I am guilty as charged. Oui j'aime le ketchup, je suis du Amerique du Nord. Apparently when Catherine puts her love and good lamb into little balls with herbs and bread crumbs, then bakes them until they're all crispy and delicious, it's not impressive when people ask to put ketchup on them. In all fairness, I thought it was a great idea. It was also delicious, both with and without ketchup. Changing my meal plan to half-board was totally the best decision I have made thus far. Unfortunately, being as Catherine is a professional and the kitchen is small, she claims it as her domain and I have yet to step more than 1m into the kitchen before I am chased out. No cooking lessons in fine French cuisine for me :(
The afternoons and early evening are definitely the best time of day though! I attend classes before noon, spend the early afternoon with the other students (you know, wallball, pogs, trading cards, all those awesome pastimes) in the old town centre. This particular afternoon involved a mission for bicycles. It's 15km from the school to the beach. Not epically far, but far enough that you'd much rather do it on a bicycle than on foot. Well, Montpellier's transit service happens to rent bicycles very cheaply. Kate and I probably invested an hour trying to figure out where you could rent a bicycle from and what kind of ID they would accept as collateral. (For the record, it's passports and drivers licenses as standards, but they accepted my YMCA card as a student ID when I had nothing else on me.) We had a blast riding around on these incredibly difficult to steer bicycles and we're all set to pick up two to ride through the old town and the huge plaza to the beach tomorrow. I'm definitely excited to finally swim in the Mediterranean.
Post-bicycle adventures I come home, have a snack/read/do homework until 8:00pm when dinner is served. Best part of the day. It's an excuse to listen and speak with Michel, who I have to admit is totally becoming my favourite host-family member. Eat epic food and learn all sorts of random new words (gitan, feuille, pépin). For example, the family has what I thought were two gigantic palm trees in their front garden. Nono, they are just huge herbs. I thought Michel was making things up again - and it took a good amount of cajoling from the rest of the family for me to believe them - but it's true, herbs can be that big.
... I googled it...
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