Today was a long, busy day for all of us. We started the day with a 9:15 orientation at our school, which meant that we left our apartments at 8:30 (that's 2:30 AM for those of us who haven't yet adjusted to the time difference). I knew that CEFAM was a much smaller school than Northeastern, but I had no idea that it was this small. Not only is all of CEFAM housed in a single building no larger than the smallest on the Northeastern campus, but it also shares that space with 16 other schools. There is a library in the building… but no books. There are only 208 students in the school (including the 20 or so of us) and I don't think we have more than ten professors in total. I think I can manage this place.

After a few hours of speeches about how great this opportunity is, what our professors will expect from us, and how we can expect to change over the next four months, we were given a free lunch (a plain ham and butter sandwich that was somehow really good) and sent in small groups on a scavenger hunt around the city. Three hours later I had seen some cool ruins of a Roman amphitheatre (which still functions as a concert venue in the spring and summer), a basilica with an excellent view of Lyon, an art museum, and some really cute European neighborhoods filled with cafés and restaurants. The scavenger hunt was definitely a good thing for me to do. Many of the places we went I wouldn't have found on my own, such as the museum and the cafés, and I found every place we went interesting in some way. As an added bonus, I spent all day with two people who are more than willing to help me get good use out of my Eurail pass this semester.

We definitely worked up an appetite while walking all day, so I was grateful that the CEFAM administration had a nice dinner planned for us tonight. Paul and Sharon, our liaisons here who have been excellent in getting us set up so far, live above a restaurant called Glops and had them serve us a three course meal complete with endless bottles of local wine. For most of us, this was the first real meal we've had since our arrival. They served us a tomato, mozzarella and pesto salad which was amazing- the mozzarella was fantastic, nothing like I've had at home- and followed it up with a tuna dinner and apple tart for dessert. The dean of CEFAM came over to say hello and impressed us all with his extensive knowledge of wines. They're pretty serious about their wine and cheese here.

I'm feeling much more comfortable now with being here and most of the time I don't feel like I'm very far away at all. I speak and hear English all day, I talk to people from home every night on the phone, I hear American music in the stores… aside from not being with my friends and family at home, which sucks sometimes, everything seems normal here. The sights are obviously different, the food is better, the wine is cheaper and the days are busier, but I don't feel lost or intimidated- definitely a good thing. We've got a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks to look forward to- French cooking lessons, cheese and wine tastings, a CEFAM integration weekend in Ardeche and a trip to Annecy on the Swiss border tomorrow. Now, if I could just kick this cold I've been fighting off I'd be all set.