Week Eight

The last week of school before the vacation was last week.

Monday was very short and relatively easy. The kids who are going to Boston left over the weekend and my Anglais-Euro history went with them so no class this week. On top of that my art teacher wasn’t there and I didn’t have a class before art so I got to go home from school three hours early. Last weekend I found a cool place to slackline and went back on Monday afternoon. For those of you who don’t know, a slackline is similar to a tightrope but made of essentially a tow strap and ratchet. I got into it in the US and am now continuing to do it here.

Tuesday night I borrowed my host dad’s bike and went for a bike ride. I almost didn’t do it but I am so glad that I did. I found so much amazing stuff and discovered so much about my city. I am getting pretty comfortable navigating the areas around my house. I took the bike and basically took any turn I found interesting. I found an amazing park bench where I wrote in my journal, a great place to watch a sunset, and I trail that leads to a gravel road, which leads to an amazing fields. As I was returning home I found a field full of cattle that was literally right next to town. It sort of blew my mind that something so rural could exist so near to a place that is so urban.

Wednesday I did four hours of sport. I had an hour and a half at school, one hour of pilates, and an hour and a half of Jazz. It was great and it makes me feel very active. I know that gaining weight on exchange is normal and I shouldn’t worry about it but I think that doing things like this or going on a walk or a bike ride can really help me prevent some of that weight gain.

Thursday night I went to a dinner with Rotary. It wasn’t that interesting, but it was fun. The point of the evening was to watch a presentation of someone who works in some aspect of law enforcement. His presentation incredibly boring but it was nice to go to the Rotary meeting. As I have discovered however, Rotary in French is a very social thing and while the point of the meeting was watching this presentation, there was a lot of time allotted for socialization. I found this to be the same in the US, at Rotary meetings are generally nice to go to because they generally care about you and are interested in what you are doing. I would say that my best language practice when I first got here was at the first Rotary meeting. It’s a place I feel very comfortable speaking French.

Saturday night to Sunday was Cécile’s birthday party. Öykü, another exchange student from Turkey who is living in Les Sables d’Olonne, came. It was nice to be around another exchange student. I feel by far the most connected with the other exchange students. It’s nice having someone who shares your struggles completely and understands what you’re going through. I took Öykü slacklining and then showed her all the things I discovered. It was nice getting to share that with another person. I’ve been taking these adventures by myself and that’s nice because it gives me time to think and relax away from French but it’s also cool to show another person.

Two things happened this week to make me realize that my French has actually improved a lot in the almost two months I’ve been here. I’ve known about this party since just after I got here and when I found out about I thought there would be no way I would understand what people were telling me. However, I actually found that I understood a lot of what was said and was able to have some real conversations. Also, before leaving I watched a video of an exchange student speaking in French with English subtitles. Before leaving when I watched it I relied solely of the subtitles and didn’t understand really any of the French but I watched it again and I could understand everything she said without looking at the subtitles. The video is here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndrOE_ZoazE. Next week is my two months here and that blows my mind.

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.

Week Six

On Sunday night I got back from Caen and Normandy pretty early, about 8 or 9 o’clock. But, my host family had already asked if I could skip the morning from school if I got home late so we told a little white lie and I skipped my first class. It was SES, which is my economics class, so it’s not a vey important class for me because I don’t understand what is going on anyway.

I’m starting to feel like a part of the class. I feel more connected to my class mates and I understand a lot of what they say which helps a lot. On Monday, my English teacher was sick and in France if the teacher is sick you just don’t have class. So the whole class had a free period so I went with some of the other kids and sat in one of the courtyards and talked for the whole period. It was all about the US and what sorts of things are different and not about their lives but I still feel like it was a step in the right direction.

I wrote an oral for Spanish last week and presented it on Monday. Everyone was a little shocked by it. I have hope that I will actually learn stuff this year. It’ll be hard and it might not be the amount I would learn in the US but I do feel passionately about learning the language. I’m really glad I decided to stay in the class.

After school n Monday, there was a meeting of the exchange students for an article. It was nice to get to meet the other exchange students although as it turned out I had already met the three others staying the whole year. It was fun and it was nice, finally getting to meet everyone.

Wednesday was the day of the funeral. It was really sad and I felt a little weird being there. On the one hand it seems nice and supportive for the whole class to be there to support our fellow classmate. But, on the other hand it seems a little intrusive and I left feeling like I shouldn’t have been there because it was so deeply personal and I didn’t know the man or his friends or his family.

While the morning on Wednesday was sad and depressing, the rest of the day went pretty well and I had dance that night. Vilma, another exchange student, came too. It was a pretty good class and it was fun to do it with another person that didn’t understand.

I had an English test on Thursday. It was really easy content wise and I think I did well but I’m feeling some stress to do well because everyone expects it of me. I got my Math test score back, 14.5/20, this score would not be very good in the US but here it is actually pretty okay and people were proud of me. Just one of the many differences between American and French education systems.

I had a brief weight scare last week. My host dad and I went to an electronics store to pick up Cécile’s new phone and while there I weighed myself. According to the scale I had gained six pounds! I felt a little weird that day so I figured it must have just been what I ate that day. Nonetheless I went running the next day and am starting to be more aware of the things I eat. Turns out that it was just the day because I weighed myself again and I was back to normal.

Saturday was the day for Saint François which is the saint of my school, so Friday there was a big party at our sister school across town. We took three hours off of school and went there to eat lunch and hang out. There was a band and a huge loaf of Brioche. I mean, this Brioche was so big that it fed over 1,000 people more than once. It was a cool experience that I probably would never have had in the US.

Saturday, my family had a surprise party for my birthday with my other host families. I say surprise because I didn’t know who was coming, I did know there was going to be a party. It was great to finally meet the other people I’m going to live with.  I’m glad it was the people and I had no idea who could be coming. It turns out that my host mom has been planning the dinner since the end of August. I’m glad I ended up where I did.  I also finished my first book in French. It’s literally the Magic Tree House but I was pretty proud of myself.

Sunday, a girl here from Turkey with Rotary came to La Roche to watch a bike race with us. Le Tour de Vendée is a bike race that goes around Vendée and finishes in La Roche. It was cool to right in the middle of the action and experience it all. I got a free tee shirt and hat and got interviewed. We were right next to the press and one of them asked my host sisters something and I said, “Oh I’m American” but I think that he really thought I spoke French because he interviewed me, I didn’t really understand what he was asking but it was awesome anyway and my friend told me that she told me that she saw it on TV!

I get more and more moments where I catch myself thinking in French without forcing it. I can always think to myself in French but sometimes it just happens automatically without forcing it. I know it’s a good sign but it is so weird when it happens. It feels sort of like a parasite is invading my brain, I mean this in the best possible way of course.

School here is much different, there’s more of a teach, learn mentality and it’s not so much a conversation. Most of my classes are pretty much entirely dictated. What I mean by this is that the teacher will just talk pretty slowly and you’re expected to write down everything they say so you can look over your notes later. It’s a lot of definitions that the teacher has just memorized and then dictates to the class. Also their entire grade is dependent on the tests they take. I definitely prefer the method of grading in the US and especially at CSA where we’re graded on more than just content but also on collaboration, written communication, oral communication, and work ethic. I believe this gives a more whole image of the student.

I'm really starting to feel comfortable here and starting to appreciate the little things about the culture more.

Caen and Mont Saint Michel

My French is getting so much better. I know that it’s full of errors but the flow with which I talk is substantially better than when I arrived. Everyone I ask tells me that my French has improved a lot. I’m to the point that I understand what people say to me almost all the time. School is still a struggle and I don’t get much out of my classes, but I can understand at least some of what the teachers are teaching us. Although I still think it’s amazing how few words I understand when I’m copying my neighbors notes. That’s been all I’ve done in my classes, in general the homework is too hard or complex for me.

On Monday, I wrote my first oral for Spanish. It’s a little surreal taking a Spanish class in French in France. It’s weird getting an assignment with translations into French and not English. The tests for instance are sentences in French, which you then have to translate into Spanish. My first test was rough and I literally just put down the pronouns but I took my second test last week and one of my sentences was entirely correct. My Spanish teacher also told my English teacher, who is also in charge of the exchange students, that if I continue like this I’ll speak Spanish by the end of the year. I’m glad that I decided to stay in Spanish, it’ll set me up really well in the US and I do really want to learn the language.

I’ve been talking pretty often with Manon, who went to Australia, and Lou, my second host sister. They’re very cool and it’s been nice to talk to them about their experiences. I’ve also been hanging out with some other exchange students pretty often. One girl named Vilma and another named Amy, from Sweden and Mexico respectively. I feel a little bad for Vilma because she lives at the school and only gets to leave for an hour everyday.

On Tuesday, in my science class I dissected a cow eyeball. It was so awesome. The only problem was that my partner wanted to do it as well and I really like dissecting. Phones are pretty strictly forbidden here but I managed to take a couple of pictures. I may have gotten eyeball on my phone but it was so worth it. It’s things like this that make me think I could do something with medicine for a living.

Some days are harder than other. Some days I feel perfectly content and some days I just feel like crying from frustration. For example, on Wednesday I got so frustrated in a pharmacy because I needed to buy lotion and when I told my host family and the pharmacist they didn’t understand. It turns out that the French word, “Lotion,” translates to “body oil” in English, and the English word, “Lotion,” translates to “Crème.” This was the last straw in a day full of frustrating things like that and I almost lost it in the middle of the pharmacy. It’s so frustrating have thoughts in English that you can’t convey because you don’t know the words in French.

Although, Wednesday also ended on a good note, I took a Jazz class where I took my Ballet class. It was actually pretty fun. I’ve never really done Jazz but it wasn’t bad at all. I think the Swedish girl is going to start the class as well. I think that if I take the Jazz class I will also take the Monday ballet class even though it’s not great; something is better than nothing.

On Thursday, I went to a Rotary club meeting with all the kids from Vendée, my department in France. There are six other kids. We all live around the region but we’re pretty close to each other. It was a really fun night and I was glad that I got to hang out with all the other kids. It was a meeting of all the clubs in Vendée so there were a lot of people there. They had a sort of strange fashion to raise money, but we got to walk at the end of it. It was a great night and I hope that the Vendée kids can get together often. Friday, school was little hard. I was pretty tired because I got back from the meeting so late. I was pretty tired in all my classes.

On Friday, toward the middle of the day a woman came and got a girl from my class and told her to take all her stuff. The woman came back later to tell us that the girl’s father had died. It was shocking to hear and one of my friends started to cry. The funeral is on Wednesday and the school is arranging for a bus to take the entire class. This is something that probably wouldn’t happen in the US but I feel is going to be very important to the girl.

Last weekend I went to Caen in Normandy and Le Mont Saint Michel in Brittany. Friday night, I slept at the chairman’s house because we had to get up at 4:00 AM to leave. For dinner we ate basically all of my least favorite foods. I forced my way through it and ate everything. I’ve come a long way from the days when my family made fun of me for being a picky eater.

On Saturday, Felippe, the other kid in La Roche sur Yon, and I got up very early and left to meet the other kids Angers where we took a bus to Caen. On the way we picked up Öykü, the girl living in Les Sables d’Olonne. The bus ride was long but we eventually made it to Caen.

The first thing we did was go to a World War II Museum. After you walked through the Museum you ended up in an American cemetery. The museum and cemetery was on a bluff above the beach, which soldiers stormed during World War II. It was a sad place but there was a path down to the beach and we were with a girl who had never been to the ocean and we got to see her experience it for the first time so it was a happy occasion as well.

That night at dinner another girl, who shares my birthday, and I got sung to and the Rotarians gave us agendas and Mont Saint Michel bookmarks. I’m glad I wasn’t alone on my birthday. It might have been a little depressing, I’m glad I got to spend it with other kids who are experiencing the same thing as me as well. I do wish that I had been able to talk to my parents though.

On Sunday, we got up at 8:00 AM and left for Le Mont Saint Michel. We arrived there at about 11:30 and hiked to the top of the mountain. It was incredibly beautiful. Although it was a little strange how commercialized the whole place was. It was definitely a tourist attraction and the whole place was covered with little souvenir shops. When we got to the top Mass was just beginning and it was amazing to see and experience that event in such a magnificent place.

I slept most of the way back and got home at probably 8:00. We ate dinner together and I ate so much; one of my favorite meals here is called Moussaka, it’s Greek and Turkish. That’s what we ate for dinner and after my family surprised me with a cake. It was very nice and this weekend we are going to go go carting for my birthday. I’m very excited.

I’ve had a few very strange French moments. I’ve noticed that sometimes my French slips into my English. Also French grammar sometimes comes into my English as well. The weirdest moment I’ve had so far was this weekend. I read an email from my mom and started to think about the reply in French before I even realized it. It’s going to be so weird to think entirely in French but I’m so excited.