Bonjour

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Bonjour! I am now officially a French foreign exchange student! I have been in Nantes since last Wednesday and I am loving every minute of it. The flight over from Philadelphia was quite interesting. It was very long and I definitely thought I had RLS-restless leg syndrome. We finally got to Gatwick, England. I slept on the floor and ate a chicken wrap, and then flew from there to Nantes. That trip was only around 45 minutes, and quite comfortable.


That evening, we had dinner and talked a little about what was going to happen and where we would sleep and that sort of thing. I slept that evening, woke up, and then ate lunch...it was very late when I woke up. We then had some time to explore the area. We walked around and found out where the small grocery store was, where the park was, etc. Later that evening, we ventured out on our first tram trip to the local grocery store/mall. We had a buffet dinner there and had to learn our first french terms for how you wanted your meat cooked...mine was tres bien cuit which means, very well done. Everything here is cooked pretty rare, so I had to be pretty specific. They were very accomodating to all 23 of us so that was nice. We then walked back and hung out playing games and organizing our rooms more.

The next day, my friend Emily and I went exploring and found the track where they race horses. During the week it is a track for people to exercise on, so we walked around there for a little. Then we had our first French Class. This was interesting considering all I have had is spanish. They are similar, but I keep confusing the French words and saying Spanish instead. After class, we went to downtown Nantes to do some sightseeing. I saw a lot of different old churches and we saw the castle in Nantes. Everything is so interesting, but there is not a lot of information in English.


On Saturday, we had our second French class, and then a bunch of us went to the other part of downtown Nantes. We saw more churches, went to a park with a huge fountain, and then walked around. We also found the Natural History Museum in Nantes. After getting a little lost, we finally found home. I played cards for a while that night, and then went to bed.

Sunday was church in French, and that was very interesting. I knew some of the worship songs, but didn't know how to say them in French, but it was nice to at least know the tune of the song. Then we came home, ate lunch, and hung out around the house. There aren't a lot of stores open on Sunday, so we didn't go anywhere, but it was nice to relax.

Monday was another French class and then a couple of us went back to the city and I made my first purchase...shoes of course! Then, we just walked around a little more and came back and played more games. I also had to make dinner with 5 other people that night. We each have different jobs each week to accomplish, and this week mine is making dinner.

Tuesday was our first day of classes and they went okay. I had a quiz and did great, but taking classes over the internet is very different. It is so hard to pay attention, but it is not awful. Then today we explored The Jules Verne Museum. Nantes is Jules Verne's "hometown" and they have a pretty nice memorial for him. There is a famous statue and it is all pretty informative. Then, we went to this huge display which makes mechanical moving objects just for fun. For example, they just completed a huge moving elephant. It is around 3 stories tall and actually walks. You can ride it and it takes you all around this shipyard. It was extremely interesting and i especially loved it considering my love for elephants 😊 Well, that has been my experience so far. I can't wait to see and do more things and hopefully I'll be diligent in keeping this blog! Au revoir!

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