Alive and well in Pau

I HAVE ARRIVED

The beginning of the best semester of my life has officially started, although i am so tired i hope i'll be able to remember my first day. We left Chicago at about 6pm and had to sit on the runway for 45 minutes because the brake wasn't working, so that made me feel so much more confident about the 8 hour flight that was about to ensue. Once we got in the air the flight went by really fast, and i was in the same section as all the other USAC Pau students, so i had people to talk to. Once we arrived in Paris we had to take a ridiculously long journey to find our terminal that turned out to be a train and a bus ride away, (all the while carrying way too much luggage) and the 3 hour layover quickly slipped away and by the time we got to the terminal we only had an hour left to wait. We proceeded to shop the duty free, and stare longingly at the amazing french clothes everyone was wearing.

Soon there after i was on the plane to Pau and before i knew it i was meeting my host mom. Her name is Christine and she is the nicest woman ever. I couldn't ask for a better host mother (other than it being my real mother of course). She lives right in the centre ville of town in a beautiful apartment fully equipt with wireless internet, running water, and everything one would expect in a non 3rd world country. She even has HD tv. She has a 14 year old son Victor, and a 6 year old cat, who had managed to jump on me during my nap at least 3 times so far.

Tomorrow i have orientation and placement exams, so i have to be up at 8 am! That is going to be tough, seeing as none of my classes started before 11:30am in Chicago. My host mom is driving me tomorrow morning though so that should be nice, and i'm going to rent a bike from here on out since i'm only living about 1 mile from campus.

Better get to sleep so i can beat jet lag!!

A bientot