We're getting so close

This week has been insane. I honestly believe that our program's objective is to exhaust us completely so we don't get restless doing orientation things, or get too homesick. But even if its not their goal - they're doing it pretty well! Pretty much every moment of my days since Sunday have been scheduled, from 9 AM - 7:30 PM. Then, when I get home, my host mom will have dinner ready/I help her get things on the table and all of that. Then we 'faire le salon', or 'do the living room' (probably one of my fave verbs) which basically means we watch this hilarious game show on TV and chat. Tonight, I had homework, which my host mom went over with me which was great.

So within this week, I have: applied for a residency permit, which is an addition to my visa and required by the government; gotten my monthly transportation ticket and ID card, which included getting a passport photo, a copy of my passport and visa, and a form signed by the director of IES, the lady at the TAN (the local transport company - it's great, there's not only busses and trains but taxis and water ferries included) station, and myself; learned a new verb tense in French; experienced a heated debate about the correct conjugation of a verb in a certain sentence (the teacher - who is French - said it should be imparfait, wheras the student in question was fairly adamant that it should be passe compose. It got a bit out of hand, and I wasn't going to argue the subtleties of the French language with someone who had been speaking it since they could talk); explored almost all of Nantes, or most of it from what I can tell; got a college tour of the Universite de Nantes, and ate in the cafeteria, and definitely felt like a freshman all over again; discovered the bus routes and found where most of my friends live around me; gotten to be best friends with my host sister, Adelaide (we painted our nails together the other day, and while we were doing the dishes tonight, we had a Beauty and the Beast singalong. She's pretty amazing I love her) and my host mom, who is the most adorable, tiny woman I've ever met; had a toast with the mayor of Nantes, and attended a recption in the hall where Benjamin Franklin conducted most of his diplomatic work outside of Paris; and spoken lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of French.

Unfortunately, I'm exhausted, so I don't really have time to go into more detail. However, I can say that I cannot WAIT for classes to start. I feel like then, I'll finally have time to calm down and enjoy myself thoroughly, and absorb all of the amazingness that is living in France. We actually get to SEE the course book tomorrow, so I can hopefully get everything cleared with my advisor at Wooster before I register on Friday. Also - I think I'm going to take a yoga class, which I'm quite excited about.

All in all, it's going as well as I could have hoped, and I only have confidence that its going to get better and better from here! I'll update sometime next week, and tell you all about classes!