Week Fourteen

The weeks are going by so fast. Sometimes it feels like time crawls by, at school for example, and then it’s the weekend and another whole week has passed. This week I officially passed the three-month mark. It’s a big milestone and it usually means that a lot of things will start to get a lot easier. Generally people say that the first three months of exchange are the hardest and that those are the months that will be a struggle to get through. I didn’t have much of a problem with the first three months and if this exchange only get better and better then it will be, without question, the absolute best year of my life thus far.

Monday, I had school until five again. For the last six weeks, two of them were vacation to be fair, my art teacher hasn’t been at school because he’s depressed so I’ve been finishing school two-three hours earlier each week. I thought I would finish three hours earlier than normal but I found out that they got a replacement for my teacher so I again had art. I was a little depressed because I had to stay so much longer but it was nice to fall back into the normal routine and it was nice to have art again. In addition that teacher is so much better now, so it’s kind of hard to be too bitter about it.

We had several amazing meals this week. It’s times like these that I am really grateful I chose France. Whenever we have company at the house we tend to eat really great food. We had company this week so we ate homemade foie gras, served with some other type of duck organ and some type of duck meat. Wasn’t too into the foie gras but the other organ was really good! We had an orange cake with homemade crème anglaise for dessert. It was a beautiful meal. We also ate steak flambé for Wednesday’s lunch. To top it all off we had raclettes for dinner one night. Raclettes is basically cheese that is melted and then poured over meat and baked potatoes, it’s heavenly.

Thursday marked two important days; Thanksgiving and three months here.

Let me just start by saying that there is something really strange about being in another country for a holiday that is so solidly American. Obviously, no one knew when it was or really what we did on Thanksgiving. It was a little sad to not eat turkey but I survived on leftovers from the week and school lunch. It was cool being able to explain to everyone what it is. I talked with my entire family for the first time in three months that night. It was really nice to see them all. Everything was okay on Friday though because we had Turkey for lunch. I’m not sure the people who planned the menu knew happy they would make the American at their school.

For the past month there’s been an Irish girl going to my school. She left on Sunday but it was nice to have yet another person here who understood my struggles and problems. The Swedish girl, Irish girl, and I all ate lunch together on Friday. It may have been cheating a little but we talked in English the whole time. It was nice to be able fully express myself and say exactly what I wanted to, if only for a little while.

Three months is a huge milestone. As I said before three months is where they say things start getting really good and much easier. These last three months have been so incredible and I’ve gotten to see and experience things I never thought I would or didn’t even know existed. In the spirit of Thanksgiving I would just like to say that I am incredibly grateful and thankful for this experience. I truly believe that this year will change my life. Maybe that’s putting too much stock in this experience but I don’t think I’ll be let down. I’m accomplishing things I never thought I would. I’m doing things I never even dreamed of doing. I’m seeing things that I didn’t know existed. That is what is most amazing about this experience. It exposes you to so many things.

Saturday I went to see Öykü in Sables d’Olonne, we’re becoming really good friends. I would say that she is best friend here. Saturday we went to a fair downtown, which was fun and incredibly overpriced. After the fair we walked to the beach and hung out there for a while. It’s really cool being right next to the ocean and being able to spend so much time there.

Sunday we hung out at the house for most of the day but that night we went to a play; it was actually two short plays. They were actually pretty funny. Öykü and I obviously didn’t understand everything that was being said but we understood the stories and the bigger things. I got back to my house at a reasonable time. It’s really nice being able to take the train often. That is one of the things I like best about France. It’s so accessible.

This year is an incredible experience and also an incredible opportunity. I’m so lucky to have had the people in my life I did when I did. I came to know about Rotary because a friend of mine went of exchange to Argentina and suggested me to my sponsoring counselor. It was a series of incredible coincidences and I’m so happy they played out the way they did.   

My House

Foie Gras

Breaking Those Rotary D's

Fair