The Adventure Begins: Day 1

Bonjour!

After a total commute of 12 hours I'm finally in Toulouse, and I'm so excited to begin my French culture immersion journey!

By the time I arrived, I had hardly even registered that this trip was happening. My flight was extremely long and tiring, and after 12 hours of commuting and only 2 hours of sleep I was barely speaking English, let alone French. The whole situation was very intimidating and I was thankful to have other CIEE members around me so I could find comfort in knowing we were all going through the same experience together. It was also very advantageous to have a chaperone stay on top of your schedule and alleviate some of the stress and anxiety of the trip.

When I met my host family I didn't really know what to do or say after greetings since it had been a while since I spoke French and I was feeling very rusty. Thankfully my host mom was very nice and supportive, she helped me get my answers out and encouraged me to talk. The family also has two small children, a girl, Chloé age 9 and a boy Gabriel, age 7. I'll admit that it is a little awkward talking to them as they speak fast and I have to keep stopping them and asking for repetitions. But all in all we didn't have that much alone time and I hope my French classes will kick in soon enough for me to be able to better communicate with them.

On the first day in a brand new setting with a brand new family, you'd expect a pretty light schedule. However I only had about an hour after coming to my new home before we had to leave for a family birthday party. After this event we also had to go to a neighbors house for dinner. This was very overwhelming, and all I really wanted to do was sleep and acclimate to my surroundings at home. However the day turned out to be really fun, everybody was super nice and supportive of my poor French skills, and we had a very good wholesome time.

So far from what I've seen of French culture, there aren't many differences to that which we have in the States, people are just very focused on family and enjoying their time. The culture shock has also been pretty mild, especially since there are so many students I can talk to within the program, albeit in French. The only real challenge has been getting used to always speaking in French, as well as constantly straining to understand what people around you are saying.

I am super excited for tomorrow, which is orientation and the first day of classes. I've already made friends, so I'm pretty content with the social scene around. I am also looking forward to getting to know my way around downtown Toulouse and exploring the area for myself.

Till next time,

Anna Kurchenko