Weeks Twenty Four and Twenty Five

What a couple of weeks

Last Monday I was really sick but forced my way through it and went to school.  It turned out that it was a pretty good choice. It was a sort of immersion day. We had two periods of the day that were set-aside for us to explore our passions. We had signed up different things a couple weeks earlier. I spent my two periods at the local university learning about two majors. I observed biology in the afternoon, which wasn’t that interesting, but in the morning I learned about their language program, which sounds really cool. The kids in the program are required to take a minimum of three languages. I would love to do that in college. It would really help me to study in France for this type of thing, I’m not sure how much I would get out ten hours of English per week, but I would love to study languages.

Monday was also the 18^th birthday of my friend Vilma, the Swedish girl in my school. To celebrate we had a little party at my house. It wasn’t huge and it was pretty mellow but it was nice to do something outside of school. We had a couple of friends over and we ate some pizza and hung out, not to bad a party.

This was my last week of school before vacation. There were only five weeks between the vacations but it was nice to get a little time away anyway. I took Saturday as a day of rest and didn’t really do anything. Sunday I had to get up early and get everything ready to leave. I went to the Pyrenees with another family to do a week of skiing. It was easily one of the coolest things I’ve done so far on this exchange.

The car was a little tight, it’s made for seven and we were exactly seven, plus all the food and ski gear for a week. We made the most of the 7 hour car ride though, it wasn’t to bad. We didn’t see much of the mountains the first night because there was so much fog but that had a different effect. We had to walk up to the main station to rent our material and the cold made the fog freeze in our hair so we all had completely white hair by the end of the walk. It really made us realize we were in a totally different place.

I decided against taking lessons because I thought I could manage on my own. It was pretty rough the first day. I fell down at least one time every time we went down a slope. I think that in total I probably fell about 20-30 times. Thankfully I didn’t get hurt but it was a little rough. I think a lot of it had to do with me being scared, the first day I was really getting used to the mountains and the slopes. After the first day I started to really improve though. By the end of the week I was doing the hardest slopes without much trouble.

We skied Monday-Friday 9-5 every day and a half day on Saturday. We even ate lunch on a bench on the slopes. Needless to say I was a little sore but it was amazing and so beautiful. The apartment that we had was right on the slopes, we could literally put on our skis and go. It was an amazing experience that I’m really grateful for, although I’m not going to lie and say that it wasn’t nice to come back to the constant Internet of the house.

I’m now at home for about four days and then I’m leaving for my first Rotary bus trip. I’m really grateful for these experiences and I think that it’s times like these that I’m going to remember years from now, looking back on this incredible time in my life.

Week Twenty Three

This week marks the second time I’ve been sick on this exchange. Man this sucks.

The week was good though. Wednesday was a busy day for me. I ate lunch in town with a couple friends, we ate kebob, which is something I’ve discovered in France but love so much. I went to my French lesson after and then my dance class. Thursday was school and then my horse riding lesson. Friday I didn’t have badminton so I went to the gym and then to a family friends house. I had a very busy week and it’s times like these that really start feeling like I’m making a life in this country.

Thursday at the horse lesson I did fall off my horse. We were cantering and she fell so by default I fell as well. I didn’t get hurt. It struck me as a little funny to be taking the age old saying literally. When you fall off the horse, you have to get back up. Also turns out that in the equestrian world, if you fall you have to buy or make a cake for the rest of the class. So, I guess I will be making my fellow classmates a cake.

This weekend was really nice. It was a Rotary weekend with all the other exchange students. It was in a city called Saumur, which is a city famous for it’s horses but also for its stone and cave dwellings. It turns out that this particular area of France was really big for a specific type of Quarry. The people the lived here were primarily farmers and needed to preserve their farmland. Normally when a quarry is dug it results in a huge hole in the ground. These farmers were smarter though and designed and carried out a different method for collecting the stone beneath their land.

Basically what they did was dig about a meter wide trench in the ground and then dug down from there. They dug down straight for about a meter and then dug outwards in a shape that roughly matches that of a wine bottle. What results is a quarry that doesn’t destroy the farmers land. The farmers would also often build their houses directly into these rocks. This area is very fascinating and it was cool to see this big part of history.

While in Saumur we also went to see an abbey in a nearby city. It was very interesting and we got an entire tour. It was interesting to see the huge difference in culture and values of that era and today. For instance, in the dining hall there were three rows of tables and no windows. The nuns and residents were not allowed to say anything, as they had to be completely focused on god. The people sitting at the outer two tables sat facing the wall so they wouldn’t be tempted to talk to each other and the people sitting in the middle table had to sit sideways so they wouldn’t look at one another.

It was an interesting weekend as well because the new Australians just got here. Australia and most of the southern hemisphere is on a different school schedule and it works best for them to come during this part of the year. It was interesting to see their reactions to coming to France and discovering all the things I had discovered five months ago. It was strange because they don’t speak French so they didn’t understand anything the Rotarians said to them. I got to act as the translator for them when the Rotarians were going over the rules. It started to snow as well, which was the first time I’d seen the stuff since I got here.

Being around the Australians really made me realize how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown. I’m proud of myself and the progress I’ve made.