Le Marin en le Bateau

Bon Après-midi!

Today I've concluded that the best time of year for vacationing in France is in September. This is true for several reasons:
First of all, the weather is lovely. Minus a few days of rain (which, for an Oregonian, is not a bother), it's been absolutely wonderful. Sunny with a slight breeze is perfect for tours, shopping, wine tasting, or whatever you may be doing here in France. 
Secondly, tourism is much less busy. Although it's not the best time of year to vacation due to school and work, if you can manage it, it'll be worth it. 
Lastly, all of the wine vineyards, sunflower fields, and other crops are just about finished, so the scenery here is just fabulous. I'm not sure if this applies to all of France, because this is the wine making region, but from my experience it's great.

Now, to what I actually did today. My family owns a boat so today we decided to have a picnic on the river! We brought some stuff to eat, loaded up, and set out on the water. I'm not sure exactly how far we went, but we were on the boat all day. After the first couple hours, we stopped and set up lunch. 

 

Now I'm going to talk about food.

As you can see, there's quite the assortment of meats with baguette, butter and cornichons. If you're not familiar with cornichons, they're very small, VERY salty pickles that go great with sandwiches. We bought 2 baguettes and each person got a half. I was free to eat whatever I wanted with my bread, so i went back and fourth from the lunch meat and butter. Basically, it was foodie heaven. It was the perfect lunch for me and reminded me of lunch that I used to eat with my family (because my real family is secretly French). It was also perfect with the weather.

After cursing around for a while, my host dad talked with someone on the phone and we ended up picking him and his wife up at a dock. They were family friends of my host parents and they were very nice people. I was nervous at first, because when ever I meet adults here I'm way too self conscious to talk with them very much. This is very different for me because in the U.S. I am very comfortable talking to adults. But as soon as I introduced myself, I noticed how much my language skill has improved. I was able to talk AND understand them! I thought that this was a very noteworthy moment. They brought a bottle of white wine, so we all drank and cruised and enjoyed the weather. Some of my favourite things all in one place; nice weather, nice people, and good wine!

It's currently almost 8:00 and we returned home about an hour ago. I woke up today a tad homesick and I found myself missing Sunday mornings with my family. But after this afternoon, I feel a lot better. After having a lovely day with my host family, it's hard to be homesick. I'm honestly really grateful for my life and situation here and I have absolutely no complaints.

Well, that's all I've got for now.

A bientot!

~Effy

One is Silver, the Other is Gold.

Hello, folks.

I apologize for my absence as of lately! School here ends at 6:00 and we eat late dinners so it doesn't give me much time for bloggin'. Today, however, was a very good day. I had a heart to heart with one of my classmates and made a very interesting observation that I think might give you listeners at home a good perspective of how I've been doing.

When people ask me "How's France?", it's a question with no answer. I can't even understand how I'm feeling. I am very bittersweet. I am every so slightly homesick, but I don't want to go home. I miss dozens of little things from home, but I don't have a desire to return to the U.S.. The main reason for me feeling this way is because I miss my friends. Therefore, my only big problem here right now is that I don't have very many friends or people to hang out with.

The first couple days of school, I was properly scared for lunch time.I didn't know who to sit with or where to eat. I can easily walk home and eat lunch there, given I have a whole 2 hours, but my host mum insists that I eat at school. It's for the best and I don't argue her thinking. If I sit at home and eat lunch every day, it doesn't give me the opportunity to talk with friends and meet new people.

School classes here are based on a grouping system. You are placed into a "class", but not like the classes that you have in the states. There are three years of high school here (Seconde, Première, and Terminale)

and three career paths that you choose to study for (Economics/Social, Literature, and Science). Rather than going to a different class with a new teacher and an entirely different group of kids, like in the states, the same proud of kids rotate teachers. That means that I have the same kids in my class for each subjects. Then there's the classes that you choose individually, such as art, Greek or Latin, a third language, etc.. However, sometimes people have the same class but at a different time, so you get separated. There are only 2 people who share every single class with me (including art class).  Because I am with the same people all day, it makes it very difficult to make friends outside of your class.

Luckily, a large group of girls offered me to eat lunch with them within the first few days. I can't really talk with them and spend most of the time trying to understand the conversation, but it sure as hell beats eating by myself. From time to time, they ask me a lot of questions about Oregon and American high school. One day I was even able to show them my house on Google Maps. It's really fun to compare my life here with my life in Oregon because there's a whole world that my French friends have never even seen.

Anyways, today at school, I was talking with one of my friends (one that I have every single class with) and she explained something to me that made everything seem so clear. It was an idea that was certainly not new to me because it's the same situation at Tigard High. She explained that because all of the girls have known each other since middle school, they're extremely close and it's hard for them to welcome new people into their friend groups.
At that point, I wanted to face palm so hard because I should have seen that coming. Like I said, it's the exact same situation for THS. She then explained that last year, she was the new girl and felt a lot of the same things that I'm feeling. She said that it took her a long time to finally make friends and have people to hang out with. She sympathized with me a lot, especially because I'm the new girl who barely speaks any French. That fact also made it really clear to me why we got along so well in the beginning. I've been the new girl at school a couple times in my life, so I usually try to reach out to new people. She was doing the exact same thing for me.

So today I learned that if it seems people are stand off-ish here, it's not their fault. When you spenf years and years of school with the same people, it's hard to be BFF's with the exchange student who barely speaks French. My other friends on exchange kept telling me to reach out and talk to new people, and I kept saying t was really difficult. If you guys are reading this, hopefully now you understand that it's easier said than done!

This girl and I are now pretty good friends. I no longer feel like she's talking to me due to the fact that I don't have any other friends. I'm really glad that we had that talk because it gave me a chance for me to get to know her more and vice versa.

Anyways, I don't really know how to end this post so I'm just going to give everyone a life message that you should all abide by: Look for people, learn people, & love people.

A bientot!
~Effy

First Day of Class

As I said, today was my first day of having classes. Much like yesterday, it didn't go HORRIBLY, but it was definitely not easy.

I only had two classes because on Wednesdays I have the afternoon off. I started with history/geography. This class was fairly easy to understand and I'm pretty sure most of the criteria is stuff I studied in history last year, so I'm not too worried. The class was also only one hour so it wasn't all too stressful. I explained to the teacher that I was an exchange student, as I do with all of my teachers, so hopefully he can help me out later in time.

The second class was French class. At Tigard, English is my best class, so to be put into a reading and writing focused class and not be able to do any work was extremely stressful for me. Not only could I not understand ANYTHING the teacher was saying, but I couldn't read her cursive on the board, so my notes do not make any sense. Not to mention lined notebook paper here is much different because the lines are MUCH smaller, so I couldn't even write straight. We read a passage from a book which I could hardly understand because the professor was reading so fast. Then the class was supposed to write something about it afterwords. She wrote the prompt on the board and tried to explain it to me but I could not for the life of me understand what I was supposed to write. The worst part was every time I asked her a question or had her explain something, everyone turned around and stared at me. I assume this is because this was a very simple task to do and she was talking me through it, so to them I probably looked like an idiot. And even after that, I couldn't complete the task. She asked the class questions about what they wrote and I tried to listen and get an idea of what was going on.
 She also gave us a paper that had two other passages from two different books. I think the instructions said we were supposed to change them to past tense...Again, I couldn't read anything. Eventually I just started writing in my journal because there was no hope for me starting any of the work.

This is how school is in the beginning of exchange. I know it will get easier and I keep having to remind myself that this is totally normal.I've received some very helpful words of encouragement from some friends back home and I think I'll be able to tackle the rest of this week alright because I have a Rotary weekend to look forward to. I also have 3 acquaintances from school who have been helping me so far, so it's not like I'm completely lost! Hopefully I'll get the courage to talk to more people and ask more questions.

Glad I was able to get TWO blog posts up today! I'll definitely write more after this weekend.

But until then, a bientot!

~Effy

Observations

Here is a list of things that were noteworthy in my mind that I'd like to share! They're very random things, from everyday life to school to habits at home.

-Unisex bathrooms.
I know this sounds like a silly thing to complain about, but it is rather strange that in some places there are restrooms that are unisex. There are restrooms with individual stalls with lights inside of them. Outside the stalls there are mirrors, counters, and sinks like any other bathroom. The idea of being inside the same washroom as a man is VERY foreign to me, therefore makes me a tad uncomfortable. But it's something I'll have to get used to! Most public and school restrooms are like so.

-No bread on you dinner plate:
The stereotype of eating loads of bread here is entirely true. I have yet to eat a meal that has not had a baguette served with it. But the bread does not go on your plate with the rest of your food- it goes on the table next to your meal!

-Smoking:
The majority of the people I have met here smoke. There's no curiosity with cigarettes and it's very common to see people roll their cigarettes in public. Rather than carrying a carton with them, some people carry a bag of tobacco, skins, and filters so they can roll their own cigarettes when ever they want a smoke (which is quite often). People also smoke around their children like it's no big deal which is something you would NEVER see in the states.

-Dirty streets:
This is sad to say, but it's true; the streets are very dirty for several different reasons. For one, people do not pick up after their dogs. No matter where you walk, weather it's in grass or on the sidewalk, you need to watch your step. People also leave their trash and recycling outside quite often. No big trash cans like in my neighbourhood, just big bags of trash. They eventually get picked up, of course. But it is strange to see streets lined with boxes and recycling and rubbish.

-Lots of markets:
Just like Portland! I've been to two markets so far. One was like a massive garage sale and the other was a farmer's market. The farmer's market not only had produce and homemade goods, but animals! There was a separate part of the market that had rows of farm animals for sale. Everything from rabbits to chickens to ducks. They were incredibly packed together in tiny cages which made me very sad...but that's just how farmers do it. The other one was MASSIVE. At least half a mile long, loads of people, loads of random stuff; furniture, clothes, trinkets, antiques....stuff you would sell at a yard sale. It was really neat but extremely crowded.


9-10-13
-iPhones Don't Dominate:
Finally, a high school where not every student is walking around with their eyes glued to the newest piece of technology! I know this is an odd observation, but when you walk down the hallways of an American high school every day for 2 years and are used to a sea of white iPhone 4's and 5's, it's strange to see that most people here use Blackberries instead.

-Chit-Chat:
Again, another silly observation, but just something that caught my attention; the students chat A LOT while the professor is giving lessons, and they're not very good at whispering. The professors don't really seem to do much about it, aside from the occasional sush between words.

-School Lunch:
I will start by saying that there's already a significant difference with the fact that I can actually EAT this food. At Tigard, I can't even think about putting the school lunch into my mouth. At Lycee David d'Angers, the lunch is not only possible to consume, but enjoyable! There's a large option of vegetables and salad to choose from, a nice entree (today it was a nice piece of chicken, rice, and vegetables), and a choice of ONE dessert (most of the options are fruit). There's a card system where you place in your lunch order at a scanner with your lunch card at any time in the morning BEFORE 10:00. At lunch time, you scan your card again in line and one last time when you receive your tray. It's a very efficient system. The only problem is if you forget to scan your card before 10:00, there will be no lunch for you, so you better hope your professor is grateful enough to let you pop by before class starts!

There's many more things that I will notice as time goes by, so I will most likely add on to this post. Any additional notes will be dated.

My First Day of School

Oh la la...

I've heard horror stories about the first day of school on exchange. I've heard people say they couldn't ask for help or find their way or they simply just walked around and pretended like they had somewhere to be...But everyone's first day is different.

First of all, everyone looked ridiculously attractive. The girls looked straight out of a magazine and the boys looked like the lads from One Direction. It makes me think that American high school must look straight out a movie because this was like nothing I've ever seen before. All of the girls were very well put together and dressed very nicely and the boys had nice shoes and tops and were very clean-cut. Makes all the jockey boys at Tigard look like animals, if I'm blunt.

Today wasn't a complete disaster. School didn't start until 10:00 and it wasn't even really a school day because I didn't have class. It was more of an orientation. I was there for two hours and it was the most terrifying and confusing two hours I've ever experienced.

First, I looked for my name on a list which tells you which class you're in; science, literature, or economics. I was supposed to be placed in literature but when we looked at my name I was placed in economics. That wasn't a problem until I received my schedule...but I will discuss that later.

Everyone was waiting in the sort of atrium-like room and a professor (whom I'm almost positive is the school principal) called everyone's attention and we split up into our class groups. My host brother is in the science class so before we split, he explained to my teacher (who is somewhat like a homeroom teacher) that I'm an exchange student.

The teacher led us into her classroom and explained to us that she is our French teacher. She then went on to explain other things which I didn't understand. She went through the students one-by-one like roll call and confirmed their schedules. Of course, my name was called first, and I had no idea why she said my name so I replied with "oui" and she read off my classes. I confirmed them because I didn't exactly know what was going on and she continued this with the rest of the class. It wasn't until later I realised that something was wrong with my schedule but it was too late at that point.
Then she handed out a bunch of stuff: our class schedules, a username/password for what I assume is our online grades, a card which I think is for lunch, and a couple other pamphlets that I can't identify. Basically this entire day was me shaking with fear that she was going to call my name and ask me a question. I even took notes when everyone else was even though I had no idea what I was writing down and I'm not even sure what they were about.

After this was all over, we went into an auditorium like room and the principal spoke to all of the students. Again, I had no idea what he was saying or what was going on, but I think he was talking about how all of their classes applied to university and graduation, which don't apply to me anyway because I'm not graduating from that school.

At this point I was accompanied by another girl who I asked a question to before the presentation started. When the principal was done talking, we walked outside and were trying to figure out if the day was over or if it was lunch time because it was only 12:00. We waited around for our brothers for a little while and then asked another student what the heck was going on. He told us it was time to go home so we walked back to the exit. She asked me if I was taking the Tramway home, but I said no because I was only a short walk away. She said goodbye and I walked home alone with my music.

I got home and showed my schedule to my host sisters and they told me there must have been a mistake because I currently have four language classes; English, Spanish, French, and Italian. Even normal students are only supposed to have three. I also have more classes than my host brother. My schedule is too difficult for me right now and I'm really hoping we're able to change it because it's making me nervous that I have too many classes that are most likely too hard because they're in FRENCH.

*Sigh*. Hopefully tomorrow will be better with a better schedule and more confidence and maybe I'll try to make a couple friends. But for now, I'm just glad I got the first day out of the way.

I'll make a post tomorrow about the REAL first day. Maybe by then I'll be over the embaressment that was today.

A bientot!

~Effy