After leaving the baggage claim, it finally hit me that I was in France. I looked at my watch and I realized that it was only 5:30 back home, but it was lunch time in Paris. My ears were drowned in shouts of "Bonjour" and "Merci" and I suddenly realized that I should have left my English on the plane. At the customs window, it was difficult to discern what I was being told. Why had I not taken a refresher course in French over the summer?
Upon stepping foot on the pavement outside of Charles de Gaulle, the first word that came to mind was "compact." Everything was smaller, the cars, the road, even the people. After strategically loading each piece of luggage into a "micro" trailer, attached to our VW "mini" bus, we began our drive to Tours.
I was finally able to get some shut-eye on the bus, woken only by the sound of scooters and motorcycles whizzing by on the thin yellow strip between the lanes.
Three hours later, we arrived in Tours. I was instantly mesmerized by the architecture and feel of the city. Tours was much larger than I had expected, dwarfing Lewisburg to a mere spec.
The architecture of Tours seemed surreal. I almost felt as if I were in an amusement park. One of the other girls from Bucknell said that she felt as if she were in Disney World.
Unfortunately, my host family was at a wedding and were not able to pick me up. Instead, I stayed with the family De Gare for the weekend. Although complete strangers, the family treated me as if I were one of their own. During dinner, the one thing that caught my attention was the ease at which little Benoit, the youngest child, spoke the language that I was struggling to grasp.
On Sunday evening my family arrived and I was very eager to meet them. They were much like I had expected, and more. Exhausted from the plane, I retired to my bed after dinner.
At the moment, my mind is in a constant struggle between English and French. My eyes are feeling heavy and it is already difficult to type in English. A sieste (nap) sounds good right about now. Until next time...
