On the advice of a professor I didn't particularly care for, I spent my junior year of college (1997-1998) in France. I found a program in Montpellier through the College of William & Mary.

This was my first time spending such an extended period of time such a long way away from home. I had spent a summer in France in 1996, so had some idea of what I was in for, but living somewhere for a whole year was a bit different. I also didn't know any of the other program participants before going.

	My roommate Lara and I lived on rue Eugène Lisbonne, next to the Carré St Anne and the Place du Petit Scel, in which there was a very nice Irish pub named O'Carolan's and St Anne's church. And a fountain shaped like a mushroom.
Did you know that many cities in France have Arcs de Triomphe, not just Paris? This is Montpellier's. It was about a five minute walk from our apartment.

Lara, got a tambourine for her birthday so that she could sing "Harry Got a Hey" along with our Swedish neighbors and Ken up on the roof.
		We played "Pin the Rat Tail on Tay Hanson" as part of the evening's festivities.
A group of us after church one Sunday. (I'm the short one in front, with the braids.)
		The Basket was a great source of communication and entertainment. It hung from a string connected to our shutters down to our downstairs neighbors' (Kerry & Brienne) window. If we wanted their attention, we swung the basket against their window, and to get our attention they held the basket and swung our shutter closed.  Many a dinner invitation passed that way, and quite a few more silly notes. The bottle of Bailey's came up or down more than once. And once we tried to send a spatula down, but the balance was wrong and the spatula wasn't attached, so it fell into the street and almost hit a passerby on the head! (At which we promptly ducked our heads back inside, leaving the passerby to wonder why it was raining spatulas!)
Jean-Luc was one of the many sometime inhabitants of the basket.
Brienne drew us  a diagram of our apartment building so we could keep straight who lived where.

Montpellier - Junior Year in France

On the advice of a professor I didn't particularly care for, I spent my junior year of college (1997-1998) in France. I found a program in Montpellier through the College of William & Mary.

This was my first time spending such an extended period of time such a long way away from home. I had spent a summer in France in 1996, so had some idea of what I was in for, but living somewhere for a whole year was a bit different. I also didn't know any of the other program participants before going.

	My roommate Lara and I lived on rue Eugène Lisbonne, next to the Carré St Anne and the Place du Petit Scel, in which there was a very nice Irish pub named O'Carolan's and St Anne's church. And a fountain shaped like a mushroom.
Did you know that many cities in France have Arcs de Triomphe, not just Paris? This is Montpellier's. It was about a five minute walk from our apartment.

Lara, got a tambourine for her birthday so that she could sing "Harry Got a Hey" along with our Swedish neighbors and Ken up on the roof.
		We played "Pin the Rat Tail on Tay Hanson" as part of the evening's festivities.
A group of us after church one Sunday. (I'm the short one in front, with the braids.)
		The Basket was a great source of communication and entertainment. It hung from a string connected to our shutters down to our downstairs neighbors' (Kerry & Brienne) window. If we wanted their attention, we swung the basket against their window, and to get our attention they held the basket and swung our shutter closed.  Many a dinner invitation passed that way, and quite a few more silly notes. The bottle of Bailey's came up or down more than once. And once we tried to send a spatula down, but the balance was wrong and the spatula wasn't attached, so it fell into the street and almost hit a passerby on the head! (At which we promptly ducked our heads back inside, leaving the passerby to wonder why it was raining spatulas!)
Jean-Luc was one of the many sometime inhabitants of the basket.
Brienne drew us  a diagram of our apartment building so we could keep straight who lived where.