Compiegne, France

As promised, this post is being written in France. Compiegne, France to be exact. The last few days have been very hectic, but I will try to make a long story short. I was on the group flight on United Airlines that was schedule to go from Dallas to Chicago then on to France. However, at the last minute, our flight to Chicago was cancelled so the four of us on the group flight got transferred to Delta. We flew from Dallas to Cincinatti then on to Paris. It turned out to be fine. We arrived in Paris on Monday at 9:45 am only to find that I could send and receive text messages but I could not make calls on my phone. After all day yesterday and halfway through today, Dad finally was able to tell me how to make the calls...AT&T had messed up so it was their fault. What else have I been doing? Well, our orienation is being held in the imperial city of Compiegne, France. It is a nice little town on the Oise River. If you're interested in knowing more, click this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compi%C3%A8gne

The picture to the right shows where Joan of Arc was arrested by the British. The picture on the left is the Town Hall in Compiegne. It was very beautiful and was so well kept with lots of colorful flowers out front. The picture on the bottom right is the castle in Pierrefond. It was an older castle, and actually is called a fortress, because it is not a leisure castle like those in the Loire Valley.

We've been very busy. In the morning, we have French language class and in the afternoon we take tours around Compiegne. We return to Paris on Thursday and that is when we meet our host families. Hopefully my next post will be from my new home in Paris!