A couple quick stories

These are probably more deserving of a Facebook post than a whole blog post, but I find them amusing.

 This morning I went to a market held in Montpellier twice a week since my class was cancelled... kind of...? As I mentioned earlier classes have been closed due to student protests, consisting of barricading doors with chairs and desks, essentially the kind of behavior associated with juvenile delinquents and that would get you arrested in the US. Despite this one of my profs told us to come to "class" anyways. 10% of the students stood around outside with the professor talking to us about the protest for 15 minutes, and handing out the reading. So in conclusion, I lost of a lot of potential sleep for nothing. The other American students and I went and grabbed some coffee, then me and another guy went to the market. On the way back we walked through Place de Payrou and saw a bunch of horses and crowds of people and cameras. It looked like a protest...but why the horses? I just assumed they were having some sort of a horseback riding lesson thing for kids that day. Okay France, that's cute, I can accept that.

Then I went on Facebook I finally figured it out: it was a protest against eating horse meat. Wha-..why... huh? My professor told us it took her an hour and a half to get to school because of it.

Not my photos, I stole them from a friend off Facebook:

I mean I like horses too but... France why are you so weird??

Same day, another class. Like I said, our RI classes can't be cancelled because our program obliges us to attend a certain number of hours. They moved them to some random building in the middle of residential Montpellier this time. The email from our adviser said it would be easy to find. The email from our adviser was a lie.

I literally walked for an hour a route that should have taken me 15 minutes. Back and forth asking people every two seconds.  Most of them did that puff-up-their-cheeks, make-all-sorts-of-noises-with-their-mouths, "beh...uh..beh uh j'said pas" typical French thing. (If you've ever watched French people talk you know exactly what I mean. I can show you my impression of this when I get home). At one point I tried to ask a girl for help but before I could open my mouth she said "uh..je dois aller." Kind of an awkward sentence said with the most American of accents. Jerk, I'm one of you, we need to help each other. I insulted her internally and moved on. 

I finally approached an older couple (which, from my experience so far, are always the most willing to help, they're not in a rush, they know the area, etc.) and asked them where the road was. They practically walked me there, I was almost surprised they didn't hold my hand. 

I made it. Barely. Sweaty, and stressed, but I made it.

And that was my day dealing with some of the...let's just call them "cultural differences" of France. Protests, horse meat, closed universities... you know, the usual. Interesting day.

France, you continue to act like that child in the family, you know, that kid that kid that keeps screwing up but you can't help but love it anyways. I'm going to miss you and all your weirdness.