ce soir

Aimez-vous savoir qu'est-ce que j'avais fait?

The day after my last update (Sunday), my program journeyed to Tours, France for the two week language immersion portion of our semester. It was about a 45 minute train ride west of the city and the landscape was just beautiful! (But apparently it looks a lot like Iowa.) When we arrived, my host mommy and daddy were waiting for me, along with all of the other parents as well. It was really cute to see them standing there with their papers with each of our names on them. They would come up to you and ask if you were "so and so" (of course they would not say "so and so"). With my host family, I have my own room, and bathroom (ish) and also a small balcony! I have breakfast with my mommy and dinner with both parents around 8pm every night. Our house is about a twenty, twenty-five minute walk to school, but it's not too bad. My friend Emily and I walk together!

We started classes on Monday - four hours of intensive French per day (except on Fridays). My schedule in Tours on a weekday usually looked like this:
7:40am, wake up
8:15am, eat breakfast
8:30am, meet Emily
9:00am, start morning class
12:00pm, have lunch
2:00pm, start afternoon class
3:15pm, free
8:00pm, dinner

and sleep . . . . falls somewhere thereafter!

Some interesting things that we have done so far:
Tuesday, took a walking tour of the historic part of town
Wednesday, visited the castles Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry (in French, a castle is called un château)
Thursday, took a wine (the sweeter the better, for me) and cheese tasting class
Thursday night, experienced a bit of Tours night life - there are students everywhere!
Friday, booked my plane ticket for Fall break (where am I going!? we will find out in about a month!)

The weather has been rather pleasant, it has only rained once! (And not even rain by my definition. More like a light drizzle.) The other days I have found myself to be rather chilly! (Many, if not all, of the houses are without A/C because the weather is so pleasant! They just open their windows in the mornings/daytime and close them at night!)

In the morning, my friends from the program, and a couple of new British friends that we have made will venture out to visit more châteaux! However, this means waking up very very early to meet with the rest of the group. Thus, I bid you all goodnight!

Jenna and me on the TGV à Tours!

What if you woke up to this every morning? (Un jardin du Château Villandry)

Some of the girls in the (massive) Villandry garden

There are some funny car names here!

Emily and Me with our new friend Tom! Oh, and some strange frog-looking figure.