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
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