I have been having trouble with the internet at my host family's house, so I'm writing this from the classy-est of all places: McDonalds. Yay for free wifi and American commercialism!
This picture is of Place Stanislas at night. Place Stanislas is the middle of Nancy, and its basically where anything important in Nancy happens. Stanislas was a Polish king who then came to Nancy and ruled as the Duke of Lorraine, which was an independent state until his death, upon which Lorraine passed into the possession of Louis XV, through is marriage to Stanislas' daughter.
First of all, Nancy is a really chill city. We're in the Northeast of France, so there's still quite a bit of German influence, but not as much as in Strasbourg where the other LC program is. Its a decent sized city, with more than 40,000 university students alone. We're still stuck in orientation, I'm still not quite sure when we start real classes, but I'm assuming its soon, because our first vacation is already only 3 weeks away.
My host family is pretty awesome. They've been hosting for 12 (TWELVE!) years, so they know the deal pretty well. They're all really welcoming and nice, but don't care if I miss dinner or come home at 3 in the morning (family members, pretend you didn't just read that).
Most of the other American students in my program have been studying French for at least twice as long as me, which is fairly intimidating, but I'm managing to get by. As long as people speak reallllyyyy slowlyyyy I can understand most of whats going on. Speaking is another issue however.
My first full day here, last Friday, I was supposed to be at orientation across town at 10am. My host family had arranged for a family friend to pick me up and take me because they all had to be at school and work before then, but I managed to miss two alarms and didn’t wake up till 11am. I was in quite a panic as I had a map, but had no idea where either my house or the university were. Thanks to my bad French, I had misunderstood my host mother (Nicole)’s explanation about the phone the night before, and thought I couldn’t use it to call anywhere within France, and of course my American cell phone doesn’t work here, and I hadn’t bought a French on yet. Luckily, Ron (our program director) finally called the house phone, explained to me how to use my map, and gave me instructions to meet up with the group. Success!
Obviously, one of my first priorities soon became getting a phone. I already have a European phone, so originally all I wanted to buy was a new SIM card, which would have cost me 30euro. But a new phone AND a SIM card only cost 29euro. Nicole later told me that this is a very French type of logic. Another ridiculous piece of French logic: I went shopping with my host mom at a huge store (kind of wallmart-esque?) and when we were checking out, I was surprised to see how closely she was reading her receipt. Turns out, the cashier overcharged her nearly 50euro. And Nicole wasn’t even offended! She didn’t even say a word to the cashier, just walked over to the help desk, and made them check everything again, and they calmly gave her back the money they owed her without making any sort of fuss about it. Apparently these things happen a lot at big chains in France. No biggie.
Sunday's are a big food day. I ADORE the European habit of a huge lunch on Sundays that takes several hours. When I was too full to eat the tart that Nicole had made for desert, I was told that, of course, I can just have it for breakfast the next day! Dessert for breakfast? I think I’m going to love this country.
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