Settling in

So I've been here a week and now have figured a few things out. Not everything, but the super duper important things, like where and how to send a postcard to the States, how to order something at a restaurant/understand what the menu says about the items, and find the nearest bus stop. It's a start, definitely. And I generally understand everything that is said to me, but formulating a response can take me a bit sometimes. So here's a general run-down of what I've been doing this week.

In the program, there are 79 other students from universities all over the country; the biggest groups (I think) are from Northwestern (20), Whittier (about 10), and Amherst (around 7); I am the only one from Agnes Scott.
We're all together in Tours this week and next for some orientation at l'Institute de Touraine. When I met up with the group, my main concern was that I would spend the next 2 weeks completely alone, since a lot of the students already knew each other and didn't seem all that interested in meeting new people. And for the first couple of days, I did pretty much just chill by myself (which, if you know me, you know was really ok). Yesterday, I ended up eating lunch with a group of international students studying at l'Institute de Touraine. It was really cool because we were from all over, so the only language we had in common was French; it was really good practice for all of us, plus none of them spoke too fast because French was a second language for them too. It was a really great experience.

But recently I've been hanging out with a group of really cool girls from Whittier college. Today, we all went to lunch at this cute little crêperie not far from where are classes are. I had pretty much the best thing I've ever had in my life. It was a crêpe, of course, with cheese and cream and parsley sauce and mushrooms inside. It was fabulous. Then, it came with a dessert crêpe with nutella and a little powdered sugar, all beautifully presented! It was wonderful. There was also a little green salad on the side so you could at least pretend to be eating something moderately healthy... And yes, Mom, I did eat all the green stuff on my plate, I promise!

This afternoon, my new friend Claire and I set out in an attempt to find a post office so that we could send a few postcards. I promised my sister Beth that I'd send her a postcard for her birthday on Sunday, and Claire had a few postcards to send to people back home. We asked some of the other students in our group where the post office was, and we set off in the general direction they indicated. Well it turns out that that post office is closed for construction.... So we try to find the second closest post office. Long story short, we ended up wandering around for about 45 minutes walking in pretty much every direction but that of the post office. when we finally do find it, it's only about a 10 minute walk from where we started. The good news was that we were easily able to ask for the stamps we wanted and were in and out of the post office within 10 minutes. Also, I'm pretty sure I burned off at least half of that super-fattening lunch, so it's all good.

Right now, I'm staying with a host family in Tours with 1 other American student. Our host mom is really great. She's been hosting foreign students for a while, so she always speaks slowly enough that we can understand nearly everything she says to us. We each have our own room, which is pretty awesome, and the host family feeds us 2 meals each day. Obviously, she doesn't speak any English, so the best parts of the experience so far have been learning new phrases and getting better at my conversational French. For example, last night I was able to (generally) describe how the American government works, mainly in terms of the upcoming election. I was super proud that I was sorta able to explain the electoral college completely in French with a few interjections/help from the other student living in the house.

In a week and a half, I'll be moving to Paris and have to settle in with a totally new family in a completely different city. It will definitely be an adventure. I'll try to post some pictures later this week; we're going to two more Chateaux on Saturday, so I'll definitely have some pictures from that, but might post some before. À bientôt!