Apparently my host family is made up of a couple, Tudy and Annie, and their 26 year old son, Arthur, who lives downstairs. They also have a 30 year old daughter but she lives in another country...not sure where. Tudy works for some French company and I've been told he's very large and loud but also very welcoming. Annie is a pharmacienne which is super great because I know I'll be taken care of if I get sick! The house is beauuuutiful. I got pretty lucky I think for a lot of reason. The house is like 4 or 5 stories with a ton of bedrooms and it sounds like there's constantly people coming and going. That said, I'm on the top floor and my room has a little kitchen area in it as well as a table and chair and a bathroom next door- plenty of privacy. There's a room next door to mine where another American student will be living too. She's supposed to move in next week and I don't know anything about her. Hopefully she's nice and as interested in practicing French as I am. I haven't seen a ton of the neighborhood here yet, but the street I live on is super quiet and charming. It actually feels like I'm outside of Paris, but then I can walk literally 3 minutes and I'll be in the middle of the bustling city again. There's a metro stop super close that will take me right to the center of Paris in 10 minutes.
I love my sunflower bedspread!
The little kitchen in my room.
The view outside my window.
Another reason that I feel super lucky is that Hal is a 15 minute walk or so away. We had both told Lucie, the woman in charge of housing, that we're dating so she could factor that in when placing us and clearly she did. He got really hooked up in terms of housing too. He has his own studio, but his family also sounds super warm and interested in getting close with him. It's a little weird to be here without my family, but I'll meet them soon and I can't complain. Tomorrow I think Hal and I are going to explore our neighborhood a bit and maybe picnic in the Jardins Luxembourg with some friends. Gotta enjoy this weekend since classes officially start Monday! I just found out also that I was placed in language level 3b, which is one higher than I've been in this past week... Totally bizarre. I think I'll show up on Monday and see how it goes, but I have no idea how that happened! I don't feel very competent at all in French, although people are impressed when they find out I've only taken a year of it. It's frustrating because I have sooo much catch up to do. Even if I get the grammar right, there's a vocabulary level that's hard to reach if you haven't been around a language for a least a few years. I don't know how to say the dumbest things like "fork" and "pencil." I guess that's what immersion is for.
On another note- I took some pictures this past Wednesday during French class. We went on a field trip to this family-run fromagerie for cheese tasting and then to a bodega for some wine tasting. Then I went back to school for a rendezvous with my professors for the semester so we could ask them questions about classes. And, of course, we had more wine with them. Needless to say, doing my homework after that afternoon was a little difficult... Maybe school isn't so bad!
That's my adorable teacher Veronique in the back!
Okay, I'm wiped out now. Miss you all!
Love,
Anj
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