Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone all around the world! I hope no matter where you all are, whether it's in France, the US or other parts of the world, that you spent a wonderful Christmas with loved ones!

To my family and friends back home, I miss you so much at times like these, but judging by how fast these past four months have gone, it won't be long until I see you again! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

To my family and friends in France, thank you all so much for welcoming me with open arms! You've made these first four months incredible, and I'm sure the rest will be even better. I have enjoyed myself so much here in France, and it's been a Christmas that I'll never forget. Merci à tous! Je vous aime!

Before I go to bed tonight, I get to look out the window and see snow falling quietly from the sky. It's a sight that I've been craving for the past month and it finally came, on Christmas day no less!

I promise, a full blog will follow with updates on all the festivities!

What's cookin' good lookin'?

Turkey, that's what! That's right, I cooked a whole thanksgiving dinner (Friday night) for my French friends and family: Nicole, Beatrice, Danielle, a friend of Nicole's who gives me French lessons, Emma, and my friends from school Marie, Axelle and Roxanne. I made a turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce, gravey, and a pumpkin pie!

Thursday evening, I did the grocery shopping for the "grand repas". Who knew it would be so hard to find the things I needed for a Thanksgiving dinner? The hardest to find were the cranberries for the cranberry sauce. After about ten minutes of trying to explain what cranberries were to the sales associate, we found some dried cranberries, so I decided to settle. The next was the pumpkin for the pie. I went to four different stores searching for a "citrouille", and by the last "épicerie" I just decided to go with some butternut squash. It wasn't exactly like the classic pumpkin pie, but it was still delicious (if I do say so myself :)).

Friday afternoon, I started cooking at 3h and didn't stop until after people started to arrive at 7h30! I had never cooked a turkey before, let alone a whole Thanksgiving dinner, so starting off I was a little intimidated. Once I got going though, things went smoothly. It's really amazing how many things can go wrong with a thanksgiving dinner. It's truly a miracle that everything went smoothly for me, in fact it didn't just go smoothly, it was fantastic! Everything was perfect (which is amazing, considering how lost I am in the kitchen.)

When people arrived we had appetizers and I showed people a little bit about my life back home. I showed everyone my school yearbook, and my scrapbook, and everyone had a fun time looking through them. I also recounted the classic story of Thanksgiving that we learned in second grade to everyone.

When the time for dinner rolled around, I explained to everyone that it's traditional to go around the table before you eat and say what you're thankful for. It was at the point where I realized how thankful I was to be sitting in France eating a Thanksgiving dinner with my French family and friends. To me, Thanksgiving is about being with the people you love, and I was. I really couldn't have asked for a better night.

La Dinde!

In other exciting news, two weekends ago was the AFS weekend! I love getting together and seeing all of my AFS friends. Our AFS PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côté d'Azure) group is really close, so we all look foreword to these get-togethers. At the weekend, there was also AFS returnees, and AFS hopefuls. It was really neat to see the "three generations" of AFS, as well as disconcerting to realize that I was in the AFS hopefuls' shoes a year ago. It seems like so long ago!

awesome groupness<3

Today, Nicole and I decorated the sapin de Noël! It was a bittersweet moment, but it really turned my day around to get into the holiday spirit! It's really crazy to think that it's already December! Christmas is right around the corner. That's a scary thought! It's hitting me that I've been here for three months, which is so hard to believe! The time has flown by!

A jam-packed weekend!

Last Saturday, like usual, I had sports for two hours at 8am, and after that I had a two hour DS de mathématiques (math test). It sounds pretty rough, but it turned out to be not so bad. Most of my teachers let me use my notes for tests and quizzes, and Saturday was no different. I didn't have enough time to finish the whole test, but I managed to do two out of the three exercises, and of what I completed, I think it was right. It feels nice to finally be understanding some things. Sometimes it feels like I've been here for two months and I should be flying through everything, but when I sit down and think about it, two months really isn't a long time to learn a whole new language. For the most part, however, I feel like I'm making steady progress in my classes.

Saturday evening, I went a football (soccer) match with Greg, my host brother! Marseilles team is Olympic Marseille, or L'OM, and they're supposed to be really good! Greg told me that last year they were national champions and they generally place in the top three. Football is really big in France, especially in Marseille. The stadium is called the Vélodrome, and it's truly amazing! It's huge! The actuel game itself was really fun. It reminded me a lot of the high school basketball games back home. There are a whole bunch of chants and songs that the fans sing (some of which aren't all that nice, but it's all in good fun) for different occasions like when there's a corner kick, or a penalty kick, or if the ref mad a bad call. There was so much team spirit and it really reminded me of the atmosphere at the basketball games back home.

The game itself was great! L'OM scored in the first half which left the score 1-0 at halftime. Unfortunately Lance (the other team) scored in the second half and l'OM couldn't pull it together by the end. In regular season games, they don't go into overtime or penalty kicks, so it was just a tie. Everyone seemed really disappointed, but I had a great time!

The Vélodrome

Greg et moi au match de foot!

Sunday, I spent the day with Beatrice (an AFS volunteer in Marseille) and Emma (my best friend, who is also an exchange student in Marseille from Sweden). I haven't had so much fun in a really long time! Beatrice is just the nicest person, and it was really easy to talk to her. She took us to a little town to the east of Marseille called Cassis. It was a cute little fishing village that had a completely Italian market in it. We went to the market and got to try awesome samples of everything! I even got a head start on my Christmas shopping :). 

Emma et moi à Cassis!

One of the meat stands at the market

After a nice morning exploring the shops, enjoying the views and wandering through the market, we returned to Marseille for lunch and discussion. It was really nice to just talk about things with Beatrice and Emma. Like I said, Beatrice was really easy to talk to and even though it was all in French, we had some really deep and interesting conversations. 

Marseille is split up into 111 quartiers (neighborhoods) and after a wonderful meal that ended with a chocolate banana tarte that was to-die-for, we visited the eighth quartier where a teeny tiny fishing town called Les Goudes was. The views were amazing! Les Goudes is basically at the end of the world, or at least the road (the road literally stops in the town and you can only get around by car or boat). It's at the base of the mountains surrounding Marseille, and if we hadn't been wearing ballerina flats, and the wind hadn't been blowing at 55mph, we would have hiked to the top! We're definitely going to take another day trip back. 

All in all, it was a really awesome weekend! I'm hoping that this coming weekend will be just as good. I'm going to an AFS get together and I'm really excited to see everyone :)

There are many more pictures from the weekend on my flickr! Check it out :)

There's no place like home

Sorry for the late post (I've been trying to update every other Sunday) but it's been a crazy past few weeks. Vacation ended last week and thursday was my first day back to school (yes, it was Thursday, and yes, I think it's weird too). The vacation was really nice. I was off from October 23rd to November 4th. It was a nice break to catch up on rest, hang out with some friends, and catch up on school work. On the weekend, I had a party for Halloween/birthdays of some AFS friends. Most people from the PACA region (my AFS chapter) came and we spent a couple days in Marseille. It was very interesting to celebrate Halloween in France. Halloween isn't a big deal here at all. Some of the younger kids will go out trick-or-treating, but not all houses participate. Most teenagers get together for a party or just to hang out, and adults, unless they have children, don't really participate.

The party with the other AFS students was great though! It's amazing how comforting it is to have someone to talk to who know's exactly what you're going through. We traded experiences and made sure that everything we were going through was normal. Nicole gave us our space by going to Greg and Tashina's for the night. I was so surprised by the amount of freedom we were given. All we had to do was have the house looking the same when when she got back the next day, and we had the house to ourselves. I wasn't used to so much freedom, but I wasn't about to abuse it!

I went for a bike ride around Marseille the other day, and I realized that Marseille is my home now. When I think of home, I think of Marseille not Maine. Don't get me wrong, Maine is still my home but for the time being, I live in Marseille. In Marseille there's my home, not just any old house, my school, not just a school I go to, my favorite park, not just a park near my house, and my favorite stores not just any old shopping center. I can make my way through the city on my own without thinking twice. I've setteled into a schedule and it's nice to think that what once seemed so bizarre has now turned into my daily life. I've come to accept the good and the bad about Marseille, and I thnk that allows me to be able to call it my home. I'm past the honeymoon stage where everything is amazing, and I realized that Marseille has it's faults just like anyother city, and that's what gives it character. Despite the bad parts, I still like Marseille because it' my home.

School is slowly getting better. Bad grades are slowly being interspersed with some good ones, and that always boosts my confidence. Every day I get comments on how my french is improving! I'm starting to even think in french! Parts of the grammer that I thought I would never be able to understand are slowly but surely making sense. There are times when I have a full conversation with someone without having to ask them to repeat something, and (as far as I know) them understanding me, and it just makes me feel great. It's one of the greatest feelings to finally be able to communicate (somewhat) competently.

While my french is progressing, my english is digressing. It becomes really apparent when I know what a word means in french, but I can't think of the translation in english (if that makes any sense at all).

I'm off to study for a maths contrôle (math test), but I'll update again in the next week.

Goodbyes, strikes, and the circus?

Lorna left this past week! It's really amazing what an AFS experience can do. One month brought two people from opposite sides of the world together. By the end I felt like I had known her for years! I knew it would be hard to say goodbye, but I didn't know it would be that hard. It's different now from saying goodbyes in the states. I don't know when I'll ever see Lorna again. It's not that the goodbyes mean any less, or that they're necessarily harder, but it's different than the goodbyes I said six weeks ago.

Lorna and me in Saint Tropez

Since I've arrived in France, there have been four stikes, and this past week there was a blockade at the school gates so I couldn't go to class! The students formed a barrier so no one could get in out out of the school. Apparently this is not unusual, but it was my first time ever seeing something like it! I was shocked and a little bit scared! The whole time I just gazed in amazement, and all of my friends laughed at the stunned look on my face.

"La Révolution"
The blockade

The strikes and blockades are going on because because President Nicolas Sarkozy had raised the minimum age of retirement from 60 to 62 and the age to get a full pension from 65 to 67. This means that the government won't have to spend as much pensions because there will be more people who are forced to retire before the cutoff because of health or layoff. Not only are the teachers in uproar over these pension cuts though, the waste management services are also on strike. This creates the problem of an excess of trash all over the city. Everyone's trash bins are full to the brim!

When there are organized strikes, not just blockades, the public transportation goes on strike as well. On days of strike, you can expect to not get anywhere you want to go on time, by bus or by car! Everyone who has a car takes it instead of using the public transportation, and the busses and metros don't come as ofter, or even don't come at all!

Last week I attended a dinner party at the Consulate General of the United States of America for the South of France. It was very posh, but I got to eat a lot of good (familiar, American) food, and talk to some really interesting people. Most of the people there were teachers who came from the US to teach in France for some extended period of time with a program called the Franco-American Educational Exchange Network. They were all very interested to find that I was only sixteen and that I would be here for "a whole year?!"

The house of the Consulate General is the most amazing house in Marseille. It's on top of the cliffs overlooking the sea. I think I'm going to be the next Consulate General, even if it's just to live there.

Lorna and me at the dinner party with the view from the balcony in the background.

On Thursday I had the chance to go to the circus! It was like no other circus I've been to! It was more like a circus for adults. There was more sophisticated humor than other circuses I've been to. It's truly amazing what some people can do with their bodies. I planned on taking a whole bunch of pictures, but it was forbidden!

Today a friend and I went to my first movie at a theater in France! We saw "Moi, Moche et Méchant" which in English is Despicable Me! It just came to theaters this week in France, where as in the US it was released in July! It's the same with a lot of things here, especially music. Songs that were released at the beginning of the summer in the US are just starting to become popular here.

The movie theater was amazing! The seats were gigantic and so comfy! It was an enjoyable experience, and a bonus: I understood a lot!

Week by week life in France is becoming easier and easier. The language is coming, and I'm making friends, and I'm finally settling into a steady routine. School is still difficult, but I'm understanding more and more so it's more enjoyable now. It's really amazing how much my French has improved in just six weeks, but it's also quite scary how much more I have to learn. But day by day, week by week, it gets better. :)

I've also added a new link so you can view all of the photo's that I can't fit into my blog! Check out my flickr :).

Un Mois Aujourd'hui!

This weekend Nicole, Gregory and I went to Nicole's brother-in-law's daughter's wedding in Lyon. It wasn't just an ordinary wedding though, it was an Armenian wedding. It was really interesting for me to see the different Armenian traditions because of my Armenian roots. When I was invited to go to the wedding, I though "Oh wonderful! a fun evening with some good food and interestion traditions, however French weddings are extremely different from their American counterparts. In France, you're not allowed to have your wedding in the church until you've had the ceremony in the city hall, so the ceremony started at the city hall at 3pm. The crowd gathered in a room at the city hall to watch the mariage be legalized. From there, the whole crowd went to the Armenian Church for the religious ceremony. The whole thing was in Armenian, so I didn't understand a single bit (not that I would have understood much if it was in French either) but it was still incredibly interesting. There wasn't any "I do's" (that was done at the city hall), but the preist had the bride and groom put their foreheads together while he blessed them, and he had the best man, maid of honor, bride and groom all drink some wine. After some Gregorian songs from the church choir, some more blessings from the preist (in Armenian) they were married! They didn't even kiss!

And the festivities began! The reception is where the differences between French and American mariages come out. It started around 7pm and everyone gathered for some pictures. After pictures it was about an hour and a half to two hours of mingling, socializing, eating hors d'oeuvres, and drinking champagne. Once people started moving inside, the band started up, and started up and people began to dance. It wasn't until just short of midnight when dinner was served. There were four courses, and in between each course was more dancing and socializing. There were some familiar songs, but a lot of them were Armenian songs. The dancing was so different! There were some songs that I knew very well, but the DJ put an Armenian twist to them, so it was really interesting to hear these songs I had heard so many times with a Middle Eastern rhythm, and dancing to go along with it.

Cake was served at about 1:30am, and instead of one big white wedding cake with the bride and groom at the top, there were many different cakes and pastries for the guests to choose from. We ended up leaving around 2:45am. It was definitely an interesting experience, but I can definitely say that I was ready for a nice long sleep.

It's been a month today since I arrived in Marseille. I cant believe it's been a whole month already, it's gone by so fast! But at the same time, it seems like it's been so much longer than just one month. That may not make any sense, but maybe it's an exchange student thing. 

When I think back to where I was a month ago, I was sitting in this exact spot thinking on my bed "What am I doing here?" I had gotten home from the train station, been given the tour of the house, eaten dinner, and was thoroughly overwhelmed by all of the French. Now, I'm sitting on my bed thinking that maybe I'll actually make it through this year. There have definitely been some times in the past four weeks where I thought I wouldn't survive. My French is getting better, classes are not necessarily going easier but I've accepted the fact that they're not going to be easy and until the language comes, classes aren't going to come. I've also (re)discovered that there's a solution to every problem. It's not necessarily that I forgot this small bit of very valuable information that someone very smart once told me, but I've definitely been saying that a lot. When things get too overwhelming, I just have to step back and see what the solution is, because theres always a solution. 

Bonjour mes amis and ma famille!

Hi everyone! I have so much to update on and so much to comment on, so I'll start with the updates. 


Lorna, the AFS teacher from New Zealand is so nice! It's nice to have someone to escape to and speak English with when things get overwhelming. It's going to be really hard when she leaves! We've been to le Vieux Port (the Old Port) a couple times. There we shopped 'til we dropped! Then we got some (very good) French food, and shopped some more. It's great to have a companion in the house to go out with. 


On my first weekend in Marseille, Lorna, Nicole and I went to Saint Tropez! It's about 120 km from Marseille and it's absolutely gorgeous. Nicole grew up in there, and her family has a very long history there. One of her relatives was the mayor, and her family helped build most of the houses and resorts for the rich. Saint Tropez it the place to be and to be seen for the celebrities! It was so amazing to get to go there, and to see all of the sights. There was so much to do! The first day, we went to Nicole's aunt's house. The view from the house was breathtaking. It looked out over their vineyard and out to the coast of southern France. We spent a while picking (and eating) grapes from the vineyard. They were the best grapes I'd ever had. After that we spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. It was divine. That evening, Lorna and I wandered around town and got some chocolate chaud. 


The next morning, Nicole took us to one of her favorite beaches. It was really amazing. The weather is ideal, and it was so relaxing. The main difference from the beaches in the US, though, was that most women sunbathe topless...I, however, did not conform. I had to be careful what I took pictures of though! After going to the beach, we went back to Nicole's Aunt's house and lounged by the pool for a while. Once we had had our fill of lounging, Nicole, Lorna and I picked figs from the many trees in the garden. Not only did we have "beaucoup de rasin, mais beaucoup de figues aussi!"


Following fig picking, Lorna and I did some shopping in town. It was mostly window shopping because most of the stores were way out of our price range (i.e. Dolce and Gabbana, Christian Dior, Gucci, etc.) but we did manage to find some reasonably priced clothes. :)


This past Wednesday, I started tennis lessons! It's great to be active again. They all called me "the American" and I think that they were entertained every time I tried to talk. On Monday, I started yoga. It's great for me to de-stress, especially since Monday is the hardest day of the week for me. 


For my second weekend, Nicole brought us to a party for a PACS. In France, a PACS is an alternative to mariage. It is open to both homosexual and heterosexual couples, is much less binding than a marriage, but it's legal and recognized by the government. It was interesting, but most of the time I couldn't understand anything that anyone said, so I just enjoyed the amazing cheese and desserts. 


The food here is amazing! I have never eaten so much bread, cheese and meat, and drank so much wine as I have here! Maybe it's just that I don't eat a lot of meat at home, but we have some type of meat every lunch and dinner! It's crazy! So far, I've had duck, lamb, chicken, tons of different types of fish, and steak! The bread in France is the best. No matter where it's from, no matter when you have it (which is every meal), it's amazing. I see people walking around with baguettes under their arms all of the time. It's classic French. 


Meals in France are not just for eating. They're a social event as well. We eat at 8 in the evening for dinner, and often we're not done until after 9! Meals are served in courses, so first, we'll have appetizers or some type of cold meat. Next we'll have either salad or the main course. After that you have cheese and then you have fruit/yogurt/desert. I have trouble remembering that theres more after the main couse, so I always fill myself up on that and I don't have room for the amazing cheese. 


Every night with dinner we have wine. It's not just any wine though, it's wine made with the grapes picked at Nicole's Aunt's vineyard in Saint Tropez! Drinking alcohol here is not a big deal. I think that because the drinking age is 16, teenagers don't feel the need to abuse alcohol like some do in the US. 


Classes are extremely hard here. Yes, I am taking most of them in a different language, but they're hard for the students who speak french fluently as well! There is always so much homework. Every night, for at least three hours, I work on school work. The point of school is not to provide opportunities for learning as well as extracurriculars such as sports, music, key club, student senate, etc. like in the US, but to teach the students enough for them to pass le Bac. Short for le Baccalauréat, le Bac is a little like the SAT's in the US. It's like a diploma that you need in order to go to university. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccalauréat) So, at school there are no extracurricular activities, just learning. 


I am taking Premiere S 3. Premiere is the equivalent of being a junior in the US. S means I am in the science track, and I am in the third group of the science track. This track is the most difficult of the three tracks generally offered in french lycées. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_education_in_France for a further (and better) explanation of the secondary education in France.) 


Because I am in the most difficult class, I have a very full and heavy schedule. On Mondays, I am in school until 5. Tuesdays, until 6. Wednesdays I get out at noon, Thursdays I get out at four. On Fridays (for now) I get out at 2, but that's going to change in October, and I'll get out at four. Saturdays, for now, I get out at 10, but in October I'll start getting out at noon. I start school at 8 every morning except for Thursdays. In general, I have two hours off for lunch, but even with the break in the middle the days are incredibly long! I find myself getting excited over ending at 2, when that's when I would end school in the US every day! I think that I would prefer not having as long of a lunch break, and getting out earlier, but it's all part of the French experience!


The uniformity in school is ridiculous. Everyone takes notes, underlines, highlights, and writes, in the exact same way. It's crazy! Every time I go to write something, I'm afraid that I'm going to do it wrong.


There are good things about the school system here though! They give you so much freedom here. If you don't have a class, you don't have to be in school. Durring breaks, you're allowed to go outside of the school grounds. Many of the kids will go out for a smoke durring break. If your teacher isn't there for class, there is no substitute teacher, you just don't have class. I've had a couple times where the teacher wasn't there and I got to go home early. 


I've made so many friends! School is not only bearable, but fun with them. A lot of people speak English pretty well, so when I don't understand something or I can't make myself clear, there's always someone who can help me out. 


Beaucoup de Bisous! There are so many kisses! When I see someone I know, instead of waving to them and saying "Hi!", or giving them a hug, I have  to kiss them on each cheek! Before class in the morning it's just a long line of kisses! Everyone does it. girls with girls, girls with boy, and boys with boys. It's not awkward or weird, it's just the way things are here. 


It's really hard to remember that when I'm talking to elders, teachers or people that I don't know very well I have to address them formally and use the "Vous" form of the verb and not the "Tu" form. In English we don't have anything like it, so it's really hard to get used to.


I promise that more is on it's way! :)

Mon premier jour d'école!

I had my first day of school yesterday! I started at 8h00 with Science de Vie et Terre (SVT "Science of life and earth") for two hours.  It's basically biology for the first semester, but much harder biology than I took in the states. For the second semester it's geology. I'm glad that the subject that I don't know is second, so by the time we get to it I'll know what everyone is talking about. After SVT, I had two hours of physiques. I found out that in France, physiques is really chemistry! So we did some chemistry experiment with magnesium and some other chemical that I vaguely remember from chemistry in the states. After those two classes I was finished for the day! On Wednesdays and Saturdays I only have a half day.

In the afternoon, Nicole and I went shopping! I picked up some school supplies. All of the kids in class have these special pens and special paper, and they all take notes the same way! I felt so weird when I did everything differently, with the wrong color pens, wrong color paper and wrong organisation of my notes!

After getting my school supplies, we went to the "Orange" store. Orange is a phone carrier, so I got my blackberry there! It's nice to finally have a phone. I feel much safer, especially since I'm in a big city because I can call someone if I'm lost or in trouble, and I can contact friends (once I make some!)

From Orange, we went to the train station to pick up Lorna. Lorna is an exchange teacher from New Zealand that we are hosting for a month. It is really nice to have someone who speaks English in the house with us, but we will have to make a pact to speak only French to each other.

Today was my second day of school. I had two hours of SVT this morning. It's really intense for me because all of the students write down what the teacher dictates, and I don't understand much of it. I write what I can, and then copy the rest from the girl who sits next to me.

Next I had English! It's by far my favorite class. It was really boring, but I got everything right and all of the kids were coming to me for answers. It was great! There is another girl in my class who speaks english too! We sat together, and talked the whole time. We are going to hang out this weekend!

I have three hours off until my next class, so I came home to have lunch. When I go back I will have Spanish, and history & geography and my day will be finished!


Also, here are some pictures from my tour in Paris! Some of them are not very good quality because they were taken from inside the moving bus.

My first week!

So much has happened since I last posted! I`ll go day by day.

Mercredi: On Wednesday Mom and I drove to New York and I had to say goodbye to her. I was not the only one there crying my eyes out, but it was still quite awful. After goodbyes, I had to sign in and wait for everyone to get to the hotel. There were people all over the US and it was great to meet everyone: There were fifty students going to France, qbout thirty going to Spain, fifteen going to Egypt, a few going to Turkey, and one girl going to South Africa.Its nice because everyone is in the same situation so theyre all very friendly because no one knows anyone else.

Jeudi: On Thursday, we had orientation from nine until two. From there, we packed up our bags and got on the bus to go to the airport. My luggage was under the weight limit! It took so long for all of us to go through baggage and security that by the time we got to the gate, it was time to board. We left at 7h30 (Ney York time.) This plane was the biggest plane I had ever been on!

I was on the top floor. Flying AirFrance it really nice because you have your own personal TV and they give you three course meals! For diner we got little trays with a full meal on it. It was much nicer than any American fight I`ve been on. After diner I watched WALL-E in French! I`m happy to say that I understood most of it (granted there`s no dialogue in the first half hour of the movie, but still...)

Vendredi: Friday morning was spent on the Plane. I think I may have slept for an hour or so, but I cannot be sure. We had breakfast on the plane. At 8h30 (Paris time) we landed. Generally I dread having to go through customs, and this time was no different. I got to the line, went up to the window and gave them my passport expecting them to drill me on why I was there, how much money did I bring, did I have any food, etc. Instead, the man took my passport, stamped it and wished me a good day. It was the easiest customs ever!

We left the Airport and got to the hostel. It was incredibly tempting to go right to my bed and sleep, but I resisted. If I had gone ahead and went to sleep it would have made me even more jet-lagged. We got to meet the other students who are living in France as well. There were people from Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Austria, and Czech Republic. There are other countries as well, but they were not at the English Orientation. It was not as hard to stay up since there were many new people to meet and talk with. For the rest of the day we just socialized, played spoons and other assorted card games, and rested (though I did not.)

Samedi: On Saturday we took a bus tour of Paris! It was amazing! We stopped at the Eifel Tower to get out, walk around and take pictures. There were many people trying to sell souveniers to tourists, but I just kept saying "Non, Merci!"

After the tour, we had some more orientation. It was the first helpful orientation that I've had yet! It was so nice to be able to ask someone who is French about the French.

Dimanche: Sunday was departure day. At 10h45 the PACA (Provence Cote d'Azure) group went to the train stations and boarded the train to Marseille! We took the TGV, (Train Grand Vitesse) and it took about four hours to get to Marseille. We got off and were engulfed by our host families! In a flourish of pictures, hugs and kisses we were off. Marseille is beautiful!It is so warm and picturesque. Nicole and I went home, and after some diner and chatting I went straight to bed.

Lundi: This morning I got up and Nicole and I went to the school to get my classes set. I don't have classes today or tomorrow because the teachers are on strike (they say that France's most popular sport is strike.)  We went to the mall, did some grocery shopping, and looked at some phones for me. They are so cheap! I can get most of the phones for just 1£! The plans are, for the most part, under 30£ a month!  I think I may get my phone tomorrow.

After the mall, we went to Nicole's son's (Greg) and daughter-in-laws (Tashina's) house. We had lunch with Tashina, and it was amazing! Her cooking is so good. The baby, Aiden, is so cute! Nicole left, and Tash and I are going to take a tour of the city!


I find myself saying "d`accord" and "oui" a lot, since it`s the things I can say in agreement. It is always nice when I can say "Je comprends!" though :). I am finding that even already it is hard to switch bach to english. I`ve had to delete words that I accidentally wrote in French. Often times it is very hard to understand things when people talk to me, but sometimes I can catch a few key words  and I will get the gist of it.

Please excuse any typos! The keyboards here are different, and the spell check is in French!

I'll post pictures soon :)

LAST DAY!

I spent my last day at home today, and I'm headed to New York for orientation tomorrow! I went out to lunch and spent the day with my best friends. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to everyone. Sometimes it makes me wonder why I ever did such a crazy thing, but I try to remember that a year is not all that long. It's going to be an amazing experience.

To all of my friends and family, I love you! No matter what, you will always have a place in my heart.

And with that, I'm off to bed.

Much love,
Jana

I got my lobster!

I made sure to get my lobster before I leave. :)

When people find out that I'm going to be an exchange student, the four main questions that I get are (in no particular order):

1) Do you speak French?
2) Where are you living?
3) But won't you miss your family?!
4) Are you excited/nervous/happy/sad?

The answers to these are:

1) Yes, I do speak some French. I've been taking French since I was in sixth grade. This, however, is not nearly enough French to get by in life in France. "They" say that four years of high school language is equivalent to just four weeks of complete immersion in the language. So, I know some French now, but this is nothing compared to what I will know in a month, two months, three months, six months, a year.

2) Up until about a week ago, this question was the most annoying. I had no clue where I was living, so when everyone was constantly asking me it made it worse. I do now though! I'm living in Marseille, France with a temporary host family. A temporary host family is just a family who I will stay with until they can find me a permanent host family.

3) Truthfully? YES! I will miss my family and friends so much!  It will be a year of ups and downs none of which I will be able to share face to face with them. This, though, is a small price to pay for a year of living in France and being immersed in the French culture. I'll expand my horizons, and I'll be able to get a whole new perspective on life. It's like that song we used to sing when we were little "Make new friends, but keep the old..." That's what I'm going to be doing in France. I'll have a whole new set of friends in family, but that doesn't mean I'm going to forget the ones here.

4) Yes, yes, yes, and yes. I'm so incredibly excited! I get to live in France for a year! It's going to be great. I'm also very nervous. Like I said, I'm living in France for a year. I won't know much of the language, and I won't know anyone there. It's going to be hard, but it'll be a good challenge. I'm happy to be embarking on a new part of my life, but I'm also sad to have to leave another part behind for a year.  It's pretty much a whole ton of feelings to the point where I don't even know what I'm feeling.

On another note, I've been looking into the activities that I can do in Marseille, and from what I can tell it looks like I'll be able to choose from handball, football (soccer), sailing, volleyball, dance and climbing. I'm not sure which seasons each of them is in, if they all have options for girls (in France they don't have a Title 9, or even anything equivalent,) or exactly what some of them entail, but I'll be excited to try some new things!

Host Family? Check! Well, sort of...

I finally know where I'm living! What a relief it is to know where in France I will be staying. It's been a nerve-racking few months checking the mail everyday to find nothing there. But I know now, and everything is going to work out! I'm going to be living in Marseille with a welcome host family. This means that I will only be staying with them for up to three months. Nicole will be my (temporary) host mother. She is wonderful! I emailed her the first night I found out, and she replied back the next day! She seems to be very enthusiastic about hosting me, even if it is only for a few months. Her son and his wife live next door with their baby son who is just over a year old! I'm so excited that there is a baby! We'll be able to speak about the same amount of french! (I'm only half kidding) :). There's also going to be a French professor from New Zealand staying with Nicole and me for the first month of my stay.

Everyone in the family speaks pretty good English, and they've all been exchange students with AFS. Nicole's daughter-in-law is actually American! She's from San Diego. This may or may not be a good thing. On the one hand, it will be easier to communicate with them. On the other, however, it will not help my French to be speaking English all of the time. I've decided that I am going to ask them to only speak French to me.

Nicole enrolled me in school. It's about 500 meters away from where I'm going to be living! I'll be able to walk to school. It also looks like I'm going to be under a half a mile away from the beach as well!  It's going to be wonderful.

This is just a temporary situation though, so AFS will be working on finding me a permanent family. I don't have a clue how it works in France, but here in the US they try to keep people in the same communities when they have a welcome family so they don't have to change schools. I hope this is the case!

We, the American AFS students, start off with orientation in New York on September 1st. We fly out September 2nd and arrive in Paris on the 3rd. From there, we have a three-day orientation in Paris. After orientation, everyone takes the train to their host communities where their host families will pick them up. For me, that means traveling just under 500 miles from Paris to Marseille. Then, the next day I go to my first day of school! Talk about a crazy first week! I don't know whether or not it will be the first day of school for everyone so I may stick out like a sore thumb (more then I already will) if it is not.

I have two weeks left, and there's so much to do and not enough time. I have to start packing (I know, I said I would start fifteen days before I left, but I didn't count on being away from home when that day rolled around!), make sure I see all my family and friends before I leave, and make sure I don't leave without having some lobster!

If you want to read up on Marseille, Wikipedia has an extensive article on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille).

Visa? Check!

The other day, to my surprise, a FedEx van showed up in my driveway. I never expected the woman to step out with an envelope containing my long-stay student visa. It was a whole week earlier than expected!  The woman asked me why I was so excited and when I told her it was my visa she thought I meant a credit card! I decided not to correct her. Anyway, I made it over the final hurdle! I'm accepted into the program, I've started my packing lists, I've attended all of the orientations that I can possibly attend until I leave, and I got my VISA! I am all set to fly off to France, well besides the not having a family thing. It will come...eventually.

I've decided to start packing when I get to fifteen days before I leave, that way I don't get to the last day and I still haven't packed everything I want to take. I'm still not sure how I'm going to fit everything that I want to take into my bag that cannot exceed forty four pounds. It should be interesting.

It's getting down to my last few weeks, and I'm starting to do a lot of "lasts," for a year at least. There was the last beach trip with the girls today, and there have been a lot of goodbyes to people who I won't see until I come back. When I think about it too much it makes me sad, but then I remember that because of these lasts, I'll have many, many firsts. I'll try new things, and make new friends, and make new memories. In a year's time, I'll be back home to see everyone again. It's weird to think that I'll have to go through this sadness again in less than a year.

Still waiting...

So, I'm still waiting on my host family and I leave in exactly a month. I check my email way too many times a day, and I bet I look pretty silly running to the mailbox like a little kid but it's a risk I don't mind taking.

As of late, I've attended the AFS pre departure orientation, received information about my departure from New York, and gotten many updates from AFS on different topics from Visa information to online seminars with returnees from France (which I'll be "attending" this evening,) and basically everything except my host family information. At the seminar, I get to ask returnees questions like "what was it like in school?" or "how hard was it to make friends?" I think it will provide a good resource for me to learn about France from someone who was in my exact position.

Meanwhile, I've been reading Culture Shock! France: a Guide to Customs and Etiquette (http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Shock-France), the Exchange Student Survival Kit (http://www.amazon.com/Exchange-Student-Survival-Kit), Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French (http://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Million-Frenchmen), and for fun Words in a French Life: Lessons in love and Language from the South of France (http://www.amazon.com/Words-French-Life). It would seem like I have enough to keep me occupied for the time being, but I think we all know what I really want.

On another note,  I've begun to make my packing lists! This doesn't mean that I've started packing however. I have a feeling though that I probably should start packing now because it will probably take me a month to finish.

I'm off to finish the Visa preparations. I have my appointment tomorrow!

Je m'appelle Jana

I'm Jana and I'm going to be spending my junior year of high school abroad in France with AFS. I've wanted to become an exchange student since I was twelve. With each passing year, I got more and more excited for my junior year abroad. By now, I'm overflowing with anticipation and eagerness!

People always ask me why I want to do this. It's been hard to come up with a solid answer, but I think that the real reason I want to go abroad is because I want to try something new. I want to test my abilities and see if I can succeed. I want the challenge of learning a new language and culture. I want to meet new people, make lifelong friends, create memories, and have the experience of a lifetime. In turn, I like to think I will affect people's lives as much as they will affect mine, but dreams and expectations about the coming year will do me no good at all. They say I have to go into the year with as little expectations as possible because how could I even expect anything that is going to happen? It's a formidable task, and virtually everyone goes in with some expectations, even if they aren't conscious of the fact.

My family plays a huge part in my life. I live with my mom and my two dogs (who are indeed part of the family), and I have two brothers who I don't know what I would do without. My oldest brother is married and has a little daughter (my niece!) who is the cutest thing alive. I just got back from a visit with them where I got to spend a week with my brother, niece, and sister-in-law. It was great to spend time with them! My other brother and I are close. I talk to him about everything under the sun. I'm going to miss my family a lot while I'm gone, but they support me all the way.

I love sports, music and friends too. I play soccer in the fall, ice hockey in the winter, and tennis in the spring. I play the clarinet year round. I see my friends just about every day and we hang out and have fun all of the time. I'm always busy, whether it's at some practice, or at a clarinet lesson, or doing something with friends. In my free time, I read!

So, I made it through sophomore year! I'm finally a junior. Ordinarily, that would mean the start of college searching, SATs, lots of AP courses, and keeping my grades up. Instead of all of the "normal" junior year activity, I'll be embarking on an adventure in France. I'll be going to school in a french lycée, speaking french in all of my classes (sans cours d'anglais), and socializing in French. I will be completely immersed in the French language and culture.

Until September though, I'll be enjoying my summer. It'll be interspersed with studying French with my lovely French Verb Workbook (barnesandnoble.com/FrenchVerbWorkbook), trips to see family, reading a lot of books about both France and other unrelated summer reading, and enjoying not having to do summer AP homework. I'll take cars and busses and planes and trains to gallivant to different parts of the United States to pay family and friends last visits and say good bye.

It's July, and I leave in less than two months. Every day I check the mail for that tell-tale letter from AFS informing me about my host family and where I'll be living. It still hasn't come. I'm becoming impatient, but I know it will come soon! Every once in a while I'll get some email or piece of mail from AFS to keep me entertained.

And last but not least, THANK YOU AFS DONORS for providing me with a scholarship to help me get to France! I'll be updating throughout the year, recounting my adventures en France for you.