Bonjour! I've been in France for about three weeks now. It's been so amazing, interesting, different, fun, life changing, and incredible, but those words cannot even begin to describe it. I have a lot to cover in this post so I'm gonna start from the top...
New York orientation was great. It was so cool to meet everyone who I had been talking to online for months. The actual orientation activities that we did were pretty lame and boring, but I got to meet people going to Italy, Spain, Egypt, France, Belgium, Ghana, and South Africa. After two days in the hotel it was time for everyone to travel to their host countries. The 40 or so France and Belgium bound kids left the hotel around two o'clock to catch our flight that left at seven. We had a lay over in Zurich where the France and Belgium people went our seperate ways. Upon arrival at CDG we were met by AFS France volunteers and after hours and hours of flying on planes, sitting in airports, and riding on buses we FINALLY arrived at the hostel in Paris. Despite the fact that I had been awake for well over 30 hours it was so amazing to meet people from all around the world, as well as all of the people that would be going to Châtellerault! One thing that really surprised me was that everyone spoke english. I don't think I spoke a word of French during the whole orientation. Anyways, when we got up to our rooms I discovered that both of my room mates, Karolina and Kristine, two really sweet girls from Sweden and Norway, would be living in Châtellerault as well, and one of them would even be going to my school. Overall orientation was crazy, exciting, and most of all exhausting. I tried Italian candy, learned a finnish dance, went to the Eiffel Tower, and made some friends from all corners of the world.
Mes amis
The Americans
Doing the "funky chicken" dance in front of The Eiffel Tower
On Sunday morning it was time for everyone to split up into their chapters, board the train, and meet their host families. Their are about 30 of us in the Poitou-Vienne chapter who road the train together to Poitiers. Honestly that was the most nerve racking hour and a half of my life. My friend Becca and I were freaking out the whole way. Becca is from Minnesota, we go to the same school and she is one of the sweetest people ever and one of my best friends here in France! It was insane when we arrived because there were thirty host families standing there on the train platform. Seeing my host family out of the train window as we pulled up was so surreal. After all of that crazyness everyone went to a hostile in Poitiers where we ate lunch and had another miniature orientation. I literally didn't understand a word of what was said.
From left to right: Me, Michela (Italy), Elizabeth (Latvia), Remi (Poland), Jakob (Denmark)
Anywho, after that it was finally time to go to the house in Châtellerault. It's a cute French house with a beautiful garden. Of course I didn't understand most of what my family was trying to tell me, but through their broken English and my broken French I did figure out a few important things. For one, my host dad works in the north of France during the week and comes home on the weekend. It's just Constant, Sylvie, and me during the week, which is actually pretty nice. I honestly couldn't ask for a better host family. They are simply amazing. My host brother is so funny, and we get along great! My host parents are also extremely kind and helpful. My french skills have improved so much since the first day. I'm definitely not conversational yet, but I can understand a good amount of what is said to me, if the person speaks fairly slowly.
This is my front yard. You can't see it in this picture, but there is a little pond, a garden with tomatoes and figs, and a beautiful view of the hills.
The day after I arrived was my first day of lycée... SO SCARY. There are about 1000 students in my school, so it is a lot different than what I'm used to back in Dallas (90 kids in my highschool). Anyways, I rode the bus with my host brother and then we went to La Vie Scolaire to get my schedule, and meet the other exchange students in my school. There are 12 of us from 10 different countries. I have one other exchange student in my class, Janina (Nini) from Germany. She is so nice and funny. I don't know what I would do without her! Most of the time in class I have no idea what is going on, but lucky for me Nini is fluent in French and English, which helps A LOT.
I'm in the litterature track so I take history and geography, 3 different english classes, french litterature, science (for just two hours per week), and sports. Right now in gym we're learning rock climbing, I love it! I even signed up for an extra class. My schedule is really wierd. I could start at 8, 9, or 10 and finish at 11, 12, 5, or 6 depending on the day. Fun fact: when its time to switch classes they play the pink panther theme song over the speakers. Also the teachers and students both change classrooms, but I still have the same people in all of my classes. I think there are about 35 students in my class (1erP1, or premier litterature group one).
It is really interesting being in the same class as the circus school, everyone is very artisitc and different. I love it! Oh and in France even the cafeteria food is amazing! way better than the US. We get cheese, bread, yogurt, a main course, fruit, salad, dessert, pretty much anything you could ever want. It's so awesome. One day they even served sheep brain, which was disguisting... The school is also open campus so you can leave and go walk round the town whenever you have free time. To be honest Châtellerault isn't the most amazing town in France, but I still love it here. I wouldnt want to be anywhere else. In my opinion it is more about the people you're with than where you are. I love my host family, I love my friends, I love the other exchange students, I love my class, I love riding the bus and my bike everywhere, I love the food, I love learning French and I'm always busy with school or sports or sleeping so I'm always happy! Je suis contente. Ok, enough of my rambling, here are some photos of Châtellerault:
View from the fourth floor of my school
The courtyard of the school
Supermarché
Nini!
Being an exchange student isn't all fun and games. Well right now it is, but I'm in what they call the "honey moon stage" because everything is different, I'm tryng a bunch of new things, and I dont have to do homework because I don't understand anything the teachers say. The only slight problem I am having at the moment is that it's pretty difficult to make friends when you don't speak the language, but I think I've have made a decent amount so far. Everyone is so nice and welcoming, and Constant has introduced me to a lot of his friends as well. I also do a lot of extracurricular activities outside of school which is a great way to meet new people. On Mondays is handball, tuesdays, fridays, and saturdays is capoeira, and on wednesdays and thursdays is track and field. Sports in France are a lot less competitive than in the US so I am able to do a lot more. I'm trying so many new things that I never would have done at home. For instance, Capoeira, which is a type of brazilian martial arts. My host brother got me into it, and to be honest I absolutely hated capoeira at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it because now that I've gotten the hang of it it's really enjoyable. I'm terrible, but it's still fun! Handball is also a really interesting and fun sport. Again, I'm not very good, but it's a great experience!
On the weekends I usually just hang out with other exchange students, or my host family. Last weekend I went with some of the other exchange students to this awesome amusement park in Poitiers called Futuroscope, and in a few weeks I'm going to pick grapes and make wine with my host dad!
Futuroscope!
Sorry, this was more of a short novel than a blog post. Hope I covered everything. If you have any questions feel free to comment, thanks for reading!
Bisous
Sydney
