Our New Years Eve was a great success! We had a great dinner with a bunch of Louisa's friends in one of their host family's house - they're super artsy and had an awesome apartment - and hung out there for awhile before going to a nearby bar pretty close to midnight and hanging out there for the rest of the night. We took the free metro home. All in all, lots of fun, great meeting new people and trying to speak a little bit of French here and there.
This morning we got up and Louisa brought me to the train station. From there, everything got a little more stressful because I didn't have her help with lugging all of my bags around, but a nice girl on the train helped me find a place to put my biggest suitcase. I wasn't really sure what was going to happen once I got here, but as soon as I stepped out of the train station I realized how awesome this city was. It was about 60 degrees ( I was dying in my winter coat) and there were tons of people outside, wandering around. I could see my hotel from the entrance of the station so I walked about three minutes to get there, super easy, along the street, lined with palm trees.
After getting myself organized, I decided to go take a little stroll and try to find something to eat, since I hadn't eaten since breakfast with Louisa. I found the Place de la Comedie (a couple more minutes' walk on the same road where my hotel is) which is the big square in town that's connected to a little park. Everyone was eating in outdoor cafes (in January!) and out walking around. I also barely saw any cars. Not sure if it's because they're not allowed on the streets where I was, because there's a tram that runs back and for all the time - seems like transportation will be really easy. I didn't go too far, mostly staying in the main square, but it was really cool to check out a little bit of the city on my own before I start with all of my program stuff tomorrow.
So here I am in Montpellier. It seems like a great place to be, and I can't wait to explore it more! Feeling a little bit weird about hanging in the hotel by myself tonight, but it's really nice to just relax and read for awhile, as I'm sure the next few weeks will be very full and exciting.
Yeah! What a cool start to 2012! Made my day! It's almost as balmy here in Hamp - out raking the leaves I didn't do in November... Indulge in some French bread, cheese, and wine for me!
ReplyDeleteLove, Dad