It’s Friday, Friday gotta get down on Friday! This Wednesday marked the two week point on my journey. Sorry it’s been so long, I’m not dead (looking at you mom ;). It’s been busy spending time with my host family, friends and getting used to this foreign lifestyle. I’ve only been to France for two weeks before so the vacation phase is over, however I’m still considering it the honeymoon phase becuase I haven’t gotten very homesick. I say I’m not “very” homesick because I sometimes feel lost and I don’t know where I am, and then I see something that reminds me of home and I feel even more lost. This doesn’t make me sad, just really confused. I’m the kind of person who likes to know whats going on most of the time so It’s been a streach for me to accept that somethings I won’t be able to understand for a few months.
But on a happier note, school is going pretty well for me! My class is super chill and I have a good schedule. In France, you don’t have a different group of people for every class (like the US) so you get to know everyone pretty well. My personal goal was to learn every name in the class, and I feel pretty accomplished at this point! Since there is no assigned seating you get to sit by everyone!
School lunches are pretty yummy and we get an hour and a half for lunch, so we get to hang out with friends for a little bit before we go to back to class.
My favorite classes are probably French, Spanish, English and Art for different reasons. French class in the US meant “lets learn fun words and play games”. However when you are in a class with people who have been speaking this language their entire lives, you have to step up your game. We are looking at poetry right now and a lot of it is in older, formal french. This is very complicated and I try to keep up, but I’m lost lots of the time. But there is something about listening to poetry in another language that you don’t quite understand, it’s more like music. Reading French for me is easier for me to do since I can see patterns and look things up. Whoever is sitting next to me recognizes when I make a clueless face and helps me fill in the blanks. English is a chill time where I can understand everything and help my friends for all the millions of times they have helped me during the week. All these languages are great, however nothing can top the universal language of art.
One thing that has been hard for me to get used to is the student-teacher relationship here. I miss how teachers always want the class to be engaged and don’t mind if we talk to each other along as it is somewhat relevant to the class. The teaching style here is more like a “I talk you learn”. Plus all the spirt days, dances, black rock runs, driving to school and all the other things that make being a teenager in Oregon so much fun. But I can definitely live without these things since I have many more perks in my new life here :D
After Lunch with these crazies.
The bakery with my Host Dad!
Sablé is famous for it’s Sablé cookies, and my wonderful councilor got some for me!
At the Castle with the Church behind us with school friends.
The beautiful view on my walk with Anndrea.
This is why I haven’t heard any country songs about french trucks lol.
