Oil and shots

Today was the kind of day that made me decide that coming here was a good idea. I was unsure, for many reasons, whether or not I should hit the "accept" button last year when I received my decision letter from the Study Abroad offices. After my first day here I wasn't so sure I had done the right thing. But now I'm glad I did.

It's really hard to explain, there's such a unique sense of... camaraderie, I guess you could call it, among all the exchange students here. We were in the bus today and I was just looking around at who I was talking with: people in the Greek system, "life of the party" types, very odd types, dorky types... If I would have met almost any of these people at the UW I would have probably decided at first glance that they weren't "my type." In a different context I probably wouldn't have liked many of them at all, we would have had nothing in common. But here that's all different, we have quite a bit in common. It's like this artificial bubble of companionship.

The dorms are tiny and I haven't really eaten a real meal in the past few days, I haven't slept much, and I've slowly been doing my laundry, three items of clothing at a time, in my sink because I don't want to use the laundry-mat, but it's worth it. (at least for now)

We started off the day by going to Oulivie "une belle oliveraie aux portes de Montpellier et dégustation." An olive farm, where they sold their own olive oil and olives. Personally I loved it because I love love love European countrysides. And there was a goat. Double win.

Goat, I know you're tuning your butt to me, but on the inside you love me, because I love you, and that is how love works. 

Their gift shop

Olive trees. We have a ton of them on campus (and I found a bunch of pomegranate trees on our way to class. Fruit ninja success!) 

This is a little out of order, but she was explaining to us that the big wheel thing in the fourth picture down turns the thing in the second picture down and crushes the olives, then the paste is put into those blue things in the picture below and the oil is pressed out of it. This is the old method, which idn't uesd much anymore, but hey, there you go, olive oil history. 

And then we ate the olives and the oil...

And then we bought the olives and the oil...

This is our civilization professor. Mom: he reminds me of Wojek Adam. I swear it's him in French form. He's awesome, well-traveled, fascinated by everything. He says everything as if he were reciting a Shakespeare play.

When we got back a few of us went to La Place de la Comédie, which is the central part of Montpellier, and absolutely gorgeous, especially compared to where we live. (a few days ago I heard a girl ask "wait, are we in the ghetto?"). A couple of the people wanted to take the tram, but we convinced them to walk (much better idea). I can't wait to finally have some free time to be able to explore it some more, it's beautiful. 

school of medicine

Arc de triumph 

Statue of good ol' Louis

And we ate food

We had originally just gone to the train station downtown to get ID photos taken because we need them for all our paperwork. We all had quizzes and homework for the next day, so we're just going to go and come back. 

Then we passed what the group has been calling the Pirate Bar. Okay, it's no secret, lots of students study abroad and freak out about alcohol. Yeah, I guess it's cheaper here, but it's really not that big of a deal. Some people though... you worry me. 

Anyways, the bar is called the Black Pearl, and for some reason everyone had been talking about it. "I'm going in to get a drink, I'll just take a shot or something." Said one guy (I need to think of names for these people...). "Are all of you going?" I asked, being both my 'I need to study for the quiz' nerdy self and the 'I don't really like alcohol' party pooper self. But they were all going, and it was just one drink, and so what was I supposed to do, walk back alone? So I went, they ordered and I babysat the stuff. 

One drink my a**. They brought a tray of 12 shots, each flavored like a different fruit. 

"You liars!" I said. "I don't know how it happened, I wanted a shot and somehow I ended up with this. It was only 20 Euros!" Replied guy who I need to name. I'm not going to lie, it was really fun. Everyone tried a bit of each one. Eh, it was alcohol, not a big fan, but it was amusing nonetheless. 

I got back and started studying with a girl here at 10 pm, which was a little stupid of me. I stayed up until midnight, decided I needed a break, and went out on our "stoop," the stairs in front of the dorm which we sort of claimed as our hangout place. 

I met a French person! They were just hanging out. I had seen him cooking in the kitchen. Skinny little typical French guy with a name to match. Finally a conversation in French...well, mostly French, a little bit of English, some Spanish, and three words of Polish. 

So besides going to bed way too late, it was awesome. There are a lot of subtle things, short conversations, inside jokes, etc., that have been making this so great. It's impossible for me to explain, it's not really like anything I've experienced. Like I said before, it's a little like Dawn Days, a little bit like camp...but different. Suddenly four months seems too short and I want to film all of it.