The First Few Days

The past few days have been a whirlwind to say the least. I arrived in Toulouse on Wednesday morning and my host mom picked me up at the airport. All of my luggage arrived safely, I was really nervous for some reason about that. She greeted me with the french bisou (greeting somebody by kissing them on both cheeks) which was my first signal that I actually was in France. So crazy! After she picked me up we went to a little market near the house so that she could buy some groceries for lunch and dinner. It's funny, you know that distinct scent that fruit markets have? It's the same smell in France. For some reason that stuck out for me. After that we came back to house and I unpacked. The house is awesome, very modern, with an open floor plan and a big garden. My room is bigger than my room at home and has two big windows. The only problem is that it's super hot, definitely something I'm not used to. During the unpacking phase I stopped to have lunch with my hosts. It was delicious. Melon, salad, turkey, and potatoes. I continued unpacking for a little while and then my host mom Catherine drove me around the city to show me where certain things are located. She also explained the bus/metro situation and how I can get to the Dickinson center. We came back and then I went with my host sister Camille to her grandfather's house in the country. It was so beautiful. When you think about a French country house, you picture this. It was built in 1783 and overlooks the rolling hills of the French countryside. It was only 15 minutes from Toulouse which was incredible. We came back after a few hours and had dinner. I tried to sleep but it was really hard. Jet lag is the worst.

The next day I had to be at the Dickinson center at 9:00am. I woke up to take a shower and there was a GIANT green bug in my shower. Needless to say it was probably the fastest shower I have ever taken. After the bug fiasco, Catherine drove me to the center which was great. We had orientation pretty much all day. First we discussed program logistics, then we had lunch out in the garden of the center. Did I mention that the Dickinson center is in a beautiful, french mansion-type house? After that we went on a tour of the neighborhood and the center itself. Then we discussed opening our french bank accounts. After orientation, I went with a couple of people to buy French phones that way we can communicate with each other while we're here. We walked through the oldest part of the city and it was just so beautiful. Winding roads, old brick buildings, so pretty. I took the bus for the first time home (super easy) and then we had dinner. Catherine made the most delicious quiche. During dinner we were laughing about the differences between the English and French versions of Harry Potter. For example, in the French translation, Snape's name is Rogue and Hogwarts is called Poudlard. What is this nonsense? We also laughed about Disney movies and their songs. It was so funny to hear them sing songs from the Lion King in French. I tried to sleep after dinner, but alas, I was unsuccessful.

That brings us to today! Sorry that this blog post is dragging on and on. We had our first class this morning at the Dickinson center. I took the bus with Jeremy to the center and it took 40 minutes. Kind of a pain. I'll just be waking up early for classes I guess. In class we talked about the proper way to address certain situations that may arise during our time here and also how to email a French professor. After class we quickly grabbed lunch at a café and came back to the center for our first outing with Monsieur Crema. He's fantastic. He gives us lessons about the history of Toulouse and then we go on walking tours around the city with him. Today he oriented us to the city and showed us how to know where we are and different points of interest. It was great to finally explore the city on foot and I want to do more of that tomorrow. After the tour was over, I went to a café with Sarah and Caroline and had my first legal drink in Europe! A cold beer after a two hour walking tour in the heat has never tasted so good. We also got ice cream and explored the Jardin des plantes. It's basically the Central Park of Toulouse. I came back to the house, hung out with the family for a little while, showed them some photos of my family and the photos I took today, and now I'm here talking to all of you!

In other news, I'm super homesick. It sucks. I want to enjoy everything I'm doing but all I feel like doing is crying. I don't really know why I'm telling this to the world but I guess it's better to talk about it than stifle it. Every time I talk to Stephgirl I cry. I think I'm still really jet lagged and I haven't had a good night of sleep in almost a week. Hopefully in time I'll get over it and start to love being in France.

In case you were wondering, it's almost 9:00pm here and I haven't had dinner yet. Silly European ways of life.

My room

French countryside

The house in the country

Cachou! My host's dog

Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse