Pictures of People Taking Pictures

Je suis ici!: I am here!

Finally I have arrived in Orleans! After a week full of traveling and seeing a lot of different things, I made my way to my home city on Friday! Because I arrived a little early than I was supposed to, I had to live with a temporary host family. I can say that..the experience was a learning one. I didn't know what to expect, or how I would feel, or anything.  So I made my way to the house and buzzed the door and a lady opens it and we exchange "hello" and make our way upstairs to her place. I was surprised to find out that she lived in a one bedroom apartment. This meant that I slept in a bed/couch next to the front door. As I said, this was a learning experience lol. So after a while, we talked a little about the rules: I learned that I could never open any door in the house because all of her neighbors were "crazy" in her words. I was only able to leave when she was home, so if she left and I chose not to leave as well, I would have to wait for her to return. Then if I went out and she left, if she was not home by the time I got back I would have to wait. But all this was okay, I can deal with this, no big deal. However, she didn't have wifi. So I had to walk about 2 miles [total] each day to McDo for the free wifi. 

Thankfully, the next day on Saturday, my friend Manon and her mom and brother, invited me to go with them to Blois to visit their family. The funny part was, when I was coming to Orleans, I passed through Blois and saw that it looked like a really nice city so I was going to take the train back there because I didn't have any plans. So, without hesitation, I took the invitation and we traveled about an hour to Blois. We got to her grand-parent's home [which was absolutely and incredibly beautiful] and everyone introduced them self since I was the "new face in the crowd". We sat down for some apéritif [pronounced: app-air-eeteef] which was nice because I really hadn't eaten for a week during my travels because I was trying not to spend money. So the appetizers come coming and coming and I continued to listen and listen to everyone speak. Later we went for a walk around town so they could show me everything that Blois had to offer - which also included the several clothes stores that Manon and her mom had to stop and look at [of course leaving Thomas and I to stand and laugh and talk about "masculine" things] and, like I thought, it was a truly beautiful, small town. We headed back home after a while and I was lucky enough to be there when Manon's cousin announced that they she was now engaged! So this added even more to the get-together and we all sat down for a wonderfully cooked meal and dessert. The dinner resulted in a lot of talking and asking me questions and becoming completely embarrassed and my face turning red! It also resulted in a lot of quietness because when I would begin talking, everyone would stop talking so they could hear me and then naturally I would just look around and start whispering because I had no clue what I was saying [of course I knew what I was saying, but I never know if I am going to say something wrong lol!]. Finally, after dinner we went for a walk to a little festival where they were playing music and we got to watch some old ladies dance their little feet away!

The next morning I woke up and ate some breakfast, but at this point I was so full from last nightI wasn't sure how much I was going to eat, but not even a second after my plate was empty, Manon's grandma was quick to make sure that I had some more food on my plate [this was also how it was at dinner time, and for the appetizers] and of course even if I had 3 plates of food, there was still more to be eaten and all Manon could do was just laugh and I say "oh oh, oui, ok" with a very big smile because I couldn't help but laugh myself. For lunch we headed to Manon's cousin's house where we had a BBQ [oh how quickly I had missed the smell of this] so Manon's cousin showed me around the house [which, again, was absolutely beautiful] and we waited for lunch to finish cooking. In the mean time, I was teaching them some things that sound alike that is hard to say fast - so I taught them "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood..." and just 1 of the few I learned was "Si mon tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu" and it sounds just the way it's written but when you say it fast, it's super difficult! Then after eating some tri-tip for lunch, we played Cranium in french which was super fun and then Monopoly in french [of course I lost at both haha].

Overall it was a wonderful weekend, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to spend time with such a lovely family.

Merci beaucoup tout le monde!