Today was National Pillow Fight Day! Trafalgar Square was TEEMING with people throwing pillows and feathers at each other. I can’t even really describe how it all was, or how it all really felt. The best I can say is that it was RANDOM, EXHILARATING and FIERCE! It lasted for an hour, but wow, that was a lot of time to be hitting and getting hit with pillows. Another thing I will say about this experience that it was just what it seemed – a HUGE pillow fight. Everyone understood the [...]

Sète was only about a few euro train-ride away from Montpellier, and the word was that there was a view of the Mediterranean that I had to see.  The day was perfectly sunny so my friend and I decided to make the day trip. Sète is a port town with canals running throughout (though not as many as Venice!).  While small, this town is full of color, from the yellows and pinks of the buildings to the bright blue of the canal and sea.  Canal We stopped for some lunch and [...]

I’ve been here before. It’s Sunday again here in London. Here in my bed as I type this out. Alina and Liz are both asleep. It’s 9:18am. I really am going to miss these serene Sunday mornings where I’m the only one awake, but it’s too peaceful to move or get up. I’m lying in bed, and all I want to do is reflect. Our room smells of morning dew – Liz and Alina like to keep the far window open because it gets volcano-like in our room otherwise. I’ve [...]

Our last leg of the trip! Venice is like into a 3D interactive postcard.  Its resemblance to the romanticized pictures of gondolas and narrow canals that are in movies, European-themed calendars, and Pinterest is spot-on accurate.  Who knew that this city pragmatically built out in the marshland to escape Barbarian attacks would become such a sought-after vacation destination.  Of course with the allure of a destination come the consequences of inflated prices and everyone addressing you in English from the get-go.  Unless you have money to spend on fancy glass [...]

I don’t eat out much here in Montpellier. Not just because of the gluten thing, but because it can get expensive. However, I have gone out a few places, with friends or family, and would like to share some of the food experiences I’ve had in my temporary hometown. Ban Thaï: The first time I tried to eat here with my friends, we got lost and were wandering around for a while, and I started to wonder if it was even worth it to find the place. It so was. I [...]

On Tuesday, I went the Old Operating Theatre near London Bridge! Oh man, the things that are there, and the demonstration they do! They show you how medicine was during the Victorian era, how apothecaries would sell and manufacture their herbs and treatments, and they had old Victorian medical devices and tools! It was STELLAR. I mean, it was soooo cool! I kept thinking, “Mama and baba have to come here next time we are in London!”  This is me volunteering to get my right arm and left leg amputated [...]

I was lucky enough to have my family come visit me for ten days. We spent time in the south of France, and then trained our way up to Paris for Easter weekend. Provence is a region in the south, the next-door neighbor to Languedoc Roussillon, where Montpellier is located. We stayed in a lovely little cottage the first weekend outside of Avignon in a town called Rognonas. We visited Avignon for a day, wandering around the Palais des Papes, the massive former home of the Popes, who came to live [...]

Onward ho, to Florence we went, sad to leave Rome, but also in need of some slower-paced site seeing.  Though Rome was exciting, we were all exhausted from running around the city like crazed tourists.  When we arrived in Florence to pick up our keys we were greeted by a warm middle-aged Italian woman who made sure to recommend restaurants, gelaterias, and good views of the city.  Our apartment seemed to be in a pretty central location and sure enough in the morning we woke up to the market below.  [...]

Another part of Rome that I really enjoyed was the Vatican Museums, namely the Sistine Chapel.  The Sistine Chapel was at the end of the museums so we first saw countless sculptures, Etruscan relics, beautiful ceilings and walls and maps and tapestries.  These museums were a city and I couldn’t begin to understand the tedious task that each marble head or painted wall must have been. It was such a flood for the senses though that you nearly became desensitized to it all by the end. To think!  I almost [...]

You know you are in Roma when… 1. You accidentally stumble across Francesco’s Holy Week Mass in St. Peter’s Square on the way home from class, and it blows your mind about how causal you consider this happening yet people from all over the world have traveled to Rome this month JUST for Easter and that mass. 2. You scored free tickets to Easter Mass in St. Peters from your teacher. 3. You go to a museum tour and the tour voice recording is the voice of the teacher who [...]

This weekend trip to Bordeaux, the great wine region of France, was to me a way to top off and put to good use the wine appreciation class that I took last semester.  Besides driving through the never-ending vineyards that were especially pretty when the sun was setting, we also saw the many churches of the actual city of Bordeaux.  We also got really lucky with the weather—the weekend we went was the first time the sun had come out in a month! Bordeaux is northwest of Montpellier, only a [...]

Spain!  This would be my first non-French experience in Europe.  I’d never had Spain on my to-go list, but some friends wanted to go and we’d found some cheap accommodations and transportation, so I decided to expand my horizons and cross the border. We took advantage of the well-organized carpooling websites in France and arranged a ride with a stranger.  Our driver was from Barcelona but worked in Montpellier, so he drove back to Spain every weekend.  He was a very sociable guy—I’m sure it was fun for him to have [...]

  Pope Pius XI never lost his childlike curiosity for how things worked and was in love with the newest gadget Marconi had just introduced to the world. Pope John Paul II sometimes put on a disguise to sneak out of the Vatican City walls to have coffee at the bar down the street or to spend a day skiing in local hills. Pope Pius XII was a man who tried his best to protect the Jewish people of Rome, but was just as afraid as anyone of the Nazis [...]

This particular weekend we had an excursion that was organized by the program.  We took a day trip to Arles, which is about an hour east of Montpellier.  What I will most remember about this trip is the wind and the light.   The light in the South of France seems to me a good deal different from the light I’m used to in Northern Indiana.  Not only does the sun make a more frequent appearance here, but it is also so bright that you literally can’t look at it or [...]

1. It rains only when you don’t have your umbrella. 2. The buses come when they please, and will definitely be late when you need to be somewhere important 3. The buses randomly change their routes mid-ride without any prior notice. 4. The local women have somehow mastered high heels on century old cobble stone and you will still trip all over the place in your flat soled shoes. Forget about heels since you will break your ankle. 5. It will be 38 degrees one day and 58 the next-and [...]