Hello all! Today is the 3rd day I've been in my new home for the next 6 weeks! I arrived in Arles on Thursday night around 8.... I took 5 trains that day starting in Freiburg at 8 am... Freiburg to Basel, Basel to Geneva, Geneva to Lyon (where my train broke down cause the track was too hot? How does that happen? and I got on another train) and finally Lyon to Arles, arriving 2 hours later than planned. By the time I walked to my hostel, I was dripping sweat and my shoulders were dying of pain but FINALLY I was going to be in one city for awhile. I am extremely impressed with people who backpack for months at a time because after 3 weeks, I was ready to be in one fixed place.
Friday was the day we were supposed to arrive at the hotel, sometime between 9-5 so when I strolled in around 9:30... I was surprised to not see anyone from IES waiting there. So I just settled in to a room with a few computers and WIFI and posted some photos on my facebook and here.
After about an hour or so another lone traveler wandered in with a backpack and I finally decided to ask him if he was with IES... turns out he was! Landon became the first friend I made from my program. He and I decided to go out exploring and made a trip to Monoprix... France's version of a Walmart or Target. It started to rain so we went back to the hotel where we met Jared who just got in from Paris so we waited for the rain to stop and then went out exploring again. After that, we came back, met the director of the program, Marie Anne and some other IESers... Meredith, Ryan, and Katie and the 6 of us went exploring yet again. It was nice to start meeting people gradually... I was doing pretty well at names until we all gathered in one room.... it's hard to remember the names of 40 people. Out of those 40... there are about 8 or 9 guys. What odds, eh?
Our first night we went to our program center where they gave us a lowdown on how it's going to go down. All French all the time. and people are really good about it! I mean, we do obviously have some conversations in english... but for the most part... we're pretty good about speaking french with each other which is awesome. I think I'm reallllly going to learn a lot of french this way.
Yesterday we had an early morning, taking a tour of the town (it's small... let me tell you...) and going to the largest market in all of France held every Wednesday and Saturday. I bought a beach towel and a corkscrew (essentials for life in the south of France, n'est pas?) and we had ourselves a little pique-nique of bread, cheese, pizza, and fruit. Then we had a few more hours of orientation which already I was exhausted for after the early morning and wandering the market.
After that, we all hopped on a bus and went out to a house in the country side where a friend of Marie Anne's was kind enough to let us come swimming and have dinner. Our program office is located upstairs from an art gallery and a girl who works down there... Laura (my first french Laura!) joined us at chez Nasser and her and I quickly started talking and we spent most of the time at his house together! It was great to meet a girl my own age who we could ask about different words we didn't know, things to do, places to go out etc and I'm really excited to spend more time getting to know her! After that, I was dead so we just came back and watched some episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia... (I stole it from you Giulia... sorry... don't worry I'll keep it safe) and I was in bed by 12. Arles is definately not Montpellier... there are a lot less places to go out at night but I think I'm going to still have a great time... and have lots of little weekend trips to explore the surrounding areas.
Today! We meet our host families and I can't wait to meet her and get settled in!
Bisous!!
Maura
No comments:
Post a Comment