First Week

So today is my second day of orientation and things are going pretty well. Yesterday was kind of crummy because it was raining off and on and I had to go to the IES building for the first time from my french house. My host dad showed me the way on a map so it wasn't too bad. It was like living in Chicago only everything is in French! I just have to take the first and second line Tram. Its way better than the el in the chi. I'm a 5-10 min walk from the Tram but its not bad. The only thing that really sucks is that there isn't a law against not picking up your dog's crap. It is pretty disgusting because there is crap everywhere on the sidewalk. I have to constatly watch where I step. Orientation is pretty exhausting. Yesterday we spent 3 hours straight going through the IES "bible" that they gave us. We were given nearly 2 hours for lunch so me and a few girls went exploring. I got a quiche tart which was pretty good at this really cute cafe and then we got desert at this outside food stop. Of course we got lost, but we made it back and even had time to play the piano in the music room before lunch ended. Later we took a tour of the city and were shown all the important and useful places. Unfortunately the map they gave us was pretty useless because they only put x's at all the important locations- sans a key. So now we have to guess or just remember each place. It is really tough though because the streets aren't symettrical. They curve and turn and randomly end. It is very difficult to figure out your way around. There are so many places to eat and shop though. I had major sensory overload. It started to rain towards the end of the day which sucked cause I had to go all over the place to get my carte campus mensuel so I can ride the public transportation all of January. I got sick and last night was pretty crummy but at least dinner was good.

Today was awesome because I had the best lunch ever!!!! The food is amazing here. Orientation was blah. We had to take sessions on Grammaire, Traducation (translation), Langue francaise, and conversation. We also talked about saftey and classes. Ce n'est pas amusant. But at lunch time, we went to this petit sandwich place and I had the best sandwich I've ever had- chicken, gouda, some vegetable or something, and it was toasted!! It rocked my world. Then we went to the best chocolatier in Nantes (that's what the girl from our tour called it) and got macroons. I had never had them before but they were ultra good. This place has everything made out of chocolate- bottles, high heels, towers.... C'est bon! I have been given my first homework assignment today.- Read pages 24-31 of La Parure par Maupassant. Better get started! Peace!