I'm sorry I have been half-heartedly blogging lately, but time is going by so quickly now. The choir wasn't for me, I don't think, but it was fun to sing, anyways!
At school I am able to understand a little more than half of what the teachers say, except my French teacher (Still can't understand him...), and I am actively taking part in the quizzes and homework, although they are very difficult. :P
But although I have been getting into a daily rhythm, the beauty all around me never ceases to amaze me. It's like each time I ride the bus or walk around the village is the first time I am experiencing it. I have to take more photos! Ok, I promise I will take photos tomorrow (if the weather treats us right; it is Normandy after all...). And maybe I will get my act together and upload all of my stuff to flickr...
Anyhow, changing the topic, apart from school and the language, life is going well! One thing I have noticed is how much more I have been writing lately. Before I came to france I had journals off and on for about five years, but they generally only lasted for a month at a time. Now I am journaling religiously everyday, and I think it will be good to look back at in the future.
And as a last little note, I just want to mention this; I think I am actually starting to feel a little bit proud of myself (le gasp!). I mean, a month ago I was a mental wreck, although I tried not to let it show. And now, I am able to stop, smell the fresh air, and enjoy life. And it's already been a month and a half?! How did that happen? Well, I'll be going now, but right after I ask this one question:
What do you consider "home?" Being here has really made me think about that a lot more. If you feel like answering the rhetorical question, feel free to leave a comment (oh, jeez, now I feel like I am an avid youtuber vying for comments on my videos DX). I think it would be interesting to see what everyone else thinks. :D
Salut!
Carly
Monday, October 11, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Harmony!
Wow, things are getting so much better around here! I don't have much time, because I have to go to sleep early tonight, but I want to mention a couple of things:
First of all, I am starting to realize that I slowly but surely have actually changed over the course of this month, and it is kind of weird to think about. :P
And secondly, I am going to sit in at a choir rehearsal tomorrow night!! My happiness is indescribable! I can't remember the last time I harmonized with somebody or sang with a big group... I think it was July. D: So I am excited.
That's all for now, time for sleep!
Carly
First of all, I am starting to realize that I slowly but surely have actually changed over the course of this month, and it is kind of weird to think about. :P
And secondly, I am going to sit in at a choir rehearsal tomorrow night!! My happiness is indescribable! I can't remember the last time I harmonized with somebody or sang with a big group... I think it was July. D: So I am excited.
That's all for now, time for sleep!
Carly
Friday, October 1, 2010
Ok!
Things really have started to become routine here. Each day I either take the bus to school or get driven, and after my courses I return home, do a little bit of homework, journal a little bit, hang out with Pia and/or watch some TV with Claude, eat dinner, and eventually go to sleep. It's really nice that it's all starting to get easier. A couple weeks ago I was having a ton of trouble communicating, understanding, and living like a normal person. Now, on the day of my one month mark, I can officially say that I have become accustomed to living in France.
School is good, although I am deciding whether or not to move up to Première. It's a really hard choice for me to make. Most of my classes are getting easier and easier to understand, except French class. It's terrible.... But anyhow!
Even though it is getting plus facile every day, sometimes it is really hard to be in between languages. Sometimes it is a little trying to not be able to fully express myself. And sometimes the feeling of mental isolation is pretty hard to bear, but I am getting through it! I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that I won't be stuck in this state of not being able to talk and listen perfectly forever. So I will just keep on trucking, and take it one day at a time!
On another note, I can't believe that it has already been one month. !!!!! It boggles my mind. It's the longest I have ever been away from my family before. I feel accomplished and a little freaked out. There are so many things that I want to try and experience, and not so much time! But for now, I am out of things to say. Well, not really, but it is hard to organize my thoughts at the moment, so yeah... Au revoir!
-Carly
PS I started reading The Golden Compass in French. It is hard, but I think it will help me! :)
School is good, although I am deciding whether or not to move up to Première. It's a really hard choice for me to make. Most of my classes are getting easier and easier to understand, except French class. It's terrible.... But anyhow!
Even though it is getting plus facile every day, sometimes it is really hard to be in between languages. Sometimes it is a little trying to not be able to fully express myself. And sometimes the feeling of mental isolation is pretty hard to bear, but I am getting through it! I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that I won't be stuck in this state of not being able to talk and listen perfectly forever. So I will just keep on trucking, and take it one day at a time!
On another note, I can't believe that it has already been one month. !!!!! It boggles my mind. It's the longest I have ever been away from my family before. I feel accomplished and a little freaked out. There are so many things that I want to try and experience, and not so much time! But for now, I am out of things to say. Well, not really, but it is hard to organize my thoughts at the moment, so yeah... Au revoir!
-Carly
PS I started reading The Golden Compass in French. It is hard, but I think it will help me! :)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
More Random Cultural Differences that Haven't Made it into Blog Posts!
Well, I have realized that there are so many things that are different between living here and living back in the states that I have kind of expected that it is obvious to everyone. So here are some cultural differences that I have noticed and not really mentioned:
-Meals last a lot longer here. About Forty five minutes to an hour for lunch and dinner, and there is more of a variety of things to eat :)
-School is completely and totally flipped-upside-down-opposite of school in the U.S. The schedule, timing, classes, and also the fact that I have at least an hour and a half for lunch each day, and the cafeteria food is like a feast. Also, they don't have substitute teachers. If a teacher isn't there, you don't go to school. And they have lots of strikes. There is one today!
-People seem to be less pressed for time here. I don't know if it is because they work less or what, but time passes kind of slowly, and it is relaxing for the most part.
-Fashion is a huge thing for teenagers. Everybody dresses well for school, and sometimes the fashion leads to tons of people having the same coats, shoes, or bags. It's good and bad. Sometimes I miss the carefree-ness of what you where in the U.S., but it is fun to go shopping with people who are passionate about it... :D
-The cars are all tinier, and bounce around a little bit on the road.
-This isn't really a cultural difference, but the other day, the road was blocked when I was being driven to school, and we had to take a thirty minute tour around the countryside to get into Vernon (The town I go to school in). It was immensely beautiful and I want to go back to take some pictures.
-Vernon's roads are very tight, and the shops are all packed together. The buildings are very old, and there are plenty of churches. It's the kind of place that has a truly different feel from the U.S.
And that is all I can think of for now!!!
-Carly
(It's really hard for me to pronounce my name in French)
-Meals last a lot longer here. About Forty five minutes to an hour for lunch and dinner, and there is more of a variety of things to eat :)
-School is completely and totally flipped-upside-down-opposite of school in the U.S. The schedule, timing, classes, and also the fact that I have at least an hour and a half for lunch each day, and the cafeteria food is like a feast. Also, they don't have substitute teachers. If a teacher isn't there, you don't go to school. And they have lots of strikes. There is one today!
-People seem to be less pressed for time here. I don't know if it is because they work less or what, but time passes kind of slowly, and it is relaxing for the most part.
-Fashion is a huge thing for teenagers. Everybody dresses well for school, and sometimes the fashion leads to tons of people having the same coats, shoes, or bags. It's good and bad. Sometimes I miss the carefree-ness of what you where in the U.S., but it is fun to go shopping with people who are passionate about it... :D
-The cars are all tinier, and bounce around a little bit on the road.
-This isn't really a cultural difference, but the other day, the road was blocked when I was being driven to school, and we had to take a thirty minute tour around the countryside to get into Vernon (The town I go to school in). It was immensely beautiful and I want to go back to take some pictures.
-Vernon's roads are very tight, and the shops are all packed together. The buildings are very old, and there are plenty of churches. It's the kind of place that has a truly different feel from the U.S.
And that is all I can think of for now!!!
-Carly
(It's really hard for me to pronounce my name in French)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
School!!!!!!!!
It's been a while since my last post, but I have a good excuse! I have started school! And it takes up a lot of time... Monday thru thursday generally from about 8:30 to 5:00 each day. Except Wednesdays. We get out at 12:30! :] Some people have school on Saturday mornings, but j'ai de la chance. ;)
The school system is a lot different in France, so I'm going to give you a crash course:
L'école primaire is our elementary school. It's from 6 to 11 years.
Next, we have collège. Which isn't college, but middle school. Yay. It's four years, unlike our middle school, and is split up into 6th grade, 5th grade, 4th grade, and 3rd grade, in that order. You finish collège in the equivalent of ninth grade.
Then there is lycée, which is like high school. Except for it is only three years and they are called seconde (sophomore year), première (junior year), and terminale (senior year).
Also, at the end of lycée, one has to pass a giant test called the baccalauréat to get into université.
So yeah, that's about it.
So last Saturday, Claude, Manon, and I went to the lycée to ask them if they had gotten all my papers sorted out yet. And they had!! But to my surprise... I was going to be a sophomore again... :[ Eh, whatever, the classes would be easier and I wouldn't have a giant test at the end of the year.
Well, then on Sunday I enjoyed my last day of freedom by going to Paris with Claude and Manon. It was epic! We strolled down the Champs Elysées and went in a couple of stores (including a giant overly-priced roxy store). I enjoyed it thoroughly. And then I came back, had dinner, and slept.
Ok, onto the first week of school. I guess if I had to sum it all up in one word, I would use overwhelming. The worst day was Tuesday, because I had classes from 8:30 to 6:00 pm :O. And the best day was Yesterday, friday, because I got a new English teacher who is awesome, and I got out at three o'clock, which is quite uncommon... But altogether, it was very hard and I understand very little. I don't think it would be easy for me to tell you my schedule, because it is really confusing and different from the schedule I had in the United States last year, but I will list all of my classes. Here you go:
1. The first class I went to was History, with a very very nice teacher called Madame Thepin. She was very helpful. :)
2. Then I had SES, which is pretty much an economics course, and it was OK. At least I understood some of it...
3. I had a very short day Monday, with a lot of waiting, but the next day I started right off the bat with my hardest class, Français.... dun dun dun. The teacher, well, I won't go into the details.
4. Then I had Math with a nice teacher, and it was actually kind of easy, cause I have already done what they were learning.
5. Then I had my first class of English... well, I hated it. But the next time I had English, my teacher changed! Whoopee!!!!! Now I have a teacher that is British, and quite funny. She makes the class interesting and kind of reminds me of Mrs. Lewycky or something... the type of teacher you can be friends with :)
6. Then I had Espagnolllll. Interesting, indeed. We'll see if I end up learning any spanish or just being confused. But I like the teacher. Yes, she is a little quirky and reminds me of Maya Angelou, but she seems to be very passionate about Spanish...
7.Then I had science, that was good, and I am starting to like the teacher more because she tries to help me learn French.
8. Next I had MPS, which is basically real world applications of science. Who knows, it might actually make me enjoy science.
9. So that completed my Tuesday, and Wednesday was made up completely of repeats. But Thursday, I got a new class. ECJS. I seriously have no idea what this class is about, cause it was held entirely in the library and we just filled up a sheet about library rules and stuff... Also, I have no idea what ECJS stands for. But the teacher is Thepin!! yay!
10. My final class is sciences vie terre. Something about earth science. It's ok. At least she uses powerpoints to lecture, so I can actually comprehend what's going on!
Wow, that was kinda long... But that was my week. I made some friends and it was a good experience, but I hope this week I will understand more next week!
One thing I did find was very interesting about French school is that you get assigned a "class," and that's the group of people you will have classes with for the entire year. So pretty much, you go to all of your classes with those people, and you don't have to ever be alone if you don't want to, if that makes any sense....? It's different from school in the States because I barely ever have classes with my friends there, and here, it's the opposite. Ok, sorry, that was horribly stated.
And I guess that's it for now. This weekend we're going to Versailles and I think that's it. Cool. Bye!!!
The school system is a lot different in France, so I'm going to give you a crash course:
L'école primaire is our elementary school. It's from 6 to 11 years.
Next, we have collège. Which isn't college, but middle school. Yay. It's four years, unlike our middle school, and is split up into 6th grade, 5th grade, 4th grade, and 3rd grade, in that order. You finish collège in the equivalent of ninth grade.
Then there is lycée, which is like high school. Except for it is only three years and they are called seconde (sophomore year), première (junior year), and terminale (senior year).
Also, at the end of lycée, one has to pass a giant test called the baccalauréat to get into université.
So yeah, that's about it.
So last Saturday, Claude, Manon, and I went to the lycée to ask them if they had gotten all my papers sorted out yet. And they had!! But to my surprise... I was going to be a sophomore again... :[ Eh, whatever, the classes would be easier and I wouldn't have a giant test at the end of the year.
Well, then on Sunday I enjoyed my last day of freedom by going to Paris with Claude and Manon. It was epic! We strolled down the Champs Elysées and went in a couple of stores (including a giant overly-priced roxy store). I enjoyed it thoroughly. And then I came back, had dinner, and slept.
Ok, onto the first week of school. I guess if I had to sum it all up in one word, I would use overwhelming. The worst day was Tuesday, because I had classes from 8:30 to 6:00 pm :O. And the best day was Yesterday, friday, because I got a new English teacher who is awesome, and I got out at three o'clock, which is quite uncommon... But altogether, it was very hard and I understand very little. I don't think it would be easy for me to tell you my schedule, because it is really confusing and different from the schedule I had in the United States last year, but I will list all of my classes. Here you go:
1. The first class I went to was History, with a very very nice teacher called Madame Thepin. She was very helpful. :)
2. Then I had SES, which is pretty much an economics course, and it was OK. At least I understood some of it...
3. I had a very short day Monday, with a lot of waiting, but the next day I started right off the bat with my hardest class, Français.... dun dun dun. The teacher, well, I won't go into the details.
4. Then I had Math with a nice teacher, and it was actually kind of easy, cause I have already done what they were learning.
5. Then I had my first class of English... well, I hated it. But the next time I had English, my teacher changed! Whoopee!!!!! Now I have a teacher that is British, and quite funny. She makes the class interesting and kind of reminds me of Mrs. Lewycky or something... the type of teacher you can be friends with :)
6. Then I had Espagnolllll. Interesting, indeed. We'll see if I end up learning any spanish or just being confused. But I like the teacher. Yes, she is a little quirky and reminds me of Maya Angelou, but she seems to be very passionate about Spanish...
7.Then I had science, that was good, and I am starting to like the teacher more because she tries to help me learn French.
8. Next I had MPS, which is basically real world applications of science. Who knows, it might actually make me enjoy science.
9. So that completed my Tuesday, and Wednesday was made up completely of repeats. But Thursday, I got a new class. ECJS. I seriously have no idea what this class is about, cause it was held entirely in the library and we just filled up a sheet about library rules and stuff... Also, I have no idea what ECJS stands for. But the teacher is Thepin!! yay!
10. My final class is sciences vie terre. Something about earth science. It's ok. At least she uses powerpoints to lecture, so I can actually comprehend what's going on!
Wow, that was kinda long... But that was my week. I made some friends and it was a good experience, but I hope this week I will understand more next week!
One thing I did find was very interesting about French school is that you get assigned a "class," and that's the group of people you will have classes with for the entire year. So pretty much, you go to all of your classes with those people, and you don't have to ever be alone if you don't want to, if that makes any sense....? It's different from school in the States because I barely ever have classes with my friends there, and here, it's the opposite. Ok, sorry, that was horribly stated.
And I guess that's it for now. This weekend we're going to Versailles and I think that's it. Cool. Bye!!!
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