Une Semaine Apres

Salut!

I have been in France for 6 days now, and away from home for 7- but I feel that I have been here for at least a month! Ridiculous, I know. While I'm not homesick in the sick-to-my-stomach, lump-in-my-throat way yet, I do miss my friends and family.

BUT... life is definately pretty sunny here! I will try to figure out how to post some of my pictures directly on this blog. Francoise's apartment is, well, "lovely" might be the right word. Very French. Very cute. A little old-fashioned. My room is to marvelous: a balcony, soft bed, wardrobe. My room overlooks these essential traintracks. It's a very beautiful site; both types of trains go by throughout the day: cargo and passenger (and if you've lived with me for 3 years, you know I know my transportation/exportation vocab en Francais! and yes, I get to use the "fluvial" transport vocab too concerning le Rhone). Anyway, the trains are very "romantic" as I said to my dad, but I don't think many people could put up with their racket at night. The noise is excessive and my bed shook until wee pulled it away from the wall a bit. Francoise does have earplugs- I guess that is what she sleeps with, but I'm afraid I'll miss my alarm. I guess it wouldn't really matter since I seem to be getting up in the middle of the night anyway. Maybe if the lack of sleep continues.

Okay enough of that. La cuisine! It's excellent of course. This is France! I very much like my routine. Francoise is so cute; she bought me cereal for my mornings (which is very American and very unFrench) and SOYMILK! Le lait a soja. So I'm quite happy as far as breakfast is concerned. For lunch, I have access to a "kitchen" at school and I've been buying groceries and making my own lunches, partially to save money, mostly to save time, and it definately helps as far as the whole avoiding mayonaise front goes. Les baguettes are marvelous, fresh, and cheap! What could be better? And they do have wheat ones. This is definately not Belgium; vegetables are a big part of life. Francoise has made me: lentils, beets, stewed tomatoes, carrot salad, zuchini/potato/carrot "puree", and green beans. The emphasis of each dinner is the vegetables in fact, but there is always meat/fish to accompany and always a large salad before hand. And dessert! I'm definately not starving.

The sights: Gorgeous. The south of France has definately earned it's reputation for beauty in my book. It's quite hot here- my guess would be 90 degrees and above most days but there is a strong wind which has earned it's own name: le Mistral. It comes in from the North and becomes somewhat of a storm in this region before flowing down to the Mediterranean. This wind is so strong that it's sound echos against the city walls, knocks children off their feet, and carries light objects left outside with it. There's a lot of complaint about the wind from residents here, but I like it. It's nice and cool on a hot sunny day. People with allergies should be warned though. I understand it will not be as aggravating for allergie-sufferers (or asthmatics) come winter. It is officially "autumn" weather now according to Francoise.

The school: Well, I have not started classes at the French university yet although I am quite anxious for those to begin (anxious and nervous). I love the American University though! I have 6 classes there as of now but will probably drop one or two and replace them with University classes. I usually start class around 9 or 9:30; there are always big gaps in the middle of the day and I often end classes as late as 6pm (18:00). I love it actually because I'm in the middle of downtown! So if I don't have too much studying- I can go shopping! Of course, lecher vitrine (window-liking = window shopping) is better as everything is very expensive.

I also like my fellow classmates very much. We come from different states and I'm learning a lot about different parts of my own country here. I won't say more than this but, I'm quite happy about my background and the "diversity" that's been in my life.

No more boring details for now. Maybe I'll post some pictures. Tonight I will go the movies with some classmates (probably all of them: when you have 17 classmates, how can you be clique-y?) We're going to splurge and eat dinner at a normal time: 7pm maybe. Hurray.

Sending you Much Love and Appreciation,

Moi- whose name translates to French quite nicely unlike many other "American" names.