First Week in France

Well, I made it to France.  The trio took 25 hours total, this was from the time the plane took off in Indianapolis to the time I arrived at my host family’s home. It was an exhausting trip that was well worth it.  I feel as if I am learning so much French. But the biggest thing I have learned so far is that French is very difficult.

My trip started at 4:00 PM in Indianapolis. From Indy I flew for about an hour and a half to Minneapolis where I met nine other exchange students. We flew for about eight hours on an AirFrance flight to Paris. Once in Paris we waited in the airport for other American students going to our district (1510). When all had arrived we walked from the airport to a hotel where the other exchange students were. There we waited until all of the exchange students going to 1510 arrived and then took a charter bus all around the district to drop kids off. I was the last student to be dropped off so I was on the bus for a grand total of eight hours. I arrived at my host family’s house at 11:00 PM their time which is 5:00 PM in Indiana.

My first day here we went around the city to collect the things I need and I unpacked my stuff. I can tell you that things are very different in the US. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is that all the cars are different. They have hardly any US cars and even brands that are in the US have different cars. Also it seems like the people walk around and are in public spaces far more often than in the US.  Obviously the bread is very different as well. I had my first French croissant.

I also had my first Rotary meeting last week. It was in a little beach town at a camping resort, which are very common in this area. In Columbus the Rotary meetings are in the morning and might last an hour or so. In La Roche however they are much longer. I left my house at 6:30 PM and didn’t return home until 1:30 AM.

The meeting started in a room with appetizers and everyone talked and then the president talked for a little bit and indicated that another man would talk. Bare in mind that this was all in rapid French so I understood none of it. The man ended up talking for about 45 minutes and they only thing I could figure out was that it had to do with camping. I later found out that he owned several camping resorts in the area and was explaining his business. At 11:30 I thought the meeting was wrapping up because everyone was moving out of the room but that was when we sat down to dinner. It was a good night though and I had a lot of opportunities to practice my French and meet some new people.

This weekend I had an event with Rotary. All the exchange students in the district (about 45) got together in a city called Luçon. It was basically just an orientation weekend where they explained the rules and introduced us to French culture. I think that the main goal however was to get us together so we could mingle and hang out with each other. I feel like I met a lot of really cool people who I will keep in touch with throughout my exchange.

On Sunday after my family picked me up we went to my host dad’s parents house, which is in Luçon. When I got there I was really surprised to see that they had a slackline set up. They were all trying to do it and were really surprised when I not only knew what it was, but was good at it.

On Monday, I went with Cécile and one of her friends to Les Sables d’Olonne. This is another beach town my family often visits. My host mom drove us there and we took the train back. We walked around some and sat on the beach. I understood basically none of what was going on and pretty much just went with the flow and walked around with them. I ate a snack called Chi Chis, which are similar to churros. It was my first time on a real passenger train and I have to say I wish we had more of them in the US.

I start school on Wednesday. I'm very nervous because I know that I won’t be able to understand most of what the teacher is telling me but I am excited to meet people and see what school is like here.

Below are some pictures that I have taken so far.