Week Seven

Rainy week this week. I got my first view of what school would be like during winter, not very pretty. At my school there is a lot of walking outside to get to classes or to wait for lunch. Thankfully we are now the first ones to eat so we didn’t have to wait but it’s going to be quite the experience when it’s 32 degrees out and we have to stand for half an hour.

Despite the rain it was a good week. Like all my other weeks I feel that I have grown in a multitude of ways. Not only has my French exponentially improved since coming, I’m also a lot more aware of the culture and a lot more willing to accept it as my own.

Monday was the first cold day, last Friday was incredibly hot at school but by Monday it had cooled down incredibly. It was also the first time it had rained at school. Thankfully, the rain stopped on my walk to and from school. I had a nice bonding moment with my host sister Monday night as well. It’s been nice to get close to these people. I really like them and once again I am thankful for where I was placed this year.

My French teacher wasn’t at school all week so I didn’t have French class all week. I found out Tuesday morning after I got to school, I was infinitely grateful that I didn’t have to sit through a two hour French class. The first hour I sat with people from my class in an area of the school called the Cafeteria, which is not like our cafeterias. We just talked and hung out for the hour. The second hour I went to the library and made flashcards for Spanish. That is still a little surreal to me, that I’m learning Spanish in France, that’s incredible!

Wednesday is my favorite day. It’s the shortest and I have pretty good classes. Wednesday starts with History followed by English followed by gym. With the exception of History they’re some of my favorite classes. I like gym here because I understand what is going on and I’m not the worst one like in my other classes.

After school Wednesday I met up with a friend of Cecile and some of his friends and my two exchange student friends at school. It was a relatively simple plan but it got super complicated. Amy didn’t understand that we were all going to eat off campus so she ate at school and Vilma, who boards at school, wasn’t allowed to leave campus for an hour and a half after school was let out.  Then Amy had to leave before Vilma could leave. We ate at a kebob place in the city’s center and then walked around for a while going to different shops. It was pretty fun and it was nice to get to hang out with people after school.

Later that night I had dance with Vilma and Lyne. I’m liking the Jazz class more and more but I’m also really missing Ballet. I wish there was someway I could take a ballet class. I just don’t know how to make it all work out in the best way. I’m hoping I can figure it out soon.

Thursday morning, bright and early, I had a two-hour history test. The test consisted of a subject and then you made up a question and wrote about it for the remaining time. Obviously, this was not super possible for me so I wrote for fifteen minutes and then sat for the remaining time. I also drew some pretty epic butterflies while the other kids took notes in SES. Most of the time I try my hardest to follow what’s going on and copy the notes of my neighbor but sometimes I just give up and draw. I feel a little bad about doing this but that is where I am right now. I haven’t been worrying about the homework or tests, most of the time they are difficult or impossible for me to understand.

I had comprehension orals in both Spanish and English on Thursday. A comprehension oral consists of a teacher playing a tape three times with a little time in between for organizing your notes, and then you have to write a summary of what happened. Spanish was hard but I understood a tiny bit which is a least a little encouraging. English was very easy.

Thursday night I got my first hair cut in France. I really like it; it’s a little different from my typical haircut. The experience of getting it cut was a little funny though. It took a solid hour for it to be totally finished. This was not because it actually took the woman two hours to cut it, it was because she kept bouncing back and forth between the two other clients doing a bit on each of us at a time. It was funny and the final product is good so I’m not complaining.

Sunday I didn’t do much in the morning but towards the afternoon I took a nice walk. I was walking for about an hour and a half and I discovered a lot of stuff about my city. I had a brief scare when I got lost pretty far away from my house but I was able to find my way home. Tonight, my host dad’s parents came over for dinner and we ate a nice quiche, three different types of cheese, and a very good pineapple cake (picture pineapple upside down cake minus the excess sugar and cherries).  

I’m learning a lot about my self and what I’m capable of through this exchange. When you first come to a new place you’re confronted with new people, a new language, and a new culture. This is all very overwhelming which is scary and also incredible. But, once you’ve been somewhere new for a while you begin to miss home a little and you miss the familiar and for me, comprehension. But then you’re in that new place for longer and you begin to feel comfortable, you like your new bed and room, you make friends at school, you begin to understand what people say. This is the step that is most magical, the moment you realize that you would miss this new place when you leave.

I don’t mean to deceive you. I still get homesick; sometimes very homesick. But, I’ve been coming to the realization that the only way I can push through that is by pushing through it. It’s something I’ve got to go through to fully experience this year.