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!
