Random, late-night stories

Ok, I have to blog about tonight, before I forget all about it. It's Friday, which is not the day that French people go out on the town, apparently, because normal busses stop running fairly early, trams are infrequent, and it's more difficult to get home in general (when compared to Saturday nights, that is). However, our 'meal plan' with our families is that we only get 5 meals a week and therefore, we usually go out for dinners on both Friday and Saturday nights. Also, tomorrow we're going to Mont Saint Michel (!!!!!) and we're leaving at 7:45 am and thus could not stay out late.

So Hannah and I decide to go out at about 7:30 to find a place to have a leisurely dinner and be home by roughly 10:30. Easy enough. Except we found pretty much ALL the creepers. On the tram, on the way in, there was a man who was sitting fairly near where we were standing, and mumbling to himself. All of a sudden we hear 'SHUT UP!' coming from behind us. He stood up, and started yelling at us to SHUT UP and stop speaking English. I told him to calm down (in French) but he came closer, then sortof back-handed me on the shoulder and said SHUT UP again. CREEPY! Thankfully, the tram had just stopped at a stop so we jumped off and didn't have to deal with him any further. It was just so shocking! (and I'm pretty positive he was drunk)

THEN, much later, on the C bus coming home, we ran into some other people waiting for the bus (there's only 1 an hour). So 4 of us got on the bus, sat in one of those 4-person seat square things. Then, these two guys came and stood right next to us, obviously too close to the guy we were with (Timmy) for comfort. So then, the two girls got up, and it was Timmy and I sitting across from each other. Then the two French guys sat in their spots. Timmy sent the 'oh sorry, i should have sat there so that wouldn't happen' look, expecting them to start talking to me because I was English, blah blah. Then, all of a sudden, they turn to Timmy and say 'You're very very beautiful.' ahahahaha it was so great. I called Julie, to do a Creeper Call so they wouldn't follow me when I got off. But I got home completely fine and it was such a good story.

ALSO I keep forgetting to post this, but I got asked for directions in my neighborhood! And I knew what she was asking for, and I gave her the correct directions. It was SO EXCITING! I felt like a Nantaise.

Tomorrow is Mont Saint Michel! I'll post pictures for sure!

There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard....

....that could explain how awesome today has been. I'm so content, and it's wonderful. I've had a hard couple of days, feeling like I was really far away from home and being afraid of slipping into the normal monotony of school where I get so focused on what needs to be done that I leave no room for spontaneity or flexibility...and therefore missing out on basically my entire reason for being here (which I don't really know what that is, but it's definitely not that). I might be missing one or two fun things (slash...a lot) at Wooster, but there's always going to be more, and I know that I have all of that to go back to. And sure, maybe I'm SUPER EXCITED to go back...but that shouldn't mean that I should focus on that the whole time and not on how amazing it is that I fricken live in France for the time being. 'There's no time like the present,' right? bah, cliches are the best.

That's why I'm so thankful for days like today, which really prove that point. Last Thursday = awful, because I don't have class from 9:30 - 5:30 which gave me lots of time to do nothing and mope (plus it was pouring rain and freezing which was just not ok because finding entertainment indoors has proved to be fairly difficult). But today I realized that I'm in France - and it's just dumb to be sad.

So after Hannah, Molly and Mac and I had a lovely cup of coffee, and then we had birthday cake for all the September birthday people in IES, I decided to walk home and on the way, explore all of the things that I keep passing on the bus/tram finally. So walked along the Loire for a while, and then went and explored the Japanese garden on an island in the river, and then walked through a park and it was just lovely. And I felt so so so content - the kind of happy where you just feel awesome and gorgeous and like everything is right in the world. More importantly, I felt like I was at home. I've had the feeling before - freshman year at Woo I would get it a lot while walking to class, listening to an excellent song on my iPod (RIP) and appreciating how absolutely gorgeous the campus is. And I get it when I'm in SL on a break, and hanging out with everyone...or even just driving around town thinking about good memories and all that. I get it sometimes when I'm with Andrew too (sorry for being corny) but that's why he's so great, is because he makes me feel just content. It's such a good feeling, and I really can't express what it really is, or where it comes from. I just know that it's a good sign.

So tonight, I have Phonetics class at the fac (university campus) which is amazing, and then my neighbor, Jake's host mom invited me over for dinner. Which will be lovely. Then tomorrow, I think we're going to go scavenging for ground beef (which might be impossible) and try and grill hamburgers which we miss so much, and then Mt. Saint Michel (Diagon Alley) on Saturday! Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of pictures....just warning you!) Which means all the fabulousness is just going to continue!

My Adventures in stereotypes

One of my favorite things about this whole experience has been the whole idea of stereotypes...I've grown up taking French class after French class and clearly I've formed some idea of the typical French person, or lifestyle. Every single day here I've encountered something that has either completely contradicted the French stereotype in my head, or something that has completely supported it. Today, I did a ton of things that definitely supported this one: French people actually eat crepes all the time.

So my host mom wasn't home all weekend, and she's not getting back until about 11
tonight. Therefore, dinner was my host dad (Gildas), the three host sisters and me. Gildas said he wanted to make something simple...which clearly = crepes! So he showed me how! I now have a wonderful recipe for both galettes (savory crepes) and crepes (sweet). They were absolutely delicious and I am for sure a pro.

These are the utensils that I need at home to make crepes. My host dad saw that I was so excited and he showed me a whole website where I could get everything I need!

Another hilarious stereotype that I came across this weekend was on Friday night at the 'Accidental Rave' (phrase stolen from Jake!). We went to dinner, which was lovely, and then heard that there was a free concert (operative word = free) on the Isle de Nantes, which is the island in the middle of the Loire. It's really interesting, because it used to be the giant industrial port for Nantes but when it became less industrial, they left all the hangars and warehouses there and converted them into a giant complex of bars/dance clubs/concert venues/etc. Its really cool. So anyway, we cross the bridge onto the island (after a hilarious tram ride with a bunch of people who were way excited for this concert or something) and we're hit with a wall of noise from one of the warehouses. We go in and it was absolutely nuts. I can't even really explain it...it was absolutely packed. The front/stage of the concert was a giant scaffolding, covered in layers of transparent fabric. The light show that was going was fascinating, and really really cool. It kinda bounced around on the layers of fabric, and was pretty trippy. There were an insane amount of drugs going on too...like hardcore drugs or something. And camelbacks galore...full of who knows what. Not that all of this was what I think of immediately when I think I think French people. I just felt like it was something they would do...and apparently, I was right.

So that was Friday night. It was a good time. Saturday night, I again found myself in a hilarious situation when I entered in the Havannah club in Bouffay (the international quarter, that has literally every single culture covered in a restaurant or shop or bar or something of that nature). I went downstairs to try and find the bathroom (le WC, bien sur) but ended up on a crazy dance floor with Reggaeton music blasting. Obviously, I had to dance...so we did! There were a couple of other girls and I and we had a great time, dancing away. There were some creepers, which we kept trying to escape but that wasn't a big deal...We're definitely going back to actually go dancing some night, as we learned they do this every Saturday. Definitely something that defies my French stereotype - I would have never guessed the French could break it down like that hah.

So it was a very good weekend. Today, Jake and I had more adventures in our neighborhood...we were searching for lunch and we came across a Subway. It smelled just like a normal, American Subway and we almost went in. Normally, as a rule, whenever I'm out of the country I refuse to eat anything that I could find easily at home. But since I'm here for an extended period of time, I feel like I could get my fill of French food while still experiencing American food French-style. We discussed and thought it would be hilarious, but ultimately decided to go a few yards further to the delicious boulangerie where we had sandwiches, drinks, and amazing tarts for dessert. It was a very good decision.

That contributes, though to the fact that this actualization/contradiction to the stereotypes has gone both ways. For instance, my host sister is going to an American themed party and my older host sister suggested she go as a Mormon...no lie. Apparently Mormonism is a sterotype of Americans. Also, the fact that we only drink cold water...once the waiter found out we were American the other night, he took away our bottle of luke-warm water and brought us some cold water, without asking. Honestly, I'm find with that one - I miss me some ice cubes. But what an odd thing, isn't it?

Speaking of ice cubes...I also have found myself missing things like lined paper (all the notebooks I bought for school have this funky graph paper, which is impossibly hard to take notes on), American feminine products (sorry, but the French ones are real weird), DRIVING (so much....it's my fave), cold milk (theirs is usually warmish), and cheaper food! (everything is insanely expensive here). But that's about it...of course, things like my fam and Wooster and Andrew are on there but that's a given. I think my homesick levels are pretty healthy though.

That's about it for now. I love learning about these hilarious things though....it makes life so much more interesting. I also love finding myself in these situations. Just goes to show that having expectations is completely pointless!

8-am's in France = might be French, but still really really early

So today was definitely one of the oddest days I've had here. For some RIDICULOUS reason, IES has decided to schedule our classes with as much time in between them as possible. I'm pretty sure there was no logic behind it whatsoever...except, I suppose, that all the professors are graciously volunteering their time to teach us lowly Americans, and to come all the way from the University (about a 20 minute tram ride, probs lots shorter driving) and therefore have the right to schedule our classes at times that are the most convenient for them. And, I suppose, that I chose the courses myself, and (more or less) had the freedom to schedule my time more logically. However, I didn't really have the much choice in what I took - things like major requirements/potential IS topic research/other factors obviously came into play. This has resulted in my Thursdays looking like this: Sociology from 8-9:30 am.............NOTHING...............Phonetics Lab 5:30-6:30 pm. UGH I told my host mom that I would probably come home (not knowing my schedule this morning) before or after lunch. Which I did, but she wasn't home when I came in, so I went to sleep. Then she comes in later with my laundry (all starched and ironed...she INSISTED on ironing my jeans. She's so cute!) and I roll over and she FREAKS out. It was like 534098 kinds of awkward.

However, I saved myself from too much awkward by getting up and going out to watch Gossip Girl (in English!) with my host sisters. That was a good time. Then, I went into Centre Ville to get coffee and chocolateeeee caaaakeeeee (with delicious creme anglaise). It was sooo good.

Then we had phonetics lab, which is hands-down the best class I've ever taken. Not only is it going to be hugely helpful with my French, and the prof is awesome and super adorable...but it's absolutely hysterical to watch everyone go around the room and so III...UUU...OOOHHH. SO entertaining. Plus, my mouth/chin area hurts which I think means it's working! Yeah! I'm definitely going to come home with a French chin after that class!

Today was made even better by my friend Jake being wonderful. I had called him today because I was so bored, to try and instigate some activity. And I must have sounded sad so he called tonight to check in on me. Then we had a lovely time while he came over and checked his email...as his wifi broke at home and his host 'grand-mere' seems to be technologically challenged. Then, I skyped with Rachie and she played me a song on the thumb piano, and it was probably the best way to end a day ever!

Tomorrow, we're going on a treasure hunt! We have our teams already...and it's going to be intense. Also this weekend are the Jours de Patrimoines...which means the French Minister of Culture decided long ago that they should celebrate their culture by opening up every museum/theater/garden/old building/anything that contributes or displays French culture...and not charging admission at all! Plus, it's a chance to see more of stuff..like they open up storage galleries at some art museums, and old churches that are usually closed to prevent theft...even, apparently, the French version of the White House (la Chaetau Elysee), aka where Sarko lives. So we're going museum-crazy Saturday!

I'll post more pictures soon..I'm so happy with my pretty blog now! I hope you all like it!

aaaaaand now it hits me!

Today was the first day where pretty much everything I was doing was strange and foreign to me; it definitely felt as though the front that had been approaching for the past two weeks since I've been here hit, about 1:30 this afternoon.

All last week, during our on-site orientation at the school in Nantes, it was pretty typical stuff - granted, we were learning things like how to buy a cell phone or a bus ticket, and how to be street-smart on the bus, and what classes are going to be like. But it was most the typical class information and name games and all those fun things. There were some cultural adventures, especially with my host family, but mostly things I'd experienced before or were not that different (though the self-cleaning bathrooms are always going to crack me up).

However, even though we were doing fairly normal things, there were lots of little tidbits of French culture that I've been picking up and accumulating; the clouds have been forming for sure. For instance, all the stores close at 7, people don't pick up their dog's poo on the sidewalks, the church bells ring ALL MORNING on Saturday mornings, because that's when people get m

arried, and also that there are no bridal parties at weddings - people just have little kids d

o flower-girl things like that (probs because French babies are fricken ADORABLE), and the person who signs the marriage license as the witness is the best equivalent to a maid/man of honor. They also eat dinner every single night at the same time, no matter what, which is usually

around 9-9:30. They approve whole-heartedly of graffitti (which is really almost beautiful in some cases, so that makes sense) and also hazing in schools...or what would constitute hazing in the US for sure (<<

costumes selling candies for 1Euro to raise money for their class trip, and the seniors were there 'supervising,' we'll just go with that. It was quite entertaining). Also, my host dad just came home with legit 2 ducks in his hand, and went to the kitchen to butcher them. Apparently we're having some canard for dinner tomorrow! He was so shocked also that I'd never butchered a duck myself....and let me watch and showed me how. Julia Child would be SO proud.

And....they LOVE Michael Jackson. Holy cow, do they love that man. Last weekend, we went out to hit the town in Nantes. Friday night, it was Hannah's birthday, so we went out to dinner at this amazing, authentic Greek restaurant where the adorable owner told us that he's been serving Americans from IES for the past 20 years, and he always loves to meet the new group

and hear their stories. So we talked to him for a while, and he welcomed us to Nantes with some free baclava. Then, we met a guy that Alexandra met the night before and he took us out to l'Isle de Nantes, which is a big island in the Loire River, and basically just a giant bar. But we went to one place which seemed pretty cool but no one was dancing. Of course, we couldn't help it so we started to dance, and pretty soon the whole bar joined in. Then the DJ played Michael Jackson and literally the entire place broke into Thriller and would not stop. After about 25 minutes of MJ, we decided to take off, but it was hilarious. Then Saturday, I went out again with some other friends and we found an Irish pub (there's an awesome international district called le Quartier Bouffay, and there's pretty much every kind of food/culture you could want. Plus a castle with a moat. It's my favorite). Eventually, there were about 20 Americans in this place, making quite the scene, and people started coming up and asking questions and whatnot. I met some lovely people, including 2 gay couples who are going to come to

our conversation table next week with me to practice their English. Yay making friends and speaking "fluent" French when you're not quite sober! haha.

So all of these observations and activities have just been adding up, and I was just starting to really feel like I was in France. Until today, when I had my first venture onto the campus of the Universite de Nantes. First, my friend Hannah and I had a few hours before our class began, so we decided to figure out the library. Easier said than done. Library actually = libraries. Many of them. All over the place. So that was quite the adventure, and we actually found 4/6 of the books we needed (see photo), and successfully registered our library cards. It was quite exciting.

Then we ventured into amphi D (amphitheatre, obviously). It was so terrifying, but absolutely fabulous. Not only have I never had a class of more than 35 people, I have never taken a class where I was one of two Americans. As the class filled up, and Hannah and I took note of everyone around us, we felt more and more out of place. Then the professor came in and began the 3-hour long lecture on French Constitutional Law. I know nothing about the French Constitution! We could barely understand full phrases and heard things like 'the privatisation of certain enterprises,' and 'the American system is unnecessarily complicated,' and 'Georges Bush.' Then he started going in on the history - and if you know any French, dates are just ridiculous to easily comprehend. He would say 1987 (which is dix-neuf mille, quatre-vignt sept...quite the mouthful) and we'd look at each other, try and calculate that in our heads, and then by the time we figured it out we would have completely missed what happened in 1987.

It was absolutely hilarious. Omygosh. We had so much fun, and thank god there were these 3 freshman girls in front of us who would relay the important information like homework and that to us. A semester of this is going to be pretty great.

But the best part was when it dawned at me that this is what I was here for - that I really, truly felt like I was finally studying abroad.

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!

Learning that I have lots to learn...

This weekend has proved to me that this experience is going to be so much more than I anticipated. I honestly have been preparing for this for as long as I can remember…and I thought I had some idea of what I was getting myself into. Not so much. But it’s so much better!

For instance – this weekend (from Thursday to Sunday, after we had one night in our host families) we have been on a petite vacance in a small tourist city called Vannes, which is the city on the Atlantic where the Loire meets the coast. I thought that, because they called it ‘orientation’ on the schedule that I saw in…what? February? that it was going to be very academic and we were going to jump right in to the school aspect of this experience, and do things like our placement tests, and choose classes and whatnot while we were here. Typical orientation activities….in les Etats-Unis, apparement. Because their idea of orientation is throwing all 91 of us together in a gorgeous coastal hotel, telling us to speak French as much as possible, and then taking us to these amazingly gorgeous medieval French chateaux yesterday, and an amazingly gorgeous, quaint island in northern Brittany today. Let me just tell you what my itinerary for today and tomorrow is: go an hour north, pick up our pre-made pique-niques, take a ½ hour boat ride across the gulf to l’Isle de Moyens, pick up our rented bikes, and explore this island for 7 hours. What??? It was amazing! I don’t know how many times today that I heard people say ‘I can’t believe I’m actually in this place,’ or ‘I’m pretty sure I’m never going to leave.’ Then come back for a 4-course French dinner and an apparatif. Tomorrow, go to a fort from WWII, then go to a creperie for lunch. Then go to a seafood festival and a guided tour of an ancient town full of ancient buildings and cave drawings. It’s like French Stonehenge, apparently. Then, come back for another 4-course French meal. It’s just so cool that not only do I get to go to these places, and to experience them with actual French people who are part of the culture, but that I didn’t even know they existed. I’ve never heard of l’Isle de Moyens – and I’m pretty sure I’ve never met anyone else who has heard of it. There’s so many things to see and learn and experience and it blows my mind, all the time, what I don’t know. That might sound weird, but there’s just no way I can comprehend everything that’s out there.

So anyway – this island. It was honestly a fairy tale. Every single house was amazingly gorgeous. A lot of them were fairly new, though the island is pretty historic. But ah! It was amazing. They all had amazing gardens too, and around every turn there was another quaint yard, or a towering church, or a spectacular, panoramic view of the gulf around us. Apparently, because the river and the ocean coming together creates a really good current, there are bi-annual regattas there, and lots of crew races. So, when we were at the top of the island, we could look out and see about 500 sailboats, and also a cool mussel farm (just like on the Dirty Jobs episode! Except French!). But my gosh. It was honestly breathtaking. We had one of the best LOR’s ever, mama (that’s Lunch On a Rock for everyone else). Our picque-niques were enjoyed on a stone wall over looking all of this. Really, words won’t suffice. I’ll post pictures on my facebook when I can, I promise.

Apart from how awesome this all is (which is really hard to distract myself from) its really cool meeting everyone. Like I said, there’s 91 of us, which is an insane amount. Every time I go up to someone new I’m like, ‘Bonjour! Je suis Emilie!’ and then continue with the conversation. It’s also kindof hilarious that we all are speaking French. It’s really great practice…especially because we are actually taking our placement tests on Sunday. But we’re all sharing stories, struggling over our verbs together and trying to combine our vocabulary knowledge to string sentences together. I love it, because we’re all more or less the same level, but we’re definitely all in the same boat so everyone’s totally comfortable. OH and the director of our program – Mme. Roucher – is absolutely fabulous. She’s extremely eccentric, but I LOVE how she speaks – I understand every single word, and she makes French sound all sparkly and wonderful, but like I’m capable of doing it as well.

I could probably keep talking forever about today, but I’ll for sure have even more to talk about tomorrow (I already apologize to the people who will be around me when I come back. I’ll probably be insufferable – please, just tell me to shut up eventually). We’re off to the town of Vannes (which is actually like a mile walk from the hotel) to bond over some lovely bière de Britagne!

I'M HERE!!!

I am writing at my wonderful desk in my wonderful host family's home in the wonderful city of Nantes! I feel like it took about 20 years to get here - I have been travelling for a full 2.5 days now. But it was all worth it.

I got into Paris at 6:30 AM their time (=1:30 AM for me) and then had to navigate nasty, nasty customs - it took forever and was about 90 degrees. I finally got through, found my bags (thanks goodness!!!) and then ran around trying to find a phone card/someone with a cell phone/the bus station. I got all three, eventually. Then came the ridiculous ride through the Paris suburbs...it was seriously terrifying. They don't seem to pay much attention to the lane markings, nor any of the traffic signals - especially, it seemed, our bus driver. He was just changing lanes willy-nilly, going around and through spaces that, from a quick glance, looked like only the Night Bus in Harry Potter were going to get through. Eventually, I got to the Paris Opera and met Hugo, our friend who I stayed with overnight. I was literally going on no energy at this point, starving, and sweating like a pig. But then, Hugo brought me down to the Metro, so he could show me how it worked...we went quite a few stops to his house, then walked a few blocks to his house. All dragging my very heavy bags along with us. At that point I couldn't even speak English, let alone French, so I took a shower and then crashed FINALLY! That shower was honestly one of the best experiences of my life.

Five hours later, I woke up and Hugo (who is a professional tour guide) was like -We're goin out! So we headed out to see the sights. I don't understand how we fitted everything in to that day that we did. But, I saw Notre Dame, then rue de St. Michel, bought my cell phone (yay!), saw some of the Sorbonne, then the Louvre, then got the most delicious gelatto I've ever had, then walked across Pointe Neuf to the Tuileries, then to the Champs Elysses, then hopped a bus to the Luxembourg Gardens, and arrived back at his flat at about 9 PM. My gosh it was a day. The only way I survived was that it was Paris, because - even now, I'm still pretty jet-lagged. The adrenoline was definitely pumping.

This morning, I was up at 10:30, having planned on getting up at about 9 to see some more -oops! But I packed up again, had some b-fast, then Hugo said goodbye, put me on a bus and I was off again. I took 2 different busses, then walked a few blocks to the Gare Montparnasse. There were no problems getting my pre-purchased train ticket, thank goodness. The ride itself was quite uneventful - saw a few castles, followed the Loire River for a while, you know...no big deal (!!!). I actually sat next to a guy from (I think) Senegal, but he was studying at the Law School in the Universite de Nantes. He was very impressed with the fact that I could speak so well (hah!) and was saying how beneficial it will be, especially with the economic crisis, getting a job later in life....it was neat! We exchanged info, and he said we could meet up for coffee sometime. I networked in French!!

From the train station, I met up with some of my new bffs, my fellow IES students and we split cabs to the IES center - where I'll be taking classes. We hung out - speaking lovely English - for a while, while getting oriented, somewhat, and waiting for our host families to come in. I didn't see much of it, but the school looks cool. It seems a lot like a converted apartment building...very homey. I loved talking with everyone though. Lots of small-world connections...it was fun!

Then, my awesome host mom picked me up. I love her - she's so tiny! But she seems genuinely excited to have me, and was extremely gracious. The drive to the house seemed convoluted, but she explained that there were lots of one-way streets, so walking would not be as hard. But I might be taking the bus still...she kept saying, "we'll see...we'll see." I met my oldest host sister when we arrived at the gorgeous house...Marie Latitia (i think). From what I can tell, she's an economics student, who just got back from working in New York for a year and is now spending her time chillin, traveling, and making hats? She used me as her model for one, it was hilarious. My younger sister - Adelaide - is adorable. She looks like a tiny Jessica Krebs, for those of you who know her haha. But she was all kinds of excited to meet me and she talks really fast but her mom keeps throwing her the "i'm using your full-name, you'd better behave look" and she slows down so I can understand. It's great.

At dinner, we discussed Harry Potter and our favorite Broadway shows and France's new law banning the streaming of movies. They were quite upset. Then we sat down to watch a movie - Largo Wench? It's apparently based on an American comic strip, but of course, I've never heard of it, like I've never heard of anything. One funny thing - Adelaide's phone rang during the movie, and the chorus of the song was literally 'Fuck you, fuck you very much.' Apparently it's a very popular song here. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fly back in the states hah.

So, I have a great room, complete with desk, bookshelf, bed and my own bathroom. Best part - FREE PHONE SERVICE TO THE US annnnnnd WI-FI!!! I was a tad excited. So yes, I have my own phone and can call home/Andrew as much as I want. WIN! I think communication was the one thing that I worried most about. Silly me! I also have a door to the front of the house, so if I want I can come and go through that door. Kindof odd, but it'll work.

Now, once again, I'm exhausted, so I have to head to bed. Tomorrow we leave for orientation trip in Vannes, France - a coast city that's apparently a bunch of islands!