One Week in Montpellier

My walk to school
     I'm back at it, here in a new city where I have absolutely no idea what's going on half the time. Where I smile and nod and politely lie about understanding the French phrases rapidly spoken to me. Where it feels like an unnecessarily long amount of time to greet everyone with the customary three kisses on the cheek. Where I've eaten more bread in the past week than I've eaten in two months back home.
   But it's also where I feel like laughing during conversations at dinner with my host family because I am so ridiculously happy for the opportunity to work my way through their dialogues. It's where the people love coffee was much as I do and sit outside at the numerous cafes, sipping their espressos and talking with their friends. Where I can have wine with my lunch and eat as much bread as I want because the French assure me this habit won't make you fat (ask me again how I feel in two months).

    Montpellier is located in the south of France, fifteen minutes from the Mediterranean. It's known as a student city because of it's many universities, and one of the best places to study medicine (Nostradamus studied at the University of Montpellier in the early 1500's). 

  I am living with a host family in the centre historique, the historic district that's a four minute walk from the Accent Francais, my French school. Next to the school is the main town square, the Place de la Comédie. 

Place de la Comédie
    According to Jean-Paul, Accent Francais' beloved animated tour guide, Montpellier is regarded as a new city, new in the French sense that it was built after the Greek and Roman empires (which is consequently the reason the architecture looks more Parisian). But compared to the historical timeline of the United States, Montpellier is an ancient city. Many of the buildings are older, hundreds of years older, than the United States itself.


Place de la Comédie at night

    My classes are an adventure, and I've never concentrated so hard in my life. The classes are taught and explained all in French, and my classmates include people from Belgium, Colombia, Switzerland, Qatar and Japan. 

   In the afternoons, I walk around the city and find myself wandering through streets or stumbling upon churches. Or, sitting at cafe, sipping un café and doing homework or reading a book (I've started reading, or trying to read, Wild by Cheryl Strayed in French).

   I've found myself feeling 1000 different emotions everyday. From excitement to nervousness to homesickness to the desperate need to express myself to the intense joy when I understand a word I hadn't a week ago. It's an incredible way to live, and I'm looking forward to two more months of it.