I made it!

This morning those of us who were taking the train up north had to get up at 6:00. We met downstairs at 7, and then took a bus to the train station. There, we sat at a café for a while and I got a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate). It didn't taste much different than what I'm used to in America, except the glass was much smaller.

A little over an hour later, Hillary, Marina, and I got on our train to Arras. It turned out to be a shorter trip than I'd anticipated, and it wasn't long before we got off and met our host familes and an AFS adviser. They took us to a café and we talked about rules and such over more glasses of hot chocolate.

After that, we all said goodbye and went our seperate ways. My host brother has a birthday to go to today, so we stopped at a grocery store in town. The radio was playing and I recognized the song! It was called Toi Plus Moi by Grégoire. I felt pretty cool when I knew the words and everything. Ha ha! My host brother bought a Johnny Hallyday CD, i think, a birthday card, and some candy. The grocery store generally looked the same. They sold mainly the same kinds of items, although obviously there were more French brands and everything was in French. They do sell quite a few American things, though, too! I noticed an Astrix comic book and was almost tempted to buy it, just because Iùve heard of it before. I also saw a bunch of American DVDs with translated French titles, like the Chronicals of Narnia and Sleeping Beauty. The checkout lines were quite long. Everyone was very patient, though. No one looked like they were in a hurry to get through the line quickly or anything. The person at the checkout was sitting down, which is something i've never seen in America. There was also no one there to bag your groceries, but the reel thing (not sure what it's called exactly) was much shorter. The person stands at the end and pays there, versus in front of the cashier.

After the trip to the store, we drove for a little over 5 minutes to get to the city of Roclincourt, where my house is. It is a little more messy than i am used to, but i would rather it be that way than immaculately clean. My room is up on the second floor (or in America it would be the third floor). The first floor has the bathroom (no toilet) and my host brother and host mother's bedrooms, as well as the laundry room. The main floor has the office, the kitchen, the dining room, the toilets, and the veranda. There is a cat here, too, but it has a limp since it was hit by a car (or at least that's what i understood).

I have surprisingly not had too much trouble understanding my family and the advisor at the café. I haven't really said a whole lot myself, but it hasn't felt too awkward yet. I was expecting things to be a little more difficult. I'm sure it will get harder once I start school and actually have things I need to say, but for now things are well. The hardest part is trying to type on this keyboard. It has taken me forever to type this because, like Johnson said, the keyboard is different than in the US. All the keys are in different places and i keep hitting the wrong buttons. I don't think I've made it through too many words without having to use the backspace! Ha ha!

I should probably get off and go see what the others are up to. I think my mother is making lunch, so maybe I will help her with that or something. Before I go, though, I should probably mention that this computer has a fliter and it blocks facebook and myspace, so for the time being, I can't get on those. This will have to work for now!

I miss you all bunches!
A bientot!
-Miranda