Last Saturday, we finally arrived in Tours after the long hours of traveling around 5:00 pm at the school. All of our exchange students were waiting to pick us up and they even threw us a small welcome party with food and drinks. After, my host family gave me a small tour of the city by car. They live very close to the city center and only five minutes away from the school. Their house is so cute, and they converted the playroom into a bedroom especially for me to stay in. We sat down for a family dinner later around 8:00. Families in France typically eat around this time and they tend to eat larger lunches and smaller dinners. I got to try all sorts of cultural food such as soufflé and a type of meat which tastes a lot like beef jerkey. The family also practices some different customs than I do in America. For example, every single member of the family says goodnight to everyone, every night.
The next morning, after catching up on missed sleep during our travels, I went with the family to a French grocery store called “Carrefour”. It was a lot like any grocery store in America, but instead of taking a cart, you have to pay for one with an euro coin. Also, their is a certain method of doing the groceries that is different than in America. Because my host family had a membership with the grocery store, they received a small scanner to scan all of the food that they put into their cart. Once finished, all they had to do was click a few buttons to pay. This method was a lot more efficient than having to wait to have all of your groceries rung up by the cashier. Later, we met up with some others at a local shopping mall before heading over to see a movie. The movie was hard to understand at some points but overall very funny! I can’t wait to learn more french and experience more French culture on this trip!