Today is literally the first time since I've been in France that it hasn't been obscenely late (or I haven't been obscenely tired) where I've had time to sort of organize my life. So I figured I'd let everyone in the states know how things are going! Oh, and are they going!!
So first impressions/thoughts about France?
- The food is better (OBVIOUSLY)
- The coffee is better
- Houses/Architecture in general is just amazing, all of the side-streets are full of cool little shops or tiny houses and just magnifique. Also they're incredibly fun to just stroll along on and mange on some tasty pastry.
- However, despite this there is a great deal of dog poops on some of the streets in Angers, which can be a little terrifying when you're ambling.
- Driving in France is also a terrifying experience, it's insanely fast and the intersections are weird/not really intersections, they're all roundabouts, plus M. Pichot drives like his pants are on fire and accelerates and then brakes with extraordinary speed that caused all our stomachs to lurch. :S But I can't really critique him since he drove us around for three days (one of which you couldn't see out the back of the van because there was too much luggage) without killing us or getting us in an accident.
So, on to other things.
Jet lag is a bitch. Seriously. The first day we were in France we drove to Paris and saw la Tour Eiffel and walked around to stay awake, which was probably good in the long run but was frustrating at the time because it was FREEZING. After this we got in the van and drove to Angers, well Pichot drove to Angers. I sat in the back and literally passed out for an hour, straight into full on dreaming REM sleep. The of course when I tried to sleep later that night it did not work so well. But, it's all good now, my sleep schedule has normalized itself.
My host family seems very cool. I say seems because I haven't really seen much of them. Betsy (my housemate) and I have the whole deuxieme etage to ourselves, it has a kitchen and a bathroom/toilette on it along with our own bedrooms. I really like this, because I enjoy being independent, but at the same time I sort of wish I could easily get to know the family without feeling like I'm intruding into their own personal space. But I mean, it's only day 3/4 so there's plenty of time to get to know them.
I've done several less than smart things. Including almost stepping in dog-crap, telling Pichot that I like to drink, and making my host family think I'm dumb. (their main rule is turn off the lights, which I thought I did for breakfast, however much to my host mom's displeasure, I did not. Merde!) I also left my purse with ALL my important information in the van the first night we were in Angers. Also Betsy and I are currently not using the family's internet because for some reason our computers can't connect to it. So our host sister gave us a password for this other internet, which doesn't belong to them? Shady? I think yes.
Successes? Cidre. Hard cider the french way, which is the delicious way and a specialty in this region of France so it's pretty much at every Creparie. Crepes are also a success, especially when lit on fire and soaked in calvados. Also it's been pretty easy to navigate in Angers, and exploring thus far has been great. And my french hasn't been terrible! And I can understand people when they speak, meme s'ils parlent tres vite!
To finish: There has been one incredibly weird event in France. Last night Betsy and I were in our rooms around....10pm just relaxing. All of the sudden my door opens and in walks a cat. This wouldn't have been that weird except that it wasn't the cat that our host family owned. It was white and black with one blind eye and was SO FAT. I was incredibly confused so I told Betsy and we both laughed hysterically because we had NO IDEA where this giant cat came from. It just meandered around and smelled all of our clothes and rooms and then walked downstairs. Soooo strange. Then a few minutes later we heard our host sister yell and a cat hiss and then Anne-Laure was yelling for her parents and it was all scuffles and everything in the downstairs. After this nothing really happened, and we haven't seen anyone to really ask about it since then. But it was kind of hilarious and great.
D'accord. That's all for now that I can think of. Brain = dead after the language exam today. Classes start on Monday! Life is EXCITING!
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