Hello! It’s day 5 now.
Ok, so I kinda have to say that there is a 6 hours difference in Montpellier and Singapore so I kinda got confused over what happened HAHAHAHAAH. But anyway, today we have a excursion with the school cause it’s a holiday here in France. It’s apparently called ascension day where it’s also known as the bank holiday? I have no idea what that means but basically most shops are closed on the holidays.
Yup, so the excursion starts at 1.45pm and ends at 6.30pm where we have to meet at Gare Routiere which is this busstop in Montpellier. So before that I had some time in the morning and well, the new girl who came from Switzerland – Leonie offered to show me around. And my oh my, I was so shocked when she could speak english and I was like OMGOMGOMG you can speak English and then I became really flustered and she said, well you don’t have to hurry/rush cause I haven’t put on any make up or anything.
As usual, we had breakfast of the same thing and then she was talking to me in French so like when we were done we both went upstairs and then she asked in French, “Tu as visiter le Montpellier? Si tu veux, je peux tu montrer” and I was just like ??? and then she said, is it better if I speak in English and my life just got a whole lot better. HAHAHAHAHA :’) But since we kinda just met so it was a little awkward as well. And half the time she spoke in French and I’m just trying my best to understand but couldn’t. So basically the whole conversation that day wasn’t really clear to me whoops.
Yup, so we walked to Place de l’Europe and then abit further down and then cut through to get to Polygone which is this huge shopping mall. But since it wasn’t 10 yet, most of the shops weren’t open yet. But we just walked through it anyway, and then I kinda asked her questions basically how to say this and that. And then we walked through Polygone and she said like it’s a short cut to Place de la Comedie and I was like O.O cause it was like wow I didn’t know that. And yup, so we walked and talked and she showed me the Place Royale du Peyrou which was like my 3rd time there HAHAHAHAHA but it’s alright. It was a good experience.
Oh before that, as we were walking to Place Royale du Peyrou, there was this man who approached her and asked if she wanted to donate money to children of some thing. Can’t remember clearly. But anyway, so she said No and the dude insisted and so she signed her name and the dude said hello to me and later after she was done he turned to me and I said non. I guess it does have perks being Asian in a European country HAHAHAHA.
And then we wanted to leave and the dude asked her for money like apparently she had to give him money then and there and so she said she doesn’t have any money and even took out her wallet to show him. He was obviously very angry but what can he do about it right?? Such con artists. Tsk. Yup, so that’s the end of our mini encounter.
As I was saying, after we left the Place Royale du Peyrou, Leonie wanted to visit le Jardin des Plantes. But it was not opened yet. Also, it was then I asked “comment tu t’appelle?” HAHAHA ok kinda late to ask for her name but never late than never right? So she told me and I said “Comment ca s’ecrite?” And she spelled it while I wrote it in my notebook and then she asked me for mine and she couldn’t pronounce it. Somehow, the French or Europeans in general has problems pronouncing my name so oh wells, I wrote it for her on my book as well so that she could read it. And it kinda worked. So yup, another friendship was born ^^
So we were both getting thirsty and since the Jardin wasn’t opened yet, we decided to go find a place to have a cup of drink. And then we went to this tram stop and waited for the tram. It was a little awkward cause we didn’t say much. And then the tram came and she boarded it and cause it was quite crowded and the door quickly closed, I couldn’t get on and so I was left outside. And oh no, I was like panicking inside and wow, kinda embarrassing but oh wells, who cares right? Especially since I’m never going to see these people again.
So the logical thing to do was to follow the tram tracks and pray that Leonie gets down at the next stop which she thankfully did. Hallelujah. I thought I could catch up with the tram but whoops, I guess not. Then as I kept walking, I saw Leonie walked back as well. Thank God. So like after that we went through some small roads and I asked whether she had a tram system like this back in Switzerland and she said yes but she thinks it’s more efficient and basically better than the one in Montpellier. And she returned the qns and so I said yes and told her we have a train system that is similar which is called the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) in Singapore. And she was like “quoi? Mass.. ?” And I repeated myself.
While I was doing that, a man came up to us and asked whether I was from Singapore and I said yes. And he said oooo I was there a couple of years ago. And that was when the 3 of us started conversing in English. Hurhur cheap thrills. So he’s called Stephan and he was in Montpellier for a short visit and then he asked whether we wanted to have brunch together cause he was on his way and we looked at each other and Leonie said sure.
So we went to Toast and Tea. I was actually going to have water and something small. But turned out, I had a tart that was like huge?? It wasn’t even a tart. It was like a big slice of egg like thing with tomates et curry et poulet. It was not bad but really filling. And I was thinking how am I going to eat lunch with Gina though. So yeah, the 3 of us had brunch and then we talked abit here and there. Mostly it was Leonie asking questions and Stephen answering and I just kept quiet. He was apparently a photographer as well who did a photo-shoot on nudity I guess. He showed us a few of his works which were basically naked women 
But well, can’t really judge him or anything.
Yup, then by the time we were done it was near 12.30pm which was actually the time I was supposed to meet Gina outside school so that we can go to gare routiere together. As I part ways with Leonie, I was already late for 10 mins cause I reached IEF at 12.40pm and I panicked cause Gina wasn’t there and I was like oh no, I don’t have wifi how am I going to contact her?? So I just waited awhile more perhaps about 5-10mins then I decided to walk to the tourism office where I was like hoping for a miracle.
Surprisingly, they actually had wifi there and then like ya, Gina confirmed 1230pm with me so by the time I reached there it was already 1pm? So like I started to walk back to IEF and thank all the Gods in the heaven, Gina was there already. Then ya she bought something to eat and then we began to walk to gare routiere. But I needed to pee really badly so we were also looking for a toilet.
There really aren’t many public toilets in Montpellier. Like omg. But yeah, we found one. It was really gross though. The seat was gross and like I couldn’t relief myself properly cause it was really dirty 😦 Whoops tmi. But anyway, after I was done, I couldn’t even flush?? Like everytime I press the flush button there would be an announcement in French and I just couldn’t understand and so I gave up trying to flush that thing. Sorry to the next person using it. But thankfully I could wash my hands. Then again, the hand washing procedure was such a quick one cause there weren’t any taps so like the soap came first and then the water and then the dryer like whot. It all seemed to come from the same hole.
Ok enough of that, after that we gathered at GR and we met Chi yay people we know. So after that Jeremie came and told us he was our guide for the day and then we proceeded to go to Saint Guilhem et le desert. Yup, so we first went to this bridge where it was called the Devil’s bridge if I’m not wrong? Jeremie told us a story about it.
Basically like a man tried to build a bridge and it just kept falling apart. So one day the devil appeared and then he said he would grant him a wish in exchange for something. So the man said that he wanted the devil to build a bridge overnight that is indestructible. In exchange, the devil wanted the soul of the first traveller who crossed the bridge. Despite that, the man agreed. So he racked his brains together with the villagers and they came up with a way. So the next day, a man was walking towards the bridge and when he was going to finish crossing, out came a little dog and that dog was sacrificed 😦 While the devil was angry, a soul was a soul so he couldn’t do anything about it. But yes, that was about it I guess.
So after the story, we went to the bridge and looked at the view it was really quite magnificent.
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After that we left for St Guilhem which was a pretty little town with 250 inhabitants but like 1 million tourists? That’s really a lot. But yes, it was really beautiful and there we visited a church which was beautiful as well. After that we had a little free time and so Gina, Chi and I went to buy a little things. I bought a pair of sunglasses that day as well as 3 pendants for my friends wew. Oh yes, and I bought honey and jam for the fam.
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Yup, so it was quite a short visit but yup it was good. After that we ended and went back to GR and I proceeded home to have dinner with my host family.
We had potatoes and pork? I think that day it was good but I felt like the pork could be a little bit saltier but it’s ok 🙂
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Yup, that’s about the end of my day 5.
Thanks for reading bye!
jermaine 