je suis ici

I'm here!

I finally made it to Chambery, and I'm going to start my blog here. The keyboard here is completely different, so I'm hoping that by the end of it, I won't be so used to it that I'm confused when I come home. Thank you all for being so patient for me to get started. It's been really hard to get access to any means of communication. Please ignore any typing errors. The keys here are all moved around and it's really hard to get the hang of them... q and a are switched, the period is moved. M should be a semicolon. My messages have taken so long to type.

I arrived in Chambery yesterday. Jon and I took a train from a small station in Paris (where small is about 30 lines), and rode through the countryside, into the foggy, rainy Alps. When you're not around high buildings and the fog has lifted, you can see the foothills. I know once the rain stops, we'll see some snowy peaks along the horizon. Once we got to the station, we were packed into a mini minivan with five other stuents and shuttled to our residence. So far, everything has been a pleasant surprise.

We share an apartment with one other student- so far, mine is really timid and doesn't want to speak French. I only want to speak French. Obviously, we haven't talked much. After unpacking, Leslie and I went for a three hour walk around our new neighborhood. I found a boulangerie, where I bought bread for breakfast. It's so much fun to communicate with the store owners in their native language. I can already see my confidence increasing. I like to think that it's because I make lists of words I forget throughout the day and look them up at night. I really think I'm going to be one of the nerdy ones here...girls are already saying that they don't plan on doing the homezork or speaking it outside of class, which is frustrating. I didn't come for a 3,000 euro vacation.

ANYWAY, I like my apartment. The kitchen has a little table and stools, with enough supplies to make any meal you can afford...as long as it can be done on two burners. Ok, so it may take me a bit to figure out which wway to turn the dial for high and low, but it's getting there. I wonder what happened to the labels for that stove...My room is off of the kitchen and it is huge! The bed and sink seem so small against the wall-length desk and tons of open space. It's killing me not to decorate. No worries, parents; I'm being pretty frugal. My roomie's bedroom is the same, but off to the right of the the toilet and shower, which both have better pressure than at home.

We met as a class at noon today and walked down the street to the international market, which was so much fun. There were booths with foods from all over the word, mixed in with information and products from their culture. It was hard not to buy something from every stand. I did buy a coffee with pure cane sugar from a Haitian. He was sitting with his skillet over the fire, actually roasting the fresh beans and grinding them for each pot. I didn't auite catch everything he said, but I know that the beans were his own product from Haiti; the smell was amazing. I ended up getting a Cambodian salad for lunch, with vegetables native to the land and a thin, transparent noodle in really light sauce.

From there, Jon, Leslie and I began walking around the town center, going through clothing shops and stopping for crepes before coming to get library cards and use the free internet. It's always easy to find the center of town; it hosts the huge fountain of elephants. We're only about a ten minute walk from it.

Tonight, the market turns into a free concert; those who have booths will perform pieces from their cultures while everyone gathers on the benches and fountains, eating the remains of the day's fares. Our group is going for a while, but leaving early to go to the pub together. There are a bunch of them around the residence, which makes me happy. There are always old men inside, even at 8 a.m. So, I know I won't be going out much- that saves soo much money, and I'm so NOT a club-scene kind of person. It would be interesting to see what it's like, since there is only one in all of Chambery.

It's time for me to go. Hopefully, I can post again soon. If you're reading this, I miss you like crazy. Love to all, and a bientot!