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.