Orientation week day trip to Beaune.

Here is a list of facts about my life.

- I have friends! They are cool. 3/4 of them are from ‘murka.
- One of the buildings at my school has a glass-encased courtyard that houses some chickens.
- My host family always sets out a Canada mug for me that they must have gotten from another Canadian student they hosted. It’s cute.
- The Swiss girl who is staying here for two weeks looks a lot like Lindsay Lohan, and laughs like her too. Today we bonded over an inside joke. Our host mom was telling us about somebody’s kid who goes to a daycare called “Le Petit Fack.” We giggled immaturely throughout the rest of the conversation. Obviously.
- We went to Beaune with the program on Tuesday, it was freezing freaking cold but it was fun. I’ll post some pictures next. This morning we had a little tour of Dijon, and I went along even though I’m pretty familiar with the place by now. It’s really not that big. Anyway, it got really cold after a little while but it was also a good time.
- I signed up for school trips to Lyon, les Chateaux de la Loire, and Provence. My friends and I are also planning on hitting up Paris the first weekend in March, and one of their host parents’ daughter offered us her apartment for the weekend! So exciting. Also, thinking the south of France for spring break. Marseille, Nice, Monte Carlo, and Corsica.
- I find out things like my class schedule and my level tomorrow…what suspense!
- My friends found a place that gives segway tours of the city for only 19 euros beginning in April. Guess what we’re doing April 1st. My techy geek brothers will be so envious.
- That’s about it. There are other things I can’t remember right now but I’m not too concerned.

1. I made it to Dijon. I spent most of the train ride wondering if I’d actually gotten on the right train, because nobody came around to check my ticket, which would have given them the chance to tell me if I was on the wrong one. My host family was at the train station when I arrived. Or host parents. They only have one daughter and she lives in Lyon. Anyway they are very very nice. Madame especially. She brought me out around Dijon today and helped me get my bus pass and then brought me for tea and pastries at a coffee place.

2. French. I have to speak French now. This is something I haven’t done since I did Explore in Quebec in the summer of 2010. I think I am getting along pretty well so far. Madame told me that I don’t sound Canadian though. She said I sound British or English. She probably hasn’t heard an Acadian French accent before, but still. 

3. Dijon! It looks like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Which I am now torrenting.

4. Food. They want me to eat a lot of it in this house. It is kind of overwhelming, and I happen to be a food enthusiast.

5. There is a portrait of Jesus hanging on the cross decorating my bedroom wall. It is very large, and 3D. He is literally bursting out of the frame. Also I’m pretty sure my bedroom window looks out into the courtyard of a rehab facility for alcoholics. Oh, and that thing I learned from that book I read about there being no closets in France? False. My room has a very large closet.