Maintenant, la vie est belle

After a rather stressful week, I'm finally settled in with a new host family. That's right, I moved! There was nothing egregiously wrong with my former host family, we just didn't click. I found myself spending more and more time on my own in my room, and naturally, started feeling lonely. I didn't want to spend the entire semester hiding away, never feeling like I was at home where I was living, so I decided it was time to switch. Overall, the move went very smoothly. I moved in with Aurora so she helped me move my bags, and we were out of there in 15 minutes.

What did not go so smoothly was the fallout. Soon after the move was complete, I got a phonecall from my former host mom. It started out cordially enough. She was clearly sad that I had decided to leave, but did not sound angry and invited me to coffee to say goodbye properly. As soon as I agreed, her tone switched. She became insulting and condescending, basically telling me over and over that I was "mal élévée" (literally, poorly brought up, but in French the insult connotes being poorly educated and therefore low-class, as well as being impolite). I kept trying to apologize, but she refused to let me speak or explain anything. After she continued to tell me that this whole situation was probably due to inner conflicts of my own that I really need to work out, I finally hung up the phone. Needless to say, we will not be meeting for coffee. I am at least glad this conversation happened on the phone and not in person.

On a happier note, I am now moved in with my new host family and sooooo much happier! They are a young couple who work from home and have four young boys! The youngest is 18 months and the oldest is 13. I can't tell you how nice it is to be in a place where there's activity going on! They're very warm, very welcoming, and extremely talkative. So far, there doesn't seem to be a dull moment.

On top of that, my new host mom is an amazing cook! She told me that her goal is to cook something traditionally French for us every night! I'm in heaven. Last night, we had cassoulet--a dish from the Southwestern region of the country. It's a very rich dish (cooked, as the name suggests, in a casserole-like dish) with white beans, sausage of Toulouse, and duck confit. The beans soaked up the rich duck fat and everything was extremely tender. Absolutely delicious.

Looking forward to the rest of the semester, I am now extremely optimistic. I'm excited by the prospect to coming home everyday to this family, and I'm looking forward to starting classes at the Sorbonne on Monday! Thursday I went into the undergraduate offices at Malsherbes and formally enrolled in my subsections. Unfortunately, I didn't get the Latin subsection that I wanted, but the administrators of my program assure me that if I show up to the section I actually want, the professor will let me in. I feel like my semester abroad is finally starting!