Bienvenue a Strasbourg!

Sorry it took me a few days to find a cyber café and actually sit down and type.
I want to put this at the beginning, so that if you get bored over the course of this update, which you very well might, at least you’ll get the important information. You can actually send mail to my house, it’s better to send it there than to the direct of the program, although if you already sent me something to the first address (aren’t you sweet) I will still receive it. Just use this from now on:

Erin Milbeck
s/c Mme. Charron
6, rue de Charles Grad
67000 Strasbourg FRANCE
PAR AVION

Ok, now on to the real deal. So we arrived in Paris early Friday morning, about 7:00 am maybe, very tired. We had a 4 hour layover during which I slept, and I guess other people just talked or read, but I don’t know because I was asleep. We boarded the plane to Strasbourg and arrived sometime between 2 and 2:30 pm. We met the director of the program, Mme. Zehr, who is nice but does not have the most beautiful French accent. We got our luggage and our host mothers proceeded to “adopt” us. I left the airport with Mme. Charron (Anne and Jacques) and we drove about 25 minutes to their apartment in Strasbourg. These are a few pictures of the place, my room, and the garden behind (Fiona, that one is for you. It’s riding a pig).
They are a very kind couple, probably late 50’s early 60’s, with 3 grown children. But I didn’t get to know them very well because they left the next morning for a weekend vacay to see friends. Did I have the house to myself, you ask? No, but almost. Living with the Charrons and I is another university student, but he is a friend of the family. He is here for two weeks to take his final exams for some classes. Who knows when these classes were or why the tests are at the beginning of the year, but that’s how it goes. So, this young man, whom I did not know (I didn’t even really know his name) and I were staying in a house that neither of us owned, and it was strange. Pretty lonely when I was in the house too, so it was a good thing that this weekend was taken up mostly with tours.
I have more pictures, but I think I will upload those one or two per post.
I'm not sure what else to add at this point, other than everything is beautiful. There are enormous cathedrals, a winding river, tons of cute cafes. It's a great atmosphere. And having to learn the streets by yourself can be a very self actualizing and self motivating task. Learning things for yourself that are completely necessary but that no one else will tell you is hard, and it will still take me a few more days to figure out where everything is, but I'm getting it. I'm learning. A lot.
Ok, hopefully more soon. A tout a l'heure.