Here I am sitting in the salon (living room) of my host family. I have been here since Saturday afternoon and I couldn't enjoy it more. I'm with my host mom Valerie, her son Alexis (Alex-i) and her daughter Salome (salom-ay) in an apartment on one of the main streets in Montpellier. The apartment is not large, but it's bright and airy, with tile floors and lots of windows. I have the large front bedroom with a full bed, a closet, a desk, and a large window. It's very nice and so is my host family. They are very friendly and I really feel like I am more than just a four month visitor in their home. Valerie is a terrific cook, and I'm afraid I'm going to gain a lot of weight. I watched a french dubbed version of Juno with my host family last night. They found the ease of the adoption quite bizarre. I told them I didn't think that that was the norm.
This weekend I wandered down to Estivale again with some friends to see flamenco dancing, enjoy the night, and of course drink some more regional wine. Saturday I ran around getting ready to move in with my family, and on Sunday my program went on an excursion to the city of Carcassonne.
Carcassonne is a fortified city (though the city is much bigger than that one part), a castle with lots of history, and therefore....lots of tourists. The narrow cobblestone streets of the interior of the fortified city are very pretty and charming, but become less so when crowded with meandering tourists from all over Europe. Many of you will recognize my distaste for mobs of people.
Carcassonne was very lovely, but I recommend visiting on a weekday after tourist season.
Today after regular class, my civilisation class went to a wine tasting south of Montpellier. It was interesting, and the wine was good, but the hot, long bus ride almost made it not worth it.
Also, I have successfully navigated my way into town and to the college and back to the apartment again. So, yay me! It is very easy and much faster than I had anticipated. I arrived 40 minutes early to class today....so I will sleep in tomorrow morning to be sure.
Valerie is cooking something right now....it's early for dinner, but it smells delicious... I will have to go check it out.
Until later,
Becca
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1 comment:
Hi Becca
It has been fun to read your blog. Glad to hear that you are enjoying yourself and having fun. I'm happy to hear that you are fitting well into your host family.l Hope that continues. Our lives have settled down since the wedding and I am back to work. We are hoping to the 30 mile St Paul Bike classic tour this Sunday. We invited your mom and dad but I am not holding my breath to see them show up. Could they bike 30 miles?
Well, take care and keep up the blog. Love Elaine
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