A Post Full of Joy and Happiness

So I've realized that a bunch of my blog posts recently have centered on negative things. Please don't think that I'm unhappy here in France- I'm certainly not. Some things here are challenging, confusing, or just not as good as they are in the U.S., but I'm really having an incredible experience. Here are a few cool, happy, or fun things about my time here in France:

-I have a new favorite cheese. My host mother serves a course of cheese with dinner every night, and I've fallen in love with Camembert.

-I have a really pleasant walk to school every morning. It's a long walk- 20 to 25 minutes, but I get to walk through a cool part of town and it's just lovely to go for a stroll in the morning.

-My bedroom here at my host mother's home is really nice. The bed is comfy, I have a wardrobe (that's a big deal for someone from the U.S.), there's a window that lets in a bunch of natural light, there's a curtain that blocks the light when I don't want it, and I've got a sink right here in my room. That is convenience in a nutshell. And it's really nice because the toilet and the room with the sink and shower are on two different floors, so it's cool that I can just use my personal sink.

-I have WiFi, but I don't sit at my laptop all the time like I do at home! It's because there's French TV to watch and I can talk to my host mother as well.

-The other kids at school are nice to me. That's really nice of them, because I'm the dumb one in the group. For the rest of my class, the course started in April. I arrived in the middle of the class. The rest of the people already know each other and have adjusted to life in France. They're great at speaking French. I need more practice. It looks like I'll get it, though, because the others always talk to me and invite me to hang out with them.

-Tours is an all-around better place to live than Paris is. The biggest advantage is that I don't have to buy my dinners anymore- my host mother provides breakfast and dinner for me, and the homemade dinners are so much better for me than the constant intake of restaurant food was. It's delicious, too. Tours is also less crowded than Paris is and there's less crummy tourist garbage. Waiters and restaurant owners will still occasionally speak English to me, but for the most part they'll let me use my French (and yes, that's a good thing). There are a lot more trees and plants here. It's also surrounded by two rivers (one is a rivière and one is a fleuve. Bonus points if you look them up to see what the difference is) and there's a cool place to walk or have a drink along the water. It's just fantastic.

And here are a few pictures:

(This bottle of water was 19 Euro cents. Score!)