So as everyone knows Christmas was just two days ago. This Christmas was especially strange for me because it was the first one I've ever spent without my family and the first one I've ever spent in France.  So obviously even in western culture, there's going to be a difference on how each country celebrates Christmas, and that difference further divides by region of that country and eventually by family. So that means this French Christmas blog will be about how I spent my French Christmas, chez Roux, Satillieu, Rhône-Alpes, France, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy, The Universe. If I missed any details about that address just let me know. Unfortunately the majority of what means Christmas to me doesn't happen in France, or at least where I am. So that means no waking up early to open presents, have breakfast and watching a christmas movie, which would most likely be the Grinch. Instead I woke up at around probably 10am and did absolutely nothing Christmas related until about 5pm, except for watching a few christmas movies on the TV which my host mom so aptly called "conneries" and/or bullshit, ha! At around 5pm we started preparing the appetizers which consisted of Salmon Roe (salmon eggs) and some other kind of fish eggs, various savory puff pastries, and of course  Boudin Blanc and Boudin Noir. Also everyone dressed up nicely even though we were all at home and no one came over, it was just us. I thought it was kind of weird.

The fish eggs were absolutely terrible and evil and gross in my opinion. It tasted of really fishy fish and dead babies. Not only that but the texture was terrible and each egg popped inside of your mouth as you ate it which in turn released more of the fishy fish/dead baby flavor. The puff pastries were really good and consisted of kiche with escargot, pizza, pigs in a blanket, and some other stuff that I forgot about. The Boudin Blanc and Boudin Noir are sausages and in spite of sharing similar names, are quite different. The boudin blanc is white and is just made of pork and sometimes includes gross things such as livers and hearts but I guess not always and its actually pretty good. The boudin noir is a blood sausage and therefore I have no idea how it tastes because I am not that adventurous and I don't want to eat blood. To accompany the appetizers we had rosé champagne, fake champagne and cherry coke, of which I tried everything and it was all good, haha.

For the main course we had raclette, which is basically potatoes, various forms of charcuterie (sausages and the like) and the raclette cheese. Apparently the name for this dish and the cheese is the same. By the way this cheese smells SO bad but it tastes really good. So what this consists of is your potato, your meat, the cheese and a device in the middle of the table which melts the cheese. You put the cheese in a little triangle shaped thing and then the triangle into this device which is kinda like a grill, and then your cheese melts. Once your cheese is melted you scrape it out of the triangle with a wooden scraper thing and onto your potatoes and meat. And then you repeat until your done. The one thing I really don't like about this dish is that the cheese used is so fatty! Like when you melt it, there is also some melted fat next to the cheese. We also had really cool rolls that had each of our names written on them which turned out to be written with cocoa power mixed with water on the prebaked dough. We didn't end up eating them (I didn't really want to anyway, because its not everyday you get a piece of bread with your name on it) and frankly I have no idea where they went.

For the dessert which we for some reason ate the next day for lunch (I guess we forgot? idk) it was a Buche de Noel which probably every French family eats for Christmas Dessert. Basically its a cake that is made to look like a log and traditionally it was accompanied by little meringue mushrooms but I guess they don't do that anymore. To make the log shape, what's basically done is they bake a really thin sponge cake, put the filling inside and then roll it up and apply icing which is then made to look like bark, sort of. Sometimes there are extra features, such as a branch or something added on to the log but not always.

French Christmas Tree + Presents

After we finished our meal, it was time for presents. That was pretty much the same as it is in the US except it was like 9PM. I am happy to report that I got everyone a present and everyone seemed to like what I got them. Which if you know me, I'm not always the best at giving gifts. Ok, I suck at it, but at least I own up to it. And I promise that for Christmas 2013 I'll at least try to give gifts, maybe. I guess I've always sucked at it because I always felt that getting gifts would be this terribly hard and frusturating thing to do, but in reality it isn't at all. I guess my fear of "what the fuck am I gonna do if I got them nothing and they got me something?" overwhelmed my misconstrued conception of buying gifts. Anyway, that kind of wraps up my french christmas experience. My next post will probably be about new years. Happy Holidays!

So this isn't really a post or even original content but I just have to post this because I believe it 100% accurately sums up what an exchange actually means. So without further ado... 

Exchange Students: 

Its going to be awkward when we aren't the foreign kid anymore when we go home,

nor will they care about us being exchange students. 

For a month they might comment on it, 

but our awesome stories will be forgotten to them, 

we will fade in with the others at school.

Family gatherings might bring it up or the curious teacher,

but our eventful life will be forgotten, 

except to us. 

The way we live from the day we return is influenced by our host country, 

with our self esteem boosted, amazing confidence, worldly humor,

and all our barriers broken. 

They may not see it but we will always be exchange students,

kids who actually grew up and saw the world. 

I would give credit to whoever wrote this awesome quote, but there wasn't anything to give credit to. So. 

Yet another little semester thing comes to a close here in France, which means that I've been here for about 3.5 months. Time here is flying faster and faster every single day, I honestly can't believe it. In just two more weeks, I will be here for four months! Definitely a lot has happened in the past 6 weeks (since the last vacation) so I'm going to try to summarize all that up here. So my French has definitely improved a lot! Except whenever I have to talk to someone to order food or something like that. I don't know why, maybe nerves or something. Even though I speak better and can say what I want without having to think most of the time, my vocabulary is still hopelessly small and I'm just starting to get used to using the conditional tenses (would, should, will, etc) which are a lot harder in French than in English. Also when I think back to how I spoke a month ago, I only see minor improvements, not major improvements like in other months which kind of scares me. Going at this rate I have no idea how I'm supposed to become sufficient and/or fluent in French by July. I know tons of AFSers have taken a fluency test in which you can take around April (I think) and totally passed, but I can't see my self doing that. Maybe I should ask someone who has already done this. That's probably a good idea.

Something really sad also happened in the last six weeks. One of my best french friends moved away! Which was totally a bummer and unnecessary in my opinion. Also I've been teaching random French people how to swear in English (besides the obvious words, obviously) which always turns out to be super fun because then I learn their French equivalents and everybody freaks out when I use them. Like yesterdat for example I used connasse which roughly translates to bitch and/or stupid bitch, to which my friend replied "Omg! Who taught you that?" (in French, obviously) To which I replied "you." Also another thing happening at school is that a new building where all our classes will be after the vacations was just recently finished and everyone is freaking the F*CK out. I don't really get why, its just a new building. But its a very interesting building for a school because its all harsh black, whites, cement and glass. In the words of my friend Alexia "C'est trop design. C'est comme une musée" (google translate, folks.) So of course that really just means that I'm going to spend all January and probably most of February trying to find out where just exactly my classes are, and I just got used to the old building fml. 

Of course things other than school have happened in these past six weeks! I went to Lyon with AFS for one, and you can read about that by scrolling down the page some more. Last weekend I went to Lyon again, but this time just with another exchange student (shout out: Svana) which means that we just went there alone. Gasp! We also met up with Isabela, another exchange student. It was actually quite simple to get into the city because France's bus system doesn't confuse me. So anyway around 10:15 Svana and I get on the bus and for the next like 30 minutes we sit there listening to the bus driver revving the engine with nothing happening. And then out of nowhere Svana sings an Icelandic go bus driver song and about a few seconds after she starts singing it, the bus starts moving. Thank you Icelandic magic. We got to Lyon around 12pm, ate lunch and basically shopped at the mall there (which is pretty big) until 6:30pm. Of course We took a train home, which was like a ghetto version of the Harry Potter train.

Anyway, since yesterday was the last day before vacations and more importantly, Christmas the school had like a concert thing. It was very n'importe de quoi and the room was hot and smelt like sweaty adolescents ew. So needless to say, I didn't really spend that much time there. The was also les repas de noël which everyone said was super amazing (but really, when is school food that good?) but it actually kinda sucked. The buche de noel was frozen, foie gras tasted like... poor exploded bird liver, the meat was either a choice between chicken stuffed with weird things, wild boar, or fish. So everyone agreed that les repas de noël this year were terrible compared past years. Whatever. The other day my host sister was brain storming on what we would be eating for our actual Christmas meal this year and she came up with foie gras, salmon, either deer/wild boar, among other things. I hope we don't eat deer though.

Anyway, thats kind of my life in a nutshell of the past six weeks. I hope everyone has a great christmas. I miss you guys!!

So yesterday, I finally got to leave French hickland and go to civilization! Wooo. So I woke up at about 7am.. on a saturday so I could make it in time for the train at 9. Since I live in the middle of nowhere the train station is just like a hut with some train tracks in front of it and of course its like minus a million degrees and windy and everybody is freezing. So we finally get on the train, reconnect with the other exchange students who live in our area but are too far away to see on a regular basis and generally annoy the old people by talking. Luckily the train ride is only like 30 minutes tops and then we all get off the train (duh) and are informed that we have an hour and a half hours to go to the mall! Thank god. I was  kind of expecting the mall to be super small (since the only other mall I've been to in France was small) but it wasn't! It was like 4 stories (3, if you're French/another nationality. You guys count floor levels stupidly) and had lots of stores and even an H&M where the clothes had US sizes on them. The sizes here confuse me because sometimes they're in centimeters but usually they're just in numbers that seem to start at around 30, and its impossible to find an online converter! I found something and it said to subtract 10 from the weird European sizes to get your American size, which I don't believe that because I'm definitely not small enough to wear a US size 28. Anyway, we're all at the mall for like an hour and a half and the only thing I bought was a chicken curry sandwich, which is kind of depressing.

(Square with the ferris wheel. Disregard Kamila and Carissa hahah)

After that we took the metro to some square (the subways in Lyon are fast by the way!) where there was a really big ferris wheel that I really wanted to go on but it was 10 euro. We were then informed that we will be going to the marché de noël (Christmas market) where there are things to buy and things to eat. (Watch out though, the food stands are hidden and I'm pretty sure they move around a lot) I ended up buying what was basically a French (Alsacien actually) baked potato with Isa and Bea aka my favorite Brazilians. haha! And I bought a dream catcher from a Québécoise lady, and I actually understood her accent. Woohoo! People from Quebec tend to have really strange and hard to understand accents by the way. I also bought a giant waffle, a hot chocolate and hot orange juice. It was cold! So after the marché du noël we started our journey to the top of a giant hill (mountain) where there is a Basilica called La Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourvière. Its actually pretty beautiful on the inside and out, even though they're doing renovations on the inside and in my opinion is prettier than the Notre Dame in Paris.

So before I continue, I'm going to explain to you why there is a light festival, etc. So the hill that this basilica is on is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and apparently the Virgin Mary has saved Lyon multiple times (from the Plague, Cholera and invading Prussian armies) so every 8th December everyone lights candles in their windows and there are light shows to honor the Virgin Mary. Voilà.

The Basilica 

After we did a little tour of the church, we all got coffees/teas/hot drinks etc and I made the mistake of telling some guy who I guess was a volunteer for the church that I wasn't religious. Woops. If I would've known he was a church guy I probably would've just said "Praise Jesus!" but I didn't because he was in plainclothes and I didn't even hear what the first thing he said to me was. So here's our conversation as follows:

him "jkjasd sdask sadjka ?" (probably will you except Jesus as your savoir)
Me "Pardon?"
him "What languages do you speak? and are you religious?"
Me " I speak french and english, and no why?"
him ":O! You need to believe in God, we're not alone... hasdjaskl. (I zoned out btw)"
him " (after like 10 minutes) here take these bible versus. Bye!"

So that was really annoying. After that ordeal we all went back down the hill (mountain) and stumbled upon a band playing some music in front of yet another church. We ended up dancing to them, which if you know me I don't usually dance. so yeah. By that time it was starting to get dark which means all the light shows were starting and which also means all of Europe somehow crammed themselves into Lyon. Because of this we all had to hold hands while walking through these giant crowds, which was a good idea because if we didn't we'd all probably still be in Lyon, lost and looking for where everybody else went. While the holding hand thing was good for us, it was annoying to everybody else as we created a moving wall of people, probably about 15 people long that prevented the others from walking in different directions than us, which pissed them off. I thought it was funny.

This light shows were pretty awesome by the way, and the involved some kind of projector thing projecting light show thingies on the buildings around us. The awesome thing about it was that the images that were projected onto the buildings matched like the windows, columns, and other architectural features so they could change the whole look of the building, make it look all stained glass or like on fire or like it was melting, etc. I have videos which I'll probably upload at a later date. (if I can. I just tried to and it said like two days remaining. fml)

So by this time we've all been standing/walking around for like the entire day and its decided that we go searching for something to eat, and of course every place is like packed, blah, blah, blah. So we keep searching and searching and searching but I think I'm the only person who realized that if we just stayed at one restaurant/food stand and waited we probably would of eaten about three hours before we did. So eventually we went back to the marché du noël where we all bought stuff to eat. I bought a hot dog, which instead of a role there was a baguette so that was interesting. So after we ate we just went to the train station and waited for about an hour and sat down for like the first time the entire day. I'm actually extremely surprised that my legs didn't pop out of their sockets and die. My right ankle still hurts. So of course we get on the train and there are like three billion people which means no seats for the majority of the trip and I ended up falling asleep standing up, which I'm pretty sure is a first for me. After the train arrived at the station at like 12:30AM I got driven home and finally got to sleep at around 1AM.

So to sum yesterday up in one word, it was amazing! Even though it was freezing and my legs almost fell off.

You know, its really amazing how when you move to a foreign country you expect to learn boatloads about the culture, the people, and the language. But you really end up learning about yourself more than anything. Living a whole ocean away from everything and everyone you've ever known forces your life into a clear perspective. As the time goes by, I realize more and more just how much my friends and family really mean to me. They help form the foundation of who I am, and it certainly has been unsettling living without them for the past 3 months (although it feels like a lifetime!) You also learn just how capable you are as a person. It definitely isn't easy changing countries, friends, schools, languages and even your family for an entire 10 months. And sometimes I don't know if it was the most sane decision I've ever made, because who in their right mind would want to do this?

Even though things like homesickness, shyness, and the inability to communicate fade over time, what never fades is how hard doing this really is. Sure, you think that after a few months its gotten way easier, but in reality its just you who has become a stronger, more confident person and therefore you are now able to deal with the hardships a million times easier. (Also doesn't hurt that your language skills have probably improve a lot) As I look back at these past three months and think about how quickly they've past, I also think about how much I've changed. Sure, I'm still the same person, I still have the same values, sense of humor, likes and dislikes, etc but what's changed is my ability to handle myself. When I think of who I was mentally and maturity wise in September, the first word that comes to my mind is baby.

Its kind of crazy in fact, because three months ago I already thought of myself as pretty mature in just about every way. Boy, how wrong I was. Before-France me definitely couldn't handle an average week that the me I am now can. I honestly don't understand how I managed to make it through the first month. The only thing I can think of is how ashamed I would feel if I ended up going back home after just a few weeks.

So anyway, enough with the feelings stuff. I just had to get that out of my system, and now that I've addressed you, my wonderful family and friends and how you mean so much to me. Well now that I think of it, most of my friends pretty much are my family, so my wonderful family, its time to talk about me. For the past week or so I've had an annoying as butt cold, like the kind of cold where it makes you cough so much that you almost throw up in your Italian class. Granted its almost over but my nose refuses to stop getting runny. I hate runny noses and even worse, I'm starting to get low on moisturized tissues. Having to used non-moisturized tissues is definitely in my top ten list of things I dislike the most. (was that a diva moment? probably)

Also, my grades in school are starting to get a little better! The other day in history I received an 8/12 for a paper thingy where I answered questions about Feminism and Socialism in West and East Germany! Wooooo. Actually my actually grades were 5.5/7 on my content and like 1/5 for how I wrote it. Which does that make sense to anyone? Because it doesn't to me, my teacher said she didn't like the "format" or whatever. So somehow those two grades fused to become an 8/12. On another note, its getting dangerously close to Christmas! Which is so nerve-wracking, like how is that gonna work? It just feels weird and super awkward that I'll be spending Christmas with another family, I guess. And I have no idea what to get anyone for gifts! (or where) Nor do I really have the time, but I'm hoping to force in some shopping while I'm in Lyon this Saturday, because according to some people there's a mall there. I have my suspicions about that though.

 By the way, I'm going to go to Lyon this saturday to see la fête des lumières ! (light festival) which I'm pretty sure involves people putting candles in their windows to honor a saint or something. Which is weird because only 3% of the population here is actually religious. But whatever. Also if you haven't noticed/ or been stalking my facebook recently I lost like 17lbs since I came here without even trying and eating bread at the same time. So needless to say, I don't really believe in diets so much anymore. I'd say that a diet is necessary if you're like 400lbs, but if you just are like 20-40lbs overweight you probably just need to get off your ass. (Although smaller portions help too!) So what I'm basically saying is that my vanity will probably force me to stay in Europe haha! Because its almost impossible to have the "walk down the street to go (insert place here) lifestyle" in the US. Its cars 24/7! Its kind of weird because I barely use cars here! Mostly public transport/my feet. I feel like the only place I could recreate that walk wherever lifestyle would be somewhere like Philly/NYC/Chicago, etc. And I don't know if I really want to live in a big city.

Even though I really don't want this to end, I kind of do want it to end. Mainly because I'll be 18 when I get home! woo! That means I can do whatever I want, as long as its law-abiding and I have the resources to do it. But lets face it, I'll probably end up going to NACC for the next two years like every other loser instead of actually doing something interesting. Or I could still end up applying for cooking school, I honestly have no idea. Because I want to do it, but I don't at the same time. So yeah, someone help me figure out my life before I get home! haha. But its just so me to make up my mind and then change it at the last minute. Bad idea.

So yeah, I'm done babbling. I might post something after my Lyon trip though!

So the other day I thought of writing a post about French Stereotypes and whether or not they're true. Because that's totally original, right? Also because I'm too lazy to write about my personal life at the moment. Anyway, without further ado, here's the list of French stereotypes I've come up with, and whether or not in my opinion and with my experiences they're true or not.

1st, French people smell bad (False... mostly) I'm not sure exactly where or when this stereotype started but I'm pretty sure it was probably during the summer. I'm only saying this because the French for some reason refuse to use air conditioning pretty much everywhere except the supermarket, which can make just about anyone smell bad, French or not. (Especially me) Also, for whatever reason things with scents/tastes (deodorant, gum, etc) seem not to last that long here. My deodorant says 48hrs protection, but I can tell you from experience it definitely won't keep you from smelling bad for a whole 48hrs.  Anyway the smelling bad isn't really a problem since (just like in the US... omg) people bathe daily here. Although I do have my doubts about this one guy in my class who smells like ass and cigarettes all the time, but whatever.

2nd, French people smoke... A LOT (True, unfortunately) Holy crap do French people smoke a lot. Its totally gross and annoying if you happen to enjoy breathing. There aren't that many no smoking areas here in France and even when there are, people don't always listen. If you ever happen upon a french lycée (high school) I'd advise you to not breathe until inside the building, because there's usually about half the school outside (including teachers) smoking. And just about every one of all ages smokes too and everyone is just totally fine with it. I've even seen middle schoolers smoking, its kind of sad. That being said, I have no idea how the majority of people here aren't dying of lung cancer and how the life expectancy is 85yrs. (its probably that damned universal health care they have over here. Commies.)

3rd, French people are rude assholes (99.9% False) From what I can understand is that the whole rude French person stereotype pretty much stems from foreigners going to France but not really respecting the whole French culture, which admittedly can be a little ridiculous when it comes to politeness but whatever. When in Rome, do what the Romans do. If anyone is wanting to come to France definitely at least learn "Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais ?" (Hello, do you speak English?) instead of just bombarding some poor French person with English right off the bat. And always ALWAYS ALWAYS say hello before starting a conversation with someone. (by the way saying Hello in France also always consists of the cheek kisses (bisous) or a handshake) In my experience the only people who have fit the whole rude French stereotype was some bitchy lady at the French Embassy and a few of the Parisians.

4th, French people detest Americans (100% False) Seriously I don't know where this stereotype comes from, but seriously its like America crazy over here. Its kind of ridiculous. Probably 90% of my school has at least one article of clothing, or a bag, or a phone case or something with the American flag plastered all over it. Literally no one has been mean to me because I'm from the US, and in fact no one has been mean at all really. I normally get three responses when people find out I'm from the US and they are as follows "okay", "oh, that's cool/awesome! do you live near New York/Los Angeles?" and of course "OMG WTF REALLY?! you're so lucky to be American!!!!!111 HAHAHAhahha"  Unfortunately that last one only happened about once or twice. Although, weirdly enough some people over here have insisted that I don't speak English, I actually speak "American".

5th, French people eat alotta bread and cheese, and drink alotta wine (True) - This one is completely 100% true, but is that a bad thing really? Nope, not in my opinion. And since the bread here is magic it won't make you feel gross and bloaty and it won't make you gain 10lbs by eating a piece (or several). Woohoo!

So that's pretty much it I guess. I know I left out the French people eating a lot of butter, and I can tell you (at least in my area) almost no one eats it. In fact, I had butter once so far in my almost three months of being here and that was when I made pancakes. Anyway, what I really hope is that if you can take one piece of wisdom from this blog post, its that stereotypes are annoying, mostly false, and should be done away with. Its true that there are reasons that stereotypes exist, but those reasons are generally exaggerated and probably not even relevant in everyday modern life. And if you ever, ever, ever, ever visit a foreign country don't have any expectations as to what its (or the people) are going to be like and at least learn a few phrases in the local language, you'll be surprised how much nicer and more helpful people are when you at least try to respect their languages/culture! :)

So since Friday evening, the 26th of October I've been on vacation. Which is a much welcome break from the tedious cycle of wake up-school-home-sleep. I totally hate that. Anyway AFS shipped me off to another family for the vacation. Why? Apparently because my host parents work even more during the vacations than usual, but I have a suspicion its because they think I haven't made friends yet or something. And I was also told I was only going for four days, but I ended up staying a week and a half so I'm not sure how that changed either, especially because I had confirmed plans for after the four days were up. So, whatever I guess. Anyway in the end I guess it wasn't all that bad because I enjoyed my stay. Mainly because I didn't have a bedtime and I could pee in the night without waking up everyone.

Anyway, so Sunday the 28th was when I left for le Cap d'Agde which is a beach town in the south of France, it was nice but it was also October so it wasn't as nice as it could be. Like it was cold, windy and rainy for at least two of the four days that I was there, and 90% of everything was closed. But I'm pretty sure it would be pretty awesome to go there during the summer, or maybe not awesome. I don't know, because apparently this place is also the biggest nudist destination in all of Europe. And of course I'm the only person in the entire world who would be unwittingly brought to a popular nudist destination. Now, remember it was October so it was cold, and I wasn't in the part of the town that is nudist, but for reasons I did go there. So I was staying with another AFS family in the grand-parent's apartment and for whatever reason the neighbors decided to renovate their whole apartment at once, or something. But like from 9am to 6pm it was just bangs, and drilling and annoying noises. So because we're in France, the grand-parents just happened to own an apartment in the nudist part of the town (its kind of like its own village) to "earn more money" where I believe, its sort of technically mandatory to be nude. But don't quote me on that.

It was kind of hilarious because Sophie, the mother of the family took me and her son, who speaks English sort of (its probably on the same level of my french abilities) to explain to me where we were going. It was so hilarious because you just had to be there. So anyway she explained it to me, and basically said I might see something, but probably not since there's not a lot of people there at the moment. So we get there and for like the longest time watch Malcolm in the Middle, because its always on TV here and I'm starting to hate everything about it. Its so terrible, and meanwhile I was also thinking about how many gross nude butts have probably sat in the same chair as this before. So eventually everyone got tired of Malcolm in the Middle about three hours after I did and we all decided to go for a walk on the beach, which was pleasant enough since it was actually nice out this day. Well anyway to conclude this story I did eventually see about three naked people, and it was gross.

OH, but the most surprising thing about this is that its a "family" nudist place, which is kind of weird but I'm in Europe so that explains everything.
Besides that I'm pretty sure I ate raw shrimps, which was kind of gross but not really at the same time. They weren't all weird and gray looking like the ones you could find in the US, but they were pink. I'm assuming it was because they were very recently caught. Also while I'm taking about food, for this first time I had fish, that wasn't deepfried, that I actually really liked! And didn't taste like the Delaware River. And on a sad note, I only saw three kids trick or treating. In the rain. I don't understand why they don't really do Halloween stuff here, they need to get over themselves and stop caring whether its too "American" or "Pagan". You know what it is, French people? Fun, that's what it is.

So besides that I haven't done a whole lot during my vacation, but oh I made crêpes! Which I'm pretty sure everyone knows what those are, and if you don't: Google it. Anyway they were super delicious. I preferred mine with some kind of jam, but everyone else just sprinkled sugar on them, which is something french people do a lot. Like they add sugar to plain yogurt/greek yogurt and its surprisingly really good. Although I must say the greek yogurt is a lot better than just yogurt. I don't know if that's something people other places do, but its the first time I've seen it. Anyway, that's all I got for now and my host dad said something about kayaking/canoeing tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

So, I have absolutely no idea why I haven't made a post about my day-to-day routine yet, especially because I've been here for almost two months, but better late than never!

So, I go to school Monday-Friday, just like back in the US, but I'm just clarifying that because I know some people have school on Saturday too in France. Each morning I wake up at Six AM -sob- and by 6:40 I am out the door and walking to the neighbors house. There, the neighbor takes me and his son to the bus stop, and we usually are there by 6:50. Here, there aren't "school buses" its just like public transport so in the beginning I was deathly afraid I would take the wrong bus every single day but now I'm kind of used to it. The bus gets to the central bus station or whatever by like 7:30, and then I have to walk up this giant, evil hill to get to the school which usually takes me about 10 minutes or so.

Since everyday is different, I'm going to now break my schedule down by day. On monday my classes start at 8am, and from 8-10 I have History/Geography. Sometimes I have a class after that that involves us making powerpoints for something from 10-11, but sometimes I don't have that class so I don't know what that's about. From 11-12 I have philosophy class, which is okay and then from 12-2PM I have two hours of do whatever you want time. Actually I'm pretty sure one hour is for lunch, and one hour is for studying but I don't really listen to that. After those two hours are up I have English from 2-3, which is so easy and boring, and the teacher always asks me things about the US, so I don't like it. And then from 3-4PM I have Economics which I absolutely hate because my teacher is gross and old and always says "aux Etats-Unis" (In the United States...) and in general asks me weird questions about the US, like what the population was in 1800. After that my day is finally over, and I take the bus home, where usually I end up eating something with my host sister Axelle, and watch TV or something because I can never do my homework because I still don't have my books. Which is a long story, that I'll go into some other time. (Just by the way, my morning routine is the same from Monday to Thursday, so I'm not going to repeat it all the time)

On tuesday I have history/geography from 8-10 again, and then from 10-12 I have economics! Which sucks because I hate it. Then I only have ONE hour of do whatever you want time -sob- and then I have pre-calculus for two hours, where I don't do anything and just copy from the board when the teacher goes over a problem or something. I'm actually finding it SO HARD to actually even get up in the morning because I've already received my diploma so this is all totally pointless and annoying. Anyway, from 3-4PM I have italian in which I also do nothing because its an advanced italian class, or something. The teacher even tried to get me out of her class, because I know no italian, but it didn't work hahah.

On wednesday I only have school until Noon, so that makes me happy. But I have two hours of economics and two hours of philosophy so that kind of sucks. But then I take the bus home and we all have lunch together at home. Recently that hasn't been going so well because one cashier and one pastry chef at the bakery are sick so that means my parents are working all day and are super stressed out like all the time now, which is annoying. So sometimes they fight.

On thursday I have English from 8-9, which is boring and then I have gym from 9-10, which I hate because its sort of like, I don't even know how to explain it, but it kind of reminds me of like stuff cheerleaders do (making pyramids, etc) like this thursday for example, I had to have a girl stand on my shoulders, which kind of hurt. After gym I have three hours of do nothing time, so usually I kind of wander around the school, looking for some random people that I have somehow made friends with, then usually we just hang around and have lunch. I honestly don't know why we don't leave when we have 2-3 hours of nothing, because we totally can, but no one ever seems to want to. Then at 2 I have "accompagnment personalissé" which is basically just an extra hour of economics and an extra hour of history per week. After that, I have italian class again from 4-5PM and then I go home.

On Friday, for some reason school starts an hour later for me, so I get to wake up at 7am, which is nice.  On fridays I have an hour of philosophy from 9-10, and then two hours of math from 10-12. Then I have two hours of nothing. After my two hours of nothing, I either have two hours of Politics or an hour of Economics and an hour of Politics. I'm not really sure why its different sometimes. Then I'm finished at 4 and I go home. So voila! theres my weekly schedule. 

I've been meaning to write my "one month" post for like five days now, but whenever I go to wright it, I just can't. So that means that this is about my 904832948th attempt, so enjoy it!

Even though I've only been away from home for about a month, it feels like YEARS! So much has happened in that short amount of time, I've met at least 50 new people, ate weird things, and somehow managed to take a bus here and not get lost. I already sort of feel like a different person. Sometimes though I feel as if the only way that this could get any better is if I had my best friends to share it with. That honestly is the worst part about this so far, not having anyone to share it with, and also not being fluent enough to express myself 100%. Whenever something exciting happens, or I think of something funny, I want to be able to turn to someone to tell them about it, but I can't. Which totally sucks, but I just need to keep working on my French and talking to people and I'm sure that will eventually go away. I also miss having pets! Last night I had a dream about pets and when I woke up and realized I didn't have any, it made me so sad, even though I dreamt that I had a giant guinea pig. Which is weird, but whatever.

But what I absolutely love about this so far, is meeting people from just about any country you can imagine! Its awesome to hear about other cultures, what they like, and how they view the world. And for some reason, just about everyone, except French people speak perfect English, which is something I can't wrap my mind around. Like I've asked everyone at school how long they've been learning English, and everyone has said "since I was 9 or 10". Which blows my mind!
In other news, I feel like my French has gotten a little better! I feel like its a little easier for me to pronounce those annoying as hell "Rs" and now I only have to ask people to repeat themselves 75% of the time! Yet I still feel like AFS is lying when they say that after three months you will be proficient enough to understand just about everything. I'm pretty sure that when December 7th rolls around I'll still be talking like a 3 year old, but only time will tell I guess.

So far, I give the food here an OK. Which is weird, because, you know, I'm in France. But most of the food here isn't something you'd get at a french restaurant in the States, or something you'd get out of a Julia Child cook book. Which is totally disappointing! Okay, granted French baked goods (bread, desserts, etc) definitely gets an A+, but the rest is just okay, kind of disappointing. Like for example, they eat noodles without any kind of sauce, or even butter. Ew.

Today, I went into the city with my friend Svana from Iceland and we went out to lunch! Since she doesn't speak much French, I had to order for both of us. It was super nervewracking! It was the first time ever for me ordering all by myself at a french restaurant, but somehow the waitress understood me and we got what we wanted! So overall, I call that a major success for me.

Anyway, that's it for now I guess. Sorry if there's any mistakes, my written English is getting a little bit rusty. 

So I've been here about three weeks, not including my orientation in Paris and boy has it went by fast! Honestly the first week was super terrible and I was just totally overwhelmed, and I honestly think that starting school right after I got there totally made things worse than they had to be. I'm going to have to talk to someone at AFS about that, grr. (Usually exchange students have at least a week to get settled with their host family before starting school) So my first week, my emotions ranged from "I love it here!" to "I will kill someone to get home"and that changed on about an hourly basis. The first week of school sucked too! I didn't understand a word my teachers said and I had to have my classmates repeat themselves about three billion times just so I could sort of understand what they were saying. And I even accidentally said no when about half my class asked if they could eat lunch with me! The only good things about that week was that on Wednesday and Friday I got out at 12.

The second week was definitely way better than the first, meaning that my emotions only changed with each day instead of each hour. If I concentrated enough I could sort of understand my teachers too! And I also started to make some friends, just a few girls from my class though. But through them I've met a lot of really interesting people! And apparently some of my friends have talked about me and now when I'm talking (with my terrible accent) there's at least one person who says "C'est toi, David?!" (Are you David?), which is totally cool. haha.

My third week (aka now) has been pretty great so far! On monday I actually understood the general idea of what was being taught in history class and I did the homework for the class that day, and I got a C+!! I honestly don't think I've ever been happy to see a C+ in any class besides math, but that seriously just made me start to forget how miserable I was the first week or so here. I feel like my french is slowwwwwwwwlllllllyyyy but surely improving. I noticed today that if I actually listen to the conversations happening around me, I can understand a word or a phrase, even without the person talking like an idiot so I can understand!

Even though things here are going super great for me at the moment, being here for 10 months still seems like a super long time and every time I think about it I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I honestly don't know if I could go that long without seeing my family and friends at least once! I knew that I would miss everyone eventually, but I didn't really realize how much I would. I had been preparing myself for the shock of changing cultures, families, and even my language for almost a year, but now that I think about it, I don't think its possible to prepare oneself for that kind of sudden change, no matter how long you have to prepare yourself. You just have to do it, like ripping a bandaid off and venture off into the unknown. And I can honestly say that this has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I have a feeling that its going to be the most rewarding thing too!

So that's it for now, I think! I know there's a billion things I'm forgetting to write, but whatever. I miss you guys! (you know who you are ;) 

Writing this post feels really weird. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would feel sentimental about leaving Pennsylvania of all places. Yet I'm noticing myself trying to memorize every last corn stalk, and even though I knew that I wasn't going to be seeing my family, friends, and my pets for a year, I haven't really realized the significance of that until now. These are the people and places that I've been surrounded by for the last 17 years and it just feels bizarre abruptly leaving everything. I know that my departure is going to be one of the most bittersweet things I've experienced thus far.

At the same time though, I am more excited than I've ever been before. I'm going somewhere where I've never been, meeting people I've never met, experiencing a culture that I've really just seen a fleeting glimpse of, and being surrounded by a language that I can't quite understand that well. Whenever I think about it, its like a million billion butterflies are suddenly in my stomach. I feel like I'm preparing to go on my first great adventure, and hopefully it won't be the last. At the same time of all those emotions, I'm deathly afraid at the same time. Mostly about school, although going to a new school is always a scary thing in my opinion. And the language! Oh, the language, seriously French people talk way too fast, I don't know how anyone in that country ever has a conversation with anyone else. I also have no idea how I'm ever going to learn it. AFS says it only takes a few months, but I think they're lying.

Even though I'm having a bunch of doubts and fears about my upcoming journey, I know that at the same time it will be one of the best experiences I will ever have in my lifetime. I'm ready to embrace all of the good and bad things that may or may not come out of this experience. I know that not many people get to have an experience like this so I'm not going to take advantage of any of it. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to miss Pennsylvania and all the people who I know and love dearly, but I'm not going to let those things hold me back. I only have a limited amount of time on this Earth, we all do, and I intend to not waste a moment.

And I don't know how to end this, so bye, and don't ask me for my blog link. Bookmark it or something! I love you guys! <3

As I'm sitting here, looking at the map of where I and my fellow exchangers will be staying in France during our study abroad, I can't help but feel an overwhelming, slightly heady mix of fear, excitement and joy. The closer that September 6th gets, the more real that everything seems. Almost eight months ago, when I first started filling out applications and getting interviewed for different study abroad organizations, I never actually thought that I would get accepted or anything (and I didn't get accepted by some, cough-Rotary International-cough), but here I am. I even got a host family not even a month after I was accepted, and there are still people without one. Which makes me feel extremely grateful because now I'm not waiting around anxiously, checking my email every few seconds, waiting for a cheery yet slightly generic email from AFS telling me that I got a host family finally. Everything about my study abroad seems so perfect, the village my host family lives in is so little and cute, the city that I'll be going to school in looks awesome, and my host family owns a boulangerie/pâtisserie! Which is awesome for a few reasons. One reason being, who wouldn't want to live with a French baker? The other reason being is that I want to become a pastry chef, so I think I'll have the perfect opportunity to see what a pastry chef goes through every day. Talk about serendipity.

I guess the only thing left to do besides going to the French Consulate in D.C is wait. I really hate waiting though, its probably one of my least favorite things to do because when you have to wait for something, there's really nothing you can do to make the time go by faster. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hate waiting and it sucks.

In other news, I graduated from high school July 6th! Now I'm just waiting to get my diploma in the mail and it's taking the school forever to send it. I think the fact that I graduated a year early is making everything even more surreal than it already was. Never in a million years did I think that I would do study abroad and graduate a whole year early. Part of me kind of regrets doing that because I feel as if I rushed a big part of my life, but on the other hand I'm still doing what would be my senior year only I'm doing it in another country. Anyway, that's all I really have to write for now.

Au Revoir !

Yesterday, June 8th was the last day of my junior year. As I was waiting for my geometry class to be over, it finally hit me that I was actually going to France. I thought that I had been preparing myself mentally for living in another country, with a whole different family. Suddenly I'm more terrified than nervous. Probably its because reality has finally settled in and I've gotten over the excitement that I had at actually being accepted and receiving a host family so soon. And for that I'm extremely grateful because there are so many people who still haven't gotten a host family yet and I would hate to be in their position.

I guess that the reality of it all hit me yesterday because a time in my life is coming to a close. At the end of my journey no longer will I be the David that I am now. And if things go as planned I'll have my diploma in a few weeks. I think all of this scares me because I'm actually doing something that I really want to do, which in the past I've always been to scared to do things. Something else that also scares me is  What am I going to do after all of this? I honestly have no idea. And I don't know why I'm thinking about what's going to happen after, I should be thinking about what is going to happen when I'm in France. Sometimes I really hate my brain.

In other news, there are only 87 days left until my departure! Really, where has the time gone? It feels  like yesterday I was only just handing in my preliminary application. One of my biggest fears is that once I get to France I'll blink my eyes and be on the plane home, so I'm literally begging the universe for the time to go slower.

Also, its time for a mini rant! I happen to have a few questions about the visa application (three, to be exact) for the French consulate and I have literally emailed them twice and called like five times, and no response! I guess all governments suck or something. Whatever, I'll call again on monday.

This is just a quick update. So I have 96 days left until departure for France! I'll arrive for the departure orientation at around 4:00pm in NYC and the next day I'll leave for France from JFK Airport. I feel like the time between then and now is going to go by super fast! Anyway I probably won't update until I get my visa appointment or something interesting happens. By the way, ignore the "This is default featured post 4" things, I don't have enough content to fill everything! haha

So the process for obtaining a visa is totally annoying. First of all, I have to go to the consulate in Washington D.C which is four hours away instead of the one in Manhattan which is only 1 hour and 30 minutes away. What's up with that? On top of that my dad is like refusing to believe that the NYC Consulate doesn't accept applicants from Pennsylvania. I swear even if the President of France, Francois Holland told my dad to his face that we could only go to D.C he still wouldn't believe it. And for some reason they only have appointments open until a certain date and I have to keep checking for a date in August. I honestly feel like the consulate is making this about 1 million times more difficult than it has to be. And I have to wait for forever to get my documents from AFS VSF, I wonder why...

Anyway, my high school is going pretty amazing. So far I have completed and taken my finals for Ancient History, Biology, English 101, Psychology, Practical Math, Classical Mythology, French III, and on June 8th I will be done with Geometry. Over the Summer I will be taking Advanced French, Global Mythology and Life Skills. If I can finish all of those by July 30th then I can graduate a who year earlier! I swear the closer it gets to September, the faster time goes. I can't believe that in three months I'll be in a whole other country, surrounded by a different language and environment, but at the same time it feels like its feels as if this summer is going to be a million years long. I just really hope that by the time I'm actually in France, time will start going by a lot slower. I get so nervous just thinking about it, I feel like I will never learn the language and no one will like me! And now that I just typed that out, I realize how stupid that sounds.


Anyway, I have no idea why I'm writing this since I have told no one about it yet.

À plus tard !

Almost eight months ago I made the decision to become an exchange student and I made it! :) I applied to two exchange agencies (Rotary International and AFS USA). I ended up being denied by Rotary but accepted to AFS. So last Monday I got my host family assignment which is really exciting! :D I'll have a host father and mother and three host sisters. They live in a small commune in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. Isn't just the cutest little town ever? I'm leaving for France in September, so I'll probably not update it much until then! I'm so excited! :)

À la prochaine.