When in France do as the French...

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. But I'll be sure to make up for by it writing an uber long post to keep you guys satisfied.

Courtyard view of the monastery.

The first night in Ambialet was very relaxing, although I may say, the pillows in France suck. I wasn't too jet-lagged and slept through most of the night, until around 6am when there was a big crash in our room. My one roommate, Francie, accidentally fell asleep with her laptop in bed (which is a top bunk) and it fell. She got up and checked to see if her laptop was okay and hers was fine. So we all went back to bed; however the next morning I woke up and went to get on my laptop, only to find out the screen had been shattered. So the final conclusion was that my laptop broke Francie's laptop's fall. So I'm currently laptopless. On the brightside though, everyone here in Ambialet continues to tease Francie about her laptop issues, and her tendency to get her head in people's pictures.

My Laptop. It won't let me turn it, so just turn your head sideways.

  So to continue my next few days I'll touch base on a few things. And if you want an in depth story I will gladly explain it to you later. But currently it is 1am here and I'm getting a little tired. To continue, Saturday afternoon, we went to France's version of Walmart called Geant.

Once there we quickly realized that we obviously stuck out in the crowd, but no worries, everyone was very friendly. Almost too friendly, aka the creepy dude at the check out that kept talking to me. I had no idea what he was doing or what he wanted, so I just tried to turn away. Meanwhile Francie, Jen, and Alicia just stood by and laughed at me while this all occured. Thanks guys.

The next day some of the students attended mass at the chapel attached to the monastery. It is such a beautiful church, being that it was built over 1,000 years ago. It was here when it finally hit me that I was in a foreign country. The priest and congregation (a total of like six other people) welcomed us warmly by attempting to test out our French speaking skills. The mass continued in all French, and I eventually caught on to some words.

 

The church and attached monastery.

After church was over and lunch was finished, some of the students decided to take a hike down the mountain to explore the village. We all quickly found out that although Ambialet has a population of 32, it is quite the hotspot for bicyclists and walkers on the weekends.

We then made our way over to Nadine's, which is a French cafe. While some ordered coffee and hot chocolate, others, including me, decided to take advantage of the freedom to order a nice glass of wine or beer.

Our first weekend eventually came to an end, and classes began the next day. It sure looks like it's going to be an interesting semester.....

Day 1: Arriving to Ambialet

Greetings from France! Well I made it!...you know only after a long two days of traveling... Tonight has been a pretty relaxed evening, just everyone unpacking, eating delicious food from our chef, Bernard (yeah it's kind of ironic Dad), and finally realizing that we're in France! Tomorrow apparently there are some plans to head out to Albi and go to France's version of Walmart, called Giant. So there I will definitely be buying some sort of slippers because the flooring throughout the building is either wood or tile. Other than that I believe we have the weekend to get settled in and prepare for classes to begin! Look for more post later this week, I'm just tired and don't feel like making complete sentences.