On est arrivés! / We made it!

It was a very, very long day of travel but we finally arrived in Rennes on Sunday afternoon.  For those of us on the group flight we had some delays with our flight from New York to Paris (2 hours!) but fortunately it didn't affect any of our other travels.  We landed in Paris around 10:30 in the morning, gathered our luggage and found a few more of our group members.  At 1:45 we boarded the TGV (high speed train) from Paris to Rennes.  For those who are visiting France for the first time it was fun to see the countryside, neighborhoods and even some castles along the way.  When we arrived at the train station in Rennes the host families were there to warmly greet us.  It was already 4:30 in the afternoon and we had been traveling for more than 24 hours!!  Everyone was very tired and ready for showers and sleep. 

On Monday we met at 9:00 in the morning for orientation.  The students recieved a lot of information about the program, life with a host family, and they got their French cell phones.  We had a delicious lunch together at Le Bistrot de nos Terroirs and then had a fun journey together back to school on the metro and in the rain.  In the afternoon we met the teachers and did some oral interviews to get to know everyone a little bit better.  It was a very long day for everyone with a lot of information (all in French) but everyone did great!!  The group is getting to know eachother well and they all have a very positive attitude about being here and improving their French.  It's going to be a great adventure!