Bonjour tout le monde - Hello everyone!
I just got back from a weekend in Tours, France. We toured 4 castles (chateaux) this weekend! The names of the castles (in chronological order of visiting them) are: Blois, Chambord, Loches, and Chenonceau. Chambord was definitely my favorite, it is also the largest castle. I may or may not have pretended that I was a princess in the castle.... Haha. It was like I was in a movie. It's amazing to be there and realize how old it is and how much history it has, that people actually lived there and things happened there. Really; truly incredible. My friend Hailey and I both agreed that Chambord was the most beautiful and was our favorite, but we would prefer to live in Chenonceau (if you look at my photos on facebook, Chenonceau is the one on the river with the beautiful gardens). This weekend was soooo fun and the chateaux were beautiful, but it was so freaking cold there; seriously, it kind of sucked. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the weekend or anything, because it was really sunny out and so beautiful, but freezing cold. There was a lit fire in one of the fire places in Chambord, and a lot of people decided that was there favorite place to be because they could warm themselves by the fire!! Haha. :) Anyways, you all can look at the facebook photos of the castles; truly incredible.
I am meeting wonderful people here in the IES program and making lots of new friends!! But I miss everyone back home/all my UP friends sooo much! I wish you all could experience this with me! It's still hard to believe that I am in France. My host family is really wonderful, they are extremely nice and welcoming. My host dad (Renaud) is hilarious and such a goofball. Aude (my host mom) and Renaud are going shopping tomorrow (they shop together every Monday morning he said) and they are going to buy me a alarm clock because I forgot one (so nice of them!!!!). Renaud said (in French of course, but I will translate ;) ), "It's not a big deal, they are not expensive, we can buy one for you!" Haha.
Another random thing: He suggested that I take shorter showers........ In France, they take really short showers, so the IES staff said to us that all the host families always say that their students take long showers. You're supposed to turn off the water when you're not rinsing yourself off. Haha. This will be hard to do because I like my showers... Haha. Anyways, this weekend in Tours (which is an awesome city in France) I went out with friends Friday and Saturday night. The bars are also cafes at night, so you can buy tea, coffee and hot chocolate at night. The first night, we went to a bar as a group, and some of us (including me) didn't want to drink alcohol and at that bar, everything was expensive, and they said if we didn't buy a drink we could not stay, so the people who wanted to drink alcohol stayed and the rest of us went in search of a cafe. We went to the place pretty much right next to it, which said "Salon du The" (tea salon) and so we guessed it was both a restaurant (Iranian restaurant, I think) and a tea salon. We went in and sat down and realized it might be bad to just order tea. I asked the group if it would be impolite of us to order just tea and we decided to ask the owner. When we asked him this, his face was like stone he looked kind of unhappy.... We said we could leave if it was a problem, and he said no, buuuuut his face said otherwise.... We stayed but it was suuuuuper awkward, and I felt so terrible. But we had some excellent and super sweet mint tea (with real, fresh mint leaves) and it was ok. The next night was much better and we chose a good bar/cafe and had tea or hot chocolate and sat outside (even though it was cold) at the tables and "people watched" and talked. It was really fun! It was easy to walk around Tours. Also: I had a hot chocolate at a cafe after walking around the chateau de Chambord and it was really good! Less sweet and way better than the hot chocolate I usually have in the US. And the bread and cheese here are awesome! I have hardly had any, and not at particularly fancy places, but it's still pretty darn good!! The only wine I have had was with dinner Friday and Saturday with the IES staff and students at the hotel in Tours, and it was not all that good (but I imagine they wouldn't give a group of around 50 American students a super fantastic wine....). I can't wait to taste even better hot chocolate, cheese, bread, and wine!!
It's really interesting because now my brain works in French! When I am typing in English, I keep on thinking in French or wanting to type the French word. My host dad Renaud told me that my French is really good, and that it's better than some of the other American IES students they have had at their home who have been to France before. So that is very encouraging! He also offered something for me to eat at dinner saying that it was "For my new daughter." So cute! :) When I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning, I often am thinking in French. It's cool! No dreams in French yet, but maybe soon?
Other random story: Rachel Fong (some of you UP students know Rachel) and I met up at 8:30 in the morning to walk to the IES center on Friday morning and we waited for our other friend Lawrence (who didn't show, I think he made other plans with getting to IES with his host mother and neglected to tell us). We eventually just left, and the proceeded to get lost. Haha. So I asked a woman for directions, and she suggested that I go into the tabac (drugstore) that we were standing in font of and ask the woman in there for directions. So I did that and she was very nice and we found our way to IES! We were like, 5 minutes late, but we were not the last people to arrive. Haha. I basically speak French all. the. time. It's one of the rules with IES and not everyone follows it, but most people do. I only speak English when I just can't figure out how to explain something in French or when I say, "How do you say _____ in French?" It's hard, but it's good for learning the language better!
Anyways, I hope all of you are doing well! I miss you all very much!!
Jordan
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