Well its officially my last lovely day in Glasgow, United Kingdom! Excited to be on a plane to the US in less than 24 hours, but so sad to be leaving this place that I’ve learned to call my home for the last 4 months and 8 days. I know I have gained so much, and grew immensely from this trip; I will always be able to look back and smile. I’ve made great friends, from all around the world, and yes, we have many plans for reunions in the [...]

I fell off the blogging boat. Actually, I should admit that I jumped off. About halfway through my semester in Toledo, Spain I got sick of blogging and spending time on the computer and started enjoying myself instead. That’s not to say I don’t like blogging, or that I stopped writing about my experiences–I just stopped composing them into blog posts and publishing them online. But now that the semester is over and I’ve started my travels about Europe, I thought I’d use some down time (recovering from full days [...]

This Saturday was another excursion planned by the program.  We started our day in the village of Roquefort up in the rolling hills of the Aveyron region.  This region is actually supposed to be dominated by the Larzac Plateau, but it seemed mountainous to me, so I guess I don’t really know where we were haha. Like I said though, we started in the village of Roquefort, home of the (in)famous blue cheese of the same name.  If you’ve never tried Roquefort cheese…don’t!  Haha.  No, I suppose if you’re already [...]

Once upon a time my friend and I decided to visit the city of Avignon and the old Roman aqueduct, Pont du Gard, which was a trip in and of itself out of Avignon.  Little did we know that seeing both of these places was overly ambitious for our late start and leisurely attitude and that a lack of planning would lead us wandering aimlessly along a highway trying to suck up the courage to hitch a ride back into town. Avignon was an hour northeast of Montpellier by train.  There [...]

Köln, Germany, was the second (and last) stop on my brief spring break trip with Eric. Since everyone always talks about Munich and Berlin, I’m guessing Cologne is often overlooked to people traveling to Germany. I remember Munich being nice, and I’ve never been to Berlin, but Cologne was a great city to visit, and seems like a great place to live, too.  Eric and I agreed that Germany was the first country we’d been to where people actually live, where they do what they want and seem so normal, and aren’t [...]

Not brussel sprouts, but the city in Belgium! Both are pretty good.  Eric and I decided to visit the land of chocolate, waffles, and fries over our spring break. It was a quick train ride from Paris, a mere hour and twenty minutes on a spacious train with outlets in case you need to charge your electronics. I guess Thalys trains (which operate between Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Cologne, and maybe a few other places too) are a little fancier than SNCF ones. The first thing I noticed about Brussels [...]

1. Visit the Vatican in the afternoon and St. Peters in the early evening right before it closes. All the tourist think they will be sneaky and get up early to stand in line before the doors of the Vatican Museum even open so they can beat the crowds-the problem is, every single other tourist in the city has that same thought. Go in the afternoon then head over to St. Peters at sunset when the crowds have all left and you have time to sit on the steps with [...]

1. Church bells go off every hour, but at strange times such as 12:17 or 9:43. 2. You can sit on a piazza with your friends and a pitcher of beer at 11:30 on a Saturday night and the people walking past you range from tiny kids who look a bit lost to really old people who also look a bit lost. Then to really kick up the weirdness, that piazza has a huge statue in the middle that looms over the bars full of drunk people to remind you [...]

So after spring break I pretty much hit a “being ready to go home and that’s the only thing that will cheer me up” wall. Luckily I found the tv show “Lost” on Netflix and that has helped me stay occupied between study sessions, and I got together with Rachel and our friend Sara and planned a trip to Ireland. Tonight is our last night in Dublin and we are getting up at 530am to head back to Glasgow in the morning. This has definitely been my favorite trip so [...]

Last night out with the three musketeers :( National Portrait Gallery. Last view of Kilburn Park Station. Last panini from the internet cafe. Le red door of CAPA. High tea. Last views of Gloucester road. Sigh.    

I should be packing right now.  I’m going to Belgium tomorrow for the first part of our spring break to see my pen pal from high school.  I’m really excited to see her since I haven’t seen her in 5 years!  But I’ve never been good at packing and besides, I just got really nostalgic which is never conducive to productivity.  My host sisters just came in to give me “bisous” goodnight since I won’t see them for a couple weeks, and I almost lost it.  When I get back [...]

Why I Love Euro Coins. 1. Everybody loves rainbows and Europe’s currency IS the rainbow. Grey, red, blue, orange, green, yellow, purple. Every bill is a brilliant shade of something wonderful for the eyes. Dollars are boring and green and kind of ugly. Yes, I said it. Ugly. America’s currency is an eye sore. 2. If you are visually impaired you can still buy things on your own since-guess what-Euros are different sizes! The 5 Euro is smaller than the 10 so the blind can use their spidey finger senses [...]

Bedlam Hospital Museum!!! The paintings and art are contributions from PATIENTS! They encourage artistic expression for patients, and it is known as “psychiatric art.” I’ve shown the paintings, and then the corresponding explication of the piece. Sad, but extremely trippy stuff. I love the statues of “Raving and Melancholy Madness.” They were originally put on either side of the hospital gates. Something very “drama” and “comedy” about it. I bought a post card of the anorexia piece. My GOD. Look at it! And inside the angry being, it’s holding a [...]

Now that I’m nearing the end of my time here in Montpellier, I thought I would write a little bit about my housing experiences, since I haven’t really mentioned it much. I wanted to wait until I had more to go off of than just my first impressions. I chose a homestay. This was a tricky decision, whether to pick staying with a family, or in an apartment. Ultimately, I chose a family stay so that I would be immersed in the local culture, living with a real French family, [...]

Last Saturday, we had another group excursion. The weather was beautiful–the first time it’s been nice on an excursion, and it was great to be outside. The longish bus ride and the winding, bumpy roads made me a bit carsick, but it was worth it.  We got to ride an old-fashioned steam train to the bamboo forest… We got to hang around all sorts of cool plants (mostly bamboo, of course)… And we even visited a cave with some really cool formations… France does surprise me sometimes. Who’d have thought [...]