Paris, School, and Baguette with Every Meal

Salut mes amis! Welcome, bienvenue, to my very first ever blog post! Let me start from the beginning.

In the beginning God created the heavens and...

Just kidding.

My adventure started in New York. After flying all night long, and getting approximately 1.5 hours of sleep, Asher (another AFSer from Berkeley) and I waited for everyone else to arrive at our hotel for pre-departure orientation. At first, people trickled in slowly, and then around 3 or 4 PM, there was an explosion of incomming students. It was easier than it ever has been for me to make friends, because everyone was in the same position. Everyone was alone and excited and scared. Everyone was looking for allies. The excitement grew over the next two days, and finally, it was time to get on the next plane.

Except for a short tour of Paris, where we saw the Eiffel Tower and other famous sites (Paris is such a cool city, I would love to live there some day), we were trapped inside a hostel for three days. But it still felt like an exploration, because now there were people from all over the world to meet and talk with. New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, and Belgium. I love Australians! They are hilarious. The Germans are pretty funny too. We spent most of those two days in Paris playing card games when we weren't in orientation, which may sound boring, but it was fun. It was difficult to say goodbye on the last night, because who knows when I'll see those people next? I wanted to savor the feeling of having friends. And it's a good thing I did, because friends are hard to make when you can't really talk to them.

At five AM Sunday morning, the kids headed to Normandy woke up and boarded a bus for the train station. We stopped at another hostel to pick up kids from other parts of the world. There were only 9 of us for Normandy. The train ride was long and bumpy, but we were all getting psyched up for the year, and enjoying the French countryside. We got to the station in Lison, struggled to get our huge bags onto the platform, and turned to see a crowd of people walking toward us. At last, we were meeting the people who would become our families for the next year. We spent the rest of the day at one host family's house for a picnic and swimming. Françoise, my host mother, is very nice and speaks slowly enough for me to understand. Jacques, my host father, doesn't say much but when he does the others laugh, so he must be funny. Alice is my host sister, and when she talks to me she is nice, but she doesn't talk to me very much.

Monday was really my first day in France. It was the first day of school. Alice and I got to school and 8 AM, and she went to English class while I got registered. The next three classes were canceled because of a teacher's strike, so the students had nothing to do but wait. I followed Alice outside to the front of the school, and was introduced to her friends. In the US, when there is a new student, especially foreign, everyone crowds them and asks them questions and wants to know them. It was SO not like that. I was expecting, maybe even hoping for, a lot of attention, but no. Those French kids put me in my place. No one talked to me for hours; I just sat there in silence. Then, after lunch, someone finally noticed me! A kid named Baptiste decided to start talking to me, and afterwords others did as well. I also met a Finnish girl who is an exchange student with another program, and who understands the way I feel. I felt much better talking to her. It's gotten a bit better since the first day, but I'm still left in silence a lot of the time. It's frustrating, because I'll think of a great convorsation starter, and then not be able to say it in French. It feels like I have so much to say and so much to ask, and it's on the tip of my toungue, but it's being forced back down my throat.

School itself is incredibly confusing. The schedule is ridiculous. I start and stop at a different time everyday, and not everyone starts or finishes together. There are different classes every day. Altogether, I'm think I'm taking 10 subjects, but I'm not actually sure. The teachers change classrooms every period as well, so on monday math is in one room and on thursday it's in a different room. And there is the fact that all my classes are in French. I actually understand Math, Life and Earth Science, History/Geography, and P.E. And I'm a superstar in English. But The Economics/Social Sciences teacher talks a million words per minute. I'm lucky if I catch one word every now and then. Maybe, by next month, I'll have good enough french to understand a whole sentence! French class is also really difficult. And so is Spanish, because it's the third year for all the students and I have never studied spanish before. It's enough work learning French, I don't need another language to confuse me.

Alice has four older siblings and two of them have kids, so I have four little host nieces and nephews. They are adorable, and I am not self conscious to practice my French with them. And they, at least, find me interesting, if none of my classmates do.

It is very different from California, but then again, not that different. There is baguette with every meal. They do kiss on both cheecks to say hello. (It still feels weird to me. If there is a group of ten or fifteen friends and a new person comes, they will go all the way around the circle, kissing everyone. Sometimes, people will kiss you on both cheecks and then walk away, without saying a word. Boys kiss girls but not each other, they mostly just shake hands.) It is true that everyone is very chic here. They don't dress that differently from US teenagers (fewer bright colors, though), but absolutely everyone is well dressed. In the US, many people will look good, but a lot of people pay no attention to their appearance. Not so in France. Everyone has a pencil case in class and takes notes in exactly the same way. Other things are different as well. But these are all little differences.The bigger differences, the ones that matter, are harder to detect. There are things that feel different, but that I can not put my finger on exactly. It has only been a week. I will continue to observe, and see if I can figure it out.

There are differences, yes, but people are people. I am learning that human nature seeps through, even when it is covered by cultural differences. Teenagers are teenagers. Boys are just as immature and goofy as in America, girls like to gossip and discuss things just as much. We all share the same basic senses and feelings. It is interesting to see how similar the interactions are between kids at school here and in the US. It makes me think of my friends. And then I start to miss them, because in California, I can participate in the interactions.

I'm going to do karate and dance while I'm here. Yesterday was my first karate class. I'm used to knowing everyone at karate and feeling completely comfortable, so it was strange being the newcomer. It's more intense at this dojo, but many techniques are the same. Yesterday, it was all hard style, no aikido or anything. And it was more violent than Cuong Nhu. I worked with three different black belts, and it was very satisfying when they realized I knew what I was doing.

It is beautiful here; everything is so green. There are cows outside my window! That's different. It is more peaceful, more calm.

It's exhausting listening in French all day and trying to understand, so I'm going to go rest. Miss you all. Sorry this post was so long, Probably the others will be shorter. A Bientot!

P.S.
If there is anything specifically that you want me to talk about in these posts, tell me and I will incorperate it if I can.

P.P.S.
If  I can figure out how to connect my laptop to the internet, I will post pictures next time.