Mardi (Tuesday)

So I am sitting in my room at 120 Rue des Ponts de Cé, getting ready to go out. We have a soirée tonight at a bar to get to know each other. I have a few minutes so I thought I would write about Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning I got up at 6:30 AM and went downstairs to take a shower. The shower is in the kitchen, only separated from the public eye by a barely functional accordion door that only goes as far as the refrigerator. Luckily no one else was up. After my shower I came back upstairs and got dressed. After getting dressed, I came downstairs again for breakfast, which is basically bread and bread-related toppings. They were shocked that I didn’t drink coffee, but they apparently have caravans full of hot chocolate, which they will not let me leave the house without drinking. To make said hot chocolate, I go into the kitchen, turn on the gas, turn on the burner, light the burner with a match, and heat my milk in a saucepan. The actual hot chocolate mix is the same as anywhere. I actually brought my own mocha cream cocoa mix, so maybe I will try using that tomorrow. I don’t want to offend them.

At 8 AM, Claire and I left and walked to la Catho (l’Université Catholique de l’Ouest), where our program (CIDEF – Centre International des Etudes de Français) is held. We all went to this big amphithéâtre (basically an auditorium, but with desks) and were talked at a bit before taking our placement tests. After the tests we ate lunch, and after lunch we went walking around the city. Between lunch and tour, a few of us actually ventured into the « centre ville » a bit early.




On the way to the centre ville


Tessa, Jessie, me, Vaune and Laura in front of a fountain near the center of town


Vaune extolling the virtues of Coca-Light Lemon


Angers' château


The garden at the château


The Maine river, whichs lends its name to the name of the département that Angers is in - Maine et Loire.

After a lot of seeing pretty things and not learning where anything actually useful was, Vaune and I ditched our tour group and found discount stores, including Monoprix and H&M. Actually, we saw most of our group at H&M. Kind of sad. But I bought a bag that can fit my laptop, so I can bring it to la Catho for internet without having to look like a nerd with my giant backpack, and I bought a little sweater, too. It’s freaking cold here in the morning and evening, but very hot midday. Layers are key.

I also got a text message from Laura Liss, telling me she’d seen the class placements and I was in level 9, the highest level. Score. And a little bit of Ste-Anne déjà vu.

After all that business, having walked for four hours, I walked home and had dinner with my host family. Delicious, as per usual. Her salads are amazing – and I don’t even like salad. Everything is fresh from the garden. Dessert is generally fruit – last night it was fresh peaches.

Around 8 I walked to the payphone and unsuccessfully tried to call various humans. I went back around 9 and managed to get in touch with Alexis, which just led to a lot of tears and “I-miss-you”s. After that I finally got to bed, exhausted beyond comprehension.

This (Wednesday) morning, I got up bright and early at 7:45, but I will write about that later, as it is now time to go walk for half an hour before I arrive at the bar.