A real update

I realized that the only things I've been posting about lately are food items. I'm in France, of course, so that's probably what most of you want to hear about, but hey, I'm also living in a beautiful city (with, you know, a few interesting things other than restaurants and bakeries) and going to school, so I should chronicle the rest of it too.

School first. I'm still unimpressed by the program. (That's the short version. Feel free to skip the long version in the rest of this paragraph.) The courses we have been taking here have just not been good. Granted, for some profs it is their first time teaching, and for others the first time in English. But when you repeatedly call the whole class stupid and marvel at how we can be having trouble with something so easy, there may in fact be something wrong with what/the way you are teaching. It's also a bad idea to take a group of students with hugely varied backgrounds, split them up for the first semester (during which they take completely different classes), and then force them to take classes together during the second semester. Many of us are also upset that in the program guide, which convinced us to apply, there were long lists of courses we could take at each university. It wasn't until we were in the program that we found out that that had changed and those lists didn't apply to us--we would instead all be taking certain predefined courses the whole time. There goes the ability to tailor your Master's to your interests. I have spent this whole program taking courses in areas I have no intention of ever using in my own work. And, particularly in France, the material has been pretty basic, but presented in an unnecessarily complex way. Le sigh. One course I have really enjoyed though, is Hot Topics in Ecology and Evolution. It is a discussion class, and each time there are a few leaders who have read a bunch of papers on a topic (the rest of the class has read a few).  The topics have been a lot of fun, ranging from Life on other Planets to Why all the Mammoths died (I did that one and loved it) to much more hard core boring sciencey things. It has been fun to read about these crazy and different topics. And classes are almost over. In April, I get to start my research project, which I am really excited about. I'll be looking at global human disease epidemics and any potentially correlated social and climatic variables.

Alright! No more school. On to the good stuff. Oh wait, one more thing. We took a French placement test so that we could join language classes with other study abroad students. I aced the freaking thing and am now in way over my head in a class with a bunch of people who are completely fluent. D'oh :)

But ah, the city. It was cold, windy, and POURING for a week (I clearly did not fully comprehend what she meant when someone who had spent some time here said that when it rains, it really rains) and then suddenly the clouds cleared, the temperature soared, and it's spring! Blooms everywhere. It is gorgeous. This city was made for warm, sunny days with wispy clouds. It still gets pretty cool as soon as the sun goes down, so I'll be curious to see whether that's a spring thing or whether evenings will always be cool. I'm totally new to the Mediterranean climate.

I love the Saturday morning market at Arceaux (it's under the aqueduct, which has many arceaux (arches)). It is a great one. Lots of fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, meat, flowers, and other reasonably standard market stuff. It's the stands with 15 different kinds of honey, the vineyard tables, and the local olive oils and soaps that are really fun to check out. I got a strawberry-peach jam a few weeks ago that I am completely in love with.

I am also making a serious effort to learn my favorite types of cheese and wine. I am not usually a wine drinker, but while I'm in France I have to take advantage and learn! No real progress made on finding wine favorites yet. I tend to like reds and so am focusing on those for now. Suggestions welcome! As for cheese, I'm progressing slowly there too.  I usually like chevre (goat cheese), but I've gotten several I haven't liked and don't know what the differences are in terms of the names or how they're made! I have also tried a Camembert and just don't think the taste is worth the smell. I've never been a blue cheese fan, and the one I got here was no different. I'll give Roquefort (one that looks like blue but isn't for some reason) a go soon. I did, however, break down and go for Brie, an old favorite, when I saw it in the grocery store a few days ago.

How did I get back to food? Seriously. I was trying to talk about other things! Ok. Really, food is important here.

I took a walking tour of the historic city center this weekend. It was interesting to hear the stories of a bunch of cool buildings I had never paid much attention to, but the best part was definitely that we got to go to the top of the Arc du Peyrou (which is called L'arc du Triomphe pretty regularly, even though it has nothing to do with Triumphe. Paris just does that). Haha traffic goes under this Arc and so to get in we had to stand in traffic and go through this crazy door in the wall. But the view was great!

 Alright. I realize this post was completely all over the place. I thought I should give you a bigger update than I had been and this is what happened! I will strive for more balance in future posts.

Welcome to Montpellier

Hi from France!

First, the end of the Netherlands. I think I need a new rule-no "going out for one drink." That has led several times to me getting home way later than I am equipped for. Also, no going out the night before traveling--I have now left both Uppsala and Groningen on an hour of sleep each. I am no good at that kind of thing! Particularly when carrying this much stuff (and note you can't see the backpack):

So after a late last night in Groningen, I headed to Amsterdam. I stayed in the A-Train hotel, mainly because it is right across from the train station and has an elevator (nearly impossible to find). It was actually nice though. Train themed (nothing obnoxious, just memorabilia on the walls), and included breakfast, all the various taxes, and internet in the breakfast area for cheap. I recommend it! They also had my room available when I checked in, which was awesome. After a power nap, I headed to the Anne Frank House, which was a great museum. Very well done. I bought her diary there, as I had been meaning to read it for a long time and was so impressed by the museum. I then went home and crashed early, because the next morning, I had to catch...

A train to France! Yippee! Most of us ended up traveling by train, as the planes were more expensive and come with weight and number of bag restrictions, and buses were not good for getting here either. The train though, goes several times a day and has no baggage restrictions--if you can get it into the train, you can take it. So here's how I moved to France: Amsterdam-->Paris Nord (around 3 hours), metro to Paris Gare de Lyon-->Montpellier (3.5 hours), tram to dorm. No taxis! I impress myself :)  I had window seats the whole way and did nothing but stare out the window! It got sunny just south of Paris, and the ride from Paris to Montpellier was absolutely gorgeous. Mountains, hills, forests, ravines with streams, all things I hadn't seen in a while. And there were beautiful chateaus, villas, and a few small vineyards. Just beautiful! I was quite excited. By the time I arrived in my dorm, however, I was utterly exhausted from moving all my stuff!

The dorm room is definitely small. 100sq feet, which includes the bathroom, and most of it is built into shelves and the desk and bed, which is nice, but leaves not much floor space at all. The bathroom is tiny and the shower involves pressing a button every few seconds for the pleasure of an often cold stream of water. And the "kitchen?" It includes 2 sinks and a stove that apparently never works. So while I was complaining about not having an oven in the Netherlands, I at least had things like a microwave, or even say, a trashcan, in the kitchen. Yikes. There is a mini-fridge in my room (phew) but I am still deciding how to go about eating this semester... And my internet is awful! Even with no video, I can barely hear the other person while Skyping. This is going to be less than ideal, definitely. [A side note: I recommend never living in a dorm again once you've had a place of your own. It's not the correct progression of things! I'm already excited for the day I live in a "real place" again. So why live in the dorms you ask? Because it is impossible to find housing in Europe, and so when someone offers to deal with the foreign language and housing market and find you a place to live so you don't show up in town carrying everything you own and go "Now what," you take the offer.]

But the city is amazing. Absolutely the picture of a Mediterranean city. Lots of sandstone-colored buildings, small windy hilly streets, cafes everywhere, tons to see and do, and great vistas. It really is beautiful. Not particularly warm right now (in the 40s during the day, 30s at night) but lovely when the sun shines!

This is a huge hilltop area where I was told the king used to hunt. Great views of the city on almost all sides, and then you can walk through an Arc (de something I can't remember) and head down into the main part of the city. I spent all day Sunday walking around and realized that this place is so big I could never see it all. It should be fun!

The food in France is so much better than the Netherlands! Even just the sandwiches are great. Ahhhhh. And I had amazing lamb the other night, then mussels with fries (actually a Belgian thing) last night. Delicious!

It is also different from Holland in other ways of course. Whereas Holland is kind of unbelievably safe and self-regulated, I had been in town a mere 4 days when I was pickpocketed on the tram yesterday. Lovely. I was, however, filling out paperwork in the police station when someone handed in my wallet, missing only the cash, so I consider myself incredibly lucky. And now to be much more careful!  Haha, but since I had already canceled all my cards, I am now having to borrow money until I get my French card and can transfer money to it, so I'll be able to give anyone who wants it the super-cheap guide to Montpellier!

So, that's my first few days here in a nutshell! A bit of a whirlwind. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep from just finishing the previous semester before we start the next one on Monday. I am finished with all the administrative stuff now (new student card, bank account, phone number, etc.) and so plan to just relax a bit. I'm decorating the dorm room today, which will make it much more "mine" and nicer to be in!