I'm here!

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Hello friends!

I survived my first day and it is absolutely FABULOUS here. I sadly didn’t get to sleep on the plane from Newark to Paris, but the Bucknell professor here (Professor Westbook) picked us up from the airport in a large bus and I slept for the entirety of the three hour drive to Tours.

Tours is beautiful, although for a European it probably looks like any other town. There is a trace of snow on the ground from some crazy weather they’ve had over the past week. (It’s usually Oregon weather here—lots of rain, but not usually cold enough for snow.)

The bus pulled off to the side of the road next to La Loire river, and we waited for our French families to come pick us up. It was a Friday, so just Mme DuChazaud came to pick me up, since the girls were still at school and Monsieur was at work. She was so nice and asked me how the flight was and spoke slowly enough that I actually didn’t have any problems understanding her! We had kind of a project getting my suitcases in the car (although she congratulated me on not having very much stuff comparatively). They have a mini-van (stick shift of course) probably because it makes sense with four daughters. However, all the seats were in so there wasn’t room in the back for my huge suitcase. We ended up folding down one of the middle seats, but my suitcase barely fit between the seat and the door, so she had to get into the car and pull on my suitcase from the inside while I pushed from the outside, which I thought was a bit hilarious, but it ended up working well.

She asked me if I wanted to go straight home or take a quick drive around the town, and of course I said to drive around a bit! Tours is so pretty! She showed me a road of houses that were all built in the middle ages, which is crazy, and she also showed me the main downtown area, where I would be going to school, and a street with lots of shops. (Which all had SALE signs in the windows—January is the sale month in France.)

She then turned down a side street off one of the main roads in the town and I wasn’t quite sure what she was doing—parallel parking? Turning around? All I knew is that she was getting dangerously close to the old wooden door next to the sidewalk. Then she got out and told me to wait—turns out that door was the door to their garage, but it opens with one of those old keys! She helped me take my luggage into the house (up to the third floor!) I then took a shower and went back downstairs to visit with Mme and Margurite (who is 12 and just got home from school). Before too long M. came home too (who was also very nice).

We were all snacking and they asked me if I wanted an apple—of course, I said yes. They laughed that it was from Canada, and wow it did NOT look like an apple I had seen before…the skin was brown and tough, and they told me that they have to peel their apples because of all the pesticides that are used. So they handed me a plate and a knife, and I attempted to peel the apple. However, I’m really not that good at peeling apples. Probably because it’s not something I do. So when my host mom saw that I was cutting off too much good apple with the skin, she offered her assistance, and I accepted, feeling like I was about five years old.

I then unpacked and tried to connect to the internet, except the only signal I’m getting is from what they think is their neighbor’s house, which has a password. Also nobody in the family knows anything about computers really, so my host dad just told me that I should ask one of my friends how to do it…So we’ll see how that goes in the next few days.

We ate dinner together around 7 probably, because the parents had some party thing to go to at 8:30. Dinner was broccoli soup that the mom had made, which was actually really good, scalloped potatoes, ham, and bread that my host mom had made from scratch—as in no bread machine. Delicious. Also Margurite made un gallet, which is the traditional cake that the French make for the Epiphany. There were two fèves (ceramic figures) in the flaky cake-pastry and I got one of the them and Margurite got the other, making us the queens of the night. (Also, while Mme was serving the dish, Margurite hid under the table—apparently another tradition for the youngest to hide during the serving.)

Overall, Mme, M, Beatrice (the 16 year old), and Margurite are really great and I think they’ve been talking fairly slowly and with easy vocab because I’m not having as much trouble as I thought I would and I was able to participate in their dinner conversation. They even told me that my accent was good! YAY!!! After dinner, around 8 or so, I went straight to bed. Sadly, I woke up at 3 am and couldn’t go back to sleep…It’s now 6:30 so I’ll probably be getting up soon and spending my first FULL day in Tours! À tout alors!

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Comments

[Mom]

You make me laugh!
Your descriptions are great, Valerie! It makes me laugh to hear about your descriptions about the apple peeling and the garage door. And you got to participate in the Epiphany cake eating tradition! How lucky you were to get a feve! Way to go, Queenie! Love, Mom

[Roomie]

you have a good accent and you found a ceramic and they have cool traditions that is so amazing and i love it.