Trying to catch up!!

    Wow...so it's been way too long since I've written and SO MUCH has happened. Unfortunately, the internet was not working well here and was shut down for over a week. This is going to be an incredibly long post...where to begin? Well I left off the day before my first inbound Rotary meeting, so I'll start off there :P

     So the meeting was pretty fun because I got to see all the other exchange students from around the world who have come to Brittany (through Rotary). I met some really really nice people and it was fun to hear about everybody's experiences so far. But I have to say....the pool idea was not a good one. We were originally going to go ice skating, but the rink was closed...that would have been a much better idea! First of all, it took us about an hour to find the pool. We were all split up into groups riding with different Rotary men who obviously had no idea where we were going; we literally went back to our original meeting spot six times...and our driver stopped in the middle of the busy road we were on, got out of the car, and went into another car to talk to someone (supposedly about directions?) The kids in my car were laughing so hard cause we had no idea what was really going on (our guy didn't speak any English so he just kinda smiled at us). Secondly, it was a really cold, rainy day and the pool area was freezing (we were all looking forward to hot tubs, but alas there were none :P) So we sat around in the kiddie pool trying to stay warm. Thirdly, once we got into the pool area after changing into our bathing suits we realized that none of the boys were there. And they never showed up. So when we went back in the front area to meet after time was up, we discovered that they had not been allowed to enter the pool area because they were wearing swim trunks! Apparently the thought here is that they are "dirty"...only speedos allowed! Personally, I'm rather glad I didn't have to see any of the Rotary guys in speedos....AWKWARD. Then we went back to the building in Rennes we met at (the one we visited six times before finding the pool) and had lunch. It was nice and long, and I really got to know the Rotary students at my table well. We also all enjoyed a bottle of wine at our table, which was rather ironic because afterward we had a "reading of the rules" and "no drinking" was one of them :P But the guy (Herve Riaux, the region officer) reading them just kinda winked at us when he said it and commented that it was different in France....we must try the wine here, or course ;) It's cultural!
   
      Warning: From here on, things get hard for me. I want to make this blog realistic, so I'm not going to pretend that everything is incredible all the time when it's not always :P So don't worry (DAD!) but I want to explain things as they really happen...

     So, soon after the Rotary meeting I started school. And from this I learned that it's not always a good idea to have a happy little picture in your head of skipping around, making a bunch of friends, and having all the help you'd ever need because you're an exchange student and people will be interested in you and want to make your life easier. NOT the case. In the US (at least in my high school) this is what it was like for exchange students....they had a counselor, easier classes to help them learn at their level, and EVERYBODY was super interested in them and wanted to be their friend. School is very different in France....first off, I honestly had no idea what was going on because nobody was really there to show me around or anything...I had to tell people that I was an exchange student and didn't understand. The schedule is crazy...it's completely different every day and sometimes I'll have a class three times during one day or a class for 2 1/2 hours straight. The days are so long and end at about 5:00 p.m (or 17:00 here, which is endlessly confusing me). I also have random breaks all over the place for an hour or more during the day, and lunch is usually 1-2 hours. Another thing that's very different is that the teachers are not here to be your friend or have any relationship with you whatsoever. We must stand when they enter the room and wait to sit down until given permission. Then they lecture, lecture, lecture at record speed and all the students take a kajillion notes at record speed (in their tiny, color-coded writing on special graphed paper using rulers to underline things and white out if they make any little mistake :P) and I'm sitting there absolutely CLUELESS as to what was even being talked about for two hours in the first place. During one geography class I left thinking the teacher had been talking about the Ivory Coast the entire time, only to find out she wasn't saying "Cote D'Ivoire" but rather "Cotedien" (or however it's spelled) and she had been talking about how we live our daily lives and how we use space in a regular pattern or something to that effect. It is SO HARD to understand, and there is no way I can listen and write notes when by the time I have understood one word and remembered how to spell it, the teacher is already discussing another subject. So I sit there and doodle for hours and hours and hours. And French students are not ones to come up and talk to you and be very interested in you...so it has been hard to make friends. But I have met a couple of nice people....one girl who actually was on exchange in Minnesota last year! So she understands that it's hard....but really everybody has their own friends and there's not much time to talk (and when I only know so much French, how much can I say really before it just gets awkward that I'm standing there not knowing how to say anything and can't get past the "where are you from?" and "how old are you?" to actually have a real conversation). But I have been talking to a girl from Norway a lot (she lived in the U.S and speaks fluent English)....I really like hanging out with her and talking to her, but the problem is that it's kind of defeating the purpose of me trying to become fluent in French....she can't speak French so she always wants to talk to me cause I can speak English. I have to say, I have no idea how I'm going to become fluent at this point...it just seems unrealistic and there is so much I don't know. So let's just say that school is hard. REALLY hard. And even though I know my grades don't count for anything, the teachers are so strict that it's scary thinking of not turning in assignments, etc. (which I haven't so far, because there haven't been any real ones yet, or tests). But I do have one English class, which is definitely my favorite so far :P But the teacher is Irish and French so she has this really odd accent....and incidentally all the students at my school have mixes of British Irish American and odd European accents when they try to speak English. But that brings me to another discovery....in America, we have this idea that everybody in France can speak English very well. But here, the French think that they are not good at all at English (at least where I am), and it's true that there are not A TON of people who can speak it as I had imagined (that's not to say though that there are those who are very good though). Okay, last thing about school (because my fingers are starting to hurt) is that EVERYBODY dresses up. The girls and the boys. No one would be caught dead wearing a sweatshirt or sweatpants or tennis shoes here. It's all blazers and black nylons and high heels and dresses and slacks, etc. And nobody wears anything colorful either. I thought it might be kinda like this, but not quite to this extent. So I often feel like a complete dork because everything I wear is either brightly colored or "tacky" compared to what they wear here. And I'm often cold (it is really chilly here and rains all the time) and of the three warm sweatshirts I brought, two are big ones with writing all over them from Encore and UMD (nobody wears stuff like that here) and one is bright blue and fluffy. And my warm shoes are Uggs, which I have yet to see one pair besides mine. I feel so stupid every morning riding the bus wearing this stuff cause everybody literally stares at me! Oh well....one cool thing about school is that I get to walk through this beautiful park to get there (it's above the streets) called the Parc du Thabor. There are SO MANY flowers there, it's incredible...and there are awesome plants and trees and paths all over. There is also this huge rose garden. And I have started to run there a little bit too, because there is a nice path to run on and it helps me feel better sometimes to get moving.

      So on to another subject. I am just now realizing that there is no way on earth I'm going to be able to write about every little thing, so I'll just stick to more important happenings I guess :P My host family is not often around (not all together at least) because Maxence works every night and stays over at his girlfriend's (which I think is odd that his parents would allow, but I guess it's normal around here), Marco is often away, and the parents work until late at night (about 9:00-10:00). So I really haven't been doing too much with them, but last weekend on Sunday the parents spent the day with me. We went to the market in Betton in the morning, and then they took me to St. Malo for the rest of the day. We had a really good time; we ate lunch at a nice place with fresh shrimp, lobster, and mussels in a curry sauce with white wine. Then we explored the town (which is really beautiful and old) and went walking along the city wall that lines the coast (but it was SOOOO windy!) After that, we were freezing so we went to a cute little creperie for crepes and tea and coffee. It was a nice day...I just wish I could spend a little more time with this family, because this was really the first time we actually did something.

     This week has been especially hard for me for some reason. I have felt really homesick (which I was not expecting of myself at all), and I had a couple incidents at school where I started crying and yesterday I went to the office trying to find this lady who apparently was supposed to help exchange students and when I couldn't find her (I guess she only works on Thursday and Friday afternoons) I ran into this other lady and I was so upset I couldn't even speak to explain what the problem was (there was no problem of course, so it was hard to explain that I just felt overwhelmed and missed home), But she brought me into another office and they let me stay there all morning (I actually fell asleep for a couple hours in a really uncomfortable chair). But today I just decided to stay home from school to get some rest and just relax a little. Plus I have a really bad headache, so it's not really like I'm skipping school or anything. I don't know if my host mom was so happy when I asked to stay home, but I really just needed a "me day" :P (Plus time to write this extremely long blog post) ;)

    I feel like there's so much to say and I'm leaving out a ton of stuff, but I'll try to list a few things here that are interesting or that have surprised me, etc:

-They don't keep milk or eggs in the fridge here

-Kids don't use pencils in school, only pens (often nib pens) or fine-tipped markers

-Mostly all the music they play is American music (and they play some REALLY racy music that often involves saying the "f" word over and over (they know this is a bad word here, but I don't think they realize how offensive it is in our society) or other crazy things that would make people drop dead in America if they heard it played on a radio...I won't go into detail)

-People definitely have this idea that I am really dumb because I don't speak their language. Now I know what it feels like for people in America (for example foreigners who work at places like McDonalds) when people have this stereotypical idea that they aren't as smart as themselves. It's HARD to learn a new language people! And it doesn't mean anyone is stupid...

-Everything is TINY here compared to America. Especially the way food is packaged....you buy yogurt that comes in these teensy cups enough for like one spoonful, I have yet to see a coffee bigger than a little espresso cup at any restaurant or cafe (and I haven't seen one Starbucks..I thought I would!), and everything comes in very small amounts. For snacks I like to buy dried fruits and nuts, but they come in tiny packages so I have to buy a ton! The houses and apartments are obviously much smaller too, and everything is really condensed (not spread out the way it is at home). And it is also true that people here are much smaller....the guys in particular are much shorter and skinnier. And the women are for the most part very small too. It's not just that they're thinner than Americans in general...they just seem to be more fragile or something (you don't see a lot of athletic girls here). I'm not trying to stereotype, because obviously everyone is different, but I can definitely see a difference

-Almost EVERYBODY smokes here. And I mean it.....almost all the kids at school go out during their breaks to smoke at the entrance and I swear the entire population is going to die of lung cancer. My host dad smokes a cigarette like every five minutes! It's SO different from the US....I don't think people realize how much it has gone down there (and I think we kind of see it more as a shameful thing now, which is not the case here)

   And there is a lot more I'd like to say, but I'm gonna stop writing now! I'll try to be more frequent in writing new posts but for now.......
Bisous!
Claire

P.S: Thank you Linda and Sue for your care package I got in the mail! It brightened my day :D :D :D