Angers

Feb 2nd, 3rd

We arrived in Angers and were met by the onsite director, Sue Crust, who is extremely nice and helpful. However, there was some miscommunication and our families were not there to pick us up. They eventually however. Mme Moulin is a short, older woman who is extremely sweet, but doesn't understand any english. Her children passed away a couple of years ago and her husband died this december. So the house is empty now except for us. I have a beautiful view from my tenth story balcony of Angers. I eat dinner three times a week, lunch once and breakfast every day at home. The rest of the meals I have to fend for myself. We took the bus home from the station which was hilarious because there is so much road work being down that the buses are always being detoured. The construction takes longer as well, because they always have to do archealogical digs, they found eight skeletons in one street. We finally got back to the apartment, which is right near town, a 10 minute walk. Mme Moulin took me for walk to the university so I could get there on my own and then we went downtown. She showed me some things I would need. After that we had a crepe dinner which was apparently for some holiday, we watched a little TV (at that point I didn't understand any of it!) and then I went to bed. After breakfast I went to do laundry downtown and had a great time trying to figure out how to use the machines... very amusing. After lunch we had our first orientation which was fortunately in English. We met all the other students as well. We took a walking tour of the town and they pointed out most of the stuff Mme Moulin pointed out. We saw the English library where all the books are in english and there are tons of volunteer opportunities.. I might volunteer for something. We also stopped to get cell phones and minutes. After the tour we had dinner in the school cafeteria which was alright, but dessert there was some weird pudding. Because it was dark the director, Sue walked me home, (She leaves really close) that was nice. I spent the evening trying to figure out how to work the phone! :) This morning we had our placement exam! which was absolutely terrifying!  I answered probably 2/3 of the questions because we were deducted for wrong answers. Well, I am already resigned to being in the lowest class so I won't be disappointed! Soon Natalie, Candice, Miriam (girls in the program with us) and I will go out to pizza before the tour of the chateaux. hopefully it doesn't rain... or snow!

Maria