Bounjour!

The past 2 days have been very long. We continue to have a lot to do for orientation! Yesterday morning we visited the Universite de Nantes, where I will be taking some classes. After a tour of the University, we ate lunch in the cafeteria there for 3 Euros. The Universite de Nantes has 34,000 students, many many more than the 1,600 students at Wofford! After lunch, we had about 2 and 1/2 hours of free time until our French classes in the afternoon. Me and a few other students went to get European cell phones that IES requires us to have (mine still does not work which is incredibly frustrating), and ran some other errands. In the afternoon, we had our 3 intensive French classes. After class, we walked to a hotel where an organization for French and Americans (I can't remember exactly what it was called) hosted a "gallette de rois" for all of us. Gallette de Rois or "King's Cake"is a very popular tradition in January in France, especially among Catholics. A cake is baked and cut into slices and a small favor is hidden in one of the slices. Whoever eats the slice and finds the favor is king or queen for the night. Unfortunately I was not the queen but the celebration was a lot of fun!

Today, we began the morning with our French classes. For lunch, me and some other students went to a traditional creperie and I had a ham and cheese crepe which was absolutely delicious! As we were walking back to IES we stopped in a small pastry shop and I had a chocolate and pistachio Macaroon which was also wonderful. Back at IES we had a couple more short meetings and then we were free to go! This afternoon I walked around the city with 2 other girls looking at some of the shops. In France, shops do not always have sales. Every store has a big sale at the exact same time twice a year and one of those times happens to be now. :) We first went into a bag store where I bought a longchamp bag for only 59 Euros! We went into a few other stores but we didn't really buy anything else.

Now I am back at my host family's house just resting until dinner. The other day I began a list of some interesting things about the French. Here are some others that I have noticed:
*The French eat very very fast. Meals last for about 2 hours because of all of the conversation and multiple courses but actual eating itself is very quick for them.
*Sometimes, they drink hot tea out of a bowl. They just put the bowl to their lips and drink it as you would the extra milk after a bowl of cereal.
*They don't smile, nod or acknowledge you when you pass them on the street as people do in America. It is not because they are rude, but they simply see no reason to do this.
*Keyboards in French are completely different. When I am in the IES center it takes me about 30 minutes to type a short email on the computer.

I am sure I will continue to add to this list throughout the semester but dinner is soon so Au Revoir!!
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