En Tours

Ok, the letters are in weird places all over the keyboard so excuse me if I type something weird. The M is next to the L and the A is on the top left corner and the W is on the bottom...

So I finally arrived in Tours. Right now I'm typing in the computer lab at the Institut Touraine. My host mother was very nice. She speaks some English so we've been doing alright. I also had wine at every meal, which was fun. I get my own room, so score there. The toilet is in a different room than the sink and the shower. It's weird, but I accept it.

My house is the farthest away from the school, so I have to take the bus. My host mother drove me to school this morning, so I will have to find the bus station and use my meager French to buy a ticket. Wish me luck!

We took oral tests for placement today. I'm in the lowest class which was no surprise, but I'm not the lowest level! The lowest is just plain "1" and I'm at "elementaire" which I'm going to guess means elementary. See? My French is already improving! I'm doing better than the other kid who speaks little French. His words of the morning were "Man, I'm learning so much French! I learned like five words!" to which someone replied, "Good, only 20,000 more to go."

Now a bunch of us are going to go shopping for shoes (it's the big sale time in France. Did I time this trip well, or what?) and I'm going to find a photomaton so that I can get id pictures. Apparently, the French require id pictures for everything.