Bonjour!

I finally made it to France. After nearly 24 hours of travel, a car ride, 3 planes, a bus and a taxi I arrived at my new home in Grenoble. It is a whole new experience. The house has 9 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, kitchenette, and a living area. It is a tudor-style home with 3 floors. I live on the first floor (which is really what Americans would consider the 2nd floor) and I do have my own room. It's huge! It is twice the size of my room at Chaparral, and even bigger than my room at home. Today I really didn't do too much (other than traveling half way around the world). One of my roommates arrived on the same flight from Frankfurt as me, so we took the bus together to Grenoble and were met by our Program Director. He gave us a brief tour of the area where we'll be living (unfortunately most places were closed because the French close shop between 12 and 3 or 4). I unpacked a bit and then crashed. When I woke up, 3 more of my roommates were here and we went down the street and had some French pizza. It was wonderful. They have really thin crust and they put tomato sauce and some sort of cream sauce on it and their cheese is like nothing you've ever tasted before. We had 3 different pizzas, but their chicken and kalmata olive pizza was the best. So far I'm the only girl in the house, but that will change in the next few days. As for the roommates, there are 4 guys here so far--Ben, Brian, Robin and Cesar. Ben is from Tennessee, and this is his second time in Grenoble (he was here over the summer for 2 months and loved it so much he wanted to come back!). Brian is from Southern California and has been in Europe for a few days, as he spent New Years Eve in London. Robin is from some small school in Maryland, he's 19 years old and is so excited to be abroad. As for Cesar, he is from Mexico but commutes into Laredo most days for school. Well, that pretty much sums up the first day. I am so exhausted since there is a 7 hour time difference (it's 1:05 in the morning here, which is only 6:05 pm there!!) Look for pictures soon!

Much love,

Jessi