Montpellier est une belle ville

I have finally made it to France. Not just anywhere; the South! I am studying and living in Montpellier which is in the languedoc-roussillon region. My day consist of 3 hours of French lessons, 5 hours sitting in a cafe and the rest wining, dining and letting loose. Due to the fact that my peers and I have so much free time, we basically do anything we want; go for bike rides, beaches, shopping. Anything and everything under the sun. Even when we don't feel like going out, we would still meet every night, sit outside at bars and people watch all throughout the evening.

Taking a break from work and living in France has probably been the best thing I have done in my life. I experienced an epiphany, things slowed down and allowed me to enjoy the life the way it should be. Yes, I should be saving for a house at my age but when I owned one 3 years ago, I was sad and miserable. Do I really want to jump back on that bandwagon?

Anyway, the French course is hard, it is taught completely in French. Although my French is slowly improving, I am not progressing as fast as I initially thought. Maybe I need to spend less time in cafes and more time at home studying. The first week has been very eventful with 32 degree heat. A group of us went on a 6 hour bike tour and laid at the beach. On Sunday, I went to watch might Montpellier vs Toulon in the French Top 14 (It's Frances version of our Super 14). Rugby fans should know by now that the coach of Toulon is the one and only Tana Umaga who recently signed Jonny Wilkinson. Unfortunaly Sonny Bill Williams did not turn out for Toulon due to surgery on his leg but Jonny Wilkinson played a brilliant game. The match was intense with Toulon leading with a 15 point margin but Montpellier came back fighting and scored a try at 79:53sec. Final score Montpellier 21 - Toulon 20. Montpellier did not win the game, Toulon lost the game. Montpellier missed 5 penalties; they need to invest in someone that can kick an oval ball.

I also made a mistake of getting a haircut here. Trying to explain that I wanted the sides faded short and textured on top is like telling your dog to pour you a pint. Check out the epic fail video. It is uncommon to find someone that actually spoke a bit of English. Retailers would help you out as much as possible but will not know a single word; it's great. For all those that have this idea that living in France will allow you to immerse and pick up the language quicker, WRONG! They don't even want to speak to you. What is the point of having a conversation with someone when all you can say is 'I am from New Zealand, when I get up 8 o'clock, I shower and brush my teeth' or 'I am going for lunch, do you want to join me?' When you do meet a local, all they wants to do is speak English. So what I have been doing instead is hanging out with students that are learning French and we would try to speak completely in French. If someone doesn’t know a word, someone in the group will be able to correct them. Shopping and eating out are also great ways to learn. You tend to move away from text book French and converse using shorthand. Well its 9pm and time for coffee number 7

a bientôt mes amis

Room in Montpellier - 11.1 MB
Bad Haircut - 5.3 MB

Sam




One of many la plage








Montpellier vs Toulon