Barcelona

Just got back from Barcelona last night. It was very fun and a lot different than any other place I have been so far. The paella and sangria were delicious, the architecture was insane, and the street performers were awesome. Watch the video.

Sorry Snail!!

So I think I talked about how crazy and large the snails are here in another post. Well the inevitable happened, I stepped on one. :( I feel really bad about it because I can't even imagine the pain of having my exoskeleton crushed and my internal organs leaking out onto the sidewalk. However since I am a believer in Darwinism I like to think that by crushing all the weak shelled snails that venture onto the sidewalk during the rain, eventually the snail population of Montpellier will develop such tough shells that they will be un-crushable. On a lighter note, the Montpellier Zoo is pretty awesome. They have tons of animals and a bunch that I don't think I have ever seen in person before, such as rhinos and kangaroos.

I also tried a new candy, called smarties. I know what your thinking we have smarties in the U.S., but these are different. They come in a cardboard tube and they taste like Easter. "Easter?" yes they taste like Easter, the holiday. They are basically M&M's in the sense that they are candy coated chocolate but for some reason they remind me of Easter. Since I can't remember what Easter is like since I missed it this year I will be unable to tell you specifically what Easter candy they taste like.

Montpellier Zoo

Went to the Montpellier Zoo yesterday. It was free and awsome.



I killed a snail with my foot the other day. It was an accident of course but I feel really bad about it. :(

SPRINGBREAK 2009!!!

Spring break was pretty relaxing... except for when my dad was around. We were either running in one direction until he figured out that he didn't know where he was going, or else we were stopped, asking people who don't speak English which direction to go and then ignoring whatever they say.

or an example of asking directions
Dad: ex ex pardawn excuse me pan-thae-on pan-thea-on
Italian stranger: take your second left and then it's straight ahead
Dad: grazzyass
<< walks about a half block stops in the middle of the street to consult the map for 15 minutes>>
Dad: alright I think we need to walk further up this way
Me: .... dad .. he said to take a left up here





Here is a list of things that we saw that I think are worth mentioning.
Paris:
The Eiffel Tower,The Louvre,The Montparnasse Tower, The Catacombs,The Andy Warhol exhibit,A photography exhibit,The Arc de Triomphe, The Champs Elysee,The Moulin Rouge, The subway system, Notre Dame de Paris, and Sacre Couer

Italy:
Lake Como
a flower garden, an owl, some mountains, a castle thing
Cinque Terre
some towns on hills, a cat, some rocky beaches, Jesus,and a sunset
Siena
a tower, some stores
Roma
The Colesseum, The Vatican, The Trevi Fountain,some other Roman Ruins,The Pantheon,The Darwin exhibit!,The cat sanctuary!!

Canal du Midi

So the study abroad program had a few trips planned for us over the semester, and today was the last of those trips. The first trip was the tour of Provence including a windmill, the Pont du Gard aquaduct, and something else I can't remember. They also took us on a tour of Nimes and one of our hometown,Montpellier. On all of these trips it was cold and rainy, which is pretty rare here in the south of France. Naturally today for our boat cruise it was also cold and rainy. The boat tour would have been pretty awesome and relaxing if it hadn't been for the weather causing us to cram over 60 people into a half in closed boat for over two hours. I made a video of the highlight which was the écluse (I can't think of what it's called in English).They also gave us around three hours for lunch, at which time I took the opportunity to discover french dessert. I have usually been sticking to the crème brûlée or mousse au chocolat since I know what they are, however today I was feeling adventurous. Other than the usually CB or MauC I have frequently seen Ile Flottant on the dessert menu. I think we even asked what it was once and were still to afraid to order it. Today was different. The waiter was charming and smiled more than any french person I have ever seen. He assured us that it was good, so I decided to try this "floating island" thing. When it came out I recognized it right away since I had actually eaten it many times in the school cafeteria, and hadn't known the name for it. It was the same, ohhhh, realization you get when you finally put a name with a face... a really delicious face. What it actually is, is crème anglais (English cream? If you know what that is. I didn't) and a fluffy island of meringue floating on top. It sounds kinda weird (why I didn't order it before) but it tastes good.

P.S. I didn't get a pick of her doing it but, Fanny, the dog was doing the mermaid thing and it reminded me of Smoky.

Strike = No Barcelona

Caroline and Andrea were here visiting me this week for their spring break. Caroline is just packing up to go back home at this very moment, she leaves about 7 hours from now. We got to see Carcasonne which is the largest walled city in France, I think. We also went to Nimes which I have already seen but it is a beautiful city so I enjoyed seeing it again (and the weather was much nicer this time). The whole week here was actually the warmest weather we have had so far, it stayed about 70 all week. We also got to go to the beach, however that was a little cooler due to the wind. There were tons of kite boarders at the beach, it was pretty exciting. I would like to try kite-boarding but it looked very scary, cold, and difficult. We also had planned to go to Barcelona on Thursday and come back today (Sat), but unfortunately due to the national strike on Thursday we were forced to stay here in good old Montpellier. It was interesting to see the strike though.


I just got my video figured out from Carnaval de Nice if you want to see it it's on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSYs0R76QKQ
It's not very long but it's kinda interesting. You could also just YouTube anyone's Carnaval de Nice and see what it's like.

Sorry I wrote this post like a couple days ago but I was trying to put the video directly on here and it wasn't working so it's being posted a little late

ESCARGOT!?!

I saw a real live snail. It was HUGE, he was like the size of a mouse. I did not realize how big and crazy they were. I kind of wanted to take him home as a pet, but I was also kind of freaked out. I wonder what they eat...

LOL - my first french movie theatre experience

Most movies at French movie theatres and American movies dubbed over in French. I have not yet been to one of these dubbed movies. I did however go to a french film called LOL. Since I have only been to the movies once I can only speak about this one theatre, so don't generalize. The concession area was very small and almost non-existent. You could buy sodas but it was in bottles not giant cups. Now that I think of it the armrests didn't have cup holders in them like they do at home. The chairs were big fluffy and red. They sat much lower than American chairs, and seat was much narrower. The movie was basically a teen drama about a girl and her romantic relationships. I could understand a lot of what was going one but some of the slang and other phrases were a little difficult, so I'm sure I missed many jokes. I was interesting to see what life is like from another perspective. In one part of the movie they took a school trip to England. I could relate to this seeing as I am in the same situation at the moment. Overall it was a good experience and I would definitely go to another french movie rather than going to a dubbed American movie.

Apparently in France they also say acronyms as words because when I tried to buy a ticket to L-O-L the lady looked at me like I was an idiot. Finally a french girl said Lol and the woman understood. Which makes me think about how we decided when to turn an acronym into a word and when to leave it as letters for example why is Aids a word and HIV letters? If you know the answer feel free to tell me.

forget the rBST I want some UHT

I am currently sitting at my kitchen table with a liter of what I like to call shelf milk. This milk came off the shelf at the grocery store and not out of a fridge. The expiration date reads 08/05/09 which translates to May 8th, which is over two months from now. The lable reads "Grand Jury - Bio Lait Demi-écrémé Stérilisé UHT". After opening it must be kept at +6 degrees celsius max, and consumed within three days. I have never tried this shelf milk and will be sharing my first experience with you. To go with this shelf milk I have chosen a chocoalte bar called a Kinder Bueno. This will also be my first Kinder Bueno. I put the milk in the fridge when I got it home which was about half an hour ago. I just took of the cap... there is a foil cover under the cap. foil removed. It does not smell like milk... kind of smells like sour cream... it appears to be quite thick. Just popped a piece of the kinder bueno and here we go... ITS DELICIOUS!!! this is even better than regular milk!! it's like drinking unwhipped whipping cream!!! I'm never buying the other milk again. This is wonderful! You can buy multiple liters and keep them on you shelf for months and use them when you want!! crepes take up half a liter anyway so you really don't have to worry about wasting milk, just open one from the shelf use half for your crepes and you have half a liter to drink for the next three days. Wow life is great here in France. I'm gonna have another glass :)

McDonalds! in France

I went to McDonald's today for my first french McFlurry. The French McFlurry is slightly different from the American McFlurry. First of all they are smaller and the cups and spoons are different. The toppings are also a little different; the M&M's are peanut M's; you can get Kit Kat, Oreo, and a couple other weird ones; last but not least you can add caramel or chocolate sauce to any of the normal toppings which makes it more like a mixed up Sunday. I wouldn't say the French McFlurry is better but just different than the American. In case you were wondering whether the Quarter Pounder is really called a Royal... YES that is true(thank you Pulp Fiction). The mayonnaise is different here too, when I first ate it I thought 'hmmm this kind of tastes like mustard'.(I have yet to see anyone, other than myself, put mayo on their frites(that's french for french fries)) Later I found out that that in fact they do put a little mustard in their mayo, but I still put both on my popkins. Speaking of popkins french people tend to put sliced hard boiled eggs on all of them even on tooter fish popkins! I had one on the bus ride back from the Alps and it was actually pretty good.

The January sales ended today... I didn't find anything worth buying. I did however find this wonderful quote which I feel really captures the essence of trying to speak to the french:

"In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language." - Mark Twain


(hint: "popkin" is not french... figure it out)

you get what you pay for (or maybe a little less)

What can I say about the Alps? They are beautiful. There are dogs there. The hot chocolate is delicious... However the snowboarding was not that amazing. If you go to the Alps do NOT go to Pelvoux. There was exactly one chair lift and only one full run. This information was not given to us until we had already gotten to the mountain. They didn't even tell us where we were going until we got on the bus to leave. We were also not informed that the "hotel" we were staying in was more like a hostel than a hotel. Maybe I am just spoiled but I was pretty shocked by the whole ordeal. I was imagining something like going out to Big Sky Montana or something. Instead we got one rickety old chairlift and had to put our own sheets on our beds. Overall it was a fun weekend, just not what I was expecting. When they tell you that you are going to the Alps for a weekend for only $200 euro you should probably be suspicious. The lift ticket was $30 ( it said on the back) and the lodging could not have been expensive since it was just a room with 5 beds and no towels or toiletries. Now let me tell you about the rental equipment! They gave me a snowboard that was too small and the bindings were on the wrong sides (the binding for the right foot was on the left side and vice versa). When I brought it back and told them, they looked at me funny and gave me a board with bindings that lacked any type complete strap. I ended up taking the bindings off anyway and putting them back on again to create a normal/rideable stance. Food was included that was a plus. I am still confused where my other $100 euro went though.

All dogs need to live in France

In the south of France all dogs are in heaven, and I think dog owners here are in heaven as well. First of all you can bring your dog anywhere with you, this includes: trams, buses, the mall, bars, and restaurants! I sat next to a dog the other day at a Creperie. On the tram I saw a dog that had 24 toes! he had an extra toe on each foot, it kind of creeped me out but he seemed happy. They also don't have to wear leashes. I think this a good idea since a leash would be very troublesome on the crowded trams and around restaurant chairs and tables. Another law they don't have is cleaning up your dogs poop. There are not a lot dog restrooms (grassy spots) in the city since most of it is paved, this is scary when it rains and there have been big dogs down the sidewalk before you, you really need to watch out. They do however clean the center of town, which is more like a giant out door mall, each day with big zamboniesque machines, this helps with the poop. You also CAN NOT be arrested if you have a dog here, thus all the "street people" have dogs. This is all funny because at home if you didn't put your dog on a leash and it pooped you would have to go to jail and pay a lot of money and you would become a street person. Dad and Smoky know all about that! ;)

Trip to the Beach

Note to self: do not bike to the beach ever again.

It is apparently an hour and a half long ride to get to the sea from where I live. The bike only cost two euros to rent but the terrain was a little on the rough side. There were many hills and for most of the way the path was not paved. The boy who we were following who had been to the beach before had apparently forgotten how to get there so we got lost which added onto the distance of the trip. Once we finally got to the beach it was cold out the clouds had started to role in. The highlight of the trip was seeing the animals though. There were flamingos and horses and some storks or something. I think that the beach will be nice when it is a little warmer out and when I take the bus to get there.


I also tried some new wines yesterday. I bought two bottles, which were both red wines from the surrounding area. I drank the cheaper one and it was pretty good. However later on in the night I had some really good pinot noir. Maybe it just tasted better because I had already had a few glasses of wine... I don't know.



There was a space bathroom at the beach but I didn't use it because it cost .50, however I plan to use it on my future beach outings.

Everyone is doing it...

So... I guess everyone has a blog except me. NOW I DO. I would like to blog about the wine, the cheese, the food and the bathrooms. Let's start with what I'm eating right now. I am having Nutella and crackers. I figured if you can eat peanut butter and crackers you can also eat nutella and crackers. I bought the Nutella because everyone was doing it. I figured that so many people can't be wrong. I didn't think I liked it when I had tried it at home but now I can't really taste the nuts and its just like eating chocolate :) yum. It also comes in a nice glass so when I eat it all I can have a glass of water. Now I'm just eating the nutella without crackers and I need a glass of water...

I also bought my first bottle of wine last time I was at the grocery store it was a Sauvignon from the Loire Valley. It was 2.90 (in euros of course). It wasn't anything too exciting.

I have also discovered that I am very knowledgeable about the animals in the region. I saw a bird I have never seen before and I said "hmmm I bet that is a magpie" and sure enough when I looked it up on the Internet it was a magpie. Then later I was using the restroom and I saw a bug and I thought "hmmm I bet that's a silverfish" and it was.

speaking of the restrooms... here in France the houses have different types of bathrooms than I am used to. The toilet is in a room all by itself, and everything else is in it's another room. They toilets also flush funny. There is a button on the top or sometimes two buttons (one for #1 and another for #2 I think). The water is a lot lower so it is a lot louder when you go to the bathroom which is annoying. The bathrooms in the building where I have class don't have seats on them. It is just a toilet bowl with a rim. This makes them very difficult to use. For some reason these bathrooms also smell very very bad. The bathrooms by the cafeteria are nicer because they have seats but they have automatic lights which seem to turn off as soon as I sit down, so I end up peeing in the dark a lot. I think the french should go on strike for better bathrooms.

Today they were on strike, I'm not really sure why. The students, professors, and transportation employees were all on strike. I'm not French so I still had to go to class. It took longer to get there because the tram was running a lot less frequently because the drivers were striking. Then I ate hot dog pizza...

Other than that it was a beautiful day here in the south of France.