by popular demand:

French for the following:

"cork-screw" - tire bouchon

"brain injuries" - lésions cérébrales

"target" - cible

"contract" - (mob.phone,bus pass etc) forfeit; (legal) contrat

"hug" - calin

"nose bleed" - (my nose is bleeding) je saigne du nez

"pillow" - oreiller

"kettle" - bouilloire

"speech therapist" - orthophoniste

"house warming" - fete de la crémaillère

English for the following:

"Dieu pardonne pas le prolètariat" - God doesn't forgive the proletariat

"l'entree pour l'enfer" - the entrance/foyer for hell

if I have made any mistakes I'm sure Uli will correct me!

over.

the spice of life

I feel like a lot has happened that I haven't had time to keep you up to date with so I though I'll share some of the quirky and the mundane, the more and the less believable, the annoying and the fun things that have been going on here over the last week.

• I walked the two Jack Russels who belong to my 3rd couchsurfing hostess (Floriane) and ended up all tangled up like a person in a film, it was pretty spectacular, though I did get pretty bad rope burn on the backs of my knees from the lead
• I registered for uni, such a complicated process, one of those times where I came back on 3 consecutive days before they decided that they wanted to open the office, but to be honest I think I'm beginning to get used to it.
• I opened a French bank account :/
• I signed up for classes in beginners' latin, francophone literature, phonology and sociolinguistics and bought some of my books, seriously Sept '09 has probably been the most expensive month of my life.
• Attended the first week of classes for my initial (and still rather sketchy) timetable, its a kind of DIY gig, particularly for Erasmus students. Classes at 0815, I jest not. Still have to take on some more credits for my learning agreement so we'll see how it all pans out. The uni is a total admin nightmare, graffiti on the flagstones in front of the admin building reads "Dieu pardonne pas le proletariat" and "l'entree pour l'enfer", French students are so political, you've got to love it. Apparently we can expect up to 2 months of strikes in the new year, oh joys, it means time out of classes but unfortunately they still expect you to sit the exams even if the course hasn't happened. I have to have a medical check to do sports and live n halls, bizarre, and they're totally paranoid about swine flu.
• I've bought at least 12 baguettes, 10 pains au chocolat and more cheese than can possibly be good for a person.
• Watched 3 Englishmen smoke their pipes while they waited for the tram.
• I rode through town on the back of Floriane's scooter, with her dog on the front :)
• I've endlessly wandered the tiny streets of the old town, I'll post some photos when i get my camera cable.
• Moved into my room in halls, its pretty basic but clean and safe, the shower is a little interesting and i'll find it hard not to be able to bake (our "kitchen" between the 25 people on my floor consists of 4 electric hotplates and 2 sinks) but I have a nice view from my window and can tumble into classes in 15mins-ish. I've not met many people in my building yet, lots of folk seem to keep themselves to themselves, but I met some girls in the kitchen the other day who were very friendly, and a friendly chap helped me up the stairs with my bags.
• I bought a dustpan and brush, some cooking pots and some wool for knitting (even though its still average of 23 degrees here, but y'know, I brought my knitting needles...)
• I've learned some useful vocabulary, such as the words for "cork-screw" "brain injuries" "target" "contract" "hug" "nose bleed" "pillow" "kettle" "speech therapist" and "house warming"
• Got myself a tram pass :)
• Drank mint tea on a terrace in the sun and climbed the cathedral steeple for the most amazing view of the city on "heritage weekend".
• Got mosquito bitten on the pad of my middle finger...? this was while I was still couchsurfing and sleeping on the veranda, 25 was the total bite count (5 on my face!)
• Wandered through the 41st annual international beekeepers congress with the couchsurfing "free hug-ers" and tasted SO much honey. My favourite stall was the greenpeace gang, they were all about the free hugs.
• Watched "J'irai dormir a Hollywood", the guy is crazy, watch it if you get the chance.
• Swam in the Med with my cousin Florence who came down from Toulouse to visit me for the day, got quite sunburned. I think I'm browning up a bit, though its maybe just dust, the other day a random hobo noted that I'm 'not very tanned' as I passed by, he he!
• Debated the effects of the 2nd world war with a German, an Austrian, an Englishman, a Scot and 2 Catalans, and the ins and outs of Islam with an Algerian (with some helpful interjections from the couple sitting opposite us on the tram, mostly to correct my French). Good stuff.
• Signed up to play "Assassins" and successfully neutralised my first target (3 hours after the game started, 3am, oh yeah!)
• Found my way to LIDL.
• Found a birthday twin.
• Crashed 2 housewarmings and a leaving party, the second housewarming was amazing, everyone dancing like maniacs, incidentally the guys who's flat it was had worked in bar kohl in Edinburgh for a bit, genius.
• Listened to the foxes cry outside my window. Not as romantic as it sounds, like a child screaming, but not as sleep preventive as the car horns of a wedding procession, they blare all the way from the church to wherever they're going, who even gets married at 11.30am?
• Made spanish omelette in a saucepan.
• I've been at least 20mins late for everything, but apparently thats ok here - its the mediterranean don't you know?
• Met Cat off the train from Marseilles :) and went for a birthday dinner, the first time i've eaten out here, it was properly yum.
• Went clubbing -European style- hilarious and lots of fun.

I'm sure there's lots more that I've forgotten, and ask me if there's something that you want to know more about I'd better leave it there for now, got to go and wake up Cat and think about heading to the market :)

love love love.

over.

hey gang
I now have an address :)

Cité Universitaire BOUTONNET - F108
119 Rue Faubourg Boutonnet
34 090
Montpellier Cedex 1
FRANCE

a room with a view

they saved the nicest building for the secretariat

student living?

over.

une semaine sans-abri

So, I'm trying to think where I left off...

Tomorrow it will be one week since I arrived in Montpellier, and what a week it's been!

I'll begin at the beginning:

I arrived at roughly 1500 hours (European time) at the small Aéroport de Montpellier Méditerranée.As we had landed I had an amazing view of mountains and then all the rich peoples swimming pools and then the city and then the sea. It was sunny and WARM and beautiful and I jumped on a shuttle bus into the city (actually, I more like waddled onto the bus trying to balance my luggage). I was to meet my couchsurfing hostess at the bus stop in town, she was coming from the beach and was running a bit late so I sat at the bus stop and had a very nice conversation with a Vietnamese trainee pilot. Then, after a few confusing phone calls (ooh, how I hate phones), me and my couchsurfeuse finally located eachother and made our way to her flat. My hostess for my first 2 nights was called Gwen, she was super welcoming and over the next two days gave me the best intro to a town that anyone could expect to receive. I went with her to a flat warming and to the town associations fair (like freshers' fair but for the whole city) and for a tour of the city; she introduced me to friends, encouraged my faltering French, showed me how to use the trams (more about these

later) and she had collected a whole pile of maps and leaflets to get me started on my flat search and beyond.

On the Monday I started my flat search, little did I know. Students make up around 30% of Montpellier's population and the demand for (ridiculously overpriced) accomodation is HUGE, I soon realised that finding a place to live was going to be much more complicated than I had thought. I won't go into all the ins and outs of the search for a place to live, I haven't enjoyed it, I feel like I've spent the whole week moaning

to anyone who will listen and freaking out about it in my head so suffice to say that I begin to understand why so many homeless people stay homeless - without an address you can't open a bank account, without a bank account you can't sign a lease and without a lease you don't have an address... and it all spins around in a lovely dance to the tune of burocracy and administration.

But, aside from all the crappiness, I have also been one of the most blessed poeple in my first week here. My second couchsurfeuse was Barbara, a good friend of Gwen's who once again welcomed me into her wee home in the last few days of her holiday and housed me for 3 nights. She also came with me to help me sort out a french phone, introduced me to the university restaurants (under 3€ for three courses!), fed me, took me to a party and is still

keeping my bags for me in her room so that I don't have to pay to keep them at the youth hostel. Barbara, Gwen and their friend Pauline also helped me to look for a flat, asked around all their friends, and invited me to join in with everything that they were doing during the week.

And then yesterday afternoon, at the peak of my dispair (!) I suddenly came across a second-hand book shop (beautifully situated opposite a tea house) where I was able to distract myself until I was able to return to my temporary lodgings.

Yesterday evening I moved again, this time way out of Montpellier to a wee village on the last stop of the tram. Here my hostess, Floriane, has an amazing wee house built by a carpenter with everything in wood with nooks and crannies a wee windey staircase and thin doors built to just fit. And she has an amazing model hot-air balloon which floats above her bed. Yesterday, when I arrived, she made me dinner (chicken roasted on a spit!) and made me up a wee bed in the veranda and we talked for ages about couchsurfing and assassins and pillow fights and the weather and books and the sound of the rain.

The silver lining of my cloud has definitely been shiny.

And then this evening, as of about 2 hours ago, I have been granted a room in the Uni halls of residence. At first I felt like staying in halls was kind of copping out, and it's true, I'd have much rather be in a shared flat, but at the moment I am just really greatful to have been given somewhere to live. What's more, it is affordable, it doesn't require me to have a french bank account, is in a perfect location (in between the Uni and the town centre) and, provided I get payment sorted and everything goes well, I can move in on Monday :) Halleluja!

...

Tonight I have the house to myself, Floriane is lovely enough to trust me while she is elsewhere. And so now I am si

tting in the midst of this lovely wooden house with my tummy full of the baguette and brie which I bought on my way home, ruining the "french" effect by having a nice cuppa (made with boiling water (!) and a teabag that I found in my cagoule pocket :) - incidentally the first cup of real tea that I've had in a week!) and just about ready switch my brain off for a while and go to sleep :)

I haven't told you anything about Uni, but that can wait for another day.

for now, love to all.

over.

premiers moments à Montpellier...

So, since all the cool kids are doing it, it seems i'm blogging too! If nothing else it should be a good way to try and keep in touch with you all. I'm currently using up internet time which i should be using to look for accomodation, and i'm painfully slow at typig on this azerty keyboard, so i'll probably keep this one short.
I've been in Montpellier for just over 24 hours now and, despite having a full on head cold and nowhere to live, I seem to be having a good time :)
This city is beautiful, and not only because of the sunshine. It boasts as many old crumbling building as Edinburgh but instead of being dark and grey all the stone is almost white, and although any occasional patches of grass are dry and brown there are the most beautiful trees everywhere. It is pretty warm, to give you an idea it was 23 degrees yesterday evening when we were heading out at 8.30pm-ish (I was taken to a flat-warming party) and we walked home in the wee hours with no jumpers or jackets, it's going to be weird getting used to not needing to take 2 extra layers, and a waterproof, and a scarf everywhere I go, just in case. There's a lovely breeze that comes in off the sea though and, despite the heat, the atmosphere feels light and airy.
Obviously the fact that everyone here speaks French is just a little bit daunting, and it is very frustrating to constantly be struggling for words and not being able to casually join a conversation (some people just speak SO fast!!) but I keep reminding myself that it's only day 2!
Anyhow, I should probably try to find myself a place to live -wish me luck!
bon soir à tous!

over.