The wheels on the bus go round and round for 7 hours...

Try to "blend in and not be blatant" on this bus lol

After such lovely breakfast, I check out of hotel and began my impossible search for my group at the airport. But after embarrassing, "Are you going to Pont Aven?" (sounding like Brad Pitt in Inglorious Bastards I'm sure), I found them! 21 of us total, 14 girls and 7 boys---joy. Most everyone is from the East Coast or California, with one girl who goes to a school in Iowa...then me. Everyone hears I'm from Boulder and goes, "yay I've heard it's amazing, do you just love it?" We began swapping stories and note that this is a group of art students, aka a different kind of breed. They are all wonderful people, but quite hipster, philosophical, serious, a little pretentious, beyond geniuses, and their idea of a party is having a glass of wine with their parents once a month. Perhaps I will be a good thing to this group: my awkward timing, constant joking, and smiley sense of fun...or I'll scare them to death/sit in the corner by myself--but I don't think so. We shall see everyone's true character after a few glasses of van ;)

So we rode this bus for 7 hours from Paris to Pont Aven...except for the two breaks I slept the entire time waking up with my mouth wide open, dried up except for the pool of drool on my shoulder--great first impressions. I bought a cosmo in French, figured I could slowly translate it over the semester! 

Plaisir = to please...apparently

We finally arrived late at night, the town completely pitch black-awesome. The girl sitting behind me on the bus ended up being my roommate (no we do not share rooms but at least we can venture to a new family togeher). Ying is originally from Taiwan but now lives in New Jersey. She giggles at everything, but is fun and up to try anything. They called our names and at the front of the bus sat our new host parents, both about 3 feet tall. I practically yelled Bonsoi and hugged her, which probably frightened all 3 foot of nerves she ever had out. 

The short 2 min. drive was awkward and quiet, but they had a wonderful meal waiting for us. I was so hungry and thought the couscous and tomatoes was all we were going to have so I started to reload when she exclaimed, "le quiche"! Beautiful huge piece of quiche with fromage et poisson was tres bien. Followed by a plate of quarte different kinds of cheeses with wine. Then dessert: caramel ice cream cake-uhhhh! I didn't take pictures because we were trying to communicate the entire time...they don't speak English. Lots of charades, dictionary, drawing, writing, etc. and little by little the one semester of French I took back during Freshman year began to come back-yay! What a sweet older couple Annik et Roland: they have children now older and married, and their house is beautifully decorated. I told Annik, "J'adore que petit vous etes", and she understood because she laughed--yay progress! They understood how tired we were and showed our rooms, beautiful and happy to be here finally!

The mattress is blown up air, but it's warm, comfy, and quanit!