Au revoir, Montpellier!

Salut tout le monde!

I’ve been meaning to write one last Montpellier blog post to wrap up my experiences in France, but with Christmas and everything, life just got too hectic. So, here we go!

Well, my last full weekend in France was pretty great. For the most part, I just hung out with friends and studied a little bit for finals. Thankfully they weren’t too terrible! I don’t get my official grades for them until the middle of January, but I feel like I finished strong. Fingers crossed! The weekend before finals, though, I got to take a little day trip to Arles with some friends, and it was truly wonderful. We got to visit some of the old Roman ruins there, and we stopped by Van Gogh Café, which is the same café that he painted in his work The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night (1888). I’m still mad at myself for forgetting to buy a poster of a Van Gogh painting here in the city where he lived, but c’est la vie, I suppose. The next few days were full of tests, packing, and goodbyes, but it was still the perfect end to a wonderful trip. One of my favorite parts of the week, though, was probably when I realized that my landlady had done something funny. Really, this trip wouldn’t be complete without one more crazy landlady story, right? I kind of doubt that it was a cultural difference this time, though. My roommate and I had been saving the last little bit of laundry detergent at the end of the bottle for our last week in France so that we could wash our clothes before packing them, but when I went to use it I noticed that it was a little… sloshier than usual. I inquired after my roommate about it, but she was just as baffled as I was. Then the obvious truth dawned on me. Our landlady had totally used up the last little bit of our laundry detergent and then tried to cut it with water so that we wouldn’t notice! And when I say she cut it with water, I mean it had to be about 90% water, 10% detergent. I probably should have been irritated, but all I could do was laugh! This was just the silly cherry on top of a long semester living in crazy her apartment. It’s funny how these little things that usually drive us nuts in the moment turn out to make the best memories.

Other than that, these past two weeks have just been run, run, running! It was so incredibly nice to be home, though! I forget how much I miss it until I go back. Travelling on my own really makes me realize how much I love being home. Right now, as I sit on my bed in Taiwan listening to my roommates unpack and trying to absorb the unfamiliar atmosphere conjured up by my peculiar surroundings, I’m hit all over again by how lucky I am, not only to have these opportunities to travel, but also to have something so wonderful to go home to. My week in Littleton for Christmas was way too short, but I made the most of every minute of it, and now I am off on my next big adventure! So, I’m sorry that this last post for beautiful Montpellier has been short, but I will be posting again soon to tell you all about the beginning of my next chapter in Feng Yuan!

À la prochaine!
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