Joyeux Anniversaire :)

There's so much to update! I'm sorry it took so long; I haven't had a free moment since before Christmas!

I had my birthday party the Sunday after school let out. Julianna, an American who lives in Nice, took the train to Marseille Saturday afternoon, and she, Emma and I did some birthday shopping in town. The next day, I prepared for la grande fête! Nicole got the most amazing food for the party. We had fois gras (a French specialty), different little appetizers made up of different types of caviars (which is surprisingly delicious), many different choices of exotic fruits, and Marseillais pizza (the best pizza in France). It was an enjoyable soirée with great food, great friends, some dancing, and lots of laughs! Emma and Julianna surprised me with an absolutely amazing cake that they had made without me knowing! I was completely shocked owing to the fact that they led me to believe that they had downright forgotten to buy the cake, the one thing that I had asked them to do. Little did I know, they had spent the whole morning creating this masterpiece!

My beautiful birthday cake

After cake, as tradition dictates, presents were opened! Along with some really beautiful handmade jewelry, jewelry from Swarovski and Snö of Sweden, some clothing and books, and some Michael Jackson music, I got a GIANT photograph of Paris! I have absolutely no clue how I'm going to get it home, but it's hanging in my room now and every time I see it I smile! Thanks everyone!

The Paris Masterpiece

Julianna decided to fill everyone in on the American tradition of birthday spankings. Of course, we can't stick to some traditions and forget the others, so seventeen birthday spankings were given, and an extra for luck, all of which were loudly protested by yours truly.

Les Mecs :) (Left to right: Mathis, Léo, Alexandre, Arthur)

Most of les filles :) (Left to right: Roxane, Axelle, me, Marie, Mélanie, Julianna)

Around midnight, the guys and some of the girls left, while the rest stayed for the night. It was my best birthday yet! Thank you everyone for making it great :)

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.