Day 1: The Arrival

January 12, 2011

Bonjour mes amis!


     Since I am going to be in France for 4 months, I figured I would keep a blog for myself and my friends! I left Logan Airport on January 11th, 6:15 pm, just before the huge snow storm hit, I was very lucky. I sat next to a girl from MA who was going to study in Dublin for a semester. Once I arrived in Dublin at 5:30 am, I kind of went through customs not really and then got a chocolate croissant while I waited for my flight to CDG airport in Paris, France. Once I got to France I thought it was gonna take a while to get through customs but they just looked at my visa, stamped it, and sent me on my way. I some how managed to find my way to the train station in the airport after asking 3 people how to get there as it was in a different terminal than my own. I got to the train station at 10:30 and sat around till 1:15, when my train was to take me to Nantes! Thankfully, I met up with about 15 other students who were going to Nantes for the IES program so I did not have to get lost all by myself. On the train I sat next to a young French guy named Olivier and we chatted in French almost all the way to Nantes. He was very nice and gave me some tips about places to visit. Once I got to Nantes, I met up with the rest of the IES crew and we struggled with our baggage through the train station to find the IES people that were suppose to be waiting for us outside. Unfortunately, there was no IES representative waiting for us, but most of us had our guides so we just got taxis and found our own way to the IES center. Once there, there was a closet sized elevator that we all had to take one at a time with all of our luggage to the 3rd floor. After we dropped off our luggage, we went upstair to the IES abroad headquarters. We were welcomed by an older woman who spoke only in French. She gave us a directory of where all the other students were living and an itinerary for the next few days. Then we all sat around and chatted for a few hours while we waited for our families to come collect us. 
     I am staying with a middle-aged couple, Marie at Joël Artarit. Joël is a doctor and Marie is kind of his secretary, she deal with all of his paperwork and faxing, she works from their home which is nice because that means I get free wifi! Marie picked me up at about 18:45 and drove me around Nantes a little. I live on a private street near the center of Nantes. I have a good sized room with a desk, a bed, a closet, and little chair; it's very nice! We ate the most delicious dinner of soup, dinner crepes, and dessert crepes...I know I am going to be eating well! I can tell that I am going to have a wonderful time in Nantes! I will post every so often, I am off on a 3 day orientation retreat to Tours, France! Until then, Au Revoirs mes amis!