Day 5: The Host Family

Mom dropped me off at 12:30 at the SA office. There was a secretary there to direct us. Her name is Marie-Louise and she is probably 65...no English what so ever. I feel kinda stupid about not practicing French now, because every conversation I will end up having with Marie-Louise is going to be completely impossible. There was also the program coordinator (Madame Miraus) and about 50 other students. I think we ended up being around 60 Americans when it was all done, but some didn't show up today, which I think is really weird. Why the heck wouldn't they show up when they're supposed to??

I talked to one girl named Sarah today. She was really nice. She goes to school in Michigan. I hadn't actually heard of the place, but maybe she can be my Midwest buddy. I might need one.

My host family seems cool enough. They have a cat (YAY!) who sort of reminds me of my kitty Grisabella...theirs is called Mieu (MEW??) (I think...have absolutely no idea how to spell it) and it is really friendly! I miss Grizzy and Methuselah. It's not gonna be the same without them, but at least I have a cat in Paris! The family is a mom, dad and two kids: a son, Pierre, who is 23 and a daughter, Michèle, who is 19. The dad is really funny. He speaks perfect English and i felt so embarrassed when he started in French and had to switch to English. I'm thinking maybe I should work on this... Pierre is super cute. I don't want to be one of those gross stalker chicks, but he is. Um...yeah, not that I'm getting my hopes up, just that my French advisor said that 90% of the girls in the French program who go to Paris end up with a boyfriend. That's all I'll say. Michèle is really pretty, too. She's super skinny and sort of a fashionista. Guess I would be, too if I lived in Paris all my life? She's a dancer, which is probably part of it, and a runner. She kinda invited me to come to dance lessons or something with her. I kinda want to. Maybe then I'll lose some of this pudge??

I tried calling Mom when she got in, but her cell phone was off. No notice yet. Maybe I'll ask to use the house phone because I'm afraid my cell phone has crappy service. We had to buy one in France, which sucks. I thought I could use my Blackberry, but I had to activate it here, so we had to have 2 phones to get it running. Anyway, all's hunky-dory now.

Love, Annabel