"You're skinny for an American!"

Greetings from Chambery! French living is as amazing as I hoped it would be, but it was quite the journey getting here!

I left Cleveland last Saturday and flew to Newark, then from Newark to Warsaw, Poland and finally to Paris. Wellll, lovely Truman State University sent me directions to Chambery that simply said, "Take the train from Charles-de-Gualle Airport to Chambery." So, I go up to the train information booth and ask the man working which train I should take to get to Chambery. When I said that his eyes got really wide and he asked me to spell it for him; then he proceeded to look it up. Bad omen.  He told me I needed to take the Paris metro, which is infamous for pickpockets, to the Austerlitz Train Station where the train was departing at 11:02 pm. So here's me with five months worth of stuff packed into three suitcases trying to navigate the Paris metro with no ramps or elevators, but oh-so-many STAIRS. I honestly thought about just getting on the next plane to Cleveland, but I called the emergency contact at the school here instead. That wasn't too comforting because the guy didn't understand why I was alarmed and told me to just get a hotel once I got to Chambery in the early morning so as not to disturb my host family. Thanks a lot. The metro was a disaster and I seriously thank God for all those kind strangers who helped me carry my things and give me directions. Whoever said the French were mean was seriously misguided. I finally make it to Austerlitz, bruised and sweaty, and the lady informs me that the train was not going to come, but there would be one at 6:50 am the next morning. I lost it then, but proceeded to go to the ticket counter and reserve my seat for the next morning. The man working there was also nice enough to reserve a hotel room down the street from the station. So, I lugged my baggage through the streets of Paris and made it to the hotel (Side Note: if you look under things in Paris, homeless people look back at you!) By that point, it was 1 o'clock in the morning but I was so shaken I got maybe 2 hours of sleep when I woke up at 5:00 am. That made it less than seven hours of sleep for three days, and I was exhausted. I finally made it to Chambery, but that first night was the scariest night of my life.

On a much lighter note, Chambery is wonderful! My host family is the sweetest group of people I have ever met. Elisa and Dennis are the mom and dad and they have two daughters, Julie who is 16, and Emma, who is ten. They are very kind and have set up this adorable, bright yellow and blue apartement for me. Elisa loves to run long distance as well and we are going to go for a jog later! Yesterday, I went with Julie to her grandparents and we all had a great time talking about the different places we have been and about how Americians are so fat  because of our huge portion sizes (hence, the title of this post). Julie is the only one who speaks English, the rest is all French, but they do say I speak well, which was shocking to hear!

The actual school part of my time in France is really difficult, but I can't say that its not rewarding. My first day was Tuesday and right away I took a placement test and spoke with one of the French professors to see what group I should join. The groups range from 1-6 (one being the most elementary) and much to my surprise, I tested into Group 3. Class began and it sounded like everyone around me was speaking fluent French and I almost bolted. Then, I realized that they all have different accents and no one could really understand the intermediate French the other was speaking. Prior to my arrival in Chambery, I expected my class to consist of mostly American college students, but man was I wrong! I am one of two Americans in my class. We have people of all ages coming from countries such as Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, China, Georgia (the country), New Zealand, New Jersey, etc. The diversity is truly amazing and I really do enjoy improving my French with them. The professors are awesome, my impression is that they are all taught by sassy little French women who have a great sense of humor.

A group of us are going to Lyon this weekend, I will update more soon!