Pictures of My Weekend

City Center

Cheers to new friends :)

Le bistrot de Bacchus

Beautiful aqueduct!

Soooo pretty at night!

Fabre Museum

Le jardin des plantes

Mexican baked eggs...new recipe...turned out really well!

The salad that Peter, Claire and I prepared.

A Break in the Clouds

“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.” –Charlie Chaplin

Before I Depart:
 

I figured that before I leave for Ireland, where I will certainly not have time to be blogging, I should catch up on a few things that I don’t want to forget to mention later.

First: NEVER…EVER...EVER...use Ryan Air…it is not worth the stress and hassle! Not in the least. After they booked me for the wrong flight and charged me to change it (plus didn’t refund what they charged for the wrong AND charged me for the new one), they got my name wrong on the second ticket so that it did not match my passport. Online, it said it would cost me 110GBP to change my name—three letters!!! I absolutely refused to do that, so I asked Fred what he recommended. He said the best thing to do would be to just go out to the airport, but since that would take me over an hour to do by tram/bus, he drove me. So, in the middle of him moving apartments, searching for beds, a washer/dryer, and a refrigerator, catching up with his research and all, I had to have him take an hour and half out of his day to take me to the freaking airport to get this all straightened out. Luckily the lady there was very helpful and changed my name no problem. She said since I came to the airport, she could waive the fee and change my name, but there was no way to do that online…..thank goodness Fred offered to take me!! So, now I have every finger and toe crossed that Monday was the last of my problems with this airline and that everything goes smoothly when I leave tomorrow. I felt bad asking Fred to take me to the airport again since it’s a bit of a ways out and I don’t want to take any more time out of his already crazy, busy life! Therefore, I will be leaving the house before 10 o’clock tomorrow morning so that I can get to the tram by 10. From there it will be about an hour ride into the stop where I will catch the bus to the airport. But the bus only runs every hour and half or so, so I plan to catch the bus that will get me to the airport at around 12:45 so that I will have plenty of time to figure everything out before my flight at 3:15. 

My biggest concern is navigating the airport in Leeds because I think I might have to go out of the airport and then back through security. Since RyanAir is a subpar airline, they only offer single flights. So I had to buy a roundtrip ticket from Montpellier to Leeds and another one from Leeds to Dublin (I may have already mentioned that). Therefore, I am not certain how my switch in Leeds will work. Fortunately I have a decent amount of time, and I am not checking on any baggage so I will not have to wait at the carousel, but I’m pretty sure I will have to go thru customs and all. I guess I will find out tomorrow! I hate how much anxiety these kinds of things cause me, I was anxious to the point of nausea on Monday and Tuesday, and today has not been much better. Sometimes my anxiety is out of control! I will be happy when I’m finally in Dublin and speaking to Dabbs in person, because only then will I believe it is really possible…haha.

The other thing I didn’t want to forget was about cooking with Peter. Yesterday before I left for work, Peter proposed that he and Claire and I cook dinner together that night. I, wanting nothing more than to spend time with people and loving to cook, of course accepted. So when I got back from work, we set to work. Peter made tea and Claire turned on some music...I believe it was Bing Crosby…but I can’t say for certain. I need to ask Peter. Then we set to work…it kind of felt like a Christmas break evening (despite the palm trees blowing outside and the heat inside) which is one of my favorite feelings in the ENTIRE world. I wish I could bottle that feeling and then pour a little on me during a bad day, because it can brighten the darkest of moods. Peter taught me how to make Spaghetti Bolognese and bread pudding, plus we made a huge salad with approximately a thousand different vegetables (and grapefruit which was interesting). We worked for THREE HOURS!! Peter was in “really good form” last night, as Claire says. Apparently he has some sort of pretty serious heart condition plus a slipped disk at the moment, so he is on a lot of medication and some days he really doesn’t do well. He spends all day in bed most days and usually can’t be up for too long because he is in so much pain and his heart problem acts up. But last night, he was up the whole time telling me what to cut and how and where to put what, dancing around the kitchen, singing along at the top of his lungs with the music, and smiling and laughing the whole time. Words can’t explain how much fun last night was—definitely the highlight of week 2!!!

Today when I got home from work, Peter was watching "To Sir, With Love". I LOVE that movie. The first time I watched it, I was with my mom and dad and I distinctly remember that night for some reason. Anyway, it made me really, really miss home and my family, but I enjoyed watching it with Peter too. He had a lot of insight into the background too because he grew up in Britain and he was old enough to remember that period. So his comments and insight were very interesting. As my mom predicted, I cried at the end…but I still loved it! Great movie…and great song too :)

 

I now have less than 7 weeks left here in France, and by the time I get back from Dublin, it will be 6. Also, the students from UofL should be here when I get back from Dublin. And a week after I get back, I FINALLY get to go to Paris to see Josephine and the Starons (the family I lived with in Paris two years ago) whom I absolutely ADORE!! I am sooo excited about that! Then I go to Vienna for a week with Josephine and her friends…then I spend the weekend when I get back in Paris with Josephine’s parents…and then by the time I get back to Montpellier, I have only 3 weeks left!! Things are really starting to pick up…and I’m starting to have SOOO many things to look forward to, which is what I love. Having nothing to do doesn’t suit me very well, as you have probably found.

So with fingers and toes crossed, I will go to bed tonight in the hopes that by this time tomorrow I will be suffering the sarcasm and humor of Dabbs ;)

“Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment, and know that everything happens for a reason.” -Albert Schweitzer

If Only I Could Make Up My Mind

« La vie est faite de petits bonheurs » (« Life is full of little pleasures »)

Sunday Amanda invited me to join the group at the beach because they were all going. Fortunately I got more credit on my phone, so I was able to get ahold of her and find out where they were. After eating a nice breakfast with Peter and Claire, I headed out to the beach. It’s quite a trek to the beach. I had to take my tram into the city center and then take a different tram out of town where I then transferred to a bus that took me to the beach. I’d say it was a good hour to get there from home, but well worth it!! The beach was absolutely gorgeous!! On one side of the horizon, there was a gorgeous city with white buildings that formed a beautiful skyline and on the other side of the horizon there were little mountains and hills which were absolutely stunning. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, just bright blue sky blending smoothly into a deep blue-green sea. Ahh, so beautiful! I’ll admit that I was quickly reminded that I was on a beach in France when I looked around and saw way more speedo-donning men and topless women than I had prepared myself for, but I learned quickly not to stare…or laugh. The beach was relaxing and absolutely wonderful!! I wish I would have stayed longer, but I was so terrified of getting sunburnt (I really think that is the worst the pain in the entire world and I detest it) that I only stayed for a few hours. Unfortunately, I didn’t get nearly as much of a tan as I would have expected, but at least I know next time that I can stay much longer.

Though I enjoyed being with the Amanda and the other girls from Minnesota, there is always that discomfort that comes with being a girl that is trying to infiltrate already established cliques  of girls, and I can only handle that for so long before I would….wait for…prefer to be on my own!! Yes, I know, this goes against EVERYTHING that I have been saying for two straight weeks now. I annoy myself even more than I annoy you, I’m sure of it. As I was laying there on my beach towel soaking in the warmth and the rays and listening to them all talk, I thought to myself “I think it would be easier if I was just on my own than trying to make myself fit into this group.” I think it comes with the territory of being a girl really. And it is nothing against these girls, they are all very nice and friendly and they don’t exclude me by any means, it’s just that they already have experiences and memories together and there is no way for them to incorporate me into the relationships they have already established. Such is life I guess. But, in all, I enjoyed my day at the beach and the company that came with it, and now I know how easy it is to get back and I will most definitely be going again!!!

Saturday evening I decided I wanted to go out for dinner somewhere new so that I could see some more parts of town. Claire suggested a place for me to go—a restaurant down the street from one of her friend’s restaurants. The restaurant was all the way on the other side of the city center, so it took me around 45 minutes to get there after leaving the house (that includes the ten minutes where I was lost trying to find the place). 

The little restaurant, called Le bistrot de Bacchus was located down a quiet, quaint little alley way in Les Arceaux which is the area with the huge, beautiful aqueduct. The “bistro” was just a tiny little space with about five tables places around a bar area behind which was the chef/bartender/owner and his grill and everything. He was a very tall, very broad, very jolly man and he was also very friendly! Claire’s friends were hanging out at the bar (the only other people in there) and, since Claire had called earlier to make a reservation for me, they knew who I was. The woman is from London, so she spoke English, and her husband, though I could tell he was French, spoke English as well. So they talked to me for quite a bit and gave me some suggestions on what to order before they headed to out to a little concert that was going on under the aqueduct. I had “Gigot d’agneau” (leg of lamb) with sautéed vegetables and white wine for my main course and it was undoubtedly a five out of five stars!! Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! And for dessert, I had pistachio crème brûlée….definite five stars again!! It was a bit awkward sitting in such a small area with just the chef and his friend/server, but I enjoyed my food so intensely, that I nearly forgot anyone else was around. 

Afterwards, I strolled along the aqueduct—not necessarily purposefully, but I got lost trying to find the tram stop and ended up down at the festival, so I decided to enjoy the view for a bit. It was unusually cold though and I was too tired to deal with that, so I decided to head home which put me back around 11. The walk from the tram station to home was still dark and creepy, but I managed it a bit better this time.

Today, I decided to visit some of the main tourist attractions in the city so that I don’t somehow end up missing out on them. That’s the thing about staying in a touristy area for an extended amount of time….you think you have so much time to see all the tourist attractions that you keep putting it off and then somehow you never really see them...happened to me in Paris (I didn’t go up in the Eiffel tower until my very last week there!!). 

So first I went to the Fabre Art Museum which was fairly large and proved to be a bit of a maze, but I made my through (and found my way out). While it was enjoyable, it wasn’t anything that really took my breath away, mostly due to the fact that I know absolutely nothing about art and absolutely no artistic ability. Which is not something I’m proud of. I envy people with artistic abilities. I so wish I could draw or paint or even take stunning picture or produce interesting graphics, but when it comes to an artistic side, mine is nonexistent. I enjoyed the displays as best I could with what little knowledge I have. Sometimes they all just kind of looked the same. Since it was all historical pieces, there were a large amount of paintings of religious scenes, people’s faces, and harbors. Even if the content matter was not all that interesting to me, I was still thoroughly impressed with what these artists are capable of!

When I finished there, I decided to try to find the Jardin des Plantes—the botanical garden in the historical part of town. I got completely lost, but in the process, I found the Arc de Triomphe, Royal Peyrou plaza, and the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre. And then finally, I stumbled down a random road and found the botanical garden over the wall to my left! The whole thing was outdoors, but it was gigantic and lovely. There were trees, flowers, and every other kind of plant from all over the world and there sooo many different passageways through a mini forest of trees, or a little garden with a small pond and countless different flowers, or through a small stone tunnel and up uneven stone stairs, or zig-zagging through a maze of hedges and bushes. It sort of reminded of the gardens scenes I fabricated in my mind when I read Jane Austen book like Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, only, fortunately, I wasn’t wearing a dress from the time ;)

By the time I finished there, my feet and legs were sore and tired, and I was pretty well spent. There is a lot of walking involved in these adventuring trips of mine. Usually all the pretty sights take my mind off of just how much my body is protesting, but by the end of today, I couldn’t ignore it much longer. So I headed back home. However, I believe today was a success. I happily ventured out on my own and saw some stellar sights. I somewhat wish I would have had someone around to take pictures of me in front of some of the places, but other than that I was very content today. Astonishing how it takes me finding people to spend time with for me to realize how happy I can be alone. That’s not to say I want it to stay this way though. I know that there are some students from UofL coming at the beginning of next week and I’m hoping that I will find a good friend or two in some of them. 

Though I now know that I can be content alone, I also know that I enjoy myself much more when I find good company to join me. It’s just that I don’t find just anyone to be good company. As my sister would say, “Beggars can’t be bitches.” And I suppose this is very true (who knew that a quote which came about during a session of Kelsey doing my hair and me complaining about how it looked would be so applicable to my life!). For the moment, I am just going to work on being happy no matter the situation in which I find myself. I’ve already learned that it is harder than it sounds, but I believe it is something that is very important in life in general. I think that a major problem of mine is that I am constantly trying to change things to make them “better” because I think then I’ll be happy, when really all I need to do is be happy about what I already have or what I’m already doing, and if something better comes along in the process, then I can happier. That’s my epiphany for the week ;)

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” –Margaret Lee Runbeck

Follow the Yellow Brick Road--aka the Tram Track

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” –Winnie the Pooh

I believe it is about time for me to catch up on things that have been happening over the past week. Until Friday, there wasn’t a whole, whole lot going on. However, once Friday came around, things picked up very quickly. Now it is Sunday and I have much more to report.

We’ll get the less interesting things out of the way first…work:

Monday I had a meeting with an “engineer” of sorts and Marion where I learned how to map the faces of the elderly individuals in the photos that I have been sorting. By putting 14 points in specific places on all of their faces, we will eventually map the asymmetries and cross reference the finding with each individual’s health history. At the moment however, I am just putting 14 points on stranger’s faces which is about as enthralling as it sounds. By the end of the day I am usually slightly cross eyed, suffering a minor headache, and absolutely ready to stop sitting in a chair and staring at a computer screen! By Friday, I had mapped 230 faces—3,220 points!!!!

Fortunately, Marion and Fred make good office company (when they are there). I only saw Marion on Monday this week because she had to work a lot on her other project which takes place either in her hometown (about an hour away) or at the hospital in town. Fred came back on Wednesday and was in and out from Wednesday to Friday. I found out that he just very recently completed his divorce and he is now looking for a new place to live, along with a bed, refrigerator, washer, and pots and pans. So, needless to say, he is rather preoccupied at the moment. But when he is in, he is great company. He has a great sense of humor which I appreciate and he is very attentive to any needs I may have (besides my need for company…). I realized this week that he bears a striking resemblance to Hugh Grant. I could think of worse people to resemble for sure. 

Meals:

Lunch is still slightly uncomfortable since no one really makes an effort to speak English, so I usually just pretend I’m very intrigued with my food. Which actually doesn’t take a whole lot of effort because the food is pretty fantastic…not really even by cafeteria standards. Wednesday I had duck and grilled zucchini plus dessert , yogurt, and a starter for less than 3 euro! Also, the guy at the end of the line that takes my card to run it through know my name now haha! He’s very friendly and we exchange hellos in French when I go through the line now.

At home, meals are much less awkward. We have all figured out each other’s modes and methods now, I think. So I make my own meals and we all just sort of work around each other in the kitchen. We all sit down to eat together though which is really nice because I absolutely hate eating by myself. I do now find it enjoyable. And since I find cooking to be uber relaxing, it is the perfect fit because I’m able to prepare my own food, but I’m still able to eat with company.

Exploring:

Monday and Wednesday I went out for a run which was very nice if I negate the fact that I’m ridiculously out of shape and the hills in this area are outrageous. On my first run, I ended up at the IRD where I work. There is a nice little forest with a path across the road from IRD, so I ventured into there, but then I got creeped out because it reminded of the setting in Vampire Diaries where they locked up the dangerous vampires to petrify. That thought got me moving pretty quickly out of the forest…I guess that’s one method of motivation. Wednesday I ran in a different direction and ended up at the university that right down the road which I didn’t even know about. I also stumbled across the tram line that I did not know was there, so now I know how to get home after the buses stop running. It’s rather humorous when I go out exploring and I run all over the place and just when I think I’m totally lost and will have to really think hard to figure out how to get back, I stumble across somewhere I’ve been a dozen times. Which is what happened Wednesday when I was on my run thinking I was in no man’s land and then suddenly turned a corner and wound up at the grocery store. The same thing happens when I wander around in town; I will end up at the same historical landmark two or three different times and each time I’ll come from a different direction. I guess this place is smaller than I thought. 

Future Plans:

Tuesday night I booked a flight to visit my friend in Dublin next weekend. Technically I booked two flights because I’m flying RyanAir which is a smaller airline, so they don’t do connecting flights. Instead, I had to book a roundtrip flight from Montpellier to Leeds and then another roundtrip flight from Leeds to Dublin. I thought I had done this all correctly and I had received two confirmation emails and I was sooooo ecstatic to finally have plans to see someone I knew and spend time with a friend that I mistakenly got my hopes up. Wednesday when I checked the confirmation emails, I realized that somehow, despite very careful  and close attention, had booked to round trip flights from Leeds to Dublin and none from Montpellier to Leeds….ugh!! I immediately had a mini freak out/anxiety attack/break down and then…..called my mom. Because, really, what else is there to do?? She was able to get back to normal functioning so that I could navigate through the website and find the spot where you can change flight itineraries. Whew! I think I probably ended up paying a fair bit more than I should have, but as my mom said, “There are some things that just aren’t worth getting worked up over.” And with all the things here that I HAVE thought are worth getting worked up over, I don’t really have any energy left to get worked up over any fixable mishap. So, *fingers crossed* and *knocking on wood* (to chase off any unwanted bad luck) I will be leaving Thursday afternoon to see Dabbs. I will arrive in Dublin on Thursday night around 9ish and I will stay until Monday when I have an 8 o’clock flight out! I would like to get my hopes up, but I have decided that it very rarely ever works out in my favor; so until I see Dabbs in Dublin on Thursday night, I will pretend that it isn’t even happening ;)

This weekend:

So, this weekend, Marion was staying home which is a ways away, Fred was trying to find a place to live, my friend from home that is studying here was in London, and Claire and Peter had plans of their own, leaving me toute seule. I decided to just get over it and make the most of the situation. Friday there was a HUGE music festival ALL OVER town called Fête de la Musique.  Basically any musician anywhere, or really any person who has even a semblance of a dream of being a musician, can set up in a free area in town and play music. So I headed into town for that. There were heaps and heaps of people everywhere (including the areas outside of the city center).  I just wandered around as usual, stopping when I heard some good music, and carrying on when I heard some not-so-good music.

Eventually I walked past an Irish pub that a girl from UofL that has been to Montpellier before suggested to me as a good place to go if I’m missing English. Not only was I missing English, I was just missing talking period. As anyone who knows me well (or maybe even not so well) will agree, I’m not one for extended silence. At the bar, there was a group of about 10 young girls hanging out and talking to the bar tenders (in English!!). I really didn’t want to come across as creepy or desperate, but since I am most definitely desperate, I decided I’d risk it anyway, so I asked them where they were from. They were all very friendly, and a few started talking to me, but then they all decided to move outside, to I took up talking to the bartenders who are brothers who lived in California, but have dual citizenship in England, but have lived in France for the last few years or so….

After a while a few of the girls came in and invited me to come sit outside with them. Since it was a beautiful night and there was music (and company) there was no way I could say no. They are all here with a study abroad program from the University of Minnesota and they’ve been her for two weeks living in individual homestays, but they get together for group outings and they are all moving into dorms on Monday. We all talked for a while until they were ready to leave and, being inviting to join and really not wanted to spend another evening alone, I joined them. I had a really, really good time just talking to people my age and finally being with other people that I could relate to.

We meandered around the city finding different spots to stop and listen to bit of music and random bars to stop in and grab a beer. The night was absolutely gorgeous. It was that perfect temperature where you don’t really even “feel” the air…not too warm, not too cool. Ahhhh, it was great. Eventually the group starting splitting off little by little and I ended up with just one other girl Amanda who was very laid back and fun. We went into a tiki bar place where we got mojitos and then strolled along the streets until we wound up at an “English” part of town where they were playing more music that we knew and the crowd was much younger.  It was the first really enjoyable night that I’ve spent out since I’ve arrived here. At least up until we decided to go home. 

That’s when things took a turn for the worse. When we got to the tram stop (around 12:30), we realized that the tram routes were changed in some areas due to the festival. (The "trams"-- or what I refer to as trams--are more like streetcars, so they run along tracks. Montpellier has four different tram lines running in different direction out of the city center.) Apparently the tram line that I was supposed to take home was the one that was the most changed because it ran through the central area of the music festivities. However, since all the signs were written in French, we couldn’t tell exactly where the tram was running and where it wasn’t (I think anxiety had a bit to do with that too). Since Amanda was going the other way, she didn’t have that issue. So, when we thought we had figured out what the signs were indicating, she took her tram home. Leaving me there to figure out that what we had believed the signs to say was not, in fact, what they had said. I actually can’t even remember what we thought they had said at first…probably because it made absolutely no sense, but I remember realizing that my tram (Line 1) was definitely not coming to the stop where I was waiting. I knew where the next stop for Line 1 was though, so I decided to walk to that one since it wasn’t too far and it was through the middle of park.

When I got to that stop, I decided I would wait there because surely the tram would be coming to that stop, but when all of the people that were waiting at the stop piled into a tram for a different line, I reconsidered my previous conclusion. After taking a deep breath and reading the signs again, I finally understood what it was saying: Four consecutive stops for Line 1 were shut down for the night, so line 1 trams were running out of one side towards one of the Line 1 terminals and different Line 1 trams were running out on the other side of the closed stops towards the other Line 1 terminal (not sure if that makes sense if you can’t see the map). Essentially, I was pretty sure I needed to walk four stops up in order to get the tram I needed to take me home. So I began walking along the tracks. I found out very quickly that the reason the line was shut down was that there were bands accompanied by humongous crowds of people set up on the tracks. Humongous crowds of very drunk, very wild people. I think this would have all been somewhat enjoyable if I hadn’t been alone…and if I hadn’t been worried that I would never make it home. As I said in one of my blogs, my mind has an uncanny ability to conjure up every single worst case scenario when I’m alone—especially at night.

As I was walking, I saw some security guards, so I went up to them to make sure that I was heading in the right direction and that I had understood the signs correctly. Turns out they didn’t speak English, so I had an excellent opportunity to practice my lost and helpless French skills. Which turned out to be pretty good, in fact. They pointed me along in the same direction I was going and informed me that the trams weren’t running along this section tonight---which was fairly obvious considering we were having this conversation in the middle of the track as about two or three hundred other people did the same. When I asked if it was safe or not, the guard said “Uhh, are you alone?” to which, after I glanced around me to see if there was anyone else near me that looked even remotely associated with me and found none, I replied, “Uhhh, yeah...” (In French, mind you). He responded with, “Ummm…(pause)..no you should be okay.” Ahhhh, what reassuring words…! Not! But, seeing as though I had no choice if I didn’t want to sleep on the tracks with the drunkards, I continued along the not-so-yellow-but-certainly-brick road/track as I sympathized with the Cowardly Lion like I never have before.

As I approached the next stop which was also closed, I saw some Police, so I decided to stop and verify that I was still walking along the correct track. Our conversation (all in French again) went a lot like the last. They informed me that I needed line 1 to get to my destination (which I already knew) and that the tram was not running along the track this far down because of the festival (which I also already knew). But they did tell me that I was close to the stop where I could get the tram! Yay! When I finally battled my way through the crowds to the stop, I verified with security there that I was in the correct spot. I was, hallelujah, and a few minutes later, my chariot arrived in the form a blue tram with white birds painted on the side reading Line 1 on the display screen at the front.

I got back to my stop around 1:30 or so (the whole episode felt much, much longer than it actually was) and then I had to make the 15 minute trek back to my house, up a huge hill, and along mighty dark streets all alone. There was approximately no one out except for a few shady characters that didn’t help my already extreme anxiety. I swear, if any movie producer wants a good script for a new horror film, all they need to do is stick me in a unknown country alone at night and I will have no fewer than 15 written for them within 5 minutes and they will be very original with very diverse ending and they will make bank at the box office for all those sick people in the world that enjoy subjecting themselves to feelings of fear by watching a scary movie. I have never, and will never, enjoy scary movies; not only do they terrify while I’m watching them, but they manage to stick around in some little corner of my brain just waiting to jump out and reintroduce themselves when I’m in these types of situations. ARGH! 

But, in the end, I made it home safely—not necessarily soundly. And I curled up in bed, ate some cookies, and listened to music until I fell asleep. It’s amazing how relative the term “home sweet home” can be at times. 

“And a mess is still a moment I can seize until I know,
That all will be well.
Even though sometimes this is hard to tell,
And the fight is just as frustrating as hell
All will be well.”

“All Will Be Well” –The Gabe Dixon Band (This is the song that plays on repeat in my head when things start going wrong and I begin to get anxious or scared or uncertain. I find it to be very soothing and stress-relieving.)