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| Bye bus! |
We got up early, had fresh warm croissants, and caught the train back to Paris. Today is the day things really start up: we get to meet our host families! From our info sheet---wait! I just read over my blog and I’m pretty sure I never told y’all exactly what I’m doing over here, I just sort of mentioned here that I was going on a study abroad! Haha, sorry about that!
So here it goes:
I’m on a study abroad program with Brigham Young University, which means that I get to take classes taught by a BYU professor who has come out to Paris. I really want to become fluent in French, and thought this would be a great opportunity to not only have a lot of fun, but also get some good immersion without getting too much out of my comfort zone. There are 24 other girls on the study abroad (no boys signed up) and the director’s family. So it is pretty much like a constant party. The program lasts until the end of November, so it is a fairly short semester, but lots of fun! We started out the trip with a 2-week trip around Southwest France to not only get to see some awesome sights, but also to get to know each other, and slowly get exposed to French culture.
So here it goes:
I’m on a study abroad program with Brigham Young University, which means that I get to take classes taught by a BYU professor who has come out to Paris. I really want to become fluent in French, and thought this would be a great opportunity to not only have a lot of fun, but also get some good immersion without getting too much out of my comfort zone. There are 24 other girls on the study abroad (no boys signed up) and the director’s family. So it is pretty much like a constant party. The program lasts until the end of November, so it is a fairly short semester, but lots of fun! We started out the trip with a 2-week trip around Southwest France to not only get to see some awesome sights, but also to get to know each other, and slowly get exposed to French culture.
Now our trip is over and we are going back to Paris to truly start the semester, get classes rolling, and actually speak French! We get to live with host families who provide room and partial food throughout our stay. My roommate is super cool, and we are ready to have a rockin’ semester!
Okay, back to the info sheet: according to my host family info sheet my family is an elderly woman who lives in the second metro zone of Paris (so right in the city!) and used to restore old paintings. It sounds like my roommate and I will share a room, and a bathroom and basically have the time of our lives. Because our host family provides breakfast every morning and dinner 3 x’s a week I really hope she’s good at cooking, and not weird about us using her cooking and laundry facilities! We get to meet her tonight! I am so nervous!
On that nervous note, I just found out that we didn’t have enough BYU instructors or something, so we have our French language classes at the Institut Catholique de Paris. That means we will actually be on a French campus with a bunch of other foreign language students and...the natives! I find American university scary enough, let alone a foreign one! I’m not really worried about the classes, I’m just dying to figure out French culture, and people my age are so scary! Social life is just so full of intricate complexities and niceties, and I don’t feel like I’ve really figured out the American youth culture yet, and I’ve had 19 years--so a new French one sounds super scary! My spoken French is about a toddler’s level and my reading a 2nd grader’s…so social interaction is definitely going to be interesting. I can get by, but expressing complex ideas and such is a bit beyond my abilities at the moment. I guess it’s good because I’ll be super motivated to study hard and really improve my French!
A couple hours later...
We arrived in Paris, went to our director's apartment to pick up the rest of our, caught a taxi--and arrived at our new housing!
Our host is so nice! She's the typical everyone's favorite quirky grandma! I am so happy! She doesn't speak any English, so we are going to be totally immersed--hurrah! I had thought that I was going to share a room with my roomie (Samantha), but I get my own room! It is huge and has the biggest closet I've ever had access to! Here it is:
A couple hours later...
We arrived in Paris, went to our director's apartment to pick up the rest of our, caught a taxi--and arrived at our new housing!
Our host is so nice! She's the typical everyone's favorite quirky grandma! I am so happy! She doesn't speak any English, so we are going to be totally immersed--hurrah! I had thought that I was going to share a room with my roomie (Samantha), but I get my own room! It is huge and has the biggest closet I've ever had access to! Here it is:
It's like a princess room!
Our host lady is great and is constantly correcting our grammar and teaching us all of the little nuances of French, which is just what I was hoping for. I probably only understand about 50% of what she is saying, but can guess about 25% more of what she's talking about through context...so I have about at 75% comprehension, which is better and worse than I was expecting. I can't speak at all, but hey as long as I can somewhat understand I'll be able to get along with baby talk and sign language!
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