Q & A letter to my parents (which basically sums up my past few days in more detail)

(In italics are parts of my parents' letter to me. And yes, it was numbered.)

Hi Pa/Ma,

I've played with the clock and I still can't quite figure out how to adjust the time; the beeping at every button i push though quickly eats away at my patience too so that could be a reason why I haven't figured it out yet.

1)What did you eat for your three meals?
1) So far I've been eating simple stuff, haven't cooked much. Mmm beef ravioli and some pasta sauce, croissant and coffee, pizza, sandwiches etc. I started to really crave hamburgers though. Want to send a cheeseburger over? ^_^ I haven't completely ventured out to try all the food possibilities here yet especially because since it's a small city everything closes down between 12 and 2 for lunch break. And when I mean everything, EVERYTHING.. eesh, I'm starting to imagine how fun it must have been for icia in New Mexico. Least everyone there spoke english though! So yeah, by the time I get hungry and I don't have anything in my fridge and i wander out, lots of things close. I know now that I shouldn't go out around those hours. It's sooo annoying. EVERYTHING!! =(

2)What is the best time to call you with the tel.# you had provided Papa Mama?
2) My host mother's in Canada until the 18th, my host sisters live elsewhere but pop in every once in a while because their children go to school near here, my host brother is pretty much out all day, so I basically have the house to myself. Which is good and bad. VERY lonely after a while though. So i go out and wander around town or take the train out to Paris, but even so, traveling alone is quite lonely. Mm.. I can't give mama/papa a good estimate of what time to call me. I'll usually be home around 6pm on (9am for CA) and I've been waking up around 8am too (11pm but that might be too late for mama/papa) I'm looking into buying a prepaid phone plan here, but I'm waiting for someone to come with me just so they can talk about the specifics since I don't know all the terminology yet. (Man, today looking for a surge protector was sooo difficult! I even looked up what a surge protector was in french first, but the guys at the store still didn't understand what it was. I was starting to think that they don't use surge protectors at all.. which then would have saved me and the guys at the store who were trying to help A LOT of confusion. *edit* I just asked my roommate about surge protectors and he says that the electricity here is pretty stable so I won't need one. I'll look into this further.)

3) if you feel lonely, did you email your doggy brother or doggy sisters? (Good buddy buddies, in Chinese "Goh Hsung Goh Dee",) Tell them get over there to visit you some time.
3) I've spoken to some of my friends since I've been here but it's rather limited still. Which is I suppose also a good thing. A number of them are on during the mornings or in the evenings so I get a chance to talk to them on Skype. Then there are those who are never online to begin with, mainly my socal friends. Funny how my norcal friends are so addicted to the internet with Silicon Valley being right there. =) Ask Shanley about Skype and then Mama/Papa can use it too instead of long distance calls.

4)When does your teaching work start?
4) Tomorrow my supervisor (maybe, I'm actually not quite sure what she is to me) will take me to my school to get a tour around and then orientation will be on Oct 2nd which probably means either we start that following Friday or the following Monday. Either way it'll be soon which will be great because the less occupied I am the unhappier I become. =T

5) If stupid French people jokes about your last name "CHIEN", tell them you are a flying dog flying across the Atlantic Ocean to kick their butts, so what?!
5) =) No one's made any comment of my last name yet. My host family (of the ones I've met so far) are rather pleasant. If they've said anything about my last name then I haven't heard it to my face (or they've said it in french and too quickly for me to understand. In that case, it serves me right to not be good enough in french to have a retort at hand ^_^) Though at the store today (what seems to be the french version of a Costco or Sams Club) the moment I turned into an aisle a woman who was saying something to her friend saw me, immediately stopped mid-sentence, turned and whispered something to her friend and both started staring. Very strange. If you're going to whisper and talk behind my back at least be more discrete about it! Eesh. Honestly I don't care if they say anything since I didn't do anything, but geez.. freaking obvious!

6) Practice more of your French. In Chinese "Shu Dao Yong Shieh Fang Heng Shaou", meaning, Hate once learnt too little when now come to use it. Like your French language.
Shu: book
Dao: come to
Yong: to use
Shieh: the moment
Fan: so as; then
Heng: to hate
Shaou: little.
6) Not to worry, I'm practicing my french. I'm understanding more and more of each conversation i hear. It's still a bit difficult when they speak fast, but it's getting there. Again, technical terms and specifics are rather hard seeing as I didn't learn everything in class, but of those I've talked to, they've been really friendly about helping me. My host brother's very patient with my french too. He understands a bit more english than his sisters so it helps significantly in conversational progression.
6b) Papa's translation sucks! I'm still staring at it and I don't quite understand it. Tsk tsk, what bad grammar! ;-)

On a happier note, things are looking up. Though, fall and then winter are around the corner things might take a quick turn to more grumblings from me. A California girl only has so many warm articles of clothing!! >_< But again in light of that, it seems as though I've been wearing less clothes than the french. I'll be walking around in a t-shirt and jeans with a jacket in my backpack while everyone else is still wearing those jackets! Dunno... perhaps I still need to adjust to the climate?

ps.
What I need so far:
- sushi
- warm beaches
- california sun
- cheeseburgers
- american tv shows!!!