Part 2 of My Trip

While I'm at Montpellier III for languages, arts, and literature, Montpellier II is for the sciences. Montpellier I is for medicine and economics.

We had arrived right where we needed to be, but on the info packet they'd mailed us before our arrival, they listed office hours and places to stay in the city if we arrived outside of those hours, which suggested that we would not be able to get into our rooms in our particular situation.

I overheard a bunch of girls nearby speaking English as I stood with our luggage, and I inquired about our predicament and whether or not it was indeed a predicament. Some of the girls were American, some were French. A French girl with a beautiful accent told me that office hours had ended at 4 (it was now 5:15), and I asked her if we'd need to stay elsewhere. With a sympathetic look, she nodded and said probably. Then an American girl told me that there were places to stay and they gave me directions to go in the city. When they found out we took a taxi, they immediately said, "Take the tram."

The inside of a tram feels so hip and modern.

 I hadn't been worrying much until then, and somehow I still didn't worry. I felt so overwhelmingly calm.

This is what the inside of my head was like. It's still like that.

Julianne came out after about 10-15 minutes, looking triumphant. "She's here! She's waiting for us!" she informed me, referring to one of the program directors. I didn't feel too much relief, since I wasn't concerned to begin with. But I was definitely happier.

We then awkwardly dragged our hundreds of pounds of luggage through a small part of the huge campus, up stone steps and down pebbled pathways, dodging the numerous students who were strolling past. I have no idea how Julianne pulled off navigating through everything when she'd first run in. She has a great sense of direction! I really envy her.

My shoulders and arms are still super achy and stiff from carrying all of my luggage around all day.

We went to the office of the coordinator. She is very kind, though she informed us that we weren't supposed to come to the office, we were supposed to go straight to the dorm. But she asked us how we were doing, let us use her phone to call home, and even drove us over to the dorm in her car with all of our luggage while chit-chatting with us (Mom, I later found out that this is the same woman who fired off those, er, rather stern emails to me; she's actually really nice). She took us to a lobby where we got our keys, and a friendly American girl named Erin (I really like her name for some reason... ~_^) who is in the same program as us greeted us and grabbed some of our luggage. She then led us to the dorm, where she is also staying. We then met an American guy named Jeremiah outside of the entrance of the building who is in our program as well, and he took some of our luggage up for us.

Once I'd gotten the perplexing lock undone on my door, Erin put my stuff in my room and showed me how to work the ridiculous window. Then she proposed we go someplace to eat and look for internet access, and Julianne and I agreed to it, so long as we could have a shower first.

Vert Bois, right near where we live.

You'd figure the rest of this story would be, "So I took a shower, went out to eat and couldn't get any internet access, but I was sated and happy and relieved and IN FRANCE, and that was all I needed. After we got back to the dorm and said our good nights and made plans to meet up the next day for orientation, I changed into my jammies and collapsed into bed, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow thanks to all of the exhaustion my great adventure had caused to well up. But the biggest adventure was yet to come. What did tomorrow hold?"

Yeah, not so much.

After Julianne and I showered, we headed to the spot where we were meeting Erin. We chatted with Jeremiah before she showed up, and she then informed us that she'd met some people who she'd invited along. Well, they already had plans, so THEY invited HER along. She was now inviting us along. We agreed to it. Meanwhile, nearby, a British girl had been struggling with her luggage and seemed distressed. We started helping her and took her to her dorm, and she wound up coming with us to meet the other people for dinner. The other people were two British males and one American female.

Hearing a lot of British accents all at one time, especially in excited tones, is really something special.

We headed into town. I figured we were headed for a place nearby.  Instead, we went far. Really far (which was good, because we need to get acclimated to the city). Then we met two more British people and took the tram even deeper into the city. It was raining at this point. We chatted and walked to a restaurant. I ordered a horrifying three cheese salad, and we all conversed for a very long time (particularly interesting was the subject of differences between American and British cultures and vernacular). I started to fade after I was done eating. I was bone-achingly exhausted. Finally, three of us American girls decided to leave, since we'd paid already. We high-tailed it to the tram stop, where the others caught up to us, and went back to campus.

I fell asleep so hard that night, thanking God for His peace and for being right there with me the entire time.

I know that I've been able to handle all of this and be so low-key because of the prayers that have been sent up on my behalf.

 I've taken a lot of videos and pictures, which I will put in my next post. I want to share a few random, poorly organized thoughts and observations now.

When we were flying on the plane low enough to see land masses some time before we landed in Paris, I had to keep telling myself that what I was looking at was not America, it was definitely Europe. However, I just wasn't moved by that fact all that much. Then, my first impression of France was, "It's like America, only boring." Colors here seem more muted, everything is smaller, there's tons of plain countryside. Rather than, "Wow, I'm in France," I've just been feeling like, "Eh, I'm in France."

I don't think it has sunk in yet, even two days into it. That's how big this is, I suppose.

I've posted this image before, but now I've seen it in person. We rode right past it in the taxi.

I did not get jet-lagged. I was extremely clear-minded when we landed and had to navigate the airport, the train stations, etc. A lot of people can speak English. There are plenty of black people, though I'm the only one in my program, and I think most of them are actually from Africa. Most of us Americans here are slim; in fact, the other night, the British girls were all bigger than us.

The French are definitely not rude. They very much expect you to be with it and catch on to things quickly (now who does that sound like...), but they have all been very patient and understanding. Julianne and I both had intances during our journey through stations and cities where guys would grab our suitcases for us when they saw us struggling and carry them for us to a point. Whenever I use poor French, people correct me politely or finish my sentences for me. I think they appreciate a willingness in a foreigner to try to speak the language confidently. Also, being a foreigner for a change is kind of fun. It's enjoyable being in situations where I can speak my native tongue and know that most of the people around me can't understand me, but I can understand most of them.

We went past a fountain on the tram. Not sure if it was this one.

All in all, I feel really blessed and honored to be here. Thank you to everyone who has been interested, concerned, and helped in any way they could. I'm very grateful to have so many people supporting me and looking after me. God knows I don't deserve it, so thank you very much. I'll do my best for you!