Since I haven't written anything whatsoever since like Christmas or something, I'm just going to Recap January since its finished. So lets start at the beginning of January, shall we? For the New Years I went to Roselil's house because her host family was gracious enough to have a réveillon (new years party) for some of the AFS people. The New Years in France wasn't really super different than what I've experienced in the US, but there definitely were some differences. First of all, we had a giant meal all together which I've never done on New Year's for whatever reason.. it felt wrong. In my opinion New Year's should consist of a lot of boxed food, sugary beverages and Kathy Griffin on CNN and probably falling asleep before its actually the New Years. Don't ask me why, but that's what I consider a good New Years. Anyway, we ate couscous with various meats and vegetables and for a dessert an ice cream buche (basically an ice cream log). Which besides for the buche I felt like it was a very unFrench meal... WHICH by the way I have had like no really stereotypical French food yet... except for an escargot kiche. The rest of our time was spent playing pool (I actually played and I think I got like one ball in the hole or something) dancing (do I even have to go there?) and playing 'Never have I ever'. Now, most of those who are reading this who knew me before my AFS adventure started are probably thinking 'since when does David dance?' and I'm thinking the same thing too...but for whatever reason France seems to make me less shy than before. So yay. I would say that the dancing stopped around 1:30 or 2:00am and after that we kind of just talked and played never have I ever until like 6 in the morning.. Needless to say I was tired as f*ck and I only got a few hours sleep because everyone else just had to be snoring. There was also fireworks and some stupid game where we spun around in circles and then someone shone a flashlight in our face to make us fall. Génial.
A few days after the AFS New Year's party I went to my friend Orlane's house (she's French!) where I stayed for like three days or something like that. We kind of did what people in the US do together... so that means the movies and shopping! We went to go see De l'autre coté du Périph (I feel as if I'm missing some accents there... whatever) which was basically a french comedy/action movie. I thought it was pretty good but some of the French comedy went right over my head. I don't know if its because I don't understand things like expressions (I'm getting better!) or if French comedy sucks but in the end it was pretty good. We also played wheel of fortune or something, in which I did nothing because I usually don't know the names of things in French when I'm under pressure. We also went to the two malls that are in Lyon where I bought Starbucks! I literally never thought I was addicted but no lie, I felt better emotionally, mentally and physically after I had that Starbucks. It was kind of like something that was really bothering me for four months that I didn't really notice went away. So now I would like a talk with the CEO of Starbucks.. what the heck do you guys put in that stuff??? The weekend after that my host sister's host sister for Uruguay came to the house... and she was super nice! Like seriously everyone from South America is the nicest person ever.
Luckily I got to talk to her a lot because she speaks English. Which really almost everyone (besides French people) speaks English perfectly (especially Scandinavians) which is sometimes a good thing but usually just makes me feel stupid because I can only speak like two languages... almost. Which by the way I'd say that I now speak French proficiently BECAUSE I can usually say the "r" correctly except in words where there is a vowel at the beginning and then 'r' immediately after.. for example I cannot say the verb 'arriver' (which means "to arrive" btw, but most of the time people don't use it to say "arrive".. like after a test in school someone will ask you "tu es arrivé?" which basically would translate into "did you do good?/understand/etc) correctly no matter how hard I try. And even though my vocabulary isn't 100% I now know enough words to explain the meaning of another word that I don't know.. Although there are times where my brain refuses to work and I forget the word in English too.
So after the weekend spent with Orlane I started school up again. Which kind of was a welcome break of not having anything to do everyday. I don't know what's wrong with me but two weeks of Vacation for me is just too much. One week would be perfect. Anyway, I'd have to say that I don't really try that hard at school, I just can't find the motivation to, mainly because the majority of my classes are Economics and Economics makes me want to cry and go hide in a hole for the rest of my life. I have no idea why my high school put my in the Economics track (because usually they place you based on classes you have already taken in your home country) but seriously the majority of my electives were languages/literature classes in the US... so why am I not in the L track? Whatever.. and the other exchange student in my class (Andres) just has to be an overachiever in everything.. I'm pretty sure he probably has a better grade than me in our English class but I really just blame that on our one English class being at 8 in the morning, which is way too early for my brain to function in French, let alone my native language. Anyway, I definitely feel that I will be speaking fluent French by July with the amount of progress I've made in 4.5 months.. and when I say fluent I mean fluent in how people actually talk in person.. not fluent book wise. So that means I'll probably be taking up some classes to refresh my grammar or something.
This month I also got to meet some of the other exchange students who go to one of the other high schools in my city! Unfortunately two of them left just days after I met them, so that was kind of disappointing because they're super nice. By the way, now that I'm talking about the other exchange students.. I just simply can't imagine my life in France without them. Like seriously how does anybody get through a whole year being the only exchange student at their school? I know that if there wasn't like 9 other exchange students at my school I probably would have already gone home.. They're really the only people you can talk to about being away from home and problems you're having. Sure, you can tell your French friends about it, but they don't really understand and AFS usually just tells you to 'try harder' or something stupid like that. Also, by the way in two weeks I'll be here for five months! That means I'll be halfway done with my year hear.. and it also means that I'll have spent five months without some of most important people in my life! I honestly can't believe how I've managed to do it,but in the end I'm super grateful that I've done this because even though its so hard to be away from home it really made me realize how much I took everything for granted. I also had a party with the other AFSers this month and when I say party I mean making kiches, playing just dance (I dance a lot now) and playing never have I ever. Again.
As for this week, it was pretty normal. I went to school and everything except 20 euros was stolen from me and it pissed me off. I swear if I ever find out who you are I will do something terrible to you. I needed that money to buy myself food because there was yet another strike at the cafeteria. So dear thief I hate you and I hope that whenever you use that 20 euros the cashier will think its fake or if you happen to buy food with it I hope you get diaherra, however you spell that. Seriously, I've been to numerous big cities and I even fell asleep on a bench in Paris with a few hundred euros in my bag plus my passport and nothing has ever been stolen. And now I come to middle of nowhere, France and someone steals my 20 euros while I'm outside in the process of dying because I had track. Fuck you. Anyway that pretty much sums up my entire January 2013. Maybe I'll post more often.... maybe.
A few days after the AFS New Year's party I went to my friend Orlane's house (she's French!) where I stayed for like three days or something like that. We kind of did what people in the US do together... so that means the movies and shopping! We went to go see De l'autre coté du Périph (I feel as if I'm missing some accents there... whatever) which was basically a french comedy/action movie. I thought it was pretty good but some of the French comedy went right over my head. I don't know if its because I don't understand things like expressions (I'm getting better!) or if French comedy sucks but in the end it was pretty good. We also played wheel of fortune or something, in which I did nothing because I usually don't know the names of things in French when I'm under pressure. We also went to the two malls that are in Lyon where I bought Starbucks! I literally never thought I was addicted but no lie, I felt better emotionally, mentally and physically after I had that Starbucks. It was kind of like something that was really bothering me for four months that I didn't really notice went away. So now I would like a talk with the CEO of Starbucks.. what the heck do you guys put in that stuff??? The weekend after that my host sister's host sister for Uruguay came to the house... and she was super nice! Like seriously everyone from South America is the nicest person ever.
Luckily I got to talk to her a lot because she speaks English. Which really almost everyone (besides French people) speaks English perfectly (especially Scandinavians) which is sometimes a good thing but usually just makes me feel stupid because I can only speak like two languages... almost. Which by the way I'd say that I now speak French proficiently BECAUSE I can usually say the "r" correctly except in words where there is a vowel at the beginning and then 'r' immediately after.. for example I cannot say the verb 'arriver' (which means "to arrive" btw, but most of the time people don't use it to say "arrive".. like after a test in school someone will ask you "tu es arrivé?" which basically would translate into "did you do good?/understand/etc) correctly no matter how hard I try. And even though my vocabulary isn't 100% I now know enough words to explain the meaning of another word that I don't know.. Although there are times where my brain refuses to work and I forget the word in English too.
So after the weekend spent with Orlane I started school up again. Which kind of was a welcome break of not having anything to do everyday. I don't know what's wrong with me but two weeks of Vacation for me is just too much. One week would be perfect. Anyway, I'd have to say that I don't really try that hard at school, I just can't find the motivation to, mainly because the majority of my classes are Economics and Economics makes me want to cry and go hide in a hole for the rest of my life. I have no idea why my high school put my in the Economics track (because usually they place you based on classes you have already taken in your home country) but seriously the majority of my electives were languages/literature classes in the US... so why am I not in the L track? Whatever.. and the other exchange student in my class (Andres) just has to be an overachiever in everything.. I'm pretty sure he probably has a better grade than me in our English class but I really just blame that on our one English class being at 8 in the morning, which is way too early for my brain to function in French, let alone my native language. Anyway, I definitely feel that I will be speaking fluent French by July with the amount of progress I've made in 4.5 months.. and when I say fluent I mean fluent in how people actually talk in person.. not fluent book wise. So that means I'll probably be taking up some classes to refresh my grammar or something.
This month I also got to meet some of the other exchange students who go to one of the other high schools in my city! Unfortunately two of them left just days after I met them, so that was kind of disappointing because they're super nice. By the way, now that I'm talking about the other exchange students.. I just simply can't imagine my life in France without them. Like seriously how does anybody get through a whole year being the only exchange student at their school? I know that if there wasn't like 9 other exchange students at my school I probably would have already gone home.. They're really the only people you can talk to about being away from home and problems you're having. Sure, you can tell your French friends about it, but they don't really understand and AFS usually just tells you to 'try harder' or something stupid like that. Also, by the way in two weeks I'll be here for five months! That means I'll be halfway done with my year hear.. and it also means that I'll have spent five months without some of most important people in my life! I honestly can't believe how I've managed to do it,but in the end I'm super grateful that I've done this because even though its so hard to be away from home it really made me realize how much I took everything for granted. I also had a party with the other AFSers this month and when I say party I mean making kiches, playing just dance (I dance a lot now) and playing never have I ever. Again.
As for this week, it was pretty normal. I went to school and everything except 20 euros was stolen from me and it pissed me off. I swear if I ever find out who you are I will do something terrible to you. I needed that money to buy myself food because there was yet another strike at the cafeteria. So dear thief I hate you and I hope that whenever you use that 20 euros the cashier will think its fake or if you happen to buy food with it I hope you get diaherra, however you spell that. Seriously, I've been to numerous big cities and I even fell asleep on a bench in Paris with a few hundred euros in my bag plus my passport and nothing has ever been stolen. And now I come to middle of nowhere, France and someone steals my 20 euros while I'm outside in the process of dying because I had track. Fuck you. Anyway that pretty much sums up my entire January 2013. Maybe I'll post more often.... maybe.
