"Bon Thank-givings"

This is what my Carthage Milk man wished me yesterday when I went in to get my Tunisian sandwich for lunch. adorable! He explained to me a few things about making the bread and how to make the harissa sauce not too hot, so I'm going to try to make them at home...we'll see. The French don't celebrate Thanksgiving and find the story about the pilgrims and Indians pretty fascinating. Our program had a dinner for us at a restaurant since our host families weren't doing anything special. We had green beans (excellent), carrots (good), mashed potatoes (not like my mom's :( but still good), and turkey cooked in white wine (good, though slightly disorienting with every bite). For dessert we had "crumble" à la française...I thought it would be something like apple pie, but it was a little more like flan with apples in it, with caramel sauce. huh. It was good, though. I definitely missed my three Thanksgiving favorites - cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie - because they don't have any concept of any of those here, but I was glad to be able to still have the chance to share a good meal with friends.

Is it too cliché to reflect on things I'm thankful for? There aren't any huge surprises...I'm incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to be here, to have a wonderful family and awesome friends, to be in good health...in short, to be living my life.

. . .

The last few weeks have all but flown by, and I know the next few will probably be over even faster. I can't believe I'm leaving France so soon! But let's not talk about that right now...

We didn't have class on November 11 (they celebrate Armistice Day too, but for them it's apparently just for WWI?) so we went on an excursion with our language school. Remember our enthusiastic Occitan guide, Jean-Paul? love him. We visited several places the Cevennes mountains north of Montpellier, including La Couvertoirade, which is a tiny, sleepy medieval village.


It was hard to capture just how much of a cute, picturesque medievally village it was...

but I tried.

We ate lunch there at a similarly tiny restaurant. We had a traditional meal - sausage and aligot, which is basically mashed potatoes with unimaginable quantities of melted cheese mixed in.

I love French food.

After that, we went drove through Millau (a little town) to see the Viaduc de Millau, which the highest bridge in the world. It's something like 6 or 7 km long and taller at some points than the Eiffel Tower.

I took this from the bus as we were driving down into the valley...not the best quality picture but it gives you an idea of the scale of the area. It was kind of like rural Mediterranean + (Arizona + trees). So beautiful!

This is the only picture I could get of the entire Viaduc...

also obviously taken from the bus, but it (again) gives you an idea of the scale. enormous!

We finished our day with a tour of the caves of one of the 7 Roquefort producers in the world. There was even blue-green mold growing on the rocks in the cave! Very authentic. We learned about the process of making and storing the cheese and then tasted a few different kinds (who even knew there even were different kinds of Roquefort?!).

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Last weekend, I finally went to two places I've been wanting to visit: Avignon and Carcassonne. My friend Bonnie from the UNC program went to Avignon with me...we had so much fun.

Ramparts across from the train station.


Inside of the ramparts with beautiful light and fall leaves.

We walked around and saw pretty much all the Things You're Supposed to See, including the Pont St Bénézet (sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse) ...


and the Palais des Papes (Avignon was the seat of the Papacy for about 70 years in the 14th century, and then was the site of the anti-popes...more here) :


but since it's a pretty small city, we finished pretty early and just wandered around, which we both love doing.

In wandering, we stumbled on a Christmas market in one of the town squares...there were lots of little wooden booths and Christmas/winter decorations set up, and they were playing French Christmas carols. The theme was 'welcome to the farm' because it was a market of local producers of practically everything you could imagine...honey, duck, jam, figs, cheese, olive oil, nuts, wine... We went around to all the booths and tried everything - so much wonderful food that we weren't even hungry for lunch!


The people at the booths loved us because we were a) American and b) curious about everything...they were all so excited to introduce all the different stuff to do us. "Taste this! Taste this! This is is soo French! oh this too!" it was so much fun, and of course, delicious.

The only things we actually bought that day (aside from goodies to take home, yum) were amazing almond pains au chocolat and some cherry juice. Straight cherry juice. mmm

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The next day, Bonnie and I went to Carcassonne, and our friends Ali (also from the program) and Tristan (a British guy living with one of our program friends) came too. We had such a great time. When we got there it was about lunch time, so we went to Monoprix (like Target + Harris Teeter) and a boulangerie, and got some food for a picnic. We ate our baguettes, ham, cheese, and hummus next to a fountain in a large square in the middle of the 'low' city (i.e. not the medieval part, which is up on a hill). That's one of the things I'm going to miss about being here...the downtowns here are beautiful and so old.

Also the streets lined with colorful houses like this... we walked up this street on our way to the Cité (i.e. the medieval 'city'). Part of what I loved about Carcassonne was its normalness - it wasn't overdone for tourists by any means...we had to wander around for a while and ask directions to get there. What a nice change! Though I took this as we were walking back to the train station, it's the best picture I got of the first view we had of the Cité :

It really was like a fairy tale...or a dress up game, if your childhood was anything like mine :)


This was the entrance we went in.


Ali, Bonnie, Tristan, and I. Love that self timer.

View out the ramparts of the chateau towards the cathedral.


Us again! Tristan, Bonnie, me, and Ali, with the chateau behind us.

And, in case you haven't seen enough, more of the ramparts and towers:



Incredible. I loved it!!

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This Wednesday as I walking home, I encountered my first French manifestation (basically a protest, although the French will tell you it's different). Or actually, I encountered the war zone preparing for the protesters: several trucks with huge grills in front, I guess for pushing through riots, 6 or 7 trucks FULL of heavily armored national policemen, and several squadrons (word choice?!) of the same armored policemen with riot shields, or whatever they're called. [Forgive me, my English is deteriorating.] I stood in the middle of all this for a while...the French people were mostly milling about normally, though the ones who had to climb over a 7-fence-deep barricade to pass between the plaza and the road I was headed down looked a little bothered. I was so curious about what was going on that I asked some French people after they climbed over the barricade and they explained the wine producers were protesting against globalization and the French government. They asked me if I was English and what I was doing in Montpellier, and we started talking and ended up going to a cafe to stick around to see what happened with the manifestation.

I asked them what they were doing in Montpellier and they said learning English. When I asked why, they told me, among other things, it was for "manipulation" ...(of what?) ..."the American government." uh...quoi? I asked them if they liked Obama, figuring they would since most French people either love him or think he's okay, and they shook their heads so solemnly that I thought they were joking. Turns out they believe that Obama, Sarkozy, and Bush are all part of the Free Masons/Illuminati, and they are plotting to take over the world. I couldn't believe that I was actually talking with people who believe this...not to belittle them, but I've never encountered such adamant (or any) conspiracy theorists. They told me there is a large field of antennas in Alaska that is used to control people's minds and create natural catastrophes like Katrina and climate change. huh. Also that the trails airplanes leave in the sky are actually a product that is designed to fall to earth and weaken our immune systems. These people are responsible for September 11th, they explained to me: the proof lies partly in the American bills that can be folded to show the twin towers and the Pentagon burning, which (and I quote) "ends up as a tiny airplane" ...I'm sorry but, as I told my friends, if you try to fold it into an airplane, of course it's going to be an airplane.

When they were explaining all these things the Free Masons were doing to kill off the excess human population and control the rest, I asked if they were doing it also to instill fear in people so they could be more easily controlled. They looked at me as if I knew something I shouldn't and said HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?? They never seemed to believe me when I explained that it just made sense that frightening people makes them easier to control..... YES, conspiracy theorists, you have stumbled upon a renegade secret agent!!

They also warned me that 1) I should never, ever get vaccinated because it is a way for Them to weaken our bodies and more easily control us and that (how this is related I have no. idea.) 2) Coke and Fanta labels from the year 2003 show '666' holograms when you fold them in half and hold them up to the light. ...huh. One of them emailed me with links to several sites and videos that I should read ("the only thing we can do to rebel is inform people" they told me) ...I stopped reading after the first website cited what they referred to as "so called 'unconventional' scientists" and documents called "TOP SECRET doc No.8" etc. What an interesting afternoon.

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Anyway, I hope you all had wonderful, happy Thanksgivings with people you love!

ps - If you'd like to see more pictures from this fall, check out my Facebook albums:
part I (arrival in Montpellier through Avignon)
part II (so far, only Carcassonne)

Jump around

Hi again! one quick thing (when it rain, it pours, right?) ...

for the first time in my life, I ENJOYED RUNNING. Let me explain. For those of you who don't know, until just recently (i.e. now) I hated running more than anything. I refused to ever do it, for various reasons. I decided a few weeks ago, though, that maybe I didn't hate running any more and that maybe it would be a good thing to take up. I bought inexpensive running shoes (hilariously bright white and terribly American looking), because I didn't bring anything with me...I've gone running a couple times but today I actually enjoyed it! I cannot tell you how weird it was.

In other news, I forgot to mention this earlier: last night, Bonnie, Ali, and I were at Rockstore, which is one of the few places open in the centre ville past 1 am (lame, I know). We do not love Rockstore, but we didn't feel like going home yet so we thought we'd see how it was. Right when we were about to leave, they started playing JUMP AROUND!! [They played this at all the Carolina basketball games for the past few years, and some of the basketball players would dance. Love them!!!!] We obviously stayed for that. This was actually the second time we had heard it here, but the first time there wasn't enough room to dance.

[For any Dook fans...no.]

Hair cut!

Here are some pictures of the stages of my hair yesterday... (read yesterday's post for the story)

Before getting it cut, it was the longest it's been since I cut my hair super short in high school:

A while after the hair cut/BLOW DRYYY....this is after it had settled down quite a bit:

And this is this morning after having washed it and blow dried it (normally) last night:
It's actually cute! what a relief.

WATCH OUT this is a long one *

I'm sitting in a cafe between my house and the centre ville on a street I walk up every day. I've been feeling pretty well-integrated into Montpellier this week: I spent Halloween here, went to the doctor, played pub quiz, babysat, went to a dance/play, and got my hair cut... as they say, it's all part of the adventure. But, first things first: there were several mornings a few weeks ago when the sunrise was truly incredible. I took pictures, of course, but they barely capture the reality. Always the problem, isn't it?

. . .

A few weekends ago, I met a friend from UNC in Barcelona, and the next weekend I went to Nîmes with some friends from the UNC program.

In Barcelona, I met up with my friend Amanda, who I danced with at UNC. She speaks only a little Spanish and I speak practically none, which made for an adventure any time we were interacting with non-anglophones. We had a very non-touristy weekend, which was great. I'm so over being a Tourist and going to all the Museums and Important Sights. Friday afternoon we just wandered around the part of the city where our hostel was...we stopped and ate at a little cafe and then walked (like 5 km!) in a big circle. Saturday we went to this really cool market and we got lunch there and then wandered around more and had a picnic in between a church and a playground in a neighborhood near the market. There was so much incredible fresh fruit there...we had several fresh fruit juices for just a euro each!!

So tasty. Then we went and looked and the port and the beach, and then went on a free Gaudi tour (Gaudi was a modernist/Art Nouveau architect) which was really interesting.

Waiting for the tour.

This is one of the buildings we saw - La Pedrera - which was commissioned as a home for a wealthy couple at the very beginning of the 20th century.

This:

is a really terrible picture of the incredible Temple Expiatori de Sagrada Familia, also designed by Gaudi. (Go here for what it actually looks like) Construction started about 80 years ago and it's still not finished...wow. It's supposed to look like this when it's finished.

After that we went to see a light/music show at some fountains and then had dinner at a Mexican place (we both had been missing it) and then found a local bar and (accidentally) got HUGE but inexpensive gelato things:

and we stayed there and talked for so long that our waiter (who was adorable) brought us free delicious (super thick!) hot chocolate, which he said was a specialty of North Carolina or something (he was really excited when we told him we were from there)...I think maybe he thought it was in the north of the US?

Sunday morning I wandered around more and got breakfast at a boulangerie-like place ... I wanted to do more things but I didn't have time before my bus left (that's what the guy at the reception desk at the hostel told me), so I just wandered around a lot until I had to be at the bus station. It was great to see the city, but the best part was hanging out with my friend. She graduated from UNC this spring, and it was so nice to be able to spend some time with her.

. . .

The next weekend, I went with some friends to Nîmes. I was disappointed because, due to weird, very French (i.e. unhelpful) bus schedules, we weren't able to go see the Pont du Gard (go here), but we did see some other cool things.

This is the Maison Carrée ("Squared House"...), which was an old Roman temple. I was pretty excited about it, because I took an archaeology class last fall and learned all about Roman temples (and had never seen one for myself)... It ended up being a lot smaller than I expected, which is fine, but there was no information or anything: just a 3D movie theater that took up the entirety of the temple interior. whatever, though, it was still cool.

We also went to the Roman arena, which is apparently one of the best-preserved arenas around. They do matador/bull stuff there now.

This cat was following us around and when I sat down, he just climbed on my lap and curled up. It was pretty adorable.

Us! me, Ali, Kathleen, and Kelsey.

After walking all over (it's a small city), we found a market and bought lots of good food for a picnic (peach and pear yogurt mmm, bread, brie, goat cheese, and lots of fresh fruit)...and went to the Jardin de la Fontaine, which was such a great park.

It was beautifully decorated with lots of sculptures and balustrades like most French parks (in addition to a Roman temple to Diana), but it also had REAL green things. French parks tend to be paved with trees, but this was almost like Duke Gardens in Durham.

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This past weekend was Halloween, which was not at all the same here, even though some people besides us dressed up. In the afternoon, we all went over to the program director's house for lunch. It was a potluck, so I made chocolate mousse, which I learned ("learned") how to make while I was in La Rochelle for vacation. It ended up being harder than I remembered, so the mousse was more dense and less mousse-y, but it was still good.

Remember the ugly face contests? Well, we did that after we ate...always endlessly amusing. Here's the best one:

Maddie, Ali, Bonnie, and I. As Bonnie put it, "I think we really nailed it on this one" ....yeah.

Some of my friends came over that night to get in costume, which was fun. It was hard to find costumes given our purposefully neutral wardrobes, but we managed to come up with some things...

Bonnie was a pirate, Jillian didn't dress up, I was a secretary, and Ali was a doll. We didn't do anything particular, but it was interesting to spend Halloween somewhere else besides Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. I have to say, though...I prefer Franklin St.

. . .

So! This week, finally. Saturday was Halloween, and Sunday and Monday my kind-of-cold got worse, so I missed part of my class on Monday and went to the doctor. French doctor's offices are quite different....they're 3/4 officey-office, 1/4 what we think of as a doctor's office (a bed thing, sink, tongue compressors, etc). Weird. He didn't tell me anything about what I was sick with but prescribed me several different medicines that are all probably OTC in the US. I did my best to remember how many of each to take, and how many different times during the day...I'm better now, at any rate. Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Ali, Kathleen, Bonnie and I went to two different pub quizzes at some English pubs...we aren't very good, but it's fun to try. Also (this is for you, Dad, and other beer lovers!), Ali and I tried the 'banana bread beer' at one of the pubs...not bad, but not as banana-bready as I was hoping. I asked the bartender how they make it and she had no idea, but apparently the process involves bananas. Want to try it, Dad?!

Wednesday night I babysat for the second time here...a guy in my building knocked on our door a few weeks ago and asked if I could babysit (or "watch" really, since his son is 8 and very articulate). It's great! He's a really sweet kid. Last night, some of us had to go to a theater/dance performance for a theater class we're taking. It was thought provoking, because they talked about it decidedly as a play and not dance, which made for interesting reflection on the line between theater and dance.

This afternoon, Ali, Kathleen, and I went to get our haircut at a random haircutting school we found. It was a hilarious experience...I can't describe it otherwise. Ridiculous? Unreal? My person washed my hair twice and did NOT use conditioner (mistakkeeee), and then spent forever brushing it out. We had quite a time figuring out what I wanted in French, and then she spent a while brushing all of my hair into a ponytail literally on my forehead. I looked either like my face was on backwards, or like a unicorn. She used some tactic to cut all the layers at once, but from underneath (i.e. all I could see), it looked like she was cutting 7 inches of [all of] my hair off, which was NOT what we discussed. She finished trimming it and it looked funny because it was really straight (I asked her to cut it to accentuate the curls, since my hair is now curly?!). She started blowing it dry to make it curly........I wish I could recreate this scene. She was scrunching my hair up and blowing it dry in her fist, which made it curly, and it got to the point where it looked good.....but she kept going. By the time she was done, I AM NOT KIDDING, it looked like this:

un.real. I thought about telling her to stop when it looked good, but she was so adamantly continuing that I wanted to see what the finished product would be. It was incredibly funny. I kept looking in the mirror and trying to keep from laughing (I didn't want to hurt her feelings)...but it was virtually impossible, especially when I would make eye contact with Kathleen, who was getting her hair cut nearby. My hair has since calmed down some, and I'm going to wash it and see how it dries naturally....I think it'll actually be okay if I don't dry it like I'm a runway model, like she did. I'll post pictures as soon as it looks normal. (ha!)

I have to go eat dinner now...I'm starving and I think the cafe is closing soon. Bisous!

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* ahha I'm not even going to say it