A Little Eccentric

Tours!

I am now in Tours! I am sitting down in the lobby of our hotel because I cannot get a decent wireless signal in our room. So far, I am scared to death. Tours is HUGE and very, very french.
To give a recap of the day, we got up this morning and have breakfast with Herve, one of my parents tour operators (he is French, of course). He has always been awesome, and is proved to be so once again. He gave me his cell numbers, a hug, and many reassurances. It is nice to know I have someone here in case of any problem.
After breakfast, we packed up and got on a train to Tours. I really like trains. The one we were on was not crowded at all so I went and grabbed my own seat so I could take a nap, but the 3 cups of coffee I had at breakfast would not let me do that. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a tendency to eat really fast, so when I am at these long leisurely French meals, I end up eating and drinking too much to fill the time. I need to figure out how to stop doing that.

When we got to Tours, we went over to the hotel and then went out for food. Nothing opens for dinner until after 6:30pm so we had to find a place to get some type of food and managed to get only sandwiches and beers. We were there forever though, because the French don't have any meals that are less than 2 hours long!! I was getting really freaked out about this whole thing, and thus freaking my mom out. This is very much a college town with lots of my peers, but they all look and dress very differently. So far, I have determined I must buy knee-high boots to go over my jeans and a lot more black.
The town itself is amazing. It has all the charm of old France, but with a faster, modern edge. I really love it, but the loneliness is scary. I have never been without friends in my life. I was saying to my mom, if my friends were here and they spoke english, this would be the coolest thing ever. Also, they have no real campus. all the dorms and class buildings are throughout the whole big city. I have to get used to public transportation fast. My problem is that I am scared of making mistakes, but I need to just do things one step at a time. Also, the Frenchies do very little to help exchange students. They just tell you a few things and let you go. No orientation or anything.
It is late at night and I'm completely worn out, as you can probably tell from my flat negativity. I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow.

posted by Molly Jo @ 10:05 PM