Day 1 started off with a tour of campus. The tour was a bit overwhelming and I feel like a lot of the things they showed us aren’t particularly relevant to the program, but we did see a few things that are good to know and it was fun to visit a different campus.

This is the front of the campus-very pretty! I’ll try to take more pictures as the time goes.

Next we had a one hour orientation, which was more for the students, but it was good information for me to hear to know what our students are told when they get here. As you can see below there are a few different options (mostly timeframe-the one on the right is specifically for University of Florida students). They have two 3 hour classes each day. For most of them the AM block is a French class at their level and then the afternoon there are electives in French and English. Everyone has to do a required Intercultural Communication module that meets a few times over the course of the semester as well.

After brunch they did an ice breaker (find someone who…) and then gave us a nice brunch (I forgot to take picture of that) with quiche, tea sandwiches, charcuterie and of course French pastries!

At 1:00 I was done for the day, so I decided to go back to my hotel to do some work and get organized. Then I decided to walk to the grocery store because I never made it yesterday. One thing I miss about France is how much walking I do because the cities and towns are so walkable (and when they aren’t the public transportation makes a car unnecessary). On my walk there I passed this beautiful church (as you can see it’s cloudy here, but so far no rain!).

And of course I’ll finish this with my dinner for the next 2 days (fairly limited due to no oven here, but I guarantee these frozen meals will be better than the ones we get in the US!):

I’m still not fully adjusted from the jet lag, but hoping to make it a little later tonight. Tomorrow, it will mostly be meetings with the summer program staff, so there may not be much to report, but hopefully this weekend I’ll have some fun things to share (and the big move into mon appartement!).

For the first 3 nights I’m staying at a hotel across the street from the university. It seemed like a good idea because a) I’m so tired and it’s convenient b) the apartment I’m staying in isn’t ready until Saturday and c) I can get a better sense of the town and orient myself before I’m “out of my own”.

This hotel room is bigger than many French hotel rooms I’ve stayed in and the staff are very friendly and have been helpful in pointing me in the right direction (so far for nearby food because I’m starving and exhausted!). That being said I’m glad I’m not here the whole time because the room is going to feel very small quickly!!

Tomorrow we get a tour of campus and some other orientation activities.

Made it to Chicago-now I wait 😴

I arrived in Paris! Now I’m waiting for my train at the station. First time I ever saw the Eiffel Tower on the flight!! 🇫🇷

Incase you’re wondering how packing is going….

More updates enroute tomorrow!