france, life, rotary

Hello all, 

     Since my last post, quite a lot has happened, so this post may end up being quite long...  Picking up where I left off, the end of August and beginning of September was kind of a blur.  Before school started, I was busy adjusting to my new atmosphere, and during that time, I did a lot of sleeping, studying French, and meeting friends of Hugo.  I had a great time meeting new people, and it was nice to be able to get out of the house and do some things.  When school started, I was a bit overwhelmed with everything and I was tired all the time from trying to understand French 24/7.  School here is ridiculously difficult, so it's good that my marks don't matter, otherwise I would probably die.  My school here has 1,200 students, and in my class there are about 25.  Since I am in the literature section, there are mostly girls in my class, to be exact, only three boys.  Also, they are all around 15-16 years old, some are 17, but only a couple.  So despite the fact that they are all really nice to me, it's difficult to really become good friends with any of them because their interests and maturity levels are not the same as mine.  All of the friends I have at school are in the last grade, so I don't really ever see them except sometimes at lunch.  So school is rather boring and long, and I feel like I waste a lot of time there.  I wish there was a program to teach French to me, because I would be progressing so much faster if I had someone teaching me the language.  Three other rotary students in the town next to mine get to have a French class three times a week, so they are progressing quite a bit faster than me.  Immersion is great, but pairing that with practical lessons would be really useful.  Aside from school though, everything is good.

       The first weekend after school started, I had a rotary meeting with the students from my district and the one next to mine, 1770 (my district) and 1660 always do everything together,  so we are basically in the same one.  We met in a school north east of Paris, there was a bit of an orientation for the newbies, we were told the rules and everything, and then we met all of the students that were already there, and the ones that had already had their exchange years, and were back.  We then had to present ourselves to everyone, tell our names, where we are from and who our host clubs are.  After, there was a meal, and we were able to talk to all the other students.  It was really nice to talk to the other exchange students, about our schools, host families and whatever else we wanted.  At the end of the afternoon it was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but we all managed :)

     

       After that rotary meeting, it was back to school for a month before the next one in Mont Saint Michel.  So I got used to my schedule, got to know my classmates a bit, and was able to go to Paris a few times, and meet up with a friend during my break on Thursdays.  I also got used to using the rer and metro, after getting rather confused the first time I came home from Paris, I learned what not to do the next time :P  My rotary club paid for me to have a pass for the rer and metro, so on weekends I can go to Paris for free and use the metro there, and in my area I can use the rer and bus.  So, not much happened during September other than that.

       In the beginning of October there was a rotary meeting in Mont Saint Michel, and that was really fun.  We left at about 7 am from Paris on Saturday morning (missing school :) and we took a bus.  Driving there it took I think about 4 1/2 hours so on the bus we had time to talk to one another, and it was fun despite how much time it took to get there.

     

        When we arrived, all the exchange students from four districts were there, it was 1660, 1770 (my district and the one next to mine) along with the district around Mont Saint Michel and the one from the North.  So, we had some time to meet each other, and then we were assigned our 'bungalows' which were tiny little cabins, with 10 teeny beds, and no bathroom.  After, we had lunch, and then we departed for Mont Saint Michel, it only took about 5 minutes drive there, we could see it from where we were staying.  When we got there, we went on the sand walk that goes a loooong way around Mont Saint Michel and another island behind it.  It was a beautiful day, so that was really nice, and the guides that led us were really cool.  Walking there was mostly easy, everyone goes barefoot, but occasionally there would be deep parts with pretty strong currents, and we would have to walk through water up to our knees.  That was not so fun seeing as my pants got quite wet, and I didn't have another pair.

         

       After the walk, we returned to our bungalows and prepared for dinner.  We all ate together at a banquet hall, and there was a group of dancers there who performed for us, along with their musicians.  They showed us traditional dances of Bretagne and Normandie.  

 

      Dinner was quite good, and after, we had to sing our national anthems for everyone, so that was interesting... Then there was a 'dance,' but it was rather lame, so a lot of students left to go hang out in bungalows or wherever, I left with a group of mostly Australian kids, one New Zealander, one South African, and a couple Canadians.  We just sat around and talked, it was a fun evening.  The next day, after about 4 hours of sleep we went back to Mont Saint Michel to visit the Abbey and the little village beneath it.  It was really beautiful there, and I would have liked to spend more time there, but, our district people were rather unorganized, so we spent a lot of time waiting to get into the abbey while they talked to the people in charge of tickets.  Once we were in though, we were free to walk around and look at things.  I walked around with Curtis and Lloyd, so that was fun.  Curtis is from Canada and Lloyd is from Australia.  When it was time to meet everyone back at the bus, we were a bit late, so they got annoyed, but we weren't the last people, so it was okay :) After that we returned to where we were staying, had a really good lunch, and then left to return home. 

    

           

     It was hard to say good bye to everyone, but we were all really tired and ready to get home.  Being able to meet up with other exchange students was really fun, and I was able to talk to a girl who lives near where you did Signe, and she knows all the people that I met when I was visiting during Christmas, so that was really cool to make that connection.  

      Since then I have just been going to school, and to Paris to meet friends.  Right now I am on vacation for a week and a half, so I will be doing a lot of sleeping, and going to Paris :) France is a great place, and I am really enjoying myself so far. So, until next time (I will try to update my blog sooner than in two months :). Love to family and friends, hope you are all well!

Siri Ellen