Tours! my first blog post ever....

Hey everyone!

So due to my inability to email everyone who wants to know what's going on with me, and mom being whiny that i'm not giving enough details, I have decided to start a blog. We shall see how it works, normally I hate these kinds of things, but I think this could actually work out pretty well...

Anyways, to update everyone I haven't talked to, I am currently in Tours, which is about a four-hour bus ride south west of Paris. It's a really cool City, smaller than Paris (obviously), but still really big by my standards. There's basically a whole lot of shopping, random old cathedrals and museums, and random students walking around. The host family I'm staying with is AMAZING. They are pretty much loaded, and have a gorgeous three story house right in the city. My host parents have 5 kids (they beat us...), three of which still live at home (the others are older). The ones living with us include Anaelle (12), Querantain (i have no idea how to spell this, 17), and Claire (who just turned 21, and had a party at the house with lots of french friends we got to meet). Querantain, a boy, is really cute, he actually kind of reminds me of a french version of Jack, except for he smokes (at 17! in front of his mom!). But anyways, the family is basically really nice and friendly, very adorable. Every day they have a nice sit-down dinner (and lunch on the weekends), which includes first some kind of beginner (a slice of melon, salad, carrotes), followed by an AMAZING main course (omelette, homemade pizza-which they cut with regular scissors!, stuffed tomatoes), followed by a cheese course with baguette (which we also eat throughout the email), followed by dessert (which consists of something amazing, or pudding/yogurt or fruit). Basically, i'm eating amazingly well here, but am doing so much walking that it ends up being okay. We also have a cat named LiLi, who is absolutley adorable, a gray tabby.
Right now, in Tours, we're going through Orientation, which consists of a bunch of random meetings, as well as language classes for about three hours every day. We have excursions as well, where we sign up and got with other people in the group around Tours. They're generally pretty cool, I've seen a couple museum exhibits, and we went and saw a play in a french comedy theater, callede "La nuit d'ivresse" (the night of drunkeness). It was funny, from what I could understand, and was amusing in that the french audience got really into it-singing to songs between intermissions and clapping heartily...crazy french people. Yesterday we went to visit a chateau called "Chenonceau", it was gorgeous, I took lots of pictures as you will see. We even took a boat ride that went around the castle, pretty cool.
So during the day, we have class, and then are pretty much free to do what we want. For lunch, we all break off and find cafes and whatnot, which is how I met most of my friends here. It's probably my favorite part of the day, discovering a new place to eat, and spending at least an hour just chatting with other people on the program and loving the baguette sandwhiches. We then just tend to wander around, stumbling upon cool shops and old buildings, including the gorgeous cathedral I took so many pictures of. At night, after dinner (which we don't start till between 730 and 830), depending on the night, we either go out or Kristin and I hang out at the hosue watching American movies in french and catching our breath. Tours has a lot of students hear, so there is a lot to so at night. Everyone goes to "La Place Plume", where there are a lot of bars, a big area in the center full of tables where people just sit and talk, and there are some discoteques/night clubs scattered around the city. It's also popular just to buy a cheap bottle of wine and walk awhile down to La Loire, where lots of people meet up and drink and have a good time by the river. It's always fun just to go to different bars, meeting up with friends and experimenting with the many drinks they have to offer :). Anyways, the night life here is really fun, I've gotta sayI'm enjoying being able to actually buy drinks here (gasp!) under 21.
So overall, life in Tours is very good, I really enjoy the city, and since we walk everywhere I feel like i've really gotten to know it. Today there was a huge open market, starting at 9am, where all the stores put out a bunch of stuff amazingly on sale. It was bascially insane-so many people, and lots of crazed french women trying to take advantage of the amazing deals. I got myself some pretty scarves (which everyone wears here, even if it's like 90 degrees out), as well as a cute tank top from a cute hippie guy. On thursday, we're heading for Paris by bus! I don't know who my host family is yet, but should find out in the next couple days. I'm going to be studying at Paris III (La Nouvelle Sorbonne), where I'm taking two of their classes, one in film studies and one in litterature (although due to the craziness of french scheduling, I don't actually know which ones yet...). I'm also taking two courses through the Sweet Briar program, one in Art History, and another based around improving your French and writing in French. I hear Paris III is in a nice part of Paris, and is close to the Sweet Briar building (where we have our classes), so it should work out perfectly.
Alright...so I think that's enough for now, if anyone has questions or wants more details, ask! I'm going to be putting up pictures, if possible on this....or I might send them out via email.
Okay then, hope everyone is doing well!
Much Love,
Brit