So spring time is now rollin' around and things are going super! i just had my February 2 week break and i pretty much just hung around my house and bothered my host family like usual. Like at my host family is going really smoothly, the kids are now accepting some of my authority ( i think) and i have started to get pretty good at the vocabulary that you would use to deal with a child in France. I found that an iron fist is needed with some of these children, and i got no problem smackin' down the hammer of Thor when necessary!
With the weather changing and all, i have been able to downgrade from 3 layers to 2, for it is now becoming hotter and sunnier. during the break there was a pretty freaky snow day, and we got quite a bit of snow, but it has all melted up i think. Next monday i start school back up and get the ball rolling. My mom sent me some books for the english class i'm taking on the interwebs, and now i have something to read during my french classes. Nothing has changed in my school life really, i still dont really do anything, but now all of that has dramaically changed with these english books.
I can't wait for summer to roll around cause i realllllllly want to go swimming. The sensation of my little piggy toes in the water has escaped my grasp during this winter, and now i shall be liberated by the hot sun of summer! I just accidentally exited out of this page and forgot to save, then when i opened it up again it was all already saved, and i was like yisss. But ya.
So on the Bobby front, i'm starting to look back at RBV (my highschool) and looking at it much differently, as in i still want to go there for senior year but i can see myself relating less to some of the people i know over there, i guess my sister and everybody in the rotary program is right when they say that after you go on an exchange you slowly realise you can't exactly relate as well to people back home. French progress is pretty much stagnating i guess you could say, but you know you still learn words from situations. I've also been eating healthier than i did in the states, and i've lost 14 pounds. So yup thats about the gist of it!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Alrighty Then!
Well, i have not written here for a while, so i guess i'll get every body updated! The last time i posted a blog was i think around 2 months ago, and lots have events have come to pass during these last 2 months!
Those last four weeks before the next vacations were the same as usual, quick as a bullet and solid progress in French. Around the end of the six week block, Rotary took us up to Paris to see the sights and meet another group of exchange students from the city of Lille. Everyone had a really good time and we had the opportunity to meet and relate to a huge and new group of people in our very same situation! Getting up to the vacation, we had my host family's parents come down from Paris to stay with us for the week for Christmas.
Christmas was really nice and laid back with a few presents coming my way (aww yisssss) and my present to everybody else turning out to be a huge success!( A CD of patriotic songs that embody the United States of America!) After this nice little quiet week of vacation, I went up to a ski-lodge with my host dad, his girlfriend, and my host brothers.The week was great, but was plagued with injuries in my group. We were a total of five at the beginning of the trip, with a sixth added on a couple days in, and had 4 hurt. It started with my host dad's girlfriend injuring her knee the first day, Timothe with a pulled muscle the third day, and I, with a tennis ball sized pocket of blood under my knee, and my younger host brother Lucca with a severely broken leg, which has given him a cast from his toes to his hip. So that just left my host father and Quentin ( my future host brother) completely in tact. Even with all these injuries, the break was still great!
Just after the end of the second break i moved over to my second host family and so far it has been really great. In my second host family there are many more kids than the first, and the number of kids depends on what day it is for my host mom runs a kinda foster home/her home cross over. With everybody, there's me, two girls aged 15 and 16 ( both foster kids ), 3 boys aged 18, 11 and 6 which are all sons of the host mother ( the 6 year old being adopted ),and a second group of 3 boys aged 14, 9, and 9 ( I think ). Finally there's my host mom and her boyfriend Gyome. Well actually im not really sure if they are married, boyfriend and girlfriend, or even in a relationship at all. The last three weeks of school have been going by really fast, and i'm making some good memories with doing ridiculous challenges at my school or just hanging out with good friends.
As for French progress, I can quite honestly say that i am approaching fluency in French, and it feels pretty good. I usually never have to ask for people to repeat themselves while talking anymore, and people seem to better understand me when i talk in French due to good accent practice, and I've even been passing time by reading French books in class and translating the French words that i don't understand into English with an enormous dictionary. I use this French reading method because i still can't seem to follow the subjects in my French classes, and to be honest i lost just about all interest in most of my subjects a while ago. I will try my hardest to post next week as well, but don't take my word for it! bye bye!
Those last four weeks before the next vacations were the same as usual, quick as a bullet and solid progress in French. Around the end of the six week block, Rotary took us up to Paris to see the sights and meet another group of exchange students from the city of Lille. Everyone had a really good time and we had the opportunity to meet and relate to a huge and new group of people in our very same situation! Getting up to the vacation, we had my host family's parents come down from Paris to stay with us for the week for Christmas.
Christmas was really nice and laid back with a few presents coming my way (aww yisssss) and my present to everybody else turning out to be a huge success!( A CD of patriotic songs that embody the United States of America!) After this nice little quiet week of vacation, I went up to a ski-lodge with my host dad, his girlfriend, and my host brothers.The week was great, but was plagued with injuries in my group. We were a total of five at the beginning of the trip, with a sixth added on a couple days in, and had 4 hurt. It started with my host dad's girlfriend injuring her knee the first day, Timothe with a pulled muscle the third day, and I, with a tennis ball sized pocket of blood under my knee, and my younger host brother Lucca with a severely broken leg, which has given him a cast from his toes to his hip. So that just left my host father and Quentin ( my future host brother) completely in tact. Even with all these injuries, the break was still great!
Just after the end of the second break i moved over to my second host family and so far it has been really great. In my second host family there are many more kids than the first, and the number of kids depends on what day it is for my host mom runs a kinda foster home/her home cross over. With everybody, there's me, two girls aged 15 and 16 ( both foster kids ), 3 boys aged 18, 11 and 6 which are all sons of the host mother ( the 6 year old being adopted ),and a second group of 3 boys aged 14, 9, and 9 ( I think ). Finally there's my host mom and her boyfriend Gyome. Well actually im not really sure if they are married, boyfriend and girlfriend, or even in a relationship at all. The last three weeks of school have been going by really fast, and i'm making some good memories with doing ridiculous challenges at my school or just hanging out with good friends.
As for French progress, I can quite honestly say that i am approaching fluency in French, and it feels pretty good. I usually never have to ask for people to repeat themselves while talking anymore, and people seem to better understand me when i talk in French due to good accent practice, and I've even been passing time by reading French books in class and translating the French words that i don't understand into English with an enormous dictionary. I use this French reading method because i still can't seem to follow the subjects in my French classes, and to be honest i lost just about all interest in most of my subjects a while ago. I will try my hardest to post next week as well, but don't take my word for it! bye bye!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Big Update
So for this blog, i'll start out talking about the French language itself. Some tips I can give people are; if an English word that you can't find a translation for on the spot ends in a "tion", it's probably the same exact word in French but with a French accent. Many words in French mean multiple different words in English (for example, the verb "dire" not only means "to say" but also "to tell"), some other words in French that have dual or many meanings are all about context. Last tip I could give would be that the opposite of the last part is also true, meaning that some words in French have less meaning than they would in English. An example would be the verb got. When one uses got, it can be used like the verb obtain, or for something like "get out of here" or " do you get it?". The french equivalent of the verb got is obtenir, and its only translation in the literal meaning, obtain. While my proficiency in the language is improving nicely, I still gotta say that English will always be my first and favorite language!
So maybe i have already explained this part about the school system, maybe multiple times, but for every 6 weeks of school there are 2 weeks of vacation, an improvement on the American system I find! Therefore, i had my first two week break two weeks ago. I got back from the break and started school again just about 2 weeks ago. What i did on my break was; first, have my party chez moi, which was a really good time in general, with a good mix of exchange students and french friends, and then I hopped around houses with my host exchange friends for the following 5 days, only to then leave for Paris the day after! Paris was very interesting and cool, I saw many of the historic and famous monuments and landmarks, and i got to meet more people in my host family, such as cousins, uncles, etc. Only problem on that trip was a short stint that a sickness managed to pull on me, regressing me into a semi-working human for a few days.
Settling back into school is an odd mixture of boring and refreshing, because of 2 hour block periods and the re-instated flow of French life. Many of my teachers were either sick or partying 2 weeks ago, so i had a super easy schedule of breezy courses, up until another party i went to at a french friends house. The party was really nice, good company, some dancing, good music, and an overall good time.
This last week went along just like usual,and the weeks are now getting faster and more blurred together. I feel like last week should have been at the beginning of November, when in actuality it was just a week ago. In a couple of days, i will have been living in France for 3 months now, and that's quite the milestone for an exchange student. What 3 months is supposed to mean (according to rotary) is the large turning point in which the language becomes much easier to understand, you star dreaming in the language, and conversations are able to flow with no problem whatsoever. I however, believe that it is much more of a gradual process, and it take more time and effort than just natural progression. In these next couple of days i should be receiving another care package from 'Merica, and that should contain some french books to speed me along my way even faster! At the moment with my French, all i can really say is that not me, nor the other exchange student ,who goes to the same school as me (the best french speaker out of our group of exchange students), will be at the level previously mentioned in these next couple of days.
Side tracking from that more somber note, This weekend I stayed at a French friends house for both Saturday and Sunday, which was very cool to say the least. I got to see a little better the activities and past times of the teenagers who live in France, and I must report that they do not differ too much from Americans. Saturday we hung around his house and played a plethora of different board, card, and video games until we left the house in the night to go hang out with some mutual friends at a cafe. Sunday started very much the previous day, until at around 4 o'clock we left for another friends house, did some rock climbing, some ping pong, met some of his family, then returned at around 6 to be brought home. Now it's Tuesday, and I can't wait for the next weekend to come around, where there is yet another party to be had! Bye-Bye!
So maybe i have already explained this part about the school system, maybe multiple times, but for every 6 weeks of school there are 2 weeks of vacation, an improvement on the American system I find! Therefore, i had my first two week break two weeks ago. I got back from the break and started school again just about 2 weeks ago. What i did on my break was; first, have my party chez moi, which was a really good time in general, with a good mix of exchange students and french friends, and then I hopped around houses with my host exchange friends for the following 5 days, only to then leave for Paris the day after! Paris was very interesting and cool, I saw many of the historic and famous monuments and landmarks, and i got to meet more people in my host family, such as cousins, uncles, etc. Only problem on that trip was a short stint that a sickness managed to pull on me, regressing me into a semi-working human for a few days.
Settling back into school is an odd mixture of boring and refreshing, because of 2 hour block periods and the re-instated flow of French life. Many of my teachers were either sick or partying 2 weeks ago, so i had a super easy schedule of breezy courses, up until another party i went to at a french friends house. The party was really nice, good company, some dancing, good music, and an overall good time.
This last week went along just like usual,and the weeks are now getting faster and more blurred together. I feel like last week should have been at the beginning of November, when in actuality it was just a week ago. In a couple of days, i will have been living in France for 3 months now, and that's quite the milestone for an exchange student. What 3 months is supposed to mean (according to rotary) is the large turning point in which the language becomes much easier to understand, you star dreaming in the language, and conversations are able to flow with no problem whatsoever. I however, believe that it is much more of a gradual process, and it take more time and effort than just natural progression. In these next couple of days i should be receiving another care package from 'Merica, and that should contain some french books to speed me along my way even faster! At the moment with my French, all i can really say is that not me, nor the other exchange student ,who goes to the same school as me (the best french speaker out of our group of exchange students), will be at the level previously mentioned in these next couple of days.
Side tracking from that more somber note, This weekend I stayed at a French friends house for both Saturday and Sunday, which was very cool to say the least. I got to see a little better the activities and past times of the teenagers who live in France, and I must report that they do not differ too much from Americans. Saturday we hung around his house and played a plethora of different board, card, and video games until we left the house in the night to go hang out with some mutual friends at a cafe. Sunday started very much the previous day, until at around 4 o'clock we left for another friends house, did some rock climbing, some ping pong, met some of his family, then returned at around 6 to be brought home. Now it's Tuesday, and I can't wait for the next weekend to come around, where there is yet another party to be had! Bye-Bye!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
French Groove
OK! Finally updating my blog again! These last couple of weeks have been really interesting for me. I'm now officially in the "groove" of normal life in France. I am also comfortable with my host family and all of my new friends at school. The weeks consist of a lot of school, so i don't get to do much, so i save all of my activities for the weekends. The school system makes it very difficult to change classes around, so trying to take a few different courses is next to impossible, but i have now signed up for my second optional sport, escalade.
Thinking on the more positive side, i do have my weekends to look forward to! Now that most of the other exchange students are nice and relaxed with their host families, it's easier to negotiate and plan dates for get-togethers at large cities or going to parties. The weekend before last i had a couple of the exchange students come over the chez moi and spend the night, which was nice to fraternize and relax. This last weekend however, i went golfing with some of the exchange students, and stayed at the houses of the two exchange students who came over the weekend before that. There were only five students there, but still a great time for practicing a little golf.
As for school and my progress in the language, there are definitely up and down days, but there is an increasingly visible change and progression of my proficiency in the language. My "possy" of French friends are really nice and mellow, and just so happen to be the coolest group in my high school! Though some subjects are lost in translation, there is still lots of successful communication between my friends and I. After about 2 months being here, when i speak English too much French words start to slip out, and i think, more simple topics, in french often. I don't have much of a problem with the accent, and i feel as though i can speak more relaxed french now as i don't try so hard to formulate sentences anymore. Though that all sounds good, there is still much more to accomplish and many more milestones to be reached, like writing one of my blogs in all French!
The biggest problem for me at the moment would be the restrictions rotary has put onto travel, which has made it difficult to go to different large cities, but a fix seems in order in the near future. Speaking over the near future, i am throwing a little soiree at my house the first Saturday of the vacation, and i got a half and half mixture of exchange students and my French friends. If this is being read in Mrs. Schwaner's class, my key advice to the students for the fastest possible way to mastering French is sleeping in class.
Thinking on the more positive side, i do have my weekends to look forward to! Now that most of the other exchange students are nice and relaxed with their host families, it's easier to negotiate and plan dates for get-togethers at large cities or going to parties. The weekend before last i had a couple of the exchange students come over the chez moi and spend the night, which was nice to fraternize and relax. This last weekend however, i went golfing with some of the exchange students, and stayed at the houses of the two exchange students who came over the weekend before that. There were only five students there, but still a great time for practicing a little golf.
As for school and my progress in the language, there are definitely up and down days, but there is an increasingly visible change and progression of my proficiency in the language. My "possy" of French friends are really nice and mellow, and just so happen to be the coolest group in my high school! Though some subjects are lost in translation, there is still lots of successful communication between my friends and I. After about 2 months being here, when i speak English too much French words start to slip out, and i think, more simple topics, in french often. I don't have much of a problem with the accent, and i feel as though i can speak more relaxed french now as i don't try so hard to formulate sentences anymore. Though that all sounds good, there is still much more to accomplish and many more milestones to be reached, like writing one of my blogs in all French!
The biggest problem for me at the moment would be the restrictions rotary has put onto travel, which has made it difficult to go to different large cities, but a fix seems in order in the near future. Speaking over the near future, i am throwing a little soiree at my house the first Saturday of the vacation, and i got a half and half mixture of exchange students and my French friends. If this is being read in Mrs. Schwaner's class, my key advice to the students for the fastest possible way to mastering French is sleeping in class.
Monday, September 24, 2012
les autres étudiants d'échange! et d'autres choses
Ok, time to write another blog! so in my last week and a half, i met up with all the other foreign exchange students in my are, 14 people, 7 boys 7 girls, and we all went rafting, to a hot spring, and finally to a ropes course in the woods. It was a really excellent weekend and everybody had a lot of fun. There are 7 Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 Mexican, 1 Brazilian, 1 Japanese, 1 South Korean, and finally 1 Bolivian! Everybody was really nice and we got to share some stories about our current situations with host families and such, and i'd have to say my situation seems to be one of the best! The only problem with our local Rotary Club is that they only want to have meetings around once every 3 months, and we, the exchange students and me, believe that is a little too little, so we have taken it into our own hands to arrange more frequent events.
The week after the Rotary Reunion was a lot of school, which i'm still getting used to. All of my teachers now fully understand my situation and they are all very supportive about it, but the classes are still quite difficult to understand and articulate into notes and such. Even though that sounds a little bit dim, i have found that i can understand much more French than when i first got here, not only from context now, and i can also speak more casually and with new and more useful words. One thing the classes don't teach you is how many different ways there are just to ask one question, and thus, my biggest piece of advice at the moment is just to think about the context of the question if you can't understand it, and answer accordingly.
Last Saturday i went into Aix-En-Provence with two of the other exchange students, Rebecca and Imelsy, and we got the chance to further explore the city. Seeing the huge market with all of the different types of soap was very interesting, and so was all of the old architecture and cathedrals. After eating at a small cafe, we took a promenade over to the shopping district, and then saw a movie named Killer Joe, which i have absolutely no words for. After Aix-En-Provence i went to a party with my host brother, and I've never seen so many 15 year olds with cigarettes! Yes mom i turned down every single one that was offered to me, i'm no sheep!
I'm really starting to get more relaxed in the lifestyle now, and i even have stuff planned for the next two week-ends, so there's bound to be some excitement coming up! Oh and as a side note, i translate just about everything i think into the best french i can now, just so you know! Soooooo bye-bye!
The week after the Rotary Reunion was a lot of school, which i'm still getting used to. All of my teachers now fully understand my situation and they are all very supportive about it, but the classes are still quite difficult to understand and articulate into notes and such. Even though that sounds a little bit dim, i have found that i can understand much more French than when i first got here, not only from context now, and i can also speak more casually and with new and more useful words. One thing the classes don't teach you is how many different ways there are just to ask one question, and thus, my biggest piece of advice at the moment is just to think about the context of the question if you can't understand it, and answer accordingly.
Last Saturday i went into Aix-En-Provence with two of the other exchange students, Rebecca and Imelsy, and we got the chance to further explore the city. Seeing the huge market with all of the different types of soap was very interesting, and so was all of the old architecture and cathedrals. After eating at a small cafe, we took a promenade over to the shopping district, and then saw a movie named Killer Joe, which i have absolutely no words for. After Aix-En-Provence i went to a party with my host brother, and I've never seen so many 15 year olds with cigarettes! Yes mom i turned down every single one that was offered to me, i'm no sheep!
I'm really starting to get more relaxed in the lifestyle now, and i even have stuff planned for the next two week-ends, so there's bound to be some excitement coming up! Oh and as a side note, i translate just about everything i think into the best french i can now, just so you know! Soooooo bye-bye!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
First Week of School
So, in the time interval between my posts, i have started and finished one full official week of school! The high school in France is very different from America. The structure of the school resembles more of a college, with a schedule in which you have different classes just about every day and at different times, making some days last for only 3 or 4 hours while others last for 8 or 9 hours. I personally prefer the system in America a little more, but the school is still fantastic so far.
Having most of the same classes as another exchange student is really nice, and it makes things go much smoother with the overall transition from the more guided home life to a more independent setting. I have talked to a lot of students in my classes and have made friends with a lot of my older host brother's (Hugo) circle of friends. The classes are quite difficult to understand, but a lot of the subjects i have already studied and know a fair amount about, such as math, lab-bio, history, and of course, English. English class is kind of seeming like a little bit of a let down at the moment because the teacher is visibly "uncomfortable" when she speaks the language, with a bizarre French British accent by the way, and it seems like is true hat most French people really don like speaking other languages then French! Coming up his weekend i will also be getting to meet he other foreign exchange students in what seems o be he whole south eastern area of France, and we are going o some mountain resort thing or something, not entirely clear.
As for my own progress in French, i can kind of notice that i am able to better break down sentences and when others talk it seems to be slower than it was when i first got here, though i'm not entirely sure. As for making replies and speaking in French, i have a small arsenal of phrases that i feel pretty relaxed with, such as regular greetings and very basic topics of questions. Understanding the context of a situation better, or just outright guessing what a person just said, allows me to look less of a fool when i am in a conversation, which i have progressively gotten better at. And my last thought on my progress in French is that i translate most of what i think into French just as a habit now and i also had a dream with a few French phrases in it. I'll be sure to post pictures on some other day, maybe on the weekend.
Having most of the same classes as another exchange student is really nice, and it makes things go much smoother with the overall transition from the more guided home life to a more independent setting. I have talked to a lot of students in my classes and have made friends with a lot of my older host brother's (Hugo) circle of friends. The classes are quite difficult to understand, but a lot of the subjects i have already studied and know a fair amount about, such as math, lab-bio, history, and of course, English. English class is kind of seeming like a little bit of a let down at the moment because the teacher is visibly "uncomfortable" when she speaks the language, with a bizarre French British accent by the way, and it seems like is true hat most French people really don like speaking other languages then French! Coming up his weekend i will also be getting to meet he other foreign exchange students in what seems o be he whole south eastern area of France, and we are going o some mountain resort thing or something, not entirely clear.
As for my own progress in French, i can kind of notice that i am able to better break down sentences and when others talk it seems to be slower than it was when i first got here, though i'm not entirely sure. As for making replies and speaking in French, i have a small arsenal of phrases that i feel pretty relaxed with, such as regular greetings and very basic topics of questions. Understanding the context of a situation better, or just outright guessing what a person just said, allows me to look less of a fool when i am in a conversation, which i have progressively gotten better at. And my last thought on my progress in French is that i translate most of what i think into French just as a habit now and i also had a dream with a few French phrases in it. I'll be sure to post pictures on some other day, maybe on the weekend.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Settling In
A ton has happened in these last few days, i will start out with where i left off, Wednesday. On wednesday, i had the pleasure of meeting Pascal, the host mother of another American exchange student in my area, Clay. After the pleasantries we got in our little French car and went into Sisteron. On the way here we stopped in a little town to get the sim card the Clay and me need for our European phones, and it was he most French little town you could have ever imagined. There was a cobblestone walkway and on each side little stores, and of course, a cafe. After discovering ordering the sim card online was cheaper, we left the little own and went on to Sisteron to see the school Clay and i will be attending.
The school is fantastic and it is known for its talent in the arts of cooking, so the cafeteria must be good! Outside of the main classroom areas, where the students go for lunch break, there are little concrete ping pong tables, which i discovered is the one of the favorite activities among French kids. The sports that are played at the school aren't that odd, with one exception, hat being Handball. After seeing our future high school, We parted ways and headed home for the night.
On Thursday i met a few friends of my host brother, Timothe, which was interesting to say the least. I was surprised at how similar they were to american boys of the same age. I was also surprised at how much American music they listen to, such as Rihanna and other various artists. After saying goodbye to Timothe's friends and family, we headed home for another dinner made by my host mother, which by the way is always fantastic.
For Friday, we wen't over to the project that Quentin, Pascal's son, is currently working on, as he is a construction worker. This place was literally every kid's dream. He is working on building this small house and he is working alone as well, making it a pretty long-term job, so he has kinda set up camp there for now. He installed a rope swing, and a zip line for whoever feels so inclined to use them. While we worked he played music out of his stereo system, and i got a chance to scroll through his iphone, and he had a lot of music that i know and/or listen to. After a fine day of manly working, we decided to go back the chez moi and enjoy another dinner cooked by my host mother. I was feeling extra manly that day and decided to have some beer.
Yesterday was another day of outside work and getting to really utilize the zip line to its full potential. After we went back to the house and had another meal, and some of the conversation at the dinner table was about the strange accents of the northern french and of the Canadian French. I decided to jump right in and have my try at explaining the kinds of accents the american community find amusing, such as the southern accent, which i actually was able to demonstrate. One of the dinner attendees , The brother of my host mother, Jean-Baptiste, Told me that i sounded exactly like a man who was featured in one of the songs of Johnny Cash.
After being here for only just a week i have learned so much about so many different things. The language barrier that exists between the French and me is difficult to work with, but it has given be the chance to better analyse the way that people interact with each other in France, and it has also allowed me two connect what i can understand about the French language and what i can get from closely watching people as they talk to create a better understand when i am spoken to. Only in some instances can i really fully understand what is being told to me though, which results in a lot of Je ne comprende pas as my reply.
My exchange has brought about many perks, but there are always the negatives in any instance. It is quite easy to tell when i am being spoken about by the people around me and every once in a while you hear something that isn't necessarily too nice. The language barrier is often very frustrating for me as it hinders my ability to know what i need to know greatly. Right after dinner or even just during dinner, the fatigue starts to set in. Having to use all your mental ability just to understand the most simple of phrases or questions and formulating an appropriate response really does take a lot out of a person.
The positives of my situation far outweigh the negatives. I can really feel myself picking up more and more of what i have observed to be more vital to conversing as the days have gone on, and i am learning outside of the enclosed bubble that i call America. One of the observations, it may seem weird, is that everybody in France is more attractive than in the U.S., and they all seem in better shape and more active.
The Family Room
My Room
More of the Family Room
View from Backyard
Tower Thing in the Backyard
The Pool and Porch
So that's how my last four days have been here in the land of the French, Ill update again sometime in the next week or so. Au Revoir!
The school is fantastic and it is known for its talent in the arts of cooking, so the cafeteria must be good! Outside of the main classroom areas, where the students go for lunch break, there are little concrete ping pong tables, which i discovered is the one of the favorite activities among French kids. The sports that are played at the school aren't that odd, with one exception, hat being Handball. After seeing our future high school, We parted ways and headed home for the night.
On Thursday i met a few friends of my host brother, Timothe, which was interesting to say the least. I was surprised at how similar they were to american boys of the same age. I was also surprised at how much American music they listen to, such as Rihanna and other various artists. After saying goodbye to Timothe's friends and family, we headed home for another dinner made by my host mother, which by the way is always fantastic.
For Friday, we wen't over to the project that Quentin, Pascal's son, is currently working on, as he is a construction worker. This place was literally every kid's dream. He is working on building this small house and he is working alone as well, making it a pretty long-term job, so he has kinda set up camp there for now. He installed a rope swing, and a zip line for whoever feels so inclined to use them. While we worked he played music out of his stereo system, and i got a chance to scroll through his iphone, and he had a lot of music that i know and/or listen to. After a fine day of manly working, we decided to go back the chez moi and enjoy another dinner cooked by my host mother. I was feeling extra manly that day and decided to have some beer.
Yesterday was another day of outside work and getting to really utilize the zip line to its full potential. After we went back to the house and had another meal, and some of the conversation at the dinner table was about the strange accents of the northern french and of the Canadian French. I decided to jump right in and have my try at explaining the kinds of accents the american community find amusing, such as the southern accent, which i actually was able to demonstrate. One of the dinner attendees , The brother of my host mother, Jean-Baptiste, Told me that i sounded exactly like a man who was featured in one of the songs of Johnny Cash.
After being here for only just a week i have learned so much about so many different things. The language barrier that exists between the French and me is difficult to work with, but it has given be the chance to better analyse the way that people interact with each other in France, and it has also allowed me two connect what i can understand about the French language and what i can get from closely watching people as they talk to create a better understand when i am spoken to. Only in some instances can i really fully understand what is being told to me though, which results in a lot of Je ne comprende pas as my reply.
My exchange has brought about many perks, but there are always the negatives in any instance. It is quite easy to tell when i am being spoken about by the people around me and every once in a while you hear something that isn't necessarily too nice. The language barrier is often very frustrating for me as it hinders my ability to know what i need to know greatly. Right after dinner or even just during dinner, the fatigue starts to set in. Having to use all your mental ability just to understand the most simple of phrases or questions and formulating an appropriate response really does take a lot out of a person.
The positives of my situation far outweigh the negatives. I can really feel myself picking up more and more of what i have observed to be more vital to conversing as the days have gone on, and i am learning outside of the enclosed bubble that i call America. One of the observations, it may seem weird, is that everybody in France is more attractive than in the U.S., and they all seem in better shape and more active.
The Family Room
My Room
More of the Family Room
Tower Thing in the Backyard
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