Reverse Aging Accomplished

Dave wrote:

Dear Family
Well I'm here in Montpellier and enjoying my stay.
You would be surprised to know that I am on the move again. I thought when I was back home that I should try to be immersed in French both during the day but at night as well. It just didn't happen that way. My first boarding house was fine but the landlady was a sergeant-major giving me all kinds of order... all in French as she couldn't speak English. Also, me being a klutz didn't help. It was agreed that I move on.
My second landlady is very nice but my room is her broom closet...it's where she keeps her ironing board, iron and clothes rake for drying, as well as for other things. In this broom closet she has placed a bunk bed.  I sleep in the lower bed and hit my head every time I get in and out of bed. This lady is collector as she throws nothing away. As it is, I has no place to hang my clothes as the closet is full and the bed is up against it. As a consequence, I spread my things out on the top bunk.
Enough is enough, I am moving out at the end of the month. I am renting a studio apartment (kitchen, bedroom and bath) where I will be cooking my own meals and doing what I please. No more pussy-footing around. As it is, I didn't like the French breakfasts, so I went out the second day and bought cereal, muffins, orange juice and yogurt for my breakfast.
Now about my life there in the city. The course is difficult for an old dog like me. Oh by the way, I am passing myself of as 72 years of age. (Hey Jock, that makes you the oldest and Bill moves up to  number two oldest.) The reason for the age change was to get into this course as an 87 year old would be denied entry. So far I have been able to pull it off.
I am enjoying my stay in spite of the boarding houses. The climate is what one would expect to find, say between San Francisco and Los Angeles which is about 5 degrees warmer than Vancouver Island. Montpellier has population of  half a million and many, many young students who are very nice. One American couple that I met found the people rude. But I have not found that to be the case, on the contrary, I have found them very helpful and polite even offering me their seats on the trams.
Speaking of trams, of all the public transportation systems that I have experienced in my travels, the one here is the best.
The one knock that I have here are the prices of everything. Everything is priced in Euros which are about $1.50 to a $1. But the price of everything is triple. Where in Canada an item would be marked, say as a $1... in Montpellier the same article would marked as two Euros. So when you figure it all out, you're paying three times as much, I kid you not.
People smoke a lot here and everywhere ... in the outdoor cafes, in the doorways of he stores so you get a lot of second hand smoke. The dogs are not leashed either except for the young pups or for those folks who don't what their dogs to get into a dog fight. They don't pick up after the dogs do their do dos. It's good that they wash the streets each day and during the day. It keeps people employed. There is a lot of unemployment here... mostly gypsies who rather  beg or steal than work. They even send their children into the churches to beg as I experienced last Sunday when I attended Mass.
As I said before, so far I am enjoying my stay in Montpellier. When I get home I can say that this has been one down of my bucket list with two more to go.
Oh by the way, one reason you have not heard from me too often is that I am having trouble with my computer. The curser keeps jumping and I have to rewrite each line again, even this letter. When I get back to Cobble Hill, I'm taking this laptop back.
That's all for now,
Love to all
Dave