In Chambéry

Yesterday we spent the morning traveling. We had breakfast with Mark and Joy and then Mark dropped us off at the train station. Our first train took us to Lyon and then our connection train was late. And late. And late. Then there was an announcement about it but we didn't catch all of it so Anna went and asked some guy. She kind of got what he said so then I went up and asked this lady at the ticket place. She said we had to take a different train to the train that would take us to Chambéry. Apparently someone died on the train we were originally supposed to take!

When we got to the train station we were so late (an hour and a half than what we told them) that nobody was there to pick us up so we just walked to the apartment, it was only like 10 min. Then we waited outside some office for the student guide to check us in. After a while a couple other students showed up and waited too. About an hour later another two students came by and one of them had Guillome's phone number so she called him and he came to check us in.

Anna is living with the other girl from our school, Hannah. My roommate is from Mexico. She speaks English too but I told her I want us to talk in French together. She lived in Quebec for 6 months so her french is SO good. I told her I can communicate in French but my grammar won't be great so she asked if I wanted her to correct me, I said yes please!

Yesterday we spent the day exploring after we checked in. We walked and walked, everything is so cool here! The town is beautiful and there are bakeries and little fruit marts and things everywhere! I went to bed between 9 and 10, I get tired so easily, but the days seem to last forever over here. Maybe it's because it gets dark later.

Today we met at 10 and went to the market. It was amazing! I need to find the equivalent of that in Chicago. The fruit and vegetables looked so perfect and wonderful! Meat is really expensive over here. One boneless skinless chicken breast is around 5 euros. I guess I'll be getting my protein from cheese over the next 6 weeks... We stopped at a boucherie, a meat shop, and although the chicken didn't have their heads on them (like the fish), they had the feet still attached! No thank you.

We loaded up on fruits and vegetables, dropped them back home and then met up with the group at lunch and walked around. Guillome and François, two French students, showed us where a supermarket is. It's cool, here grocery stores don't give you bags, you HAVE to bring reusable ones. I bought a french one, it will be a nice little souvenir for home.

We had a picnic in the park and then just relaxed and talked with the other students in the program. Most are from other schools in America- a lot of people from NC, several from Iowa, Nebraska, Maryland, Arkansas, and there's even a girl from upstate new york! She's from Corning and a huge Syracuse basketball fan so we bonded over that for a second. She told me two of her friends did this program last year and they LOVED it, she said they didn't want to leave. Everyone I've met is really nice. I'm excited for the next 6 weeks!

The bad news- no internet at my apartment. A bunch of us are looking to get it installed for two months, Guillome told us the students last year did that. We'll see. Either way we will have it at school so I can get on there, I just might not be able to skype with people as much as I would like...Right now we're a quick burger, it's like a McDonald's, they have free wifi so I can always come here during the day. I'll manage.

Tomorrow we're getting a tour of a cheese factory and going to a lake. I'm so excited. Everything here is great, I just love it here.

Day 2

Today was SO great! We slept in until after 11, we were a little tired after traveling! Mark had gone to the bakery earlier so Joy had some pain du chocolat and croissants waiting for us when we came downstairs. She made me coffee and Anna hot chocolate and it was wonderful. Then Joy took me and Anna to a giant grocery store in town and we bought some pay as you go cell phones. With our purchase we got a free magnet of a French soccer player and a code to see if we won some game that they're doing.

When we got home from the store lunch was ready, it was pork in a gravy-ish sauce over rice with green beans, some cheese that I forget the name of, but it was really good, and then ice cream for dessert. Amazing again, Joy is such a great cook! Then this afternoon Mark took us on a scenic walk along a path through their area. It was gorgeous and we took lots of pictures. Then we had some free time to just relax and get our things together - we bought Eurail passes and had them shipped to our address at school and then I called home and put pictures onto my computer.

We had dinner a little while ago and then just talked with Mark (Joy was teaching a quilting class) and when we got home Joy showed us some places in Lyon that we should go to (that's what our day will consist of tomorrow).

We also made a photobucket account that both Anna and I will put pictures on. Our user name is FrenchPopcorn and the link is:
http://s965.photobucket.com/home/frenchpopcorn
We called it French popcorn because that's the name of Mark and Joy's cat, and just popcorn was taken so we added french to it, it's goofy but we couldn't think of anything else!

In France!!

After a day of traveling we have finally arrived in France! We're staying with some friends of my aunt and mom from
growing up for a few days, we can't move in at our school until Friday.

Our trip:
We started in JFK, our plane took off an hour late but we only arrived a half hour late in Madrid. From there we connected to Paris and just enough time to comfortably go through customs in Spain, go back through security, and then I changed and washed my face. Soon after that our flight started boarding! On the plane we got a French newspaper, I was reading the business section and actually understood what was going on for the most part in the article. Then we both fell asleep and woke up in Paris! Our bags made it just fine and we safely and as smoothly as possible navigated through public transportation. We took a bus to a metro line to another metro line to the Gare de Lyon where we caught a TGV train to Lyon before connecting to a regular train and finally arrived at the train station in Givors Ville, a little drive from where Mark and Joy live. Dinner was ready when we got here, a Quiche Lorraine with salad and strawberry shortcake dessert. It was so good, especially after all that traveling! Tomorrow Joy is taking us around their town, I'm so excited. It's already been so great being here, definitely a huge blessing to be with a family who has lived in France for 21 years!

It's so exciting to be here! I used my French to order a cafe au lait, to ask about a bus, to purchase train tickets, and to ask why the pay phone wasn't working. I think knowing how the CTA works in Chicago definitely helped us today. Also I would not have wanted to do all that without knowing French, that would have made the day 1000 times harder!

I'll write more later...sweet dreams :-)

Getting ready!

Hi everyone!

I'm leaving for France in 13 days!! I haven't started packing yet because I am headed back out to Chicago in a couple days for an interview and all my energy has been focused on preparing for that. But starting Saturday my mind will be consumed with plans for France.

Let me know your email and I can have this automatically emailed to you whenever I update it. I am going to try my best to stay on top of it while over there!

~Danielle