La nourriture française.

I keep meaning to write about the food here. I've had a hard time finding corn syrup on food labels when I get a chance to read them. The only thing found so far with corn syrup was some sickingly sweet candy I found in a vending machine. I could only eat a few because they were so sweet.

I love the French's attitudes on food. There are so many smaller markets with fresher produce than in the states. One of my friends here told me that France has a ban on imported food from the United States because our food is genetically modified, and I think they have the right idea. There are at least three or four boulangeries (bakeries, usually bread stuff) just on my way to the university. I bought some strawberries today, and they weren't an abnormal gigantic size like they are in the states, and they're so sweet! No sugar needed.

My host mom is an amazing cook. My mom being a (relatively) bad cook may have come up in dinner conversation last night. She made a zucchini souffle last night, and it was absolutely amazing. My first day here, she made a cake called gateau basque, which means basque cake. Basque is just the name of the region Pau. It looked more like a slice of pie with a crust and a gooey middle that resembled almond paste. Immediately I thought of dutch letters, Pella, and Tulip Time. Sadly, it seems if people aren't from Iowa here they haven't ever had a dutch letter! Quel horreur! I really need to perfect that dutch letter recipe so I can share :). On Friday I'm giving a ten minute (I think?) presentation on this cake, and I hope that means I get to mooch the recipe from my host mom!

The espresso is amazing here too. I can drink it black, and so far I haven't been able to do that in the states. The taste isn't as bitter here. Today I had a "maya" from a super cute cafe in the L'eclerc (the local mall here) called Théoucafe? The baristas all wore vests with a question mark on the back. The name literally means tea or coffee? Maya espresso reminded me of the mexican mochas we have at Being There with yummy spices and a slight mocha flavor. I really like the small portions of coffee here too. I can never finish a 16 ounce in the states!

Breakfast is the meal I miss the most. Usually I have brioche (small loaf looking bread that has a slight sweet taste) with nutella and jam. Here people eat a small breakfast followed by a large lunch and dinner with no snacks in between.

Today I learned the phrase "Je suis dans la lune," which literally means I'm in the moon. In english it's I'm in the clouds, or spacey. So happy to know this phrase! I've been meaning to tell my host mom that I'm a little ditsy, and now I can express this sentiment. I have a feeling it'll explain some things.. Like the alarm and how I never know what's going on :)

Quelle journee!

What a day.

Today was the official orientation for the USAC kids. We took a placement test, which went okay, which included grammar, writing, and an oral part. I received a compliment from a professeur (pardon mon francais), which completely made my day. I told her that I didn't really like to speak french yet because I felt that I wasn't very proficient, and she told me I was the best speaker she'd had so far... And then she added en confiance.. As in don't tell anyone. And here I am posting it to the broad space of the interweb. C'est la vie.

Anyway, after orientation and a walking tour of the tiny, little campus that is l'universite de pau, we took a bus downtown. The downtown area is amazing. I mean this whole city is amazing. Soon I'll post some pictures of the houses because they're amazingly beautiful and completely different from the cookie cutter houses I'm used to in the States. Did I mention there are palm trees scattered about the city? C'est tres bizarre.

The bus system is extremely confusing for me, but then again I still struggle with the buses at U of I so what do I know. Still directionally challenged, truly. A couple of friends and I dispersed from the main group and went a cafe cleverly titled "french cafe" or something like that. Ironic, yes?

After the cafe, we attempted to find where my friend's house was, and on the way there we were stopped by a friendly-looking older french woman. She asked us if we knew french, which we modestly answered with a "oui, un peu," and she then proceeded to offer us a job running errands for her. Weird. We told her we were just students and we'd only be here for about 9 weeks.

We found my friend's house successfully and then we commenced to my own house. We got lost (surprise, surprise). Two older men sitting on a bench noticed I was lost and tried to steer me in the right direction but they didn't understand where I was going, and they thought I needed to find the university. So, we were still lost. We stopped at a bakery, and the woman there was super nice and helped us out. I found my way home! Yay! My friend and I stopped at another bakery on the way home because I wanted to get a baguette (they're AMAZING here). She needed a 5 cent euro for her purchase, and we could not figure out what the woman wanted from us. I eventually just opened my wallet and gestured for her to show us. Luckily I had what she was looking for.

After the bakery I found my house and struggled with both locks. There's a gated entrance to the house and a lock on the door as well. My host mom has an alarm system because someone tried to rob her in April. I attempted to disarm the alarm with no success, and fairly quickly the super obnoxiously loud alarm went off. A french guy from the company called and spoke super fast french while I racked my brain to say "je suis etudiante americaine. Est-ce que vous parliez plus doucement pour moi s'il vous plait?" Clearly the man doesn't understand french because I'm fairly certain he spoke faster after I said that... Anyway my host mom had told me that code previously and order was restored. But then.. as I went up the stairs the alarm went off AGAIN. Apparently previously stated french man didn't understand my incompetence with the alarm system. I figured he would turn off all of the alarms.

I was told to make my own dinner tonight because my host mom worked fairly late this evening, but after I told my host mom everything that had happened she offered me some dinner. I think she felt bad for me.

Tomorrow I start classes, and I'm super excited! My french is improving so much already, and it's only the second day.

Housing Assignment... 5 days!

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I got an e-mail yesterday from the USAC people (about time too, I leave in five days!), and I'll be staying with a woman by the name of Olphe Galliard. Still not entirely sure how to pronounce her first name.. or her last name. She was the only name listed, so I'm assuming she's single. I haven't been in contact with her yet because I wasn't given an e-mail address.

Anyway, as seen above, I'm only a mile away from campus! I'm so thankful because I'd heard some students were up to an hour and a half walk away from the university.

If you'd like to send my any kind of snail mail while I'm abroad here's the address:
Breona Darr
Bureau 125 Faculte des Lettres
Universite de Pau
64000 Pau, France

Countdown.

I leave for France in 15 days.

Also, I was told once to never use a thesaurus. I still completely disregard this advice because when you're writing a paper writing the phrase "as the novel progresses.." etc gets really redundant. I'm sure my professors feel the same.