They said it would happen...

A couple weeks ago I went through a phase here where, to be honest, I just sort of wanted to go home. Nothing in particular was wrong, I wouldn't describe the feeling as homesickness, I just wanted to take a real shower, eat some healthy food, have a nice big room. I was happy to be here, but I was also really happy to be going home in two months.

And now all of the sudden that changed. I received an email concerning Task Force, the hell-death class they make all IS majors take winter quarter senior year. I have been fearing it for two years, and now all of the sudden here it is. There will be many, many panic attacks.

Then I started thinking about life after college. Task Force will suck, sure, but I've been through this enough times to know it will end, I'll hyperventilate a little, calm down, do my work, rinse, repeat a few times, and the quarter will end. And then I have one more quarter and then... I walk off the edge. Real life, that thing. Ugh, I've been trying to hide from you. I don't have a plan. At all. And I'm aware of how irresponsible and unlike me that is, but I spent a few months of my life freaking out about it, and I realized it wasn't helping at all. So I stopped.

After France, all this stuff is going to start. And all of the sudden the sun here seems to shine a little brighter (all day everyday, be jealous Seattle!), the bread tastes better, Triolet seems bigger, and I really don't mind only half-understanding everyone.

And after visiting Barcelona, I was actually homesick...For Montpellier. All their inefficiencies and crappy sandwiches and the tiny room and the constant smell of pot, seeing the same great people everyday. I missed it all (especially, and I can't stress this enough, being able to communicate on some level). Montpellier you're slowly growing on me.

It's happening... the thing everyone said would happen: I don't want to leave.

Les Grèves

Oh the French and their grèves... (strikes)

There have recently been some funding cuts to UPV, and, as always, les Francais are not happy (because when you pay 250 euros for school a year, you better be getting some pretty frickin' awesome service, am I right?).

So, today the students had a strike, which, from what I could tell, consisted of a guy yelling in a microphone.

I was in the library checking out a book and a couple of them busted in and just started sounding that annoying alarm thing on the microphone, announcing the grève, yelling things I didn't understand. The librarian tried to kick them out but it took a while before they stopped and left.

So yeah... that was interesting. If something like that happened at the U, I'm pretty sure the librarian would have called the police.

How school here functions: it does not

Okay break time. Yesterday and today have consisted of me sitting in front of my computer desperately trying to catch up on work, i.e. researching everything my profs have been talking about in English and trying to make sense of it all.

It seems like everyone in my program keeps saying how much free time they have, me, on the other hand, I feel like I can't keep up. I have class three days a week (try not to let your jealously get in the way of our friendship), yet somehow I end up going to sleep late every night with my to-do list longer than it was when I woke up.

Besides simply trying to get a grasp of what's going on in lectures, there are readings...I think...?

Allow me to explain with an example. I am signed up for two integrated classes, which are regular classes for French students, and two RI classes, which are just for Anglophone students, so they are quite a bit easier. In one of my integrated classes, the professor told us during the second lecture that we need to read a book. Which book? There is a list of about 30 books online, and everyone just chooses one. So...everyone will be reading something else, yet somehow there will be one final at the end of the semester. Okaaaaay...

Confused, I went up to him after class and asked for suggestions on what I should read, maybe something that is relatively short or easy to understand. He gave me a list of three books, and told me to read "a few chapters out of this one" (without specifying how many or which ones), "and then one of these books."

Okay, umm...sure.

Then I did something of an internal double-take. Wait...what? No, this makes no sense.The next week I went back to him to ask for more detail. "You really only need to read two or three books off the list."

Huh? No, no monsieur, you said one, how does one turn into three? Numbers are not amoebas, they do not divide this way.

He sighed the way all my professors sigh after they realize that I'm "that student" who is going to monopolize their office hours and fill up their email in-boxes, "look, the most important thing is that you read the articles I put online. The students here don't read, there are a lot of students here that aren't even going to read that!"

"Okay...but will they pass?"

"No."

So...how does this help me?

Another example: my history class. Each lecture comes with a list or readings. The first week had a section of a textbook and two full books. The next one also had a lot. I was overwhelmed and I emailed the professor asking if we really need to read it all.

I'm going to be honest, UPV isn't exactly known for their high academic standards, it seems to be the butt of everyone's jokes, and walking around campus you get the feeling you are at some odd, pot-filled, cigarette-filled underfunded high school. There was no way they get more reading than I do in the Jackson School.

Turns out the prof pretty much lectures out of these books, but I didn't get a clear idea of whether I should or should not be reading it.

I get the feeling that both profs were basically telling me to do what I want.

So I'm trying my best to keep up, although I'm not sure what exactly it is I need to be doing. I basically never have any clue what's going on. Finals week is going to suuuuuuuuck...I think?

Paris

Up until now all my travels have just been day trips around the area, a bus ride to Sète, a train to Toulouse, etc., but this whole weekend was spent in Paris.

Last summer I spent a couple days in Paris with my mom on our way back from Poland, and to be blunt, I was sorely disappointed. The city wasn't magical and the food didn't make we weep with joy. The trip was stressful and uncomfortable and unplanned and tinted with the sadness of having to leave our loved ones once again.   

This time? Still not magical, exhausting to say the least, but undoubtedly better. I think I was able to enjoy it more because I had gotten over the initial disappointment of finding out that at this point, Paris is simply famous for being famous. It's like a Kardashian, basically. I didn't expect to be blown away. 

Paris was strange though, in that it both made me feel like I was back home all while making me the slightest bit homesick for Montpellier. The Starbucks (Oh Starbucks, how I miss you), the Polish/English spoken around me, the civilized living situation: it was comforting. But I like hearing the tram ding at night, I like the warm weather (Paris was literally the first time I had worn jeans since I got here), and I missed hearing more French than English around me (and I missed the southern French accent, I like it). 

I'll elaborate. 

I was able to stay in a lovely apartment (see last post). After living in Triolet for almost two months (wow, already?), this apartment felt like a mansion. I literally couldn't fall asleep because I would keep opening my eyes to marvel at how far away the wall was from my face. The bathroom was probably as big as my room here, and it was actually a separate room, as was the kitchen. All the faucets worked for as long as I needed water, I didn't have to press a stupid knob every 30 seconds and I didn't have a nasty shower curtain sticking to me. And there was a living room area. And the bed was so comfy. I think this alone made the 70 euros I spent on train tickets worth it. 

I didn't have too much time to enjoy it though. I literally had four hours of sleep a night, I would just pop in at late at night and pop out in the morning. 

So, the trip:

We had tickets at around 5 pm (weird hour = good price), so we rolled in after 9, starving . There must have been over 20 of us from my program there that weekend, but I went with a group of four. After finding our respective apartments, we got food. Chinese food. A girl in my group speaks Chinese, so I think the shop owner liked us, she gave us some free dessert too. 

Yeaaaaaah buddy. It was great. I miss Asian food of any variety. We almost got sushi but didn't (darn). 

And then...we saw it, the first one in a long time. Could it be real? Yes. "Guys stop!" Mouth open, arm outstretched, finger pointing: A Starbucks! The most beautiful form of globalization there is. Too bad it was closed. 

We wandered around looking for the Eiffel Tower, found it all lit up, sat under it, and ate our takeout. That part was great, there was a lot of good energy, we were hungry people with food, good places to stay, and in Paris, we were all just really excited to be there. 

Then at one point two guys walked up to us and starting asking us in broken English if we wanted wine. Great price. Do we want? No, we do not want. But great price! How much? Only 20 Euro. Umm...we can get 2 euro wine at Carrefour, so no. Okay, 15 euro? No. 10? No. How much you pay? 3 euros. No. 

It was really irritating.

The guy was literally shoving it in our hands trying to get us to get it, it must have taken 10 minutes to get rid of him. But once  they were gone it was great. 

While we were eating the Eiffel Tower started twinkling, which it does every hour on the hour, and that was really pretty. 

We then walked along the Seine and took to many pictures. 

I got back at two am ish, and went right to bed. Oh, that bed. It was luxury I tell you! 

The next morning we met up at the Starbucks. I got there early, bought myself a fruit and grain bread thing (fantastic, by the way), and apple and an Americano. Sigh...as good as I remember it. I will not say how much I paid for it, I'm a little ashamed, but I regret nothing! 

We spent our morning in Montmartre, which I think was my favorite. That was the one place I hadn't been able to go last year. Maybe not going there with my mother was a good thing, though: walking out of the metro toward the Moulin Rouge, the street is literally alllllll sex shops. Porn movie theaters. Sex museums. Lots and lots of that stuff. 

But Montmartre is really cool, it's not nearly as touristy (until you get to the Sacre Coeur, that is), the shops are cute. I was able to quickly see some of the stuff from the movie Amelie. 

At one point I saw the most obvious tourist group ever, wearing there neon yellow hats. I went a little closer and realized they were Polish, I got really happy and sort of stood there awkwardly listening to them talk.

We saw the Sacre Coeur, the view from the hill it's on is just amazing. 

I would have been happy spending the day there. I had done Paris, I wasn't interested in all the big sights, and I really liked all the shops there. I think I annoyed my group a little with all my stops, sorry guys.

Although there was one scary encounter. Walking away from the Sacre Coeur, these guys came up to us with bracelets and were trying to get us to buy one. I said no, and they went over to the guy in our group and grabbed his wrist and would not let go. That was a little freaky.

But, sadly when one spends a day and a half in Paris, one cannot really take anything in, it was go go go. 

I'll admit, I think there was a little bit of tension in our group. One person wanted this, the other wanted that, we were sort of pulling in different directions. Don't get me wrong, I liked everyone in the group a lot, it was just an inevitable result of having too much to see in too little time. 

But we moved on to some of the more popular parts of Paris: the Notre Dame, the lock bridge, we saw a memorial for those killed by the Nazis in the camps, which was interesting considering the French typically stay silent when it comes to that. We went to the Champs Elysee, walked into ridiculously expensive stores, and, or course, to the Arc de Triomph. This time I actually went to the top, another fantastic view. I actually liked it better than the Eiffel Tower: for one thing, when you're in the tower you don't see it, duh, it's cheaper, and you get to the top way faster. 

After that we picnicked with a couple other girls who had come to Paris, pot luck style, under the once-again lit-up Eiffel Tower.  

Then we tried to do the Nuit Blanche thing. That was a bit of a flop. We had expected all of Paris to turn into basically an outdoor museum. Turns out there were only a couple cool things, and they were spaced out too far to walk. We saw some fireworks (disappointing, by the way, more smoke than fireworks), and after I wanted to get on a metro to find some cool stuff, but a couple others in our group were tired. So we headed home. 

The next day was reserved for the Louvre. I had slept eight hours in two days and my leg was doing the same thing it did last time I went to Paris (Sometimes when I walk around a lot the inside of my knee all the way down to my foot starts to throb, and while sitting for an hour makes it go away, sleeping for four apparently does not. I was hobbling), so I wasn't really feeling the whole Louvre thing. 

But I'm glad I went. It was the first Sunday of the month so it was free, we got there early so the wait was only about 45 minutes. It was cool, there were some things I liked, but I felt a little claustrophobic, there was just too much. By the end all I wanted to do was go get lost in a forest somewhere. But I saw the Mona Lisa (not as disappointing as I expected, actually), Venus de Milo, some Greek stuff, some Egyptian stuff, lots of paintings. And a surprisingly large number of Polish people. After a few hours of that and an overpriced sandwich we headed back to the train station to head home. 

Overall: I don't regret going at all. There were better times and worse times, but overall a good experience.Next weekend though, I'm taking off. This girl needs a weekend off where she can sleep and maybe get some studying done for once. 

PICTURES - be warned, there are a lot:

We traded our Montpellier tram for some Parisian metro

first Asian food in months. Heavenly. 

We saw this big metal thing, I don't remember what they call it though

STARBUCKS!! HOME!!!

Of course, the two Seattle people indulge. So worth it though, I miss the atmosphere of Seattle Cafes. 

The part of Amelie where she leads the blind man? Right here!

Goats. :)!

Creepiest clown you wish you never saw

Sex

sex

Moulin Rouge 

Cafe that Amelie works at

Polish tourists. My people!

Sacre Coeur. 

view fro the top

No photos inside. Oops. 

Obligatory selfie in front of the Notre Dame. 

Lock Bridge. 

The memorial. And a guy peeing, apparently.  

Would you like a purse for 800 euros? That depends, would I like to eat for the next three months?

from the top of the Arc de Triomph

They were all doing it, sigh...I hate selfies. 

I also dislike cheesy hearts... But I did it. Be happy Allan. 

Rawr!! Some head off the Arc de Triomph

Nuit Blanche: it wasn't all a fail, we crashed some party under a bridge, but it turned out to be a bunch of high schoolers. I felt so old!!

"Fire works" America: you win, they kind of sucked. 

Louvre

I found all the people struggling to get pictures of the Mona Lisa more interesting than the Mona Lisa herself. 

I liked this painting though

I saw a bunch of paintings that I had been forced to learn about in high school when I still hated French. Like the coronation of  Napoleon

This is what it looks like when you enter, you go down and you choose one of three wings 

Liked this one too.