I so suck at keeping this up. Sorry!
Yeah, not a whole lot has happened though... I mean, besides the half-day District Conference and the weekend in Toulouse (I met up with Bertille for a bit - we spent about 5 or 10 minutes catching up... pretty much totally in French too so that shows I'm not as French-retarded as I was when I first came) with all the inbounds to France. 400 people. 3 hostels.
We only stuck around the same people though, our district and the Normandy district who we were with at Mt. St. Michel a lot in October. That was a bit of a let-down. And like, I haven't done Eurotour yet and this was perfect for catching up with your Spain trip friends or Eurotour buddies and all...
Ok, you know something is really wrong when Rotarians are admitting the organization was bad. No offense any Rotarians who may be reading - the France Rotary is pretty everywhere though, a lot more so than I thought could be possible...
Well, considering we got lost for 1 hour going to a gala on that weekend with a GPS and nearly hitting 2 people and a dog along the way, and then leaving at 2:30am... instead of 1am like planned, it's kind of hard not to admit the organization wasn't at its best.
As my friend in the Normandy district said, "Rotary doesn't know their asses from their esophaguses" (word for word. I thought it was rather bluntly hilarious).
We went to AIRBUS too... we went to a lecture at a university (even the adults were falling asleep, it was amazing. Our district and the Normandy one was so loud though, it was really rude but no matter how many times we shushed one another it wasn't quiet. One of the French Rotarians called us a pain in the ass at one point. Nous sommes un mal au kuh... or however you really spell that. It was amazingly sad). Tour of the city... me and 3 other girls asked if we could go on a hunt for easter chocolate and we were allowed so after getting it we went shopping and all and that's when I had to buy credit for my mobile and tell Bertille it may not work out because we had 15 minutes left by the time she texted me but then it turned out she was just passing by the store I was at when she got my message. Yea, it was really cool. I ran into her Korean exchange student when I went to the museum of natural history with my group of Rotary exchange students. Out of the 3 groups to enter (at separate times), and running into her before going to far, it was that student.
I switched to my last host family and may I say I think it will be the best one. The first one did not go well at all (I mean, they sent a letter to my YEO listing a bunch of lies and half-truths about me - that pretty much was the cherry on top), the second one wasn't that bad but they treated me like I was an ignorant 4 year old and when something went wrong it was always my fault (once I asked where I had to get off in the afternoon on the bus because my host brother was sick and the other kids who carpool with us and I always followed him off since he knew what was going on, he told me Argenton Les Vallees... I kind of realized it was the 2nd time that week I got off at the wrong stop about 1 and a half hours later when I was sitting in the parking lot. Then my host mom picks me up and yells at me about getting off at the wrong stop and how it's ONLY Monday we get off there. I didn't even know that - that's why I got off at Argenton this time because I was wrong on Monday. She was going on about how they didn't know where I was... why they didn't ask the girl who carpools with us who got off at La Forgereuse I have no idea, she was all confused when I got off at Argenton so... yea, then when I said my host dad told me it was not his fault at ALL because "he didn't understand"). Never anyone else's, always mine. Even if I was part of the problem yet someone else was involved, it was 100% me and they never listened to my side after they told me theirs. They cut me off when I spoke during those "explanations", it was rather irritating. I mean, it's hard enough that you're arguing in a second language but to have them cut you off in the middle of a sentence to throw something else at you? Ugh...
This family seems the most like home in Canada. That and they generally are really nice. Their kids are 18 (he left for his Rotary year to California when 17), and their daughter who is here is almost 19. They're used to older kids here.
Either way my first host family was as well (son turned 19 in Australia and the daughter still there was 18. She's now 19 too) but... yea, that didn't really matter to them I guess. Hard to explain but yea.
Anyways, these people are really nice; always reminding me I can go out of the house for a walk if I want, that they can drive me places, etc. I feel like I can talk to them more so than the other families and that is REALLY important, that's for sure.
Oh yea, District Conference.
All we did was sit in a room where people were giving speeches for 4 hours. Or 3. We lost track of time. We kept getting shushed because all we could do was talk, you know? Yet I saw a couple of Rotarians fall asleep. Boy that brought back memories...
In the end after going out in turn for a break from it and to get some food, we all were outside for the last 10 or 20 minutes. Then there was a break, then we got separated from them and we just hung out in the dining hall as they put out various plates of food on the tables for when Rotarians came in. We took tons of pictures with flags and all, then we did our flag ceremony, got separated into groups again by joining all the people who lived in our department (5-7 people per department) then one person from each group talked a bit. Then we ate. Then we left.
Really, nothing all that special. Nowhere near as awesome as our weekend last May (that feels so ancient, yet it feels like yesterday...). Then again France doesn't have Dennys...
Yea, not a whole ton has happened really.
I'm so lazy with pictures - I haven't put up any since January onto facebook. But I am pretty regular with putting them onto the computer. Of course I haven't uploaded the Toulouse ones yet and I didn't bring a camera to district conference, but I did steal a few. I'll edit this post when I get them up on my computer, I promise! And I have to go to a Rotary meeting in like, a minute, so...
Edit this post later! Figured the text was kind of more important at the moment...
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Holy cow not a lot has happened in 2 months... with pictures!
Yea, I REALLY suck at blogging clearly. I had a whole post from New Years saved as a draft to get to after the party but... well its March.
HAPPY MARCH!
Funnily enough, though, I really don't have much to update. I'm on a farm now... out in the middle of nowhere. Really, 2km one direction are the neighbours, 3km the other way is Genneton, the village. I wake up at 5:45am every school morning so I can get a car ride in the clown car (I'm either squished to one side with my host brother and one of the other carpool guys, or I'm squished between two guys), about 15km (... I dunno, almost 10 miles?) to the bus stop. the bus picks us up at 6:45am, I arrive at school at 7:40am. I like the long bus ride though, clears the mind.
Well, until my last host sister comes on, then if I'm not already asleep I fake it. My last host family... oh my goodness, that reminds me... they're such backstabbers. Let me explain.
The 2nd or 3rd weekend of January, there was a Rotary weekend in La Flechè (all the other inbounds... one came on the Saturday, 2 left on the Saturday). I also found out there that... SHANNON SWITCHED INTO MY DISTRICT. I arrived with the Mexican girl in the town about 20km from me and another car shows up behind us. I step out... I look into the window of the other car and i was like "do I know that person?" and then the door opened and I was literally "=oooo" because Shannon stepped out. I mean, she was supposed to be outside of Paris right? Well, it turns out she had 1 host family the whole year and it was going badly and when she requested a switch her club DENIED it. She requested a district switch then, so now she's in the Pays de la Loire part of the district with another American.
Anyways, at La Flechè... I was up in this space with the beds (its like a mini call and inside each were 2 beds) with two other girls and a guy (all Americans - one girl is from somewhere in Arkansas I keep forgetting the name of, the town with the mother of 18 kids apparently, the other girl is from Portland, and the guy is from Hawaii), when my YEO came upstairs she said "Sarah I need to talk to you". She brings me into her room...
Ok, I gotta say, not meaning to brag or anything, but after all the crap I managed to get out with my first host family (it got bad... like we had a huge blow-out fight about 3 weeks before I left that ended with my locking myself in the bathroom for half an hour - I don't remember if I mentioned this but... yea, do NOT take exchange student's things basically), and then having it dished right back totally hammed up to the point of its bull only 3 weeks later... I deserve kudos for staying calm and normal throughout that entire 20 minute talk.
"I don't know who I got this from, but..." was the first thing. I saw the paper and I KNEW, I just KNEW it was my last host mom. What clarified it actually was the humour I found in the situation (and that's a must, finding humour in the most serious of situations - makes it easier to deal with I've learned).
"She never changes her underwear."
Like... say WHAAA? I was biting my lip on the inside to stop from laughing at that. Basically because I don't change my underwear 3 times a day (believe me, this family was bizarre. This is the family that talked about me "not having enough bras" and "if I dont use more bras I'll get an infection" during lunch, no stretch of truth, they said that, especially the infection thing... I'll never forget that)... I don't change it at ALL apparently. Then "I never change my socks" but the thing is... before coming here I always went barefoot in the house - I hate socks, still do. But the French believe old wive's tales, about "if you are barefoot on a cold surface you'll get a sore throat". My host parents kept telling me that whenever I forgot to put on socks for their sake.
But yeah, the entire letter said; she never speaks (it was awkward at home and I REALLY sucked at French when I came - I speak more at school), she has no friends (bull), always on the computer (LONG story about how that happened I won't get into but it required the family switch to overcome. It's not a lie basically...), never changes underwear or socks...
What does it end at?
"But she's very nice"
Really. "Mais elle est très gentile". Exact translation. Like seriously, 3 paragraps of mostly bull and she just cuts the suspense with that.
It took me 20 minutes to explain that those were major problems with my FIRST host family and since I've switched and now that I have younger host siblings it's MUCH better (it is honestly). When my YEO was convinced, she let me go. As soon as she went back down the stairs and I was back with the three Americans, I just broke down. My YEO never knew but I did - Kiefer, the Hawaiian, let me cry on his shoulder for 10 minutes and everything. Then the next hour we all talked about our host families (past or present) and problems we have or had and things about them that we find bizarre (you know, based on cultural differences. I can't think of a better word for it).
Anyways, the 2nd night we were there (Saturday), we all went to the town's Laser Bowl (it's a really big thing in this town that "everyone cool goes to every Friday night". it's a bowling place that has billiards/pool and a laser tag in the back). I played Laser Tag with 1 other Canadian girl, 1 French guy, and 4 Americans. This is how we tallied the score after we got the score sheets (I got 1st place for once in my life):
Canada won and lost (I was first, Meghan was last place) so we sandwich everyone. France came in second ("they're always 2nd"), and America is in last place between the Canadian sandwich.
So yea, that was the big thing of January.
BUT in early January after New Years, we had a baby sheep in the house for about 2 weeks in the garage/basement beneath a heating light and it was being fed (I accidently said "milked" in my last update and I also said "I dunno if it's a boy or girl"... whenever I say "milked" I mean "feeding it milk" but... yea. I only heard "... uh, Sarah, you would know if you were milking a boy or girl. Either you're milking it or you're 'milking' it ;)" xD).
He came back in February for about 2 weeks. Then I got to feed it the bottle and everything! It was so cool.
I also heard slaughter day but i didnt' realize it for awhile. In Chilliwack we have an old, non-used navy base (its open to the public, the police and army use certain areas for training) and within it is an artillery range and you hear the gunshots a lot (I live about a 5 minute's drive from it, 10-15 minutes walk). Because I've heard those shots for 3 years, my first thought was "... there's a nearby artillery range? Where?"
(if you've been to Oak Harbor, Kevin and maddy... it's like the jets that fly over the town constantly. I miss that town, it was nice... But yea, it was really loud, this noise...)
Yea, it wasn't.
Ironically we were barbecuing as these cows were being slaughtered for meat...
But then near the end of February... omg I'll never forget this. I heard a car outside and I got up and looked out the window and nearly puked - a tractor was parked in the front and hanging off the prongs was a totally skinned, severed (like no head, limbs...) PIG. Just a bunch of meat hanging there.
Two nights later it was on the table in a bowl for the entrée. Haven't touched it; every time I see it I see that mutilated pig hanging off the prongs of the tractor.
I've gone to one major place within the past 2 months. Seriously. I went to Thouars for a day - another town in my district (with Rotary but they don't host students). Took the world's dinkiest path (and the "bridges" across some streams were nothing but sticks and loose rock, no joke. Out of the 4 crossings only 1 had a real bridge over it), but saw a cute little waterfall and got a good long workout. Yet I didn't fall asleep in the hour long car ride back... interesting.
I'm going to Paris with my host family tomorrow - my host mom has family who has a house outside of Paris or an apartment inside (I don't remember what it was exactly). I know I'm seeing the stuff I haven't already seen (I went in March with my school last year), such as the Sacrée Coeur (literally sacred heart), and I probably will see the Eiffel Tower again while there.
I switch to my last host family, so far set, on March 29th. I'll FINALLY be IN TOWN and not in a tiny village outside. I could get a good exercise walking home - I've done it before to go to the supermarket at the bottom of this hill (it's about 20 minutes and add another 10 going up another hill to another store and turning off to get to the house) and my host sister is 19 and she has her A so she drives herself to school... so she'll just drop me off along the way. Normal wake-up call times next - yay! Lol.
Once again, sorry about not updating in FOREVER. I forgot... =)
PICTURES! I'm too lazy to upload them onto Facebook... I'll get to it one day. everyone else in my district tags me in anything so I don't really see much need I guess... and I never really have the time... well I do but I'm always doing something else. Lol xD
A pretty rock on the hike in Thouars.
On the way to the trail to the waterfall in Thouars, we passed by a motocross track with the club practicing.
Me with my obnoxiously long hair... in front of the cute little waterfall.
THIS was the good "bridge" we had across a stream (minus the one real bridge). All the others were stick and loose rock with gaps in between. Fun times, fun times... =)
Everybody in our district! 4 Canadians, 10 Americans, 8 Mexicans, 1 German, and 1 Austrian (I also head counted the Americans and Mexicans based on this picture so I wouldn't be surprised if I messed up =P). We did have 1 other Mexican (no idea what happened to him) and 1 Swedish girl (she lost a LOT of weight and was really depressed - went home before Christmas)
Almost everyone at this cute little bridge during our hike. Or it is everyone... mneh, I'm too lazy to head count again.
Me, Alyssa (Arkansas), and Meghan (Niagara Falls, Ontario) attempting to be Charlie's Angels.
I think it was me who said "I wonder if we could fit in that closet"... we all took turns squeezing in =)
Downstairs in the building we were sleeping in.
HAPPY MARCH!
Funnily enough, though, I really don't have much to update. I'm on a farm now... out in the middle of nowhere. Really, 2km one direction are the neighbours, 3km the other way is Genneton, the village. I wake up at 5:45am every school morning so I can get a car ride in the clown car (I'm either squished to one side with my host brother and one of the other carpool guys, or I'm squished between two guys), about 15km (... I dunno, almost 10 miles?) to the bus stop. the bus picks us up at 6:45am, I arrive at school at 7:40am. I like the long bus ride though, clears the mind.
Well, until my last host sister comes on, then if I'm not already asleep I fake it. My last host family... oh my goodness, that reminds me... they're such backstabbers. Let me explain.
The 2nd or 3rd weekend of January, there was a Rotary weekend in La Flechè (all the other inbounds... one came on the Saturday, 2 left on the Saturday). I also found out there that... SHANNON SWITCHED INTO MY DISTRICT. I arrived with the Mexican girl in the town about 20km from me and another car shows up behind us. I step out... I look into the window of the other car and i was like "do I know that person?" and then the door opened and I was literally "=oooo" because Shannon stepped out. I mean, she was supposed to be outside of Paris right? Well, it turns out she had 1 host family the whole year and it was going badly and when she requested a switch her club DENIED it. She requested a district switch then, so now she's in the Pays de la Loire part of the district with another American.
Anyways, at La Flechè... I was up in this space with the beds (its like a mini call and inside each were 2 beds) with two other girls and a guy (all Americans - one girl is from somewhere in Arkansas I keep forgetting the name of, the town with the mother of 18 kids apparently, the other girl is from Portland, and the guy is from Hawaii), when my YEO came upstairs she said "Sarah I need to talk to you". She brings me into her room...
Ok, I gotta say, not meaning to brag or anything, but after all the crap I managed to get out with my first host family (it got bad... like we had a huge blow-out fight about 3 weeks before I left that ended with my locking myself in the bathroom for half an hour - I don't remember if I mentioned this but... yea, do NOT take exchange student's things basically), and then having it dished right back totally hammed up to the point of its bull only 3 weeks later... I deserve kudos for staying calm and normal throughout that entire 20 minute talk.
"I don't know who I got this from, but..." was the first thing. I saw the paper and I KNEW, I just KNEW it was my last host mom. What clarified it actually was the humour I found in the situation (and that's a must, finding humour in the most serious of situations - makes it easier to deal with I've learned).
"She never changes her underwear."
Like... say WHAAA? I was biting my lip on the inside to stop from laughing at that. Basically because I don't change my underwear 3 times a day (believe me, this family was bizarre. This is the family that talked about me "not having enough bras" and "if I dont use more bras I'll get an infection" during lunch, no stretch of truth, they said that, especially the infection thing... I'll never forget that)... I don't change it at ALL apparently. Then "I never change my socks" but the thing is... before coming here I always went barefoot in the house - I hate socks, still do. But the French believe old wive's tales, about "if you are barefoot on a cold surface you'll get a sore throat". My host parents kept telling me that whenever I forgot to put on socks for their sake.
But yeah, the entire letter said; she never speaks (it was awkward at home and I REALLY sucked at French when I came - I speak more at school), she has no friends (bull), always on the computer (LONG story about how that happened I won't get into but it required the family switch to overcome. It's not a lie basically...), never changes underwear or socks...
What does it end at?
"But she's very nice"
Really. "Mais elle est très gentile". Exact translation. Like seriously, 3 paragraps of mostly bull and she just cuts the suspense with that.
It took me 20 minutes to explain that those were major problems with my FIRST host family and since I've switched and now that I have younger host siblings it's MUCH better (it is honestly). When my YEO was convinced, she let me go. As soon as she went back down the stairs and I was back with the three Americans, I just broke down. My YEO never knew but I did - Kiefer, the Hawaiian, let me cry on his shoulder for 10 minutes and everything. Then the next hour we all talked about our host families (past or present) and problems we have or had and things about them that we find bizarre (you know, based on cultural differences. I can't think of a better word for it).
Anyways, the 2nd night we were there (Saturday), we all went to the town's Laser Bowl (it's a really big thing in this town that "everyone cool goes to every Friday night". it's a bowling place that has billiards/pool and a laser tag in the back). I played Laser Tag with 1 other Canadian girl, 1 French guy, and 4 Americans. This is how we tallied the score after we got the score sheets (I got 1st place for once in my life):
Canada won and lost (I was first, Meghan was last place) so we sandwich everyone. France came in second ("they're always 2nd"), and America is in last place between the Canadian sandwich.
So yea, that was the big thing of January.
BUT in early January after New Years, we had a baby sheep in the house for about 2 weeks in the garage/basement beneath a heating light and it was being fed (I accidently said "milked" in my last update and I also said "I dunno if it's a boy or girl"... whenever I say "milked" I mean "feeding it milk" but... yea. I only heard "... uh, Sarah, you would know if you were milking a boy or girl. Either you're milking it or you're 'milking' it ;)" xD).
He came back in February for about 2 weeks. Then I got to feed it the bottle and everything! It was so cool.
I also heard slaughter day but i didnt' realize it for awhile. In Chilliwack we have an old, non-used navy base (its open to the public, the police and army use certain areas for training) and within it is an artillery range and you hear the gunshots a lot (I live about a 5 minute's drive from it, 10-15 minutes walk). Because I've heard those shots for 3 years, my first thought was "... there's a nearby artillery range? Where?"
(if you've been to Oak Harbor, Kevin and maddy... it's like the jets that fly over the town constantly. I miss that town, it was nice... But yea, it was really loud, this noise...)
Yea, it wasn't.
Ironically we were barbecuing as these cows were being slaughtered for meat...
But then near the end of February... omg I'll never forget this. I heard a car outside and I got up and looked out the window and nearly puked - a tractor was parked in the front and hanging off the prongs was a totally skinned, severed (like no head, limbs...) PIG. Just a bunch of meat hanging there.
Two nights later it was on the table in a bowl for the entrée. Haven't touched it; every time I see it I see that mutilated pig hanging off the prongs of the tractor.
I've gone to one major place within the past 2 months. Seriously. I went to Thouars for a day - another town in my district (with Rotary but they don't host students). Took the world's dinkiest path (and the "bridges" across some streams were nothing but sticks and loose rock, no joke. Out of the 4 crossings only 1 had a real bridge over it), but saw a cute little waterfall and got a good long workout. Yet I didn't fall asleep in the hour long car ride back... interesting.
I'm going to Paris with my host family tomorrow - my host mom has family who has a house outside of Paris or an apartment inside (I don't remember what it was exactly). I know I'm seeing the stuff I haven't already seen (I went in March with my school last year), such as the Sacrée Coeur (literally sacred heart), and I probably will see the Eiffel Tower again while there.
I switch to my last host family, so far set, on March 29th. I'll FINALLY be IN TOWN and not in a tiny village outside. I could get a good exercise walking home - I've done it before to go to the supermarket at the bottom of this hill (it's about 20 minutes and add another 10 going up another hill to another store and turning off to get to the house) and my host sister is 19 and she has her A so she drives herself to school... so she'll just drop me off along the way. Normal wake-up call times next - yay! Lol.
Once again, sorry about not updating in FOREVER. I forgot... =)
PICTURES! I'm too lazy to upload them onto Facebook... I'll get to it one day. everyone else in my district tags me in anything so I don't really see much need I guess... and I never really have the time... well I do but I'm always doing something else. Lol xD
A pretty rock on the hike in Thouars.
On the way to the trail to the waterfall in Thouars, we passed by a motocross track with the club practicing.
Me with my obnoxiously long hair... in front of the cute little waterfall.
THIS was the good "bridge" we had across a stream (minus the one real bridge). All the others were stick and loose rock with gaps in between. Fun times, fun times... =)
All of us who played Laser Tag. Edouard, Anders, me, Eliot, Alyssa... at the bottom is Meghan (green) and Rowan. Seriously, halfway through our game some random Frenchies ran in and they joined us... that is never supposed to happen but whatever, even if they didn't count for points in our competition it was fun to have twice the targets.
Everybody in our district! 4 Canadians, 10 Americans, 8 Mexicans, 1 German, and 1 Austrian (I also head counted the Americans and Mexicans based on this picture so I wouldn't be surprised if I messed up =P). We did have 1 other Mexican (no idea what happened to him) and 1 Swedish girl (she lost a LOT of weight and was really depressed - went home before Christmas)
Almost everyone at this cute little bridge during our hike. Or it is everyone... mneh, I'm too lazy to head count again.
Me, Alyssa (Arkansas), and Meghan (Niagara Falls, Ontario) attempting to be Charlie's Angels.
I think it was me who said "I wonder if we could fit in that closet"... we all took turns squeezing in =)
Downstairs in the building we were sleeping in.Monday, 22 December 2008
Movies, families and strikes, oh my!
Well I'm writing this now because I won't have Internet starting around 9pm tonight for about a week... not like I've been updating anyways. i'm so horrible at keeping this blog! ;o Anyways, so there were a few Rotary functions - one was this movie about pink flamingos and their predators. That was in mid/late November - honestly the first thing I fell asleep at within Rotary, but my counsellor fell asleep in it along with about half the cinema so it seems I went unnoticed. Not like that finances' report from May long weekend orientation... I still haven't lived that one down, I swear. Ironically I NEARLY fell asleep in a Rotary meeting... for the half-hour finances report. Me and money only work together when I'm receiving and spending it. So that was on a Wednesday. No meeting Thursday. A "party" Friday. Now, on Wednesday, I got dressed up because i knew we were seeing a movie but didn't know what. I had my blazer on and my best pair of jeans (since it's troublesome to get my black pants out, or grey slacks, and I was thinking movie like James Bond, which was still out here in theatres then). When I go there and run into one of the Mexican students, she's wearing one of those gangster-style winter jackets and baggy jeans. I still dressed up some for this other party on a Friday in mid-November (I think it was the 21st), I put on the same jeans but put on my boots... my shirt wasn't as dressy, just my normal grey and black striped thing that goes over any other tshirt. This time it was a black tshirt with this griffin-ish design and under that was my purple tank top just for colour. I didnt realize I was playing dress-up for an hour. My counsellor's wife pretty much changed everything except for the black shirt and purple tank top... and other necessities. She even gave me nylons. The French share just about everything, I've come to realize. That one... ok, I fall asleep in an hour and a half movie that had some action, yet I'm wide awake for an hour long lecture with one guy droning on about la peine de mort (capital punishment, literally 'the pain of death'. Good description) and Marie Antoinette. I actually counted, it was exactly an hour, maybe about 2 minutes more. I wasnt paying attention though, not entirely, so I didn't catch everything. I was determined to not have another finances-report-incident; it came close once or twice but never happened thank goodness! Now December. Not much, really. The weekend before vacation starts (not yesterday and the day before, the weekend before), I went to Nantes with my host family. We went my host brother's and his girlfriend's place (he doesn't live with us) in the evening of Saturday and saw Nantes "by night". We were out for about 4 or 5 hours - we got in around 1am. Sunday we went to the marche de noel (put a colon flipped overtop the E so it looks like .. overtop the 'e', the HTML isnt liked on this site when I write it. That literally means "Walk of Christmas" but it sounds better in French) when they were all open, in the middle of the day. One was open at night. The marche de noel (a hat over the first "e" isn't liked. They're the French version of a pancake. Literally 'pancake') or chi-chis (all I can say to describe them is a big stick of a special bread with sugar and if you want Nutella to stick them into. Ill get a picture of that later when the chichi stand in town is open when I'm there).
Nantes is the big city in the district. There is always at least 3 students in the city because there are about 2 or 3 clubs. I don't know where everyone lives exactly - all I remembered was Greg living there, and he's from New Zealand so he's leaving in about a week (January 7th to be exact). Anyone else I didn't know.
It's a big city so I thought it would be rather amusing to run into a Rotary student I knew out of the 1000s of people in the city.
First marche de noel I go to is in the middle of a big plaza. Plazas in France are always full of performers or artists. The night before there was a guitarist. During the day, same guitarist was there and an artist was there too, with his dog, painting an awesome mural. Have a picture of it too, not fully finished but close.
An activist group was setting up a stand next to this art thing. They had pins, so I was curious. When I looked at the pamphlets, I saw it was a vegan group ("stop murdering animals", "you're doing wrong..." that's what the cover of their free pamplet actually says when translated, "you're doing wrong"). In the group of people I swore I recognized a face, but this girl had a fluffy hood and a kind of small head so I couldn't see her face clearly. She was standing behind the pins so I just went up and looked at them. She said something in French, I looked up...
Ever seen those movies where it's a whole cheesy two people knew each other years ago and havent seen each other since? They do that whole lean back slightly, looking at the person, then lean closer and squint, then a look of shock and they're like "*insert name*" in a shocked tone?
We did that. Minus the name thing (kind of blanked at the moment). We actually mirrored each other, doing the exact same thing.
She's the Rotary student from Sweden. I forgot she lived in Nantes. I don't even have her business card though... or I do and lost it somewhere. If I had that, I would've contacted her and asked if she was free because she's pretty cool. Realy fluent in English too.
We caught up there, all in English... of course it kind of broke into some French when my host sister came over, then host mom... it was sad because as soon as I had to go into French I had so much difficulty saying "She's a Rotary exchange student too, from Sweden". I got over the problems of explaining exchange student and where from back in October - you get used to it after all.
So yeah, I ran into a student I knew on my last day in Nantes. I mused it and then it happened...
Well, I'm finally leaving this host family.
Note I say 'finally'.
Things haven't gone well with this family... even Steph said if she was in my position she would've been worse (like, more of a bitch or something) and requested a switch. Mom reminded her that she's also still in English so she wouldn't have had much trouble. I should've requested a switch, honestly, but I never did because I just figured it would get better the harder I tried. It did a bit but it dropped on certain days.
They treat me like I'm 5. Like, to the extent of language and knowledge of culture yes, I'm like a 5 year old but my host dad actually spoke to me like I was as ignorent as a 5 year old, they talked about me behind my back and never confronted me with the problems they were seeing... they kept comparing me to this Australian student. I do have an Aussie guy coming in January to my club but I didn't know his name so when they kept saying "Matthew" and "Australia" I assumed it was him, but they talked about him like they've lived with him... I found out before leaving for Nantes he was here LAST year. My current family hosted him before me.
So they constantly compared me to Matthew, put him on a pedestal, insulting me a few times by doing so...
You can't compare exchange students, that's kind of a given - different nationalities means different cultures, which have different priorities, ideals, etc.
My host mom and I had a big fight that resulted in my locking myself in the bathroom for half an hour... after which we FINALLY went over every miscommunication. That was two days before leaving for Nantes.
They kept saying I had to be more adult and stuff, but as I finally grew more to do that they started to baby me. One day they're nice, the next they're really rude to me. It made no sense. It MAKES no sense.
Basically it was a real learning experience that even the phrase "trial and error" is an understatement for this time.
The next family has two younger girls and one older son. The other son is in Oregon on Rotary exchange and is 9 months older than me, so same age there. I stayed a night at their place and besides my host mom being REALLY touchy-feely (she would touch my arm and face every 5 minutes, i kept count at one point. She's like that with her family though, but more like every half hour. When I say really touchy feely... I woke up to her hand on my face. Seriously. That was just plain scary, I'm sorry), but she's really nice! My current host mom is a real nag (she actually lectured my host sister's friend when he said no thanks to a chocolate offered, saying he had to take one because its impolite to turn down food... well she's done that to me once or twice, to Charlotte, her husband... I should've realized she's strong willed enough to do it to people who she barely knows).
It'll be a nice change basically. I leave in about an hour or two.
Oh, like I say, no Internet. Something about it's not working or they don't have it yet... from what I understood, they have a technician coming into their place on the 29th for the Internet and they'll have Internet then. So I can connect around New Years. But since it's winter vacation there isn't much going on so I probably won't update for some time... not a month and a half again, but like, 2 weeks? 3 at most.
Oh yea! Last thing before pictures.
France is known to have student strikes. Bertille actually said they're best to be away from though. After watching the news... it's enough to scare an exchange student to not go, they CAN get really violent! The police were at this one with these huge shields that're clear (see through, like plastic but more durable), and the students were throwing rocks and pipe bombs (lit bombs) at them, some of the marching with signs... wow.
I went anyways. It started on the Tuesday last week and was supposed to go til Friday, but it actually went til Thursday, the 'manifestation' day that was apparently scheduled around the country. Friday we had school... that kind of sucked, we had to go on the last day. We didnt do much. English class was fun for me because my teacher handed out information on how Christmas is celebrated in Canada and a map that she got me to show the class where I'm from, she then got everyone to write questions in English to ask me (about tradition stuffs in Canada). I then had to ask questions in French about Christmas.
They do not use candles here by the way. It's all lights. They're MUCH bigger on Christmas lights outside than Canada or the States! Entire villages are lit up, it's so cool. I went to Nantes just to see the lights, which were amazing.
Ok, anyways, then we watched Merry Christmas Mr. Bean. I haven't seen that in so long! It was hilarious as usual... stopped before Bean goes in to get the engagement ring his girlfriend pointed at in the window and he comes out with only the box. She also handed out chocolate things for everyone. Best class ever.
Anyways, so student strike... freezing cold. People were smoking twice as much because it apparently warms you up, so as if the air wasn't bad enough with the wind, you know? (well, before I couldn't breathe around the smoke, I hated it that much. Now I can live with it. I actualy have to live with it, my host parents are chain smokers. My host brother at my next place smokes, I believe, but I didnt see the parents doing it at least. My clothes are forever tainted with smoke, some actually stink that bad of secondhand smoke). All we did was hang around outside - the most action we got was the police coming and trying to take away more of the metal barriers we used to block every entrance. Everyone was going to Lidl's, the grocery store a 5 minute walk away from the lycée just to warm up and buy food. I bought a ton of chocolate and a 1,5 litre of Fanta and shared it with everyone. I found it's kind of hard to buy warm drinks pre-warm from grocery stores, so pop worked. It was weird because... this is the only grocery store that puts their pop under the heaters. But because of that I found it was so cold outside that after 4 or so hours the pop was cold like it came out of a fridge just from the air. It got freezing cold by about 4pm (the buses arrive at 6pm - I was there from 7:45am til 6:15pm). I'm surprised ice didn't form in there.
So yea, it was actually really boring. I was kind of hoping for some scary action. Just to watch as I'm walking away towards the supermarket 20 minutes (walking) down the slight incline of a hill of course.
The supermarket with the espace culturel and search for a DVD (American films have original version English as well as French. I can apparently change region codes on my laptop but either way I watch them on my laptop this way) and a CD I've been wanting to get since its release in May.
So that's all for the past month... not too much really.
...
PICTURE TIME!
Nantes is the big city in the district. There is always at least 3 students in the city because there are about 2 or 3 clubs. I don't know where everyone lives exactly - all I remembered was Greg living there, and he's from New Zealand so he's leaving in about a week (January 7th to be exact). Anyone else I didn't know.
It's a big city so I thought it would be rather amusing to run into a Rotary student I knew out of the 1000s of people in the city.
First marche de noel I go to is in the middle of a big plaza. Plazas in France are always full of performers or artists. The night before there was a guitarist. During the day, same guitarist was there and an artist was there too, with his dog, painting an awesome mural. Have a picture of it too, not fully finished but close.
An activist group was setting up a stand next to this art thing. They had pins, so I was curious. When I looked at the pamphlets, I saw it was a vegan group ("stop murdering animals", "you're doing wrong..." that's what the cover of their free pamplet actually says when translated, "you're doing wrong"). In the group of people I swore I recognized a face, but this girl had a fluffy hood and a kind of small head so I couldn't see her face clearly. She was standing behind the pins so I just went up and looked at them. She said something in French, I looked up...
Ever seen those movies where it's a whole cheesy two people knew each other years ago and havent seen each other since? They do that whole lean back slightly, looking at the person, then lean closer and squint, then a look of shock and they're like "*insert name*" in a shocked tone?
We did that. Minus the name thing (kind of blanked at the moment). We actually mirrored each other, doing the exact same thing.
She's the Rotary student from Sweden. I forgot she lived in Nantes. I don't even have her business card though... or I do and lost it somewhere. If I had that, I would've contacted her and asked if she was free because she's pretty cool. Realy fluent in English too.
We caught up there, all in English... of course it kind of broke into some French when my host sister came over, then host mom... it was sad because as soon as I had to go into French I had so much difficulty saying "She's a Rotary exchange student too, from Sweden". I got over the problems of explaining exchange student and where from back in October - you get used to it after all.
So yeah, I ran into a student I knew on my last day in Nantes. I mused it and then it happened...
Well, I'm finally leaving this host family.
Note I say 'finally'.
Things haven't gone well with this family... even Steph said if she was in my position she would've been worse (like, more of a bitch or something) and requested a switch. Mom reminded her that she's also still in English so she wouldn't have had much trouble. I should've requested a switch, honestly, but I never did because I just figured it would get better the harder I tried. It did a bit but it dropped on certain days.
They treat me like I'm 5. Like, to the extent of language and knowledge of culture yes, I'm like a 5 year old but my host dad actually spoke to me like I was as ignorent as a 5 year old, they talked about me behind my back and never confronted me with the problems they were seeing... they kept comparing me to this Australian student. I do have an Aussie guy coming in January to my club but I didn't know his name so when they kept saying "Matthew" and "Australia" I assumed it was him, but they talked about him like they've lived with him... I found out before leaving for Nantes he was here LAST year. My current family hosted him before me.
So they constantly compared me to Matthew, put him on a pedestal, insulting me a few times by doing so...
You can't compare exchange students, that's kind of a given - different nationalities means different cultures, which have different priorities, ideals, etc.
My host mom and I had a big fight that resulted in my locking myself in the bathroom for half an hour... after which we FINALLY went over every miscommunication. That was two days before leaving for Nantes.
They kept saying I had to be more adult and stuff, but as I finally grew more to do that they started to baby me. One day they're nice, the next they're really rude to me. It made no sense. It MAKES no sense.
Basically it was a real learning experience that even the phrase "trial and error" is an understatement for this time.
The next family has two younger girls and one older son. The other son is in Oregon on Rotary exchange and is 9 months older than me, so same age there. I stayed a night at their place and besides my host mom being REALLY touchy-feely (she would touch my arm and face every 5 minutes, i kept count at one point. She's like that with her family though, but more like every half hour. When I say really touchy feely... I woke up to her hand on my face. Seriously. That was just plain scary, I'm sorry), but she's really nice! My current host mom is a real nag (she actually lectured my host sister's friend when he said no thanks to a chocolate offered, saying he had to take one because its impolite to turn down food... well she's done that to me once or twice, to Charlotte, her husband... I should've realized she's strong willed enough to do it to people who she barely knows).
It'll be a nice change basically. I leave in about an hour or two.
Oh, like I say, no Internet. Something about it's not working or they don't have it yet... from what I understood, they have a technician coming into their place on the 29th for the Internet and they'll have Internet then. So I can connect around New Years. But since it's winter vacation there isn't much going on so I probably won't update for some time... not a month and a half again, but like, 2 weeks? 3 at most.
Oh yea! Last thing before pictures.
France is known to have student strikes. Bertille actually said they're best to be away from though. After watching the news... it's enough to scare an exchange student to not go, they CAN get really violent! The police were at this one with these huge shields that're clear (see through, like plastic but more durable), and the students were throwing rocks and pipe bombs (lit bombs) at them, some of the marching with signs... wow.
I went anyways. It started on the Tuesday last week and was supposed to go til Friday, but it actually went til Thursday, the 'manifestation' day that was apparently scheduled around the country. Friday we had school... that kind of sucked, we had to go on the last day. We didnt do much. English class was fun for me because my teacher handed out information on how Christmas is celebrated in Canada and a map that she got me to show the class where I'm from, she then got everyone to write questions in English to ask me (about tradition stuffs in Canada). I then had to ask questions in French about Christmas.
They do not use candles here by the way. It's all lights. They're MUCH bigger on Christmas lights outside than Canada or the States! Entire villages are lit up, it's so cool. I went to Nantes just to see the lights, which were amazing.
Ok, anyways, then we watched Merry Christmas Mr. Bean. I haven't seen that in so long! It was hilarious as usual... stopped before Bean goes in to get the engagement ring his girlfriend pointed at in the window and he comes out with only the box. She also handed out chocolate things for everyone. Best class ever.
Anyways, so student strike... freezing cold. People were smoking twice as much because it apparently warms you up, so as if the air wasn't bad enough with the wind, you know? (well, before I couldn't breathe around the smoke, I hated it that much. Now I can live with it. I actualy have to live with it, my host parents are chain smokers. My host brother at my next place smokes, I believe, but I didnt see the parents doing it at least. My clothes are forever tainted with smoke, some actually stink that bad of secondhand smoke). All we did was hang around outside - the most action we got was the police coming and trying to take away more of the metal barriers we used to block every entrance. Everyone was going to Lidl's, the grocery store a 5 minute walk away from the lycée just to warm up and buy food. I bought a ton of chocolate and a 1,5 litre of Fanta and shared it with everyone. I found it's kind of hard to buy warm drinks pre-warm from grocery stores, so pop worked. It was weird because... this is the only grocery store that puts their pop under the heaters. But because of that I found it was so cold outside that after 4 or so hours the pop was cold like it came out of a fridge just from the air. It got freezing cold by about 4pm (the buses arrive at 6pm - I was there from 7:45am til 6:15pm). I'm surprised ice didn't form in there.
So yea, it was actually really boring. I was kind of hoping for some scary action. Just to watch as I'm walking away towards the supermarket 20 minutes (walking) down the slight incline of a hill of course.
The supermarket with the espace culturel and search for a DVD (American films have original version English as well as French. I can apparently change region codes on my laptop but either way I watch them on my laptop this way) and a CD I've been wanting to get since its release in May.
So that's all for the past month... not too much really.
...
PICTURE TIME!
In a plaza by the marche de noel in Nantes Sunday afternoon
Some awesome lights at the hanger in Nantes... at 12:20am
The Chateau des ducs du Bretagne in Nantes at night.
Me, my host sister Charlotte, host dad Larbie (he's Moroccan), my host mom Jocelyne, and my host brother Jonathan (but in French it's pronounced something like "Jen-a-tao". I thought it was spelled like my next village's name "Genneton" for months)
Some of the lights over the streets in Nantes
Sunday, 16 November 2008
To sum up the past 3 months...
Ok, to start off I know it's mid-November and I just started, but I kept getting asked to start a public blog (I have another on livejournal but that's for personal complaining more than anything), so now that I've seen so many students using this so I made another gmail (I forgot my other one... let alone why I made it), and started this.
So, to sum it up I arrived at 7:20pm (locatl time) in Nantes on August 27th. I met my counsellor, Gerard, and his wife, Liliane, at the airport. I forgot what the word 'faim' was then. Ok, I take that back, I knew the word but I forgot HOW to RESPOND to that (the pathetic thing is, it's just 'non' and I already knew that). The car ride from Nantes to Bressuire is about an hour... that was one... quiet ride. Gerard and Liliane talked, but it was always like... awkward when I was asked something and had to respond.
3 months does a lot.
So I got to Argenton Les Vallees, where they live (it's 17km outside of Bressuire), and unpacked in one room. I had to switch 4 days later cause I was only in that room because they had friends over. Stayed in the 2nd room for the rest of the month.
I took a bus at 7am to arrive at school at 7:30am. That required my alarm to go off at 5:50am. Going from barely being able to wake up at 7am to being on a bus at 7am is very different, let me tell you...
October 1st I switched to my first host family, the Akdims. I'm staying in their son's room (he's on exchange to Australia). There are still some... conflicts going on between me and them but they're nothing serious, just their way of communication (with me) is not the best.
I ride the bus with my host sister every day. wake up at 6:10am (well, my alarm goes off then... and then 6:25am... then if I'm not up then Im out by 6:35am). Walk (sometimes run) to the bus stop at 7:05am, take the bus at 7:15am, arrive at school at 7:40am.
For the first month of my exchange I was in a class called 'premiere S' ('S' being 'sciences', ou en francais, 'scientifiques'). It was demanding and challenging; I was doing PHYSICS in French. Believe me, you think senior-year physics in the States and Canada is challenging... translate 3rd year university into French and that's what I was doing.
My 'proffesseur principale', like my homeroom/advisory teacher, suggested I switch classes.
I'm now in 'premiere ES', economic sciences. I like this class more, it's not as insanely demanding, everyone is really nice... yeah, I dunno what else I can say about that.
I came barely able to get out a coherent sentence.
My first two real conversations with outbound exchange student to Oregon, David, were... wow. All I can say is looking back on them now, I'm eternally thankful and surprised he understood me.
I'm constantly mistaken for a Canadian Francophone too.
Why?
"C'est ton accent".
You see... the American accent is.. I can't think of any particularily tactful way to put it. It's 'plain'. There's no French sound to it, you're speaking as if you would in English. Now French 'r', some words don't have the right spin to it, etc. Sometimes more than others I can get the 'r' out, but often I can at least do the cat-coughing-up-furball R that is the French 'R' (it took one 2 hour block of my French class in mid-September to decide that's how it sounded). I still have a bit of an accent, as I found out last night more specifically (I said "c'est pas normale" and my host sister found this amusing because I was saying the special-loud-muffler motorcycle that passed by was just that, too loud, and it's not normal. She said she also liked how I said it and repeated it almost exactly like I did and I noticed it more then, with the more English-sounding R in 'normale'), but generally I apparently have a French accent.
That comes at an advantage and disadvantage.
The advantage: people understand me quicker
The disadvantage: as I already stated, people think I'm a French Francophone. So, when they speak, they think I'm a native French speaker and they speak like I'm one of them and then I don't entirely understand them. Half or 2/3rds, but often never full. That's just recently; it happened a few times in September and October and I just wouldn't understand a thing or too little amount of words to make sense of it in my head.
Yeah...
I saw Mamma Mia in mid-September in French. I only caught 10 french words that entire movie.
Yes, it was so little I counted.
I went to High School Musical 3: Senior Year last night. I understood 2/3rds of the French portion of the movie. I could have a conversation with some of Charlotte's friends who showed up as we were waiting for her mom after the movie (who went to see "L'echange", aka the title "Changling" in English I believe) in French... while he spoke broken English to that made it a bit more of a challenge (the broken aspect).
The disadvantage to English-created musicals dubbed into French...
The songs are in English. The dialogue in in French.
Talk about confusion! I always missed a few sentences following the songs because the switch of instinctive-English-mind-back-to-French-mind takes me a few moments.
I've had 1 French dream and it was bilingual. That was in the beginning of November and I was listening to and speaking some French I didn't even know.
Yeah, guess that's all for now. I just better remember to update this...
So, to sum it up I arrived at 7:20pm (locatl time) in Nantes on August 27th. I met my counsellor, Gerard, and his wife, Liliane, at the airport. I forgot what the word 'faim' was then. Ok, I take that back, I knew the word but I forgot HOW to RESPOND to that (the pathetic thing is, it's just 'non' and I already knew that). The car ride from Nantes to Bressuire is about an hour... that was one... quiet ride. Gerard and Liliane talked, but it was always like... awkward when I was asked something and had to respond.
3 months does a lot.
So I got to Argenton Les Vallees, where they live (it's 17km outside of Bressuire), and unpacked in one room. I had to switch 4 days later cause I was only in that room because they had friends over. Stayed in the 2nd room for the rest of the month.
I took a bus at 7am to arrive at school at 7:30am. That required my alarm to go off at 5:50am. Going from barely being able to wake up at 7am to being on a bus at 7am is very different, let me tell you...
October 1st I switched to my first host family, the Akdims. I'm staying in their son's room (he's on exchange to Australia). There are still some... conflicts going on between me and them but they're nothing serious, just their way of communication (with me) is not the best.
I ride the bus with my host sister every day. wake up at 6:10am (well, my alarm goes off then... and then 6:25am... then if I'm not up then Im out by 6:35am). Walk (sometimes run) to the bus stop at 7:05am, take the bus at 7:15am, arrive at school at 7:40am.
For the first month of my exchange I was in a class called 'premiere S' ('S' being 'sciences', ou en francais, 'scientifiques'). It was demanding and challenging; I was doing PHYSICS in French. Believe me, you think senior-year physics in the States and Canada is challenging... translate 3rd year university into French and that's what I was doing.
My 'proffesseur principale', like my homeroom/advisory teacher, suggested I switch classes.
I'm now in 'premiere ES', economic sciences. I like this class more, it's not as insanely demanding, everyone is really nice... yeah, I dunno what else I can say about that.
I came barely able to get out a coherent sentence.
My first two real conversations with outbound exchange student to Oregon, David, were... wow. All I can say is looking back on them now, I'm eternally thankful and surprised he understood me.
I'm constantly mistaken for a Canadian Francophone too.
Why?
"C'est ton accent".
You see... the American accent is.. I can't think of any particularily tactful way to put it. It's 'plain'. There's no French sound to it, you're speaking as if you would in English. Now French 'r', some words don't have the right spin to it, etc. Sometimes more than others I can get the 'r' out, but often I can at least do the cat-coughing-up-furball R that is the French 'R' (it took one 2 hour block of my French class in mid-September to decide that's how it sounded). I still have a bit of an accent, as I found out last night more specifically (I said "c'est pas normale" and my host sister found this amusing because I was saying the special-loud-muffler motorcycle that passed by was just that, too loud, and it's not normal. She said she also liked how I said it and repeated it almost exactly like I did and I noticed it more then, with the more English-sounding R in 'normale'), but generally I apparently have a French accent.
That comes at an advantage and disadvantage.
The advantage: people understand me quicker
The disadvantage: as I already stated, people think I'm a French Francophone. So, when they speak, they think I'm a native French speaker and they speak like I'm one of them and then I don't entirely understand them. Half or 2/3rds, but often never full. That's just recently; it happened a few times in September and October and I just wouldn't understand a thing or too little amount of words to make sense of it in my head.
Yeah...
I saw Mamma Mia in mid-September in French. I only caught 10 french words that entire movie.
Yes, it was so little I counted.
I went to High School Musical 3: Senior Year last night. I understood 2/3rds of the French portion of the movie. I could have a conversation with some of Charlotte's friends who showed up as we were waiting for her mom after the movie (who went to see "L'echange", aka the title "Changling" in English I believe) in French... while he spoke broken English to that made it a bit more of a challenge (the broken aspect).
The disadvantage to English-created musicals dubbed into French...
The songs are in English. The dialogue in in French.
Talk about confusion! I always missed a few sentences following the songs because the switch of instinctive-English-mind-back-to-French-mind takes me a few moments.
I've had 1 French dream and it was bilingual. That was in the beginning of November and I was listening to and speaking some French I didn't even know.
Yeah, guess that's all for now. I just better remember to update this...
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