Premiere Jour!

I made it!!

Man, I can already tell that God is really looking out for me. On the 7 hour Chicago – Amsterdam flight I happened to be seated next to Domitille, a girl my age that lives in Aix-en-Provence, a village about 30 minutes away from Avignon. We immediately clicked and started talking – me in French and her in English so we could each practice the language we were trying to improve. Of course my head started to hurt after like 1 hour but it was totally worth it! She told me all about Provence: the people, the food, the slang, everything.

We kept each other company as we went through Customs in Amsterdam and were able to hang out longer since our connecting gates were right next to one another. I made my first French friend J

Once I arrived in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, it was a mad dash to find the TGV train that went to Avignon. It was pretty nerve-wrecking because none of the signs are in English, so I finally had to force myself to think in French for survival. The whole process of getting onto the correct train, from getting my e-ticket from the non-English machines and finding the platform was very overwhelming. Especially since I was carrying two freaking large suitcases (note to self: don’t do that again when needing to board a train), there weren’t any available employees directing people where to go, and all the signs were in English. Haha, so I almost missed my train. First of all, I didn’t exactly know which car to go on and second of all, my freaking large suitcases were so hard to haul on and off the trains. Hahaha it’s funny now that I look back on it.

But I finally got on the right car after asking passengers (in my timid French). The seats are amazing. They are so huge, like nice-movie-theatre-huge. I would rather travel on these than in airplanes. Now that I’m observing the scenery on the train, so far it looks like my drive down to Champaign: Flat land (except for some hilly areas), corn fields (or some sort of wheat-looking plant), but really really blue skies and castle-looking houses and buildings – so beautiful.

I just arrived to my house and I have my own room and bathroom! It’s a very cute humble home. I have a brother, Andrey (age 16 and from Brasil) and a sister, Thea (age 16 and from Germany). They are both studying here until February and are in their 2^nd year of High School. But they seem so much older and their French is so good! My host parents are very nice and welcoming and very attentive, making sure I’m ok. I can already see that my French is improving because I have been in conversations all evening/night. Its exhausting!

Ok I’m off to bed to try to get rid of this jet lag, bon nuit!!

Things to mention:

-          Mom, thanks SO much for making me take that Panera sandwich with me on the plane. I was starving in Amsterdam waiting for my flight to Paris.

-          Christine, thanks SO much for the Dove chocolate. Totally hit the spot when I was on the train going to Avignon.

-          A woman in the train station asked me if I knew French and I said no. Hahaha, ok I’ll try not to do that anymore.

-          I haven’t spent any money yet!  €2 for a Coke, no way Jose!