First day!

I arrived in France today! Here's everything you missed:

The plane ride was long and my tv broke halfway through. By the end my eyes were bulging like a gecko because I was so tired. Somehow, they found me safe enough to be allowed into Paris (despite the eye thing). There was a HUGE crowd around the baggage area. After 15 minutes of hoping the crowd would filter out I realized you had to look through peoples legs then make a run for it when you saw your bag. I think I hit about 15 people in this process. Finally I got on a taxi. My taxi driver kind of looked like Kim Jong Il. Luckily I was distracted because we were driving through downtown France.

This was the moment of truth. It was really awesome because we were right by all these famous monuments and it seemed like they would never end.

Finally, I arrived on campus where I learned about my homestay. My family has 2 apartments on top of each other. The lower one is where the mother, father, and 2 younger kids stay. The upper apartment has a 20 year old daughter, an Italian exchange student, and me. It's nice because we have our own space. It's just scary because I'm the only one in the program at this location and it's kind of far from my campus.

The apartment building is really nice and the people around here are nice as well. It's an old, but very pretty building. When I got to the complex, I spent about 10 minutes struggling with the door until 2 people yelled outside their windows to save me. The elevator is all glass and super teeny. I will probably lose a limb on it at some point. All it will fit is me and one piece of luggage! The apartment is very small. The kitchen doesn't even have room for a full stove and oven; they have a makeshift 2 eye stove top. My room is also small with just enough room for a wardrobe, desk, and twin bed. I do have a window I can open however. :) I also have lots of shelving so I fit all my stuff with room to spare.

My host family wanted to take me to the grocery. This was terrifying. I knew I had to get things for the next few days but didn't know what I wanted! I ended up getting cereal, babybel cheese, turkey sandwich makings, and salad with a mystery salad dressing. I figured that was the best I could do under the pressure and having not slept in forever.

Finally, my home family ate dinner with me and that was really nice and they were really nice. They have a very big family, 6 kids!

Anyways, it's 9:13 now, so I'm going to pass out! XOXO