Uhhh

Well I have had an interesting 2 days, but when have I not I guess..
 Here are some things I have learned about the French:

1. They do not like good smelling hand soap. Literally ALL of their hand soaps smelled like public restrooms. Ew.
2. Their grocery stores smell different...let's just leave it at different.
3. They do not supply bags at the check out of a grocery store, you have to either purchase large plastic reusable ones or bring your own. (Very good for sustainable purposes!)
4. Although their tap water tastes different, it is drinkable, to me. I hope it is actually drinkable because I do not like spending money for water every time I go somewhere, that would add up quickly.
5. Their grocery stores, slash Carrefour, where we went, is arranged super odd. Like hair straighteners, irons, and floor cleaners were all on the same aisle, I'm guessing because they are all electric appliances? Shmeh.
6. I learned this the other day, but they do wear jeans here, lots of jeans. For some reason I had thought that they don't, but they do. For which I am relieved.
7. No one smiles when you walk by them. Sometimes a "Pardon" if having to squeeze by, and if you enter a store or something people will say "Bonjour", but not in the general passing on the streets.
8. They import their oranges from South Africa.
9. Body odour has a new meaning here. And public transportation is a good way to find out about it..mmm.


Ok. So yesterday Noelle and I decided we needed to go to 'Carrefour' to get some much needed supplies. So we headed to town, stopped at the bank, got some breakfast (a quiche), and then went on a mini adventure to   the Walmart-like store. It turned out to be in the middle of a mall. We wandered around for a good 10 minutes trying to get a feel for the lay-out of the store. There is almost no order to it. But we managed to find the body wash, which I needed, which was right next to the hand soap. And the process for sniffing out hand soaps began. OH my gosh. Impossible. It is impossible that EVERY hand soap smells like public restrooms. You know the smell. But yes. EVERY one did. I finally settled on a random bar of soap that said "Raison et Lait" grapes and milk. It turned out to smell wonderful! Like grape flavored candy or gum.  My entire room smells like it now actually. Same goes for the smells of the body wash. Even the dove brands I am used to smelled different. Noelle and I decided the pomegranate one smelled decent enough and off we went to find her a straightener (mine from the states works fine yay!). We ended at the cash register, and quickly discovered you have to buy a bag if you want one. Interesting. But what a good way to save money on plastics and stuff. Many people brought their own, or put their purchases in a backpack and such. Very smart on Carrefour's part.

We got back and I hung up some clothes with the hangers I bought ( I also got a 10 euro iron) and we organized our room some.

Genesis randomly appeared at our door in perfect timing and we went to go see a man in charge of our study abroad stuff. HE SPOKE ENGLISH! :D :D :D. Probably the first person there who we have spoken English to. I love being surrounded by French, but it was a relief since we had to get important information. Orientation is not until next Thursday. We will get our student ID, our classes, and information on the semester. And then classes start the following monday. Basically, we have some time to do  what we want! We then headed to another lady at a different campus to get a temporary interenet username and passcode. SHE spoke English too! And she was super nice. I like her. She is incharge of all exchange student stuff too, but on the business school side. After that we went to town and got some dinner at a patisserie and sat in the grass in front of this massive castle like chateau. After we decided to go explore! (pics coming hopefully if I can get it to work).

HAHA we saw a group of monks on vacation visiting it too. We followed them around a bit inadvertently.  After we went back, and pretty much went to bed. I have been falling asleep at like 8:30-10:00 ish partly because of a lack of things to do, and I guess I have been tired, because I haven't had a problem falling asleep at that time.

OK. Today.

Woke up. Felt very rested. Showered. I don't know if I said this before, but the showers here are great. Good hot water, good pressure, locks on the doors, clean, etc. Noelle and I needed to meet with our floor's cleaning lady "femme de menage" so she could check off our dorm quality sheet (like problems with the dorm that already exist so we wont get charged for them at the end of the semester) but she never showed up at our dorm. So we took a nap. haha. oops?

Genesis came and woke us up thankfully and we headed to get some good ole internet next door at a place with Wifi with our new usernames and passcodes. OH WAIT. our computer's wont let us! What the heck. Something witha  proxy and settings. They give us instructions. and theirs dont match up with what the settings on my internet are. Hopefully we will get help soon. That was frustrating..needless to say I am back at the lovely "Quick" Quality Burger Restaurant...

We went to town and got some fresh pasta for lunch! Delicious. Then headed to see Eve, the lady we saw yesterday, and she gave us our monthly stipend! WOOT. food money. But it was a check. Hm. Time to get a french bank account! We went to BNP Paribas, which is a sister bank of Bank of America. And got a French Bank account. I feel like an adult :). Kind of.

Back to the dorm. We chilled. And are now here at Quick.

This was long. I am still working on trying to be more brief. There is just so much!

We haven't met many french people. I mean we have talked to a bunch, but not befriended any. Although the Frenchies know we are here because last night some were pounding on Noelle's door at like 1 am saying something about us being Americans. I slept through that. They left. She did not open her door. She had peeped out her peephole and said they didn't look mean or w/e, probably just drunk and curious, but still. No.

I'm excited for orientation next week. But until then we will probably go explore some other parts of France. Like the beach, which is 45 min away.

Au Revoir.

**I put up 3 pictures.  1. Me in my dorm! 2. At the castle chateau. I'm in it. The big thing behind is a super old church across the street. 3. The monks haha