Bonjour de France!

I'm finally here! There's so much to say, but I'll try not to ramble too much.

It's been a crazy first day or so. I left D.C. at about 5:30 in the afternoon on Friday and flew all night to Munich. There were two other girls from UVA on the flight with me, which made things a bit less scary, though none of us have ever traveled outside the US before. I had a window seat on the left side of the plane, so as we headed north I could see the last little bit of sunlight disappearing on the horizon. While we were over the Atlantic it was unbelievably dark outside, but as we got into Europe, I could see city lights. A small glow would appear outside, focus into streets and buildings as we passed over it, and then disappear behind us. It was beautiful every time, but once, the light was so bright I wondered if it was dawn (it was about 5:30 a.m. at that point). It wasn't dawn, not yet- it was just a huge, sprawling city, lit up even in the dead of night. I checked the map, and yes, it was Paris. Of course. : )

We got into Munich early- about 7 a.m. their time. Our flight to Lyon was at eleven and was only an hour, so that was fine, but of course by that time our bodies thought it was five in the morning and none of us had slept well on the plane. It was a bizarre feeling, looking out of the window and seeing daylight but feeling like I should be asleep.

I finally reached my host family's apartment at about two in the afternoon on Saturday. They have five children, but only one still lives at home- the youngest, Marjolaine, who just turned 18. They were throwing a surprise birthday party for her the day I got there, so I only had time for a nap and a shower before I met pretty much their entire family and all of Marjolaine's friends. One of their friends has a daughter my age, and after watching me struggle to explain who I was to several people, she leaned over to me and said, "Just tell them you're the American- they'll understand." So for the rest of the night, when someone asked who I was, I said "I'm Sarah, the American," and (without fail) they'd say "oh! yes. I know who you are." I thought it was hilarious. Everyone greets everyone with a kiss on both cheeks here, and it caught me a little bit by surprise at first, but I got used to it. Not everyone starts with the same side, though, so there were some funny moments when I would go right and the other person would go the same way and we'd almost bump heads. The party was exhausting- speaking French, hearing French, thinking French. But it was exhilarating.

I have some pictures to post of my room and the insane six-month-old cat the Moreaus own, but I'll post them later. A bientot!