Paris!

Some Pictures!

Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame My Island!

Notre Dame from my Island!









I have arrived in Paris! These are only a few of the many pictures I have already taken! Things are going well so far. I have started to master the metro/RER system. I already found the American Embassy, a huge shopping area and many other things! I went down to the Champs D'Elysee and walked around for a bit where a nice woman helped me find the store I wanted. I am able to converse in French but it is sometimes easier if they speak English. I'm working on it though and I'm sure I'll have it mastered soon enough.

It was sad to leave my host family and some friends I had met in Tours but I am excited for the adventure here. Classes start today. I have a class Monday from 2-5, Tuesday 9-12; 2-5, Wed 9-12; 3-6, no classes Thursday, and a class Friday 9-12. It is nice and will give me lots of time to explore and do homework of course! It is still hard to believe that I get to live in Paris for three months. It is so beautiful and there is so much to do in Paris alone that it will be hard to go anywhere else.

My current roommate leaves October 6th and then I get a new roommate so I am excited to see how that works. My roommate doesn't have classes until next week so I haven't seen much of her since she's been out and about.

All is well otherwise and I love and miss everyone!

The Small Things

My host family and me

I leave Friday for Paris, which means that my stay in Tours is almost complete. This past weekend we had two Australians arrive and dinner has been more exciting since then. There is a lot more laughter and smiles as we all try to communicate and make blunders!

I feel comfortable here, for the most part. I have enjoyed my stay but I am excited for Paris, hopefully my bad luck will stay here. My headphones broke down the other day (of course on a Sunday, the ONLY day I cannot replace them.) So I made another trip to my best friend the FNAC (basically like a best buy..ish lots of technology but also a book section.) And while at the FNAC I realized that I was grateful that America had the market for technology. I know it sounds silly but no matter where you are, if you need something related to an IPOD or PC or whatever you are guaranteed to find it primarily in English, if not primarily there is still English on the box. So even though I'm learning a lot I still am thankful that America has done so well with areas like technology. So after finding a new pair of headphones I went to checkout. I finally made some kind of joke! I needed to pay with a credit card and mine always gives away the fact that I am American because in France you can't get pretty cards. So after my confusion with the machine (which is why she took my card) I decided to attempt the long running issue in America "Each machine is different!" She understood . It's those small things like knowing the difference between being asked if you have a card or if you want one, that makes it seem like I'm really getting it.

Lesson's learned thus far:

1. Always bring an umbrella
2. Bikes are dangerous if you are a pedestrian
3. You have about 20 seconds after the walk light says don't walk to get across, and most cars will wait for you if you make them
4. Australians don't have Thanksgiving (my most embarassing moment thus far, trying to explain the word Turkey by saying it's for Thanksgiving...DUHHHHHHH only Americans celebrate that..yikes! I felt stupid)
5. Je suis ca va is awful French! I also knew this and made this blunder shortly after the Thanksgiving mishap, I stopped talking after that
6. In bars, they play American music! It still makes me laugh
7. On television shows when music is needed, 80% of the music is in English
8. Gardens are often more beautiful than castles
9. The French really take good care of the landscaping! They rake leaves off of gravel pathways.
10. Not a lesson but a fact, there is now a homeless man permanently stationed outside of the park I walk through. It is odd! He's harmless but nonetheless I like to keep my distance...

So other than countless of mishaps with technology related items life is good. The food has been nice but strange. I have had escargot before, stuffed escargot etc, but I have never actually eaten the snail straight from the shell, until Sunday! I tried one bravely even though she had another option for me. After the first, though it wasn't fabulous, I decided to brave it and eat a few more. That surprised my host family of course who said that Americans usually can't eat it or don't like it. She also asked if I didn't like bread since I never eat more than a slice at dinner. I had to laugh because the only reason I don't eat much is because I could easily eat the whole loaf!

Class today was different. Our professor was trying to explain the reason for something not following the rule that we had been told and decided to use an equivelent of the problem in English. He then asked me for my response to this question: I really like chocolate, how about you? And knowing he wanted the response in English I couldn't come up with it, all I could think of was how to respond in French! I then said something stupid because all he wanted was "Me too" which apparantly is very grammatically incorrect but of course we accept it. So he was comparing the French response to me too...how interesting!

The weather is getting colder here. Everyone keeps saying it should be warmer. I guess I will need to buy some sweaters when I get to Paris! I am working on my travel arrangements trying to get to different parts of France and hopefully Germany too...we'll see how that one goes!

Pictures!

My bed/room:

Aki, myself, Casey (some friends from the institut)

Love and miss everyone!

Death by Bicycle

No I have not died, however, two of my friends have been hit by bicycles. I am under the full impression that bicycles and motercycles are more dangerous than cars. Cars here have always stopped for me but I have narrowly missed being hit by a motorcycle. Bicycles are no better. They rarely yield for pedestrians like cars do and, as my friends have seen, they are more than okay with actually hitting a person! So if any students go missing, just assume it is because of a bike!

Things have been pretty mellow lately. We went to La Rochelle (a town on the east of France next to the ocean) and Poitiers (an old city). La Rochelle was absolutely beautiful and it was awesome to see the ocean and walk on the beach. Some sand sculptors built a alligator looking thing it was huge and I will try to post a picture soon! It was too cold to go swimming but a lot of us got our feet wet :). Otherwise we just walked around a lot and saw the beautiful city.

Beach and La Rochelle

Poitiers was nice but after a few churches and cathedrals you get a little tired of it but nonetheless they were beautiful. Again, when I get to Paris I will post a picture or two of the cathedrals, there were a lot of obvious differences which was neat to see.

The US has been on the radio lately due to our economy. It amazes me that on the radio here the US is frequently talked about but back home it is near impossible to find anything on France. Very sad I think.

I went last night to a culinary school with some other students from my program. The students training to be waiters and cooks wanted to practice their English. The meal was five courses and would have easily been 50 plus euros at a restaurant and we only paid 18! It was fun and quite the experience and I hope to go back again next week. The food was incredible. I leave next Friday for Paris and I am excited! Tours is beautiful but Paris will be amazing.

Weathermen are bad in Europe too

So yesterday started out as a beautiful day. I never check the weather because I don't have access to the internet and usually can't catch it on the radio. My friends, however, checked the weather. It was supposed to be close to 80 degree, sunny, and beautiful. Needless to say, by noon it was pouring rain! So lesson one, never leave home without an umbrella! I am pretty sure I was the only one who had one simply because it was there from another rainy day. Today is looking beautiful, but I still have my umbrella! The girls were so angry with the weathermen. It was pretty humorous.

My host family had their grandchildren over last night. I was excited when I knew words they didn't and I could understand them whenever they talked slowly. However, children talk at a super speed! Or my host family has just been purposely talking slow. It is very likely the latter. The young boy was picking at a dish and my host was telling hime to stop, that he could be giving the idea that French children are impolite. I felt the need to say that it doesn't really vary in the US..children will be children. The kid thanked me but his grandpa said it was no excuse. I was just thrilled to understand and interact.

Oh, and I think my host mother has taken my laundry hostage. She did laundry Monday and I got a few things back Monday night. I didn't get anything back yesterday (I think it's because it rained and the clothes were on the line..maybe she didn't get to them fast enough) I hope I get some back today because I have even less clothes than I started with! Leaving me with very, very few options! I realized I need to buy some scarfs and since I found the indoor mall I may do it today...especially if it happens to rain.

Still missing home but getting settled here pretty well. I really do love the town. The people are fairly nice. I haven't been runover by a car or bike yet! The cars often stop for me when they see my intent to cross the street, which is nice but I'm trying not to get use to it. I have a feeling that in Paris I won't be so fortunate!

Love and miss everyone!

Keyboard problem fixed

So I haven't been updating because my keyboard has been on the fritz and of course stores here are not open super late so I had yet to buy one until today. I was bummed because it would be a French keyboard and it would take time to get use to. However, it types like an english keyboard when plugged into my computer so I can't actually look at the letters on it because they are wrong! It is way toooooo bizare.

It continues to rain here. Today is nice so I'm sitting outside enjoying the weather before it leaves again! I visited some castles this past weekend. They were beautiful of course. I found the gardens more facinating than the castles though. The students I am with are nice but I often break off from the group so that I can experience more. A group of 10 Americans can be intimidating! I ended up having a successful exchange with a French couple who asked me to take their picture! No english needed and the understood me perfectly.

Chenonceau

Everything is falling into a routine which is nice. I keep finding more and more stores and have only gotten severely lost once (an hour of walking to get back to the house!) The food is absolutely wonderful. My host mother loves to cook and we have huge meals every night. I can never seem to make a dent in what she puts on my plate!

A slight overreaction

Well, so this morning wasn't the best but it also wasn't the end of the world. My keyboard has started working again and my shoes have been found and will be returned to me in a few weeks when I get to Paris. So all is well there. I might even just buy another pair of French shoes, that doesn't seem so bad! I bought a French/English dictionary today, surprisingly it was something I forgot to bring. This one also has grammar in it which is good, I need to work on that anyways. My class is pretty easy so I hope to be moved up a level or two in a couple of days. I'm not too worried that is what these first few days are for, adjusting. I'm remembering more and more as I go along. I do truly believe I missed the whole "honeymoon" phase since I have been here before. Though everything is beautiful and wonderful, I notice the differences so much more. One being I can't just iron my clothes. My host mother has a professional and expensive iron so she needs to do it and I think she said it would take a couple days. So that was a little frustrating. The other frustrating thing is I always feel dizzy. I talked with our director and she said it is sometimes a symptom of culture shock. I will have to look into it a little more.

For now I should start walking home. Maybe I can catch some more news. America is talked about constantly over here.

Love and miss everyone!

The honeymoon phase is bogus

I am ready to leave. This has not been good. I left my walking shoes in Paris and am working on getting them back. My keyboard isn't working well. The lower half is pratically not working. My host family is nice but it just seems like more is going wrong than right. I start classes today. I just wish I was home and could fix these problems easier.