Discovering Careers

You may be wondering why I took so long to post. Or perhaps everyone who's been keeping up with my blog is just used to the long breaks between my posts. Not to mention I had started writing about the most recent Rotary-organized...thing I did, but I bumped into the touch pad and accidentally deleted everything I had written. But I'm trying again now. And this time will go better.

One of the cool things I did the weekend after our vacation was climb to the top of the cathedral. We went on the first Sunday of the month so entry was free. And I think our count of how many steps there are was around... 300 or so? I can't even remember. But it was quite a workout climbing all the way up. The view was absolutely incredible though. You could see practically everywhere in all directions. Stunning.

The next week I spent doing what they call a "formation". I basically spent a week going to a different high school. It was a school called the CFA (Centre de Formation d'Apprentis). Teenagers go there to learn how to do their jobs. They choose around the age of 15 or 14 that they don't want to continue with normal school but start working. They're essentially apprentices (hence the word apprentice in the school's name). The jobs they do are things like baking and wood-work. The way it worked for the first group of kids I talked to was that they went to this school one week out of three. They spent one day working in the actual workplace with a professional teacher who showed them how to make a certain thing or use a certain skill. Then the other days they had normal classes like history and German. The older students I was with though went to school for the skills class once or twice a week but they didn't have to go to classes.

Here was what I did for the week: boulangerie, boucherie, and patisserie. Translations: baking--like bread-baking, butchery, and pastry-making. And here is the day by day:

Monday I did pastry-making (patisserie). But before the class even started Ana (a girl from Ecuador) and I had our own little adventure. I had been planning on spending the first two nights of the week with her since she's lives in the city center so it made transportation easier. With my large backpack and purse, I had wanted to drop off my bag at Ana's house, but we were running late so we just decided to meet up at the train station. We found the right bus stop and hopped on a bus that was marked CFA. We got to the stop and walked into the building... but of course we were at the wrong CFA. They eventually pointed us in the right direction, we got on a different bus and found the building. After, of course, asking for directions right next door to the building because we weren't sure where it was... But we arrived, about an hour late, and settled into our different classes.

My class was really nice. Everyone there was really really welcoming. It was nice for once to have a group of people come up to me and actually ask questions about where I'm from and seem interested... Because otherwise that's hard to come by.

That day we were making pain d'episces. It's pretty much like gingerbread but with a little bit of licorice-y, fennel-flavor in it. It's a little bit different and I prefer our more artificial-tasting gingerbread (weird, right?) but it was good anyways. And unfortunately that day they weren't making houses out of the gingerbread, just hearts. Since I didn't have the right clothes, I couldn't participate at first, but after a while they finally brought my a lab coat sort of thing to throw on over my clothes so I could help out. I couldn't do very much--all I did was coat the rolled-out hearts in milk before they went into the oven... But most of the time I was busy answering questions and talking with the other kids in my class.

Towards the end of the class, they started decorating so I decided "what the heck" I might as well join in! So I picked up a makeshift icing contraption, glued a marzipan bear onto a heart, and started decorating. I didn't do a fantastic job but it was still fun. And I learned at the end of class that students could choose to buy the things that they made. So I bought the gingerbread that I had decorated. It was at a cheaper price than you'd normally find so that was nice.

The second day I was in boucherie--butchery. This time I was with older students. Around 20 years or older. That meant they were doing far too complicated and dangerous things for clumsy old me. They were taking the bones out of a duck and another chicken-like being that was too small to be a chicken. It was so dangerous that they had to wear chainmail gloves and aprons so they wouldn't stab themselves... Needless to say I was glad I didn't have to participate. I sort of just stood around while they did work. It was nice though--they were really nice people too.

Not to mention the teacher was really hilarious. He was a very no-bull kind of teacher so that was fun to have when he wasn't MY teacher. He also showed me some of the things they were doing around the kitchen so I didn't spend the whole entire time standing around awkwardly.

Now for what we did that day... Well the others worked on removing the bones from various animals. Then they made what's called "farce" (maybe it's the same in English but I have absolutely no idea considering my knowledge on butchery isn't very extensive) which is basically the same as stuffing, but made with meat and onions and parsley all minced together. They put the farce onto the de-boned meat and wrapped it up and turned it over to make it look all nice and pretty. In the end it basically looked like a duck or chicken with farce inside. They tied them up with the string to keep the farce from getting out and stuck them in the oven. The oven, as I later learned, was a new oven that cleans itself. When I saw it after having been used it was brown and rusty-looking. After two hours of self-cleaning it was shiny and chrome-looking.

When the duck-things came out of the oven they were golden and brown. We cut off the string and cut it into slices to eat. Despite having seen all the insides of the meat and the raw farce and everything, they had been in the oven long enought that I was able to forget what it was like. And it tasted really good. Surprisingly good. It definitley had the taste of something my parents would like. I didn't take any pictures (I didn't want raw meat on my camera) but I found some online to show what it looked like. Here's before going in the oven: And then here's sliced up:

Then we made more farce, with a different kind of meat I think, and then put them in slabs of chicken and wrapped it all up in pig intestines. But I'm not positive about the pig intestines. They were white and looked like intestines but then you could spread them out and they kind of resembled spider webs. I'm not sure if I completely understood the translation, though. It seems like they were either pig intestines or stomach muscles... Stomach lining maybe? At any rate, we also made some "crépinettes" which were the farce wrapped in the pig stuff. Once they were all done cooking we got to taste the "crépinettes" with a sauce that we had made from the bones of the duck and chicken-things. It was really really delicious.

But the best thing--which I think may be easy enough that I could try to replicate it back home--was another sauce we made. We took some of the sauce made from the bones and put it in a pan. Then the teacher cut out the "meat" of an orange--no pulp and threw it in with the sauce. He threw in a chopped up thing that kind of looked like a mixture between a small onion and a big garlic chunk (this would be the only problem with replicating it back home). He then threw in a bit of vinegar. It sounds like the weirdest thing possible but it was surprisingly delicious! The teacher also said that we could do the same thing with any other kind of fruit we wanted.

For the last hour of the class we had finished cooking and cleaning and everything so we went into the classroom next door and we did a very awkward roleplaying game. The teacher had the students try and explain an Alsatian specialty to me, a tourist. This was hard because the teacher kept quizzing me on whether I had understood or not... Half the time I had but simply couldn't rephrase it for him. The worst part, though, was when the students tried to ask me questions on "what I was looking for". Because even in English I don't know the differences between cuts of meat. Luckily that was over quickly.


The third day I had boulangerie (baking). This was probably my favorite day because I actually got to participate. A lot. It was a little annoying because my class was all guys which meant I had to go to a different classroom's locker room to change into my apron and keep my stuff. It was nice at the same time though because being the only girl in a class of 15-year-old boys made it very easy to find help. I rarely had to carry my own pan.

That day we made brioche. It's kind of like bread but more of a pastry and sweet bread. And this time the teacher let me do everything everyone was doing. He let me use the table next to his and his equipement to do it all. It was great! I did an even better job than some of the kids in the class! I also brought home the recipe for how to make it so that's something I really really want to try when I get back.

How it worked was at the beginning we made the dough (which was actually the more difficult part for me since it involved reading the instructions in French, using French measurements, and finding the ingredients). Then after that we used the dough to make various things. We made the classic twists. One was a simple braid. The other was a four-strand braid. Then we had a two-strand twisty-thing. My best was the simple braid. But that part was fairly easy since--being a girl--braid's aren't that hard, and the teacher showed us how to make them. Then we used the rest of the dough to make tiny people (St. Nicolas), flat cookie-things that we later covered in a butter-brown sugar mixture, and cupcake-like things with a bubble-thing on the top. It's hard to describe and I don't have pictures of everything since I didn't get to take it all home (and some of it I ate on the way home) but here are some internet pictures so you can get an idea of what they look like.

    They looked more or less like this. Except ours were entirely plain, like the very first picture. There were no chocolate chips or almonds. They were pretty good though.

It was also really sweet because at the end of the class I took my best twisty brioche, a little person (I had four), and a cupcake-thing (I had three) and was planning on paying for them so I could bring them home, but my teacher told me I didn't have to worry about paying.

Now just to remind you all, I hadn't been home since Monday morning. I hadn't talked to my host family during this time. I didn't think whatsoever to talk to them--I suppose I was too wrapped up in trying not to fall asleep in the middle of class... But at any rate, throughout the duration of the 5-minute car ride from the village's train station to home my host mom yelled at me for this. And every other problem we had had. I can barely even remember what was really the problem. I got home, ran upstairs after shakily saying hello to the guests they had over. Upstairs my host dad yelled at me some more. And I finally started trying to defend myself. Which didn't work. And I'm not really going to go into detail because most of those problems have now been taken care of. We're kind of the better off for it. But I still don't like to think about it. Some of the things they said to me were entirely out of line and still kind of hurt.

The next day was a holiday. My host family took me with some friends to see a nearby castle. And in an attempt to appear like the perfect exchange students I tried my very very hardest to be nice and social and talk a lot (since that was what they told me I wasn't doing). But to be quite honest, trying to understand what someone else is saying in another language while you're hiking through a path covered in dead leaves is practically impossible. And is made even more difficult when that person is a mumbling teenager. Very very difficult. And then I'm supposed to respond. But that's just part of being an exchange student I suppose--trying to exceed the impossible expectations others set up for you.

As you can see that was a rather low point for me. But the castle was beautiful.

The next day I went back to the CFA. That was nice because I got to talk to other exchange students about all my problems. Getting it all out was definitely nice.

And then for what I did that day. I was meant to do something with wood-work but the teacher wasn't there so I joined Ana (the girl from Ecuador) in her boucherie class. It was the same teacher again so it was nice. He knew me and he was a very interactive kind of teacher so he let us participate.

That day they were decorating plates. Basically what they did was they poured a thin layer of gelatin mixed with milk into a nice silver plate and then decorated it with the peels of various vegetables cut up into tiny shapes. It's really hard to describe but it was actually pretty fun. It was sort of tedious work but I didn't mind.

At the end, once we had made the platters look all pretty with the designs, we covered it in a clear gelatin layer to make it all stick. And of course, because the class was entirely guys except for Ana and me, we had to have a competition to see whose platter was the best. Ana and I had been in different groups of two--she and her partner got first place and my partner and I got second. That was admittedly a good feeling, especially since we'd never done anything like that before. At the very end, while the boys cleaned, we went to a classroom next door and flipped through a French cookbook. Were it a normal clean-up we would have helped, but when they clean at this school they break out a giant hose and literally hose it down. That would have been ok but with shoes that slip... it doesn't quite work.

Now I have got plenty more to talk about. This is just the week of November 8 to 12. But I'll save that for another day because I feel I've put off a blog update for long enough. Luckily I've started keeping better track of what I've been doing in my agenda--that way I'm sure not to forget.

I miss and love everyone back home! And since I may not manage to throw together another update before then, I'll just throw in a Merry Christmas now. And a Happy New Year!

Catching Up

All right so things are both hectic and really boring at the same time... They alternate. As does my mood. It's like I'm on a giant roller coaster that goes up and down every day and the smallest thing can make me switch. It's starting to get annoying. But no matter.
What have I been doing in between my posts you ask? Well a lot. I'm going to pick out some random days where I did fun things.

One day I went to a castle--Haut Keonigsbourg--with my host family. Don't ask me where it is since I seem to be lacking in access to maps. It was really fun though. A castle just like any other, but it was extremely well-preserved. My host family explained to me that you have to pay to enter so that way they can afford to restore it. It was really really beautiful. From there we went into the woods and ate sandwiches. Sandwiches here are very good; they're made with French baguette, which I love. The one thing I dislike is the fact that the butter in my host family is fake butter.

We took a walk into the woods one day. We were somewhere out in the country of Alsace (I would assume). We were with my host family and my host family's friends. We walked through the fields of corn and everything. It was even better because it was before the corn stalks turned yellow and started dying. Since it's reached harvesting time now so they aren't as pretty now as before. Eventually we reached the top of the hill and there was a huge cross made out of wood there.

We sat on the side of the hill there and ate sandwiches. Again. I've really started to like sandwiches. I took some pictures of the scenery there. It was especially pretty since it was sunny outside. And despite the prickly grass, I managed to take a tiny nap in the sun. It was probably the best decision since I couldn't hear let alone understand what everyone else is saying. My language skills hadn't quite reached the point where I could talk about every subject. Of course, they still haven't reached that point but that's ok.

On another day my host family took to me Haguenau. It's pretty much just a tiny village similar to the one in which I'm living. Not quite as big as Strasbourg but still cute. It was also a nice day with the sun out so I got an ice cream. Grapefruit flavored, which made me think of my sister :). It was just the beginning of fall then and the trees were starting to change color. There was a really nice merry-go-round there too. There were some shops around there too but we didn't go into any. We went on a Sunday (I'm pretty sure) so all the shops were closed. That's one annoying thing is that the shops are all closed on Sundays.

So I'm now going to talk about the thing everyone asks me. The language. It's been particularly weird for me since I spoke French before coming here. I would say that I was fluent if it weren't for the fact that I still can't read or write in French very well. But that tends to be the biggest problem. Since I can speak and understand fairly fluently, people think that I can write and read as well as that... But it's not true. I can speak and understand like a child. No wonder I can only read children's books and write like a child. Children are also not expected to take tests on economics... It's annoying because I'm not a normal exchange student. In several ways. Since I speak the language, I'm expected to do everything in class. Because I speak the language, I wasn't taken in (like other exchange students). Because I speak the language, it's like I just transferred schools... And being the new kid is no fun.

Basically I'm getting tired of understanding the language. And school. I've been on vacation up until now but I've got to go back to school tomorrow and that won't be very fun. But the weekends are good so I'm savoring that. Spending time with other exchange students here also rocks. :)

Now that I've mentioned that I was on vacation I feel I should talk about my vacation. So here's what I did:

The first few days I spent mostly with either my host family or other exchange students. One day my host family and I went for a walk in the corn fields (which have started to look less pretty now that they're dying and being chopped down). And we went and visited some horse races. It was free for me and my host sister and she really likes horses so we saw them just for a minute. Another day I went into Strasbourg with the other exchange students and we wandered around, ate grapes, and got shouted at by a drunk homeless guy. We went to a tiny fair thing too and did the BB gun booth thing. And a different day with the exchange students we went to town again and went ice skating. I also tried eating kangaroo for the first time! It was actually really nothing special, sad to say. It tasted like beef. Overcooked beef, at that. But oh well. I also met up with two exchange students in Colmar, a city by here. We took a tour of the city. It's smaller than Strasbourg but it was still pretty. They have a "Petit Venice" which is kind of like "La Petite France" but in Colmar.

And apart from spending time with the exchange students this vacation, I also went to the Alps with my host family. Looking back on it, I feel I probably should have asked my real family before going, but I know they would have said yes anyway (right, mom). It was just from late thursday night until monday morning. We went around and visited some things around there. And it was the French Alps, I'm pretty sure. Nobody actually told me where it was or how we were getting there (basically what countries we would be going through to get there) but I managed to figure out based on my cell phone reception... But that's ok :)

Unfortunately there was no snow so we couldn't ski or anything but we saw the ski village. We also walked around a really nice lake there that was full of ducks and swans (there are really a lot of swans here). One of the other days we went shopping. I didn't find anything but it's still fun to look. And my host sister found some really cute boots.

Our days there tended to be short and calm--as described above. And then the night we watched movies or played poker. It was especially nice since we watched movies on DVD for pretty much the first time. That meant we could choose the language of the sound and subtitles. Most of the time when we watch movies they're downloaded, so even if it was originally an American film, I can't always understand it.

So I should probably talk about the delicious food I had now. The highlights were the tartiflette and fondue. Oh goodness French cheese is delicious. The tartiflette wasn't even homemade and it was incredible. And the fondue was basically melted cheese that we dipped pieces of bread into. It was amazing. I do love French food.

And I just realized that I forgot to talk about my Rotary weekend with the other exchange students. It was the October 16 and 17. We spent the Saturday in Strasbourg visiting. We went to the cathedral and went on a boat ride on the river that cuts through all of the city. We had those headphones on and, of course, put the language on English/Pirate. That was entertaining. From there we went to a youth hostel to spend the night. At the youth hostel we hung out, ate dinner... And eventually a karaoke game thing started up. It was exchange students up against rotex (former exchange students who are back in France). But eventually I went outside to get some of the other students and ended up staying there with them. It was raining and we ended up dancing outside in the rain. Then we ended up shouting at some British guys staying on the floor above us. Then we ran upstairs and joined them until their teacher came out and yelled at them. This was followed by a couple games of air hockey, meeting some other British people--girls this time--and long conversations until 3 in the morning.

The next day we got on the bus and started traveling. We went to a pottery place where we got to see how they make dishes and everything. I spent the whole time translating for everyone. Since the parents of the family I spent my first weekend with were there, they insisted that my French was good and so I could translate. It was hard at first especially with the vocabulary, but it only got easier. At the end we got to pick out what we wanted from the defaults. They were all just plain white porcelain but it was still cool. And since I translated, I got to pick out a special dish. But the dish I got is a surprise :). My parents will just have to wait and see when I get home. And the heavy things I brought back to my host family, I told my host family they could keep. I know that they're big and heavy and would weigh down my suitcase.

From there we went to a village and drove around. A lady described to us the history of the town. It was cool because it's been around for a really long time. It was also one of the only towns there not destroyed in WWII. There, we ate sandwiches for lunch.

After that we went to an underground bunker and had a tour of that. We had a tour guide but I have to admit I didn't listen very much. It was much more interesting just looking around. We took some fun pictures there, though.

From the bunker, we went to a chocolate place. I was picturing a chocolate factory but it was more of a chocolate store. We tested all sorts of different types of chocolates. I have to say they were absolutely DELICIOUS. I also translated again. Except that guy wasn't used to having someone translate for him so he didn't take regular pauses, which made it hard to translate well. Not to mention I don't have an extensive vocabulary, let alone a very good chocolate-term vocabulary. And I didn't get to take home a special box of chocolates for translating :(.

And from there we headed back to Strasbourg. Some people left right after the chocolate factory since they lived nearby but everyone else went to Strasbourg to catch different trains home. On the bus ride to Strasbourg, the girls from India did henna for us. It was really awesome! I still have the faintest traces left on my hand. Once we arrived at Strasbourg and I stepped off the bus, I heard a giant crash behind me. I turned and saw Simon, the Australian, with a box that formerly held dishes, with the bottom open and the smashed dishes on the ground. And, just my luck, I had put my bags of pottery in his box... However I had my special dish in my pocket so it didn't break. Some of my other stuff broke too but less than Simon. On the other hand I knew that my dishes were too heavy and would break through the plastic bags I had them in, so I threw them into Simon's box.

And from there I went home. But it was an awesome weekend.

And that brings me up to the present. I go back to school tomorrow (not exactly looking forward to that). And I'll try and post more often so it doesn't take me quite as long as this to update things. (By the way, I'd like to apologize for both bad grammar and weirdly phrased sentences because my mind isn't working very well in English at this moment.)

Lots of love,

Dori/Camille

Châteaus et Lycées

First off, I'm really very sorry for not posting regularly. School started on the 2nd and since then it's been nothing but work. Hopefully, though, I'll find time in the future to at least post a small update.

So back up to where I left off. When I last wrote I had just started settling in with my first host family. They're admittedly pretty awesome. It took a little getting used to, especially since I had just started getting used to the Lachenauds, but they're really nice. And I especially love it because my host mom's mom has been staying with us from time to time and she's wonderful.

I had a couple days with the family before school started and we spent most of the time going places and trying to get stuff done for the rentré, or the going-back-to-school day. It was mostly filling out forms and going to places to turn in the forms but it was nice.

The first day of school was... typical of an exchange student. First off I arrived late. Not super late but just a minute late. I realized later though that being late was probably a good thing. Mario took me to school and walked in with me. We went to the "Bureau de la vie scolaire" and talked with a guy there. He told me what class I was in and to go wait in the courtyard for them to call my class number. He also told me I could come to him if I needed help, an offer which I have taken up countless times. Mario and I parted ways and I went out into the courtyard. I only knew 2 people who go to the school but neither of them are in my grade so I basically awkwardly stood in the back until my class was called. Being the 5th class didn't help. When my class was finally called I followed the group of kids that assembled at the front and we went into a big classroom.

Again, since I didn't know anyone I was about to sit by myself in the back. But instead I chose to sit next to a random girl I didn't know who had an open seat next to her. We were with Madame Ott, our main teacher. She spent most of the time talking. She explained her system of teaching and all and we filled out a couple of papers. I was pointed out early on by the teacher as the American exchange student. And then of course anytime she mentioned anything that had to do with the US. Which wasn't the greatest since I couldn't always keep track of what she said. But it was better once class finished. All of the new students met at the front and took a tour of the campus. I didn't retain anything from the tour but it was nice getting to meet some of the other new kids.

School had started at 9 and finished at noon. So Mario came and took me home then. We might have gone to meet his dad that day but I don't recall. His dad was nice though.

At home I took a nap. And I think it was that day that I helped Mario make an apple tart. It was quite delicious and super easy to make.

Nothing interesting happened Friday. I had PE and we played badminton. And I packed for the weekend.

The weekend is the interesting part. I went with all the other inbounds in my district and the new Rotex who just got back this summer. We stayed in a chateau (castle) in Belfort. I rode the train with Sharayu (who's from India) to get there. It was really fun riding in the train, not only because Sharayu makes great company, but the countryside was absolutely beautiful and we have nothing like the train in the US. It was the weirdest thing, though. I found it incredibly hard to speak English. Well not particularly hard, but it felt funny for the first 10 minutes or so. Now I find I can make the transition pretty easily since I have English class 4 times a week and I spend a lot of time listening to music in English, but that train ride was difficult.

We eventually arrived in Belfort and met up with two other exchange students, Feggy and Simon. Feggy is from South Korea and Simon is from Australia. They're both really awesome. Feggy goes to my school but unfortunately doesn't speak any French and just a little English. But I've been trying to help him out at school. Simon reminds me of Suraj. For those of you who are reading this but don't know Suraj, that is a shame. Because he is a cool kid.

After a few hours of watching shadows, writing songs, and using large hand motions (and thumbs), the Rotary people finally arrived to pick us up. We drove to the chateau with some other students. We were some of the first at the chateau so we dropped off our stuff in the tent just outside of the chateau and hung out. After a long while all of the other students arrived and we went and chose rooms at the dormitory next to the chateau.

After picking rooms we went to take pictures with everyone with all the flags from the different countries. It was pretty cool. The pictures are on facebook. Then we took individual pictures. From there we basically hung out. We went down to the soccer/basketball court and played soccer with a basketball. For me since I'm not exactly athletic it wasn't exactly ideal but I tried to play anyway. But I recieved no major injuries nor did I injure anyone else. So I consider it as a success.

We were called up to the chateau to eat eventually. I think we had lasagna for dinner. Although not particularly amazing it wasn't quite as interesting as the following meals. After dinner all the inbounds were called upstairs and we had the rules explained to us by what I think might possibly be the scariest French man I have yet to meet.

From there we had free time to do what we wanted until it was time to go to bed. I don't recall the bedtime but I do remember that we had only until 10 to be outside because otherwise the neighbors would complain. At first we all went into the dorms and piled into two different rooms. There, we decided to sneak out. So, at 9 30 when we were still allowed to be outside, we snuck out through the window. Jumped out of the window actually. Which was surprisingly fun. This was followed by an Australian rolling through the grass and games of ninja and big booty. And impersonations of Snoopy (5 of us climbed up on the roof of a small playground house). Then we went inside.

We basically just hung out inside and talked. As well as learning about my fellow exchange students, I also learned about the Australian government. This was interesting needless to say. We went to bed late that night and woke up early. Or at least woke up and stayed awake early. It was so freezing cold at night that I eventually fumbled in the dark for my jacket, zipped it up all the way, put the hood up, and tucked myself into the covers.

Early the next morning we got up and went to go eat breakfast. Breakfast was cereal with cocoa powder. Apparently in the houses where they eat cereal for breakfast they put cocoa powder (or basically chocolate powder since I'm pretty sure there's a difference) in their cereal. I wouldn't know because at my current host family we eat small packaged pastries for breakfast. Which, I might add, are delicious. I much prefer them. During breakfast we discussed literature at our table. After hearing the books that my fellow exchange students have read it not only made me want to go out and read Vonnegut, but only confirmed my suspicions that exchange students are the most incredibly people in the world.

After breakfast we had another meeting upstairs. This time it was a lighter subject. We talked about the trips for the year. This includes not only the trips to Spain and throughout all of Europe, but weekend trips throughout Alsace. I was not aware that there would be trips like these throughout the year so needless to say it was a pleasant surprise.

At some point we packed up and left our stuff in the same tent from before. We went back to the court and played more basketball and soccer but I did not participate this time. Instead I rolled down the hill to the court and got more beat up in those 3 seconds than in hours of playing soccer with the others. Well I only got a little cut on my elbow but it did leave a very tiny scar.

During soccer/basketball most of the people left with different Rotarians. There were Rotarians from every club so they drove all the students home. Being one of the last to leave, I got to stay with the other students. We eventually migrated from the court to the entrance to the chateau, where we threw around a basketball and told jokes.

Being exhausted, I slept on the car ride home. And that was my weekend at the chateau.

Since then my life has consisted mainly of school. For all of you who are wondering, yes school is hard. I've been getting good grades in most of my classes except History-Geography. However, I have my first test in French on Monday so we'll have to see how that goes. History and French are the subjects I understand the least. And Economy, considering the fact I don't understand Economy in English. However, my Life/Earth Science, English, Spanish, and Math classes have been going well. Oh and one class that's basically a class on how to be a citizen but does not translate well to English. But the only reason I've got a good grade in that class is because the only thing we've done was a group response, in which I did not participate at all.

Besides that, it's been all right. Classes consist mainly of dictation and note-taking. It isn't particularly easy for me, but I can kind of manage to follow. I basically copy what my neighbor has written with the intentions of reading it over later to understand it. However I rarely have to time to review my notes with the daily homework I've got. And with the fact that if I don't get to bed before 10 at night I'm dead tired the next day.

Other than that it's going really well. Everyone in my class (I stay with the same class for all classes except language classes) tries to help me when I need it and they're all really nice. And yes, I am starting to make friends :). Outside my exchange student friends that is. Even though it's much harder trying to connect with the French students since they've kind of established their groups, I'm making it work. And speaking French already does help. But I have definitely learned how useful being able to invite myself along can be.

Although now that I think about it I should probably describe school in France. I've gotten used to the differences by now but there are many.

For one thing classes are set up like at a college. Except for the fact that we always stay with the same group of people. I have 4 hours of French a week, 3 hours of Spanish, 3 hours of History-Geography, 4 hours of math, etc. They're at different times each day (though not each week) and in different classrooms. I have a total of 12 different classes. Here are the names (some are in French--sorry but it's easier that way): French, English, Spanish, Math, History-Geography, English Civilizations, Economy, PE, Science de la vie et de la Terre, and Education Civic Justique et Sociale.

I also start and end school at different times every day. A normal school day is from 8 in the morning till 6 at night with an hour for lunch. But most everyone has free hours in between. I start at 9 two or three times a week and I finish at 5 for the most part. Wednesdays are nice though because I end at noon.

To get to school I have to take the train. It's kind of cool but at the same time it's kind of a pain. I get some independence being able to take the train into town when I want but at the same time I have to get up earlier in the morning and when I finish at 5 I have to wait till 6 11 to take the train... But it works for now. And it'll be nice being able to go into town over the weekends. From the train station--which is gorgeous, I might add, I take the tram to get to school. The tram is like a subway system above ground. It's basically the most amazing thing in the world. With it I can pretty much go anywhere in Strasbourg and I have a card that lets me take it 24/7. It's amazing.

That's school in a nutshell. And while there is still much more to write about, I'm going to post this for now so my friends and family back home can have some news about me. And so they don't worry. Because I'm having an incredible time here. Even though I'm missing them all.

A la prochaine.

Champion Champignon

I am now back in my host family's house I'm glad to say. I miss some parts of that house and family, of course; but when I was there I missed parts of my host family and their house so it's sort of a lose-lose situation. But luckily now I'll be hitting my head less on the roof. My count reached about a dozen then I started to lose track. I have to say, crouching to get into a bathroom is something I'm not going to miss.

So over the next few days I've done A LOT. Hopefully I'll be able to remember it all.

The first night I was crazy jet lagged so I slept from 8 at night until noon. I kept waking up in the middle of the night (which I do naturally anyway) but each time I looked at my watch to see what time it was I figured I could sleep longer. By the time I went downstairs it was already time for lunch. I had lunch with Rene and Carine (Lauchenaud--the family that took me in for the weekend). After that, Carine took a nap and then took me out into the city to show me around. While she was napping I was able to type up my last post. In the city, Carine (who was really friendly and nice--as was Rene) took me to all the stores and we browsed around the shops. I looked at all the clothes but didn't buy anything. Partly because I just wanted to see all there was to buy and partly because I wanted to compare prices. I now know the cheapest shops at which to buy clothes. And they're all right next to my school.

(So the French language is sinking in. Which is evident by the fact that I just wrote "there'll" while trying to say "they're all"... But at least I'll be a pro at French once I get back.)

I learned from the day in the city that Hello Kitty is in style, Claire's is popular, and small stripes are in this winter.

Unfortunately that day it was raining like crazy that whole day. About as bad as the worst rains of Washington. At first it was funny though since it was raining softly but no one was willing to walk in the rain. I kind of loved it though. It made me think of Washington. Except then it started raining so hard the shop in which we were closed its doors and those who came in to dry were drenched head to toe.

After the shops, Carine took me to the cathedral. Holy crap that thing is gorgeous. And my words don't even come close to describing it. I hope to post some pictures (if I can figure out how). I didn't get the chance to take pictures of the outside of the cathedral but I have plenty of the inside and I'll take some of the outside eventually. I want to be able to go and visit it again soon.

After the cathedral we drove home. I rested for a while in my room writing in my journal.

Carine took me to her friend's house to meet her friend's daughter, who goes to my school. Her name is Elsa. She was really nice. After sitting around and eating food, she and I went out for a bike ride to an artificial lake in her neighborhood. We sat by the lake and talked for a while. As I said she's super nice so I had a great time. She spoke in English, which I sort of wish she hadn't but she insisted. I still had a good time though. Once we returned to the house we had a bite to eat then went upstairs to watch a French movie. Afterwards Carine and I went home and went straight to bed.

The next day I met Carine's mom, step-dad, her daughter Noemie, and Noemie's boyfriend at lunch. We went out to lunch in the city and it was delicious. I had an Alsatian dish called Bibeleskas. It was basically potatoes with sour cream and stinky cheese. I liked it. A lot. And it was fun to try something new and classically Alsation apparently.

After the afternoon's rest (there's a lot of resting done here), Matilda, the daughter of the family I was staying with, and I went to the zoo next door to take their dog for a walk. It's a public zoo and the sad thing is it looked about as bad as the zoo I live next to. It wasn't too bad I just felt bad for all the animals since the exhibits weren't very nice.

That night we had dinner at home and afterwards we all sat around and watched a TV show kind of like America's Funniest Home Video except it was all clips of people on live TV unable to stop laughing. Most of them were because of language mistakes that I didn't understand. It was funny anyways.

The next day Rene took me out to go hunting for mushrooms. For almost an hour we drove way out into the countryside and the mountains. We ventured into the forest and wandered around for two and a half hours searching for mushrooms. Personally I dislike eating mushrooms but it was fun regardless. I learned that the red ones with white spots are poisonous and the yellow-orange ones are the best kind (girond? I think they're called?). I found the biggest one of all the people, despite the fact I barely got anything else. I spent most of my time wondering if the mushrooms I passed were poisonous or not. I decided to venture on the safe side and leave the ones I was unsure about. But since I found the biggest one, I was effectively the champion. In French the "champion champignon".

I left their house that night. I'm back in the Schmitt house now. We spent today in the city. They showed me how to use the Tram and how to get to my school and all. I talked to the principal of the school about my classes and how everything works. I'm far less nervous about school now. And now we're going to go to the house of my host parents' friends so I'm afraid I have to leave. I'm sure I'll have even more to write about next week once I start school. (It starts Thursday). But for now, au revoir.

First Days of France

So I'm here! For those of you who are wondering, I'm safe and sound. Things have been a little different since my host mom's father passed away and so I'm staying with a member of the rotary while they take care of the funeral and such. However my host family seems incredibly nice. But I've gotten ahead of myself; time to backtrack.

Back to the beginning.

Saying goodbye was hard especially with my parents. I flew into Philadelphia with Jericho, who's from Alaska. Unfortunately we couldn't sit together but we got to hang out at the airport so that was nice. The flight to Philadelphia was uneventful except for the person I was sitting next to talked to me for so long my neck hurt from turning my head to the side. I got some sleep on the plane but not much.

At the Philadelphia airport we met up with the other Rotary students with whom we were flying. I went with the students from the west coast to get food since I already knew them from the San Francisco trip. On the plane I didn't get to sit next to any of the rotary students. The TV mounted on the seat in front of me was also broken. A few seconds into trying to watch Date Night, it froze and didn't unfreeze for the next hour, even when the flight attendant reset it. She was really nice though and let me move to an open seat that had a working TV. There, I watched Date Night, 500 Days of Summer, and part of an episode of Bones. It was then that I realized I was sitting next to Jericho. But since we were about to land I switched  back to my other seat. It was closer to my backpack in the overhead compartment.

I had a 6hour layover at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport but it felt much shorter than that. We split up with most of the kids staying in the Paris area and all the students going to the same gate stayed together. At our gate area I went off with two other students to get a quick lunch. After that we took a nap on the floor. Countless people stared at us as they passed but we were all so jetlagged we couldn't have cared less. At some point another student from India arrived but I must have been asleep then. She was on our flight too. Everyone on our flight rushed off as soon as they started boarding since they didn't post the gate until it was time to board.

The flight to Strasbourg was fast--only an hour long. I met up with my host family at the airport. Right off the bat they seemed really really nice and that impression has remained the more I've gotten to know them. However as I explained earlier I'm staying with a different family for the weekend. It's almost better this way though because since they're rotary they're helping me figure a lot of the particulars that I wasn't aware of before. So if anyone who is going to France on a Rotary exchange is reading this just so you know you should talk to someone in Rotary about setting up a bank account. The family I'm with right now has a daughter who works at a bank and so is helping me set up an account so they rotary can put my allowance there. She's also going to help me get a French SIM card and since I'm doing this with my Rotary club and all my temporary host dad is going to pretty much make sure the Rotary is going to pay for my phone bill zhich he says they should do anyways. So it's all pretty convenient. My current host mom is also taking me to visit one of her friends who has a daughter going to the same school as me.

So that's about it for the story part of this blog. Now it's time for all that's different.

I suppose one of the first things I should talk about is the keyboards since I've got one right in front of me. For one thing it's taken me the better part of an hour to type this up and only now has my speed increased. There are far more keys for punctuation here since they need ones for letters with accents. I hope to post a picture at some point but basically the top row of number keys looks like this instead &é"'(-è_çà) so that explains some of my confusion. I also have to use the shift to get a period. Where the w normally is there is an a and where the a normally is there's a q. To show you how different it is, if I were to try typing The quick fox jumps over the lazy dog on this keyboard the way you would on an American one it would look like this: The auick fox ju,ps over the lqwy dog: To put it simply typing is difficult.

Everything here is smaller. The village in which I'll be living is really small, probably the size of downtown Issaquah at the most. Everything seems very consolidated though. Even to the point where the cars are smaller (I have yet to see a 7 person car) and they only have one plug per outlet. I'm living on the top floor of both host families so the ceiling is slanted in both rooms. I have to crouch to get into the bathroom. I have also hit my head on the ceiling twice and once on the bottom of a desk.

While I'm in the city now and my host family lives in a little village just outside of the city, both houses are very wood-based if that makes any sense. They both also have very narroz stairways that aren't big enough for two people to walk side by side comfortably. I know for sure the house in the village is double timbered (I think that's the word for it) but I don't think this one is. The house I'm in now is much larger than my other one but I think I like the other one better. They have a very Asian/African influence to their home if that makes any sense. My bedroom has Buddhas all over the place and there are African masks up on the walls. There are a lot of orange and brown colors as opposed to the white and green colors here. Both houses creak though. There's practically no carpet except in a few rooms in this house, none in my host family's house. There's carpet in my room here but it's thin and not soft at all. So EVERYWHERE I go I feel like they can hear it.

I've learned that it's impolite to keep your hands in your lap during meals. I have yet to get rid of my reflex of sitting on my hands or keeping them in my lap.

Speaking of reflexes, money is handled differently in France. As I discovered at the airport (and possibly read in my French culture book) you're supposed to put the money down on a mat in front of the cashier, as I did, following the actions of the man in front of me. Then they put their change on the same mat and you take it from there. I put my hand out though of course, by reflex.

Everyone has a dog. I had read that in my book but of course it's hard to tell from a book what is true and what is assumed or simply out of date. In this matter though it's true. My host family has a dog, as does the family with whom I am staying now. I also went on a with my host sister Marilou (I stayed with my host family for a few hours to pack a small suitcase for the weekend and have a small snack) and there were too many dogs there to count. Their dog Sam wasn't interested in many of the other dogs which was nice but one barked at her and started a chain of barking that traveled to at least half a dozen other houses, which goes to show how many dogs there are here.

Waking up this morning was weird. For one thing I went to bed at 8 and woke up at noon. Sleeping in so much probably wasn't wise but I couldn't help it; I was so tired. I'm still tired though so hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight. I woke up countless times during the night though and the first time I was so disoriented it was crazy. For one thing, my bed at home is in the opposite corner so I expected the room to be where the wall was and vice versa. I had also dreamt about both being in France and going to school for my junior year. In one dream someone came into my room here and told me I should put all the clothes that were in my host family's closet into the plastic bags you get when you get your clothes from the cleaners'. In my other dream I had forgotten to do an assignment in Mr Baynes' math class from last year and since I was in his math class junior year he needed to check that I did it. It was odd. So I half-expected to be home and half-expected to be here when I woke up in the middle of the night.

It's also really hot here now. Like around the 90's. So I'm dying of heat but I really don't want to be the only one wearing shorts since no one I've come across except the daughter here is wearing shorts.

It sounds weird but the toilets here are different. They have practically no water in them and they seem smaller and really deep. The stalls in the airport were different too. Their locks had the thing outside of them that changed to red when it was closed so you could tell if it was free or not. It seems to me that all our bathrooms should have those here. It'd save the awkwardness of uncertainly testing doors and everything.

Speaking of locks, both bedrooms I've been in have locks but they aren't on the doorknob, they have actual keys and locks. The doors also don't fit snugly into the doorframes. They come to the very edge of the doorframe and close like that. It's far more airtight that way but it' hard for me to tell when a door is closed or not.

Well despite how long that post was I'm positive there are things I've forgotten that I'll have to add later. But goodbye for now.

Au revoir.

Preparations

As the date of my departure approaches, I'm making more and more preparations. I spent most of yesterday saying goodbye to the relatives I would not be seeing for a year. Being part of a large extended family that is very close, I found saying goodbye to be hard. While much of my family I see rarely--only at our family Christmas party and Summer Picnic Reunion--I still love them. And I'll still miss them.

And then there are my friends. My friends who I see daily during the school year. That's going to be harder. I said goodbye to many of them Saturday at my small going-away party. But since most of my friends couldn't make it, I'll be seeing them at a movie in the park on Tuesday night. I'm glad to be able to see them one last time, but I'm sad to see them go. However, for every sad feeling I have from not being able to see my friends for a year, I have a dozen feelings of excitement for next year. I can't wait to get going. (No offense to my friends of course.)

In fact, I've just finished packing. My one suitcase is under the limit of 50 pounds (by a pound) and I have stuffed my backpack and purse to the brim with the heavy items I couldn't pack in my suitcase. Mostly books. And journals. I have made it my mission to write in my journal daily. A mission which I managed to keep up for about a week before finding myself too busy. One of the hardest decisions I had to make was figuring out which books to bring. I eventually settled on the classics: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, The Da Vinci Code, and The Secret Life of Bees. And my French-English dictionary, of course. I don't think I'll be reading much in France but I have quite a long plane ride to get there...

Speaking of my plane ride, I leave in two days. Today is my second to last day here for a year. This is still hard to believe. I can't wait to finally be there.

Other than that, there is very little to report. I went to a rotary event on Friday which was a lot of fun. I hope to see everyone I met there once I get back. However, there was one thing which a rotary member said that really stuck out to me. He said, "This is as close as it gets to world peace." I have to admit, that feels pretty cool. So I want to thank everyone who is involved with rotary and exchanges and even the people following this blog. Because it's bringing us all one step closer to world peace (as dorky as it may sound). It's allowing us all to understand someone who's different than we are and doing that really does make a difference. Because as the same rotary member said, "It's hard to make war with someone you hug".

San Francisco

For those of you who don't know, this blog is going to be about my foreign exchange from 2010-2011. I'm going to be spending a year in France through the Rotary club of Issaquah. I will be spending the year in the east of France in the region called Alsace. I'll be living just outside the city of Strasbourg and going to school in Strasbourg at the Gymnase Jean Sturm. I'm incredibly excited for this!

As most everyone knows, I went to San Francisco two weeks ago to go to the French consulate and get my visa. While it seemed annoying at the time to have to appear in person at the consulate it was a wonderful trip. I got to meet some absolutely amazing people that I hope to see again in the future. I also got the chance to explore San Francisco. I had thought before that it would be a fairly long trip involving sitting in the consulate for a long time, but we ended up spending about an hour and a half in the consulate. From there, we tried to take a cable car to Giradelli Square, but since it couldn't go directly there, we took one cable car and then rode in three different cabs to get to the square. At the square we go ice cream and sundaes and such and they were absolutely delicious. Ed, the head travel agent, got us all these San Francisco souvenir boxes of chocolate squares, which was really sweet.

From Giradelli Square we walked to the waterfront and shopped for a while. There was a really cool street performer there playing a guitar, the harmonica, singing, and playing the drums and a cymbal with his legs. I did very little shopping since I want to shop in France, but it was hard to resist. From there we walked to a hotel and ended up taking a limo to the airport, rather than a car to the transit to take the airport. We decided it would be cheaper to just take a single car to the airport rather than all 11 of us going on the transit. And the limo was the only car big enough to hold all 11 of us.

Most of us split up at the airport. Mele, Emily, Ed, Jericho, Alex, and I took a plane to Seattle. I sat next to Alex on the way there and it was really great :). I slept for part of the time, though, since I was so exhausted. It was a crazy busy day. It felt more like a week than it felt like a day.

It was really fun and everything is set for France now. I'm just finalizing ticket requests and everything now. I should start packing in the next week or so! :)

Thanks for reading!