"Quoi?!"

I felt like I had to write SOMETHING, or I'll forget everything that happened in the last few days. Everything has been going by so fast, and once we got to Paris, French hit me square in the face like a 2-ton battering ram (what is a battering ram anyway?). I got to Paris, and Outtum (our Youth Enxchange chairperson for my district) met all of the exchange students coming to our area in this area outside the terminal. He was the FRIENDLIEST person ever. He took my suitcase the second we arrived, shook my hand, and I finally learned how to pronounce his name (YES!!!!). He bought us pastries when we were waiting by security, and he talked to us about our integration weekend next week... in French (AAAAA!). When I went through security with my friend, David, all of the guards seemed to be in a REALLY bad mood. I even got my first pat-down ever. It was scary... I had no clue what I had done wrong. I think I forgot to take off my bracelet... fail.

When we got to Mulhouse, I was automatically hugged by Francois, my host dad. He is SO SWEET- he's been showing me around the city for the past couple of days- where I'll go to school the first four weeks, where the bus stops are, which bus to take, places to shop... I could go on! He and Christian (my club counselor) even got me a phone! I couldn't believe it! We just walked into the store (seemed kind of like a combination of AT&T and radio shack) and they set me up with a number, a phone, and even an SD card for pictures! It's incredible how nice they are- even though the language barrier is absolutely terrifying (Francois knows hardly ANY English at all). Veronique is great too! I haven't been able to spend as much time with her as Francois because she works as an architect during the day. I actually haven't seen her in 24 hours. I think she's on a business trip (when Francois told me where she was, I could only understand "300 km"). And that is what's scary: someone could say virtually anything about me and I'll be lucky to understand half of it. Oh well. That's the beauty of exchange! A constant combination of not understanding and learning. I think the most useful thing in my French vocabulary is either "Quoi?" (What?) or "Je ne comprende" (I don't understand).The good news is usually I understand it once they rephrase the statement (again in French). If I still don't they usually give me a hint in English (ex: "Feed the cats?" "Your computer" "Come this way"). The ironic part is that the hints they give in English are usually the aspects of the sentence I understand. Heh. Again, that's the beauty of exchange!
My bedroom is great! It has 3 parts. On the level where the door is, there is a sink, some kind of shelving unit, and a closet (Yes, there IS a sink in my bedroom. HOW COOL IS THAT?!). Then, there's a few stairs that go down to an area with a desk, a bunch of drawers, and a door that leads to the porch outside. Then, there is a steep, small flight of stairs (more like a ladder) right in front of the door that goes to the area I sleep in. Everything in this house has REALLY bright colors. I wonder if Veronique designed some of it... Her office is the same way!

The Microwave!!

We had something like spaghetti my second day for lunch. It was SO GOOD.

The dining room with the AMAZING light fixture

The kitchen!

the oven- it's so cute!

The front door!

our car! It's sort of like a mini van. The windshield area looks more like a Prius though... it's funny because it's modern, but it's stick shift!

My house!

also my house, and the view!

also my house...

my house again! The right side is REALLY old... and then the left side (where my bedroom is) is an addition they built recently!

I've already tried SO MANY new foods. The cheese is PHENOMENAL. It definitely beats American cheese. The bread is really great, too! Every restaurant usually serves free bread, and the water is always free too (the water they serve at restaurants is NOT CARBONATED!! GASP!). Last night, I tried Sardines for the first time (they taste a lot like tuna, I think), and I also tried this weird black pasta... I guess it's made with squid. It was really salty, but it wasn't necessarily bad!

And then there's the Buildings. Oh my gosh, the buildings are SO INCREDIBLE. The buildings are certainly very old, but they have 21st century shops inside these old buildings! Besançon is divided into two parts- the old city and the new city. The new city has all the 21st century accommodations- a mall, a grocery store (which is INSIDE THE MALL, might I add), and even, yes, a KFC (WITH 2 FLOORS!). What is this world coming to? In the old city, there are a bunch of places to shop, but they're all inside these old stone buildings. There is a park, several restaurants, and the university (the university, however, is in a very fancy-looking modern building). There's even a river here- the Doubs. It's really pretty!

Besançon <3

The university I'll be going to for the next four weeks is the white round building on the right. Cool, huh?

Well, It's almost time for lunch, but before I go, I'll leave you with a couple of random cultural differences:
-They use the metric system (duhhh)
-Yogurt with fruit inside of it is, apparently, for babies
-Distressed jeans are looked upon as "dirty" or "for poor people" (fail! I brought two pairs of distressed jeans!)

And now, for a few pictures of my French cats:

 À Bientôt, mes amis!