Exchange is 20% completed: 2 months in

It doesn't seem like that long ago I posted my one-month anniversary entry.
It doesn't seem like that long ago I stepped off the plane, confused and deliriously excited, in Charles de Gaulle Airport.
At the same time, it seems like so much has happened in the span of two months, it feels like more than two months.
In these two months, I have probably felt more emotions than I have in two years of high school. I have probably learned more about myself and about life, too. That's exchange, though. Being confused, being proud, being depressed, being in awe, feeling all of these emotions and emotions you don't know the name of with a higher intensity than normal. But that is how we grow; sometimes, we have to be uncomfortable with who we are or what is going on around us in order to learn how to truly be ourselves. Nothing can compare to exchange. Nothing can replace the lessons I have learned, nothing can replace the experiences I have shared with some of the most interesting people I have ever met. France isn't anywhere near perfect, but I love it all the same. I'm not going to say I never want to leave (there is too much of the world I need to still see), but for this moment, for this year, it is where I am meant to be.
Since I probably have to report on my progress with the language, I will do it here. I still can't express myself fluently and say everything I want to say, but I do have thoughts that are in French. For the most part, I understand what the teachers are saying (though not necessarily the meaning of the content). The important thing though, is I can feel in French. The words people say don't just go to my head, they go to my heart as well. It's like when my parents back in Oregon reprimand me in Tagalog; it goes straight to mon coeur/yung puso ko. French isn't so much just a beautiful language to listen to anymore, but it has become a language that my emotions comprehend.
Brushing all that philosophical, non-tangible stuff aside, I turned 17 on October 25 (the excuse I used to justify my excessive spending this month)!
And on the same day, my host grandma turned 90. HOW COOL IS THAT.
Because I adore her, I'd like to write about her a bit.
At the age of 90, she is still a peppy, cheerful lady. She's smaller than me, and if you know me, I am only 5 feet/152 cm tall, which is short for a 17-year-old. She goes up and down the stairs everyday, no problem. She talks A LOT. She used to be a doctor. She tells me that at her age, music and flowers are what make living pleasant. Her name is Madeleine, and here is a picture of the two of us on our birthday.

I would really like to be like her when I'm 90!
My host family surprised me with a homemade chocolate cake with sparklers on the night of my birthday. It was scrumptious!

Another thing I did for my birthday was go to McDonald's with some friends. I had a McBaguette. Yes, that is a thing here. I love clichés.

One of the things I have come to realize is how important the piano is to my life. I knew that I would appreciate it better after having gone a few weeks without it, but I didn't realize how much it would help me get through tough days. I've been playing since I was 4, so it has been there for as long as I can remember. It was there during my childhood in the Philippines. It was there when my life changed after I moved to the United States with my family. And now once again, my life has drastically changed, and everything is strange and different, but wherever there is a piano, I can feel at home. Sitting on the bench, listening to the sounds my fingers create, the process of it being the same no matter where in the world I am. The process having always been the same for as long as my living memory persists. Some things never change, and that is one essential part of life.
You may or may not know that Chopin is one of my favorite composers, and some of my favorite pieces are the Polonaises. A little thing about Chopin - he was Polish, and was extremely patriotic with a strong passion for his country, hence the Polonaises. However, he came to France, and he never went back to Poland. Posthumously, his heart was taken to Warsaw, by his request. Until this week, I had never met any Polish people, nor did I ever hear Polish being spoken. But my class welcomed some Polish high schoolers for the week, and I made a good Polish friend. She loves foreign languages as much as I do! She taught me phrases in Polish, and I in turn taught her phrases in Tagalog, all with a basis of French. Now that I have met someone from Poland, I love Chopin and the Polonaises even more. In April, it is my class who will visit Poland; I can't wait. I can't even imagine the emotions I will have and how much more appreciation I will have for the piano, Chopin, and the Polonaises. This is Natalia, my friend in Poland.

These past two months have been full of learning, appreciation, memories, and heightened emotions for me. I can't anticipate what'll happen the next few months, but that's part of it. Stay tuned for more updates later!

Obligatory Post on the 19th: October

On the 13th and 14th, I had a Rotary weekend.
Unless you're a Rotary exchange student, I don't think you have any idea what that really means.
To explain it in one sentence, it means spending time with people who, in an extremely short amount of time, have become my family, despite having grown up in different corners of the world.
However, this weekend was special. It wasn't just with District 1510; there were other districts as well, which equates to about 200 exchange students, all invading Mont St. Michel for the weekend.
Imagine - 200 crazy teenagers all compiled into one space, 200 teenagers with similar stories to share, 200 teenagers who all understand each other better than anyone else in the country does.
The weekend was way too short!
Here are some highlights -
It was a sweet reunion. There were hugs all around when I saw my Rotary friends again, and I was just EXTREMELY happy. Despite spending hours on a bus driving up north, the journey there was full of laughter, and it was very pleasant. I hate to keep bringing up the French countryside, but it's just so gorgeous! I'm always in awe when we drive through it, it's like living in a movie.

We didn't stay at a youth hostel like we did in Le Pouliguen, we stayed in a hotel. Yup. It was really nice. We were three to a room, and I was with Brooke from Canada and Maya from Turkey. Our room had two floors! The stairs were more like a ladder though, they were so steep. The first floor had a queen sized bed and a TV, and the second had two twin sized beds. Brooke and I took the second floor.

Mont St. Michel itself was absolutely spectacular.
There were a lot of stairs to get to the top, but it was all worth it. Also, on the way, we just kept taking pictures of everything (because it's one of the many particular habits we exchange students have, especially so for the Asians). France is so incredibly rich in its history, and Mont St. Michel enforces that supposition. It blows my mind how human beings just like us today used to live so differently only several centuries ago, having routines, technology, and habits so unlike those of modern society. Yet they were still human beings, and yet their architecture still stands as proof of their existence. (I mean, I live in a medieval town, hahhahahaha...) One of the reasons I love France, it makes me reflect on things like this, when I see all this preserved antiquity. It makes all my worries and problems seem so trivial, thinking of people across the centuries and how they somehow managed their lives as well. Before dinner, live medieval music played and there were some dancers in costume. After their initial presentation, some exchange students got up and joined them in their circle and line dances (myself included, of course)!

Saturday night, we all had a dinner together - exchange students and Rotarians. Before dinner, we spent about an hour going through all the countries represented, with every exchange student going up when their country was called to sing their national anthem. It was beautiful. So many nationalities were represented in one small space, and we were all united, one big family. Each one of us shared our own national identity while also being part of a larger group, the human race. It is moments like that where I remember why I do exchange.
Heheh, when Philippines was called, I decided to go up and sing the Lupang Hinirang because I still remembered the words to it, and the Filipino girl (who just came into my district!) wanted me to go up with her. There were only three other Filipinos; I joined them proudly. Of course, I also went up during the American national anthem and sang it just as proudly, only I was in a large group of about 40. Later that night, from 11:30 - 1:30, there was a dance party, and I stayed the entire time having fun with my friends, the only thing on my mind the amazing time I was having.

On Sunday, Brooke and I returned to Mont St. Michel to look for souvenirs. In one shop, the cashier looked very Filipina to me, so I asked her:
"Vous êtes de quelle origine?"
She replied, "Je suis Philippine."
I freaked out and exclaimed, "Moi aussi!" before I added, "Taga saan ka?"
She replied, "Bisaya ako."
I freaked out and exclaimed again, "Ako din!"
One of the other employees in the store was amused and remarked, "Ça fait longtemps que tu parles comme ça!"
Before I left, I told the Filipina, "Bonne journée!" and in return she told me, "Au revoir!"
Short as it may have been, I did enjoy this multilingual conversation. And it didn't even include English.
Throughout the weekend, I was able to speak four languages! English took up the majority of it of course, but now that the Filipino girl is here, I was able to speak in Tagalog with her. I spoke French with the Rotarians, and I spoke a very minimal amount of Chinese with my Taiwanese friends. Minimal, but it still counts!
As a random note before I sign off, we took a geography test. I didn't know we'd be taking it until two days before we took it, so I frantically tried to memorize all the European countries and capitals. One thing that really helped was a site called Sporcle.com. Shout-out to my friend Sarah Lemieux for showing it to me before sophomore year ended; it helped so much! It turns out I didn't need to know all 47 European countries; I only had to identify on a map and name the capitals of 38. Check out my score!

Souviens-toi: Remember

Every first Sunday of October since the year 1948, there is a ceremony held in the village of Lageon. It commemorates the French resistance members of the region who were deported to Nazi concentration camps and died for their country. About two weeks ago, the history professor brought it up with our class and asked if anyone would volunteer to read a text in front of the congregation. She was looking for several students. I, being a France-loving exchange student, told the professor I was interested in volunteering, and she was happy I chose to do so.
Six of the kids in my class volunteered: Noémie, Ophélie, me, Adrien, Alice, and Nina.

There were four different texts, and we split up into partnerships. Adrien and I read the poem "Demain" by Robert Desnos, and these are the lines I read:

Mais depuis trop de mois nous vivons à la veille
Nous veillons, nous gardons la lumière et le feu
Nous parlons à voix basse et nous tendons l'oreille
À maint bruit vite éteint et perdu comme au jeu

Because I couldn't find an English translation for the poem, I will do my best to translate the stanza I read here:

But for too many months, we've been living in the past
We watch over, we keep the light and the fire
We speak with lowered voices, and we prick up our ears
To many a noise quickly extinguished, and lost as in a game

Here is a picture of Adrien and me reading!

I've had many an experience speaking in front of a large group of people, but this experience was different. I was speaking in French. I was speaking in an event that was very patriotic, as the following pictures show. I felt very proud to participate in something so important to my host country, honoring individuals who took great risks being part of the Resistance, losing their lives in World War II. The English professor told me, "I'm amazed at what you're doing," and the French professor said, "I think it's the first time we've had an exchange student participate in this."
Why I chose to participate, I'm not entirely sure; the best reason I can give is because I love my host country almost as if I was a native, and I just wanted to do something in return for it, even something as little as reading a stanza of a short poem.
Not to start talking about war again, but I thought of how in history class, you only ever learn of the numbers of people who were tortured and killed in war. If I stayed in Tualatin, I would be taking IB European History junior year, and it would probably have been the same. Just learning of the thousands and thousands, thinking of the figures as shadows, not really seeing the gravity of all those mortalities. In one part of the ceremony, names were read off of young members of the Resistance from the Parthenay/Bressuire area who gave their lives for France. After each name was read, "Mort pour la France" (died for France) was solemnly stated. Being there, hearing those names, made the events of the war only feel so much more real.
Right now, please take a moment to remember everybody who died for their country, in any war, in every country. They deserve to be honored, and they have all my respect.

And now it's time for pictures!

This is the monument in Lageon commemorating the French resistance deportees, where the ceremony is held every year.

The translation: "To the deported Resistance members who died for France."

The names, and where in the area they were from.

The cute primary schoolers of Lageon, who participated as well; they placed flowers in front of the monument.

And just as a final word...

Vive la France! ❤