From the beginning…

My first flight from Boston to Paris was delayed, which I found out upon my arrival to the airport. That was okay, because I got to spend an extra hour with my family. However, that delay meant that my flight from Paris to Montpellier had to be pushed back 4 hours, resulting in a 5 and a half hour layover in Paris. Now, I consider myself adventurous, but always safely and securely. But I figured that I needed to step outside my comfort zone while abroad, and I decided to start that same day!

After my plane arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport, I went through a mini customs and took the train into the city. I arrived at 8am on January 1st…needless to say, there weren’t many people out! I was able to snap some shots of the sun rising behind the Notre Dame cathedral!

I walked around for a while then stopped into an adorable patisserie for a croissant and espresso. I felt so French!

After a couple of hours I took the train back to Charles de Gaulle for my flight to Montpellier. I got there early and sat down at my terminal, thinking I only had an hour. Oh no was I wrong! My flight kept being delayed in twenty minute increments, but after waiting an extra hour I finally got on the plane. After a quick 55 minute flight I landed in my home for the next five months – Montpellier!

I took a taxi and checked into my hotel, which I booked because I got in a day early. The taxi driver and the hotel clerk did not speak English, so I was forced to communicate in French almost immediately. After a lot of hand gestures, I was able to lug my 60 lb suitcase up a few flights of stairs (no elevator in the old buildings!) and take a deeeeep breath. I had arrived!

To prevent this from becoming a small novel, I’ll try and sum up the past few days as concise as possible!

Monday:

I met up with another Penn State student who had arrived before me to get his take on the city. He has been here since December 30th, so he had plenty of time to walk around and really get to know everything. We picked up some delicious (and so fresh!) lunch, and walked until our feet couldn’t handle it anymore. I got a good feel for the city though, it was nice to be able to do my own tour before any official ones.

Tuesday:

We had our group orientation, where we met other members of our program and had a quick tour of the city. Then we went to our program headquarters, where we went over the dates of the program and what trips were included. We lucked out this semester! We have 3 free excursions with the program: to Arles, Viaduc de Milhau & les Caves de Roquefort, and Saint Guilhem Le D�sert & les Grottes des Demoiselles. Definitely going on all of those! We also have two vacations that are two weeks each…FUN! Can’t wait to travel 🙂

Wednesday (Today):

We met at our university for a brief tour then a placement test (yikes!) After, we ate lunch at the cafeteria (not many options for vegetarians!) and had some free time to walk around. Next we had an informative meeting on class registration, etc. We all went back to downtown Montpellier after, where we purchased our tram cards for the next 31 days. I have to take two trams to get to school, which takes about an hour each way. Definitely not the same as living in downtown State College!

Tomorrow we are meeting up with our program again for a full guided tour of the city followed by academic orientation. Tomorrow night our group is meeting up with our social assistants, two students from nearby colleges. They are going to show us Montpellier by night! Can’t wait!

Bonne nuit,

Kelsey