Day in the Life of a French Student

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a month!!! I am very happy here, even though the weather is very different from California. My host family and friends make fun of me because I so cold all the time, wearing a scarf, two sweaters and a coat, while they are in a T-shirt and shorts.

 Anyways, I figure, now that I am used to going to school in France, I might as well explain what classes are like, how long the day is, students habits, etc.

 My school is: Lycèe Camille Pissarro, Pontiose. Which is cool because Pissarro is a famous  french impressionist who lived in the late 19th century and in none other than Pontoise! And even painted pictures of the very same street I live on.
 Chemin du chou, or lane of cabbage! ( like everything else, it sounds so much better in french!)

-chemin du chou à Pontoise ( C. Pissarro)

Anyways, school is every week, Mondays through Saturdays. But it is unusual that there are classes on Saturdays. Usually in France the school week is just Monday through Friday.
Every day I take the bus to school at either 8am or 9am. three out of six days a week class starts at 9:30 instead of 8:30. And school is over every day at 16:30 (or 4:30) except Wednesdays and Saturdays, when class is over at 12:30.

There are three different "high school" grades: second, prèmire, and terminal. usually I would be in either terminal or prèmire, but since I have no previous french experience, the lycèe required that I enter second.
which is good because everyone is already new to "high school" so I fit right in. .....well, you know, aside from not being able to speak the same language as them....

Ok, here comes the complex part of french school....
There are three building with six different levels and about 10 classrooms on each level. The first day, the students are separated into classes of about 30 students, which will be taking similar classes, in my case Spanish, English, European classes(advanced English courses, such as history in English), then you are given a time chart which is the same for all the students in your class. Then your homeroom teacher tells you which classes you are taking and which groups you are in for some of the courses, such as Spanish, in which the class is separated into two groups. all orally. so I was definitely confused the first day.
What's more there are two separate weeks (week A and week B) in which there are classes one week and not the other. And the teachers never stay in the same room, so sometimes if your teacher doesn't show up then you have random free time.

Now for the student habits.
In France the students are very polite: you never enter the classroom until the teacher says so. You wait for the teacher to tell you you can sit down. If you are late or went to the bathroom and return, you must knock on the door and wait for the teacher to answer, then wait outside the doorway and explain yourself, for the interruption, and sometimes, if your really late like-five minutes then the teacher will not allow you back into the classroom.
Every student has a little pencil case with a pencil, pen, white out, an eraser, five different colored pens, a ruler, a glue stick, and some colored pencils. also every student has a little planner where they write their assignments, a folder where they can put any loose papers the teacher gives, and a copy book or binder, for each class.
Never would a french student be caught dead unprepared for a class. It was actually a little intimidating at first. but once you get used to the extreme organisation, it's easy to catch on.

I am taking :
french-super advanced and very confusing.

sport-so far, weight lifting...very different than California P.E.

history and geography- very boring, I know what is going on, but my teacher is just very hard to listen to.

math- super complicated, I have no clue what we are doing....maybe calculus, my only comfort is that no one else in my class understands it either.

economics-actually I can understand a lot of this course. yay!

Spanish- actually on of my favorite classes.

English-I am learning how to speak, properly.

European English- a little different than my other English class, a little more advanced and focuses on England.
European history-In English! so much fun! I have some really cool friends in that class. but now my teacher is making me do the projects in french, which is good, but hard.

life and earth science, so basically biology- only once a week and actually kind of fun, mainly because since I have taken the course before, I can track what we are talking about.

chemistry- Thank you Mr. Auld! I can really understand this course once all the long and confusing terms are translated. I have actually helped some of my classmates. it's cool because we do a lab every week, and we have to buy and wear our own lab coats. very cool.

In France we have a lot of vacation, two weeks of vacation, about every seven weeks of school.

well that's about it for now.

In France at last!

Bonjour from France!
I can't believe I have been in france for two weeks already! so much has happened! where do I begin?

Well, the day of my flight, I got up at something like, five AM and my Mom and I drove to SFO, for my 11:00 flight to detroit then on to Paris. Of course my flight was canceled because Delta over booked the flight, so I was swiched to the waiting list for the Air France 3:00 direct to Paris. But it was OK, because with the way rotary works, you travel with lot's of other exchange students, in my case, from California all going to France. So I made some friends at the airport! Even though we were all super nervous that we would not make it on the plane, at one point I think someone offered to let us all crash at his house in the east bay, and try to make any flight within the the next few days.
But, thank god, we all made it on the plane. the flight was 9 and a half hours. and I am pretty sure I slept 7 hours.
we landed in Paris at 11:00.  And as the girl that I am, I had two checked, beautiful bags, which were about 60lb each, and they had fantastic pattern.
and they both were lost. I went to lost baggage and filed a clam, filled out all the info, (in french!) met my host family, and then went to sleep for two days.
Unfortunatly they have still not been found. but I think that it's ok, I'll do without them. My host family and all of Rotary has been amazing to me, once they found out that I had lost my bags, the host families of the Paris district have been lending me their daughters stuff (most of which are on exchange to either the US or south america)

Which brings me to my host family, I love them! Their son, Agustine, is in equador, but they have two other boys living in the house. Paul is the oldest and is in the first year of university, in Pontoise, he also went on exchange two years ago to brazil. The youngest is Nickolas, who is 14 and very funny. But they are so busy all the time! I think we have someone over or we are going somewhere or doing something almost every night! but thats what makes my exchange even more interesting!
Oh My house is so perfect! it has traditional french exposed beems and window shutters, and my town, Pontoise, is the cutest thing ever! I will post some pictures very soon.

One week ago I started school in france. It is very tiring because I can't understand a lot of what they are saying, and there are like four flights of stairs that you have to go up and down like ten times a day! AND I have class saturday morning! But all my teachers have been very nice to me and the students are pretty cool. the first day I felt so alkward at lunch because I had no one to sit with, but as I was sitting down, someone called me over and asked me to sit with them! So I have had no trouble making friends, even though, my french is very bad.

My first weekend in france I had a rotary orientation weekend at a hotel in a town just south of Versailles. which was filled with new friends from around the world, lip singing, sports, and just an amazing time. I can't believe how much fun rotary events are! I hope that I will also be able to post the video of the talent show once I have time to figure out how to work my host families computer.

Last weekend My host family took me on a grand walk though Paris! wow, it was so beautiful, I could have stood in frount of Notre Dame all day it was so astounding. and their are so many more things that I could go on and on about, and maybe one day I will dedicate an entire post to Paris! oh so breath taking. And so close! just a half an hour by train, which is the easiest thing to use.

I am so very happy here in France!
I just wanted to Thank all my friends and family who are making my exchange possible.
I also want to thank Rotary, you guys are awesome!

Thanks for all your support!

 Saturday, August fourth I had a wonderful evening with all my benifactors! It was very fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, which to me, means it was a great success.
here are some photos from the event:

 My french host Catherine

 My other host Merlin, trying not burn us all while lighting the cherries jubilee

One of the lovely courses we enjoyed saturday

A wonderful picture of everyone.

Again I just wanted to thank everyone for coming saturday and I am so greatful for all your support. My trip is only possible because of all of you. Thanks.