First weekend in La Rochelle

So I'm in La Rochelle now, I'm sitting at the school. We have class from 8:30 to 12:30 M-F. My class is wonderful! My teacher is great and very good at what she does. The class is focused on real french (like slang, idiomatic phrases, and converasion) and culture. I thought before that I was reaching a bit of a plateau, but I really do feel like my french is getting stronger. We eat lunch in a cafeteria which is a bit of a walk away (my house is closer!) but despite the massive amount of food I'm eating, I think I might even be losing weight. My host mom is named Sergine, and she's super cool too, I wish I could have better conversations with her. It sucks not having the same personality you usually do, because you can't express yourself in the same ways. But its been reported back to me that she thinks my french is pretty good, so that makes me happy. I'm tired all the time. I could sleep for a week right now. Acutally my arm is twitching right now and its making me CRAZY, and I think I really could do with a nap.

Here's a snap of one of the chateaus on the Loire river valley. The gardens were the main item here and they were huge and so geometeric.

So since I don't have internet at home, I'm going to do some retrospective blogging.

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Friday 6 Juillet

So tonight I went to a bbq at one of dominiques friends' and oh my gosh. I ate more than I ever have at one time, and I know that i'm probably saying that right now cuz I'm so stuffed, but its been a couple hours since the last course, and I still feel like I'm gonna explode. I just have to jot down a couple of the things I ate. Muenster avec cumin, homemade icecream in a plethora of "parfumees" including mango, creme brulee, jamaican rum, raspberry and almond which togeather make a flavor which has a name that I do not remember, carrot, and clove. The last two together were amazing. Ive never had either, and oh lala. Incroyable. mmm... some quiche thing, ham, salad, potatoes, veggies, apple tart, brownies, and on and on and on and on.... And wine. Oh the wine. This must have been a special occasion, and the wine was SO SO good. I am really not a picky wine drinker, in general, I like it. if its crap, thats ok, I still like it. This was NOT crap. It was good. and they told me all the reasons why it was good and I 1) understood by words and 2) understood by taste. Such a great experience . Not to mention the fact that it was atable of 20 50-75 year old french academics having a lovely time with their friends and entertaining the foreign kid who "speaks very well"!!! yayyyyy. Ok. Off to the Loire Valley at 7am tommorow morning. yelch. but i can sleep on the bus.