Sorry for not posting again sooner. I have class in a half an hour so I'll make sure to try and fit everything I can from the past two days in this quick one. This weekend when we all got to our apartments I met all of the other students. There are some from Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Greece, Israel, Canada, the UK, Brazil, Mexico... and I know I'm missing more. On Sunday absolutely nothing in town is open. It was hard for us to find anything to do. Some classmates and I walked about 30-45 minutes to a car rental place to try and get a car to go to St Etienne. The rental place, like everything else, was closed. Next we walked to the bus station and we had already missed the bus. So we went back to the apartments and hung out.  At night my roommate Kwen (from Malaysia) cooked some of us real Chinese food. It's very different from the chinese food at home. She also gave a bunch of us "psychological evaluations" from drawings we made, and how we answered questions she asked us. She was spot on with what she said about me.

Yesterday, we had orientation. We learned what we would be studying while we're here, we met the chefs who would be instructing us, and also received a survival guide for Yssingeaux (pronounced ees-en-joo.)  After orientation we had lunch in the cafeteria. Some of use got the vegetarian option, and I dont think they were expecting that. 3 of us had eggs over medium with green beans and potatoes, everyone else had beef lasagna and the last vegetarian to be served just got a plate of peas. For dessert they served a cold apple torte, and a chocolate torte with caramel on top.
At night, we had a group dinner. They first served lentil salad, and baguette. Our main course was either duck with green beans, beets, and mushrooms, or a roasted tomato with the same sides. Everything was delicious. For dessert we had a cheese course. I've learned that the smellier the cheese the better it tastes. And dessert was  chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate wafer with wine jelly on top. They also served a local wine with dinner. Food heaven. Time for class! I'll talk to all of you soon.