Autun the Beginning aka Bat Country

Bonjour from Autun!

I got here today via train (which was an interesting experiance, but a nice British guy who looked suspiciously like Clive Owen with a beard helped me with my bag. ::askance look::) But I met my host mother by almost freaking on her when she caught my arm. Oops. But it seems that the ASSE bags work, because thats how she found me. (for those who never saw it, my ASSE bag is a big piece of crap duffel in red, white, and blue that screams 'LOST AMERICAN HERE! ROB ME!')

Their house is beautiful, the countryside hilly, cool, and awesome. My host mother speaks wonderful English and asks that I help Jean (host brother of 14 years) with his English as he helps with my French. Maybe we'll switch homework... I mean...

It turns out that Marc (host brother of 16) is in Kansas City for the year as a student there! The only problem is that his school is entirely black and Hispanic. What was USA's ASSE thinking? Thats not the enviroment you drop a non-English speaking foreigner and expect him not to get hurt! So we are all hoping he gets a new family, or he may have to come home.

And on that note, my period started in the train station, so I had to ask my host mother (on the first day) to take me to get some supplies. She tried to explain the situation to my host brother, who flipped. Way to break the ice... Every time I turn around I feel like Gene Wilder in Romancing the Stone. Totally out of my depth here. But I'll learn. (and no Micheal Douglas to be seen...)

And I have my own bathroom! (useful)

They actually are renting this house, and they have their real house in the Dordougne area, and we'll be going down there this autumn. The father has a naturally high-stress job, so they take lots of short holidays to preserve his sanity. Understandable. I know a certain toxicologist in the same boat... Hope he doesn't workk too hard.

I start school on Tuesday with Jean, and we'll go to the office to negociate my tutuion, courses, and the like. Evidently one of the perks of private school is that the teachers aren't dragons. I reserve judgement.

Tomorrow we are going to Chathedral Saint Lazare for a special mass. They attend mass every Sunday, but don't expect me to do the same. I'm going to see their church a few times, and if their is nothing I need to otherwise do, I'll attend with them. This is my choice for now. It may change, but the family is so friendly and chill that they would understand if I chose not to attend. The mother told me that I was her one of her children now, and would be treated as such. They took Jean and me to McDonalds for dinner, which doesn't happen for Jean any more than for us, so we were both enthused. And the mother asked that she, Jean, and I begin doing something active together (I explained my knee injury, so she suggested moderate jogging/walking; which I am so down with.)

I'm a little concered about the language, but I'm giving it time and not panicking. I even have a towel.

Salute for now! (and please excuse any typos, this is a strange keyboard...)

Love,
Dami

Rock The Casbah

Hello again!

My family here has a computer, and they say I can use it whenever, so I may be able to write on an almost daily basis. Of course, I say that now before school starts...

I woke up this morning and the family was shocked to see that I had no slippers! I tried to explain that I sometimes don't put shoes on for days at a time, but they didn't get it. Probably shouldn't tell them about Uncle Mickey's entire year sans shoes... I wear my flops around some to make them feel better. I told them thanks for keeping my butt and they smiled and waved it away. They've had exchange students in and out for a while, and are used to our relitive craze.

Lunch today was amazing! We had bits of thin jambo (not my dog, ham) and beef avec onions with bleu cheese sauce and cantelope in sugar and vinegar, pomme frites, et applesauce, et pain (you don't put pain on the plate, you put it agouche your plate on the table. ::shrug::) et fromage et pour dessert an amazing apple pie a l'mode avec chocolat sauce. Ma maman told me as we were eating that we were taking a walk post siesta, and as we were eating dessert she ammended and said we were taking a long walk. We laughed, and I knew that this family and I will get along no problems.

Apparently they had a pair of twins in July who didn't like anything they served. I was aghast. Their food is amazing!

They asked after Dad, since I talk about my mom all the time and don't get to mention him a lot (we were comparring the tendancy to call one child by another's name. Been there. I told them that eventually it deteriorates into "Hey! You! Come here!") so I told them about his garden (they have catepillar problems here too) and how hard he works, and they sympathized.

Which reminds me, at the start of October, my maman and père are going on a five day vacation, and are leaving Jean and me here for school. They've done it with Marc and Jean, and I intend to call my ASSE contact here to let her know, but if my parents have concerns, they can find a friend here to stay with us, or whatever. Doesn't bother me, I'm glad that my French père can take a break to save his sanity.

We get a lot of quiet time here, taking rests and doing our own thing until the family stuff occurs. I keep asking them to assign me chores, and they assure me that they'll give me something to do. My maman does all the laundry, which wowed me, but she said I could iron sometimes. I can do that, really!

Mass was interesting. My maman didn't know that Protestants didn't cross themselves. The church was beautiful, so if things got too boring I could stare at the stained glass. I'll send pictures of the town, it's like every little French Provential town the movies ever made famous! Church is about an hour usually, so its nothing too bad. We'll see how it goes.

In school, since I'm taking the Literature route (as opposed to Economics or Science, each route gives you different courses at different levels. Literature means less math!) so I'm taking French, English (the one class I'll pass) and one other language. I think I'll take Spanish while I'm working through the Romantic languages, but I can take German and maybe something else. Theres an afterschool drawing club that meets close to our house, but its for younger children. We'll see, I may not have the energy for anything extra curricular.

We walked for about an hour an a half all over town, (must... bring... camera...) so exercise has been achieved, and maybe we've paid pennance for that marvelous pie. But Mass was this morning...

Radio is funny over here. Its a mix between French pop and English whatever. They played the 'Working Class Hero' cover by Greenday and then without pausing for breath played 'A Day in Paradise' by Phil Collins. Strange. But I have a radio in my/Marc's room that plays my mp3, so I am not lacking in soundtrack.

I gave out the Gator gifts at lunch. They laughed and told me that they had been to the Everglades (they've been a lot of places! They've been to Mt. Rushmore, the postcard was a treat. Wish I had sent more.) and had seen gators there. Jean got the Hurricane shirt, but the humor kind of missed him, and I've never seen him wear a t-shirt. Its all Oxford shirts and angora sweaters. Ah well. Père got a Gator, which he seemed to like. Ma mère got the shell necklace, since she may or may not have pierced ears (she has the marks, but I've never seen her wear any earrings), which she put on immediately. She wears a lot of jewelery, but she may not wear that kind. Ah well, its Florida. We're fun but tacky. Corona flipflops rather than fuzzy slippers.

Vive la Penguins!


Love,
Dami