J'aime La France

I was just reading back through all my blog posts and I realized this shyness/social issue has come up a lot. I'm going to stop beating you all over the head with that, you probably get it by now. I'll just say that I am really making an effort to be myself again and I hope that effort will pay off. Now on to the update.

A while ago I said that I was having difficulty in adapting to the food rhythm. I actually really like it now. Yes, I do still miss the array of breakfast foods I used to have and especially the big Sunday mornings with popovers and fried eggs and fruit, but I have come to really enjoy sitting around the lunch table for hours talking to my host family. At first it was hard to stay seated for more than a half hour, I got impatient and antsy. But now it's nice and relaxing to slowly savor the meal and then get into long discussions about politics, education, friends, religion, anything in the world. It is a great way to practice my French and to connect with my family, and I learn a lot about France's history and culture and politics. I think that dynamic of sitting around and talking is missing from a lot of American households.

It still can, however, go past the point of being enjoyable. It gets to be too much for me when we are still at the dinner table at 11:30 at night. Last Saturday I went to a dinner party organized by the karate club and by the time dessert came around we had passed the midnight mark. It didn't help that our "teenager" table was the last to be served in a room full of 200. It's okay, though, the other four people my age and I spent the wait playing tic tac toe and drawing on our napkins. Then we started dancing and all was right with the world. These parties are another thing America lacks. In every city, town, or village, even the tiniest like Le Chatellier (population 300) there is one or more party rooms that are so busy they need to be booked months, even a year in advance. Every association, organization, club, group, and so on has big dinner parties like this where they invite mountains of people, hire a catering service, and dance until five in the morning. It is so embedded in their culture, so normal for them. My host mom told me you can find one of these things to go to every weekend. I didn't know how long it lasted so I asked to be picked up at 1 AM. When I told that to some of the black belts I knew from the dojo, they told me I was crazy and should have said 4. I did manage to stretch the time a bit, but when I left at 2 AM it felt like things were just getting started. I think we should bring this tradition to America. Anyone else up for karate parties that last until sunrise?

Karate in general has been going very well. It is the highlight of my day on Tuesdays when I have loooong classes from 8:30 until 6 PM. I do miss the soft style and variety of Cuong Nhu, but I enjoy the high-intensity work outs and I think I am getting stronger. I have started talking to people more which improves the classes enormously because the friendless feeling I had at first was unnerving. Dance is also fun. I like the people and now that I understand the choreography I like that more as well. However, I crash and burn every time we try to learn the acrobatic break-dance moves. I just don't think I have what it takes to be a break dancer. Can any of you imagine me break dancing? Okay, stop laughing, I get the point.

I am getting good grades. Except for Spanish, where I am just in over my head, and science, which I find hard to follow because I only have it for one hour every week. But otherwise grades aren't a problem. I even lied to my friends once and said I got a worse grade than I did because it was a test on which most people did awfully. I think this year is the perfect combination between work and school. I work hard and I still have lots of academic ambition but I don't stress, slaving away for 4 to 6 hours every night like last year. I am not slacking off but I am also doing my best to live in the moment and explore this new culture. I'm trying to savor it before I have to dive back into senior year craziness.

Lastly, I don't parle English anymore. When I think, it is a mélange of English and Français. I hope this won't be trop of a soucis for moi when I take le SAT.