Wrapping up March

The week after spring break was, as I predicted and hoped for, rather uneventful. It didn't take me long to fall back into a pattern, but it was difficult to get used to not being with 8 other people 24/7. I found myself weirdly missing all of the people I traveled with and wanting to know every detail of what they had been up to for the 9 hours that I'm not already with them each day. This got creepy/old quickly, so I eventually adapted to that as well.

Last week, my mom came to visit and she gave us the opportunity to finally be tourists in Montpellier. We kind of needed this, because it can help you see a place in a completely different and more exciting way. My favorite tourist activity was most definitely a bike tour of the city. We biked around the entire southern half of Montpellier, which is the nicer part of the city by a long-shot. When my mom wanted to see where our french university was (it's in the North- we pretend that doesn't exist), I arbitrarily pointed to an attractive chateau and claimed that it was UPV. 

But anyway, we didn't have to sign anything and a helmet was optional, but of course we all opted for it because we are responsible human beings. Luckily, no one crashed or had any mishaps, except for Stephanie who had a short run-in with a pole.

Trying to remain inconspicuous

While Mom was here, I finally had the chance to try some of the awesome restaurants around the area and have my first massage. Since it was my first, I was going to think it was awesome no matter what, but according to mom they do it very differently here. Apparently the French are just much less concerned with personal boundaries, which we were all very surprised to learn (but not really).

My mom's trip also coincided with one of my host dad's concerts, which was very cool. We drove to the venue with my host mom, and after getting slightly lost, we actually made it on time (a rarity in this household). We watched the concert, mingled with some french people, and had a really fantastic time. I'm glad my mom got to see this strange and awesome part of my life, and she will be very missed by all.

Friday night we had a surprise birthday party for one of our friends. There were mojitos, tiramisu shots, and glow sticks, so it was really an ideal party for any twenty-something.

Saturday night Stephanie, Carson, and I went out to the countryside with my host parents. It was a concert/party type deal at one of the coolest houses I've seen here, and without a doubt one of my favorite nights of the trip so far. We played throughout the entire night- I mean actually the entire night. Stephanie and I fell asleep around 4:30, while my host dad and all of the other sixty-something year old french people jammed until 5:00 AM as if that were completely normal. Despite my inferior stamina, it was an incredible time, and I'm hoping that we'll be able to do something like it again before we leave Montpellier.

Now I am once again left with a bunch of work that I put off while Mom was visiting, so I'm going to try and get started on that. In the meantime, here's a photo of the marathon jam session:

So sepia