Sept. 12- well following the most horrific day in US history, i, and the other americans in france, are fine. we are all so shocked at what's happened and wish we had constant access to the internet and cnn....but the directors here are doing whatever they can to comfort us. so far, no one has lost anyone, but one guy i know has a sister that works in the world trade center. hopefully she's ok. as far as class and life are concerned....classes are hard, but i notice i am actually starting to understand what the teachers say in class, or at least part of it. i'm glad to be making some headway there. life is good. everyone here is very mentally fatigued (if you can imagine trying to communicate in a foreign language each and every day) and many are emotionally fatigued. i've made so many new friends and meet at least one new person every day. all that makes life very bearable. on top of that, the weather is awesome! i usaually wear shorts and a t-shirt, but not in the mornings because it's chilly. i bet it's starting to get pretty cold back home. c'est dommage! anyway...if you want to escape the US, feel free to come over when the airlines start flying again! not that i'd want to get into an airplane for a while now anyway. hopefully you'll write soon, though i have gotten a couple of emails. thanks to those who correspond! if you don't have my address by now i've added to this page. take care, God bless, and keep in touch! ~MQ

Sept. 24- hey everyone! i am now in my last week of the pre-stage and i have finals on thursday! wish me luck! I'VE GOT A PHONE!!!! hurrah! finally! yes, i have a cell phone and you can give me a call if you want to talk, but make sure it's not when i'd be sleeping or you won't find a very happy matthew on the other end!!! for those of you in indiana, we're on a 7 hour time difference. the rest can prolly figure it out from there. if you want the phone number, email me! even if you don't want the phone number, email me anyway!!! this past weekend we took an excursion to Nimes and Pont du Gard. Nimes has a lot of old Roman empire stuff like a huge stadium. It's quite a cool site. Pont du Gard is also Roman. It is a giant aqueduct (pardon the spelling, i'm in french mode and get things confused often...we call it franglais)that goes over a canyon to transport water from one side of the mountain to the other all the way to Nimes. when it was in use, it could carry up to 40 million gallons of water every day. it is quite an architectural feat. i have a friend that has a digital camera, so i'm hoping to get some pictures on this page real soon. i'd love to show you all where i've been...quite magnificent. well that is pretty much it for now. hope to hear from someone soon! take care all. -MQ

Oct. 4- Hello to all! i've been getting quite a few emails lately! i'm so happy about that! thanks to all of you who wrote! hopefully i'll of written you back already, and if not, don't worry, i will soon. well this week was the big kickoff, if you will, of my real classes and of my teaching in french high schools. classes are REALLY hard. i don't have any classes in english, and the teachers don't speak very slowly. i've started recording the lectures to listen to them later. fortunately i've found some brittish friends in that class that are much better and can help me out. so...that's good. as time goes on, i'm sure i'll be able to do better. the teaching is going well and i like all my students and they seem to really like me and act interested in what i have to say. the weather is still nice here. today i'm in shorts and t-shirt and sandals....just to make all you in that cold weather jealous. well....i must go to class, but that's all for now! keep emailing! take care all! -MQ

Nov. 2 - WOW! it's been like a month since i've written on here. not very good of me, is it? well the month has been good. a progressive understanding of french and of making friends. last thursday i had my first bike wreck (hopefully last). i got my tire caught in one of the tram tracks and went tumbling...hard. i ripped a hole in my pants, scraped my elbow, bent the handlebars on my bike, and broke the screen on my cell phone!! the cell still works, but i can't see anything on the screen. so...that pretty much stinks. another exciting event happened on monday: i got my first wisdom tooth taken out! yes, in france. it was interesting to say the least. the swelling is almost gone now, as well as the pain. i'll prolly get the other 3 out later in the states, but my upper left tooth was really pushing and i didn't want to have to get braces. besides, that stuff is really cheap over here. you pay the doctor, and then the government pays you back. it's quite nice. you can also get refunds on apartment payments, although i still need to apply for it. i just got my "carte de sejour" this past week, so i'm now a legal temporary citizen in france. last weekend, before i had the tooth out, i went to Aix-en-Provence with a couple of my friends. i met an older lady that went to Purdue and was a majorette in the band, then i met a 25 yr old that works in Indianapolis, THEN i met a girl that actually went to half a semester of middle school with! she graduated from north knox because she didn't like clark. how wierd is that? quite the small world. speaking of that, a couple weeks ago i met katie hostettler's grandmother, here in montpellier, for those of you that know her. her dad owns the YMCA in vincennes! i meet more people in france than i do in the states! quite bizarre how that works out, eh? well it looks like i'll be going back to bootcamp when i return from the states. not so fun, but it has to be dones. the good news is that i'll make it to fall semester at purdue and even make it for band! i'm excited about that, but not so excited about AIT. oh well, what can ya do? the US gov't owns me for the next 7 yrs! well, thanks for the continued emails and letters! all are appreciated! keep them coming! i think that's it for me for now. i'll try to write more often than i did this past time! cya!

Nov. 13- hey everyone! it's starting to get cold here, finally! not that i much like it, but what can you do!? there are still nice green leaves on the trees, so that's nice. not everything is dead. classes are getting harder. i have my first test this weekend for my hardest class. should be interesting. at least i've gotten permission to use a translation dictionary! that should help a little, i hope.... i met some great girls from chicago and st. louis that had graduated from college and were traveling all over europe! we had a great time and i made an attempt at a homemade dinner and played tour-guide. it was great fun! went to callioure and saw a really cool castle built right on the edge of the sea! it was chilly, but really cool. we then went high into the mountains to see a REALLY old chateau (pepeyrouse). it was beautiful! saw the sunset on the top of the mountain and got some great pictures! i also saw a sign for chateau queribus. notice the quer in QUERibus. i wonder if they're any relation to me! never know. all the small world stuff almost doesn't surprise me anymore! i'm going to look into that, though! well i need to go eat! I'm starving!!! hope everyone is well! keep the emails coming! bye for now.

Nov. 24- hey everyone! CELL PHONE OUT OF COMMISSION! yeah, after my little bike wreck, my cell phone has gradually declined in workability and now it officially doesn't work! don't worry though because i have an apartment phone! if you want the number, email me! i hope everyone had a GREAT thanksgiving! mine ended up being a really great one, despite not being able to be with the family. my program director gave some american recipes to a french restaurant and they tried their hand at making us a meal! they did really well! the turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy were good. they also had a small slice of sweet potatoe. the pumpkin pie was edible, but definately nothing like home. i ate it all very thankfully. it was a great night with all my friends. tonight there will be an even bigger dinner with a closer group of me and my friends! we have some really good cooks in our group and they ordered a whole turkey and the rest is going to be a big pitch-in dinner. i can't wait! i called home to the big family dinner and got to talk to almost everyone in my mom's side of the family! it was so cool! i miss them all, but i'm still having a great time here! hopefully i will be going to barcelona in a weekend or two, so that should be fun. also, i'm starting to make plans for when my mom visits on dec. 28th! i can't wait! well, i need to skeedaddle. keep writing! groses bisous et je vous embrasse tr�s fort. -mq :)

Dec. 1,2001- hey what's up! had a great week this week and getting ready to go to geneva switzerland on a last-minute trip! we were going to go to barcelona, but didn't wake up in time (my fault) so we found somewhere else to go! gotta love europe! went to my very first soccer game here in ole montpellier! it was sweetness....and madness at the same time! europeans are so crazy at football (soccer) games! so that was cool. also joined a band here, so i finally get to play the trombone!! woohoo! ok...gotta go now! later all!

Jan. 4, 2002- HAPPY NEW YEAR! wow, i haven't written in a month. geez, i'm bad. i think you can understand how busy december is. i hope everyone's holidays were fantastic!! as for my holidays, i went to barcelona for the weekend before christmas. i had a great time and saw so many awesome things (especially stuff by gaudi). matt (the other guy i went with) and i met an american girl studying in spain with her mother. her name was morgan and we went out to eat one night together and then spent a little time another day wandering the city. had a great time! i arrived back in montpellier on the eve of the 23rd and then left again the next morning for paris. i finally found a hostel to stay in and then that night i went to notre dame cathedral in paris for christmas eve mass! it was sooo beautiful! it was the most gorgeous service i've ever been to! they sang "silent night" first and then the mass was just so cool. after the mass i got lost in paris, but eventually found my way back to the hostel with the aid of a french lady who happened to be an english teacher (even though she didn't tell me until after we had spoke in french for a while). christmas day wasn't fun at all...to tell you the truth, it sucked. don't throw a pitty party for me, but it was awful. i was all alone and had nothing to do or anyone to talk to all day. ok, nuf said about that. the day after i met up with my friend heidi and we walked around paris together. on the 27th i met up with my french friend, laurent, whom i hadn't seen in almost 5 years. we went to the catacombs (a bunch of bones from graveyards that were cleared out between end of 18th and beginning of 19th century) and then to the moulin rouge. i took a picture and left. not much to that place. the next day, laurent and i went to the airport to pick up my mom!!! i was so happy to see her i cried! we almost immediately started speaking french (though that didn't last long after we were away from laurent and his family). it was fun. we went to amiens to laurent's home and spent the night. the next day, we rented a car and drove to nimes, and then to strasbourg (mom's town she studied in for a year). i enjoyed nimes, but strasbourg was so cool! all the german-style houses with a french atmosphere. it was cool. mom had me try some famous dishes, 2 of the 3 were fantastic! she showed me her old apt building and then attempted to show me around town (though we got lost a lot). we had a good time and she was happy to have gotten to go back after so many years! after 2 nights in strasbourg, we drove on the "route des vins" in the alsace region. we saw several little cool towns and one really awesome chateau way up in the mountains. from then, we drove all the way back to montpellier, arriving on new years day at 1:30. mom loved my apartment and montpellier....she couldn't stay warm though!! my apartment can get cold, but i'm used to it. mom had a bit of a time adjusting. we had a great time, though! i showed her around MTP and she met some French people i know (all very surprised at how awesome she was at french!). the day before she left we went to a little place called "st. guilhem-le-d�sert". such a beautiful place! i vowed to return on my bike when it warms up. well, the next day, she left. she took a TGV up to paris and flew home. i was, again, sad to see her go. hard to imagine not seeing someone for 6 more months! we both cried and i did the movie-style, run next to the train and wave while it pulls off thing. we had a great time, but it was too short. my roomies will be back soon and then classes will start again to finish the 1st semester. i'll see you later! thank you everyone who sent me a christmas card!! -mq

Jan. 26- well, it has been a long time for me to write, again. i've got a few stories to tell, that's for sure. well, finals were awful....i'll just leave that where it is. i asked my first french girl on a date, and she came to my place and i cooked for her. the dinner was great and the evening was fun, but too soon for a relationship. prolly best for me anyway, considering i leave in 5 months. that same night, my apartment building caught on fire!! i came home at like 1:15am and saw the firemen spraying the top of my building! one of the small apts. above me had caught on fire! luckily, the only bad thing that happened to our apt. was a little water damage and a broken door. the door's fixed now and the painter is coming next week, so it's ok. the roof caved in on that apt. and they had to put tarps up. hopefully they'll make it into a balcony now! that would be sweet! classes are over, but i'm still teaching and working ahead on time so i can take a week off during easter vacation. my roomies both moved out yesterday, so i'm all alone for a week, until i get my new roomies on the 1st. it is SO warm here today!! i has to be in the mid 70's or something. i'm in shorts and i'm going to the beach today! i just bought plane tickets for london in a couple of weeks to see goodman and i also bought plane tickets to go to germany. both were extremely cheap!! round trip to london was 49 euro and one way to frankfurt was 15 euro! incredible! www.ryanair.com if you're in europe! it's sweet!! should be awesome! well, seems to be about it for now. keep writing and emailing! love you all! -mq

Feb. 21- (be prepared for a long entry!) Well I�m finally back into a semi-regular routine now. I�ve had quite the time traveling across europe. Two weekends ago I went to switzerland to see my friend Adrian and his family. They live in a little town called basel that's in the north western part of switzerland...really close to the tri-country corner of france, switzerland, and germany. let me tell you that switzerland is SO beautiful! it's like all mountains (the alps) and full of beautiful landscapes. i don't speak a bit of german (and they speak swiss-german, which is quite a bit different) so i was at a loss there, but i could use my french from time to time to communicate to people that couldn't speak english. the first day adrian showed me around switzerland after we had a home-made beer with a couple of friends. basel is quite a cool town. we saw some really cool churches and monuments. we also took a boat across the rhine which was powered only by the water and kept in place by a wire stretching across the river. fun stuff! that night (after a beautiful swiss meal...complete with pleny of cheese)they took me into zurich to a night club. the night club was cool and the music was mostly 80's so, needless to say, i had some trouble dancing all the time. i did hear some old classics and had a great time anyway. the next day adrian and his girlfriend drove me to lucern. this town i recommend if you can get to it. there's so much to do around and in it. we went to a glass factory where they still blow the glass into it's form...quite an art! we were going to go into the mountains, but it was cloudy and it would have been not worth the trip up. nevertheless the mountains were gorgeous to look at. after lunch we went into the center of town where the festival was going on. everyone was dressed up like halloween and playing music and dancing. it was craziness, but quite fun. i also bought a swiss army knife and belt attachment so i wouldn't lose the thing again. quite cheap! we went home and hung out at home that night, just relaxing and eating well again. the next day, adrian and his mom and i went to a small town called schauffausen in the norther part of switzerland. we got to drive through germany to get there. silly me, i forgot my passport. on the way in they didn't even look at us, just waved us along. on the way out they carded us and only let us go because i was in there custody. pretty tight security, let me tell you. at schauffausen, there is the biggest waterfall in switzerland, called the "rhinefall". it's called that because it's a waterfall and it's on the rhine. get it? rhine fall? ahaha errr...ummm....yeah.....anyway...it was very pretty and we took a little boat across over to a chateau and got some great pictures. on our way home we stopped by adrian's grandmother's to visit and drink coffee. she's almost 89 and has a very vivid memory of the past and told me all about her stay in france and in italy in the 1930's...twice, and almost a third time. a very nice lady. i got to practice my french a bit with her, who was surprisingly good for not speaking it often. well, we went home and had dinner, then i bought some swiss chocolate and took a night train (9 hours) home. i slept like a baby, surprisingly. quite a trip! ok, now for my next trip! this past weekend (actually on thursday morning) i went to england to see my boy matthew and hang with him in cambridge. it was great to see him...had been a long time. england is so green! i loved it! after being in france where there are little to no green spaces, england was quite a change. i couldn't believe i was actually at cambridge university...like one of the most prestigious universities in england...heck, the world (next to Purdue, of course). i stayed in the dorms, ate the food (not quite up to standard), and walked around the HUGE town/campus to see a little bit of some of the colleges. so much history and beauty...incredible! i met some of matt's really cool american and british friends. we had a great time. hopefully they enjoyed my company as much as i enjoyed theirs! we went out and we stayed up late talking and playing spades. it felt good to be able to chill for a while and not have to stress over language barriers. on saturday we went into london for the day. matthew and i went with joey (a really cool girl on his floor) and would have gone with jared, but we didn't quite get hooked up. (sorry about that buddy!). so, we three walked around london and i got to see all of the sites for the first time. actually ran into a purdue boilermaker there. he was sporting his gold and black sweatshirt and i just had to go talk to him. ended up being from evansville, but living in indianapolis. little small world experience for ya. we came home late that night and joey and i stayed up till like 5:30 talking. it was awesome. the next morning i woke up at 2pm. i haven't slept that late since high school! just chilled and hung out on sunday, then made another attempt at a movie that night and got into "From Hell." worthless movie. no one liked it, but oh well. i did get to eat some KFC...not too bad. stayed up again with joey until 4:30...kind of kept her from doing her essays. sorry about that ;) monday, most everyone had class or work, so i wandered into town for a last visit and to buy some souvenirs. i walked a ton and was famished by the time i got home. fortunately, one of matt's friends (adam i think, but i suck at names) made us an AWESOME tai food dinner. it was incredible...i could have eaten that stuff for a long time. afterwards, matt, rachel (another of matt's british friends) and i went out to a club. even though the music was a slow start, it ended up being a lot of fun and we got our groove thang's on. didn't stay out too late cause i had a flight at 10:25 the next morning (or so i thought). i said my goodbye's to everyone...sadly, i had to return to france. so matthew and i get to the airport and look for my flight, but it wasn't there! we asked and i had looked at the wrong time...my flight had left at 7 that morning! geez...what an idiot! well, i debated staying another night because i would miss both of my classes regardless what flight i got on that day (except for the 7am), but ended up getting a flight into carcassonne. landing in carcassonne was prolly the scariest landing i've ever been on. a little TOO thrilling for me. the winds are high, or at least were, during our landing....from the mountains that surround. so all the way down we were wavering, this way and that, finally we got over the runway and i thought we were way too high....well i guess the pilot did too cause we came down fast and hard....i swear we were gonna flip and roll we were wobbeling so much. so we land real hard and i see this piece of the back part of one of the engines flip down real fast and i'm thinking....oh no, the plane is falling apart! later i found out that it is an extra safety measure to get you to slow down faster than normal. they had to do that because the runway extension was being rebuilt/repaved. very very interesting. if ya fly to france and want some action when you land...go to carcassonne. otherwise, stick to nimes. :) finally i made it to the train and i got on just as it was departing. i hadn't had time to buy a ticket so i asked to pay on the train...no problem. only problem: no money. i had 5 euros, some change, and a $20. luckily, after finally convincing them that the dollar was stronger than the euro, they accepted my payment. they also told me that i spoke VERY good french. nice to hear after not speaking any for several days. so i made it home safe and sound. there ya have it. my vacation! more adventures to come, so keep checking back! love you all and miss you tons! -mq

March 30-hello everyone! once again, i have failed in writing more often. for those of you looking for new pictures. i'm hoping to put some up soon, but i don't have a digital camera, so what i get is from other people or scanning images. so, be patient and i'll get them up asap! well, over the past month i've had many visitors to see me! it's been great! first, suzanne lacy came to visit me with a couple of her friends. despite her trouble with transportation, she made it and we had a great time. one day we went to the beach for much of the day and we walked around montpellier a lot. i did the cooking thing, which i think they enjoyed. we also went to my new favorite dance club called Ysis (pronounce like 'eezeece'). we danced it up until 5 am! we were pretty crazy....AND pretty tired the next morning when they had to get up to catch their train. well, they missed the train because the stupid trams in montpellier weren't running correctly. finally they got away. it was too short, but good to see suz and have some familiar company. the next weekend, my friend joey (the girl i met in cambridge) came down to visit for the start of her FIVE WEEK vacation! she arrived on friday morning and we toured montpellier again and just chilled, talking and catching up. saturday we got up and went to avignon and spent a few hours there. i made some PB&J sandwiches and we bought some fruit and had a little picnic on a wall overlooking the distant countryside. it was great! we did that for quite a while because by the time we finished we basically had to leave and catch our train back! i didn't get a chance to show her a lot of the city, but i think she enjoyed it all the same! that night (why we came back early) we went to a soccer match. it was joey's first soccer match. it was a scoreless game, but again, it was fun. we sat in the crazier section with a bunch of other americans and i learned some new cheers. sunday was gorgeous so we went to the beach for the day. we took a nice long stroll on the beach and later i tried to soak up some sun, but...to no avail. introduced her to the ham, cheese, and egg crepe! SOOO GOOD! that night we came back and went out to eat at L'hippopotamus (the hippopotamus...duh). it was a pretty good meal. afterwards we went to a bar cause it was st. patty's day and then we walked around montpellier...randomly on streets i didn't know chatting. was a great night. monday, i had to work, so i taught in the morning and then after lunch, joey came in to speak to my older, more fluent students. i think she like that. they asked her questions and got to tell them about herself. was pretty cool. that night we did some SERIOUS cooking. i made my famous quiche with crust made from scratch and joey made an apple pie! i made the crusts, but the filling! OH MY! it was the best apple pie i've eaten in a long time. thanks joey!! :) i made it last practically all week...so torturous to sit there on the counter. every time i came into the apt i had to resist. finally i gave in and ate the last slice. i want that recipe joey! monday night she decided to stay for another day, so tuesday i basically dragged her around with me to teach (got up there and said i didn't have too...anger!) then to class. she did some research on her trip while i went to class and then we came home, had some leftovers, took a nap, and got up at 2 am to get her 3:15 am train to barcelona! we had a great time and i hope she had a great time too! now, my dad is here! because he hasn't left yet, i'll save our adventures for later. so, for now, that's it! classes are going well and french is still improving! you all take care and drop me a line sometime! love you and miss you all! -MQ

3 April 2002 - hello everyone! i hope everyone doing well. like i promised, i'm going to tell you about my visit to brittany and about the brief time with my father. first, dad came to visit me last week, after his really long trip. we had a lot of fun. he arrived tuesday afternoon and we went to hertze to get his car and then went to their hotel. their room was pretty nice. after they saw my apartment we went to eat at "the hippopotamus". i'd already been there and i thought it was a cool place. i ate ostrich for the first time...it was really good...like beef, just a little bit more chewy. we talked a lot and then i went back to my place. the next day, i had class all day long and they took the car to avignon and arles. we ate dinner than night at a caf� in the place de la comedie and they told me about their day and how brad took a picture of some police gathering or something...wierd...they were pretty angry. thursday dad came with me to watch me teach for an hour. my students were really nice to him and i think he liked them a lot too. afterwards, we drove to nice. we went to the beach to touch the water, but dad didn't just touch it, he fell in when a wave attacked him! it was hilarious!. we drank (except me) a bottle of wine on the beach and then, we left for monaco! first, we went to monte carlo. what a town! how rich was THAT place! i've never seen so many nice cars in my life! there were rols-royces (sp), laberguini (sp), ferrari, etc. we gambled a little bit at the huge monte carlo casino.. any game there started at 50 euro minimum bid! i saw a piece for 200,000 euro! i could not even imagine wasting 200,000 euros! afterwards, we ate dinner in a small restaurant. the foot was excellent. i ate fois gras (goose liver) and lasagne. then we went back to montpellier. friday, we took jay to the airport and then went shopping. i bought a windbreaker in timberland (very cool) and then they bought several bottles of wine to take back to the states. then i fixed quiche lorraine for dinner (fabulous like always) and also zucchini bread for laurent and his family in brittany. at midnight, dad took me to the train station and we said our goodbyes. it was great to see him after more than 7 months. the night train was packed and i didn't sleep a lot. after more than 13 hours of traveling, i arrived at the train station in auray in brittany. laurent and his grandmother then took me back to the grandparent's house and i met the whole family. they were so nice and treated me like family. the weekend was magnificent. i played some games of soccer with the family and other little games. the first night, we went to the "point" and drank (except for me, of course) hot wine and ate bread with ham and green olives in it. it was delicious! i watched the sunset and then we ate dinner. i ate, for the first time, mussels! they were great! then, we ate something with pasta and cheese. it was a house specialty. magnificent! and for desert...oh la la! a raspberry bake and also an apple bake! so good!! afterwards, i was stuffed! i went to bed and slept like a rock! at 9 the next morning i woke up and we went to easter mass. it was alright, but nothing like the mass in the states! that night, i swam in the atlantic ocean (actually just a gulf that's connected to the sea). i'm crazy! it was SO cold! i got out REALLY quickly. after mass we had a "hidden picnic" (kind of like hiding eggs, but they hid sack lunches!) a little different than our tradition, but cool all the same! that night, we ate clams. i tried them, but didn't like them much. then we looked at family slides. quite funny! monday, i woke up at 10, ate, and said my goodbyes and i took a train back to montpellier. they were so nice to me. what a weekend! tomorrow i'm leaving for germany to start my easter break! i'm going to visit some friends there and will stay for five days. then i'll take a train to amsterdam and then brussels! then, matthew goodman and his friend are going to visit! will be great! well...that's it! sorry for the long email. love to all! see you soon! xoxo ciao! matthew

Well that's it for the older entries. If you want to continue reading, click here. Have fun and happy reading!