Je suis en France (mais pas en français), or Planes, Trains, and Voitures

Bonjour tout le monde!

Don't worry, I won't be writing posts in French (at least not yet). Here is a brief account of my journey to Nantes. We're heading off to Vannes this afternoon and I didn't want to overwhelm you all (read: me) with too much information. Indeed, it's been a pretty overwhelming first day (or so...?). I hope you will appreciate the fluid quality of the passage of time in this brief narrative (I think I was awake for approximately 24 hours).

It all started at about 2pm on Tuesday the 1st of September. At around this time, my family left the house for the airport at my nervous behest. We arrived quite early, but better safe than sorry, right? Once I found my gate, I quickly linked up with the three other IES girls on my flight. I suppose the flight was relatively uneventful. I'm a pretty nervous traveler, but only to the extent that I don't trust my sense of direction (or lack thereof) to navigate me through unfamiliar airports and train stations, so the flight itself was fine. Honestly, it never even occurred to me that we were flying over an ocean until after we landed.

The powerful (and mysterious!) force known as the jet-stream was on our side and we touched down in Charles de Gaulle a full hour earlier than expected. It was around 6:00 am French time and midnight my time. Either way, I was in no state to speak French, so when the Customs officer took my passport and asked if I was planning to study in France, I could only stare blankly. What? Actually, I think I said, "wha?" (They speak French so fast here!) He held up my passport and pointed to my visa, raising his eyebrows and rolling his eyes. "Oh, oui," I breathed as he stamped my visa and I barely had time to say, "merci" before he handed it back to me and hurried me along. After that, though, the French came a bit easier. We had a bit of trouble finding the train, so I think each of us had asked someone for directions before we finally found la gare.

Then, we waited. For about three and a half hours, we waited. Our group snowballed, though, while we were waiting. The larger our group became, the easier other IES students could spot us. (Is that grammatical, who knows? I only speak French now.) I wish I could regale you with beautiful descriptions of the pastoral French campagne, but I'm afraid I dozed off a bit on the train. I didn't sleep, mind you, but I struggled to keep my eyes open. I wanted to look out the window and take photos, but to no avail. Let it be known, though, riding first class -- where the seats and windows are larger -- on the TGV is nice! I think the sheer comfort of my car induced a certain amount of drowsiness. I can report some, though: for a while, it didn't look much different from anything I'd seen in the states, and perhaps that's why I started to get tired. The next time I opened my eyes though, we were driving past farmland and maybe vineyards, too (I'm not exactly sure). The farms themselves did not surprise me, I suppose (although I haven't seen too many farms in my life), but the woods around the farms were...organized. Orderly and nothing like the American wild. The homes were smaller and seemed fashioned in the tradition of the gingerbread house. I'm not kidding.

Once we arrived in Nantes, it was cake. A few representatives from IES met us at the train station and helped all of us find cabs. Back at the center, we waited. We checked our email, we ate some of the cookies they had set out for us, and we awkwardly chatted with each other, reveling in our last few hours of English-speaking. Well, maybe I was the awkward one. I wanted to get to know as many people as possible, so I kept bouncing between conversations and I think it confused some people. It probably didn't help that I was feeling kind of cracked out (if you will), incoherent, tired, and (not going to lie) a little bit homesick.

Finally, though, my host mom showed up. She is this adorable grandmotherly little woman who wears plaid pants and a pink sweater over her shoulders. She picked up me and another girl whose host mom couldn't make it all the way to the center that day. We chatted a bit in the car and at first the French came haltingly, but eventually it became easier. She's been very encouraging about my language ability and helps me out when I'm having trouble finding a word or forming a sentence. I think it helps that she used to be a teacher (she's retired now), but her patience with me has encouraged me to speak more and I think soon I will be very comfortable speaking French.

In a few hours, I'm headed off to Vannes with the rest of the my program for a three-day off-site orientation. (There are almost 90 of us! Apparently it was totally unprecedented.) I'm a little nervous because I don't think we'll be allowed to speak to each other in English at all. I can't tell whether that will make it harder for us to get to know each other or easier for us to bond, but I guess we'll see. More in a few days!