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!