La Cathédrale Notre Dame de Reims

The beautiful sunset outside Carrefour.

So the last few days have been filled with getting settled in, having first classes and getting to know the neighborhood. We received our bus passes a couple days ago so we would be able to go to a larger store nearby. There is a small Champion down the street near our flat and we've been there several times to stock our kitchen with a few essentials. Once we had bus passes we went to Carrefour which is a much larger store, sort of like a big French Walmart, but nicer.. perhaps like Fred Meyer. I was surprised to see the first red heads since I'd arrived! Two little children aves les cheveux roux. It was overwhelming the amounts of meats and cheeses and breads you can pick from at these stores! Especially when you are so unfamiliar with the local brands.

Yesterday we went on a walking tour around the center of town and saw the cathedral, and several other historical buildings. It is so beautiful walking around and seeing so many historical places. For French class we looked up Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) and found out she had been to the cathedral here for the coronation of a king. We had our first day of classes yesterday, which was interesting sitting in the same room for several hours for a bunch of different classes. I like my classes and I'm excited about all the traveling and how we'll be incorporating our experiences with our assignments :)

The Front of the Cathedral with construction on the left side.

Today, a small group of us attended mass in the Cathedrale Notre Dame at 11 then at 2pm we gathered as a group for a communion time. Later JoAnna and I took a walk around the neighborhood and I took several pictures. We even saw a man with awesome salmon colored 90s basketball shorts. Which is a coincidence since we are having Salmon tonight for dinner :) On our way home we ran into Jacqueline and when we crossed the road to go to the flat together some random guys in a car honked and waved!
Tonight we're staying up for superbowl! Hopefully I'm awake for classes tomorrow :)

Bonjour tout le monde!

I flew all the way from Portland to Paris with Anna and we made it safe and sound despite some scary mechanical failures and turbulence. The whole group however, did not enjoy the same success... they were stuck in the US in various parts overnight and just arrived this afternoon :)

Here are the six who made it :)

I'm here in Reims and it is beautiful... Last night I fell asleep from exhaustion way early and barely ate my dinner that I bought with JoAnna from the local store. We also picked up a fresh baguette from a patisserie down the street. This afternoon we showed the rest of the group around a bit and it is fun to finally have us with us! It is great to have everyone here now and it is funny to hear all of the loud American voices while everyone here is much quieter than us!

Here is our beautiful room :)

Anyways, we all live in beautiful flats here and they look like little furnished apartments in Ikea.. minus all the cool knickknacks. JoAnna and I are roommates which is great because we can share our clothes :) We actually finally moved into our permanent apartment this morning because it wasn't available yesterday... so last night we had a larger room with a nicer view :) I'm so happy to be here and excited to explore and enjoy the different environment!

Je dois sortir Harding pendant printemps

It is wonderful to know I'll be in Europe in the spring and I will get to see Paris! It is very hard to think of everyone I will not see there though... and I will miss all of you. Which brings me to the purpose of this blog, to stay in touch with everyone while I'm gone. Please comment and send lots of emails, even though I might not be able to reply personally to each one :) I will be leaving the end of January and then coming back in the middle of May. Keep me in your prayers as I prepare to go.

Those of you already at Harding have already begun a new semester as I am now just finishing my packing to leave to go to begin mine. I hope all of you are enjoying yourselves as I will be :) And to those of you in Washington I'm so glad I was able to spend a wonderful break with all of you! I've had such a great break to begin a fantastic semester..

So for any of you who are wanting to send any mail my address for Reims is:

Sarah Hug
Residence Clairmais
25 rue Edouard Mignot
51100 Reims
France

I'm so excited about this trip and a bit nervous at this point.. So I'll be leaving tomorrow morning from PDX at 8:30! Then I'll be in Minneapolis and Detroit.... Then Paris!! I'll try to keep all of you updated often :)