Crisis averted

Another crisis, another solution, another lesson in how awesome people can be.

I have tickets booked for Paris this weekend. Normally they are around 100 euros both ways, but we found tickets for 70, and this weekend is Nuit Blanche, which is some sort of all-night art festival free thing (can you tell I haven't done my research?).

A friend had said she had found an apartment for that weekend for our group of four (airbnb - awesome resource, you can sublet apartments for a short amount of time). But that fell through, it turns out it was a little too far away from Paris to be worth it.

So we moved on to hostels, which looked like they were going to be twice as expensive. I had already spending 70 euros for essentially a day and a half, so I was being a bit stingy with money.

Last resort: I fb messaged a girl from the UW, also in the Jackson School, who I knew was studying in Paris, asking if she had any tips for me. We talked for a bit and she ended up letting me stay at her place.

What. A. Relief! I don't think I can overemphasize my gratitude!

So, this weekend : Paris. No sleep.

I went there last year and didn't like it much, time to redeem yourself city of lights.

Toulouse

I spent my Saturday visiting Toulouse with some people from the group.

Obligatory Wikipedia description:

"Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, EADS, ATR and the Aerospace Valley, considered as a global cluster.

Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution), the former Visigothic Kingdom and was the capital of the historical region of Occitania (Southern France). It is now the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées region, the largest region in metropolitan France. It is also the capital of the Haute-Garonne department.

A city with a typical architecture of Southern France, Toulouse has two historic sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Canal Du Midi (shared with other cities), since 1996, and the Basilica of St. Sernin under the description: World Heritage Sites of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, since 1998."

I had heard a lot of great things about Toulouse, so I think I may have gone in with my expectations a little too high, because I found myself slightly disappointed. At the same time I was really, really, really tired all day, so that didn't help the experience.

It was fine, though, churches, museums, all that jazz. It didn't blow my socks off but I didn't regret going; I had spent six hours straight the day before reading for a couple classes, which is a lot more tiring in French than it is in English, so I needed a day out. 

There were some pretty interesting things about Toulouse though: tons and tons of Subways (I think I saw six, and each one was more tempting than the last), and, surprisingly, lots of Japanese food. Sushi. I so miss sushi. I should have gotten some. Kerry: when I get back we are sushi-ing all. the. time. 

One of the UNESCO world heritage sites listed above

Inside the church

And the flea market all around the church 

Umm.... sure

We had separated into two groups and then we met up for a picnic lunch in the park along the rive

Okay, so everyone is going to roll their eyes but... when you walk into this museum, there is a garden in the center. And. There. Was. A. Fig. Tree. 

I may or may not have eaten like five. Or six. 

It was a whole veggie garden, actually. My friend and I started going after the grapes when some lady across the garden yelled "ca ne se mange pas!!" and gave up the stinkiest of stink eyes. Oops. Sorry...but not really. 

The museum was pretty cool actually, I must be getting old because I don't mind going into museums anymore. And we don't have to pay for them here, which makes is better. 

Nothing more magical than a man and his rooster. 

And a random tutu

We stopped in another park and just chilled for a half hour

And then this made me want to be five again. WHAT? Why does this not happen in the US?

Best Mommy Ever!

The other day I got a package from my mom and it was the best thing ever. Cliff bars and soup mix and towels and clothes and brown rice pasta (sadly hippy health food is less common here, and a lot more expensive. Oh the times I've had to walk past the almond milk, staring at it longingly, because it cost three times more than regular milk.) etc. 

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if you could just please find a way to transport a Starbucks or a Barnes and Nobles so I don't have to sit in my prison room to study, that would be swell. Oh, and maybe my dog too, I miss him. 

Study

Oh, right, I forgot, there is a "study" in "study abroad." For a while there I was thinking it would just be spending too much money on awesome weekend trips and going out with people in the evenings and living 45 minutes away from the beach.

A few days ago I was finally hit with the reality that I will be taking classes here, half of them are meant for native French-speakers, which means it is rather hard for me.

Going to classes here is exhausting in a way I never experienced at the UW. Don't get me wrong, I've had to pinch myself awake a few times in class, but here...

Suddenly my eyelids gain 50 pounds (perhaps at's all the bread and cheese) and I just cannot, for the life of me, keep my head up to take my half French half English half scribbles notes. It just takes so much more mental effort to focus and translate and write at the same time, that by the time I get back to my dorm I don't want to do anything but eat and sleep.

But I tell myself to stop, sit down at my prison-desk, and get some work done. And somehow, between looking for hostels and trains in Dublin, trying to plan my long weekend, responding to emails, writing my to-do list, thinking about what bills I have to pay and when I have to go grocery shopping, and "making dinner" (i.e. opening a can, gross)...I end up sitting there for four hours doing...something, but not my homework. And then it's 1:00 am, I'm too tired to focus, and I have not done anything.

One of my classes, history, has an oral final. At the end of the semester, I will walk into a classroom, the professor will ask my a single question which I will answer in French that would make Napoleon cry. 20 minutes later I will exit, and my grade will be determined.

Crisis number one. I stressed for days and days over whether I should take that class or an international econ class. Yes, the econ would have probably been a smarter choice, and from my use of past tense here you can probably deduce that I chose history. The econ class had a midterm the week after our 10-day break, for which I will be in Ireland and England so...

At the same time the history prof seems incredibly nice to us poor Americans, so I kept it.

Crisis number two. My other class. The class I thought was going to be a breeze, there was no question I was taking it.

I was wrong, it's really hard. It would have been nice if the professor had hinted at that the first week, or just not skipped the second lecture. Lectures here are once a week, and I had until the end of week two to decide what I want to take.

I was so scared I would screw myself over. And look at that, I screwed myself over.

I'm not trying to sound like a slacker here, but while I'm here I want to travel, I want to enjoy my time, meet some French people, go out. When I get back home I have Task Force waiting for me, that'll be more than enough stress. Then there'll be trying to decide what to do after I graduate, which...oh boy, don't get me started on that.

I'm not going to lie...I expected school to be sort of easy here. Judgement fail.

And so, here I am. I may or may not have broken down a total of six times in the past 24 hours, I need to go food shopping unless I want air for dinner, and I need to somehow get through what I estimate to be 150 pages of reading, try to plan a trip to Germany, find a place to stay in London, do my laundry, clean my room and do my dishes.

In conclusion... not a good week.

Andrée

For some reason I feel that it is my goal to make you understand the person who is Andrée.

The other day another girl in the program told me this story, and it basically describes her perfectly. I'm going to paraphrase what she said:

I was in Andrée's office trying so sign up for classes, and she was talking to me and there were these pigeons outside her window, and all of the sudden, in English, she goes *insert French accent* "I HATE pigeons."

She opens up her drawer and pulls out a water gun, opens the window and sprays them.

Now, you need to imagine this story being told with huge breaks because we were all laughing so hard. As I write this I'm laughing, I can't imagine anyone else in the world but Andrée doing that.

Part of the experience...

I wrote this a few days ago and I wasn't going to publish it, since, when I write, I tend to be really negative. But the reality of study abroad is that, while overall it's awesome and I'm really happy to be here, it can also get incredibly stressful. 

They said it would happen. At some point all the stupid little things here would stop being cute and start really getting annoying. Getting caught by the tram control, having to de-block my credit card, having to sign up for classes, constantly not understanding people, sounding stupid whenever I need to talk to someone, the inefficiency of everything here, dealing with bank stuff, random fees, figuring out registration.

It was one of those weeks where, if you asked me, I couldn't tell you exactly why I was stressed, it was just a ton of little things every day.

A very mild example: the other day I was getting lunch at the Resto-U, the university restaurant where we can get lunch for 3.15 Euros, and on my way to pay I grabbed a few napkins. I rarely finish my food, and since Europe doesn't understand the concept of take-home boxes, I end up putting whatever I don't eat onto the baguette (yes, at every meal here, believe the stereotype), wrapping it in a few napkins, telling myself that it'll be my dinner, failing to wait until dinner and eating it an hours later. But this time, the lady reached over the counter, grabbed all my napkins, took her sweet time pealing off one, solitary napkin, and taking the rest away. "Can I at least have two?" "Non, next!" I had had a really, really bad day full of French people yelling at me, and I really wasn't in the mood for anyone's crap, especially any French person's crap.

Writing it now, it seems very insignificant, but after the day I had, I would have treated stubbing my toe like the end of the world.

I'm very well aware that the world is not ending and I'll get over this and it'll be fine, and in a few weeks time I'll probably not want to leave, but right now I just want to hug my dog and scream in my own pillow and go into my kitchen and eat my feelings without worrying about how much it costs and go for a run at 9pm and go to Starbucks and Barnes and Nobles and ask for things in English.

It's just a reality of studying abroad, I guess. There are times when the excursions stop, going out at night stops, and you realize that you need to put on your big-girl pants and deal with big-girl things, that there is a "study" in "study abroad," unfortunately.

Throughout all this, though, I'm happy I'm here, it'll pass and I'll probably forget it, and I'm well aware of that.

Carcassonne

This weekend we went on another little day trip to Carcassonne, a fortified city about an hour and a half (by train) away from Montpellier.

Wikipedia, go:

"Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century, though the Romans had fortified the settlement earlier. Thefortress, which was thoroughly restored in 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was added to theUNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997."

I remember doing a project on the city for French class in high school, when French was my least favorite class and I couldn't wait to graduate so I could stop taking it. Then three years later...

Ironic.

I would be lying if I said it was as awesome as Sète. It was nice and all, but the inside of the city was just dripping with touristy nonsense, cliché shops selling useless knickknacks with pictures of knights. Thankfully there was a more historical area where we could actually go inside, learn a few things, see some nice views.

After that we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves for the four hours that remained, so we wandered around shops a bit, then bought two containers of ice cream because we couldn't decide on a flavor and ate them both while talking about emperors and the game "I have never" and Locke.

After that we walked along a really pretty path near a river close to the train station. This is a sad reflection on my tastes, but I think this was my favorite part. I didn't even realize how much I missed nature-ey things until yesterday. At home, I'm 30 seconds away from a pipeline, 15 minutes away from a 30-mile (I think) trail, it's green all over, I can bike everywhere, gorgeous hikes, apple trees everywhere. Cela me manque. I wish we could have walked more, but there was a train to be caught, so we went back.

Overall I can't complain, another successful trip in France. Next week (I hope) : Toulouse!

We ran into a Saturday market. I got some really cheap grapes

Do we eat you, or are you just an egg-laying chicken?

This picture re-inspired a topic that has come up quite often in the last couple weeks: Starbucks, and we miss normal sized coffee, and the closest one is in the airport in Marseilles, and perhaps it's worth the 40 euro day trip there just for that. 

First glimpse of the walled city

We must have stopped every 30 seconds for a five-minute photo-shoot

view...

Aaaand cliché nonsense... (how to become a princess/knight)

Church inside the city. 

And then we went inside, from which the view was pretty amazing

GOATS!!!

And then we walked along this thing. Baby ducks!

Too much mud to cross in nice shoes? Adam's got you covered. Proof that chivalry is not dead. 

My camera sucks at night, so just trust me when I say it was a great view