Bonjour, Strasbourg!

Je suis arrivé à Strasbourg! (I have arrived in Strasbourg!) After a flight from New York to Frankfurt and a bus from Frankfurt to Strasbourg, I have met my host family, settled into their apartment, and started orientation. My host parents, Monsieur and Madame Marechal have 5 children. The oldest boys are at school, one somewhere in Canada and one in Paris, so I haven't met them. The oldest girl, Hortense, will return to her school in Paris at some point this week. The youngest son, Jean-Alberic, had his first day of high school today. After several problems with the language barrier, I finally understood that he was not AT ALL happy to be going back to school. Marie, the youngest Marechal, is still in middle school. She loves to sing and dance, and was very interested in Kathak (a classical Indian dance that I've done since I was young) when I told her about it.

The apartment I am staying in is very large and consists of a bedroom for each child, several bathrooms (in France, the toilet, sink, and shower are all in separate rooms), a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a study. I love to sit in the living room. Not only because it has the Wifi (haha), but also because there is a large window and beautiful, old furniture.

Le salon (The living room)

I gave Madame Marechal a tray, napkins, and place settings, which she seemed to like a lot. The tray is now in her living room.

The tray I gave to Madame Marechal. 

In the apartment, I have my own room, which is nice because I can tell I will often need to have some time to myself to reflect, relax, and stop speaking French for a bit. By the way, I am loving the challenge of speaking a new language more than my own, but I know there will be days in which I am extremely frustrated with myself because of the language barrier. Here are some pictures of my room:

Here is the view from my bedroom window: 

Today was the first day of orientation. After several hours of introductory lessons about living in France, we had lunch and took an exam. This was just to place us in one of two groups for intensive French classes we will have this week. On Saturday, we will take an exam to place us into a class for the semester. After the exam, we took a walking tour of Strasbourg with a Kalamazoo College graduate. As much as I would love to write more about that, jet lag is still getting to me. Bonsoir! (Good night!)