ONE MONTH DOWN.

Today is September 28. That means that exactly one month ago, I landed in France to start my ten-month exchange. I've learned a lot about France, humanity, and myself. Before I go on to ramble about my philosophical musings, I will talk about the people I've met here that have made this past month fantastic. Without them, I honestly don't know where I would be.
The first amazing group of people I got to be acquainted with right upon arrival are the other exchange students in my district. We are a group of about 40 which, sure, allows for a ton of drama, but it also means that the support system is massive. All of us are going through similar yet vastly different experiences, and the best thing about Rotary exchange students is that they are always there for you, no matter what. We never run out of things to talk about, and our conversations often center on topics like traveling, other cultures, the delights and challenges of exchange, and hot boys (the latter applicable when I'm with other girls). Being an exchange student is a feat very few young people can accomplish, but having other exchange students as friends makes it a lot easier. I can't wait to see them in two weeks in Mont St. Michel!
Here are the exchange students of District 1510 France, a group I am very proud and happy to be a part of.

Next are the girls I hang out with at school. Their names are Noémie, Cléophée, Cassandre, Kelly, Btissam, and Tanya (who isn't in the picture). The really interesting thing is, Btissam was originally from Morocco, and Tanya was originally from England. Cassandre's older brother did a 6-month long exchange with Rotary to England. I'm glad I ended up with them for the time being, since they probably understand my situation more than anyone else in the school!

Most importantly, I have my host family, the Edwiges. If you think their last name doesn't sound very French, you are right; my host dad was originally from Martinique. I am really thankful for my host family's continual support, and I greatly enjoy living with them. From the dinner conversations about languages to my little brother dancing like Cartman from South Park, my host family has helped to truly make this experience the best it can be!

If you want to stop reading here, that's fine. I have a lot of thoughts that constantly run through my head (some, like, "$^&% I'm hungry," are beginning to be in French), and some are recurring enough to be taken seriously. Thus, this next part will probably be not as well-written as the rest of my blog, but really the only person I have to apologize to is myself because I hold myself up to high standards okay.
So, things I have pondered and learned about France, humanity, and myself.
One of the remarks I have to make is that there isn't a garage in my house where the family can park the car. Instead, there are marks on the sidewalk one can occupy, and once, all of the spots near our house were taken by other cars, so we had to park our car further down the street.
They really value thoroughness in school here. I was handed a worksheet for math homework, and I just wrote down my answer next to each question like I normally would. Apparently, I was supposed to do all my work on a separate piece of paper, show the ENTIRE process of how I arrived at each answer for each question, and then write a statement summarizing my findings. Yeah. The tests are like that, too- we are handed a sheet with all the questions, and we have to write down our answers on a separate sheet of paper, all neat. It's quite meticulous. If I weren't so in-adept at expressing my complex thoughts in French, I might enjoy it instead of frantically flipping through my palm-sized dictionary to find words I need.
Did I mention French cheese is the best in the world?
The wi-fi here has punished me. I spent last weekend Skyping my friends in English, and my gut feeling told me I had done it too much, spending time holed up in my room not speaking French. So little by little, the wi-fi would die suddenly, and I'd have to reconnect again. It became more frequent which irked me slightly, but what really pissed me off is that whenever I tried to connect to my house's network, an error message would pop up saying it was impossible. IMPOSSIBLE? BUT I HAD DONE IT SO MANY TIMES BEFORE! So this week I've had to resort to using my iPad downstairs. I haven't Skyped anyone since. French wi-fi, I can conclude, is somehow conscious of my inner thoughts and knows how to act appropriately upon them. I hope I get reprieve from this dastardly form of discipline and that wi-fi will revive itself in my room again.
(Why I just wrote that in regards to what I learned about France I'm not sure; just let me assure you that I am not drunk.)
Going to high school here is starting to feel normal. As I go about my daily routines at Lycée Ernest Pérochon, I can't help but notice things that are the same as in Tualatin High School, and probably every other high school in the world. For one thing, I've begun to think that archetypes don't just exist in fiction. Archetypes of people, like the smart kid who always raises their hand in class, the girls who wear too much make-up, the popular, good-looking boys loved by everyone (better-looking in France than in anywhere else may I add!), the teacher who seems mean but just wants everyone to learn as much as they can from class, and the funny middle-aged man (cough my counselor cough), exist no matter where on the map you place a pin. Yes, everyone has their own unique personality shaped by the society they live in and the culture they were born into, but there are aspects to these personalities that exist universally and have existed for as long as human beings have roamed this planet. In this way, French individuals are not that different from Americans or Filipinos, at the core of it. While their cultures may vary in many different fascinating ways, an individual is an individual who shares common traits with random other people in other places in the world, no matter what country they originate from.
I keep wondering what the world would be like if more of today's world leaders had been exchange students. I hate it when people view other countries as outlines on a map, territories to conquer, economies to take advantage of, or inferior to one's home country. They don't see other countries for their unique cultures and traditions, as different yet similar manifestations of the human race, diversity that we should celebrate. I especially hate war. Other countries must never be viewed as evil, soulless adversaries in trying conflicts, which unfortunately is the viewpoint shared by many. Every war comes at a devastating cost of human lives, and you never really think about the people behind the statistics. Every one of those individuals had loved ones who cared for them, their own dreams and aspirations, regardless of what country they came from. So what would it be like if the people responsible for declaring war had been exchange students once? They would have friends from all over the world and therefore be more conscious of other nations' concerns. They would have a higher sense of empathy towards the people of other countries. They would be more reluctant to declare war because they not only care for their nation's welfare, they care for the welfare of other nations as well. They would not possess an ounce of xenophobia, and they would appreciate the many differences that the human race accommodates throughout the planet's population instead of being wary of what they cannot understand. I hope when my generation grows up, it will have leaders like this.
Since I've rambled enough I'm going to keep what I've learned about myself short.
I somehow always have the need for someone to praise me for me to really feel accomplished. I feel like I need to learn how to decide I can feel accomplished on my own without anyone telling me that I should be proud. Oh just so you know, today I recited the conjugations of is, ea, and id in Latin class, all 30, in order, memorized. Please tell me I did a good job.
Yeah, I need to work on my autonomy and stop worrying about what others think of me so much.
Well that's all, folks! I still can't believe it's already been a month...
Rest of exchange? Bring it on.

Obligatory Post on the 19th: September

So much has happened since I last posted, I'm going to divide this post into different topics! Here goes...

La Vie Scolaire
I am happy to report that school is nowhere near as bad as it was at the beginning! It's been two weeks now since it started, and I'm beginning to get the hang of things. I'm not even as tired at the end of the day anymore. Most importantly, I found a group of girls who have welcomed me; they are a wonderful bunch that I can laugh, be weird, eat lunch, and sing songs badly with. Having friends has really helped the transition, and they always make an effort to talk to me and help me feel more like a French high school girl. Once, I took a yogurt, and they asked if I had taken any sugar (they eat plain yogurt with sugar here). I said no, and they handed me some, and the yogurt tasted a lot better that way!
My class of Première ES 1, with only 22 kids, is a pretty great group. I have no words in any language to explain how hilarious English class on Monday was, because this is what happened. The activity that the prof assigned was to come up with excuses as to why one was late for or absent from school. Nothing special; I remember having done a similar activity in French class two years ago. Then the prof had me walk around checking everyone's grammar, and I came across some extremely bizarre sentences. The following are my favorites, from a group of boys named Hugo, Clément, and Arnaud.
"My fish had a headache."
"My computer died and I had to bury it."
"The school bus got in an accident with a submarine in front of my house."
Add bad grammar to these sentences, as well as their French accent reading them out loud, and you might be able to understand why I wanted to die laughing!
The next day, I asked Arnaud if his fish still had a headache. Without missing a beat, he replied (in French, of course), "No, it's gone. But he has a fever now, and it's not looking too good" in a tone as serious as can be. I expressed my condolences.
Here I have some physical evidence of how I'm getting used to school:
At first, my notes looked like this

But now, they look like this, all colorful like how the French kids do it (yeah, they write in cursive too)

One thing I hate to admit about school is that I can actually understand a little of the content, and I find myself WORKING in class. WHY. I thought this year was gonna be a break from that! I've even helped out some of my classmates in math and science... I've been asked the question, "Did you get good grades in the United States?" and I said they were very good, and I've been called a smart girl already. That reputation just follows me everywhere, I can't escape it. Guess some things never change, and some things will forever be a part of me. Of course, there are still times in class when I feel dumb and clueless, and I let it happen. I'm here to enjoy the country, not to do well in school. History class is difficult for the French kids too, anyway.

Cafés
It just wouldn't be a year in France without the cafés! These little sidewalk establishments are a huge part of French culture, and everyone likes to spend their time socializing and gossiping there. Whenever I find myself in one, I order the same thing - a sirop de fraise à l'eau. It's a chilled drink, pretty much strawberry syrup mixed with water. Trust me, it's really good.

Here is a café in Angers, where I hung out with some Rotary friends.

Traveling
Since I arrived, I have already been to 8 French cities: Le Pouliguen, Parthenay, Niort, Bressuire, Angers, Cholet, Oiron, and Thouars. European public transportation is absolutely magnificent- the trains and buses leave exactly on time, and everything is very organized. During all this traveling I've done, I feel amazed at how I handle all my issues, ticket changes/purchases, and questions entirely in French. I adore this language, and I can't believe I'm actually speaking it every day!

Castles
It's already a well-known fact that France has a myriad of castles. One of them, a relatively small one from the renaissance age, is the Château d'Oiron that my second host parents took me to see.

For some reason, there was a contemporary art exhibition happening inside the castle. The contrast of renaissance and modern age art was pleasing to my mind, but my second host dad didn't feel the same!

One of the many strange, unexplainable, yet fascinating works of art was this nautilus carriage.

Oh yeah, I got to hang out with a unicorn inside the castle too, I really felt like a princess!
I can't get enough of all the spiral staircases here.

Check out the king's chamber (the room he'd occupy on a visit) - yes, that is REAL GOLD.

Finally, here is a painting of a congregation of the Greek deities. (This is obviously not contemporary art.)

Parthenay
If you know me well, you'll know that I feel most at home in a big city, which Parthenay most certainly is not. It is a town in the middle of the French countryside, dating back to the medieval era. It has barely over 10,000 inhabitants. However, I do not wish to change my city- life all the way out here is very relaxing, and I feel like that's what I need the most this year. I know that Rotary placed me where I'm meant to be, and I have the rest of my life to choose to live in a big city anyway! While I don't think I'll convert into a country bumpkin this year, I'm definitely going to enjoy all the different aspects of living here. After all, that's what exchange is about- being placed in unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations, making the best of them. And I travel out of the city often enough anyway.
I took some photos of the St. Jacques Quartier, the medieval quarter of my city. It's very beautiful indeed.

MIKA

Also, if you know me well, you would know that one of my favorite singers is a guy named MIKA, who I think is bigger in Europe than in the US. I first heard of him on that Europe trip in 2010, when I heard his song Blame It on the Girls in Paris. From that point on, I was hooked on his cheerful, catchy, singable music, and I was absolutely ecstatic when he released a song in French summer 2011 called Elle Me Dit. When I first listened to that song, I couldn't help but idly daydream about what it'd be like to live in France. Now I am in France, and I still listen to that song, and when one of my girl friends during lunch break played it off her phone, we couldn't help but all sing part of it. And now that the new album, the one that has this song, came out on Monday the 17th (ONLY IN FRANCE) I couldn't help but rush to the Hyper U after school to buy it. I looked at it as a reward for going through two weeks of school.
Here's how excited I am to have it, and how happy I am to be living in France in general!

A Saturday Adventure

District 1510 is rather strict with its exchange students traveling by themselves. They are only allowed to do so under three conditions - they speak French well enough, they earn the right to do so, and they tell their host family and club counselor all their plans.
When my Australian friend in a town further south than me (Niort) invited me to visit him, I really wanted to go because I wanted another Rotary kid to talk to. (My town doesn't have another one, whereas the town just north of me has four. I found it rather unjust.) So I asked my host parents' permission if I could take the bus down, and they agreed to let me go! Barely a week of living with them, and they trust me enough to let me traverse the French countryside by bus for an hour on my own. It must have been the fact that I sang and played the ukulele for them...
Of course, I was very excited to go off on a mini excursion, getting a taste of how the French travel around their region.
I woke up bright and early Saturday morning.

I walked about ten minutes to the train station (gare), very close to my house.

I waited for bus 12 to arrive, the bus that would take me straight to Niort. It only costs 3 euros round trip, and the drive through the French countryside is absolutely beautiful. I'm afraid the following pictures don't do it much justice, but it's just so you get an idea of what it looks like and how isolated my town is.

As the bus drove into Niort, La vie en rose by Edith Piaf started playing on my iPod, and I found that so horribly cliché I almost skipped it. Almost, I let it play!
Joe the Australian showed me around the city. Here are pictures of the market and of the castle.

All in all, the trip was a much needed break from the stress of school! I can't wait to explore more of France and its scenery.

School

My school schedule

Wednesday September 5th was the first day of school. Some of my first impressions - Lycée Ernest Pérochon doesn't look too different from an American high school in terms of its hallways and classrooms. However, the significant difference is that there are no lockers and no huge gym or sports facilities. The French students are VERY organized. They all have their pencil cases in front of them from the start of each class, and they color code their notes in their notebooks, writing extremely neatly.
My first day of school, like my first day in France, was very difficult. I was overloaded with the French language. Teenager talk is complex enough in English, so when I overhear conversations in French, I can barely pick up anything. Also, none of the kids in my class spoke to me, so I felt lonely the whole day. I was even introduced as an exchange student. At the end of the first day, I went home feeling scared and discouraged, because all I really wanted was some French friends. From that day, I learned some important lessons.
I am never alone. The teachers all offered me help if I ever needed anything, and I particularly like the English teacher. It threw me off though because he spoke in PERFECT English, just like a teacher in the US would. Also, my other exchange student friends had similar experiences, which was relieving.
Good friends don't come right away. They come gradually, especially here in Europe where people are generally more reserved than in America or in Asia.
I'm gonna have to do a bit of a personality change here. I'm the type of person who expects things right away, who worries about things too far ahead and takes things too fast. Il faut que je prenne mon temps-I need to take my time.
Although nobody talked to me, there were two kids who smiled at me, and it made me incredibly happy. I had no idea of the massive effect a smile could have on a person until that day.
I dreaded the next day just a bit, but bravely walked into school anyway. During one of the breaks from class, one person talked to me, and he asked, "Where in the United States are you from?" (in French) I happily told him I was from Oregon, the state above California. That one sentence made my day instantly better, because somebody finally talked to me.
As I headed over to German class, another one of the boys greeted me with a, "Hello!" The day got better after that. I got around to asking people's names, and for some reason, that helped.
A little anecdote on German class. I have never taken a German class before, and this one had kids who had been taking it for a few years. The teacher spoke ONLY in German, with the occasional French. I must admit, it helped my French a lot... I also asked my seatmate for help, and he was very nice and showed me the German-French translations in my notebook. Then the prof went around the class having every student say a sentence based on our lesson today. I had somehow managed to keep up with the lesson and had a few sentences written, so I bravely said, "Der Held ist eine Erwachsener." The prof beamed and praised, "Sehr gut!" as she clapped for me. In the past, doing something like that in French class was not a big deal at all, but here in France, in my first German class, I couldn't help but feel immensely proud of myself.
Feeling brave again, I approached one of the kids in my class and asked him if he had the same one hour break as me afterwards. He did. I asked if I could go with him, and we ended up chatting outside the school for the break. I felt a lot better about myself. He, similar to most everyone else in my class I have talked to, has never met an exchange student or an American. I think the kids in class have yet to get used to having such a foreigner in their midst. I don't know if they understand the concept of exchange student, but eventually they will get used to my presence.
Eventually.
It's like the magic word for me right now.
People here are nice to me, but I don't have any real friends (outside Rotary) yet.
In this town in the middle of nowhere, however, it is such a help that I know how to speak French well. I simply can't imagine going to school not knowing a word of French other than "bonjour" and "voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir." (Not that I'm saying those aren't important ;)
By the third day, people started greeting me with the bisous, so I decided that I was making progress little by little. I don't know how well things will go next week, but it's part of the adventure. What disappointments I will have, what incidents will inspire surges of pride, and what surprises there will be. Already exchange isn't going as I expected it to go.

Me voilà!

Here I am in my new home in Parthenay. But before I go into other details, I will start this entry from the moment I read the messages in my exchange notebook in the airplane.
None of them made me cry except for my mom's (it was all sappy and got into when I was a baby), because most of them were very funny and made me smile quite widely. The notebook was a success, and I know I'll be reading it again sometime!
Tuesday August 28 was my first day in France. In one word, it was
HORRIBLE
Betty and I arrived in Paris sometime past noon, and after some waiting, we congregated with the rest of our inbound group at the Ibis hotel. While we were all pretty excited, everyone had just taken a long flight (except maybe the German and the Turk) and was extremely tired. We didn't leave until about 3:00 PM, and didn't reach Le Pouliguen until some time before 10:00 PM. I had zero appetite, didn't feel well, and just wanted to shower then sleep. Later that night, after having showered and refreshed ourselves, my four roommates (Betty, Maya from CA, Brooke and Joey from Canada) and I complained about how much the day sucked then all felt better about ourselves.
Things started looking up after that.
Some highlights of the trip include:

I really thought I'd be the only one to bring a ukulele to the camp, but there were two others who did! One is a boy named Leo from Brazil, and the other is a boy named Evan from Iowa. We had fun jamming on the beach.

Speaking of which, we went to the beach three times!

I spoke in Chinese with the Taiwanese girls. One of them, Sabrina, is really entertained by it and tells me I'm adorable. Thus, I had spoken three times as much Chinese the first day than I expected to speak the entire year.

The boardwalk by the beach in Le Pouliguen was very pretty. There was a merry-go-round, and numerous cafés lined the sidewalk.

I wondered whether having the camp right off the bat was a good idea or not; during the beginning, I definitely thought we should have met our host families first, had our cliché welcoming at the airport, then gone home to unpack and sleep. However, I have already made a lot of friends from the trip, and it's always nice to know that there are other kids nervous for starting school and making friends outside Rotary. That's truly the best solace anyone can have in this world, knowing that they are not alone.

On Saturday September 1st, my counselor picked me up after I said good-bye to my inbound (it feels so good to finally call myself that!) friends, and I feel like that's where my exchange really began. Now that I wasn't with the international kids anymore, everything I said and heard was in French. I had listened to French in movies, songs, and in simulation recordings in class, but it was nothing compared to having several conversations on random topics on a drive that took over two hours. Despite being tired, I tried my best to listen carefully and respond interestingly. I did not speak English at all, except to say the words "farm" and "countryside" (the French countryside is gorgeous by the way) which my counselor did not understand anyway.
So at about 5 PM, I arrived at my house in Parthenay after driving through the medieval quarter of the city. I was tired and just a bit overwhelmed at everything. I met my host parents, my host sister Maéva (she's 16), and my host brother Alcide (he is 10 and simply adorable). After talking in the dining room a bit, I went upstairs to unpack.
Just so everyone knows, I love my room. I have a large desk, a fireplace (not sure if it actually works though), and really cool decorations (little Eiffel Towers!) plus a psychedelic wall pattern, all pink and orange and swirly. It was then that I finally started to cry- tears of relief, exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, pride, and just a bit missing my family, friends, and Rotary friends old and new. But I got over myself quickly as I organized my stuff and left my room arranged to start my new life.

As for my new life, here are some things I have to get used to:

The grand majority of people here smoking. My counselor smoked four times in the car and both my host parents smoke. I've learned to not let it bother me, except the fumes irritate my throat sometimes.

The toilets being separate from the shower.

The French not putting ice in their drinks. They don't have ice in the freezer, either.

We went to the pool on Sunday September 2nd, and the changing area was not segregated into males and females. There are individual stalls, sure, but that's as far as it goes.

How OLD my city is. It's a thousand years old, and being here, it's easy to tell...

All the boys kissing me on the cheek twice when they greet me. Not that I'm complaining ;)

And here are some highlights:

I LOVE the way the French talk! They're very refined in their speech, the most eloquent people I have ever met (and this is coming from a person who did speech and debate two years in high school). They always talk with their hands with a variety of voice inflections. My counselor would take both hands off the wheel as he drove to talk to me and always do these elaborate gestures. Furthermore, there was a little boy, one of Alcide's friends, who came to visit on Sunday, and at the dinner table he told a story about how one day three years ago he woke up at 7 AM to watch TV like it was an epic worthy of Homer and The Odyssey.

CHEESE

I went on a walk around the city today, and I touched a church that was built in the 14th century.

My school books are so new and high quality, unlike the ripped ones in Tualatin that are falling apart. Plus, they're not thick as hell and super heavy.

CHEESE

I like to sit in the living room watching TV with my little brother, even if he is on his DS and I am on my iPad. We had a conversation about Pokemon once, and it was a lot of fun.

I don't hear English from anyone other than me. Parthenay is an obscure medieval town in the middle of the French countryside, after all.

School starts on Wednesday the 5th. Because my school is awesome, we get out at noon, since that's what happens every Wednesday.
I will update more later!