Je suis en France! (I'm in France!)

So much has happened in the past few days I don't know where to start. It was really awesome to have Nicky, another student with the program, on the plane with me. We traveled together, so it was really nice not to be alone. We left Cincinnati on Wednesday and arrived in Paris Thursday morning. Especially when we were walking through Charles de Gaulle, it was exciting to hear all the French.

On the flight from Paris to Marseille, I sat next to an older man who began talking to me, and after I got used to his southern accent (in the south of France there is an accent that's sometimes hard to understand because French taught in the US is French spoken in Paris) I figured out he was returning from a trip to South Africa. He was really nice and showed my all his pictures on his camera. Then he started taking pictures of a man who came on the plane and he told me it was a famous "footballer". So that was exciting to see a celebrity my first day in France.

Nicky's cousin, Michel, picked us up at the Marseille airport. We went to their house, which was awesome. 80% of the day was in French because her family does not speak much English. Our first days in France were spent talking French and learning the culture of the country.

We then met up with our group from OU and spent the night in l'Hotel le Magnan. Little by little our lives became more normal. And finally at 17h (5:00 pm) on Saturday we met our host families.

I feel so lucky to be in the host family that I'm staying with. There is Isabelle, who is the close to wonderwoman. Her husband, Jean-Bernard works in Paris during the week and comes home for vacations and week-ends. They have four children, which is alot for a French couple. There is Marie-12, Hugo-9, Thomas-7, and Pauline(Po-Po)-3. The house is one of the oldest houses in Avignon and it's gorgeous! Isabelle also has a little B&B service that she runs out of the other rooms that are empty in the house.

The family is very musical. Here in the house there is a piano, marimba, drumset, violin, and cello. The kids also sing. Sunday Nicky, Justin, and I went to see the three oldest sing in the opera Orphee aux enfers. It was amazing! I've never been to an opera before, and I feel privileged that my first one was so great, and in French.

Avignon is beautiful, I feel like everywhere I look I see a postcard. I love that I speak French the majority of the day and that all of my classes are French classes. But on the other hand, I miss my friends, family, especially the closeness that I don't have here. I've made a resolution to enjoy everything I do here and to take every opportunity I can until I come home.