Week Thirty Two

A week in the life of Isaac the exchange student.

Monday I finally finished my art project. I've been working on it for long enough, I have to say though that I'm really happy with way it turned out. I ended up making a sort of 3D triangle that sort of hangs in equilibrium. It's supposed to represent my astrological sign: libra, which for those of you that don't know is a balance. I decided to take the more ambiguous approach we could say.

Wednesday was a great day. I had classes and then to end the school day I had gym. In gym we're at the pool. Basically what I have to do is go through this obstacle course in under four minutes. The first time I did it, a couple of weeks ago, it took me five minutes. This week I got through it in 4 minutes exactly. It wasn't the best time of the class but I was pretty proud of myself. I'm starting to like the pool.

I don't know if I've talked about this before but I recently bought a longboard. It was probably not the most practical purchase seeing as it's gonna be tough to get home with me but I said to myself that I had to do it. I haven't had that many opportunities to use it as of late. Recently though it's been starting get warmer and nicer so I've been using it pretty often. Last Wednesday especially, I used it to go to my French lesson and then to my dance lesson after. It was nice to get outside and do stuff and not be stuck inside. 

My dance teacher was in a really bad mood so we didn't have a normal class. We started by running and working out a little but the did about 45 minutes of ballet. It reminded me how much I missed it. I really wish it had all w irked out well but I guess at the end of the day it's okay but I have been doing a lot of cool things here and I've gotten to try a lot of things. 

Friday we had an event at my school called the Bol de Riz which as you might be able to guess means bowl of rice. It is a fundraiser that one of the clubs at school ours on every year. Basically, the people who participate pay the regular price for their lunch then eat just a plate of rice with some tomato sauce. The money that is leftover is then donated to one or two humanitarian organizations. I am actually apart of the club that is in charge so I helped serve the food. It was an interesting experience and I'm glad I got to help out.

This weekend was Easter! 

Saturday night we went to a city called La Trance sur Mer, a beach town. We went because my host sisters' dad helped organize an event. They set up two high powered projectors and then projected images and animations onto a church, all set to music. It was extremely well done. I almost felt like it was the church that was projecting the images and not the projectors. It was incredible to say the least. 

Easter Sunday we had a nice family lunch at the house. Throughout these last couple months I've really started to feel like a part of this family. I really love them. After lunch. We hung out together for a while and then Lou and I went to Les Sables d'Olonnes to eat a crepe on the beach. One of the many perks of living 30 minutes from the beach.  It was a nice day.

The day after Easter is a holiday in France. Or I guess not a holiday, but we don't have school in any case. We went to Pornic, another beach city to eat at my host aunts house.  I really like Pornic, it's not like most cities in France. It feels different and the beaches are much different, a lot of cliffs and rocks. It was a good weekend.

Well there you have it,  a week in the life of Isaac. 

Week Thirty-One

The week went pretty well I’d say. I spent the beginning of this week, as I do with most beginnings of weeks, being lazy and chilling out. However, Wednesday was a busy day. I went to the pool with my gym class. It wasn’t too bad this time. The last time I went I felt pretty close to drowning. I guess any improvement or amelioration would have brought me to a new level. After the pool a couple of friends and I went to a restaurant called For Time. It’s a restaurant, which specializes in a type of sandwich called Kebab. It’s basically a type of gyro but so much better. It’s something I’d never seen before coming to France but am incredibly glad to have discovered.

Friday night we had a party for my host brother’s birthday. It was great. It was just with his and Lou’s friends so it was like an actual party. I didn’t go to bed too late though because I had to get up early the next morning to go to the city of Angers for a Rotary weekend.

I had to get up at 7 AM to leave the house at 7:45. We started the day with some free time to talk to each other and hang out. I think that honestly these are the best times about Rotary weekends. The down time where we talk to each other and get caught up on what’s going on with everyone else. I also met the new Australian girl who just got here. She had a problem with her visa so she came a little later than the others.

After eating lunch we took the bus downtown and spent some time at the castle in Angers. It was a cool castle and I felt like it had a different spirit than a lot of castles in France. There was also a display of a tapestry, which is apparently the oldest of this size. It was fairly impressive. The afternoon they gave us some free time to do what ever we wanted in the city. We checked out a sculpture garden and then did some shopping. On the way back we stopped into a café and bought some hot chocolate. We spent the rest of the night talking and hanging out.

The next day we spent a couple hours at a slate museum learning about the history of the region. It turns out that this part of France is actually really famous for it’s slate and according to the guide it is the best quality. It was at the very least an interesting place and they gave us little samples of slate at the end, which was cool!

It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone at the end of the weekend. We really are coming to the end of the year. The next weekend is at the end of May and it’s the last time we’re all going to be together until the end of our exchanges. I can’t believe how far we’ve come and how much we’ve learned. I have officially less than 100 days in France. I have less and less time every week and when I start to look at the calendar and see the things I’m going to do I realize how fast it is all going to go by. It sort of scares me, the idea of going home. It’s one of the strangest feelings. You want to go home but at the same time you never want to leave.