Hold me back, cause I'm gonna snap!
Its amazing how being pissed of is the perfect antidote to make a person want to let all their aggressions out on a piece of paper or in this case, a computer. I think that you may start to think that the only time I am going to blog is when I’m pissed and angry, but I think that for me that’s when it’s the easiest to actually sit down and write. Unlike my friend Tricia, who is blogging from D.C. and has decided to make a new blog entry every Sunday, I on the other hand blog whenever I feel like it. And today, I feel like it. So why so angry you wonder? Well, what else? My host mother. Seriously, this woman is going to drive me insane before I leave this country. She has managed to spoil my happy mood by once again scolding me for something so minute that only a crazy person would care. She is such a clean freak and anal retentive bitch that everything I do makes her scold me for not doing it her way or god forbid dropping a crumb on the floor. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider myself to be a neat person, not by any means. But I am not a dirty person, and most importantly I am not a disrespectful person. I have been raised well by my parents to respect other people’s things, something that I thought that I have been doing all my life, but now it is not till that I have come to this freaking county that this belief has been tested. Since I have arrived here, I have been nothing but cautious as far as cleaning up behind me and so on, but this woman has managed to make me not even want to leave my room. I don’t even want to leave my room for fear that I may mess something up along the way. In fact I’m going to give her what she wants. I’m not going to leave my room. I would prefer to be cooped up in my room, then to be in her presence. And to make my day even worse, let me tell you what she told me tonight. I had made the decision that I would start making a lunch at home to avoid spending to much money outside on lunch, because that is not part of our program fee. So I walk into my house with some groceries such as pasta, bread, yogurt, soup, and so on. Simple things that would take like 2 seconds to prepare for a quick lunch. When I tell her this, she says no. She will not let me cook anything in her kitchen. She doesn’t mind if I make sandwiches, but I can’t even boil some pasta in her kitchen. What the hell?! Pasta?! Then she says that if I wanted to cook, I should have done an apartment stay. What is this? What did I sign up for? How is it that I got the worst host mother on the whole program. Everyone else’s families allow them to do anything that they want, including cooking. Some people’s families even allow them to eat lunch at their house for no extra cost. First it’s the TV, which she won’t let me watch while she’s there, now it’s cooking. Ok, whatever. I’ll stop. Thinking about this is only making me angrier. Breathe, 1, 2, 3….No wait! I am paying over $18,000 to live in this country and with this woman! She gets paid to host me and I can’t even make myself some pasta for lunch? I don’t ask her for much, but I think she could extend me that simple courtesy. Ok. I’m really done now. Now onto happier things….
I finished my ten page paper on Sylvia Plath last night at 3 a.m. Not bad I think for starting it that night. Granted it was in English, writing a paper in any language is a pain in the ass. Handing it in took a huge weight of my shoulders. To bad my host mom had to ruin that for me…sorry, I’ll stop. This weekend my friends and I are going to Sete, which is a beach city not to far from here. That should be fun. Oh and the best news of all, my close friend Patti and her mom are coming to see me in M-town for 2 days! I’m so excited nothing could ruin that for me! Well, I won’t lie, this whole host mother thing has tired me out and I think I’m going to turn in early. Check in tomorrow, because I promise you will have an update on my time here in M-town and also my break spent in Lyon and London.
A Plus.
So I suck at this blogging thing, who am I kidding I have a short attention span when I comes to journaling and shit like that, but I;m trying. I'm just sitting at our office today emailing and messing around on the internet. I'm very glad that I brought my computer because I am able to use my own computer and I dont always have to wait around for other people to get of the computers. We have a nice office with nice new mac computers and free wireless so that another plus. This is were I hang out most of the time, because other than school and going over to my friends houses every once in a while there really is not much else to do but browse the web for hours. Next week we are going to try to organize some trips or things to do in Montpellier, so that we can take advantage of the city, because time goes by very fast, can you believe I have already been here for 3 weeks? I cant. I have to say its hard to get used to the lack of nothing to do. I have so much time on my hand, I really need to start doing something, but what? Its not as if I didnt already know that the french take their time in doing everyting and that they like relax and stuff, but I really feel so useless at times compared to how busy I am in the US with work, meetings, and etc. We go to class, we eat on campus, and then we come to the office. My friends and I have started a new tradition where we go to one of their apartments and cook dinner. We've done this 3 times so far and its been really nice. I'm enjoying my homestay but at the same time I have some things about it that I dont like. My host mother is kind of diffeerent. She just so differenf from the Keita family I think that I have a hard time adapting to her and I feel like I have to step around her and watch out for everything I do to not to bother her. Shes nice but she is very quiet, and sometimes I feel like I am bothering her when I ask her questions. Shes a neat freak and as you know I'm not and I think that she has been so used to living by her self that she likes everything a certain way. She is acutally out of town for 4 days so I am by my self. I like it alot, it is so nice to have the place to my self. I can see why people live in an apartment. I've been cooking for myself and such, its nice. I think She actually got mad at me a couple of days ago and I was so mad because I didnt do anything. She said that I scratched one of her teflon pans and I didnt. I dont know, I hope that she will be a little me understanding as time goes on. I'm very lucky actually about were I'm living because I live on the bus line that goes time 1am while most other peoples bus line goes till 830 or so. That means that I dont have to spend that night all the time at peoples house. A couple of days ago my friend and I went to the beach for the day, it was so pretty but it was really cold! It is so so so so cold here! I am so mad at the UofM people for not telling me to bring a heavier coat. Its so cold here. and its not like in the US were you can go into a warm building instead you go into a cold house. Like my house. I am so glad, taht I brought slippers becasue the ground in my house is like pure ice. And i dont think the heat has been on once since I have been in that house, I sleep in my sweatshirt and with 5 blankets. its Out of control how cold it is. Though I was warned about how cold I would be. I think I am going through that homesick phase. I layed in bed last ngiht and listed of eveything that I missed, and it was a lot. But I am having fun its just different from what I am used to. I have made some great frineds here so thats good. But also I think that once the weather gets nicer It will be better because when its not sunny here its kind of depressing outside. Ok I'm sorry for this deppressing email I am really having fun so don't think that I am not. I'm just making observations on the culture and my experience here. I hope eveyone is doing well. Talk to you soon!
Hello Everyone! I'm trying to be as consistant as I can with blogging, but just as I am with emailing, letter-writing, and journaling, I always say I will and I never do. But no this time I really with stick with it because I want you all to know about my journeys through france! So I officially been in France for a week now and so far I am having a wonderful time. So the last time I left you I gave you a short summary of my first couple days. But now like I said before I am on my 7th day in Europe. On Sunday I moved into my new host families house. I was super nervous because I knew so little about my host family to be. All I knew was that her intrests included theater, music, film, dance, and that she was 49. So when she came to get me on Sunday I was super excited to meet her. Funny coincidence, for the last several months I have been reading the blog of a student that was studying in Montpellier through the University of Minnesota website. So the funny coincidence is that the girl that I have been reading about, ends up living in the family that I will be living in this semester. So basically I had already been reading about my future host mother. Ok, so when my host mother comes to pick me up, she seems super nice. She's short and french looking. So here is where my adventure begins. Oh and it is an adventure. So I have all my things backed in a duffle bag and a small carry one. But my duffle bag has no wheels. So I had to drag it. My host mother tells me that she didnt park to far so I just keep dragging my bag. Well apparently we have different ideas of what far is, because litterally I have dragged my 60 poung bag for like a mile and my arm is about to fall of. I'm seceretly crying inside and my arm is on fire. But I want to be polite and not seem like a picky american so I just shut up and swallow my pain. We arrive to my home. Its not to far from the downtown and our UofM downtown offices. The apartment is super super tiny but its really cute. I have my own room and I share a bathroom with Akila, who is my host mom. She has the place decorated really nicely with art and trinkets from all over the world. The first mistake that I make is that when I leave my room I leave the light on and she goes, "I'm going to turn your light of because this is not America we try to conserve energy" OOPS, lol, it wasnt mean but I did feel like a douchebag. Now I'm super good about making sure that I turn the lights of. The first thing that I did when I got home was unpack all my things and get situated. I had a super yummy dinner of Vegtable soap and something else that I can't remember, but it was good. I went to bed super early because I'm still recovering from this thing called Jet-lag. The next day was my first day of classes and I need all the Rest that I could get, for my first day of school at Paul Valery University.
The next morning my host mother dropped me of at school where I was supposed to meet the rest of the students to tour the campus. When she dropped me off, I had not idea where to go and I started internally freaking out. Then in the distance I saw some people I recognized and I got so happy! We took a tour of the campus. Its not what you would think it is. Its large, but kind of run down, not like the Campuses in the U.S. The students are very different and diverse, and they seem to keep to themselves. They are super chic and so trendy. They look so cute and they seem so effortlessly chic. I hate them for it. It seems like class here will be very interesting. We have been told that we have to approach the students or that they will not approach us. The first class that I had today was grammer. School seems so disorganized and it seems like no one knows anything about whats going on. The teachers also have a bad habit of going on strke and just not showing up to class. Typical. That was basically my first day of school. I was so happy to find out that food at school was super cheap because so far I have spent so much money in france! i wish I would have been old enough to appreciate when france was still using the Franc. Damn european union! Now being an american blows ass because it 1.31 euros to the american dollar with sucks!
On Tuesday I continued my second day at school. I took the bus their and the tram to school, it was nice and really not to complicted. The tram system is super nice here in Montpellier. When I got to class on Tuesday I was so happy to see that the class was also filled of other americans! I have made a super good group of friends here and we are taking all our classes toghether and we will be traveling toghether during our breaks! They are Kirstin who goes to school in Madison, Alexa, also from madison, Erica who goes to the U, and Eliza, who goes to UNC Wilmington. They are a bunch of cuties and they are really fun. Later that night we had a crepe party, that some french students had for us. They were so excited to meet us Americans. They all asked questions and spoke to us in english. It was very nice to finally meet french students without having to try too hard and introduce ourselves and stuff in france. They paired us up with some students to hang out with later to so hopefully I will have some french friends to tell you about.
I have to go now, but when I come back I will tell you about the big sales that started in france (because they only happen twice a year) and also about my friend Alexas 21st birthday party that we are all going to pre-game and drink before we go out hit the bars in Montpellier! Hope everyone is doing well!
So I have made it to Montpellier, finally after months and months of planning. I left Minneapolis on a group flight taking icelandic air first to Iceland. I was super nervous about meeting these people that I would be studying with for the next 5 months. When I got to the airport i tried looking around for students that were equally sad, confused and touristy looking as I did. And sure enough, I spotted such a group, noticing the dorky touristy passeport neck purses that people wear ( I avoid this trend like the plauge, their is nothing so lame). We all introduced our selves to eachother, (there were about 13 of us that chose the group flight option). With that we began our journey to france. Like i said before our first stop was iceland. the flight from minneapolis to iceland was about 5 1/2 hours. I was really quite nice. I had a little laugh becasue the movie that we watched on the plane was "one fine day" with George Clooney and Michelle Pieffer. I wonder if they know that he's like famous now and has done other more interesting movies! lol. So when we arrived to iceland we got on another flight taking us to Paris. that was a 3 1/2 hours. And again, apparently the people of iceland are still catching up with American movies. Because our inflight entertainment was "Ground Hog Day" with Bill Murrey. Granted I love the movie, but come on now, really? that movie's like 20 years old. We ended up having a 6 hour lay over in paris, looooong! and I hate the paris airport, it is confusing as hellm its uncomfortable and their is poor sinage for lost americans. Luckly I speak french though ( I became translator girl) So i got us out of many questionable situations! We got lost, almost took our luggage when we wearnt supposed to, stood in a line that we were not supposed to for 45 mins!! and so on. We also realized just how poor we are going to be living in france. We stopped at this little cafe to get some for to eat, and it costed a fucking arm and a leg for a croisannt and a damn soda! Oh well c'est la vie! So we were 2/3rds done with our journey. My flight to Montpellier from paris was only an hour. I sat next to 2 little boys, who were so cute and rambucious amd ate this interesting salmon and avocado sandwich. When we arrived to montpellier it was like a huge amount of stress was lifted from us. We went to the bagage claim and stood waiting for our baggage, watching everyone go and grab their bags, only to realize that few U of M students were grabbing their bags. One of the airport people came to us and was like theirs no more! We thought he was kidding...he wasnt. We didnt have our baggage for our first night in Montpellier. One the airport ladies looked at us and said "Welcome to Montpellier!"...thanks bitch. After 27 hours awake, that was a great way to start our trip. We went to the hotel in taxi and my night only got better. I wasnt on the roster. So I didnt have a room....great. So to aleave my sorrows, stress and confusion, I did what any american college student would do. I went out the the bar! Me and a group of girls went in the Place de la Comedie, right next to our hotel. Its a super nice square that is full of life. It was so pretty! The whole square was lite up in white lites, it was the prettiest thing I've ever seen. And to make it better their is a huge gothic opera house that was cover in twinkling lights that said Happy New Year! We roamed the streets, taking in the sites. So every one in Montlpellier is so incredibly stylish! I love it, and I feel so incredibly underdressed! I am obbsessed with getting boots!!!! Everyone has boots, every type of boot that you could possibly imagine, and they mix them with their outfits so well. Its ridicolous. So I'm gonna buy boots, the sale season is coming up, so what better time!
We went to a little cafe and ordered drinks. I got the most questionable drink. I was called the "tagada souin souin." Dont ask. I was the smallest drink i have ever seen in my life. It looked like a glass votive, or a candle holder. I was like pure vodka with a little strawberry syrup. and it was like 4 dollars! If I had had two of those I would have been drunk! While we were eating this guy came up to us and was like, you guys are american areant you....ah yeah? I guess he said he could tell by our eyes...ok, we'll take his word it! So I did Eventually find a place to stay. So that was my first night in montpellier. The second day we went to our new center for U of M students and did an orientation and registered for classes. It was really nice, we have computers, wireless and other stuff, qnd I registered for my classes. I'm taking a Translation course, a Grammer course, a Phonetics course, A Civilization of the South class, and a History of Communication in france class. It sounds busy but it should be nice. Later that night, the assistants took us out to dinner and they also took us to some of the hot spots of montpellier. The city is super young so their is lots to do! My friends and I decided to seperate though because we got some many stares because we looked like a ridicoulous group of tourists! So we went back to the hotel to change and then got ourselves some beer at the bar (the beer is called 1664, its good!) and then we headed out to antother bar to get some more beer! Being of age in this city is glorious! We'll I have to head to class so I'll update you on my family and my classes tomorrow! Hope everyone is doing well
Salut!!! (Pictures will be added as soon as I get a chance to up load them!)
So I'm incredibly new to blogging, but because I'm leaving the country for over 5 months, I thought, what better time then now. For those who do not know, I am going to study abroad in Montpellier, France. I'm leaving in two weeks and I'm in that paniced, excited, nervous and sad faze of getting ready to leave. I'm paniced because I have so many loose ends to tie up before I Ieave, such as doctors appts., figuring out my loan situation, saying goodbye to people, oh and one minor thing...packing! I have no clue what to bring! I still can't get over my packing guide for the semester. For shirts It suggests that I bring 3 blouses...what. 3 blouses? for 5 months? Are they joking? Well, I don't plan on using that guide, thats for sure! I'm excited becasue I've been hearing so many good things about the program, and I can't wait to travel, meet new people, oh and be at the legal drinking age! I'm nervous because I tend to over analyze every situation. So now I have things going through my head like, "what if I don't make any friends," "What if the french tell me I'm a stupid American!" or worse, "what if I live with a family who hates me and locks me in their basement?" Ok, so the last one's a little far fetched, and I've been assured I'll have a wonderful time, but either way what it all boils down to is that I am really nervous 
. Saying bye to my friends at school was the hardest thing to do. I didn't realize how hard it would be. Thank god for facebook, because without that invention, I don't know what I'd do. I know saying bye to my family will be even harder, I'm already getting sad just thinking about it! Well, how'd I do for my first blog? Good I hope I'll keep you all posted on my European adventures! Wish me luck!!!
host family
