Nîmes, Provence, and the beach :)

Since the last update the group has gone on some day trips to both Nîmes and Provence. I'll start with Nîmes...

We hopped on a train for a 25 minute ride over to Nîmes which is a beautiful city with a lot of ancient roman architecture. The main building we toured was the amphitheater. It was built in the first century A.D. and it's really quite incredible. We got a little guided tour of the inside and our tour guide told us all about how it was used in the olden days. Now it's mainly used for concerts and bull fights. I plan on heading back there for a bull fight sometime before I leave, because I think it'd be hilarious, and interesting to watch. The seats closest to the center were the seats for the upper class citizens. They had wooden benches to sit on and they hardly had to climb any stairs to get to their seating area. The seats at the very top of the arena were for the slaves, as they had the "worst" view and were simply cement slabs. Also, it was a bit of a trek to get up to the top. I personally thought the view from up there was amazing. It wasn't super high but it certainly gave a view of the city and surrounding buildings. I was most impressed by the fact that it's still standing and in use after so many years.

The view from the outside:

The hallways were slightly mysterious:

There were little corridors everywhere, lots of them had ivy growing on them:

The view from the top... not bad!:

sitting in the slave seats:

We also watched a 3-D video about the ancient days in this old building:

After our tour was over, a few of us grabbed lunch and then we had about two hours until we had to meet back at head to Montpellier. So, we decided to explore the city a little. We ended up finding this super amazing park called "Jardin du Fontaine" or the garden of the fountain. There were tons of statues, sculptures, gardens, etc. and it was really pretty amazing. We noticed that there were some stairs and random paths that lead up this hill, so we followed them and ended up finding the old roman watchtower at the very top of this hill. The tour guide had mentioned that it's the most amazing view of the city, so when we stumbled upon it we were pretty excited. We had to pay 3E or something to go up, but it was totally worth it.

The first set of stairs to get to the top... then there were a lot more:
The view once we made it to the top... This is zoomed as far as possible towards the amphitheater... it was pretty outstanding:
We met some English people at the top and they took a photo for us:
Nîmes ended up being really cool. We also saw a bunch of old men playing Boccie Ball in the park. We wanted to ask if we could join but we figured it was like an exclusive old man club.

The next day we had a guided tour of Montpellier. It was nice to see some different aspects of the city, including the arch de triumph, but it was raining the entire morning so I didn't take any good pictures.

The following day we had our day trip to Provence. It was quite a long bus ride, but we got to see some cool things. Our first stop was at the Pont du Gard. The Pont du Gard is part of the famous Roman aqueduct remains which was built around 50 AD. It was used as a water conveyance from one part of the city to another. We only had about 30 minutes to explore the area, but it was pretty neat.


Our next stop was at a little village called Fontaine de Vaucluse. It seemed like a ghost town because almost all the shops were closed and no one was walking around. It reminded a lot of us of the poor provincial town that they sang about in Beauty and the Beast. We joked about wanting people to burst out of the shutters saying "Bonjour!" The town was cute though, but I didn't do much exploring. The water was incredibly clear by the river but also a strange bluish color. Unfortunately, my camera was out of batteries at this point, so I'll have to steal some pictures from friends. We at lunch at a little restaurant where I ordered "Croque Monsieur." It was basically a grilled cheese sandwich with ham, but tasted really good. Since they serve such giant portion sizes in France it was two sandwiches and a salad.

Next on the list was Les Baux de Provence. Here there is a very old castle built into a mountain that was quite a trip to get to. We were on coach buses and most of us thought we were going to throw up by the time we got to the top. The winding roads up the mountain were not a good idea after lunch, especially since French people drive like mad men. Our bus driver was taking corners like a maniac causing us to all get a little sick. Once we got to the top, we had about an hour to walk around the city. The entire city is built into this mountain with tons of little cobblestone roads and pathways. When we got to the entrance of the castle we found out that you had to pay to go any further, which we didn't know, and our money was on the bus. So, we didn't get to go into the castle remains, but the castle village was cute enough. Also, the "bathrooms" at this place were... well... holes in the ground. They did provide foot grooves though...
It was very cute, I wish the sun would have been out though...
The view from the city of another little town:
It's hard to imagine that people used to live here and walk the streets all the time...
We were all pretty tired at this point, many hours on a bus, lots of walking, but we still had one last stop. Our final destination was the Windmill of Fontevielle. Apparently they're super famous, although I'd never heard of them before. The windmill we saw was built in 1815 and worked for an entire century. In my opinion, it wasn't that cool, but this is what it looked like:
The day finally came to a close and we were on our way home on the buses when we were stuck in a long line of traffic waiting to go through the tolls. We were waiting there for quite some time and then TONS of emergency vehicles started driving past us. When I say tons, I mean at least 50 drove by us. So, our bus driver turned on the radio and we found out about the hurricane that was happening in Spain and South Western France. There were lines and lines of Semi trucks on the side of the road just parked there because they weren't allowing any traffic into the western areas or Spain. It was also kind of raining, and sunny, so we saw our first French Rainbow :) It was really bright, and I tried to take a picture of it... it kind of worked.

The semi trucks on the side of the street were never-ending. We drove by them for at least ten minutes. It was so bizarre:
And here's the rainbow :)

Overall it was a good day and both the trips to Nîmes and Provence were interesting and worthwhile.

The next day I was planning on just sitting at home with my host family, but my dad suggested we drive to the beach, since I hadn't seen it yet. I thought he meant the entire family, but when I told him I was ready to go it ended up just being me and him. We drove to the beach which took about ten minutes and then we proceeded to walk along the shore and pier for about two hours. It was really beautiful out, and I'm so excited to bike to the beach when it gets a little warmer. We had a somewhat lengthy conversation about politics, Obama, how the US is the strangest country ever, etc... I really like talking to him, but sometimes it's hard to convey what I mean in those in depth conversations. It was a very relaxing afternoon. When we got home there was a big Rugby match on TV... Toulouse vs. England, I think. I tried to watch it but I didn't understand the rules at all so it was hard to follow.

Some pictures of the beach:

The rocks are to block the waves to prevent eating away of the shore, obviously. They're just in certain places, don't worry... there's plenty of soft white sand to lay on. It's almost as nice as laying in soft white snow when it's -20 in Minnesota in February, right?

It's ok to be jealous, Montpellier is awesome.

Ok, this post has gotten entirely too long, so I'll save updating about school and the recent strike that happened until later.

Miss you all!!
-Kelli

Address

I'll find some time later this week to post pictures from Nîmes and Provence, as well as talk a little more about what's been going on and how classes are going... 

I just wanted to put my address here for those of you that want to send me things:

Kelli Ramstad

c/o M et Mme HENRIEL

427 Ave des Etats du Languedoc

34000 Montpellier, France

À Bientôt!

Je suis ici!

Phew, I am finally here and all settled in. The flights were very long, but most of us were able to sleep for awhile on the longest, so that made things a bit easier. We arrived in Montpellier at around 2:00 on Monday and were greeted at the airport by Cedric one of the program staff. He was very friendly and helped us find our way to the hotel. Fortunately, all of my luggage was fine and found, five girls on our flight ended up with no luggage for a day as it was lost in Paris. Once we got to the hotel we were assigned rooms with other girls on the program (there is only one boy!) so Maddie and I made our way to our room to take a break. We got into our room and were instantly amazing by the view of the city. We were located right off of a little shopping area called Le Triangle and there were tons of french people walking around. We made an effort to stay awake until nine that night so we could try and adjust to the time change, so we went to dinner and walked around La Place de la Comedie a bit.

The next day (Tuesday) we had an orientation at the program office and were able to go to our school to get a tour. It's a medium sized campus... no where near the size of the U, but pretty big for France. There is a lot of graffiti everywhere, which is strange at first, but I guess it doesn't stand out as much anymore. I also bought my Tram pass (like the light rail in MN but 1000x better because it goes EVERYWHERE and is a better ride) and a cell phone because the program requires we get one. I was able to find a pay as you go phone for only 20 Euros, so about $26.00.

I was also picked up by my host mom and brought back to our BEAUTIFUL apartment on Tuesday night. We live on the 17th floor of a very nice apartment complex right in the middle of the city. The tram stops practically right outside the apartment door, which is extremely convenient for getting to school. It's just a 10 minute walk to La Place de la Comedie and the main shopping area (La Polygone) is just across the street, too. Basically, I'm living in the perfect location.

Also, like I said, we're on the 17th floor and the view is amazing. I am sitting here at my desk and I can see all of the city and the Mediterranean sea off in the distance. During the day the view of all the little old buildings is beautiful and at night the lights glistening in the background are equally as pretty. Here's a photo of the view from my room during the day:

My family is very welcoming and nice. My mom, Sabine, doesn't work so she basically told me that if I ever needed her she was always there for me. My dad, Jean-Xavier, is very nice, and very inclined to help me improve my French. Last night at dinner he made fun of me a little at the way I was pronouncing things, but it is only to help me, he says. Then I have two brothers, Jules, who is 16, and Léon, who is 11. They are both very nice. Jules speaks a lot of English, but his mom told him he must speak French with me. Léon is hard to understand because he speaks so fast, but he's funny when I can understand him. Last night at dinner he tried to "test" me by asking me to say "rivière" which he thinks is very difficult for Americans to say because of the french R sound. Sabine told him it was too early to ask me to say that since I'd only been in France for two days. (He asked me when I got home from my exams today, and said I was pretty good at it ;) )

Here are some photos of my room:



It's not very big, but it's very cute, and I love it. Ironically, the desk lamp they provided for me is the EXACT same one that I have back home but white instead of black.

Also, here are some photos of the apartment itself:
we're at the top :)

The kitchen:

The TV room:

And, the living room:

Today we had placement tests to find out how good we are at French. On Monday we get our results and our class schedule. Then, classes start on Tuesday.

My brothers loved the Oreos, Double Stuff is like a dream come true for them. Léon keeps walking around saying "Double Stuff" in a silly french accent.

We watched the inauguration (in French) which was slightly strange, but awesome none-the-less. The news over here was saying that Obama is going to change not only the US, but the world. My dad only kind of agrees, but he loves Obama, and so does 90% of France.

So, all in all, it's been a very successful trip so far. No major mishaps, and the city really is great. The rest of the week we have small day trips planned to Nimes, Provence, and a guided tour of Montpellier. I'm excited for Provence because there's apparently some really cool architecture there.

I hope all is going well back home... and I hope the weather has gotten above zero since I left! It's been about 50 here, so just light coat weather. It's great.

À bientôt!

First Post

Hello All,
This is where I will be blogging and posting photos while I'm in Montpellier. I don't know how much time I'll have once I get over there but hopefully I can write once a week.
Enjoy!
-Kelli