Bonsoir, from Ambialet!

Good evening, lovelies! After just over 21 hours of traveling I made it to Ambialet, France and I am now tucked-in, high atop a hill in beautiful Ambialet, in a monastery that has a section that is 1,000 years old! When we arrived it was very foggy, both the weather outside and in my head, so I do not have any pictures of the monastery just yet. However, I will be sure to snap a few pictures within the next few days and put them online, so I can share a piece of where I am living with all of you.

For now, I do have a few not-so-quality pictures of my transit:

Here is the plane we flew in from Washington-Dulles to Paris...

It is called an Airbus and is the biggest commercial airplane. Some of these planes are built in Toulouse, France, which is where we flew into after landing in Paris (only 1 1/2 hours from Ambialet). The visiting professor, Dr. Rager, is teaching a few business classes and is planning on taking a group to Toulouse to take a tour of the Airbus plant; I hope I can sneak onto that excursion!

The flight from Dulles to Paris was just over seven hours and I couldn't manage to sleep, because I was too distracted by the touch screen t.v. in front of me that offered a bounty of movies, games, et cetera. I watched two movies and played Yahtzee to my heart's delight. The plane even had cameras on the tail wing, the under belly, and on the nose that are connected to your t.v., so I got to watch the take-off from an entirely new perspective!

By the time we made it on to our second flight (from Paris to Toulouse) I was exhausted and promptly passed out! I feel asleep before we took off and even before my seatmates sat down! I woke up an hour later when my ears popped as we were descending.

Overall, as a group of 15 (the 16th joined us in Toulouse) we traveled really well together and have all been getting along tremendously. We had to take another bus 1 1/2 hours from Toulouse to Ambialet along relentlessly windy mountain roads. It is simply beautiful here and I cannot wait to post pictures! Although, for now I am only going to post a few pictures of my single in the monastery and then I am going to hop into that bed and promptly fall asleep!!!

 The rooms came furnished with coordinating sheet sets and everything!

The windows have real shutters that are in working condition!

 I have my own personal sink!

 Original hardware on the window (not from the 1000's, but much older than some of the new renovations)..

I know it's nothing like David's studio in NZ, but I'm SO HAPPY! ...and wait until you see my view

I have SO much more to tell you guys about my program, the things we have planned, and the people I am on this journey with, but those stories will have to wait for another day...

Bon nuit mes chéris, (Good night my dear ones, or darlings)

Kellie Madeline