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
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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!
Friday, August 20, 2010
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).
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).
Sunday, August 15, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
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!
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!
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