so I just followed her lead as I did not know how many times I was supposed to do it.  She is a very nice woman and it is just her and I in the house as both of her children have moved out.  She even watched the entire Inauguration with me...obviously it was in French but I understood most of it.  She is an Obama fan too and was very pleased when I gave her an Obama grocery bag that I had brought from home.  She made Ratatouille for dinner and it was surprisingly good, I had never had it before but in the movie it looks nasty so I didn't know what to expect...    

The Minority Report.

After spending fourteen and a half combined hours in the air on my three flights from Seattle to Montpellier, I needed to shower and refuel in order to be able to stay awake for the rest of the day.  After checking into the hotel a few of my new classmates and i went out to explore the city for a while.  Now let me add a little side not so that you all can comprehend the healthful situation that I have found myself in while in Montpellier.  In my group of about 20 or so students I am the only male...yes, the only male!  I had some idea of this before I left but honestly did not think that it was all the way true.  I thought that there had to be another guy in the group, well apparently not.  None the less, this is the situation that I have been given and you will not here a complaint about the ratio of men to women from my corner...ever!  All of the girls seem to be very chill and very fun to be with(did I mention smart?) so I'm sure that we will have a great time.  We will see how the rest of the trip goes but right now my biggest concern is trying to remember all of their names!  My life is so difficult...

The Purpose.

The food, the people, the sights, the school, the homestay, the travel...the experience.  I will be blogging about all of this and more while I am studying abroad in the South of France(Montpellier to be exact) and traveling any and everywhere throughout Europe.  Thus, the purpose of this blog is to keep you all up to date on me, and to give you all a vision of my experience through my eyes.  So for all of my friends and family that want to see what I am up to overseas and out of your reach this is for you...and for anyone else that wants to listen.  This journey will be far from commonplace.