Ma Famille, et Mon Université

The past few days have been focused on exploring!

Exploring the ways of our French families (their behaviors, what's okay and what's not); exploring this beautiful and historical city with all of its mysterious cobblestone walkways between the tall buildings; exploring the cafes, the shoppes, the cheap places to eat and get a quick coffee; exploring the French way of THINKING. After those first couple of nights in Angers, I found myself on a somewhat normal sleep schedule, and also resorted to having my dreams in French! That's a good start to embracing the language, no?

About my family: Madame Veronique Beziau picked me up just outside of Sam's homestay two nights ago now with her old, "gentille" dog named Mali. Sam and I, of course, practiced our French and began to collect a lot of information about her. Veronique is a nurse at a psychiatric hospital, traveled a lot when she was younger (for example Nigeria, Africa), is an absolutely amazing artist, and adopted two starving children from Brazil (Breno and Elcio)- she's a very compassionate woman. My house is very small, but very charming. When you look at the entrance- it looks like a very simple wooden gate, but once you open that you enter a very winsome garden. Once you continue into the house, its a little crowded but comfortable and the walls are thoughtfully decorated with Madame Beziau's artwork! She ranges from abstract paintings (that you could find at the DIA for thousands of dollars), to crafty art hanging from window ledges and in the bathroom and kitchen and artifacts she . Breno and Elcio are really sweet kids, actually yesterday morning Elcio- the 12 year old- guided me to class through the rain.

Last night Madame Beziau made Sam and I a really traditional dinner. We sat down and there was one plate with crab, and the other plate with some sort of dried sausage. She showed us the bottle of wine we would be drinking, and this bottle of wine (A 2006 Chateau D'Avrille- Coteaux de l'Aubance) should only be used with l'appertifs (appetizers). It was a white wine that was ridiculously sweet- it tasted like a dessert. After the appetizer we had a bowl of soup (very similar to the carrot, potato mush that Michelle Poupard made for us, and then we had a traditional French entree called "un omlette". It was just like our breakfast omlettes, but with hoards of mushrooms and shallots- we ate this with a side salad with a simple vinagerette. Another French tradition with their meals is to eat from a cheese tray after dinner. I'm still boggled by the idea that there are some 364 types of cheeses in France, I feel like every time I eat cheese with our families- its a new and different type. Dinner time (so far) has been a feast with lots of talk about politics, culture, and entertainment.

About my university: our first day at school was yesterday. A massive group of Americans, Europeans, and Asians gathered in the main hall of the university- it was very entertaining to listen to all the different languages all at once and now that by the end of this semester we would all be united by one language. We entered an amphitheater and began a 4 part test: the first part was listening comprehension (listening to radio and TV blurbs and using multiple choice to answer questions), then reading comprehension (read and respond), then logical responses, and the grammar. Overall it wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow Sam and I are going to go around a take pictures of this beautiful city if the weathers good- so look out for pictures on this blog later on!