Paisible: Peaceful

Tours est plus paisible que Paris, bien sur.

It’s true—compared to Paris, the city of sensory overload, Tours is much more peaceful.  And after the frantic adventuring, it’s rather welcome.  My host family said that they preferred to live in a smaller town like Tours and make excursions to bigger cities, and I think that’s probably the way I would like it too, to get a taste of both worlds.  To be close enough to visit the bigger places like Paris in a day, but removed from all the hustle and bustle.  Paris is exciting, and not too traumatic, and we certainly stayed for far too short a time to really explore it in depth, but I think it may grate on the nerves after a while.

And yet Tours isn’t exactly small—in fact, it’s rather huge.  To a pedestrian, at least.  Not gigantic huge, but large enough to get lost in, to house probably hundreds of cafes and restaurants, a decently large train station, a cathedral, a basilica, and several other buildings of great proportion, both physical and historical.  It’s also a pretty tourist-y city, and I’ve seen several tour buses (mostly of Germans, Italians, and other French people) and met many American tourists not studying with the program.  (I didn’t realize this before but Tours is a pilgrimage site, as it holds the relics of St. Martin in its basilica.)  I’ve spent the past few days exploring it on foot, by myself, with friends, on a guided tour, and still I think I may get lost if I venture too far from the paths I know without a map.  It’s very exciting, to be in a new place, to discover the sights, sounds, smells for yourself.  There’s still a ton I haven’t seen, museums to go to, little shops to enter, a whole manner of things to explore.  It will be intriguing these next few weeks, especially for a navigationally challenged person like myself, haha.

Things I like about Tours (so far…there will probably be others…and presented in no particular order):

1. The fact that it’s in France.  And the people speak French.

2. My wonderful host family.

3. The food.  Enough said.  La nourriture est trop délicieuse pour mon santé…but hopefully we’ll walk off some of the calories, haha.  We may have rotund stomachs by the end of this program, but we’ll have calves of steel, bien sur.

4. The way most things are within walking distance.  Even if you have to walk a long way.

5. The way I can look out my window and see a rosebush (un rosier, je pense) and hear the bells from a nearby church.

6. The history—it’s very rich, historically speaking, and very old.  C’est une ville qui date au temps de Caesar.  And it’s filled with really old buildings…the old part, Vieux Tours, looks a little like a medieval village.  Or something one would see at a Renaissance festival.  (Except that it’s real, of course.) 

7. The atmosphere.  The ambience.  The way you can sit in a café, literally, for hours, without irritating anyone—it’s the norm here.

8.  The Loire!

9. Les châteaux! (Castles !)

10. Les églises!  Et les temples ! (Churches !)

11. Les fleurs!!! (Flowers!)

12.  All of the adorable little shops.

13. The food.  It deserves repeating.

The adventures I’ve had in Tours may not have been as notable (or name-dropping) as the ones I’ve had in London or Paris—La Place Plumeraeau isn’t exactly as well-known as, say, the Meridian Line or Notre Dame.  But I’ve walked along the banks of the beautiful Loire (and walked in it a little bit, before we saw the “Ne baignez pas” signs…oops) with mon ami français Mark, explored the city, and indulged in probably far too much pastries.  It’s been pretty awesome.

Yesterday we took our oral placement exams at L’Institut de Touraine, which weren’t bad at all; the anticipation of them was much worse than actually going through with it.  It consisted primarily of a brief conversation with a nice woman who worked at the Institut, and I learned a few new vocabulary words.  (Exemples: phare=lighthouse, les Gémeaux=Gemini.)  After this we had a copious amount of free time for lunch before un prof à l’université gave us a walking tour of Tours.  We somehow managed to get through lunch at a pizzeria, the proprietor of which was very well-acquainted with the tribulations of students who don’t speak very much French; we also learned (after a few awkward stares) that Americans tend to be generally louder than the French.  Note to travelers: don’t seem too loud, or you risk looking a little obnoxious or touristy.  Hmm.  We also stopped at a boulangerie (a super delicious place that sells bread, sandwiches, pastries, and delicious things like that) and bought flan, which Mark described as “eggy heaven”.  It’s true.  Flan=delicious.  And I don’t even like eggs that much, at least not in pastries.  We window-shopped (Tours has very good shopping), and then Shakhlan and I went on a walking tour of the city.  We discovered things I doubt I would have managed to find on my own, and visited several landmarks—the Cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, the Theatre, the Palais de Justice, etc.  It was exceedingly hot but quite wonderful.  There was some downtime for writing postcards and such, and then dinner (I had rabbit for the first time ever…it tasted, to me, exactly like chicken), and then a few of us in the Tours program (Basil, Mark, Chloe, Lauren, and I) went out to explore the night life of Tours. We stopped at a café for drinks (for those who aren’t fond of alcohol, I recommend les sirops à l’eau—it’s pretty much flavored water, but better than it sounds—the peach one is delicious), and then visited La Gangette, a very interesting establishment on the banks of the Loire.  It’s a very popular open-air bar-type-thing that attracts people of all ages, with lights strung up in the trees, a dance floor, and tons of tables.  It’s so pretty!  C’est très populaire avec les jeunes.  And it’s definitely amusing to people-watch, whether it’s the older couples swing dancing to classic French tunes, the random guy performing probably elicit-substance-fueled acrobatics (e.g., walking on his hands and ninja jumping into a tree), and everything between the two.  It was also amusing to hear them play “Mambo No. 5” and “Like a Virgin” randomly between French songs, haha.

Today was the first official day of classes at l’Institut, and like most first days, it was filled with introductions, explanations of the course expectations, the confusion of arranging schedules, etc.   It was also a bit of a reality check, since so far we’ve pretty much felt that we’ve been on vacation.  Going to school in the summer is something we’re going to have to get used to, haha.  But it was actually quite interesting.  In general, we have classes that focus on writing, oral comprehension, and phonetics, and then cultural workshops—so far I’m taking diplomatic French (today we learned about international organizations—shout out to Amnesty! Yay!) and literature.  C’est bien.  The primary teachers for our class are very nice; Fabien teaches us oral skills, and Stéphanie focuses on the writing.  It was a long day, but not too bad, and later today several of us are going to the “Café des Langues” to practice speaking our French.  It will be splendid. 

Quelques photos:

Pilgrim's Passage: Very fitting for a wayfaring stranger in a foreign land...and for being right next to a basilica.

Slightly tilted picture of La Place Plumereau--I live about five minutes from here.  C'est agreable, n'est-ce pas?

One of the buildings of the l'Institut de Touraine...I definitely walked into this garden on a random promenade, and realized it was part of the Institut the next day.  Oops.  I had wondered why there was a stone commemorating the founder of the Institut there....

Ruins of the old basilica.  I would have gotten a better picture but I didn't want to stand in the middle of the street.  And probably get hit by a car.  Or a tour bus.

One of the views from my window!  Un tres joli rosier!

A bientôt!

Accueillir: To welcome

J’ai  été bien accueilli a Paris et Tours tous les deux.

I’m not sure if that was a very grammatical sentence, but I was well-welcomed into both Paris and Tours.  My “famille d’acccueil”, or host family, has especially been very welcoming and nice.  And what an adventurous welcome, to be in Europe!          

But first, to recap some of what went on before Paris and Tours.  I must apologize, for I fear that this will be yet another super-long blog entry.  I guess that’s what happens when you spend a phenomenal few days without the internet or any electronic media to commemorate your adventures with.  But hopefully it will be somewhat interesting, or at least amusing, and not me just blathering on and on.  In retrospect, perhaps the entry title should have been the French word for “whirlwind”, because that’s what these past few days have been like.  A whirlwind of adventures!  Adventures plural, most certainly.

     

On Thursday, our last day in London (it was scary how fast it all went by—there’s way too much to see in London for the amount of time we spent there), we spent the morning by visiting post offices, bookstores, and walking to the meridian line.  It was quite a hike through a very pretty park (the royal parks, I think?), but it was worth it.  We actually didn’t get to see the meridian line as demarcated (and do the very touristy but oh-so-funny trick of standing in two hemispheres at the same time) because it seemed like every school group in Britain, plus a few from France and Germany, had all decided that they wanted to see the meridian line too, so the queues (yay British vocabulary!) were atrocious.  It was a little disappointing, but we made up for it by going to the free (and slightly less busy) planetarium adjacent to it, had fun with some children’s science exhibits and touched the oldest thing we will ever touch—a 4.5 billion year old meteorite!  It was pretty nifty.  We spent the rest of the morning exploring Greenwich, walking over the royal parks, discovering old historical buildings and roadside daisy fields, once more getting distracted by pretty buildings, bookstores, little shops, and churches.  Greenwich is quite an interesting neighborhood in London, sort of out-of-the way of major things, but I thought it was peaceful and very cool.

      

Touching the oldest thing they will ever touch.  Ever.

Greenwich!!!

Stereotypical tourist picture of phone booths.  They weren't quite as glamourous on the inside as one would suppose.

After lunch (once more at Noodle Time, our favorite British Asian restaurant) we went to St. Pancras International train station for our Eurostar train to Paris.  We had a small missing ticket scare amongst our group but it was quickly resolved.  I didn’t realize that you had to go through as much security to get on big trains as you have to do in airports (I got my backpack searched—again—and I think the British are far more thorough in searching than the TSA), but it makes sense, I suppose.  The train ride itself was smooth and sort of uneventful (I wish there was a sign “You are now under the English Channel!”), and once we got out of the station at Paris Nord, it was like we had entered another world. 

           

First Impression of Paris #1: “Oh my goodness, there are tons of people speaking French!  This is so cool!”

           

First Impression of Paris #2: Parisians, in general, appear to dress more like Americans.  Or at least like stylish/hipster Americans.  And less like the super-dapper-not-a-hair-out-of-place-perfectly-put-together British business people.  At any rate, it made us feel less underdressed.  Mark described them as having a sort of languid intensity about them, and practically everyone seems to be channeling a sort of “starving artist chic” look about them.  It’s quite interesting.

           

First Impression of Paris #3: London is a well-toileted city, and very politely concerned with public safety.  Paris is decidedly not.  There are many fewer public restrooms (and those that exist tend to cost money), as well as water fountains, and only on one or two Metro stations did we hear the French equivalent of “Mind the gap”.  The British had such signs almost in excess. 

           

First Impression of Paris #4: There is a lot more graffiti in Paris than in London.  Though it is generally very interesting and artistic graffiti.  And much more people smoke.

           

First Impression of Paris #5: The French do not appear to believe in escalators.  At least not in large quantities.  I don’t think I would have discovered this if our major connecting station between the train station and the hostel hadn’t been closed for construction and we were forced to take a more circuitous route.  You will never fully appreciate escalators until you have to drag all of your luggage up and down multiple flights of stairs at multiple metro stations across Paris.  Key Travel Tip: Pack lightly, ye wayfarers.  On the bright side, I managed, and no one almost pushed me down an escalator!  It must have been practice in high school lugging bell cases up and down several flights of stairs, hahaha.

           

First Impression of Paris #6: In general, the Parisians (contrary to popular American opinion) are very nice.  When we got out of the Metro station at St. Paul and had absolutely no idea where we were going, looking very lost with our directions and our luggage, a woman out of nowhere came up and asked us “Vous cherchez l’auberge de jeunesse?” (“You’re looking for the youth hostel?”) and when we said yes, gave us directions.  And I’ve seen several Parisians, when they see a struggling tourist, step in to help with directions and other aid.  Without even being asked.  Everyone we asked for directions was exceedingly nice, and no one treated us like ignorant tourists.

           

First Impression of Paris #7: Practically everyone speaks English.  Or so it seemed.  It was almost kind of sad, really.  Whenever we went somewhere and a Parisian asked if we spoke French and we responded “Un peu” (a little), he or she almost always automatically reverted to English.  I suppose when tourists typically reply “un peu” they tend to really mean “très très très peu”, but still.  We would have liked to practice our French skills more.  We also had several amusing experiences where we would ask questions of people in French (feeling very proud of ourselves for our flawless, mentally-practiced grammar) who turned out to be tourists too.  Oops.

           

First Impression of Paris #8: Edith Piaf music and accordions are everywhere.  This is very splendid.

           

First Impression of Paris #9: I never, ever, ever want to drive in Paris.  It seems like a nightmare.  It’s a wonder we pedestrians didn’t get hit by a bus, especially since several roads for cars look like cobblestone pedestrian-only streets.  And it didn’t help that we had just conditioned ourselves to look right instead of left first when crossing the street, since we had just come from London.  But we miraculously survived, haha.

           

First Impression of Paris #10: Paris is AMAZING!!!  (I feel like this one should have been at the top of the list, but oh well.  It was amazing.  Really really amazing.  Overwhelming, at times, but amazing.)

           

When we finally got to our hostel, and had dinner and settled down, we walked around the Marais (the district we were staying in, the Old Jewish quarter of Paris) a lot, just absorbing the fact that we were in Paris (it was surreal), visiting the Seine and Notre Dame.  And over the next two days we discovered that, like London, it was impossible to do all of Paris in two days.  It’s probably impossible to do all of Paris in two months.  It’s huge.  And it seems like every inch is inundated with something historically important, every little detail has some sort of significance.  We only did a very tiny fraction of what there is to do in Paris.

Notre Dame

Us, on the banks of the Seine.  If we look exhausted, it's because we were.

           

On Friday, we walked down the Champs-Elysées (awesome) to the Arc de Triomphe (equally awesome).  It’s hard to fathom how big things are until you’re actually there—it was amazing.  All the sculptures, all the plaques, all the monumental things.  We had lunch back in the Marais for under 5 euros (proving that it can be done!), and then Chance and I went off to Père Lachaise.  We proved that it is more than possible to spend four hours in a cemetery.  It may sound kind of morbid, but it was really, really cool.  Very fascinating, to see all the graves of the famous people (we found Balzac, Proust, Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Chopin, and several others) as well as all of the very powerful Holocaust memorials.  And we probably met some of the nicest people in Paris at Père Lachaise, a sweet Belorussian woman who we found while questing for Jim Morrison, and two really nice American foreign exchange students like ourselves, studying at les Sciences Po (the university for political science, which I’m not sure I spelled correctly), and we toured the rest of the cemetery with them.  It was huge!  We walked around (a lot) and went to an evening service at Notre Dame (which was extraordinarily beautiful), had dinner at the hostel (and got yelled at in French by a cafeteria worker, because apparently there was a schedule for groups, which no one had informed us of), and went on a nighttime river cruise tour of the Seine, seeing all sorts of landmarks, including the super-famous Eiffel Tower.  It was so amazing at night, so beautiful, all lit up and sparkling.  We wandered around the district for a while and found a restaurant that was still open, and had very delicious (but slightly expensive) crêpes.  It was awesome.

Arc de Triomphe

Oscar Wilde has many admirers.

The Eiffel Tower!

Crepe Citron.  Translation=Delicious.

           

On Saturday, Basil, Mark and I went to Montmartre (which has probably become my favorite Parisian district so far), touring Sacre Coeur and walking around the top of the dome for a panoramic view of Paris.  It was breathtaking, and well worth the 6 euros and 300-stair climb.  (By the end of France, we will all have calves of steel.)  I don’t think you really realize how big Paris is until you see it from a high vantage point, and notice that it stretches in all directions.  We walked around Montmartre for a little bit, and had lunch from street vendors (the very healthy combination of Basil’s “huge piece of bread”, pralines—which are different from Charleston pralines—and something called gateau Breton, which is delicious), and just absorbed the scenery.  We didn’t find the Moulin Rouge (though we found another windmill), but I think I’m going to further explore this artsy district when we come back.  Mark and I then went to the Louvre, which was phenomenal.  The Louvre should be synonymous for sensory overload; it’s impossible to see everything.  We went through the Italian painters and Northern School and the small collection of Native American/Oceania art (they have an Easter Island head!) in two and a half hours, and that was skimming through some sections.  It was exhausting but wonderful.

A sign in Montmartre, the very artsy district in Paris.

Sacre Coeur, an amazing Basilica.

The view from the top of Sacre Coeur--or at least, one of many views of the city.

In the evening we left Paris for Tours by the TGV.  I think we were all a little nervous to meet our host families, scared that we would make a bad impression.  My host family is wonderful.  Très gentille, and very welcoming.  They’re very friendly and are always encouraging to make myself feel at home.  I’m a little afraid my shyness and lack of language skills might seem standoffish, but they’ve had multiple foreign exchange students before and seem very understanding and approachable.  They live in an apartment that was some sort of building built in the 18^th century (if I understood them properly), and it’s very adorable.  My host mother (is that even the proper term? Hmm) and her daughter took me to see the Institut de Touraine today, where I’ll be studying for the next four weeks, and we sat in a little café at the Place de Plumerot for awhile and talked.  It was very nice.  I explored Tours a little today on foot, but it’s unseasonably hot outside so I abandoned that endeavor to finish writing this post.  Tours is so lovely!  I can’t wait to look around further, and I’m even more excited for when I’ll be able to walk around as more of a local, and less of a tourist.

My French is very rusty, since most of the classes I've had in high school focused on writing and literature.  I'm pretty sure the word I've used the most with my host family is "d'accord", which will hopefully soon change, haha.  When people talk to me, I can for the most part understand them very well, but it's hard to understand conversations I overhear unless I listen very, very closely.  C'est difficile.  But hopefully it will get better.

I'm sorry this is mostly text and not many pictures, but it takes forever and a day for the pictures to load.  Oh well.

Ciao!  :)

Reconaissant(e): Grateful

Je suis reconaissante pour tous ces aventures.

I'm grateful.  Grateful for a number of things so far in this journey--grateful for a relatively un-turbulent flight, grateful for the fact that the plane landed safely, grateful for the understanding of the TSA officer who found my forgotten necklace, the kindness of random strangers who helped me stow my luggage in the overhead bins (a task for a short person like myself), the patience of multiple British people who gave three American students directions, and just the niceness almost everyone in general has showed us so far.  And I'm grateful for being given the opportunity to have such adventures, what's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And adventures we have had!  I feel like the entire journey so far has been one whirlwind of an advenure.  Starting from before I even got on the plane with a lovely backpack search and lost jewelry episode, haha.  And then getting off the plane and jumping straight into the day.  It was an intense (but fun) journey as we (novices, for the most part, at navigating large-scale public transportation) somehow made it from the airport to the hostel in Greenwich by train, and went pretty much all over the city.  Or the southern part of it, at least.  I feel like we have become nearly masters of the London Underground by now, with all the train hopping we've done.  I think I've gone on more trains in the space of two days than I have in my entire life, haha.  And now I know that I can get from St. Paul's to Greenwich all by myself, after a brief mishap in which our little group of three got separated.  I think we all grew a little bit that day, haha.

Yesterday was super-busy but fantastic--after dropping our luggage off, we wandered around Greenwich for lunch (getting distracted multiple times by bookstores and churches), and then headed towards the city, where we did a lot of the stereotypical tourist things: we went on the London Eye (which was fun and not scary at all, and we got to see a delightful little 4D film too, which all the small children enjoyed immensely, judging from their reactions), and tried to get into the Parliament buildings (which were closed) and Westminster Abbey (which is apparently closed on Tuesdays...go figure).  We walked around that entire area of London, and went to choral evensong at St. Paul's cathedral, which was amazing--I don't think I've ever heard a building reverberate or echo more than that in my entire life.  It was very peaceful too, which was not exactly a very good thing for three travel-weary Americans who've been up for more than thirty hours, haha.  It was leaving St. Paul's that we had our metro mishap--the station was so busy that poor Chance couldn't get on the train, and when I went back to make sure he wasn't still there waiting for us to come back, all the trains from St. Paul's got delayed, and when I finally got to our connecting stop, I found (after a very thorough search) that my companions were nowhere to be found, and decided that they must have gone to Greenwich ahead.  Yay for thinking logically, for we all made it back safe and sound, pretty much by ourselves.  But I don't think we'll be doing that again, haha. 

Today has been equally eventful and adventurous--we woke up fairly early (me too, despite accidentally setting my alarm clock for PM instead of AM--I guess it was because I went to bed at 11:45ish, I was so tired) and went to the British Museum, which was AWESOME.  You could probably easily spend a week there and not see everything; we only got through Egypt, Japan, Korea, the Rosetta Stone and assorted huge statues, the Enlightenment Library, and a special exhibit on costumes from Oman and the Balkans.  It was great.  We wandered around that side of London for a long time, again getting distracted by several bookstores, and somehow made our way to the Tower of London, where we saw a large amount of armour and the fabulous crown jewels--I don't think I've ever seen so many sparkling things in my entire life.  A crown with 8,000+ diamonds?  Really?  We walked around London some more (crossing the Thames multiple times, by multiple bridges--the Tower Bridge is by far more exciting than the London Bridge), had dinner at a legitimate pub, went to a British grocery store, and went to St. Alfege's church in Greenwich to hear to change ringers practice.  It was phenomenal!  They even taught us how to ring tower bells, and encouraged us to look for American guild ringers in our area.  So awesome!

We've made a lot of the typical tourist errors, probably--having no idea what to do with our tickets the first time we got onto the Tube, confusing all the locals by referring to the Tube/London Underground as the Metro, accidentally trying to pay with euros instead of pounds (in my case),  getting lost, asking for directions, getting lost some more, using the wrong vernacular, not knowing the way people typically ordered food in restaurants, what one did with the dishes, etc.  But I think it's in wandering aimlessly (or not so much aimlessly, but without a particular mission) that we've discovered some of the most interesting things so far.

First Impression of London #1: The people here are very fashionable.  I now know why the word "posh" seems so British.  I've seen very fashionable-looking people at very not-fashionable-looking train stops and have been very confused.

First Impression of London #2: The business people are almost always in a hurry.  Never before have I ever seen more people try to run to catch a train.  And never before I have seen so-dangerous subway doors--they don't really stop for bodies, which is a little alarming.  And never before have I almost been pushed down an escalator by a businessman in a hurry.

First Impression of London #3: The people here are super super nice, not like what you would expect tourist-hardened people to be like at all.  Everyone has been extremely nice and friendly, whether in responses to asking for directions or half a gazillion other questions we've had.  Random people on the streets, on the Tube, the police officers, the Tube workers, cashiers at shops, the bellringers who invited us to the belfry even though the church was technically closed, absolutely everyone has been very nice.  Except the businessman who nearly pushed me down the escalator.

First Impression of London #4: I think I've seen more non-British people than British people here...almost.

First Impression of London #5: People here like making fun of me just as much as they do in the US--it seems that at every attraction I've been to the people searching my purse joke that I'm going to bring whiskey in.  Without fail.

First Impression of London #6: London has very amusing signs, nearly everywhere.  "Mind the Gap" is so far my favorite probably...though my traveling companions Mark and Chance would probably thing that there needs to be a few "Mind the step" or "Mind the doorframe", seeing as I've had problems with both, haha.

First Impression of London #7: It is amazing!!!!! :)

I've been trying to rapidly absorb all that is England in the space of two days, so I've practically gorged myself on as much British food as I'm hungry for--tea, scones, traditional fish and chips, chicken/ham/leek pie, etc.  But we've probably walked several miles today so hopefully that balanced it out...

The only thing I like about plane rides...it looks heavenly.  So pretty!

First picture in London!  At the airport train station!

Me and Chance.

First meal in Great Britian--super delicious Chinese food.  Not exactly the most British of choices, but it was delicious.  Greenwich=Amazing.

The lovely church of St. Alfege's.

Lovely Greenwich!

Until this fall I hadn't been on any Ferris Wheel.  And yesterday I probably just went on the biggest Ferris wheel of my life.

Us, on top of the Eye!

Big Ben! Yet another large building we weren't allowed to get into.

Scone, with inordinate amounts of jam and Devonshire clotted cream.  With tea, of course (not pictured).

Authentic fish and chips!  Take-away style.

Stereotypical tourist picture of a Guard at the Tower of London.

I apologize for the very, very lengthy entry...but London has so far been so much the adventure.  We've seen an incredible amount of stuff.  Wow.  It's hard to fathom.

And tomorrow we go to Paris!  Yay! 

Je serai reconaissante pour mes aventures en l'avenir.  :)

Bisous! <3

Décoller: To Take Off

A 18h30, plus ou moins, l'avion décollera pour Londres.

To take off.  In French, it literally means to "un-glue".  Or "de-glue", I suppose. And I guess that's what flying is, it's literally un-glueing yourself from the earth.  Defying gravity.  A bit of a scary thought, really.  Later this evening I will be un-glueing myself from America and (hopefully) re-glueing myself in London.  Although unfortunately the verb for "to land" isn't recoller, it's atterir.  To the earth, sort of.  Oh well.  That's where I want to head, at least--the ground, and not the Atlantic Ocean.  That would most certainly put a damper on travel/study abroad plans. 

I am mostly packed!  Which is a feat in itself, really, to be mostly packed ahead of time.  At least no plastic storage bins were involved--then I really wouldn't be packed yet, haha.  All the major stuff has been taken care of, and we have a generally complete itinerary from today until the end of June.

And another note: I'm leaving my cell phone at home, so unless my family gets bored and decides to look through it, no one is going to see any texts or missed calls until June 29th.  If you hear from my cell phone in between now and then, it means that an impersonator (*cough sister cough*) may have decided to have a little fun while I'm gone, hahaha.  :)

And so I am off, de-glueing myself from my home, what I'm used to, my comfort zone.  And landing in a foreign country, where I'll no doubt learn an incredible amount, probably mostly by making mistakes.  But it will be an adventure!  And a huge amount of fun.  So excited!

A bientot!  :)

S'enthousiasmer pour qch: To be enthusiastic/excited about

Je m'enthousiasme pour mon voyage européen.

I leave for Europe in one week.  By this time next Monday I'll be several thousand feet above the ground, probably terrified out of my wits, in an airplane bigger than any I have ever been on before, as I head toward London.  London, and then France, where I'm going to study for about a month.  Yay!  Je m'enthousiasme beaucoup pour ce voyage!  (S'enthousiasmer.  Un mot tres difficile d'épeler.  Euh.)  Am I prepared?  About halfway, I guess.  Plane tickets have been bought, along with Chunnel tickets, and hostel bookings have been made (oh goodness attack of the passive voice) and today was replete with errands like going to the bank, searching for adapters and converter plugs, asking several people about phone service in Europe, making sure I really did have insurance coverage, etc.  And then I figured, why not top it off with making a blog?  I needed to make one, especially since I'd promised to record my travels in blog form on a scholarship application...so here it is!  And hopefully not too shabby, coming from a technological neanderthal like myself, haha.  I had to reincarnate an old gmail account, in which the most recent unread email was from 2008, to join blogger, so we'll see how this goes. 

Many thanks to my friend Megan, who helped come up with the theme for this blog.  Hopefully it won't be filled with grammar errors!  And also to my sister, who definitely came up with the title, even though she takes Spanish instead of French.  It sounds much more cute than my original contenders, the very corny "Footprints through France" and the amusing-in-retrospect "Transatlantic Tripping", which I quickly realized had an entirely different connotation than what I meant, hahaha. 

And yes, I had to have the fish.  They're adorable.

Bisous!  :)