The thunder was so loud that it woke me up in the middle of the night a few times and scared the crap out of me. I was already having a bit of trouble sleeping because I was so nervous to meet my new host mom the next day. The rain continued for a lot of the next day while I was in class and scheduling for my semester. After that I went back to my room and finished packing my things before meeting Akila, my new host mom.

We met in the lobby of the dorms, and she is the cutest lady ever. She is about five feet tall and weighs all of about 100 pounds, even though they don’t use pounds here. Her car is just as tiny, and I was worried that my two huge suitcases (which each weigh more than her) wouldn’t fit inside. They did fit after a little bit of cramming and some creativity. I had to sit in the front with a huge bag on my lap, and she was speaking rapid French to me the whole time. I thought she was telling me that I looked uncomfortable, so I kept saying “no, I’m ok.” Turns out she was telling me that I had to put my seatbelt on before we could leave. I felt like such a moron. Here I am refusing to put a seatbelt on instead of telling her that I’m comfortable. Woopsy.

Anyway, we finally made it to her apartment, and it is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. It’s a small two bedroom apartment, but there are balconies everywhere with tons of plants and the furniture is so interesting. My room is really nice and Akila gave me full rights to all the towels, dishes, and the refrigerator. I have to say that it has been really scary to only be able to speak French with someone and not be able to fall back on English every once in a while, but I think that it is helping my language improve tenfold. I was a bit sad to leave my friends at the dorm, but I can tell that this homestay is going to make the semester even more enjoyable. Here are some pics of my new apartment!!