My New Life

I have finally arrived in Angers! Well, we actually arrived two days ago. It was a grueling 30 hours of traveling before we finally settled down in a hotel room.

So, with painful jet lag and empty stomachs, we met up with my French father, Pascal Poupard at the train station. He took Abby and I back to his flat on Avenue Pasteur where he and his mother fed us a great bowl of carrot, potato, pea soup and pumped us full of awesome French coffee. They refer to American coffee as jus du chaussette, or sock juice, because of how big but weak the coffee is in America. Here, we drink tiny, extremely strong cups of coffee.

Some background on ma famille français (my French family):
Pascal Poupard is a 42 year old man who's diabeties has rendered him legally blind. He lives in a very nice flat with his mom, Michelle, and a tiny, 6 month old puppy named Ratatoullie. He has hosted other international students before me. His last student was also from Michigan, and he has another student coming to live with us on the third whom is, you guessed it, from Michigan. Strange coincidence has brought him 3 Michigan students in a row. Weird, huh?

The food here is not very expensive if you know where to eat. Pascal told us it is much cheaper to buy food from le boulangerie (the bakery) and eat it on the street than to sit down at a café. Abby and I can split a foot long panini, can of pop, and pain du chocolate for under £4 (about $5). It's an interesting, fun game trying to find cheap food.

So, we were exploring the city yesterday, trying to find our way back home after visiting the university where we'll be studying and getting some food. We rounded a corner, pointing out a particularly fantastic statue right in the middle of some crossroads, while looking for a map of the city so we can get our bearings. We saw a bus stop and found a map inside, where we saw that le Chateau (the Angers castle) is directly north of us. We turned around and there it was! How could we have missed it?! It was DIRECTLY behind the statue that we had pointed out not 5 minutes earlier. How do you not notice a giant castle in the middle of a city?! It was very bizarre and funny for us.

Something that is really fun for me while I'm here is speaking in English as people walk by. I always wonder who can understand me and who can not. We were walking behind a couple of teens last night who were listening to American rap on their cells, and I was wondering if they actually understood it or not, and what they thought we thought of them because we did understand it... if that makes sense. I guess that's the psychologist in me. American music and film is very popular here, apparently. Half of the commericals on TV have American music, the other half American actors. I was suprised to see nudity in their commercials, though. Europeans have a much lighter view on nudity than we Americans do. It is interesting how similar but different they are. Pascal told me that many French do not like Americans, not for their government, but because they are jealous of the power America holds. French was once the bright star of Europe and they miss the power they once held. Or, thats what was told to me, at least.

Another thing I've found out: People are in LOVE with Obama. They can't get enough of him, haha. Very interesting.

I'll keep you posted as everything develops, but I'm sick of writing right now and my battery is almost dead. Au revoir!