Week One: Figuring out what on earth we are all doing.

Salut!
     I hope that everyone had a good new year. I am now in Rennes France and have begun my orientation here at Institut d'Etudes Politiques. The rest of the students are in finals from last semester so only the international students have classes. As of right now we are only in one french language class that meets for a couple hours each day. When it falls in the morning it is extremely difficult to get up because it stays dark here much later in the morning than in the US. The rest of the time we all run around figuring out where to eat, how to open bank accounts and do all the paperwork so as not to get deported. I am living in one of the university dorms where I live with other international students and regular students from IEP, Rennes 1 and Rennes 2. Those are the three major universities here. I live in a single but it very small, trust the French to be economical. There is a pretty intense system of buses and metro here so we are all still figuring out how that all works. Postcards will start coming to people once I find the post office! A couple of the other American students and the Mexican students and I went out for crepes last night. Crepes are a speciality in Bretagne and dinner crepes are gallets. I had one with cheese, egg and ham. Amazing! I cannot wait to have enough room in my stomach one of these days for a dessert crepe, with nutella of course. I have some pictures and things on my wall but it is still a little bare so my only request from all of you is small things to hang up. It is very yellow at present. Once I get my camera batteries charged there will be pictures soon. Love from France!