le 5 janvier

I'm here! After a long yet smooth journey I arrived in Toulouse last night around 10pm. My flight left San Francisco for Munich at 9:15 the night before so as soon as we were in the air, I fell asleep. I then slept pretty well, despite being uncomfortable, for the remainder of the flight. I woke up to hear the captain saying something in German (I flew Lufthansa) so I checked the time and it was 8 am (5pm in Munich)! We were already making our descent, I couldn't believe it!

After I passed through customs and found my gate, I just hung out, a little out of it. The flight from Munich to Toulouse was then only about two hours so I just listened to music. I stepped into the Toulouse airport, a little lost, and searched for any person that resembled the pictures I had seen of my French family. After a few minutes I saw my French father holding a sign with my name on it and I went over to greet him. It was my first time doing the air kisses for real which was exciting.

As we waited for my bags to arrive we talked about the flight, Christmas, and how long baggage can take sometimes. He said that because it was a Sunday night the baggage would take a bit longer because there weren't as many people working. I then proceeded to tell him about when my family goes to Hawaii the bags can sometimes take close to an hour because it is a completely different culture. I told him that when we go to Hawaii, my mom goes to rent the car, and my siblings and I can eat lunch and then finally the bags arrive. He exclaimed, "oh wow, you eat lunch before your bags arrive, they must take forever!" In France, people usually take 1.5 to 2 hours for lunch so I think I threw him off a little, it will take some time to adjust to this new culture.

We then drove home and I met my French mother, Damien (22), Arnaud (20), and Delphine (18). I also met Ingrid (17) who is their niece and living part time in the house. Damien is studying architecture in Paris so he took the train up there this morning and Arnaud returns to his university in England in one week. My family is very sweet, I really like them. And they have a cat, Symba, who is very fat and happy, just like Martha. I ate with my family and then unpacked my suitcases, I'll try to post pictures of my room tomorrow.

My room is very cute and cozy, but I have to add some more touches to make it more homey. I ended up falling asleep around 2 am and then when I woke up I looked at the clock and it read 5 am. I guess I slept too much on the plane because I then could not fall back asleep! Needless to say, I was quite tired today. Our orientation at the Dickinson center started at 9:30 so my French mom drove me over and I met the group. There are 30 of us total, but about 10 of them were here last semester as well so they weren't at the orientation.

We were given a lot of general information about Toulouse, we talked about the universities, safety, rules, etc. After lunch, we had a little tour of the neighborhood around Dickinson and then talked some more. My French mom picked me up after the orientation was over and I took a little nap when I got home.

Tonight I had another delicious dinner, I don't know what exactly it was but boy was it good. I think it will take a while for this to feel like home but I know that eventually it will. All of this French is pretty overwhelming as well, but I feel prepared. I am excited to see what this semester has in store for me. I think it is time for bed, I have another day of orientation tomorrow.

Bonne nuit,
Molly