Je suis en France! Finalement.

Hey!!! First post in France. Keyboards are a little different here, so this is taking me forever. My parents here say bonjour to you, Mom and Dad.

Sheesh, where do I start? The flight was so long! Then we had a seven hour bus ride from Paris to St-Brieuc. This town is beautiful!! But more on that later. We passed two Ikeas before we got here! Très chouette.

On the flight, as we got within minutes of landing, we chatted excitedly as a group (even though we were scattered across the plane. Désolé to our fellow passengers...) Once we touched ground and the language commitment started, however, la silence. We spoke a little bit in the airport and during the bus ride, but it was small talk and mostly over frqnçais-anglais dictionaries. When we arrived in St-Brieuc, we could see several families ready to take their student. Then we started admitting to each other how scared we were. What were we doing here??

The language hasnt come easy, but its getting better. (Sorry, I havent found the apostrophe yet!) Last night, my mom and sister came and whisked me away to their home. In the car, my mom told me that we were having her parents, her aunt, and her uncle over for dinner. Oh good, lets display my loose grip on your language while Im disoriented from jetlag and sudden immersion in a foreign culture. It was nice though! They were very kind and super talkative. The French seem to be very informed people; their conversation covered so much! Merci beaucoup, Mme Hayden for covering Frances recent election in class. I could contribute when it came up in conversation! Sort of. Their family asked many questions about Indiana and the US; my favorite was when my grandma asked about how we tell time. She asked several times, to be sure, "You have a 3 in the morning AND a 3 in the afternoon??" Oui, cest bizarre.

And the food! Oh my. It kept coming and coming, and it was so good! We started with different types of sausage, radishes, tomatoes, and a yummy rice dish. Then bread and melon. Then salade and three kinds of meat and potatoes (which they peel at the table with their knives). We had something that looked and tasted like applesauce, but may or may not have been applesauce. It went with everything! It tasted so good with the potatoes and the meat. Mm.

My dad walked me to the bus stop in our neighborhood today; thats the route Ill use tomorroz for my first day of class!

Bisous! (Kisses!)