The First Part of the Trip (Continued)

I'm back!!!! This is Haley. As I was saying before I had to go take the tour of UTT, was that Sunday morning I, and 6 other USC students, went to church in Troyes. It was a small church that held its services in a hotel because they do not have an official location yet. It was interesting to see that there are churches like this in France like there are in America. Church was a little long and a little unorthodox, but overall it was enjoyable. What was really great was the lunch at the pastor's house afterwards. The pastor wasn't there, but his wife made us a great, huge, french meal. She was a great host and we ate so much food!!!
After lunch we went walking throughout Troyes to try and walk off that huge lunch. We walked for a while and ended up metting up with the rest of our group of French and American students unexpectedly. We got some drinks together before going to a crepe restaurant for dinner. (Laura, this is for you - the crepe that I had was a crepe with mushrooms, onions, cheese, bechemel sauce and ham. It was so good. The dessert crepe that I had was a crepe with nutella and almonds, that was also wonderful!) I love crepes, so this meal was definitely one of my favorites so far! I also had a lot of fun talking with the students at the table. I know that we are here to speak and learn french, but it can be very comforting to speak english amongst ourselves because it is exhausting to constantly struggle to communicate and comprehend. By the time all the activities on Sunday were over, I was exhausted!

Today, monday we started off the day with a tour of UTT, then we drove to Troyes and had a champagne end hors d'hourve reception with some local politicians. Then we had lunch, I had a croque monsier (Laura, thats a sandwich of cheese, bechemel and ham) and for dessert, a pain au chocolat. We have to keep buying bottled water because the tap water is disgusting!!! I feel so dehydrated because I usually drink at least 12 cups of water a day and it is hard to drink that much here. Anyway, after lunch, an English professor from UTT gave us a 3 hour walking tour of Troyes. It was interesting, but tiring. I can't believe how old all the buildings are here! There are buildings here from the 13th century, I cant even imagine how old that is!

After the tour, we returned to UTT and gave a presentation of USC and different aspects of student life to a large group of students and teachers. Finally, after that we had a dinner of African food, which was organized by the student that I am staying with. The food was great, it was fried fish balls... it sounds gross, but it was great, couscous, chicken, fried bananas and an african version of beignets. It was all great. I liked the african beignets more than French beignets but less than the beignets that I had in New Orleans last year. That was pretty much it for today, I am really tired again today, I just can't ever seen to get fully rested here. Bye, talk to ya'll soon!

Haley