Alès, Frankreich; Barcelona; Und noch mehr?

Hei everybody, Finally I have some time to write something more detailed. I just came back from my vacations in Italy (for the wedding of my sister) and Munich. The weekend with Jean, Stuart, Mathieu and Susi was great. Unfortunately way too short. Stuard arrived Friday evening at 8, Mathieu and Susi at 10 and Jean at 3 o´clock. So we sat down on my terrace, drank beer and waited for the others to arrive. We had some good food and enjoyed the warm south. Stuart had to leave Saturday morning and Susi at noon. Mathieu, Jean and me left afterwards for a cabin in the Cevennes (thanx Lukas for finding it…). Since we were very comfortable and wanted to enjoy the evening, we decided to prepare a traditional French food. We ate from 6 pm to midnight. Fois gras, steak, tomates à la provencale etc. we had a great time. During the next week, I went with some people from the university for a trip in a cave in the Cevennes. When I came to the meeting point, the guy who guided us told me, that I am maybe too fat (I lost 6 kilo since I am in France) because there are some very small passages. So I told him that I gonne show him who’s the fat guy and off we went. Everything started easy. Sometimes we were walking sometimes crawling. Small passages came and I proudly passed each of them. After some kilometers the guide told us that we got to the smallest passage. The passage was about 30 cm high and about 3 to 4 meters long. Once passed, there is no point of return. I went first, because, if the fat guy doesn´t make it, everybody has to turn around and go back to the exit. So there was quite a pressure on me. Lying on my back, I started to enter into the crack. Soon I felt my back and belly touching stone. I had to take off my helmet since it was too big and passed only sideways. I handled the first meter without any problem, laying with my head on the rock and touching the other side with my nose. Courageous I continued the passage until I suddenly felt my ass stuck on an edge. Being stuck like this I passed quite a while. No back up no getting further. Every belly dancer would be impressed of the movements of my hips trying to pass the edge. Until suddenly I started to move and after some meters I was standing in a new cave in the water and the journey continued. That was a great trip. Yesterday I was in Montpellier in a real bad country disco. I felt like a “dorftrottel” to take the car for an hour to go to a party. So anyways, we listened to bad music and danced like crazy. Very funny. Now I it’s getting serious. I will start to prepare my exams and projects. But since it starts raining that’s not too bad. See you soon

Hi everybody,

I am sorry that it took me so long to write on my bloc. But since two weeks I don´t have any internet. So now I took the possibility to write on my bloc at the university.

The student live here is still pretty stressful. Maybe this is due to all the we that I passed in the mountains and at the sea.

Last weekend there were Maelis, Lukas, Klemens, Simon and Dennis here and we went climbing and walking in the Cevennes. We passed a great we and had great trips and eavenings. As shown on the pictures.

Everything else is going well. I am still not advancing in my project and have some other stuff to do. But I really can`t complain. Yesterday I had to put a jean for the first time. It is still very warm, but it starts to get colder.

Next we there will be Jean, Stuart, Mattieu and Susi who come to visit me. Five people in my small room. Cozy. Take them as an example and come to visit me. There is always some space left for somebody in my room…

Hope to see you guys soon.

Mathis

Hi everybody,

since this night it started raining. The first time since I am here. This is pretty OK, since I am sick since yesterday. Hope it is not the pig flu… We´ll see. If it is the pig flu, maybe they are going to close down the university. That would be ok. Anyways. I am much better already. Last weekend I´ve been to Florac and the Gorges du tein. In the gorges du tein, the river digged itself hundreds of meters into the rocks of the Cevennes. This formed really nice landscapes.

In Florac we were on a festival with gypsy music. There where lots of theaters and life music. The people were funny, most of them old 68er…

Anyways. I will recover a littlebit. Hopefully I´ll be well tomorrow.
So long

Hi everybody,

The first week passed and I start to get used to the life in the hot south of France. Everything started Wednesday last week. I had my first day of university. First the introduction, where I was surprised how surveyed the students are here in France. Nobody can miss a lecture, nobody should leave the student home without telling a professor and the bank account I wanted to open, was only possible in relation with the university. It seems the university does not only interfere in the students planning of the day and the week, no, the professors appear at the parties and don´t seem to drink less than the students themselves. I am luckily far from this organization. My nice home at the boarder of Alès is far from being surveyed by anybody. Its calm and comfortable, so the first impression wasn´t wrong. On the other hand everybody takes very good care of me. It is just remarkable different the student life here and in Germany. The student village is far away from the city center, so that the students hardly ever come down. I think I know much more of the city than most of the other students. This fact is really crazy, because a part from going into the “sale de boom”, the discotheque in the student village, drinking as much alcohol as possible, and appearing in the worst condition in the morning, nothing is going on here. The thing what is missing here, is the different and critical view on society and the political engagement of the students, which is what’s the student life is all about in germany, besides the parties off course, which are by far better than here.

Anyways, after my first introduction day I was told that I had my next lecture one week after. While all the other students were working on something I didn´t have to do. Unfortunately, later I figured that it is not going to continue like this and from tomorrow on, I will start my lectures regularly. Even though I only have lectures on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. All day long. But a long weekend to recover.

So I had a lot of time last week to discover the beautiful surrounding of Alès. The mountains Cevennes start right next to the city and are very impressive. Olive trees, pins and date trees are covering the mountains and everything smells like in the holidays. The valleys are filled with rivers and grottos, some dry due to the dryness of the summer others refreshing and beautiful how they follow the shape of the surrounding rocks. Apparently at the end of September heavy storms, which are named Mistral, change the rivers into big streams, which pass the boarders and change the landscape each year.

For the moment it is very calm here. Since I arrived no clouds are covering the sky. The grilles are singing at night and we pass a lot of time outside.

Here are some pictures of the last week:

Hope to see you soon

If you want to contact me here is my address and the number:

Mathis Eglinger

19, rue de la gardette

30100 Alès

Cell-phone : 0033 698514556 (Billigvorwahl, wenn telekomvertrag: 010057 + normale Telefonnummer. 5,40 cent/min)

Phone Home : 0033 466787468 (If you call there you have to say :  Bonjours, je m´appelle (your name), est ce que je peux parler avec Mathis?) (Billigvorwahl, wenn telekomvertrag: 010057 + normale Telefonnummer. 0,70 cent/min)

Billigvorwahlen ändern sich oft. Am besten auf: http://www.telefontarifrechner.de/auslandstarife/billigvorwahl.html nachschauen.

Mathis

Ouff, what a trip. I finally arrived in Alès. But to start at the beginning. I left munich Saturday, almost missed my train and passed by stuttgart in order to travel to paris. There I had to take the metro, that means stears up and down and up again. And all that with my knee and all my luggage, that weighted about 100 kg. After I arrived at the Gare St. Lazare, I left for the little village triel sur seine. Stairs up and down again… There I relaxed a little bit at jerome´s house. We had a nice talk, visited a friend of him who lives on a floating house on the lake, and prepared great food.

This morning I left paris, being happy, leaving the big city behind me, without being mugged. In the first class I arrived quite comfortable to nimes and from there I took the train to Alès, where I had to carry my luggage for the last time for about 1,5 km. Now I am finally at my new home. I am sitting on the huge terrace and enjoy the cool wind after a very hot day. There are palm trees in the garden and nice flatmates (not in the garden, generally).
Unfortunately, nobody was able to tell me when I will have to go to the university. I´ll just follow the rest tomorrow and hope I´ll find my lectures, and more importantly I hope to find the prof. to tell me that I´ll start only next week.

If it is so, I will be able to discover a little bit the city and take some pictures of my new home. Anyways, its france and I feel very comfortable.

So long. Pictures will follow…

See you soon. here, or wherever…

Greetings

Mathis