Dear all,
I'm happy to be here. I'm been training for and dreaming of these days all my life, and it's weird that I'm living them and will be looking back on them forever. I guess all of our days can be like that though. I was so nervous and scared to come here but wasn't going to let anything stop me; having issues the days before leaving proved that. Thanks again mom and dad for helping me change flights and trains. After having to change my flight because the consulate had my passport hostage while they were closed new years even and then until Monday, my flight was cancelled. I took off from Boston at 8:30 Tuesday morning and made it to Rennes past 10 am current time zone.
I knew in the taxi that I loved it in Rennes, I had a hunch before then. I found my school and my dorm pretty easily minus lugging huge suitcases around. I admit I was wondering what I was doing in a foreign country alone for six months until I ran into other foreign students before my first class. A kid I took a few classes was here last semester and I had no idea he would still be here so I was so excited to see him as well as another kid I worked on applications and forms with. I felt much better seeing familiar faces and realizing that everyone was as scared and confused as I was.
Since then we've all spend most of our time together. Starting this semester, there are 4 American students, 5 Mexican students, 2 Russians, 2 Scotts, a Brazilian, a Greek, and a girl from Switzerland. There are other students who started last semester that we haven't really met much of yet. French kids are still in finals now so we've mostly been hanging out amongst ourselves but we've been meeting many other kids in our dorms and at parties and at school. My French is usually fine but between understanding the people and what the heck is going on, I'm pretty confused and pretty tired most of the time. Every day is a new adventure from trying to figure out and showers and stoves to trying to find where to go to turn in important forms.
Classes have been pretty low key 'cause they've just been relaxed French classes, at random times and in random rooms, with a few different teachers. Sometimes they're fun and sometimes they're boring. I think the school just knew that we'd need the time to adjust before starting real classes. Well, and that Rennes is our giant classroom right now and class is always in session. I'm trying to soak in everything, but it's so much right now.
I need to be better about writing down detailed descriptions of what we do each day but I'll just give you the highlights: We went to the street market on Saturday and I was just in awe. We got some vegetables and bread and cheese and things. We've been going to the super market for most things but we plan to go to the market and get more things there each week. We've been exploring the city a lot most days or nights, a lot of walking. I loved church on Sunday. I felt so at home and was so touched. People were so nice and luckily dad had called ahead for me so they were expecting me and ready to welcome me. I went back for "pancakes and ping pong" tonight and brought four of my closest friends here.
There's so much I can say, but I wanted to finally get an update out to all of you. So you know, I'm here and I'm safe. Let me know if you'd like to keep getting updates and if there's anything else I should talk about. Love you all,
Jennifer
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