Well, it's been another ridiculous week. I wonder if things will ever settle down. I seriously hope so. So, this was the last week of prestage classes which is pretty wonderful. Not that I wasn't benefiting from them, but this whole waking up at 7:15 every morning was starting to kill me. I'm just not a morning person, period. Let's see. The highlight of last Tuesday was making my microwave quiche, which I'll bet that most of you have heard about already--it was just that exciting. Also, I went synagogue hunting for about an hour and a half, wandered into the sketchy part of town, asked directions, Finally found the the right street, the right number... and there was most definitely not a shul there. Weird. Ah well, I'll live. Oh, and I finally got my LCL bank card which is pretty exciting--it makes me feel like a bona fide Frenchwoman to have an account with a French bank. I mean, there's no money in my account, but that's not the point.

On Thursday, the entire group descended on Amy's house to figure out our course schedules. It was rather intense. You see, at MHC, to sign up for classes requires going online, typing in the classes you're interested in, and pushing the 'sign up' button. Well, something like that. Here, even finding the course catalog is a challenge, as it literally needs to be hunted down, and every department has its own catalog... Yeah. So, by the end of the afternoon, everyone was in a mild state of panic. Somehow, amazingly, I managed to figure out my schedule really easily. The timing is really awkward, but I can take everything I need. Here 'tis:
Monday: Nothing. Weird.
Tuesday: Art History 12:15-3:15, Corrective Phonetics 3:15-5:15 (Looong day)
Wednesday: French for Foreign Students 5:45-7:15
Thursday: French for Foreign Students 3:45-5:15
Friday: French Lit. Seminar 11:15-12:45, French Lit. Lecture 1:15-2:45

A few exciting things happened on Friday. First of all, I got my schedule all worked out which was a big relief. A little later, I went to fiddle for a bit at the bookstore and met a French girl who's a few years older than me who said that she wanted to do some sort of language exchange so she could keep up her English--perfect! I feel a little bad that she'll have to suffer through my French, but it'll be a great opportunity. We'll be meeting a little later today, in fact. Friday finished up with dinner at the Dollhouse, which was lovely :)

Now, for Saturday. We had our exam at 9:00 am which was evil incarnate, but at least now it's over and done with. It went very well until the end when we did listening comprehension. The recording was terrible quality, and it was very long and the questions were out of order, to boot. So mean. That afternoon was our last excursion to Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful villages in the area.

So, Guilhem was apparently the cousin of Charlemagne, and did all this fighting in Spain against the Muslims until he turned all religious and founded an abbey (yes, an abbey). About 100 years later he became a saint, but the town didn't take his name for another three centuries.








Medieval watch-tower at the top of a nearby hill. Of course, I see this and think... Minas Tirith!












In case you couldn't tell, it's a bit touristy.

















l'Abbey de Gellone, fonded by Saint Guilhem. Apparently it has a piece of Christ's cross, too. Great architecture, at any rate.















Organ! Rob, this one's for you.

















The other exciting event on Saturday was being taken out to the opera! The last rehearsal for the Magic Flute (which I bought tickets for a few days ago) was open to the public, so Mme. Cesari took Muoyo and I, as well as her daughter and granddaughter to the show. It was really quite exciting to go to the opera for the first time, especially to see the one opera that I know and love. So, it was very good, although really very long (even though it was abridged). There were subtitles above the stage which was pretty cool, although of course they were in French, so I still wasn't 100% sure what was going on. But yeah, it was very cool.

So, I just got back from the Foire aux Associations, which was pretty intense. Literally every single organization in Montpellier was there to advertise itself. It was fun, though, and now want to join about a dozen different groups. I feel like I should be getting involved with something very traditionally "French" instead of tap dancing or something, but I guess that so long as there are French people involved, it's French, right? Oh, and I'm officially on break for a whole week! About time, too. Still busy, though, and on Tuesday I'm off to Paris! Still need to get those tickets, though...