I missed my first week. My goal was to keep it up all year
and not miss a week but I got busy and forgot. It’s not such a big deal but I
want to keep up my weekly tradition.
I’ll start with last week.
Monday was really relaxed because I didn’t have school. It
was a teacher workday so that meant no school for the students. I didn’t do much all day and that was really
nice. I mostly just worked on a presentation about the United States, which I
gave on this Thursday. I probably could have started a little earlier or worked
a little harder but it went well. I also wrote my French teacher in the US a
letter, all in French. I had my host sister correct it all before I sent it but
still, it was all in French.
Tuesday, which was Veteran’s Day in the US, was a memorial
day for WWI in France; so no school. On our day off we went to a city called Le Croisic, a small town on the coast where they collect salt from the ocean.
While there we went to the graves of my host mom’s grandma and father and
cleaned and put flowers on them. We ate lunch at my host grandma’s house and
then went to eat dessert at my host uncle’s house. My host uncle’s wife is from
a different part of France and has a different accent. I was really proud of
myself because even with the accent I was able to understand 95% of what she
said and I was able to hear her accent. That was something I wasn’t able to do
when I got here.
Wednesday was hard. I took the Bac Blanc de Français. In
short, it was a four-hour French test.
There were three texts that we had to read and then the other kids had
to do specific activities but I just had to summarize the texts. Even that took
me almost the whole time. It was very hard but I’m glad that I at least tried,
four hours was a long time but it was good that I did it. The texts were very
complicated but at least they were interesting. Needless to say I was extremely
tired after that so I took a two-hour nap. After dinner I talked about the
American and French political systems with my family. It was an interesting and
enlightening experience for both of us.
Thursday morning my test was math. It was the first test
that I felt even slightly comfortable with. I didn’t too hot, 14/30 but still
okay. Bear in mind though that a 15/20 is an A so I didn’t totally fail it. I
came home from school Thursday afternoon to a note from my host mom asking me
to clean my room. It was pretty messy, I need to remember more often that it’s
not my house really and I need to keep my stuff organized and clean.
Friday night I went to Öykü’s house for dinner and to spend
the night. It was fun and we ate a lot of seafood. I actually really like
oysters although sea snails are pretty weird. We had two types of snail,
shrimp, oysters, and fish with mashed potatoes. I wasn’t that big a seafood
person before I left but now I think it tastes good. I guess that’s one of the
things that comes with being an exchange student, different tastes. For
example, I didn’t like tomatoes at all before I came but then I ate them a lot
and now think that they taste pretty good, I also didn’t know that milk with
cookies was good before I came and tried it.
Saturday I went to Nantes and met up with a bunch of other
exchange students. By a bunch I mean about twenty of us. It was great. It’s
always so nice to see everyone and talk to them. It’s nice to be around people
with the same struggles and wants as you. The day was originally for Felipe but
he didn’t actually get there until pretty late in the day. It was a great day
nonetheless and I’m glad we all got to get together. Before I left Les Sables
d’Olonne, Öykü and I bought train passes so now we get 50% off all the trains
in Pays de la Loire.
We slept late on Sunday and didn’t do much because Saturday
night there was a family who came to our house to eat with us and talk. They
didn’t end up leaving until past 2 AM. Also needless to say, I was exhausted. I
did go to Felipe’s house for a meal with his host families. It was nice to be
there and talk with everyone.
This week.
I had a lot going on all week. It was a pretty crazy week. I
worked out three times, twice with my district counselor, Yves, and Felipe, and
once with just Felipe. It was nice to get to do it together as a group but I was
incredibly sore after every time. We
worked out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and I was still sore into Sunday. It
was intense.
On Wednesday, Öykü, Cécile, Felipe, and I all ate
lunch together downtown. We then did a little shopping. Two other people came
to La Roche to go ice-skating with us. It was cool to be together as a group
and see everyone. By the time we had finished ice-skating and everyone had left
it was too late to go to dance and so I went to work out with Felipe. It was a
little sad because it was his last session in La Roche because he left on Friday.
I was also working all week on my presentation for Rotary. I
had to talk for about fifteen minutes about the United States and my life
there. It went really well! I was worried that I was going to read too much and
it wasn’t going to be very good but I just tried to talk about the pictures I
put up and not read so much. It must have been pretty good because everyone
told it was good. I was really happy but at the same time it was sad because it
was the day before Felipe left.
Friday, I took the last two periods off of school to go to
the airport with Felipe. Öykü also came. It was really nice to be together as a
trio one last time before he left. There weren’t any huge issues at the airport
so he got home intact. I really wish he could have stayed longer and my biggest
regret so far is not doing more stuff with him while he was here. I guess this
just gives me even more of a reason to go to Argentina.
This weekend we didn’t do that much other than relax. We did
go to a really cool park and walked around though. Oh, and I had my first
French crepe. I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost three months and hadn’t
eaten a crepe.
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