I'm in Strasbourg!

New Address:

Mlle Ana-Maria LAFUENTE
17, rue Charles Appell
67000 Strasbourg
France

French cell phone 33 (0) 603473072

The first zero is dialed only if you are calling from within france.

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Man! What a first couple of weeks!

- Sandy and Tim brought me into Strasbourg on Saturday and we all stayed at C.I.A.R.U.S., the Strasbourg version of the YMCA, except nicer and with bigger rooms. We had dinner in town together, one last time, and then we said good bye. I was left alone in the city for the first time ever.

- But not really because while Sandy and Tim left the next morning to continue their drive into Germany, Megan's flight landed at 8:30. I picked her up from the Strasbourg airport and we got to hang out for the entire week.

- Sort of. Because I still didnt have a place to live! It took us until Thursday to find a place and move in. Megan had to house hunt with us ('US' being myself and my new german roommate Melanie!) until then, but we managed to sneak in a few eclairs, quiche lorraines, and escargots (for Megan, NOT me!) in between. Melanie and I ended up having to lie to our landlord and tell him we were planning on staying for a year so he would rent us the place. We have to send him a letter next month telling him that we are moving out in December and by French law he has to let us break our lease. But he'll probably keep our deposits. Waa.

- Classes started this week! I'm taking:
European Integration
S'Exprimer en Francais (expressing yourself in french)
Francais des Affairs (Business French)
Civilisation Francais (self explanatory)
Technologie de l'Internet (not technically open to foreign students, but the prof is letting me audit)

4 out of 5 classes are taught in french! So yeah, it's finally starting to come back to me. And my italian buddies are writing me in italian and making sure I dont forget. Phew!

- This weekend was the 'Integration Weekend' that school welcoming committee thing runs. They took a 16 hour bus ride to Croatia (and weren't told before leaving where they were going). I've been to Croatia, and it's beautiful, and wouldn't have minded going again ... just not on a bus! Maybe I should have gone, but there's a whole city to explore right here!

- The city feels HUGE. Unbelievable, since there're only about 500,000 people. But compared to Ferrara, it's ginormous.

- I have myself a German roommate named Melanie who seems totally compatable (except for her love of leaving dishes in the sink for a day or two!) so it should be a fun semester. She likes to eat the Weight Watchers way, too, so that works out great!

- Our first weekend here, Melanie and Megan and I went to Baden-Baden in Germany, because, did I mention that Strasbourg is like 3 kilometers from the German border? Kehl is the closest city, and Melanie insisted we go grocery shopping there because it's less expensive (she was right!).

- I had to open a french bank account and even got a french credit card. I feel like such a member of society now!

I'm off to tackle the next challenge -- get cell phone service that doesnt cost an arm and a leg. Without the french bank account I could only get a prepaid card. In Italy, with the prepaid, I paid 25 cents a minute to italy and 50 to the states. Here, they wanted 55 cents to france and 75 to the states! CRAZY. So I'm off to get the best plan I could find: 40 euro a month for 3 hours talk time. THREE HOURS!! For the same amount of money in the states, I get 50 hours!

Ta ta!