April: Part one

I realized that it had been a while since my last post when google no longer had my password saved and I had forgotten my password completely. I apologize for the delay, and of course must give the excuse that I have been very busy.

In the past month, we have made trips to Carcassonne, Sète and the beach (finally). As of today, we are completely finished with all work and exams (I still have an oral examination at three, but for all intents and purposes I am free) and I finally solidified my travels for the month of May. Most importantly perhaps, I switched from firefox to safari. If you have not yet made the realization that firefox is the devil's browser, I'm telling you now that switching over could very well change your life.

Since we have been so busy, no one has had the time to put up pictures of all these events, but I assure you that they exist and once they enter the Facebook realm I will put some up. In the mean time, I can give you a brief summary of the excursions.

Carcassonne: So, I still can't actually pronounce its name and have to verify the spelling in google every time, but that does not make me love this place any less. We went when Stephanie's parents were visiting, because everyone says it's a must-do in the south of France due to the incredible medieval city/castle. When we got off the train and saw the giant walls that surround the medieval city, I was indeed very impressed. Once we got inside the walls, there were tourist traps galore (that I gladly fell into) and tons of people walking around the extremely well-preserved streets. We toured around for a while and had lunch at a cute place that had a honey/goat cheese salad, which of course every single person ordered. We then got tickets and went into the castle, which had some great views. Since the tickets were free for students, Stephanie passed back her ID to her mother, and somehow that actually worked. I hope that I will be able to embarrass(/impress?) my daughter in the same way when I hit my mid-50s.

Also, I just made Stephanie send some pictures my way and they will far better illustrate the village than I can:

In front of the medieval city 

Inside the castle

After Carcassonne, we ventured to the beach for the first time since it's finally warm enough/socially acceptable to wear bathing suits. We had a fantastic picnic on the beach and laid out in the sun for several hours. Even I got burnt, but it was still a beautiful day and we've back several times since.

Picnic pic

The beach in all its mediterranean glory

We went to Sète, a costal town only 19 minutes away from Montpellier, to see a boat show this past Saturday. When I imagined a boat show, I expected.. boat races?...motor boats?.. something like that. I really didn't know what to expect, but apparently in Sète boat show means giant pirate ships, sailors, and about a million stands that sell striped, nautical t-shirts.

This is the best picture I could find of the boats, so once
again just ignore the goonery occurring in the foreground

Recently, we also participated in "American day" at a local french high school. All of us either accompanied a group of high school students all day or ran a workshop. Steph, Carson and I were charged with the musical activity, and we chose to teach the song "Home" to a bunch of French teenagers all day. It was pretty fun overall, however after singing Home for 6 hours, I pretty much had to stop myself from deleting it from my iTunes library all together.

We were told that a tex-mex themed lunch would be provided, which could not have turned out more hilarious. I'm not sure if there was some sort of misunderstanding down the line, but the meal consisted of baked potatoes, chicken wings, coleslaw, and tomatoes with deviled egg on top. Of course I am not complaining and it was by all counts pretty delicious, but the eggmatoes will forever be a mystery to me. I wish I had taken picture because I don't think I can properly describe the full extent of their weirdness.

Anyway, this month has been incredible and finals were really not bad. I'm going to go ahead and post this as a part one because Meredith has expressed that she can't wait any longer. Expect a part two soon enough!