Comme Nuit et Jour

"Like Night and Day" is an expression that is translatable. And it perfectly describes my new and much improved living situation in Tours. I am now living in a modern apartment, with a single woman, maybe in her thirties (I know enough not to ask). First of all, I never took pictures of my old pad, so unfortunatley I can't prove to you how much better this new home is, but you're gonna hae to put all your faith in me and trust me when I say, Heck Yes.
Beatrice is really nice and sporty, which cracks me up because that's not particularly normal for French people (match made in heaven?). She eats SUPER healthy. But not the same kind of healthy as my old house. She is VERY much a single lady living on her own. She doesn't make fancy sauces with pasta or anything like that. Everything is very simple, made pretty quickly (which is fine with me!) Also, she took out soy yogurt yesterday and told me this was her favorite and I should try it. Soy yogurt! In France! I almost cried. She also doesn't make dessert... panic... panic... BUT, she was quick to inform me she always, always, always keeps dark chocolate in the house.
Although the apartment is small, its comfortable. It's clean, but not super neat. My old house was dark, cluttered, dirty, and musty. This could not be more opposite. My linens smell fresh, I walk into the bathroom and it smells like the summer, the kitchen is bright. I am so happy here. I wake up in the morning and instead of feeling gloomy because there's no sunlight coming through my tiny window, I feel happy because there is a huge window in my little room. I appreciate Beatrice even more when I realize she had less than two days to make room for me. And although life is a bit cluttered right now, I really am looking forward to the next months (instead of counting down the days at the old house,  I actually reverted to counting the number of meals I would have to eat with that awful family).

My Room! Big Bed! (I slept on a prisoner's bed before)

Groovy lamp in my room

the shower (that thing is for drying clothes)

Speaks for itself

The kitchen! The walls are so cool!

Apparently washing machines in the kitchen is normal for Europe.

The view when you walk in the front door

We have a comfortable sitting area! With a tv! And a cool lamp!

Hopefully these pictures can help you picture what the little apartment is like. I really like the sitting room. There was NO comfortable place to sit in the old house. I travelled to two places in the old house: the dining room for meals, or my room. Beatrice came in yesterday and told me I was always welcome to sit there, I wasn't confined to my room. And she also told me I can use the "tu" form, and could call her Beatrice. This is really nice of her. "Vous" is the formal form, and on my wonderful and infamous list of rules at the old house, at the top were directions to call them Monsieur and Madame, and use vous. So this is realy nice of her, establishes more of a balanced relationship, and is also a lot easier mentally for me to conjugate. So, today I did the dishes to try to symbolize that I know she's not my "mom." She respects that I'm 20 years old and I like so I'm trying to respect our more balanced living arrangement.
So, I'm pretty happy in this house. And next week, GMA is visiting :)
Oh, and I got my first paper back! And I got an A-
Not shabbbbayyyyyy