The End is Near-- What?!

I am definitely overdue for an update, sorry about that! Things have just been a little busy with school here and getting things figured out back home (classes, housing, job) that I have neglected my blog a bit. The bitter(sweet) countdown continues-- as of next week I only have 4 more literature classes, 3 grammar and phonetics classes, and 2  civilization classes (and keep in mind 1 of each of those classes is the final!). I can honestly say I have enjoyed each of the courses and feel I have taken away a lot more than I do in the States sometimes. I think the biggest reason is the mentality is just different here. Teachers don't want us to stress out over tests or projects-- they'd rather see the progress. Back home, it's one test/paper/project after another to just give us a grade and often I feel some teachers are not as concerned about the overall progress their students have made or if they have even learned anything. This is definitely something I'll keep in mind  with my future students. My progress is hard to measure, but I know it's there. Then again, I feel like I still have a lot left to learn and it just makes me want to stay longer, especially since I feel at home. Also, fair-warning: long post ahead!

Over the last week or two I can definitely say that I have had some more cultural experiences, which are always interesting. For my Literature class we were assigned to go see a specific play called "Les Negres", a play by Jean Genet that portrays some racial stereotypes between whites/blacks and was supposedly written to be seen only by whites in order to scare/shock them out of their stereotypical views. Interesting idea, and I am sure if I had understood it I would have enjoyed it more. Getting to the theater itself required finding a bus and asking if it goes to the theater, then getting dropped off in a parking lot with no theater in sight. The bus driver wasn't sure, but he pointed off in one direction and we hoped he was right. Funny enough, we actually had to walk through a park with a giant mansion where we found the theater on the other side. As we finally sat down my friends and I joked about how we were probably going to have a difficult time understanding, but we all agreed we would just laugh when everyone else did. The play began and we realized that we weren't going to understand anything. The biggest issue for us were the actors' accents which seemed to be of African origin--  pronunciation was WAY different and even the words I should have known were lost in the thick accents. After 2.5 hours of trying to understand we emerged from the theater and all tried to figure out what we had just seen. I am still not entirely sure, but I know I have to write a paper for it! Even our teacher admitted she had a hard time understanding parts-- so maybe she'll go easy on us :)
I also got to go to the French movie theater again, but this time we went to one called Gaumont, which is actually a big chain of movie theaters. My friends had been wanting to go see the Hunger Games, so I rushed through the first book, loved it, and went with them to see the movie. We went to see the "VO" which stands for Version Orginale because they keep it in its original language and just add French subtitles. I may actually go back and see it in French, but I didn't feel too guilty because I have already seen 2 big movies in French here (Intouchables and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). I am still incredibly impressed with the French movie theaters-- great screens, great sound, big comfy seats, awesome student discounts, AND no one yells at you for bringing in your own food!

Okay, time to break up this post with some pictures! I went to Anduze with my exchange group recently and it was just this small town with lots of history, especially with religion. We were able to walk around a bit and I even got my first scoop of ice cream in France-- it was a really hot day!

My mint chip ice cream: MINTY! Almost like being at the dentist. Also, it came with a glass of water that had a spoon, which I found interesting

Trivia Winners!

Every Tuesday there is a trivia night at a local pub in downtown Montpellier, and this last Tuesday I went with a huge group of friends to try and see how well we'd do. Well, let's just say that when your group has American, English, and French people-- you're bound to cover a lot of trivia! The guy who asked the questions read them off in both English and French, which brings a lot of different students, including others that we all knew within our program. The first round had about a dozen images of celebrities and you had to write down who each of them was. I was pretty good at that! Next came actual trivia, which ranged from French politics, to sports, and many other topics. The final round had clips of songs and you had to decide the artist/title with about 15 seconds of the song. Our group rocked, as we pulled a bit of knowledge from everywhere, and we ended up winning. To our surprise the prize ended up being a bottle of rum and a bottle of coke-- and with as many people as we had in our group, it was easy to split up! It was a fun night and we all definitely plan on going back again!

And finally, we all ended the month of March with a day at the beach. The beach itself was incredibly relaxing and wonderful, and yes going topless is definitely popular here so I am sure we looked  a bit like tourists, but none of us minded-- we were just happy to be laying in the sun! The trip to and from the beach? Total nightmare. It might have been easier had it not been such a gorgeous Saturday, but we ran into a number of problems which made us all loathe the transportation system (or lackthereof) when getting to the beach. Basically, there is ONE bus every hour that goes to the beach and comes back from the beach. Because it was such a nice day, it seemed like everyone was trying to get to the beach and there was a huge cluster of people waiting to leave. When the bus shows up all courtesy is thrown to the wind and it's every man for himself and people get left behind when the bus is fully packed. Our group managed to make it onto the bus, though, for the 30 minute ride. We spent the entire afternoon laying out, and decided to catch the bus that would pick us up at 5:30. The bus finally comes and doesn't stop. Why? Because it is already jam packed from the previous stops. So we head to the next stop, which is a bit of a walk, only to be passed by the next bus at about 6:30-- it is also packed. We walk again and make it to the first stop where we wait until about 7:30 to see if we can fit on that one. This time, when the bus came, people were way more aggressive-- full grown men pushing past tiny old women to get their spot on the bus. It was total chaos and our group got separated, but luckily my friend and I held onto each other and eventually made it on, only to find that the people who had pushed their way onto the bus had broken the door. We eventually got home and by that point I was ready to crash! Thankfully, there is a new Tram line that is set to start going to the beach beginning April 7th that might alleviate some of this craziness.

Whew, like I said, lots of updates! This Friday my two week April break starts and my friend Sydney and I will start it off by going to Toulouse and Bordeaux for 6 days and during the second week (my birthday week) I will be going to Nice and Monaco with my friends Vivienne and Adrienne :) After that break, we only have two weeks left of school and only a little bit of time until I begin my summer traveling on May 15th! I am feeling very lucky to be able to have all these wonderful experiences and I plan on making every last minute memorable!

Things I've Learned:

• There are solar panels on my dorm rooftop. Way to be "green" Paul-Valery!
• Apparently French theaters don't have intermission-- at least not the play I went to. Nearly 2 hours and a half hours in the same seat! Instead of having an intermission to change the set and their clothes, they just dimmed the lights and had the characters sing as they changed and cleaned up the stage.
• Movies are sometimes released earlier in France/Europe, like the Hunger Games which was released a day or two before the US.
• People who wear deodorant are definitely  not as common here as you would hope, either that or the deodorant barely works. I guess the winter covered that up a bit, but now with summer quickly approaching it is becoming more of a problem because...
• ...As far as I can tell air conditioning is nearly NON-EXISTENT and the trams have little air movement, especially when they are packed.
• I don't know why I have just realized this, and I know my mom's jaw will probably drop, but: A lot of people who handle food (like in a bakery) don't typically wear any sort of gloves.  Doesn't really bother me, I guess they wash their hands a lot because I once saw a guy come in to the little restaurant down the street and shake the cook's wrist instead of his hand when he said hello.