September 25
Wow! It's amazing to realize that I have been living in FRANCE for over a
month. One year ago I could have never imagined myself to be here, and now
I wouldn't want it any other way. I haven't experienced any huge cases of
homesickness, but I certainly do miss the Floridian weather. Today, I left
for school in three layers!
My host family has been great and they have shown me all around the city.
I have one host brother, Adrien, who is sixteen. He plays the guitar and
drums and listens to most of the music I do. It's hard to have a real
conversation with him because I don't know enough French, and he doesn't speak
any English. But we always understand each other when I whip out my CD
collection. And we often listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at dinner
because my host mom loves them. My host sister left, with Rotary, two days
after I arrived for her exchange year in Wisconsin. But before she left,
she introduced me to several people that go to my school. I still hang out
with them and they have helped me so much to learn French. My host family has
also taken me to meet most of their relatives who live in town. They were
all so nice, and made sure I knew I could stop by anytime I was in the area.
Every Saturday, there is a huge market in town. It takes up several blocks
and there is also a large building that only opens for the market that morning.
There are vendors for everything. Things from meat and produce to socks and
books are sold. There were even people selling the cutest rabbits (my host
parents delicately tried to explain to me they were not being bought as pets).
It seems like most of the city is there, and you always run into someone you
know.
My host parents took me hiking in the mountains once. It was a lot of fun
and great exercise. From the top you could see all of Chambéry and its
surrounding cities. The view was really incredible. The car ride up was
crazy, though. My host dad was constantly asking me if I felt sick yet.
The roads were always swerving and taking sharp turns.
I've also been to a couple of the lakes near the area with friends of the
family. One of the lakes is the biggest in France. The other is
known for being very unpolluted (because it doesn't allow any motorboats) and
warm. It was full of beautiful swans (which are not at all friendly up
close !).
This last weekend was my first Rotary outing. We went to Anncey, a city
about an hour away from Chambéry. I met close to twenty-five other
exchange students and we had a great time. We walked a little around the
city and learned a bit of its history. We finished the weekend with a boat
ride around the city's lake.
In a couple of weeks is the Rotary District Conference. Most of the
exchange students should be there and it should be another fun weekend sharing
our experiences with the adults.
Au revoir !
Shaina
November 1
 10 weeks... really, it just doesn't get any less
amazing! I feel more comfortable living here and have established a bit of
a routine. But it is very hard to come out of the mindset of a tourist
when I am still buying things just because it was made in France or taking a
picture of every chateaux I see. I have, however, stopped buying a pastry
every time I come across a bakery just because it makes me feel French (I
decided to stop that practice after noticing how dangerously close I was making
it to the exchange student fifteen ...).
I have made quite a bit of progress with my French, I
think. I don't feel so clueless listening to everyday conversations
anymore. I know a lot more words now (granted I don't know how to
conjugate most of them), and when I come across a word I don't know how to
translate, I've become very good at making most English words 'sound' French.
My host family has a DVD player, so we rent DVDs a lot and listen to them in French
with English subtitles- it helps a lot to learn new expressions. I've even
gotten used to watching all these American movies dubbed to French (but
honestly, Austin Powers just doesn't have the same affect without his
voice...).
I am very excited to finally live somewhere where the leaves
change color in the fall. It is a really nice change of scenery. A
mountain range nearby has even had snow on the top for about a month now.
But, from what I've been told, it won't be snowing here for over a month or
so. The last couple of weeks have brought a good amount of cold, rainy
weather. However, it was worth it for the remarkably pleasant weather that
has lasted for the last few days. The sun has made the afternoons warm
enough for a comfy long-sleeved tee-shirt. The nights have been pretty
chilly, but nothing that couldn't be made better with a nice pair of slippers
and a café. Unfortunately, I hear that this lovely weather means that we
have some cold weeks in store.
A couple weeks ago, I was invited by the Rotary Club that is
hosting me to a dinner. It was my very first genuine French dinner (that
means a couple hours long with four or five courses). It was very nice and
a lot of fun. The dinner was in a cave underneath one of the member's
houses. Part of the cave was for storing wine, and the other part had a
very long dinner table that sat about forty. Many of them practiced their English
on me, and a couple of them even tried Italian! (there is a very big Italian
influence because my hosting club is close to the border)
Not too long ago, all of the exchange students in the district
met again for a small conference. We were able to hear the stories of all
the outbound exchange students in the district who had returned from last
year. There were about twenty of them and most of them had gone to the
United States. It was very interesting to see what they had to say about
their trip. Two days later, my host parents took me to one of their
friend's houses just over the mountain and we gathered chestnuts from a forest
nearby. Later that night, we roasted them and watched a couple movies.
School is going well, and I understand things from time to
time. Most of my teachers are very helpful and understanding. Two Thursdays
ago was a teacher's strike day. A planned day that the teachers can choose
to come into school or not. So if your teachers weren't there, then you
didn't have to be either. None of mine came, so it was nice to have a day
off. Normal days are the same way. There are no substitutes, so if
your teacher is sick or just doesn't show up at school, then you don't have
class (that doesn't happen very often though). I've been on vacation for
the past week and will be going back to school this coming Monday.
Halloween was a lot different here. The concept of
dressing up is very new, so not many people participated in it. Another
exchange student and I bought pumpkins and and had a lot of fun carving out
faces.
I think I will be doing some traveling soon. I'm very
excited and will let everyone know how it turns out :)
Shaina
December 28
My
host parents have really kept me busy these last two months! They love to
travel as much as I do and have taken me on several trips. Back in
November, they took me on a day trip to Geneve, Switzerland. We spent the
whole day shopping because it was raining. Language was not a problem
because they speak French in this part of Switzerland, but it was a little hard
to convert the money (they're still using the Swiss francs instead of euros).
Then a couple weeks later, we went to Paris for two days! We stayed with
relatives of my host parents who live on the outskirts of the city. Paris
is so much bigger that I imagined and was full of people. We went to the
Eiffel Tower first. After an hour and a half wait, my host dad and I went
all the way to the top! The view was incredible and well worth the wait.
We also saw the Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, and the Centre G. Pompidou.
The scariest part was going through the round-about of the Arc de Triomphe; cars
were everywhere and there weren't marked lanes!
The day after Thanksgiving, Rotary put together a dinner for the students, their
families and Rotarians. Each student brought a dessert to share with
everyone. Another exchange student and I had a ball making our desserts
together. It was a lot harder than we thought finding certain ingredients
and then making conversions for the measurements. The night went very well
and everyone had a lot of fun. It was nice being able to explain one of
our national holidays to them.
The first trimester of school ended around the beginning of December. In
my gym class, we have started up ice skating for the next trimester. We
take a bus to the rink in town once a week and skate for two hours. It's
neat having this as a gym option. My other classes are going better now
that I understand things more often. Around the end of January, my
school has a ski trip organized. It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking
forward to it.
My host parents took me to the last day of the Festival of Lights in Lyon.
It was really remarkable. The streets were full of people, crêpes and du
vin chaud (hot wine) were being sold on every corner, and there were light
displays on most of the buildings. There were a few displays that told
stories. My favorite was the story of the reconstruction of the theater
after it was destroyed by a fire.
We took a two day trip to Italy not long ago. My host parents have friends
who live in Torino, so we stayed with them. We went through a very long
tunnel on the drive there. When we came out on the other side, everything
was covered in snow! It was sort of funny though because we would go
through another tunnel and be snowless again. In Torino we did a lot of
shopping at the outdoor markets. Some of the markets went on for a
few miles. The family we stayed with was very nice and translated
everything for us. They also made us some great traditional pasta dishes
each night.
For Christmas, we went back to stay with the relatives near Paris. The
order of events and the way things were celebrated were different with them.
Instead of having a big Christmas dinner on Christmas, we had it on Christmas
Eve. And for the main dishes we had seafood. I tried oysters and
escargot for the first time. The escargot wasn't too bad (a bit too
salty), but I wasn't at all a big fan of the oysters! Then, of course, we had
cheese and dessert. At midnight everyone opened presents and then played
cards for a couple of hours. On Christmas day, everyone slept in late.
After lunch, my host parents took me back into Paris to do a bit of sightseeing.
We went to the Sacre Coeur first and then walked around for a few hours.
After sunset, we drove down Les Champs-Elysées. It was beautiful with all
the trees lit up and the the Arc de Triomphe at the end of of the street.
I really had a wonderful holiday, and am glad I was able to see how different it
can be.
I will be switching host families in less than a week, and
then school is going to start back up again the following Monday.
Je vous souhaite une bonne année (I wish everyone a happy New Year!)
Joyeuses Fêtes
Shaina :)
Shaina's House |
The view from her house |
The Champs Elysées at Christmas |
|
The Eiffel Tower (of course) |
The Sacre Coeur |
View from atop the Eiffel Tower |
April 15
Bonjour
!
I’ve fallen a bit behind on my journal entries, so now I have a good amount
to catch up on. I started the year off with several changes. On January 1st, I
changed host families- and that very same day, I took off with them for the last
five days of my Christmas vacation down to the south of France. We went to
Cannes and stayed with my host dad’s mom- just fifteen minutes from the Mediterranean
! It was too cold to go swimming (though there were still a few crazy
beachgoers), so we spent a lot of time walking along the boardwalk. It made me
so happy to see palm trees and other plants that were still green ! I had really
liked seeing autumn with everything so colorful, but I have to admit, once
winter set in and everything turned leafless and brown, I was a bit sad. We
spent one day driving along the coast just over the border to Italy. On the way
back we stopped in Monaco and did some sightseeing and visited the prince’s
castle and the old villages. Another day of our trip was spent at the Fragonard
perfumerie in Grasse. We took a tour of the factory and learned a lot about the
processes and work that goes into making different fragrances. I found it
interesting that they import specific flowers from all over the world, including
two from the United States.
When we returned to Chambery, everything was covered in snow. It was
absolutely wonderful to see the long-awaited snow! (even better to see it
through a window, indoors, next to a heater, wrapped in a blanket, drinking hot
chocolate- typical Floridian comment, I’m sure :) ) During winter, I took
numerous trips up to the mountains. I went on a ski trip with my school, did
some snowboarding at a Rotary outing, and some snow shoeing with friends of my
host family. Some other exchange students and myself organized a couple other
snowboarding trips as well (trying to profit as much as possible from living
near the French Alps!). Another exchange student’s dad came to visit, and they
invited me along on a day trip to Chamonix. We took a cable car up to the top of
Mont Blanc (the highest mountain in Europe). The view was breathtaking. It was
so high up that everyone felt a bit light headed from the lack of oxygen. It
felt like a dream being above the clouds.
France, as well as other European countries, are well-known for having small
specialty shops. While larger supermarkets are becoming very popular, these
smaller shops are still well frequented. About a month ago, I spent two
afternoons helping at a boulangerie (bakery) and a tiny deli/catering business.
I watched how everything worked and even helped occasionally. It was really
interesting to learn how smaller businesses work, and meet their daily clients
who still prefer the smaller, customer-friendly shops to the larger chains.
I changed host families for the third time the last weekend in March. I live
farther away from the center of town, but its nice living higher up the mountain
in a country-type area. Another perk from not living so close to the city it
that the houses and yards tend to be bigger. There is a large pear grove in
front of my house and several small vineyards and farms belonging to neighbors.
Now that spring is here, flowers are starting to bloom, the sun is out on a
regular basis, and the days are lasting longer ! There were times in winter when
I left for school when it was still dark out, and when I was catching the bus to
go back home it was already night. I also have a bigger host family. I have a
host brother and sister who are younger than me, an older host brother, and then
two older host sisters who don’t live at home, but visit every so often. It's
often busy at the house, and I have more conversation opportunities with them.
The family is wonderful. I’m their sixth exchange student with Rotary, so they
completely understand how everything works and are very helpful.
This last month has been a little crazy for me, as I am sure it has been for
most exchange students. The possibility of war was not something I anticipated
happening. The very first week that war was declared, many anti-war protests
turned into anti-Bush as well as anti-American protests. Everything cooled down
quickly, but it made things a bit awkward for a while. People I met weren’t
really sure how to handle themselves with me, and it was a subject many tip-toed
around. It wasn’t ever too uncomfortable for me, just a little weird -
especially when Americans started boycotting French goods. It is nice, however,
that at this point in time I am able to participate in conversations to give my
own opinions and explain things.
I’ve made a lot of progress with my French, and I am very satisfied with my
comprehension level. It really does change things when you can ask and answer
questions well. Conversations are finally fun rather than a headache. I still
don’t catch every word, but I’m sure that comes with time. My responses are
full of mistakes and are said in the simplest of ways, but I prefer that to not
being able to respond at all. Among the dozens of things I have learned this
year, respect for multi-lingual people is high on the list !
As of today I have exactly three months left, and these three months are already
packed with activities. I can only wish it doesn’t go by too fast. I have a
two week spring vacation starting next week, and I’m excited about a trip up
north my host family hast planned. I have a couple day and weekend trips planned
as well. And to top it all off, my family will be coming to visit at the very
end of my stay !
Joyeuse Pâques
Et à bientôt, Shaina :) |
