Je suis ici!

Hey everyone!
I am finally up to writing for the first time in France ;) It was a VERY exhausting trip getting here, but well worth the while. I left my house for the airport at about 7:30 on Tuesday morning, then took my first plane to Charlotte, NC at 10:30 AM (where I had a three-hour layover). Then I had an eight-hour flight to the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, arriving in France-time at 7:00 AM. Then (the very-not-so-fun part) I was shuttled to a nearby hotel to wait for all the other kids going to Brittany (18) until 3:30 PM....we literally sat for almost nine hours all staring into space, trying to stay awake. And THEN, we had a lovely 4-hour bus trip to drop everyone off at different locations in Brittany. Okay, now the bad part is over ;) I was met in Rennes (the capital of Brittany and place where I am staying) by my second host family, which I was not expecting. Apparently my first family is still vacationing in the south of France for another week ;P This host family has three girls, ages 13, 15, and 17, and they are all very nice :) So they brought me to their house and I had my first French dinner: Salad, homemade bread, roasted chicken, peach tart, and chocolate chip cookies (made especially for me by the youngest girl, Lucy ;) ) YUM! ;) :D But then they wanted me to stay up so that I could get on a normal schedule...not my most excited moment. I finally went to sleep at 11:30 PM......and then slept till half past noon! Today was a nice day....Mathilde (the oldest girl) showed me around Rennes (it's a beautiful city!), I watched a French movie, and then was treated to a very fancy dinner with some of the Rotarians here at a restaurant called "Paris New York"....we had many different courses, including an "Amuse-bouche" (meaning "mouth amusement" if literally translated) which was some sort of asparagus cream with three teeny brown dots and a little dot of cut up vegetables. Then there was the l'entree (which actually means the appetizer in French)...it was a square of some kind of really tender beef, topped with a tiny bit of lettuce and served with eggplant caviar puree. And then was the main dish (Le plat principal)--Salmon topped with what I think was pancetta in a soup-like mixture of lots of olive oil and tomatoes. Next was dessert....a fresh peach and apple streusel with ice cream. And then coffee and tea. And then the "mini-desserts", which were little cakes with mango. Yes....I am full ;) ;) :P And now very tired too, so "bonne-nuit" (Goodnight!!)
-Claire