This new home doesn't feel like "home"

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy moving in and trying to get settled and then there was a problem with the Internet....joy

Sunday I pretty much bummed around the dorm all day. I packed, read, ate lunch and just sat around waiting for 6:30 to roll around so I could leave for my host family's house. I decided that I was going to take a taxi to my new house because I don't think I could handle carrying my purse, backpack, giant backpack, and drag my suitcase up and down the stairs of the metro, plus make 2 transfers to get to my metro stop. I was told that the taxi ride would be around 25Euros so I was prepared and had my money ready for that. I hailed a cab, the first time I've done this by myself and ridden in it by myself....the driver was kinda weird but he helped me put my bags in the car and all that so that was nice. It was only a 15 minute ride and only ended up costing me 11.50. I wasn't sure how much to give him for a tip so I gave him 2 euros. I asked this other girl how much she gave him and she told him to keep the change. I gave him a 20 so there was no way I was letting him keep all that change. Naturally, the door code that I was given wasn't the right code for the apartment.Thankfully, there was a sheet on the door that said who lived in what apartment and told you how to page them. I found my number and pushed it and nothing happened. Meanwhile, I'm standing there at the door looking like an idiot with all my bags and the girl in the window above me is staring at me like I have 5 eyes.

I must have paged Renee's number 10 times. I knew that she was expecting me at 7 and it was 6:50ish. Someone came out of the door so I just went in and took the elevator (I was so happy there was one) to the 6th floor. There wasn't an apartment number on the information sheet that they gave me. All it said was "at the end of the hallway." I found it, pushed this little button that I thought was the doorbell and waited. After pushing the button (which turned out to be the button that you push to make the hallway lights go on) a few more times and having nothing happen I decided to knock. I knocked a few times and there was no answer. I was starting to get worried because I wasn't sure if I was at the right building or not. I sat on the floor for a little bit debating what I should do. I found the courage to knock on a door and this guy's like "who's there" and I'm just like ummmmmmmm "I have a question" he unlocked his door and I asked him if Renee Filatre lived here and he's like yea she does and he shut the door. What a kind man.... I went and sat back down on the floor. The lights in the hallway went out and I got scared (I hadn't figured out that what I thought was the doorbell was actually the button for the hallways light). Someone came out of the elevator but it was a guy and he said "Hi" which I thought was friendly and I said hello back but then he just went inside his apartment. It was after 7:30 and I was starting to get angry. She was expecting me at 7 so why wasn't she there? I decided that if she didn't show up by 8 I would call her cell and ask her where she was. Well, about 20 minutes after I decided that, she showed up. She apologized a million times and said why she was late but I couldn't understand her because she talked so fast.

She showed me my room, which is pretty decently sized. I have a full bed and a little desk, a computer with a printer I can use, a closet, and another side table. It's a cute room. She showed me quickly where stuff was in the kitchen but she was talking so fast I had no idea what she was saying. She then took her dog named Fenton out for a walk and I started to unpack. I called home to let them know I finally got into the apartment and I got really sad. I was really nervous and I really didn't know what to say to this woman who I just met. She came back and told me that when I was ready we'd go to dinner. We ended up going to this little Italian place. I had a pizza...it was alright. It wasn't Olando's or Chicago Style Pizza but it was okay and I was starving so I probably would've eaten anything. We talked a bit during dinner but I felt like I was asking her too many questions and she really wasn't asking me anything. I guess I'm her 3rd student that she's had live with her and maybe she just didn't feel like asking me any personal questions other than how many siblings do I have....but whatever. She paid for dinner, which was really nice of her. She showed me where the metro station was and I knew that I wouldn't be able to find it in the morning because it was dark.

When we got back she got ready for bed because she works very early and I finished unpacking my things and setting up my room. I didn't have a very good nights sleep. I woke up a few times and freaked out because I didn't know where I was. I then woke up sweating because it was so hot in my room. When I woke up in the morning she was gone. I had cereal for breakfast, a good change from bread at the dorm. I really wanted a cup of coffee but I couldn't figure out how to use her coffee pot so I went without. Renee comes back home for lunch every day because she lives so close to work. She made me lunch which was awesome and then she told me that she'd come to school with me because the night before I told her that I was really nervous about taking the metro by myself. I thought it was really sweet of her to offer to take me to school. I made it there with plenty of time and saw Lizzie so I just went with her to wait for class to start. I went to this office to look for this lady who was supposed to have my ID and of course she wasn't there and wouldn't be back from lunch until I'm in class. We left the common area (kind of like the quad at U of I) and went to what we thought was our class....it wasn't, it was some weird office thing. This lady showed us where the classroom was and we were a bit late but the teacher didn't seem to mind.

My first class was history of Europe. It seemed like a cool class from the description online but it really wasn't that interesting. It was very hard to understand the teacher. She spoke entirely in French and spoke very fast. We did some lame introductions and she split us up into nationalities. I thought to myself...wow, that would never fly at U of I. There were 10 Americans in the class, about 7 Asians, 1 Australian, and some others from Spain and 1 from Russia. I really didn't think that there would be this many Americans in my classes. If I wanted to be in class with Americans I'd be at U of I, not in France. Anyways, after an hour and a half of class we got a 10 minute break. I got a diet coke and stretched my legs, hoping it would help me from moving around so much in class....it didn't. I really can't sit in a classroom for 3 hours. I'm so used to having 50 minute classes and checking my phone to see what time it is when the class is boring. This doesn't work so well when you know the class is 3 hours long.

Class finally ended, 10 minutes late, and I went to see if I could get my ID. Of course the office was locked so I'd have to get it later. A few of the girls from my program went to the park but I decided to get back home and ended up going with this other girl in the program named Amber who's having a hard time adjusting like I am. I made it back to the apartment and waited for Renee to get home so we could have dinner. She didn't get home until after 7:30 and then had to take her dog out. She didn't come back until after 8 and we didn't end up eating until 8:45. She made pork chops, which I really don't like because I'm really not that big of a pork fan but she made a sauce for them for they were alright if you covered them in sauce. She also made veggies (broccoli and cauliflower, which I don't like) and some pasta that we had leftover from lunch. I ate all the food even though I was full after the pasta and veggies but I felt rude not finishing. She asked if I wanted chocolate yougart for dessert and I was like ummm sure. It was basically chocolate pudding, the French don't have a word for pudding. I tried explaining it to her but she had no idea what I was talking about. We finished after 9... I don't know how they eat like that...I had a stomach ache at night from eating so late.

After dinner we tried figuring out how to get my computer on Renee's wifi thing. I knew what I was doing but she had no idea. She didn't know the password to her wifi connection so I tried 3 passwords for all the connections that showed up on my computer. She finally decided to call the company and she ended up getting disconnected after they told her to restart her box. When she called back, there was no answer....of course. So we had no Internet. I was pissed. I went to bed and watched season 5 of The Office on my computer.

Today, I woke up, ate breakfast and finally figured out how to work the coffee pot. It makes individual servings and the coffee is really strong so I added a lot of milk and sugar. I was feeling kinda depressed this morning and just layed in bed staring at the photos I brought from home that I put on my wall. I went to school 2 hours early today so I could pick up my ID. When I got to this woman's office it was a mess. She couldn't find the right paper to fill in my information so I ended up sitting there for a half and hour watching her tear apart her office. She finally found it but then the machine wouldn't work. She was like, you'll have to come back tomorrow but then she decided she'd try once more and thankfully it worked, so now I have my student id card.

Class today was just as bad as yesterday. The teacher did speak a lot slower but it's a class about impressionism and post impressionism. It's the first art class I've ever taken and I obviously had to make it hard on myself and have my first class be all in French. I really had no idea what she was talking about but once she put up the paintings I kind of got it. We have this option of doing this thing called "Nocturne du Louvre" where we pick a work of art and research it and with the help of the teacher come up with a summary of the painting. We then go to the Louvre and stand by the painting and people come up to you and ask you about the painting and you explain what it is. I signed up for it because it sounded cool...hopefully it is. This class, like all my other classes, was 3 hours long. The girl next to me fell asleep....

When class ended I got on the metro and went to the grocery store that is right by the apartment to buy some food to make when Renee doesn't make me dinner. We decided that we would have lunch every Monday and dinner every Thursday but for the other days I'm on my own to make lunch and dinner. I bought some rice, pasta, what I think is spaghetti sauce, some salad, tomatoes, a cucumber, some yogurt, a bottle of diet coke, some juice boxes, and a package of ham. My debit card wouldn't work for some reason so I had to pay with cash. For dinner I made a salad and this pizza that I also bought at the store. It was pretty good. Renee came home and she ate and I just hung out in my room when she ate because I didn't want to sit at the table and stare at her and watch her eat. I talked to her for a while and we tired to figure out how to work her tv but we had no luck. She told me she gets American tv channels but I don't believe her. I think she said that someone was coming over either tomorrow or this weekend to show her how to use it. So we'll see.

Sorry this post was so long. I'll try to update more often. I was going to update when I arrived here on Sunday night but I was using the computer that's in my room and the keyboard is really weird so it was taking me forever to type simple sentences.

Renee goes on vacation for 2 weeks next week and I'm kinda worried about being alone. I feel safe here it's just that it's already lonely enough because she works from 8-12 and then 2-7 ish every day and she works on Sunday. Wednesday nights she gets back really late because she has a swimming class and Friday she also gets home late because she has a theatre class she goes to. So I'm alone a lot which isn't a lot of fun because I'm lonely and missing home enough as it is.

My fingers hurt so I'll try to update tomorrow

a bientot