DONE.

05.13.09

DONE! Classes are done. Exams are done! And now I have two days left to enjoy Montpellier. Most everyone from our classes went out last night, and we celebrated big. It is bittersweet though, since a majority of them I will most likely never see again, unless I happen to make a trip to Sweden or Germany in the future (this definitely is on my to do list). Vero is adorable and decided she wanted to cook dinner for my family when they come! She is planning on making duck for our main entrée and some type of cherry cobbler for dessert! She also told me she wanted to get a bunch of cheeses for them to try and keeps asking me what they like to drink. She went out and bought whiskey and coke today, not sure if the fam is big on this but she is sweet for putting in the effort. She even bought me some canned duck from the south of France to bring back to the US!

Our whole language and culture gang is going out to dinner tonight at a nice restaurant to say our goodbyes and farewells. I am actually getting sad, and realizing that it may be quite some time until I come back to France again, but maybe my life may surprise me and I will end up here sooner than I think. Until then, I have a little over a week in France to explore and enjoy it! I am really looking forward to seeing Paris again, and especially going to Versailles! The gardens should be blooming away; I’m sure it will look surreal. Tomorrow I legitimately have to start packing, let’s hope I can get everything to fit! We are going to try to check out a Palace tomorrow that is in Montpellier, that we just found out about. It shall be an adventure!

PARENTALS: 2 days!

Last week?

05.10.09

Time is officially winding down, with all classes being done and only two days of finals to go! My first two finals were interesting to say the least. The first was hard, with only 14 questions discussing random facts that our prof had barely gone over. The second was a breeze, since our professor told us what to study and it was pretty straight to the point. I’m hoping they balance each other out, but we will see!

The integrated kids (the other program within ours), mostly all left today! It is crazy how fast time flies, since it feels like this semester just started. The kids in our program leave Friday, with many people taking the group flight at 6 am. My fam gets in around 1pm Friday (5 DAYS!) and I am meeting them at their hotel! I seriously can’t wait to see them, and especially for them to meet my French family! Vero has officially marked their visit on her calendar, so this made me happy she wouldn’t forget.

I basically lived at Maddie and Lauren’s apartment this entire weekend, along with Lexi and Mare. This was our last weekend together, a little bit sad! We all go to the U of M, except for Mare who goes to Penn State. It is going to be awesome to be able to hang out on campus, and we are obviously going to make a trip out to Pennsylvania soon. Mare actually already has a flight booked to come to MN this summer for Lexi’s bday in July, which all of us are already looking forward to. The weather this weekend was unfortunately not too nice, so we couldn’t make any beach trips, but we definitely made the most of it! I am so thankful for the wonderful friends I have made, and am so fortunate that the majority of them live so close. All in all, I am ready to go home, but I am definitely going to miss France, and my crazy French fam. Even though Vero wasn’t around all the time, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with the boys, their crazy three pets, and Vero’s spunky self. Last week in Montpellier starts now..!

Les jours final.

05.05.09

The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous! I was so happy I was not traveling and was able to enjoy it! Friday was Labor Day, Le Fête du Travail. It is apparently a huge deal and everyone was off of work! This included the tram workers, thus there were no trams the entire day. This was a bit of a pain, but I enjoyed the nice walk into town, taking me around 40 minutes. Maddie and I grabbed some delicious gelato and were able to observe a crazy parade! I am still not quite sure what it was for, but everyone was dressed like peasants, playing various instruments and frolicking around. It was amusing to us, and everyone else seemed to enjoy it too. There was an abundance of people in Montpellier this weekend, especially around the main Place de la Comedie. We spotted many French tourists, this being couples and families taking a quick vacation to the southern part of France for their long weekend. All in all, I was able to get some much needed sun in everyday. The man who served my food at lunch today even commented on my bronzed skin…woo!

I was also able to go out with my class this weekend! There are about 15 of us total who comprise B1 group 1, and around half of us made it out. It was enjoyable to see everyone out of the classroom environment and have a little fun! I learned a few things about my crazy classmates, including: Gia from Vietnam is 31 years old, Ming-y from Taiwan is taking up a job offer to be a web designer in California for the summer, and Soojee is staying in France for 6 years to complete all of her studies here! My class is great and I am going to miss them! This Wednesday morning we are headed to the Zoo to have a pique-nique (picnic) with our entire class, and two of our teachers. It will be a bit of a last hurrah to the end of classes and right before our finals start!

FAMILY COUNTDOWN: 10 days!