Counting down the days...

So I am almost at T- 1 month now so I thought it was about time to get things started on a blog. I think this will be a good way to communicate with all of you who are interested in what I am up to while I'm away since I won't be able to make calls or anything. I'll post whenever I can so long as something at least mildly interesting is going on :).


So here's what I know so far...

I leave for France somewhere around 7:20 pm on September 5th. I'm flying Icelandair so we stop in Reyjavik for a brief layover before continuing (it's 45 min. so the possibility of getting stuck in Iceland is there but...I won't be too sad if it happens). I arrive in Paris September 6th somewhere around 1:20 p.m. (their time). For the next couple of days I stay with Camille and her mom (everybody remember her? she was here last summer)- she promised to help me buy a cell phone, Metro pass, and find my school.

I leave Camille on September 10th to move to my host family. Nobody knows anything yet about them so I will tell you all now.

They live on a street called rue du Faubourg Poissioniere (google earth it if you want- it's a good picture) which is in the 10th arrondisment. Their apartment is 5 min walking distance from the Gare du Nord which is the main train station in north Paris (the chunnel runs to the gare du nord) and it will be my main metro stop while I am there. 10 min walking in the other direction is Montmartre and Sacre Coeur which happens to be my most favorite spot in Paris! It will also be very close to a huge variety of cafes, concert halls, movie theatres, museums, tourist sites- basically everything. I couldn't have asked for a better location.

The family I will be staying with seems to be a perfect fit as well. My host mother is an interpruter (she speaks english and spanish) and does work for various government agencies. She has a daughter, Lea, who is 20 and a son, Bastien, who is 24. Lea studies culture and politics in school and is currently in Australia (she returns in October). Bastien studies politics. It seems that they picked me right away because I am studying cinema. Turns out that they all have a passion for cinema like I do and that they have neices and a friend who are all studying cinema and drama. We share interests and that they are very nice and open people!

Anyway, I don't really have too much planned beyond that. I know of (and very much look forward to) a few trips I will go on but I don't yet have exact dates. I just know school gets done on December 22nd and I will leave my host family and return to Camille who will also be back from her school in Tours. We will spend part of Christmastime in Paris and part at her country home in the Brittany region of France. Then it's New Years in Paris and then...I come back!


I should get my schedule with vacations dates soon and be able to map out a better schedule of trips. Hopefully this was interesting and I answered questions about what the heck I'm going to be doing. Anything I didn't answer let me know!

Love from (for now) Minnesota!
gretchen