My First Experiences in Dijon

We had one last final moments of what seemed like an everlasting winter vacation with our week libre (free) in Dijon....
Unfortuneately it was minus 4 celsius most of the time which made exploring and going out almost unbearable. Nevertheless we went to a museum, got a walking tour, learned where a couple good bars are, found our way on the bus system, and go to know our families.... oh and the creme de cassis factory!  Just in case you don't know what it is because I didn't till I got to France-land, its a yummy blackcurrent liqueur. Its mixed often with white wine to make Kierr or champagne to make Kierr Royal. We got to try all the different flavors- pretty strong but very fun!

The program does this awesome thing where two students cook dinner for the group and a host family every week. I decided to cook the first week with a guy Kyle. We made Buffalo wings, brusselsprouts, and Mom's famous chili (which even in France everyone LOVED) - I made sure you got lots of credit mommy Tana. Unfortunately my host family couldn't come but it was still a great night of speaking french, drinking, then speaking french a little louder.

Thursday morning provided quite the uncomfortable situation. My host mom's mom, who lived in the house with us, died. I decided it was best to get out of the house and let the family be alone. So I have been spending lots of time getting to know other host families and eating meals with them- which has been very fun.
Thursday I ate with Erin and her host mom- Friday I ate with James and his family and we had racklet. It was SO fun. And his family is very inviting and funny. Saturday I had lunch with Megs family. There house is like a museum. Paintings all over the walls and that really decorative walls like at Versaille where its like silk cushions. Maybe you have no idea what Im talking about.... Ate dinner at Erins where we made crepes! it was fun and delicious. We went out for a girl on our programs birthday and I decided to sleep at Shanas because lots of their family was at my house.
Sunday lunch again with Meg and her family. Then we decided to go ice skating. That was really fun. Then I had dinner at Erins again (crepes... again) and I stayed there because of the family.
Then came TODAY=First Day of School!
French School. How fun.
I am in the same level and group as Erin so its nice to have at least one friendly face in class. We had comprehension ecrite this morning. 3 hours. I never have class for that long! So that was brutal but not too bad. We went back to the Condorcet (the apartment the University owns) to eat lunch and hang out. We had to go back for our elective class which started at 4-6. We have to pick one elective (or 3 if you're in the highers level) to attend and test out of. You can attend how ever many you want but at the end of the day I will have to take 1 exam. So basically what everyones stratagey is is to go to all the electives and then after the first two weeks decide which ones you will actually attend and test out of. So tonight was Economics. Which was like econ 101. And I knew that, but thought it might be interesting and useful to learn the words and expressions in french. After today I don't have my heart set on the class but we'll see. The teachers voice was so high and squeaky it was hard to pay attention for fear of laughing. But it was still interesting enough...half the time. The other half was her telling us out to draw a supply and demand (demande and offre as they say) graph. Brutal.
I then went to check out a dance class I might start going to. I ended up eating at Shanas because although the grandmothers funeral was today and most of the family has left her brother was still here.
And my first day of school ended in snow. About two inches so far. Well see how tomorrow goes. Everyone says that Dijon people don't know how to act in the snow and life slows WAY down...