Landing in Dijon

Bonjour tout le monde - hello everyone! We haven't had internet in our rooms the past couple days, so I'm going to fill you in as to what I've been up to here in beautiful France!

The traveling itself was exhausting. We all left the Dulles Airport at 10pm on Monday night, arrived in Paris the following morning at 11, and then took a 5-hour bus ride through the countryside of France to Dijon. It was surprising driving throughout France - leaving the airport was very similar to driving around Northern Virginia, as we passed car dealers and IKEAs, but as we moved closer to Dijon, the amount of buildings minimized while the amount of vegetation maximized. There were acres and acres of greenery; it was unbelievable in the eyes of a true American. We finally made it into the town of Dijon around 7 that night and it somewhat reminded me of Washington DC with the historical land markers, amount of stores, and the many people wandering about with shopping bags and coffees. After checking into our individual dorm rooms (we're staying in the University's dorm rooms, which is about 20 to 30 minutes outside the heart of the city), we all unpacked our things to avoid living out of a suitcase for two months, showered, ate dinner, got our Internet codes, and soon fell asleep due to lack of it on the plane and bus.

It's quite a change from the States.

Yesterday was the first day we had the chance to actually walk throughout Dijon. Everything is so different here - it’s much cleaner than the US, the people dress so classy wearing sweaters, high heels, and nice slacks, and they are so environmentally friendly. It’s quite a change from the States. Dijon itself is so gorgeous with the marketplaces selling fresh fruits and vegetables, cobblestone pathways, and authentic and historical buildings... I just love it! But yesterday, we received our first orientation of the Dijon Burgundy School of Business, which is actually one of the most prestigious business schools in France where they accept nearly 1% of the applicants! Had no idea! We also got more information on Dijon and the school, which will definitely help throughout our time here. We then were able to tour the city ourselves by breaking into groups and going on a scavenger hunt. We walked at least 10 miles throughout the city, going into stores, talking to the locals, and navigating through Dijon. It was quite an experience, as I do not know a single word of French. I know people who went on this tour last year and said that many people speak English...guess they were lucky because everyone we ran into spoke minimal English. Luckily, I was going around with this girl who took French in high school, so she was able to get us around; thank goodness! It’s hard shifting into this position, where you're continuously wide-eyed and shrugging, not knowing what to say or how to say it. But once we managed to find our way around the city, we went to the train station to get our tickets for Interlaken, Switzerland for this weekend! I’m really excited since they have paragliding, skiing, and rafting excursions. I definitely want to go paragliding!! We’ll see how that all works out. We also took a trip to Carrefour, which in case you guys don’t know, is the largest “WalMart” I’ve ever been to. Easily a mile walk around the perimeter of the place – a legit grocery store, electronics, car supplies, basically everything you can possibly think of. We all wanted some breakfast foods for the mornings so we’re able to eat in our rooms before classes…and let me tell you, shopping in a French grocery store is quite an experience. I didn’t recognize any American brands except for Corn Flakes and of course, no one can help you out with our lack of communication skills. Oh well. It was definitely memorable. Just like our hour-long bus ride after that, as we attempted to get to campus! The bus literally circled Dijon for nearly an hour as we constantly looked for the campus…luckily some woman got on the bus toward the end of our journey and told us what stop to get off at, after hysterically laughing about our stupidity…I guess we’ll get used to it all eventually. Au revoir!!