Je Suis Arrivé

After I left Nice I had a long journey awaiting me. I had about four hours on the train to Montpellier. At Montpellier I had to take the tram to the bus station where I caught a bus into Clermont L'herault!

While in Montpellier I had my first run in with the Romani people of France a.k.a. Gypsies a.k.a Esméralda. I've been warned by many that they steal and put curses on you so you could only imagine how exited I was to finally come across the people I so much wish I was a part of! Then I got to the tramway in Montpellier I approached one of the ticket machines and before I could even read the instructions I had about six Romani kids surrounding me bagging for money and hitting buttons on the machine for me. I was so sure that the next minute I would look down only to find myself naked with all my stuff gone. Luckily that didn't happen. Instead the little girl... or boy, helped me get my ticket and earned themselves a nice little tip. I'm excited to learn more about Romani people and will post what I learn soon!

After the tram, I took the bus into town where one of my new house mates was so kind to pick me up. My house mate's name is Aymeline and is from New Caledonia which is a little island east of Australia. It's technically part of France but it has it's own currency, government and citizenship. Another blog topic I plan to tackle. 

When I arrived to the house I was more than pleased with what I saw. I really lucked out. The house is absolutely beautiful. The house dates back to ancient times. The kitchen still has the fountain and oven that would have been used in ancient times, although we do not use them anymore. The house has several floors. The first has the kitchen, the living room and the entrance into the garden. The garden is then two floors, the top which is just like a little patio, and the bottom which is a full garden with a little shaded sitting area. When you head upstairs, there is the middle floor where I and my two house mate's rooms are. Then one more floor for my landlord.

Along with Aymeline I will be living with my landlord Marianne and a Spanish Language assistant from Mexico named Carlos. They all are very sweet. Marianne made it pretty clear that she wants us all to feel at home.

I was the second person to arrive to the house so I got second pick of the rooms. I decided on the nautical themed room. It's ultra cute, has french door windows, sailboats everywhere and a cute little desk for me to do all my blogging. I really like my room and it didn't take long for me to start making it my own. I got wonderful plane letters from my even more wonderful friends, so I put all those up. As well I brought a few polaroid pics from home so I could always feel at home. I really love the house that I am staying in and I'm very thrilled to get to know all my house mates. I don't know what the next eight months have in store for me but at least I know that they will a cozy few months.