Une Reine pour un jour...

Well, “real life” has begun. Gone are the days of fun and delight, everything is serious from here on out. Pray for me, please.

Just kidding! C’est pas vrai, pas du tout. I’m still having a blast, exploring the town and getting used to my surroundings. I can fair pretty well without a map now, it’s incredibly encouraging. I have a few favorite places in town, which you all will see when you visit me this semester (nudge): La Bastille, which is a fort on top of the town (the view is so beautiful it’s hard to breathe); Café Neptune, a quaint internet café that has the best Café au Lait in town for only 3E; and the Place Victor Hugo, which has the most incredible shopping in the world (I have never seen so many women in stilettos and fur coats in my life).

Yesterday we started classes at the university. I got placed in B.2.1.3, which is among the top levels of non-native speakers. Classes are hard, but so far I really like my professeurs, and it’s nice to be amidst students that are not in my program. Not one of us got placed into a same level! In my class I have an array of different countries represented: 3 from China, 2 from Japan, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Albania, 1 from Poland and 2 (including me) from America. I cliqued quickly with the Swedish girl, I think because we look very similar (tall, blonde, blue eyes). Her name is Charlotta, and she speaks French very well. Tonight we are all going to our student hangout center for a “Welcome Party” put on by the resident French students.

Un p’tit truc (a little thing) that you may find interesting: today many Europeans celebrate a little tradition called Le Gaulotte des Rois. What they do is bake these round cakes that have a faint almond taste, and inside the cake is a little bean-sized ceramic king. Whoever finds the little king in their piece of cake (usually by breaking their teeth on it) gets to wear a paper crown for the entire day. Very fun, even the adults do it. (You can imagine my surprise when I walked onto campus today to find many people wearing paper crowns…)

As for other things, Kristen and I are still working on finding a church, it’s proving more difficult than expected. She’s meeting with someone this week that knows a church friend from the States, and hopefully he will hook us up with just what we need. Until then we are having devotions together and challenging each other in our personal walks. She is a blessing, without a doubt.

That’s it for now. I love finding emails in my inbox, even when they are one-liners, so let me know what you all are up to! Thanks to all who are keeping in touch – I’m starting to realize that this is a rather permanent set-up, and not so much a vacation! Weird, indeed.

BISES A TOUS!