So I 
have one day and two nights left in Montpellier, and the month really has gone by absurdly fast. This city though has been a perfect introduction to Europe. Its city enough to offer everything I’ve wanted, but small enough for me to learn its streets of the old section (where I live) by spending one Sunday afternoon wandering around. Its certainly French with at least two outdoor cafes and patisseries wherever I am. But un-French because of the absence the cliché haughty attitude. With one exception at the ticket station, I haven’t found anyone to be purposefully rude or anti-American. A welcome surprise.
Its strange how things like walking past city’s Arc D’ Triomphe everyday on my way to school, sitting in a café with a guy playing the according 10 feet away, living in an apartment with walls dating to the 15th century, and seeing people walking around with baguettes can be foreign, mind-boggling, and romantic when I stop to think about them, but have become part of my day to day life.
So that being said, allow me to go through what my day-to-day life here consists of and/or things I haven’t gotten around to writing yet.
Get ready for Fun Fact overload.
One afternoon our group took a tour of the city, organized by our professor who thought it a
good enough idea to have Colgate foot the bill. Unfortunately this was right after one of our classes so I don’t have my camera because I had forgotten the tour was that day, but maybe Ill steal some photos off of facebook. Anyways, we started the tour by going into the Arc that I pass everyday. I didn’t know that it even had a door, but even if I had I wouldn’t have been able to go inside cause the tour guide had a key for it. After climbing up quite a bit of stairs, we were on top of the Arc and had a fantastic view. The guide pointed out the court to our left and explained how the avenue right in front of/under us was way way younger than the rest of the city because they knocked the original buildings down (in the 1800s I think) and rebuilt it in the Parisian style of wide streets and this is why the architecture on the buildings was did not mach the rest of the city.
Oh and Montpellier is considered a ‘young’ city because its just a little under a thousand years old.
Then we went to the medical school, which either was the first one in Europe or the oldest in Europe. Nothing really too noteworthy. However, the school is attached to a cathedral and our guide pointed out the scars in the towers from the crusades.
Then we went to the Jewish baths. This was two underground rooms at the bottom of totally noteworthy stairs behind a door in an alleyway. The first room was for changing and the second was the bath, which was more like a pool. The guide said the water was very clean because it was rain water that gets filtered through rocks and sand.
Fun Fact: Jewish men only used the baths twice a year, for New Years and what the guide described as “Jewish Easter” I have no idea what holiday that could be. Maybe it’s a Jews for Jesus sorta deal. Ladies got to take baths on the same days, and also to purify themselves after menstruation.
I wondered though how clean the water really could be, cause there was no drain or anything at the bottom so all the dirt had no way of coming out of the water.
Centuries old menstruation leftovers anyone? Oh you’ll take seconds? Thought so.
So then we went to a couple houses that were very cool. Well we didn’t go into the houses, more stood in their courtyards and looked like fools to the people who lived there. Imagining a group of tourists rolling up on your lawn and taking pictures. Yea.
Fun Fact: The reason there are so many fountains all around the city is because back when people didn’t have running water, they would go to the fountain to get it. This is all very logical, but I just never made the connection.
There are also lots of homeless people in the city. The homeless people here are not the same as in the US. The majority of them are young, my age or a little bit older. Also, in the US a fair number of the homeless people have mental illnesses, not so here. Well, except for one black guy with no teeth who runs around moaning and humping air to the beat of the music being played in the plaza, but hes an exception. In class I asked why there are so many homeless (Sans Domicile Fixe or SDFs as they’re called here) as well as why most of them are so young.
All the other cities surrounding Montpellier have outlawed living on the streets. So they all come here. So many of them are young because they are not homeless as we consider it in the US. A large number of them are ‘anarchists’ and live on the street by choice. Basically hippies with a punk attitude. They reject they order of society as well as material things, go live on the streets, and like to cause trouble. Also, every single one of them has a dog.
Fun Fact: There is some antiquated law here where a person cannot be arrested for a petty crime if they have a dog, because the police will have to take care of the dog. (At least I think that’s the reason, im not 100% sure cause my teacher explained it in French, but the important part is having a dog equals no arrest unless your crime is serious)
So all the SDFs know this law and take full advantage of it. Also, for some reason, Montpellier is pro SDF and refuses to change any of their laws to become less homeless friendly. Including the one about the dogs.
Considering how horrible a five and a half hour French class has the potential to be, my class truly is great. This all can be chalked up to our Professor Denise. If I had to describe Denise in one way it would be ‘off her rocker’ but in a kooky crazy way, not a Tom Cruise scientology way. She lives by the ‘enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm mantra’, which Id say, for the most part, works. We get along well on a personal level, but out student teacher relationship has seen its strains. Most of this stems from my inability to get ANYTHING right when we play our little ‘guess the vocab word game.” I dunno what it is, I just can’t remember vocab for the life of me.
However, the vocab that I have been able to retain, is really really useful. I would say the majority of the words I know I have heard at least once out on the street, on tv, etc. This in no way means anyone will mistake me for a native speaker, but my French is way way better than it was before I got here. Most times I don’t even need to do the whole formulate the sentence in my head before I speak.
And that’s what is all about right?
have one day and two nights left in Montpellier, and the month really has gone by absurdly fast. This city though has been a perfect introduction to Europe. Its city enough to offer everything I’ve wanted, but small enough for me to learn its streets of the old section (where I live) by spending one Sunday afternoon wandering around. Its certainly French with at least two outdoor cafes and patisseries wherever I am. But un-French because of the absence the cliché haughty attitude. With one exception at the ticket station, I haven’t found anyone to be purposefully rude or anti-American. A welcome surprise.Its strange how things like walking past city’s Arc D’ Triomphe everyday on my way to school, sitting in a café with a guy playing the according 10 feet away, living in an apartment with walls dating to the 15th century, and seeing people walking around with baguettes can be foreign, mind-boggling, and romantic when I stop to think about them, but have become part of my day to day life.
So that being said, allow me to go through what my day-to-day life here consists of and/or things I haven’t gotten around to writing yet.
Get ready for Fun Fact overload.
One afternoon our group took a tour of the city, organized by our professor who thought it a
good enough idea to have Colgate foot the bill. Unfortunately this was right after one of our classes so I don’t have my camera because I had forgotten the tour was that day, but maybe Ill steal some photos off of facebook. Anyways, we started the tour by going into the Arc that I pass everyday. I didn’t know that it even had a door, but even if I had I wouldn’t have been able to go inside cause the tour guide had a key for it. After climbing up quite a bit of stairs, we were on top of the Arc and had a fantastic view. The guide pointed out the court to our left and explained how the avenue right in front of/under us was way way younger than the rest of the city because they knocked the original buildings down (in the 1800s I think) and rebuilt it in the Parisian style of wide streets and this is why the architecture on the buildings was did not mach the rest of the city.Oh and Montpellier is considered a ‘young’ city because its just a little under a thousand years old.
Then we went to the medical school, which either was the first one in Europe or the oldest in Europe. Nothing really too noteworthy. However, the school is attached to a cathedral and our guide pointed out the scars in the towers from the crusades.
Then we went to the Jewish baths. This was two underground rooms at the bottom of totally noteworthy stairs behind a door in an alleyway. The first room was for changing and the second was the bath, which was more like a pool. The guide said the water was very clean because it was rain water that gets filtered through rocks and sand.Fun Fact: Jewish men only used the baths twice a year, for New Years and what the guide described as “Jewish Easter” I have no idea what holiday that could be. Maybe it’s a Jews for Jesus sorta deal. Ladies got to take baths on the same days, and also to purify themselves after menstruation.
I wondered though how clean the water really could be, cause there was no drain or anything at the bottom so all the dirt had no way of coming out of the water.
Centuries old menstruation leftovers anyone? Oh you’ll take seconds? Thought so.
So then we went to a couple houses that were very cool. Well we didn’t go into the houses, more stood in their courtyards and looked like fools to the people who lived there. Imagining a group of tourists rolling up on your lawn and taking pictures. Yea.
Fun Fact: The reason there are so many fountains all around the city is because back when people didn’t have running water, they would go to the fountain to get it. This is all very logical, but I just never made the connection.
There are also lots of homeless people in the city. The homeless people here are not the same as in the US. The majority of them are young, my age or a little bit older. Also, in the US a fair number of the homeless people have mental illnesses, not so here. Well, except for one black guy with no teeth who runs around moaning and humping air to the beat of the music being played in the plaza, but hes an exception. In class I asked why there are so many homeless (Sans Domicile Fixe or SDFs as they’re called here) as well as why most of them are so young.
All the other cities surrounding Montpellier have outlawed living on the streets. So they all come here. So many of them are young because they are not homeless as we consider it in the US. A large number of them are ‘anarchists’ and live on the street by choice. Basically hippies with a punk attitude. They reject they order of society as well as material things, go live on the streets, and like to cause trouble. Also, every single one of them has a dog.
Fun Fact: There is some antiquated law here where a person cannot be arrested for a petty crime if they have a dog, because the police will have to take care of the dog. (At least I think that’s the reason, im not 100% sure cause my teacher explained it in French, but the important part is having a dog equals no arrest unless your crime is serious)
So all the SDFs know this law and take full advantage of it. Also, for some reason, Montpellier is pro SDF and refuses to change any of their laws to become less homeless friendly. Including the one about the dogs.
Considering how horrible a five and a half hour French class has the potential to be, my class truly is great. This all can be chalked up to our Professor Denise. If I had to describe Denise in one way it would be ‘off her rocker’ but in a kooky crazy way, not a Tom Cruise scientology way. She lives by the ‘enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm mantra’, which Id say, for the most part, works. We get along well on a personal level, but out student teacher relationship has seen its strains. Most of this stems from my inability to get ANYTHING right when we play our little ‘guess the vocab word game.” I dunno what it is, I just can’t remember vocab for the life of me.
However, the vocab that I have been able to retain, is really really useful. I would say the majority of the words I know I have heard at least once out on the street, on tv, etc. This in no way means anyone will mistake me for a native speaker, but my French is way way better than it was before I got here. Most times I don’t even need to do the whole formulate the sentence in my head before I speak.
And that’s what is all about right?
No comments:
Post a Comment