I've been in France for four days now, and there is already much to tell. Friday/Saturday was a blur, especially since I don't sleep very well on planes or buses. We arrived in Tours a couple hours later than expected because the airline lost a number of bags. (none of mine though...) Once we arrived, I was met by my host mother, who drove me to their house to meet the rest of the family.

The family is very nice, and understanding if I don't always understand. I have two host brothers- Augustin (19) and Paul (13). I also met their older sister Camille who is my age, but she spends most of her time in Paris, where she goes to university. Augustin's twin sister Alix is in the US right now - I'll get to meet her when she returns in February.

This is my room (actually Alix's) on the third floor:

Tours is a great place to live, since you can pretty much walk anywhere, and it's loaded with little shops and restaurants. It is pretty much a city, despite lots of little one-way streets. I can already see my French improving, since I speak it all the time now (even with the other students!) though it has a ways to go. I've spent the last couple days constantly asking my host family for words (qu'est qui est le mot pour.... que veut dire...) and consulting my handy French-English dictionary. I watched a dubbed episode of Without a Trace (en français: "FBI: portés disparus") yesterday and understood rather well. I only have one class at the moment - it's to prepare me for the Delf (a French language exam), and reminds me very much of my high school French classes (grammar, vocabulary...)

The Bucknell office (and my French class) is right next to the Loire river. The bridge in the background is le Pont Wilson:

Today was an interesting adventure in itself. This afternoon, I took the bus by myself to meet with a director at the Polytech (school for engineers). It was... interesting... since I had hardly any directions, only the name of the stop to get off at and his name and department. After asking many, many students, I finally found the right building and somehow found him in it. He referred me to a very nice lady who teaches english there. (since everyone knows english in engineering) She gave me a tour of the classrooms and labs, and introduced me to some professors. She even interrupted a couple classes to introduce me to the French students majoring in EE! Apparently though, my courses at the Polytech start February 4. (Slightly frustrating since the course schedule is still not definite, and there's no way of knowing if they'll conflict with my French classes, as they probably will) In France, nothing is planned in advance at the university! Now, hopefully it will be possible to get course descriptions and get these courses approved by Bucknell (which STILL hasn't happened yet).

These first couple days have been a lot, but I am thoroughly enjoying it so far...

If you'd like to send me mail, here's the address:

[REMOVED]

À bientôt!