Orientation Week...day 1

We woke up early this morning...at 7...to start our day. We got ready and headed out on our 30 minute walk to school. Once we got there we had some juice at the welcome coffee...cause we dont actually drink coffee...and then went into the main room for the first presentation. They introduced us to all the important pepople on campus and to the whole WellCome team who will be assisting us this week and throughout the semster. They gave us a folder that had which group we would be in for the week...luckily we were in the same group. Then they split us into two groups and had us take a French test...so they would know which level french class we needed to take. Needless to say...i'll be in the basic class. I got one word right in the vocabulary section...which was strawberry and i only knew that because we had bought some strawberry yougart at the store. Morgan took a little longer on the test...so we were split up for a bit

After I finished my test I headed upstairs to get my picture taken for my student ID. As i was going up the stairs the girl in front of me was real cute and sweet and asked if i knew where i was going. I said nope...i was just following the guy from the welcome team. She ended up being from Iowa and everyone else around us in the line upstairs was from Florida. Heather, thats the girl from Iowa, really hit it off and we talked the whole time we were in line. We then all headed down to the student lounge and Heather and I paid for the trip to Brittany which she and her roommate will also be going on on Sunday. Turns out...Morgan and her roommat had been talking in line upstairs too. I also asked Heather how to get a meto pass and she explained it to me. I watched the Florida kids play pool...on the tiniest table ever with only red and yellow balls...till Morgan got done with her pic. I introduced her to the Florida kids and then we headed off to Office Depot to buy some notebooks.

We had found the Office Depot on our map and it didn't look to far away from the school...but it was. It took us about 30 min to get there...and it wasn't an easy walk. But i did see a Ford dealership on the way...and of course took a picture of it. Our walk felt like we were walking down Seimers drive in cape...there were car dealerships on both sides for a few blocks...it was crazy. But we finally made it to the Office Depot and went inside to find notebooks...but all they had were graphing paper type notebooks...we were not too happy. We searched all over the store before we finally gave up and just bought the cheapest graph paper spiral notebooks we could find...and i bought this awesome planner since i forgot to get one before i left home.

After our treck back to the school we still had a little over an hr till the next presentation so we headed into the cafateria to get some lunch. They actually had some decent looking stuff but i settled for a can of coke and some french fries...which were awesome. The best part was we got to sit down after our long hike. Once we finished eating we went over to the student lounge to hang out till it was time for the presentation.

The presentations in the afternoon were for timetables (schedules) and French social secruity. The timetables was the most confusing thing ever. We can't view them for real until tomorrow once we go trough the computer session on how to use their system. They also have all kinds of different groups that your timetables depends on and we dont know that till we can get into the system. But the lady insisted on trying to explain it all to us right then. From what we can tell right now our schedules wont be too bad. We are only taking 4 classes and each class only meets once a week...granted it's for 3 hrs...but we dont have to go everyday!! Then came the social secruity presentation...which may have been just as confusing...we have to buy their social security...plus the insurance we already had to buy at home from school. They told us all about it today and gave us papers...which were in French...so it was no help...and then we dont have to do anything with it until tomorrow...but they didnt' tell us that in the presentation.

Once we finally finished all of that we started back home and were going to stop at the metro station that was on our way to get our passes so we wouldnt' have to walk as much anymore. We filled out the paper and Morgan was able to get hers because she randomly had an extra passport sized photo of herself with her...i however do not. So i have to find a printer...hopefully there is one on campus...that i can use to print a picture off so i can get my metro pass. We also stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some toilet paper and paper towels as well as some dishwashing liquid and a few more dinner things. I think they recognize us when we walk in cause we have been there so much.

Now we are sitting at home chilling out. We are so tired after our long day. We ate some chocolate ice cream we had gotten at the store once we got home...and it was delicious. We are going to prolly pass out early tonight and maybe...finally...sleep through the night. We have more orientation tomorrow but we dont start till 10...for 15 minutes...then we start again at like 1:30 for 2 hrs. Maybe we will find something fun to do tomorrow night. I'll let ya know then!!

The Ford Dealership along our walk