ANNECY!

So we are here! We finally made it to Annecy! Today is our first day of classes. We have to be at the school by 9 o'clock and the only way to get there is the bus. So my French "mom" hands me a book of bus times and schedules and sends me on my way...I really was scared that I was gonna get lost. And after our adventures in Paris, that was a total possibility. The night before Catherine had shown me how to get to the bus stop and told me what time to be there. So I headed out, remembering what she had told me. I made sure to leave and attempt to catch an earlier bus just in case I made a wrong turn. I made it onto my first bus and the connection without doing anything wrong, go me! When I got to the school I spotted some familiar faces and rushed to say hello. As we swapped stories from the night before and learned about other peoples families. I started to get a little jealous. Most of my friends have nice houses, their own bathrooms, and showers where they don't have to hold the shower-head above them while showering (and all of them, unlike me, have warm water to shower with). The pictures they show me are of cute houses with cute little French window boxes displaying bright red flowers. Green lawns where one can look out and have amazing view of Annecy and the lake and happy little French birds chirping their musical French melodies. (This is a complete opposite of my bedroom covered in dragons with video games and a view of the apartment complex parking lot. Not to mention the fantastic sound of the train passing right next to my building and the tiny bathroom covered in no less then 23 sunflowers...I counted.)

As we stand in the hallway one of the ladies from the school ushers us into a big room for an orientation style meeting. We are all greeted and told of the days plan: Introduction and tour of the school, Placement test, Oral exam, Tour of the old town, then back to the school for juice and crackers and to find out where group you belong to. We went on the tour of the school. It's this slightly run down building, but still better then nothing. (The sister school in Chambery has their classes in an old chateau...yep, once again, jealous!)

Now it was time for the test. It was that bad. It asked us questions about grammar and vocab. Also about French roadsigns...I have no idea, I dont drive here! Then we were assigned a time for our Oral Exams. I got the last time slot. So seeing as we had some time to kill we went on an adventure to find some food. We ended up finding a small supermarket where we got some bagettes, cheese, fruit, and a coca light. We made our way back to the school for our tests. It went alright. We had to just talk about ourselves to one of the professors and lasted a total of 3 minutes.

Now it was time for the tour of Annecy! We started walking and all of a sudden we walked through an arch way and there it was, this picturesque little town! With cafes and cobble stone streets it didnt look real. We walked through "la vielle ville" and I fell in love! We walked over a bridge looking up into the mountains was breath taking. The water running under our feet was so incredibly turquoise blue and crystal clear...wait, am I in France or in the Caribbean?! Taking in the beautiful scenery I figured this viex couldn't get anymore fairytale-like, but just then a graceful swan floated into the picture. It was beautiful! Warm-toned and brightly colored houses, crystal clear turquoise water, the Alpes as the backdrop and a swan. It's official, im in a fairytale. We continued our walk and spotted the famous "Palais de l'Ilse" or the old prison. An icon of Annecy, as soon as I spotted this I finally realized where I was, ANNECY FRANCE!

We continued through a park and to the mall and wound our way back to the school. When we got there we sipped on some coca light and ate crackers. After we were assigned our groups our group fro, Utah went back out to explore a bit. After sitting by the lake for about an hour we headed home. Dinner was so yummy! Catherine works at a restaurant and knows how to cook! After dinner I was exhausted and went to bed as early as possible. What a day!