La famille d'accueil (host family)

So, yesterday I finally got to Rennes via Chartres.  That was pretty cool, cause we got to see probably the best Gothic cathedral in the world. Our tour guide was British, so that was pretty funny and cool at the same time.  He is supposedly the most predominant researcher of the Chartres cathedral, so he wanted to keep us there for a week, but we were only there for like 2 hours max. When we got to Rennes it was around 6:00 in the evening. We went into one of the buildings on campus and pretty much played Red Robin with the host families.  We stood on one side with all the baggage, and they on the other.  Then they called out the parents, and they walked to the middle, and then the students, who went to meet them.  I was like number 3.  Only my host mom was there cause my host dad was off on a boat for vacation.  So we raced one of her friends home who lives like 3 minutes away and is also hosting a student and we won. Woot. Anyways, she seems like she has done this before, so it wasn't too awkward or anything so that was good.  She has a son living there of 22 years I think, but during dinner, her other son who got married on Saturday came and showed us his pictures of the wedding.  The dinner was quite delicious. My host dad plays guitar and piano, which is awesome.  But all in all, I think that they will be great.  Also Rennes is seemingly a pretty nice city.

À Paris

Well, I spent three days in Paris.  No big deal.  But for some reason I didn't really go to the more famous of the landmarks and tourist places while I was there.  Instead, I went to the Montmartre where the Sacre Coeur is, and the Place du Luxembourg, and Notre Dame, and l'Hôtel de Ville.  I saw everything but l'Arc du Triomphe, but that was because we took a barge ride along the Seine River the last evening that we were there.  I was going to go to the Catacombs of Paris, but the line was too long to get there before lunch, so we decided to go to the Place du Luxembourg instead.
The hotel that we stayed at was rather nice, but also quite old.  It didn't have internet...except if you payed for it, so I was going to pay the last day that I was there, but all they had was a card for 10 hours for 10 euros, so I decided it wasn't worth it.  I would be leaving the next day anyways so, why would I need 10 hours worth?
I like to say that I was a metro savant after Paris because that's what we used to get around the city.  But I had a good time figuring it out, so that was good.
The food is good. They don't just serve tiny portions of gourmet food for a large price as people may think.  They fill you up for about ten euros.  So it's not bad.  The only thing is the drinks cost kind of a lot.  One coke about 12 oz costs about 4 euros.  Oh well.  They gave us 35 euros. Win.

J’arrive en France

So.   I got here, but not without some problems.  All my flights were on time, and once I got to Paris, I passed through customs in like ten minutes, and from there my bag was like the third bag at baggage claim.  So I went through in probably around 30 minutes from the plane out to the airport lobby place. But then I had to wait for the CIEE people, who, as far as I knew, were going to be here at ten o’clock (I had to pay for internet in order to get this info 1.90€), so I hung out at the arrivals place, because I assumed that they would come there.  But by 9:30ish, I started to get anxious because I figured any respectable study abroad group would get to the airport before the time that they said they would arrive in order to get ready.  Ten o’clock passes…10:15. I ask the information desk if they have any information about my situation.  I finally went up to another group of study abroad people waiting for students and asked them.  They for some reason thought I was a part of their group, and so did I, because I figured they went to the same place as the CIEE people.  So I got into a cab with some of their students, only to be taken out of the cab when the director realized I wasn’t one of them.  Good thing we didn’t finish leaving the airport before then.  Anyways, this director didn’t know any phone numbers, so she called her office to have them look some up and call her back.  That was taking too long for me.  I was supposed to be at the hotel by noon, and here it was 11:15. So, I had to bite the bullet and pay for another internet session.  I also had to turn on my computer.  That was enough to about kill me with how long it was taking.  I finally got the number like ten minutes later, and she called the director of my program, who by God’s grace hadn’t left because he had the bus drive by again to make sure there were no extra students.  So I walked over to that terminal’s arrivals gate (I only thought that there was the one that I was at) and met him and left with the rest of the group.  All this time with my 37.5 pound backpack on my back, carrying my guitar, and pulling my carry-on bag.  Relief was being felt by me, that is for sure.