Ma Chambre

Today was my first full day in Nantes. I haven't seen much of the town, as I have been in planes, trains and automobiles as long as I have been here. I am staying with a French family in Nantes, although different than my own back home, they are very delightful. Being from a family with only two children it is an adventure to have four French siblings (three girls, and one boy aged 14, 13, 7, and 10). The mother is extraordinary, as any women would have to be with four energetic children running around. The father I have yet to meet.

The family is giving me for the semester a room that is wonderfully quaint. I've never had a room so large all to myself. There is a bed lit that is more comfortable than the one I have at home, like a throne is to a folding chair compared to the cell mattress I slept on in the dorms. Next to it is a darling little bed stand table de nuit with a drawer tiroir and a cupboard placard painted green with daises all over it. Next to that is the grandest wardrobe armoire I've ever had the pleasure of using.  

Across from the bed there is a desk bureau with a wicker chair chaise d'osier and a little garbage petite poubelle can next to it. Hopefully I actually use the desk this semester and study. I have no idea the rigor of the classes I wish to take, or the amount of reading in which they entail, but I wish to see the city along with study my brains out. Next to the desk is a thing with drawers which neither I, nor my host mother, nor word reference can name. Whatever it is it matches the bed side table in its daisies floating on green paint.

 
On the far side of the room there is a storage cupboard garde-meuble with some of the family's things. A bookcase bibliothèque sits next to it with a mirror miroir slanted against the wall on top. I didn't bring enough physical books to use the book case, but maybe I will gather some while I am here. I am a bibliophile, and a compulsive book buyer so that is all to possible.

On one wall of the room there is a grand window fenêtre with a heater radiateur below it. I know that heat is more expensive in France, if it wasn't a ton to pay for my small apartment in Minneapolis then it must really be expensive. So I don't think I'm going to touch it.

So far I am very pleased with the house. It's location is amazing too, it is right across from a cemetery  and only a twenty minutes, when walking normal person speed, from the IES center. There are also buses everywhere, and trams too. Hopefully sometime I'll head out and see the city but tomorrow I head out to Tours for orientation. 

Waiting

My plane is scheduled to take off around 12:55 and board around 12:25. Yet I have been in the airport since 9 this morning due to the kindness of my mother who drove me here. I'm glad that she drove me so I could see her before I left, but this is incredible. So far, other than the TSA agent tossing my checked bag as if it were trash, nothing bad has happened. I can't really explain how bored I am right now, or the other feelings welling up inside of me. I'm heading to France from now (January 8th) until May, and this is the first time I have taken a plane by myself. That in itself is hard for me I'm very comfortable doing the same things, living in the same way, and being with the same people day in and day out. But I have an ever burning desire to depend my horizons o see new things and to experience a new way of life. I'm going to France, but to be completely honest it feels really surreal  as if it isn't really happening. I keep looking around and expecting someone I know to tell me where it is I am really headed, I couldn't possibly be flying to a different country to live, by myself. I never have thought of myself as independent, I feel like I'm always leaning upon my family or Travis, they're always there to take care of me, but now I'm by myself for the first time in my life. Given however that I'm never more than a click away from anyone in this ever connected world wide web of an age. But I think that this is why I really wanted to study abroad  I wanted to learn to be by myself, to learn to be self sufficient  to learn some sort of independence that I would never be able to get here in Minnesota surrounded by those I love. I want adventure, freedom, independence. I want to get lost, to get confused, to get scared. I want to find my way, find the answer, find my strength. I want to meet new people, see new things, and taste new foods. I want to do things that no one I love has done. I want to experience French culture in the context in which it was created. I want to learn, to eat, to pray, and to wonder. But until then I have to wait for this silly plane.