First 2 weeks!

Bonjour mes amis!! Well I have never done one of these before so sorry if it is not that good. I decided it would be a great way to keep
everyone updated on my time in Paris, France. I have only been here for 2 weeks but I am in love. I may never come home :) For the first week, all of the students from the program I am here with stayed together in a student hostel called Le Foyer des etudiants. We spent the first week really just getting to know each other and the city. We had some orientation classes, and they were taught in French. My french is really rusty so it was a little overwhelming. Actually, it still is but I am just trying not to freak out about it because I know it will get easier. We took a few walking tours of some of the arrondissments of Paris including Le Marais and Montmartre. We also went to the Louvre and learned so much about the history of that I never knew. Did you know it was originally built as a fortress for the people of Paris during the crusades? It wasn't turned into an art museum until thousands of years later, and parts of the medieval Louvre are still intact and part of an exhibit in the Louvre. Pretty cool. Most of the evenings were spent up on our INCREDIBLE terrace overlooking the city, hanging out getting to know each other and sipping french wine. C'est la bonne vie! (which means It's the good life by the way). The picture of the tour d'eiffel is our view from the terrace. At night it lit up blue and at 23:00 it would sparkle!! So gorgeous. A week after we got there we were moved into our host families!! I was so nervous when Monsieur Henri Moulins came to pick me up, but the family is wonderful. My mom, Diane, is very welcoming and talks to me a lot. They don't speak any english of course so communication is difficult at times. I now have 5 new brothers and sister. Ines is the oldest. She is 19 and goes to business school. Hugues is 18 and he lives at his college, which is a military college. Hermine is the middle child, 14 and very shy. She is such a sweetheart though. Gautier is a wild little 12 year old but sooo funny! And of course there is little Tiphaine, the baby of the family. She is only 3, but I'm sure you guys can already guess that I adore her and think she is the cutest thing ever! She loves to ride bikes, swing, and play in her "petite maison" (little house) as you can see in the picture. I eat dinner with the family on tuesday and thursday nights and so far I have loved everything she has cooked! Dad you would be very proud because I eat whatever is on my plate. I am determined to not be picky or come across as rude so I just eat it, and to my surprise I have loved everything so far. They do not drink wine with every meal like we imagine them to and bread is not put on the plate. It is sat on the table, which was a little odd to me at first. They are also big into salad, although that does not always mean what we think of as salad. At my first lunch with them we had carrot shavings with vinegar dressing and that was salad. It was quite tasty. Dessert is typically had every night and a big favorite is this yogurt with fruit, but the yogurt tastes like cottage cheese. It was not my favorite thing ever. :) We did have an amazing tarte du pomme (apple pie) the other night. My family is big into learning what the english word is for things and when I told them that their tarte was like our pie, they found that absurd. They wanted to know why on earth we called it a pie! I had no good answer for them, but it made for a very interesting conversation. We also talked a little about thanksgiving and they wanted to know why we ate a lot for the holiday. I attempted to explain about the Pilgrims and Indians, but was met with blank stares so I simply said "C'est un tradition!" and they were pleased with that answer. So far my experience has been wonderful and I am loving every minute of it! Missing you guys like crazy though! I started all my classes last week and so far they are going well. Learning french in french is an interesting experience but I think it is going to really push me to speak better french which is why I am here after all. I start my phonetics lab on Monday which I think is going to be the best thing for me because it is all about learning how to pronounce things and that is not my strength. Oh and this weekend I experience my first stay out all night! Don't worry mom and dad its not as crazy as it sounds and it was so not me! We went out as a group and hung out on one of the hundreds of bridges in Paris (there are so many of them on the seine because they built monuments directly across from each other to keep the symmetry and then built bridges connecting them) and just chilled with some french people. Then we went to a fun Irish pub to dance, but it turns out the last train home to the suburbs (where I live in Colombes) was at 11:30. So I had to wait until 5 am when the metro started running again. Luckily, the pub we were at stayed open until 4:30 so we just danced all night. It was actually a blast and I didn't even feel tired until after we left the pub and had to wait for the metro to open and then had a 40 minute commute home. That part was not fun. But I guess you have to do it once in your life right! I am going to Barcelona the last weekend in September and I'm excited!! Basically, the trip is rocking so far and I am so glad that my family and friends encouraged me to do this. Thanks you guys for supporting me!! Well signing out for now. I will do more pictures later since I have some good ones!! Love you bunches!!

xoxo
Laura