Good luck

Hey people

I just like to wish all of you good luck with the exam!
And for the people who still have some reports to do: I wish you a lot of inspiration and motivation to work on it!
In one week, it's already over... So hopefully the weather will be nice and we'll have a nice vacation!

Bye

March Madness

Hey Everyone!
It's absolutely crazy to think that we're already at the end of March!! Like where has the time gone?! Like we say in Ireland 'time flys when you're having fun!' and we're all definitely having loads of fun here!! On the downside with some of our courses coming to an end already this semester its makes the end of our time in Montpellier seem even closer :-( but we still have a bit over a month left so no reason to be sad yet! And I'm sure we'll all make the most of the rest of our time together here!

So March has been a bit of a crazy month for us and a busy one at that!! At the start of March my sister and a few of my Irish friends came over to visit, along with a few of Michael and Jacks friends too! It was great to see them all and led to a bit of a crazy weekend!! Thank God the weather was nice and we got to show them some of the many beautiful spots of Montpellier, including the Arc and a few other spots. We even made it out to the beach and I managed to get a few more freckles!!

Last weekend was 'La fete du St.Patrick' or Paddys Day as it is more commonly known in Ireland! Myself and Michael had a great weekend with a few Irish friends we know in Montpellier and spent both Saturday and Sunday night in Fitzpatricks Irish bar. They had a live band playing traditional Irish music both nights and the atmosphere was amazing!! A great night was had by all and the place was full of people and pints of Guinness!! I suppose we Irish know how to party if nothing else :-)

Amongst all the fun there has been some college along the way! Between exams, projects and presentations there has definitely been enough to keep us busy and its not easy trying to balance it all! but I think we all seem to be managing okay ;-) I'm going to Wales next weekend to play in a water polo tournament so I am looking forward to that! I'll get to go to Ireland along the way and see my family which will be nice.. I'm not looking forward to going back to the freezing cold and snow!! The pictures don't look very appealing after sunnny Montpellier!ha

Best of luck to everyone in the exam tomorrow. Remember, stay cool and do your best, thats all you can do!! See you on the other side!

Slan(Goodbye in Irish!)

My St Patrick's Week back in Ireland

Hi everybody,

For those that missed me greatly for the past week, don't worry I'm back in France. I went home last week to celebrate my 21st birthday in style. On Saturday, I had it in my small hometown of Swinford in Co. Mayo, also the home of the Irish T.V. movie, and Youtube sensation, The Hardy Bucks, which presents to you what my life is really like in Ireland. Then on Sunday, St. Patricks Day, I took the short journey to Galway and celebrated this great day with 100,000 drunkards, Irish and tourists. On Monday we took another road trip to Sligo, where it was their college Rag Week, the equivalent of the American Spring Break. We stayed here for 2 days of non-stop partying. On Wednesday we headed back to Galway and out on the town again to have my last night out there until probably September. On Thursday, with just one night left of my short holiday, we headed for the capital, Dublin, to finish off our trip. The nightclub we went to were serving 4 Jagerbombs for €10 so it was downhill from there. But alas, I rolled out of bed at 10am and made my flight back to Montpellier in good time. Anyone interested in experiencing a typical student Irish week next year then give me a call :)

Jack.

Late entrance

Hello everybody,

                It seems, that I've to catch up with you guys, who are writing this blog for a long time now :)

                My first impressions about Montpellier? Before 2013, I had them already, I was visiting this city ten years ago and that was my first BIG trip. I remember the hot summer, first taste of sea-food, bohemia, city full with street musicians, playing french music, little boutiques, big smiles on people's faces when they discover I'm not French and do not speak a word in this language. Actually now, it seems that nothing has changed, nothing, but the smiles on French people faces when they hear English and now the sea-food comes in a set with wine- always together.

                Before I came here, I heard some rumors, that it is hard to be a foreigner in Montpellier- natives are not friendly, not helpful and do not want to know nothing about you. Also there were many stereotypes I knew, actually, I have no idea where they all came from, for example, all french are eating croissants every morning and they love eating snails, or they are very accurate, fashionable and arrogant, they do not speak english or do not want to speak (which I discovered is true), their lingerie is the best in the whole world and, of course, who has not heard about french kiss?

                So, I came here prepared, with certain expectations and all I can say is, that the bad ones have not came true, at least, not yet.

                First culture shock for me was the graffiti’s on these beautiful medieval buildings, why should people destroy their own cultural heritage? Second came later, when I noticed how dirty the streets and university are. Third, when I discovered how friendly people in reality are. But the time goes and I don't pay attention to all of this anymore. Now, I'm even used to the bad timing the southern guys have here, and slowly I take over this quality- to be late.

                I think Montpellier is the perfect city for foreign students- it's multicultural, you meet many new people from many countries and you can just enjoy the southern lifestyle.

                Studying in english, living in France? This is a lifetime opportunity if you do not speak the native language, but wanting to discover their culture. Improving english skills, being in multicultural society and enjoying french benefits. As we, latvians, are saying- you shoot a rabbit with one shot.

               

                For a foreign student, arriving in Montpellier, the most exciting part is discovering process           . The best feeling is then, when you arrive here with no expectations at all, but the city opens you a door to a whole other world- french one.  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo

Goodnight,

Katrina

Salut everyone!!

So final exam tomorrow hope you're all well prepared for it guys :) Maybe you're all to busy studying but I said i'd put up a final blog !!

This last week's flown by.. some of our Irish friends from home visited and we had such a good time. We went to the beach because the weather was so good. Then of course it was St. Paddy's day so we went out to the irish bar where there was live traditional music it was epic!!

Since that, haven't really been up to much because of all the exams and that but last night we had a great Crémailleure at Rob, Petra and Natalia's new place. It's a it of a dump but atmosphere was great ;)

So anyways I hope the exam goes well for everybody and we'll see you all on the other side

Chow!!! :)

Hi everyone
                    As I came from India and it is far away from Europe I had very little idea about any European country and culture.I had some knowledge about France only from what I have hard from the friends living in France .In some English poetry and novel the reference of France and specially of South France has been appeared again and again.France means wine, perfume,  and lot of artist to me and to most of the Indians.After coming here I experienced France in different way.If someone asks me I will tell that where I live it is full of international people and most of them are students.People here are unwilling to speak English rather they love others to speak in their language.Generally people here are friendly and helpful.They become glad if a foreigners tell that they  love french cheese and wine.These are all what I have observed about Montpellier.
                                                                                                             

Sterotype about France~

Salut!

I'm from Taiwan. Before I came here being an exchange student, France is a lovely romantic and fashionable country. I heard a lot about how fantastic and extraordinary it was in France. Indeed, France has world-wide brands in clothes and wines and, people are elegant in dressing and slow in their lives. As I thought, it didn't work using English in France. But just for one thing is that - there are lots of delicacies I can taste and various castles to visit in France. It's amazing!!! 

When I came in France, I feel frustrated when  using English trying to communicate with french people. Not many people know where Taiwan located and just deem it is part of China! In fact, it's definately wrong! Taiwan and China are different in political system. We are not in the same country!!But I am excited  I can see the world heritages here and explore this vigorous city-Montpellier in southern France! This big city has the  beautiful sunshine and blue sky, but it's a bit cold here. I also amazed that there are lots of parties and clubs here! In Taiwan, students are rarely go parties at night. Most of us will join student clubs for the whole night. But I am glad to be here anyway. In my mind, beers, champagnes, baguettes and macarons they are one of the fantastic delicacies in the world. Many exchange students they came from different countries and, they are smart, active in studying and all kinds of student activites! And most of them exactly know what they are going to do in their lives while I am still making decision which thing I want to do!

I'm still trying to learn to speak in well-french and exploring this beautiful city. I feel lucky to meet all of my new friends here, they are active, kind, friendly, clever and enthusiastic to make friends. This experience is extraordinary and new in my life I believe that!

Stereotypes

Hey bloggerssss

As i'm from Belgium, I already knew a bit from before how French people would be, so it wasn't a big shock for me when I met French persons. However, I expected the South of France (Montpellier, ...) to be a bit different: my expectations were: hotter weather in February, March and about the people, that they would play petanque everyday (but apparantly, this isn't so popular here).
However, with or without stereotypes, I still really like it here. Maybe French people (especially South-France) have a more stereotypically view about Belgians. They really think we are loosy drivers that we eat Moules every day and that we are all stupid (due to the Wallon accent who sounds stupid in French). Well, we eat fries everyday and some of us are stupid (indeed). Look at this example:
Stupid Belgian Woman
Hehe, that's funny :P But not all of us are like that, so be aware of that!

Groetjes! (Bye bye in Dutch)

Michiel

Stereotypes!!!??

Ki manière? (A way of saying hello in Mauritian Kreol)

My first year and experience in Toulouse allowed to know some french manners and what to expect. I wasn't surprised  by the "Montpellierains" themselves but more by the fact that in the city, you have more french coming from several other parts of France and migrate here for weather and especially sun, Nabil, also known as late man is one of them,coming from Nancy, he wanted to escape the snow and its endless winter.

The most surprising thing was the huge amount of Erasmus students in the town and the fact that courses was going to be shared with some of them. This helped me to discover new cultures and ,for some of them, break stereotypes, for example germans, I've been told they are very cold, very strict and prefer stringency to creativity. Definitely that's untrue, most of them are good examples, good ambassadors.

I'd like to finish by dealing with the European stereotype, my grandfather told me before I came here: "you'll see that europeans are very friendly at first sight but won't invite you home very easily". I must recognise that he was partly right, people can be very friendly with you and you can share very good moments and experiences with them but it doesn't mean the friendship will go further, I may think it's due to the lifestyle which is totally different from my past lifestyle, here you meet and cross a lot of people each day.

And finally, from my point of view, what is the most important, whatever the culture, is the set of common values shared with people surrounding you, it's this set that can lead to creation of true relationships.


Thank you for reading,

Thomas

Salutations à tous!

Rainy sunday as a perfect moment to update my blog! I'll start with the most important thing, I finally moved into a new apartment! Apartment is located in city center, next to the Place de Jean Joures. My roomies are Petra and Natalia. Our apartment is eight times bigger than our rooms in dorm (i'm analysing how big is our ex room, not apartment). Advice for all the students in Montpellier: try to find an apartment, it's possible to live in apartment for the same or similar rent as in student residences. If you or one of your roomies is a french speaker, it will make things much easier. I had to move out from Triolet earlier than i moved into a new apartment, so I lived with three Irish lads in the meantime. Otherwise I would be homeless. During the last week two really diverting things happened. Students from Montpellier organised Harlem Shake on last saturday at Place de la Comedie. Unfortunalely, I couldn't participate it. Secondly, famous comedian and performer Remi Gaillard announced he's looking for people who want to act as an extra actors in his new movie. As I'm his big fan, I applied for it. I also booked a flight to Marrakech in April with Michael and Jack. I'm really excited about visiting Morocco!

That's all for the moment, enjoy your beers, happy St.Patrick's day!

Stereotypes

Hey,

So, just like the rest of you guys, I heard many stereotypes about France and the French people before I came to Montpellier. I heard all sorts of things from the French being arrogant, that they love to eat frog's legs and snails and that they don't wash themselves enough and smell bad. Since my arrival in Montpellier, it has been obvious to me that these stereotypes are untrue.

However, some of what I heard about the French before I came did turn out to be true. The French people love coffee and cigarettes. Almost everybody in our licence classes here smokes a cigarette and drinks a coffee during the class breaks. As well as that I heard that the French are very fashionable, and in comparison to in Ireland, this is very true. The people dress so much better here than back home.

So that's some of the things I noticed since coming to Montpellier, obviously you can't always believe what you hear...gotta see for yourself!!!

Happy Paddy's Day Everybody !! :)

German stereotyopes about French

Of course there are the stereotypes about French people that are true, for example that they eat baguette and cheese and drink wine. Just like the majority of Germans likes sausages and drinks beer.

As for the saying the French people are arrogant: It is funny because until I came to Montpellier I have always defended the French when someone said they were arrogant, because in Besancon and Paris I had only made good experiences. As soon as I said only Excuse moi in French they were super friendly and even tried to speak English with me. Montpellier changed this experience as I met many unfriendly people, who even when I was making an effort to speak French spoke as fast as they possibly could to make sure I don't understand anything. I don't want to generalize that, I've also met so many very helpful friendly people here :) I think it is just something you will find in France more often than in other countries.

The weather also kind of caught me off guard... I really thought there is no such thing as cold days in the south of France...

About Montpellier

Hi everyone !

I came in Montpellier for my last year of high school, almost 10 years ago. Originally I'm from a small town in the south west of France (south of Bordeaux), and everything I had heard about Montpellier before coming appeared to be actually true.
Montpellier is a student city, and every one is going out every day of the week ! There is always a party thrown somewhere, or someone that will influence you into going out with them , even on sunday or monday night !!
Also, I don't know if you noticed, but every single day, if you hang out in the city center, you feel like no one is at work and everyone is shopping... The city center, Polygone for instance, is always crowded, and I am always wondering why people aren't at work !
Also, people from the south east of France are always late ! I had always been punctual, but now as I live here, I am always 15 minutes late...

The last thing that is a cliché but is true, is of course, about the weather... I am so used to sun 300 days a year, that I can't picture myself moving to a city where it's raining most of the time, or where it's cold... I feel so sad and wake up in a bad mood where it's below 10 degrees (celsius) cold, or where it's raining for like 3 days in a row ! I love Paris and London but winter there is 6 months a year, whereas here you feel like it's spring all the time !

That's it, everything I heard before coming here is true !

Happy sunday, see you all tomorrow :)

Elise.

Stereotypes from a Spanish guy

Hi guys,

As a Spanish, I have to say we do have a few stereotypes about French people. Honestly, we have never get on really wel with each other!... It's been like that for years. Mainly, Spanish people say French just want to speak their language, that they don't talk to you in another language or, even more, if you don't speak proper French.

I don't really have a reason for the origin of these stereotypes, but I would venture to say that is been created  by Spanish people who don't speak French (or English)  and visited France but kept speaking Spanish, expecting French people to understand them. French people would get angry and this would be the image Spanish people kept. Yes, we can be that idiot here.

In my opinon, this sterotype is half true: maybe elderly (and not that elderly) people can be a little bit rude with a person who doesn't speak French but I think it doesn't apply to students (more open-minded), immigrants and, more important, second or third-generation immigrants (sons or daughters of immigrant people already settled in France). I have had experiences with the last ones and I found them incredibly kind.

There is also the stereotype of chovinism, but I don't think neither it is a stereotype (I do think it's true) nor it is bad. It can lead to problems (the main of these problems can be the lack of knowledge from other cultures and languages), of course, but we all are proud of our country, I guess. I cannot criticise them for that.

To end up, I would like to recommend you all a film, related to the racism topic we saw and to the webpage adress the teacher sent us: Hotel Rwanda. It amazed me and upset me at the same time...

Sorry about the long post,

Luis

Stereotypes about French

Salut tout le monde,

As you know I am French from the other side of the planet so you could find funny that I have stereotypes about people of my own nationality. But French people from France and French people from New Caledonia are very different. So I have to say that I had some préjugés before I came here. Yes, it was my first time in France Mainland !!

In New Caledonia, we call the French "les zoreilles", no offence, it's just a word ! We believe they don't take a shower every day. I don't know if it's true, but you can ask them. We also believe they are stingy (they don't like to spend their money). For this I know it's untrue, since most of them are actually generous ! Everybody told me that people in Paris were rude, but that's not true (OK, I was there only 3 days, but still...) I met very friendly and helpful people. 

Concerning the stereotypes of Montpellier, I imagined the people here with a deep south accent, but many people come from others regions, so it's quite not true. What I didn't expect here was the slowlyness of people compared to others parts of France. You can wait all the day in a terrasse, nobody is going to ask you what you want to drink... 

Anyway, I took all the best from this city ;)

Is this really how French should be like?

Well,

From a country far away from Europe, in my hometown, we do have several stereotypes about the French, First of all, French people dislike those who don't speak French. Well, this is an useful stereotype since this will urge me to learn French before coming here. And I do find that people become extremely friendly after they find out I'm an Asian who can speak a little bit French :)
Second, life goes really slowly here. My parents kept threatening me that I'll have to get used to waiting in line and only being able to do one thing each day. Well, I think they exaggerate, however, it's true that things go SLOWLY. While in Asia, most of the people are busy all the time, life here in Montpellier seems way too smooth and slow for me.
Last but not least, before I came, I thought this is a place without rain and is always sunny, which is not true at all!!!! Montpellier has more rain than I imagined, and rainy days always make me sad :( Still, most of the time, we do have the sunshine.
It's interesting to see the differences between my stereotype of France and the real France, helping me to correct my point of view and know the country better :D

Yachoun CHANG

Hi Victoria,

I heard a lot of stereotypes about French people before I came here but I don't think they were very accurate. The common stereotype about the French being arrogant, in my opinion, is very untrue. On countless occasions I have needed to stop French people on the street and ask them for directions or assistance of some case, and each occasion they were very friendly and glad to help. Of course there are arrogant people in France but those people are everywhere in the world, except Ireland of course ;)  For sure, I will bring back the knowledge to Ireland that this stereotype about the French is very untrue especially in the South of France.

Jack.

Stereotypes

Hello everyone!

I would like you to share your ideas and opinions about the stereotypes you had about Montpellier and/or France before you came to study here.  What did you think it would be like?  What did you expect?  How were things different?  Were these stereotypes useful in anyway?  And any other comments you might have.....  happy blogging and see you next week, Victoria

advice.

Hi,
Actually there are not many things I could advise because I still discover many new things every day, but I can think of some. For example:

• take some WARM clothes if you are coming to Montpellier in January. For me the weather back then were a bad surprise. I missed my UGGs and big,feather coat.
• if you want to live in separate apartment, start to search for it in time! 3days before I had to leave, I had no place to live! But I was lucky to found amazing studio in last moment.
• start to learn french at your home country if you don't know it. People here mostly will speak with you in french. 
• and the last but not least - i advice to SMILE!(: because actually, if you catch an eye contact with a french stranger - he/she always smiles and you have to smile back. It sometimes makes my day!(:

Have a great weekend everyone!

agnete

Holidays in February

After hard first few weeks in Montpellier we decided to take a rest and calm down a bit. Justyina, Valeria, Petra and I visited our friends in Belgium. Michiel, who is still part of the class and Nicolas, one of the best guys from last semester. They offered to us really great housing. We did really fun sightseeing of north of Belgium including coast, harbour and parts of the seaside where richest people go for vacancies. We stayed with Nicolas in his house in Antwerp for last three nights and I can say Mr and Mrs Schoovaerts are the best hosts ever! Looking forward to see all of them in Croatia! So, Erasmus students in Montpellier, we have Ryanair flights and friends from worldwide, there is no reason not to meet them during the holidays. I'm also looking forward to move into a new appartment in center, next to Place de Jean Joures, for almost the same money i had to pay for room in student residence. I still have to wait until 15th to move in. Thanks to the Irish guys, i wont be homelles in the meantime. That is all for the moment. I hope you guys enjoyed holidays!

A plus!

More advice

The first advice I'd give someone coming to Montpellier would be: Don't think just because it's the south of France it's warm all the time. When I first got here I was so happy that I had changed my mind last-minute and had taken my coat. The wind can be cruel here...

Secondly you should prepare for unfriendly people in the student residency. First I thought they might not like  foreign students, cause dealing with them is more difficult because of the language barrier... but now I think they just don't like students in general. Don't take it personally, they're probably just unhappy with their jobs...

Recognizing people checking tickets in the tram is easy in Montpellier, as was already said before. In Berlin they're hiding much better, they never get into the train in groups and they will most certainly NEVER wear a uniform. (so Kenji come to Berlin and try your best :P ) Here you get around without a ticket pretty well since the ticket inspectors always appear in flocks and wear black jackets with a not-so-subtle colourful TAM patch.
Btw, does anyone know what happens or how high is the penalty is when you get caught without a ticket??

The most important administrative things have already been mentioned several times: CAF, CROUS etc..