Relaxation is Good

This weekend is one of my last that I will spend fully in Montpellier. With fall break starting on Wednesday and then many trips planned for November it was nice to just hang out for a weekend and not be stressing about trips or homework and planning. On Thursday we had a little birthday celebration at our program office for all the October birthdays which was a blast. Then I cam back to my apartment and just hung out watched tv, ate a fair amount of nutella and went to bed early which is a rarity in my time here. I don't think I've slept past 10am the entire semester. Friday, I did some food shopping, and a few other errands, then I worked with my friend on our project that is due on Tuesday. For dinner my friends Sam and Alberto decided to make an impromptu Mexican feast with rice and beans and chorizo and we made tacos it was delicious. I know the second I get back I am driving straight to chipotle. My friend Alaynah slept over Friday night since both my roommates are out of town this weekend and then on Saturday morning we made a delicious American breakfast with the Aunt Jemima pancake mix that my mom sent me for my birthday. They don't have maple syrup in France but they were just as good if not better with nutella! Saturday was another lazy day with a bunch of netflix watching. Sunday got a little more exciting! My friends Gabby, Hannah and I woke up early to go to a bar to watch France take on New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup. All the bars were packed with people carrying huge french flags, and faces painted and trumpets. It was a great experience to hear all the French cheers and all the excitement but unfortunately France lost to New Zealand 7-8 in a close game. My friends and I were so impressed with how classy the French fans were though after the game they just clapped and went on their way home it was not rowdy at all. Here are some pictures from our program's October birthday celebration:

The candles that my mom sent me! Not exactly a baskin robbins ice cream cake, but I'll take a birthday tarte aux pommes.

Edward, Audrey and I blowing out the candles

Story: This is a chocolate pear cake and I told my friend Mary that and she was like oh yea chocolat poivre cake, but in fact poivre doesn't mean pear it means pepper, pear is poire in French so for the whole night we just made fun of her about how excited she was for the chocolate pepper cake.

Trips to come, in case you are wondering where I will be at in the next month...
10/27-11/1 Fall Break 5 days in Rome with my mom! and then a day in Marseille on the way back
11/4-11/5 Nice, France
11/11-11/13 in Montpellier for now but I will probably go on a day trip to Grenoble or Bordeaux
11/18-11/20- Barcelona!
11/24-11/27- Prague with Alexi New!
12/2-12/4- in Montpellier
12/9-12/11 day trip to Avignon
12/17 @1:15pm Washington D.C.
12/18 VILLANOVA

Time is flying by so fast, there are so many more places I wish I could go, I guess I will just have to come back to Europe again!

Bonne Anniversaire

So as many of you know yesterday was my birthday, and it was also the birthday of my lovely twin sister Kate Jeszeck and my roomie Allison Pepper so shout out to them too! For my birthday unfortunately I still had class but I went out to a delicious lunch with a few friends to a crepe place and had a delicious banana, dark chocolate and coconut crepe for dessert! Then after my grammar test which was super easy and I hope that I aced it, I went to a fondue restaurant with my friends Gabby, Sam, and Alberto. This fondue place was amazing, for about 20 euros we got a "cocktail maison" which was like white wine with a sugary coating on the glass. Then we got cheese fondue, with unlimited fresh baguette to dip in it, and the meat fondue with 4 different amazing sauces, all of which I don't really know what was in them and along with the fondue we had fries and salad. Then along with the food they served us wine in baby bottles which was the most bizarre and awesome experience of the night! And then finally the amazing chocolate fondue for dessert with bananas, pound cake, oranges and apples. It was probably one of the most amazing dinners in my life.

Gabby and I enjoying the baby bottles of wine

Myself, Alberto, Sam and Gabby at the restaurant for my birthday!

Gibson and I, his birthday is the 20th so we had a big celebration at midnight!

London: The Lesser Known Food Capital of the World

So as you know from my previous blog post, I went to London a few weeks ago with my Dad and saw most of the touristy things but this past weekend I went back to London to visit one of my best friends from school over Villanova's fall break. I got an amazing but completely different view of London but visiting Tom and hearing all about my friends at school and what everyone has been up to did make me a little homesick. On Thursday morning I arrived in London and we drove around Richmond, went to a park that had some views of downtown London although admittedly Tom couldn't find the exact place he wanted to show me. Then we went to the pub where he used to work and I had my first of many amazing food experiences over the weekend. I had some traditional fish and chips and beer of course. Then we took the tube into London, we walked around Trafalgar Square, where they now have a clock counting down the days until the Olympics. We walked through Covent Garden which had a few street performers, some were a lot better than others, and a bunch of cute shops. To end the day we went to Abbey Road! And of course for dinner we had to hit up Nando's since there are over 200 or so in London and in my opinion it is amazing!

Abbey Road

Olympic countdown Clock 288 days!!!

Tom: clearly enjoying Nando's...or just not very happy that I'm making him take a picture

Saturday we woke up early and headed into London, we walked along the river from Waterloo station to Borough Market which was a lot further than anticipated but well worth the walk in the end. Along the walk we stumbled upon The Millennium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral and The Globe Theatre. Then we finally found the most amazing part of the trip and awesome food experience #3: Borough Market. For those of you from Philadelphia it is similar to Reading Terminal Market but just 10x bigger and better. We walked around for close to an hour just looking at all the choices of what we could eat. They had kiosks with beer from around the world, fresh cheese, Indian food, desserts, any kind of meat you could possibly want literally everything. In the end we decided to start with chorizo sandwiches with fresh red peppers and "rocket" which I later learned is the British word for arugula. Then I had some Vietnamese Curry chicken which was also amazing and spicy, spicy food is so lacking in France so it was nice for a change and then we got some freshly squeezed juice to top it off! On the way back from Borough Market we went to Harrod's which is literally the fanciest, biggest, craziest store ever. It has at least 5 floors and they have gourmet food and wine, and clothes that you could never afford and then at the top they had a pet store with the cutest puppies in the window and a pet spa I mean this place if ridiculous. Then we headed back to the bar that Tom used to bartend at, we only intended to stop in and say hi but 3 shots, 3 beers and 3 hours later we were still there just talking to all the people it was awesome! After that we got some pizza and these doughball appetizers (amazing food experience #4) and hit up some other pubs in the Richmond area!

Globe Theater

Borough Market: this picture doesn't do justice to how awesome it is

candy shop, one of millions of amazing rooms in Harrod's

Saturday, it was finally time for me to be educated in the ways of British sports. We woke up at 8 am, if you know Tom at all you'll know that is shocking, to watch the France vs. Whales rugby game. I learned, for the most part, the rules of rugby, how everything is scored and the goal of the game although apparently game scores end at around 30 points and the result of this game was 8-9 which is rare but France is on to the finals so I'll have to continue my knowledge of Rugby and get up early to watch next Sunday. Then we had lunch at like a baby Borough market in Richmond and we had these delicious Moroccan chicken sandwiches (amazing food #5) and then we headed into London because Tom bought us tickets to an actual British football game. We saw Blackburn play QPR, and even though those are like the 2 worst teams it was awesome to see all the crazy intense fans, it was a completely different atmosphere than any other sporting event I've ever been to. Although we had to keep it on the DL that Tom is a hardcore Fulham fan since in QPR's last game they lost to Fulham 6-0. The game ended in a 1-1 draw with a little questionable refereeing and then we went back to have a chill night since we were exhausted from the last 3 days. We picked up some Indian food (a must in England) and again amazing and then relaxed and watched tv all night, something I miss so much at home since I pretty much have no time to just sit and relax here.

QPR Stadium

Sunday we got up early and headed off for our flights back but it was an amazing weekend and it really made me miss all my friends at home, although of course once I arrived back in Montpellier and it was warm it reminded me of all the amazing things about here! I'll leave you with some pictures that sum up the rest of my trip! On another note the exact halfway point of my program is coming up on October 19th which just happens to be my birthday :)

Tom driving a mini cooper on the other side of the road...so British

Tom's house

The only picture of the two of us from the whole weekend, 5 min before we left

So much beer!

Les grèves en Frances

Les grèves the word for strikes in French is a common occurrence and just something I have to adjust to in French culture. French society is based off the idea that if work conditions aren't to ones liking striking is always an option, a frequent option. There have been 4 strikes so far since I have been in Montpellier and 2 of which I experienced today. The first strike which happened a few weeks ago was a strike of all the teachers from Kindergarten to high school in public and private schools. There is a presidential election coming up in May and we have been told there are lots of strikes to come because the President of France, Sarkozy, is cutting 30,000 jobs for teachers in the next year because of the increasing economic crisis. Over the weekend there was a strike of the SNCF, the French rail system, which was great timing for me because it was pretty much the one weekend that I wasn't travelling by train so I wasn't affected. They were striking because one of the train conductors had been assaulted and they were standing on solidarity with him for better protection on the trains.The strikes today were a different story. First, there was a strike on the public transportation in France, so the tram, which I take to school on a daily basis was running but not very frequently and certainly not frequent enough for me to make it to class on time. So I took an hour long walk to the university to make it to class on time today. Although, the walk was quite enjoyable and I got to explore parts of Montpellier that I had not seen before. When I asked one of my teachers what the reason for today's specific strike was he responded, "they haven't striked in awhile and needed a day off." Although I'm sure that is not the reason the tram workers claimed for their strike it does represent the attitude towards work in France which is that less is more. 

Finally, the last strike that I experienced today was a hilarious strike in my opinion but nevertheless a strike. In our cafeteria at the university there are different stations, there are lines for chicken, hamburgers, pizza etc. but today there was no pizza because there was a pizza strike. Yes that is right the workers that serve just the pizza in the cafeteria were on strike. I don't know what they were striking about but my friends and I thought it was hilarious. Since there are more strikes to come our program has developed a plan for if our university goes on strike so don't worry parents I will still be getting all my credits even if we don't have our university classes. 

Pays Cathares, Anduze, Bambouserie

On Friday we had a field trip for my Medieval Literature class to the Pays Cathares which are Medieval castles in between Montpellier and the border of Spain about 2.5 hours away. However, typically French the bus driver needed to stop for a half an hour break after we had only been driving for an hour because he gets tired, and then he got lost and took us like an hour out of the way. But we finally got to the first castle Queribus. First off it was the first "cold" day we've had in Montpellier yet it was about 60 degrees and then once we climbed to the top of the castle we had to hold on to ropes because it was so windy and cold up there. We explored the castle and saw some amazing views, it was an amazing castle. It is excursions and field trips like this that make me think this is really a once in a lifetime experience.

View from the top of Queribus

Hannah, Rowena, Paul (our teacher), myself, Jess with hoods up because its so windy

The castle!

Then we drove about 15 min to the other castle, Peyrepertuse. However the bus wasn't able to drive all the way up to the top so we hiked pretty much straight up a mountain through brush for about half an hour to reach the information desk for the castle and then hiked some more up to the top. It was definitely my workout for the week but the view at the top was totally worth it. At the top we were able to see how far we actually hiked and it seemed amazing that we actually made it all the way up. There were amazing views and this castle was much more magnificent and larger than Queribus.

We hiked all the way to that top part of the castle

Amazing view from the top

My friend Kat and I on the hiking trail

We didn't get back from the Medieval Castles till almost 10pm so we stuffed our faces at this Vietnamese restaurant since we were forbidden to eat or drink on the bus and then passed out because we had to wake up early in the morning on Saturday for our excursion part 2! On Saturday our group headed to a Bambousserie, which is this bamboo forest in the city of Anduze about 1.5 hours away from Montpellier. It was beautiful seeing all the bamboo and very different from the foilage that we have in Montpellier. There were beautiful lakes and huge trees similar to those in Northern California.  We learned about this one type of tree that resists fire, and bugs and everything and even after Hiroshima the tree grew again the next spring like nothing had happened.

Tranquil: Garden of the Dragons

Bamboo!

Dan, myself, Alberto, Morgane, Alaynah, Hannah, Katy at the Bambouserie

After the Bambouserie we went to Les grottes du trabuc, which is basically a cave into a mountain where they have all these stalagmites and stalagtites and underground natural lakes, it was pretty amazing. We learned that each of these stalagtites takes almost a century to form it was crazy. We toured into the cave for over an hour because it just goes deeper and deeper into the mountain. Although at this point we were all super tired and were not really paying attention to the tour guide at all so I don't think she liked our group very much.

Here is a little video on top of the second castle because I feel like the pictures do not do it justice. (Do not mock my horribly videography skills haha)

Enjoying Montpellier

One of the first weekends that I haven't traveled, I spend the weekend exploring Montpellier. Friday, a few of my friends and I took the train 15 min to the port town of Sete, very close to Montpellier, we hiked up the mountain in the center of the town and at the top there were great views of the whole area which was especially beautiful because it is right on the beach. Montpellier is having the hottest fall since like 1900s so it is still in the mid-80s almost everyday. After the hike we had lunch and walked around the port town until we found our way to the beach. We were supposed to take the 5:15 train back to Montpellier but we were having such a relaxing time at the beach we didn't leave till 6:30. 

My friends: Gibson, myself, Alberto and Sam on top of the hill in Sete!

Beachhh

The view of Sete

On Saturday, I had a very relaxing day, I attempted to sleep in but instead woke up kinda early to have some amazing bbm chats with my friends Lauren and Tom, and then spent the morning just cleaning my apartment and attempting to get some homework done. In the afternoon I went to Odysseum with my two friends Jess and Katie to go shopping because there was a big sale over the weekend. It is cool to go shopping because we don't know what half the stores are so we just go in and see what they have although they do have Sephora and H & M and some of the same stuff as in America but it tends to be a lot more expensive. Then we went to this new restaurant that just opened, Tommy's diner, which is an American style diner. I think they just tried to combine every sort of food that they think Americans like because not only did they have burgers and fries but they also had burritos and quesadillas. It was also hilarious to read the descriptions of the food. For example, pancakes: a food traditionally eat for breakfast in North America, thicker than crepes and usually eaten with syrup or butter. I got a burrito because there is basically no Mexican or any sort of spicy food in France so I really miss that. After dinner we went to see Crazy Stupid Love in English with French subtitles it was funny because we would laugh so much more often than the French people because they didn't fully understand all of the jokes. We ended the night with some dessert crepes and ice cream all in all an amazing day.

The American flag toothpicks that came in all our food

Dessert!!! I got the Fantasy crepe with dark chocolate, raspberries and whipped cream, yummmm

Sunday I woke up early because I finally found a semi-cheap pool to go swim laps at but as most things in France it has really weird hours on Sunday so it was only open from 9am-noon. It took me like half an hour to actually find because of course in France they have no signs directing you anywhere. But once I found it, it was great to actually be in the water swimming again! There are some major differences between French and American pools though: 1) Swim caps are required to be worn by everyone, including men, and babies even if you don't have a lot of hair--luckily I brought one with me. 2) There is pretty much no organization, like in lap lanes there will just be kids playing with toys like there is no designated area for swimming as opposed to playing. 3) Lifeguards: there was only one the entire time who just kind of sat, she had no lifeguard tube I'm pretty sure I didn't see one in the building. Nevertheless it was a wonderful Sunday morning and I will definitely be back there again soon. On the walk back I explored the city a little bit and I found this little Farmer's market where I got probably the best tomatoes I've ever eaten, and they also had a ton of fresh cheeses for pretty cheap so I will definitely go back there soon. This week I need to try and get a bunch of homework done because we have a field trip for one of my classes on Friday and classes are actually starting to pick up!