Hey all,
I have two months left; it's gone fast but kind of slow too. School is going alright - trying to study harder because the classes are getting more difficult. I completed two of my college applications!!!!! So now we'll just have to see what happens with CSU San Marcos and University of California Berkeley.
I've got a big cancor sore from chocolate and pastries; and it covers my entire mouth - (warning to those who spend more than 2 weeks in France! :) It kind of feels like a weeklong halloween.
My English teacher has been helping me with French somedays. We go over grammar and she has given me some sheets to study. It's really nice of her to stay after and help me. Everyone hates her because when they don't get things in class she kind of yells at them - I'm just glad I'm not the one learning English...
I just remembered - it's Thanksgiving today - so Happy Thanksgiving to all of you lucky Americans who get yet another holiday.
It's getting harder to think of things to write about now because life is so normal now. I need to go Christmas shopping soon. In the mean time, the weather has been windy, cold, sunny once in a while, but still cold. I have finished those apps and essays that were my main focus for so long, so now, my senior project is going to be my next big project and this afternoon I'm going to outline it. Next weekend, I'm hanging out with friends on Saturday, :)
My Communication teacher spent a year as a senior in high school in Wisconsin (go figure, right). It's kind of funny to imagine her with lots of cows and cheese - my impression of Wisconsin. At least she wasn't deprived of cheese. She said the hardest/strangest part was adjusting once she got back home - I don't think that will be very hard for me. I mean of course I will miss speaking French because I really do love speaking now. It really is exactly like how I described it in my college essay - it's just so pretty and rich. Unfortunately - so is the food. Ok ha no more complaining. Also, going back to PHS with its rigorous curriculum and intense homework nights and swim team will be very difficult. I hope that lots of friends will be willing to help me catch up on the material. Swim whew I'm out of breath just thinking about it.
Other than that, I will be so happy to see my family - not to mention my friends! It will be so strange sleeping in my own bed again and watching the news all the time like usual and just joking around without having to think! I also wonder how much I will realize that I'm changed. Will it be like I havn't missed a beat and I've been gone for a week or so or will it be super obvious that I am changed.
One thing for sure is I know I will miss my host mom, Francoise. She is so fun to laugh and talk with and she really takes care of me - always making sure I'm alright. I hope I get the opportunity to see her again in the future after I have returned to California.
I'll try to write again next week - I think once December starts things will get more lively with Christmas and all.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
I'm going to write more!!
Hey everyone, so I've made a resolution to write more on my blog because I know that you all want to know all about what's happening while im on the other side of the world eating cheese, cake, bread, going to school, trying to learn a lot... etc.
The past few weeks I was impossibly homesick. I was eating nutella practically out of the jar after dinner and def comfort eating - not healthy. The problem with that is that afterwards, you really dont feel that much better - just kind of sick and round. So then I realized if I want to turn my feelings and life and attitude around, I've got to do the things that I usually do at home - stay in shape, exerice, don't eat dessert every time it's offered to me...
Exericise is not a priority here in France like it is in the U.S. People ride their bike (not lately cause it's so rainy) but for the life of me, I don't understand how so many people are so skinny. Neither does my host mother. It's like they eat a meal and a good sized dessert and still have stick arms and legs. NOT the case with me.
But, something that made me feel a lot better - and also inspired me to write more for you guys is my friend Melissa's friend Melanie, who spent a year in Germany last year all her junior year. Apparently, there are a lot of exchange students who feel like they gain a lot of weight cause the food is so delicious, so fresh and you don't move around a lot. I thought when I came to France I would walk around everywhere, but I just have a short walk from the bus stop to and from school. When I get home from school I don't have the gusto to exercise - run, lift weights, like I usually do cause it's either 1:00 in the afternoon (starving!!!), 4:30 (tired in general) or 6:20 at night (dark - and a little hungry)
But seriously NOW im turning my lifestyle around. Eating slower - (savor that french food, Genevieve!!) and jogging/running more regularly. I meant jogging for 20 minutes each the past few days and I'm feeling more ready to face the world than before.
I think my host parents worry about me -well not worry, but want me to have more girlfriends, but it's really hard to have my friends over casue my good friends board at the school - so they go home during the weekend. I made a really good friend named Nour and her sister Nehja, but they are in Algeria right now. I hung out with them a lot last week - hopefully we can all hang out next week. They are super nice - funny, laugh it off when things get confused and I can be myself around them - which is a GREAT thing. Some people are really unsure when they start talking to me and I can sense it - so it's just uncomfortalbe and awkward.
School is going pretty well - I got a 12/20 on a fable I wrote in French class - Olivier got a 13 and a bunch of kids got 11s. Remember what I said before about the grading system - 12 is DECENTLY GOOD!! My other classes are also going well. In French the other day, my teacher gave us all a prompt for an essay and in the prompt there were the words utile (useful) and indisponsable (indispensable) and she wanted to know the nuance between the two words. Only me and one other kid knew the answer, but she picked me and I explained the meaning of the word indispensable to the class. It was funny, she was like "it is completley formidable that the American of the class can define a word that no one else here knows". I participated twice that class - I want to participate MORE in French class because I understand so much of what she is talking about than befoer - but I am not proficient enough in the language to fully articulate myself. Grrrrrrr - so frustrating sometimes. I feel like Ariel in the Little Mermaid sometimes - mute.
I will write more next week, in the mean time I need to do some work and lunch soon!
The past few weeks I was impossibly homesick. I was eating nutella practically out of the jar after dinner and def comfort eating - not healthy. The problem with that is that afterwards, you really dont feel that much better - just kind of sick and round. So then I realized if I want to turn my feelings and life and attitude around, I've got to do the things that I usually do at home - stay in shape, exerice, don't eat dessert every time it's offered to me...
Exericise is not a priority here in France like it is in the U.S. People ride their bike (not lately cause it's so rainy) but for the life of me, I don't understand how so many people are so skinny. Neither does my host mother. It's like they eat a meal and a good sized dessert and still have stick arms and legs. NOT the case with me.
But, something that made me feel a lot better - and also inspired me to write more for you guys is my friend Melissa's friend Melanie, who spent a year in Germany last year all her junior year. Apparently, there are a lot of exchange students who feel like they gain a lot of weight cause the food is so delicious, so fresh and you don't move around a lot. I thought when I came to France I would walk around everywhere, but I just have a short walk from the bus stop to and from school. When I get home from school I don't have the gusto to exercise - run, lift weights, like I usually do cause it's either 1:00 in the afternoon (starving!!!), 4:30 (tired in general) or 6:20 at night (dark - and a little hungry)
But seriously NOW im turning my lifestyle around. Eating slower - (savor that french food, Genevieve!!) and jogging/running more regularly. I meant jogging for 20 minutes each the past few days and I'm feeling more ready to face the world than before.
I think my host parents worry about me -well not worry, but want me to have more girlfriends, but it's really hard to have my friends over casue my good friends board at the school - so they go home during the weekend. I made a really good friend named Nour and her sister Nehja, but they are in Algeria right now. I hung out with them a lot last week - hopefully we can all hang out next week. They are super nice - funny, laugh it off when things get confused and I can be myself around them - which is a GREAT thing. Some people are really unsure when they start talking to me and I can sense it - so it's just uncomfortalbe and awkward.
School is going pretty well - I got a 12/20 on a fable I wrote in French class - Olivier got a 13 and a bunch of kids got 11s. Remember what I said before about the grading system - 12 is DECENTLY GOOD!! My other classes are also going well. In French the other day, my teacher gave us all a prompt for an essay and in the prompt there were the words utile (useful) and indisponsable (indispensable) and she wanted to know the nuance between the two words. Only me and one other kid knew the answer, but she picked me and I explained the meaning of the word indispensable to the class. It was funny, she was like "it is completley formidable that the American of the class can define a word that no one else here knows". I participated twice that class - I want to participate MORE in French class because I understand so much of what she is talking about than befoer - but I am not proficient enough in the language to fully articulate myself. Grrrrrrr - so frustrating sometimes. I feel like Ariel in the Little Mermaid sometimes - mute.
I will write more next week, in the mean time I need to do some work and lunch soon!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Winter
It's been raining almost every day, but things are going alright. Over the 10 day vacation I went to Paris and it was wonderful, better than anything I had ever imagined. Sometimes, before the idea of Paris seemed kind of cliché because well, Paris. But it really is as wonderful as everyone says. I came out of the metro station and L'Arc de Triomphe was right in front of me. It took my breath away. When we climbed up to the top and I gazed around the "star" of the huge rond-point, I couldn't believe it was real. The Champs-Elysées is not just something in my text book after all...
I also saw the Eiffel Tour at night, it is soooo tall! and also the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. My favorite was the Venus de Milo, classical art really is amazing when you see it in person. Before the Louvre, we walked around the Pyramid.
The next day, we went to La Defence, which is like a huge modern metropolitan area of Paris. The difference between it and other huge cities though with huge skyscrapers is that there is a lot of space between the buildings, so you really have a perspective of how small you are in comparing the buildings to each other and yourself. Amazing.
In Paris, we stayed with Henri's great aunt Geneviève and her husband, Guy. Yes, I was somewhat named after my great aunt Genevieve and the DuVals and Guys ARE related. Quite ironic, I'd say. They were very nice and loved to have us. We took the metro everywhere and during the day, ate lunch in Paris and had dinner at the house.
So now I'm back to school and it's good to be back in a routine, although Paris was really great.
Tonight, I made guacamole for the entree for dinner. We ate it with tortilla chips.
I also saw the Eiffel Tour at night, it is soooo tall! and also the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. My favorite was the Venus de Milo, classical art really is amazing when you see it in person. Before the Louvre, we walked around the Pyramid.
The next day, we went to La Defence, which is like a huge modern metropolitan area of Paris. The difference between it and other huge cities though with huge skyscrapers is that there is a lot of space between the buildings, so you really have a perspective of how small you are in comparing the buildings to each other and yourself. Amazing.
In Paris, we stayed with Henri's great aunt Geneviève and her husband, Guy. Yes, I was somewhat named after my great aunt Genevieve and the DuVals and Guys ARE related. Quite ironic, I'd say. They were very nice and loved to have us. We took the metro everywhere and during the day, ate lunch in Paris and had dinner at the house.
So now I'm back to school and it's good to be back in a routine, although Paris was really great.
Tonight, I made guacamole for the entree for dinner. We ate it with tortilla chips.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
