Tongue Tied

I've arrived safely! and finally have the chance to write a post. The wi-fi (pronounced wee-fee here) has not been working on my laptop so I'm using Pauline's. The french keyboard is weird, qll the keys qre in the zrong plqce1: It nqkes it very hqrd to type:

My host family is great and I think the best host family anyone can ask for. The mom, Madam Marie, treats me like a daughter and is a great cook. They have a 17 yr old son, Louie, 20 yr old daughter, Pauline, 22 yr old son, and a 28 yr old son. They don't all live at home, but visit often. The dad, Craigoire, is very sweet, though he looks very tough when he sits on the sofa gazing out the window smoking his cigar and drinking a glass of champagne. I had Orientation on Sunday and he drove me all the way there to St Sulpice.

Paris is a beautiful city, narrow streets, full of petit cafés, and gorgeous buildings! But I must admit I was very homesick on the first day. It is slowly wearing off as I meet more and more students in my program. Classes begin tomorrow and I already have some reading I must do. Tomorrow is also my french placement test, I realized how much french I've forgotten in the past three years. But it comes back sometimes, when I hear a word here and there, 'oh yeah! I learned that word in class'. I went to a phone store and tried to ask the guy at the counter how to add minutes to my phone... It went like... bonjour, euuh je veut euuh les minutes pour euuh... he gives me a quizzical look... euuh je suis étudiante étrangérè euuh parlez-vous l'anglais?... he says, a little... by the end, we used pictures and pointed. he added minutes for me and told me, in french, that i needed to call a number and punch in a code (i was surprised i caught the meaning) but i must've looked back at him blankly (probably while i was thinking about what he said) because he just took my phone and did it for me. Let me tell you, it was mo eXPENSIVE. 35 € for one hour of calling time.

I am also sooo glad my family can speak english, although not superb and with thick french accents, because I wouldn't know what to do if they didn't. I mean I try to speak french with them everyday, but it ends up being a lot of 'euuhs' and 'uumms' and more like frenglish? engrench? flish?.... flish. hahah.

I will go to sleep now, class tomorrow. I'm pretty excited!

Bon soir.