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!