After a long and mostly sleepless flight, I made it to the airport in Marseille where I was met by the directors of my program at the Institute for American Universities as well as my new host parents. They instantly started taking care of me by holding my carry-on while I went and joined the other study abroad students who flew in on the same flight. After finding my bag, we drove to the other airport (literally four minutes away) to wait for the other student that would be living with us. However her flight was delayed with a blizzard at her connection in Munich.
So, we got a snack of tea and my first pain au chocolat of the trip and drove to Aix where Mireille and Robert Ragusa welcomed me to their home. They have a cute sixth floor apartment about 15 minutes walk from school. I have my own room with little bed, desk, armoir, and a nice big window/door.
The couple also has a dog named Poncho and their middle-aged daugher Odile (sp?) living with them.
Once back at their apartment, Mireille promptly got me some more food with sandwiches for lunch. I then watched a little tv with Robert before starting to unpack. I unpacked until I sat down on my bed and succumbed to a nap.
I woke to meet the other student, Cate, arriving. She is from Tennessee and I believe we will be taking business French together as well as possibly history of Provence. We hung out for a while watching tv (of course in French), ate a dinner of chicken, fries, and salad, and watched Mireille and her daughter make a cake for today. She also showed us how to make mousse au chocolat and gave us recipes to keep.
After trying so hard to stay awake, we took showers and went to bed. Today we have an open house at the school to go to where we will meet other students as well as teachers in the school.
I am missing home but I'm also really excited for what this semester holds. My french is going well and I must have had some switch in my head that I didn't know about because I took off running with conversation. I hope it keeps up like this!
Love you all,
Danielle
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