Sorry to have been away for a while. I've just recovered from a wicked cold.
Well, let's get back to Monsieur Mateu's gracious introduction to France in general and his life in Montpellier in particular.
Jean Mateu welcomed me to his house on the day of my arrival. This made my transition to France so much easier than it might have been. I had so many questions about where I was and how I would begin making my way in the new culture. And I knew very little about Montpellier.
For instance, I did not know anything about the accents in southern France. I don't know why that never came up in my language studies, but the accent I heard in Montpellier was nothing like the accent I heard in school. (I think that accent was more Parisian.) It was very disorienting, especially because the person picking me up at the train station, Jean Mateu, had one of the thickest southern accents I ever heard.
When he greeted me with enthusiasm, I could only shake my head politely and hope that I would figure out what he was saying ASAP! Luckily, he just kept shepherding me into the car, through unexpectedly bad traffic ("C'est pas vrai!" [I can't believe it], he said) and all the way to his comfortable but not ostentatious house.
When I got there and was welcomed with dinner, I knew that it didn't matter that I had trouble with his accent. He was making an effort to make this foreigner feel welcome--which motivated all the more to figure out what he was saying so we could talk more in the future.
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