Getting settled and first night out on the town

10:18 pm

It's the end of my third night in Montpellier after a day full of getting to know people, customs, places and my way around the city and university. Managed to get from my house to the city center for orientation this morning using public transportation by myself...baby steps.

The living arrangement at my host family's place is great. I live in a separate two-room duplex with another foreign student, Gianluca, he's from Switzerland. We have our own small kitchen, common room and bathroom. It's pretty cool, gives us some independence. Last night, I hung out with Gianuca and about 10 of his fellow classmates at local bars. A minor error in ordering my drink occurred however, I attempted to order a pitcher for me a couple of other people but instead I got my own liter of beer. It was funny when the waiter brought us a couple of them but it was good beer so it wasn't a bad mistake. It was a chill night we got to meet a couple of foreign people, it seems like Montpellier is a very young city with a big foreign student population.

I naively though that although Montpellier was the 8th largest city in France, that it was a city that was sort of off the beaten path. I was wrong. Just in the first day I have noticed a few things that remind me of home:
The big beats by Dr. Dre headphones
The smaller beats headphones
McDonald's, Subway, Domino's, Pizza Hut, KFC
an Occupy movement

Still having some problems fixing the sleep schedule, but that's to be expected with the 6 hour time difference. I still have one more class to register for at UPV and it sees like that'll be a complicated process. As much as I've cursed the day that ConnectCarolina was created I wish this school had something resembling it...I'll have to make due. For now, from the 4 classes I'm enrolled in the schedule is not all that bad. Yeah, I have a Friday class but I don't have any classes before noon. The scenery of the university will take a lot of getting used to, being a UNC student has really spoiled me. The university grounds resemble the most ghetto community colleges I've seen in New York, but that's to be expected as these students do not pay exorbitant amounts of money on a college education. It is what it is, that's all part of the experience.

Still more orientations and logistical stuff to do between now and Monday when classes start. It seems pretty daunting that I'm going to be sitting in class with French students. It's another challenge, but it can't possibly be worse than Analytical Chemistry.