Okay...

I really didn't want to fall into this blogging trend, but since there have been a lot of people asking about how France is going, I thought I'd go ahead and start this thing so that I wouldn't have to constantly repeat the same things to everyone. Not that I don't want to be in contact with everyone, it's just that I'd rather get my talking done in one fell swoop, and move right on to hearing your comments.

So. I have a little less than a week that I need to catch most of you up on. Let's see. The plane ride was a typical plane ride. I was tired. I never sleep on airplanes, and it kills me whenever I have to travel long distances. Eventually, I made it to the house of my famille d'accueil (or host family, which in my case is just one woman named Marie-Claude, who has a 30 year old son who no longer lives with her, although she lives literally right next door to her parents). I wasn't able to sleep because Marie-Claude wanted to take me to her friend's birthday party, so I only had time to take a relatively quick bubble bath (the bubbles were ever-so-thoughtfully provided by Marie-Claude) and get ready again. Let me tell you, hot water has never felt so good.

My room is quite pretty. It's up in the attic (quite common for France), the walls are all yellow, and it's kind of like a studio apartment, in that there's a tub, sink, and bathroom without there being any sort of divide or separation. I also have this really great floor-length window with those awesome European shutters... it's fantastic. What was even more fantastic was that directly outside that window there is a bar/cafe across the street where once a month there are tango lessons. So, I finally arrived in Toulouse, I get up to my very French-looking room, and this great live tango music is floating through a gorgeous window where I am sitting and taking the most wonderful bubble bath.

I have never felt so much like I was in a movie in my life. (I hope those pictures are enough... I have more if anyone's interested. The first is directly to my right when I walk in the door, the second is my bed, and the third is zoomed in a little closer to my left when I walk in the door... check out the great window.)

Right now, I am doing orientation at the Dickinson Center in Toulouse, which was described to me by Marie-Claude as a "short walk" from our home. In reality, it's thirty minutes long, but I guess that's short to the French. To me, it's somewhat annoying, because I'm so used to living on campus and being able to walk eight minutes maximum to each class. I'm incredibly spoiled. But, the walk here is along the pretty Canal du Midi, which is nice despite all the bikers that fly along and nearly kill me every morning.

My orientation classes are going decently, although it's simply exhausting to be constantly surrounded by a foreign language. By eight o'clock every night, I'm totally ready to go to bed. However here, they eat at 10 at night. Which I kind of knew before I came, but when I'm already really tired, and the last time I ate was at noon, it can be more than a little frustrating. But Marie-Claude is an excellent cook, and a great conversationalist, so I enjoy eating dinners with her.

The only problem is she doesn't stop feeding me. I feel rude refusing perfectly good food, so my stomach feels like it's going to explode at the end of dinner each night. We eat a full meal, but then there's a cheese course, and after that there's fruit and yogurt (the yogurt here, by the way, is amazing)... I keep trying to remember to look up the word for "full".

As for classes at the actual Université de Toulouse... I had my meeting with Madame Toux (head of Dickinson en Toulouse) today, and she made me feel significantly less overwhelmed. It looks like I'll be taking some great history, art history, and international relations courses at l'Institut Catholique de Toulouse (ICT), and l'Institut des Etudes Politiques (IEP). I'm looking forward to it.

All right I think that's all for now... next time I'll be a little more specific, and hopefully a little more interesting, as I've covered all the basics. Feel free to comment, make sure to keep checking back.

Bryna