Bonjour a Paris!

Well hello all my American friends!! I am in Paris now and it is very different from home. The first day of arrival I was greeted by the father of Germain (who is the father of the girls), Jean-Francois at the airport. He was holding a sign with my name on it and he recognized me right away! Surprisingly he knows English very well and he gave me a small tour in the car of the city. I love the history and the beauty of it all and it will take some time to soak it all in. We arrived at his house in downtown Paris in a very good location! His wife, Claire, was so nice and together the two of them made me feel very welcomed. Their grandson, Emile, was there as well and he is from Switzerland where Germain's sister lives. She is married to an American and has lived in the US for fifteen years or so I believe. She lived in San Fransisco and Philadelphia. Emile knows English as well because his father is teaching him and we will be going to visit them in Switzerland in February because we may go on a ski trip. I spent most of the day with Jean-Francois and Claire and they made lunch. It was very good :) I had some french fries (HAHAHA) and some chicken like roasted on the bones like we have. It was great and we had salad after that. I drank some wine with lunch and it was good and also we had some fruit after we ate. I did try some coffee which was very strong and in a tiny cup but it was not bad...I am not a huge coffee person but it was alright. Soon after we went to the Museum of Rodin. He is a famous sculptor and you may be most familiar with his "The Thinker" statue. It was beautiful in the garden area and Jean-Francois, Emile, and Claire sat at a small cafe while I explored the inside of the museum by myself. It was very interesting and Rodin has some amazing artwork.
Soon after we were back home, Germain came to pick me up and right away we went to get Jeanne, the oldest, at her horse riding place. She rides miniature ponies and it was very cute. Jeanne does not speak any English so we will have a difficult time for a while. I am not sure how well I will get through this but I just need to learn very quickly. Last evening, Germain had a meeting so Jeanne and I were home and I made ravioli which she loves because it is Italian and she loves pasta. We then played Monopoly on X-Box and it was not the easiest thing I have ever done. When she went to bed I was so tired so I fell asleep as well and then woke up this morning to go with Germain to take Jeanne to school. Her school is in Paris and we live outside of Paris so it is a bit of a drive especially with all of the traffic. I will be driving her to school and everything once I take some driving classes so that I can understand what to do. I am not looking forward to it :)
We dropped Jeanne off at school and came home and I took a long nap because I was still very tired. I started to unpack and just felt very sad that I do not know anyone with me and it is already a very big challenge. I will be alright I just feel like I am in major culture shock mode and also very frustrated that I do not know the language. I do not know how to make their food so for lunch I had a piece of toast and some berries with a banana. I hope I learn how to soon because I will probably starve.
Today I told Germain that my plan is to stay for one year because he needed to begin finalizing plans for vacation. I hope I want to stay that long, but I know once I learn the language I could stay here for a very long time!
On the plane ride over I met a cute old woman on the way to Chicago and she wants me to keep in touch, and then on the second flight to Paris I met a guy from Morocco who teaches at San Diego State....so he says... haha well anyway it was funny because I was with Germain at home and he asked if I had seen the movie Taken and I laughed and told him about how everyone said do not watch it. Germain is very awesome! He was telling me to watch out when I am in Paris because people take advantage of you and even if you go to the bar they will put things in your drink. I am not planning on going to the bar by the way because I am not a big fan of drinking alone haha.
I am really going to have to step it up and learn French quickly and if anyone has any suggestions please let me know I would really love it!
Au Revoir for now! A Bientot!