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!
