Winding Down

It's sad, because soon I'll be on my way out of Montpellier. It's exciting to be continuing my journey, but you can't live in the same place for over 2 months without starting to meet people and to get attached to stuff. Especially, since we found OVS and accelerated our rate of meeting people. I can't stress enough how good OVS to anyone coming to live in France. I wish there were an English version in Seattle and Vancouver.

Anyway, we put up some ads on montpellier.kijiji.fr and in our residence. We sold the TV for 10 euros--a full 2 euros more than we paid for it. We sold it to someone in our building, so we don't have to lug it far. Whew! The residence rents smaller TVs for 20 euros per month, so the 10 euro price tag is pretty good. We have a buyer for our Ikea kitchenware. The buyer is coming over on Thursday to pick it up.

We still don't have a buyer for our Ikea drying rack, wooden shelf we got from the cute German girls who sold us the TV, and the cheap coffee machine.

We're meeting our friends for the last time, telling everyone our plans, and saying goodbye. Actually I don't know Elena's plans anymore. Her friend Philippe from Paris is interested in traveling with Elena for a couple weeks, so she is rearranging her plans again. The funniest part of her plans is to work in Ireland on organic farms for room and board through an organization called WWOOF. Her friend Ashley in Vancouver spent some time traveling from farm to farm with WWOOF and recommended it.

I'm also getting ready for French karaoke. I'm trying to memorize the words to "Les Copains d'Abord" by George Brassens. The guitar player playing for Cafe Riche a few days ago played it and it became an ear worm. I didn't know what song it was, but it seemed familiar. So I figured I probably heard it when we went to Sête to the George Brassens museum. A little searching on iTunes, and voila! So I downloaded it and now I'm trying to learn it. It's helping me to break some of my bad pronunciation habits. I just hope I don't start trilling my 'R's in my spoken French.

I like to have lots of 1€ and 2€ coins. I have a really hard time keeping enough for total liquidity. I just spend them faster than I get them.

Here is a list of observations I made from an unpublished post. I'll post it now.

1) The French are not rude at all. At least not down here in Montpellier. They are extremely helpful, courteous, friendly, and patient. Anyone who experiences rude French people needs to visit the south.

2) Visualize all the images of French people with baguettes. The man walking with a baguette under his arm, the woman walking with two baguettes sticking out of the top of her grocery bag... There are many images of the French and their baguettes. And I've seen all of them. Already. Every conceivable combination of French person and baguette carrying is to be seen.

3) Dog poop. Yep, on the streets which are so paved, there is dog poop. It's not too bad. There is a law that owners have to clean up after their dogs, and there are occasional bag dispensers where people can get a poop bags for free. But you stil have to look down when you walk. Fortunately, most of it is dry by the time we get to it. Only occasionally is it does it have that sickening glistening sheen of freshly pinched loafage.

4) Cafes everywhere. You can't walk half a block without going through some cafe where people are sitting and having a coffee or a beer. Sadly, the cost of these beverages make the casual purchase of them a bit painful.

5) Other very common things: fountains, real-estate offices, banks, wine stores, medical analysis laboratories.

6) Things that are uncommon: convenience stores, rectilinear intersections.

7) Cash register drawers are different. They lift up a stainless steel lid on a hinge instead of having a drawer that rolls out.

8) You can buy milk in the refrigerated section, but the cheaper milk is in the boxes on the shelves at room temperature. As long as you refrigerate it before drinking, it tastes no different.

9) Stuff closes for noon and on Sundays. And it also closes early. I guess that's the 35 hour work week for you. They can't man the stores 24 hours.

10) They use the 'minus' sign to mean 'less than'. So the express lane at the grocery store has a "-10" above it and a TV show for adults might have a "-12" in a circle in the lower right hand corner.

11) They use the 24 hour clock. I wish we did that in the United States. Along with metric.

12) The TV shows start and end at odd times--like 8:50, er I mean, 20:50.