today there was a mandatory group excursion with the institut and we went to visit the city of amboise. before we reached that destination, we stopped for a boat cruise in the river 'le cher' in mont richard, to see troglydytes (these are houses that people live in but their roofs are made of the forest floor). we also took a tour of mushroom caves and after the tour, i bought a bottle of mushroom soup (made from shiitake mushrooms) and i made some for dinner tonight and it was soooo yummy. of course OUR bus was late and even though the tonnellé people made it on time to the destination, the professor favored her 'hameau and homestay' students and left on the first bus right away. it kind of sucked because we ended up not having anytime for lunch when we reached amboise before we went on the tour of the chateux amboise. the tour was amazing, so pretty, and AFTERWARDS we had 2 hours to check out the little shops around the town.

the tour de france reached tours this afternoon while we were in amboise, but a bunch of us are planning on attending the leaving tomorrow after our first day of class!! it will be pretty exciting. anyway, before i forget, after dinner tonight (consisting of the mushroom soup and a left over HEATED on a pan panini) 9 girls and our RA (larissa) went to the train station and we have now booked tickets to go to NICE THIS WEEKEND (july 8-10.) whooohoo!!!

well it's pretty late now (2:04am,) so i'm off to bed. goodnight.