I finally made it back! (And this time it’s a little more permanent than a vacation!)

After flying to Paris in a group with the other students going on the Sweet Briar program, we took a bus to Tours, where we are staying for a 2 week orientation. Basically, the whole trip was like this:

Then when we got to Tours we met our host families. My host parents have like 4 or 5 kids, but they’re all off on vacation somewhere so currently another girl from Rice, a Japanese student and I are their replacement kids for the next 2 weeks. They also have two adorable dogs.

The only problem is they keep trying to feed me nuts.

 

Just because the hazelnut powder is only at the bottom of the chocolate mousse does not mean I can eat it! Good thing I always have allergy medicine ready!

On the other hand my host mom makes me coffee every morning, so there’s some points in her favor. Have to ward off those caffeine headaches!

Saturday we visited the Château de Chenonceau, which is basically the most fairy tale looking French castle I’ve ever seen:

 

Complete with pink bedrooms:

Then we took the bus to Amboise and passed by another gorgeous castle in favor of Leonardo da Vinci’s final resting place.

Then of course being the American college students that we are, we had to find the playground in the garden full of da Vinci’s inventions. Then this happened:

Don’t worry though, because school started today at the  Institut de Touraine. The first day consisted of 3 hours of almost non-stop French!

Speaking of school… I should probably start that homework right?

 

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