I'm currently studying French in Montpellier, France. Montpellier is located in southern France near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. While I'm sure that this sounds magical to many of you, it's not.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have had the opportunity to study abroad and I've learned a lot, but Montpellier just isn't the most happening city. The population is 350,000, which isn't so terrible, but after going to the Art Museum and visiting the medieval St. Paul's cathedral there isn't much else to do.
I have about 16 hours of school a week, but little to no homework, leaving me with plently of free time. I fill this time by going to weekly quiz nights, similar to American trivia nights, at local bars. The questions are quite challenging and getting 50% of the answers correct is good. The prize for the winning team is a liter of Rum and a liter of coke, not too shabby. My team has won once, thanks to the help of a random French man, who joined us in hopes of practicing his English.
Picture with our prizes.
Another challenge I've faced, apart from my hours of free time, is the lack of French customer service. The workers here are just not very friendly. And it drives me crazy to stand in line at the grocery store for a half-an-hour. Can they hire some more workers?
The French school system is also very different from the American one. The professors don't believe in syllabi, therefore I never have any idea what to expect from my classes. The tests are at random, and have random questions on them. For example, in one of my grammar classes we spent two weeks learning about demonstrative pronouns and the next week took a test on the past tense. A little crazy? I think so.
So, needless to say, I'm very excited to get out of here. I'm counting down the days - only 22 days in Montpellier and 25 until my summer adventures.
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