I apologize for not writing yesterday. It was a big day. I moved to my new host family. I woke up around 9:45, showered and packed up the very last bits of stuff in my room at Michele's house. I was ready to go around 10:15, so she called me a taxi. After about a fifteen minute taxi ride, I was at my new host family's house.
In Paris, it is very rare to find a house. In the actual city center, there are pretty much only apartment buildings. From what I can tell it is due to the insane property prices in Paris. But my host family's place is an actual house. I arrived there around 10:45 yesterday morning. I sent them an e-mail thursday night saying that I would be arriving, and they replied saying they were happy to have me and that I could move in around 5PM. Great... What was I going to do with all of my bags for the nine hours between when I leave Michele's house and am allowed to move into my new place. I e-mailed them back asking if I could just drop off my bags and then go leave for the day. They said that was fine.
When I showed up at the house, a very nice gentleman opened up the gate and helped me get my bags into the house. I thought he was my host father, but turns out he is his brother. My host family is spending the weekend in the countryside so they had him come and make sure the new students arriving yesterday were met by someone.
He showed me into my room, which is on the first floor. It is the first door on the right when you enter the house. It overlooks the small outer courtyard and the street. The room itself isn't anything special, a twin bed, a desk and a shelving unit. But the cool thing about it is that I get my own bathroom. The bathroom is about the same size as the room. It is complete with a closet, shower, sink and toilet.
Overall the place is quite nice. It is four stories, one is the basement. There are four other bedrooms for students plus the host's room (I assume), which is on the top story and has a loft. I haven't met any of the other students because I headed out to the library yesterday before they got there. I heard some this morning but I had just woken up.
It doesn't feel like a homestay though. It feels like a boarding house. I have to say if this was the first place I went to, I think my homesickness would have kicked in a lot earlier. Michele was amazing. That was a genuinely homestay with a Parisian family. I met her members of her family, her friends and she seemed to take a genuine interest in me and my time with her.
Also, she had wireless. This place does, but my...I guess you could call him my host uncle... didn't know how to do it so I was internet less while at their house. I went to the library yesterday but I left around three after I finished my homework. I had to work on my presentation for my class tomorrow morning. I had to get it done so I could send it off to my tutor so she could correct my grammar for me.
I don't know how this week is going to go. I still am homesick, I usually can only eat about one and a half meals a day, and I feel so guilty that right now I just want to come back home. At the library yesterday, I was talking to a good friend who I really respect a lot. She just spent the last year in Thailand teaching English and she had spent a quarter(?) in Paris her Junior year at UCSB. She told me she knew exactly how I felt. I also told her that I was really looking forward to coming home at Christmas and I only had seventy-something days left here before I could be safe at home.
She told me something very interesting. She said that countdowns don't help. At first I didn't believe her, but then she explained. She said that the best way to combat homesickness isn't to try to get rid of it, but to not think about it. And countdowns do the exact opposite. They bring it to the forefront of your mind. She also told me that no matter what, time doesn't move any faster than one second at after the next.
I think this post is long enough, so I am going to go for now.
P.S. I just had to share this really quick. I was on FB chat and I was talking to my friend Amara on facebook chat. I told her I didn't have internet but this was the exact sentence I said "My homestay doesn't have wireless, so I'm at McDonalds." I probably should have told her that McDonalds does.
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