Lookie, everyone, today marks five months to the day that I've been in Montpellier! Yeah, I'm kind of surprised myself. Am I happy that I've stuck around for this long, or sad that this pretty much means I'm in the beginning of the closing stretch? In any event, I'm glad glad glad that I didn't have to leave at the end of the semester. I love this place, and the people I've met in it, way too much to go just yet. Granted, that will probably make it all the harder to leave when the time actually does come, but for the moment I'm going to try and continue to profiter fully from my time here. So, what did that entail this weekend?
Noooooo internet! The past four days, Montpellier has been blessed with absurdly gorgeous weather. We're talking the kind of sunshine and just-right warmth that makes you happy to be alive (well, I'm easily pleased!). Sorry, everyone back home who's shivering in their booties, but I've spent about 75% of my waking hours outdoors this weekend, pretending I'm a reptile needing to warm my blood. This is a good thing, because as mentioned before, nooooo internet!
Wait, if there's no internet how am I typing this blog post right now? Well, time and time again the kindness of strangers here continues to rock my socks. I get home from my jog/hike on Friday afternoon (again, profiting from this weather!) to find that I have no internet connection. Well, that's a bummer. I investigate and find out through a fellow exchange student that the internet is down in all the buildings. Being that this is France and internet tecchies probably want to enjoy their weekend as much as I do, nobody will even think of coming in to fix it until Monday. The only thing working is wireless, which only functions at the central lobby of the complex. Not a problem, right?
Actually, yes problem. Turns out you need a code/passkey to use this wireless. So, I inquire at the desk, and apparently you have to apply at the sécretariat to get it, and it takes a couple days. Again, it's the weekend, so sécretariat is not in. Awwww.
So, after fifteen minutes or so of moping with a friend, I casually lamented to the right person - a very nice French girl who, as it turns out, was leaving for the weekend and won't need her internet passcode - so I can use hers! So despite being completely in the dark connection-wise in my dorm, all hope is not lost!
And now here I am, chilling in the lobby typing to all of you. Thankfully, my weekend was surprisingly full! After my jog on Friday I cooked (breakfast for dinner! Crêpes nutella and sausage, yum!) and stayed in with a book, because I had to wake up at 7:15 the next morning for our first exchange group excursion of the semester: Carcassonne (!!), then the Abbaye de Fontfroide! A nicely spent day, including breaking away from the group with two friends to go explore a castle, but more to come on that later.
Today was the typical slow Sunday. Homework, cleaning with my balcony door wide open, then feeling like I had to do something significantly outdoors, I hopped my bike and skipped town, yo. I took my usual route out of the city, found the highway with its convenient pedestrian pathway, and rode to my heart's content. I ended up in an adorable village called Clapiers, one of the small towns located in the greater Montpellier area (in French, l'agglomération). It was a peaceful and rejuvenating if solitary day, though I feel it was very well spent. I guess the lack of internet was a blessing to give me the extra push to explore and really use this glorious weather to its maximum benefit. I'll be looking forward to getting back to class tomorrow, rejoining friends, and doing the obligatory Monday night get-together/sortie en ville. Maybe the internet will be fixed by then, but at the very least I've been reminded of how sadly addicted to the web-o-sphere we all are. 'Tis a shame, I suppose, but nobody's perfect.
Anyway, that's all for now. It's off to bed, and on to another week! Until next time, coucou de Montpellier!
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