Sports and School, Day to Day

One very French expirience I had on Tuesday day was my first teacher's strike. Apparently they go on strike a few times a year, and in this case it was to protest lay-offs as a result of budget cuts (at least we're not the only place where that's happening). In effect, all but one of the teachers I have on Tuesday were on strike, and since there's no such thing as a substitute teacher here, I didn't go to school until 2:00 and I didn't have class until 4:30.

After my sole class- in which I nearly understood the physics teacher!- I went directly to my Tuesday Rotary meeting. This meeting was of note because it was the Rotary Governor's visit to my club and after all the business was finished they treated him and the club to a four course meal. It was delcious and convivial, and it lasted from 9:15 to 11:15. By far the lastest and longest dinner I've ever had.

Yesterday, on Wednesday, I not only went to Rugby for the first time, I also recieved my first graded paper of the year. It was an in-class essay, a very typical assignment here, and it was graded out of 20 points as all assignments are here. I got a 13 out of 20, which as far as I can tell is somewhere around a C+ to a B. Even taking into account that the teacher may have been going easy on me, I was extremely excited to have earned this sort of grade on a paper written in French!

After lunch (which is when I finish on Wednesdays) I went to volleyball practice, where I attempted to learn an overhand serve and had a great time. I took the bus home, then left a few hours later for my first Rugby practice. I can say that I was more than a little nervous to be starting a sport famous for knowcking teeth out, but as practice began I found that the girls on the field were not only perfectly happy to explain what to do, but also extremely friendly and supportive. Eveyone was happy and joking, even in between scuffling for the ball. They range in age from 15 to 25, and thankfully, two of the other girls on the field were novices like myself.

After a ride home, a late dinner and a shower, I just about as ready for bed as it is possible to be.

Today, during lunch, I continued my new athletic streak by starting badminton with one other exchange student who is at my school for the year, a girl from Iceland, and a French girl who spent last year on exchange in Peru with Rotary.

My favorite thing right now is talking to the other teenagers I meet. After a month, my language skills are good enough that I really enjoy meeting all the new people on these teams and at school and I can have real, unstilted conversations with them. While my network had formerly been limited to my classe and the people my host sister introduced me to, I'm now starting to branch out to meet all sorts of different people.

Trying New Things

It's almost 11:30 and I'm ready to drop off, but I've been wanting to post a blog for the last couple of days and I think I'll try to type this out quickly.

For the first time since I got here I have the wonderful tired feeling in my legs that comes after a hard workout. This time, however, it isn't due to ballet as it usually was back home. Instead I am tired out by a very (very very very) different sport- rugby! I really enjoyed my first day and plan to be back on Friday. To explain how this came about, I should mention that I've been thinking about different ways to get involved and stay busy while I'm here. To that end, this past Sunday I went to the "Bourges Associations Festival". Dodging between the crowd of milling, sweaty spectators, the stands belonging to every club from knitting to judo, and American Country Line Dance demonstration, I collected pamphlets from any and every club that looked interesting.

(I think that "La Danse Country" may be more popular here than at home!):

One of these clubs was a girls rugby team, ages 15 and up. While I also looked into the other information I collected (I really wanted to try rowing but the schedule just didn't work out), the end result was that tonight I was on a rugby field for the first time, being taught how to tackle another player. I had an absolute blast, but after my volleyball practice early in the afternoon and two hours of rugby tonight I'm ready to get some sleep!

Tomorrow I'll fill you in on the teacher's strike and a Rotary dinner yesterday, along with the details of my atheltic adventures from today, but for now... Bisous!

Contacting Me

I realized recently that some of you may have tried to contact me by responding the email address that sends each post, if you subscribed to email updates. Unfortunatly, I don't receive any emails that are sent to that address.

I don't want to post my email address online publicly, but if you want to reach me, I assumed that most of you fall into one of four catagories: (1) you already have my email address, (2) you have my parents email address and can ask them for mine or (3) you are friends with me on facebook. If you contact me via email or via facebook, I'm sure I'd love to hear about what all of you at home have been up to too!

A Month Already!

It was exactly a month ago that I set foot, sleep deprived and confused, in France for the first time! While it seems like no time at all, when I look at how much I've already learned and acclimated, it seems like a lifetime. Perhaps you would like to hear how my day went today, with a month of this amazing year under my belt.

I got up at 8:00, took my shower and got ready. I talked with my host mom over a breakfast of last night's baguette, yogurt, and a banana (I've already learned to manage without my morning peanutbutter). I glanced over the morning paper, saw an article about a car accident and read the weather forecast (20 degrees Celsius as a high).

At 9:10 I caught my bus, which runs from St Doulchard to downtown Bourges about every hour. On the bus I read Le Jour des Abeilles, a novel I got from the library and am nearly finished with. (Actually, I realized that it was originally written in English by an American author. The title is The Day of the Bees, and I recommend it- it'll probably be a quick read if you don't read it in French). I walked from the bus station to the school with one of my classmates who takes the same bus as me.

I spent the fifteen minutes before class began talking comfortably with two other classmates outside of the room. As the hall filled up, I kissed each new arrival I knew on the cheeks as we all greeted each other with the casual "Salut" (Hi) and "Ça va?" (How's it going?).

When the bell rang and we were all given permission to seat ourselves, my litterature teacher (or prof, short for professeur) recommenced last week's study of 15th century texts. While I have some difficulty reading poetry about the Hundred Year's War on my own, even with my pocket dictionary well at hand, I can at least follow the prof's explanation of it. Actually, my favorite classes are French and Litterature, since most the texts we're studying are either new to me or in their original untranslated form.

During break, one of my classmates invited me to go into town with her later that afternoon. This was notable because, though I've met a large number of friends in class, this was the first time I've hung out with someone outside of school. However, I'm comfortable enough now with my friends at school that I think we'll start spending more time together outside of class.

Another hour of class later, and we were free to go. I caught my bus home, and walked in the door just as my host family was putting lunch on the table. Paté and anchovies with miniature pickles for hors d'ouvres, followed by the main meal. Today, it was one of my favorite new dishes, ham and mushrooms in sauce. This is actually a Portugeuse dish, but eaten with plenty of fresh French bread. Then came cheese, then desert. For desert, I had what we would consider a pudding cup, but it here falls within the vast range of yogurt-like foods eaten from breakfast to desert after dinner.

After lunch, I went back into town to meet up with my friend. We talked and did some shopping, and though I didn't buy anything, I'll most likely go back to get a few sweaters I looked at. I didn't realize how under-equipped my California wardrobe is for winter here. (Well, maybe I did, but only because I knew that shopping here would be a valuable cultural expirience!)

After spending awhile downtown together, we met up with her mom and older sister at a cafe, where sat outside with our drinks and talked. Going to get something to drink at a cafe here is an expected a part of going out with friends. It's a pleasent way to spend time with people, and I enjoyed meeting my friend's family this afternoon despite the slight humidity in the air. As a side note, French has a wonderful phrase to express the feeling of humidity, "it's really humid today" translates roughly to "it's really heavy today".

After I took my bus home, I had a few hours with my host family before eating dinner at 8:30. I love spending time with them in the hours just before dinner, because everyone is usually home from their day, and all together downstairs. Though I didn't do any homework tonight- thanks to an especially gripping part of Le Jour des Abielles- I'll often ask Laurie for help with certain assignments, and I'm more than happy to help with her English homework in exchange. Thankfully for me, she's promised to help me decipher my Physics homework tomorrow.

After helping clean up the kitchen, I went to get ready for bed and to type this up... so I hope you enjoyed this day in the life just as much as I did!

School

I'd like to describe a regular school day for me, but there is the sole problem that my schedule changes so much from day to day that it's difficult to describe concisely! In fact, the scheduling is one of the biggest differences I've noticed between the two high school systems. In the US, the starting bell rang at 8:00 and the end bell rang at 3:00, give or take a half an hour. There was an hour (or less) for lunch, and a few ten minute breaks. The afternoons were yours to fill, with friends, extra-curriculars, and homework.

Here, however, things stretch on a little bit longer at school. Today, for example, my school day started at 10:00 am and finished at - wait for it - 6:00pm! However, I had a good two hours for lunch, and one free hour during the afternoon. (This free hour was another new phenomenon for me, since it was due to a teacher's absence. Rather than having substitute teachers, class is cancelled in a teacher isn't there). To be honest, my mind signs out of school any time after 4 o'clock, and I spend my evening classes just trying to keep my mind on the sound of the teacher's voice, let alone understanding what they say. Thankfully, Tuesday is the only other day I have class untill 6:00. On Monday and Friday I finnish at 4:00, and on Wednesday, I only have class from 11:00 to 12:00. The most bizarrely scheduled class is my Litterature class, which I have for two hours in the morning... on Saturday!

We had learned in French class at home that school days in France last far longer than school days in the US. I had always thought that, as a result of this, French students spent longer time in class than their American counterparts. However, I did the math the other day, and it turns out that the long days are mostly due to the long lunches and a number of hour long breaks in between classes.

While I can't say that I enjoy being in class at what used to be my dinner time, on the whole I don't mind this leisurely approach to scheduling. It gives me more opportunity to spend time with my classmates and ask questions about the homework I don't understand. I'm especially lucky to have a classe full of friendly and interesting people. It was easy to become friends with most of the students in my classe, since nearly a quarter of them were ready to take me under their wing on just the first day.  Because we have same schedule, my classe spends the breaks more or less together, which is an excellent opportunity for me to practice my french slang  and meet anyone and everyone who joins us.

Another aspect of French high school life I've noticed is the lack of extracurriculars. Whenever I ask someone about the sports or hobbies they participate in, they will tell me that they did basketball/tap dancing/flute/etc, until a year or two ago. Most of them found it too difficult to juggle school and another activity, and so stopped the activity. The way I see it, this is both a loss in terms of being able to do what you're passionate about, and a gain in terms of not putting too much pressure on students to over-perform. In fact, though may only be because it's the beginning of the year, I have yet to see any students stretched as thin as many of my friends were at home.

The format of most of the classes is lecture oriented. The class listens to the teacher and takes notes on the information, which they will have to memorize to be prepared for the ever-looming BAC, the high-school exit exam. The hardest thing for me to learn hasn't been the content presented in calss, but rather the system used to complete the work. For example, today I learned the mysterious colored coded strategy which the other students have been using to take notes since elementary school. As my friend explained to me,

"The red pen is for titles, the green pen is for subtitles and corrections, the blue pen is for writing."
"And the black pen?"
"The black pen is for when you forget your blue pen. But you can also use other colors if you want."

I don't know if I'm bold enough yet to write my notes in purple, but I am getting more comfortable with the language and the work with every passing day. It seems like everyday I have another small success- today I answered a question for the first time in class. If I can already follow and take notes on a lecture about the rise of the US as an dominant economic power, I can't wait to see how much French I'll learn in another month!

The other biggest difference is the teachers' distance from the students. Most are helpful in explaining anything I don't understand, but they also command a respect and a distance from the students which I'm not used to. In class, we all wait to sit down until the teacher gives us permission. While I appreciate the silence and efficiency in the classroom, I am also easily intimidated by the sterner teachers among them- I have found that French teachers are not afraid of telling their students that they're wrong.

While my classmates are spending most of their time studying, I am free to pursue as mant other interests as I like. (It's nice to have already graduated from high school). Yesterday, I went to the first Wednesday intermural volleyball practice. While I've cleary got a lot to learn baout volleyball, I also really enjoyed it, and plan to be back next week. In addition, I'm hoping to find dance classes in town which I can go to. As I become accustomed to living here, I'm ready to get involved with as many different things as I possibly can!

Chateau Chambord

On Sunday, I went to visit a real country chateau with my host family. I don't know if you ever watched documentaries on the Chateaux of the Loire Valley (what do you mean I'm the only one? It's a perfectly normal choice of TV programing!), but this Chateau, Chateau Chambord, is one of the many palaces that were build as displays of wealth and power along the Loire River in the Renaissance. The idea behind it's construction was along the lines of: "I am Francois I, and because I am the King of France, this is my humble hunting lodge ( so take that, Charles V!)"

  



 Of course, the picture doesn't even beging to show the vast grounds surrounding the chateau itself. I could have spent all day exploring the inside and the parks surrounding, but since it was an hour-long drive to and from, we left after only a few hours of admiring the rooms. It was such a pleasure to go an outing with my host family like this- especially considering that seeing a palace like this for them is a lot like Californians being kind enoungh to revisiting the Golden Gate bridge. Sure it's iconic, but it's also right next door.

So that was my weekend... I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and for your patience with this history nerd, I'll give you a few more photos from Sunday:

With Laurie on the ride there:

The bed I want to have, but can't, since really only Louis XIV can pull something like this off:

And nearly as spectacular and bizarre was this woman's coat. In the context of the 16th century chapelle we were in, it made for a strange meating past and future:



And that makes for the end of my series on Chateaux visits! (Though hopefully not the end of my visits altogether.) I hope in my next post to talk more about my school day, and the differences in the education systems, but if there's anything you'd like you to hear more about, feel free to facebook or email me since I'd love to hear from you too!

The Heritage of Bourges

I am truly in a town to make any history lover's cup runeth over. And I don't just means with happiness- there is actually too much history here for any given cup to feasibly contain. I bring this up because this weekend is, in celebration of the region's patrimonie (or heritage), a weekend of free entry to all the city's historical sites. So today with my host family I finally climbed to the top of the Cathedrale de Saint Etienne, to see the magnificent view...

I have actually visited the cathedral several times before. I can't even begin to express what it feels like to live in a town with these sort of things available everyday. For instance, after school on Tueday, I decided to take an hour to for myself after school, and instead of taking the first bus straight home, I walked through downtown to the cathedral. On the way, I bought my first macaron (au chocolat, and absolutly delicious) and ate it in this garden...

(a study in espalier trees, just for you, Dad)

After my "culinarly cultural expirience" (which is how I now refer to delicious indulgences), I entered to the Cathedral, just to sit and admire until it was time to catch my bus.
Inside the cathedral:

But back to today...
On the long walk up to the tower, I was impressed by the graffiti on the walls. Now I am general not in favor of defacing world heritage sites, but as I puffed by way up on the heels on my host sister, I started to notice the dates carved next to the names. This one, if you look closely, was carved in 1647:

As I looked at these dates, I was reminded how people share history, even as they live through it. There were tourists who came to admire this cathedrale even during the Renaissance, on the brink of WWI, and during the reconstruction of Europe after WWII; the dates streched right up to today.

After leaving the cathedrale we took a tour of the centre-ville, or downtown, on the little motorized train which can always be seen einding its ways through the streets, filled with tourists. This was actually fascinating, because I learned than many of the building I see everyday on the way to school were built long before George Washington was born, and have fascinating enough stories behind their walls to make me want to visit all of them in detail.

One of these sight which we did visit today was the Palais Jacques Coeur, or Jacques Coeur's palace. Jacques Coeur was a prominent renaissance merchant, politician, and town figure. Important enough, in fact, was he was able to build a mansion/palace in the middle of downtown. The tour was impressive not ony in its information and presentation of such a magnificent building, but also in that I had walked by this palace a number of times and hardly even noticed it was there, simply because sights like a stone palace replete with towers is a normal part of the landscape.

The tomb of M. Coeur on display (or at least I assume that's who it was, it wasn't labeled):

And just to contrast with the dignity of such a shrine, there was also this inexplicable piece on display, totally unlabeled:

I'll let you puzzle that one out for yourselves, because right now of have nothing to say other than- Good Night!

The Red Chateau

There will be more pictures to come when I have the time, but in the meantime I wanted to post something, even though I don't have much to say.

Here's a short story about what its like to be here. Amazing an expirience as it is, exchange students are continually reminded that feeling homesick is to be expected. To that end, I was feeling a little bit down this afternoon (not badly and not because of anything specific), so I went for a run. Basically, I like to run until I hit a farm field, which doesn't take very long, since Saint Doulchard is very small. Then, if possible, I walk out into the enpty country side and enjoy the combination of exercise induced endorphins, open space, and solitude. I find that bird calls and the flittering of butterfly wings have a crisper reality out there than when I'm bustling about my day.

Today, however, I happened upon a chateaux placed on the edge of town. As chateaux go, it's very small (more like a mansion than a palace), bright red, and surrounded by a large and carefully manicured garden. I don't know about you, but I have never just happened across something like that before- I don't think that ever happens in the US.

It was just reminder that if I ever start to feel sorry for myself about being here, I should take another look around!

Stop! Read the Last Post Before Reading This One

If you read the post "I Have a Camera" first, then this post will make more sense.

Here is the street on the way to my bus stop- do you see the church steeple?:

My bus stop is next to this old church's parking lot:

Sorry about the orientation- I'm still figuring out how to post pictures!



Across the street from the Church and bus stop is one of my favorite things about this intersection... the local bakery/patisserie! (It's no wonder they say exchange students gain weight, if all foreign countries place shops like this at every corner):

The bus stop itself:

My bus card, a necessity for the school year:

On the bus itself- as it fills with students in the morning, the new arrivals walk to the back, greeting the other students they know on either bus of the bus with kisses on the cheek:

Here is the bus station in downtown Bourges:

And from there, I have some snapshots of the remaining walk to school:

It may be difficult to tell in these pictures, but the roads are quite a bit smaller than at home, and a large number of the building in the downtown were build long before the town of Davis, California was even founded!

I Have a Camera!

This is going to be a photo oriented blog to make up for the lack of earlier photos. I bought the memory card yesterday and today I went into town with my host sister to take pictures. I also bought a watch (I mentioned the lack of clocks in an earlier blog, I think) and a pocket French-English dictionary. Probably something I should have thought to bring ahead of time, but there you are.

So to start let me introduce you to my host family...

My host mom, Christine, and me:

And my host father Michel (sorry, I know it's not the best picture of him) and host sister Laurie:

And the dog, Oupie (not sure about the spelling of the name)

Now let me show my trip to school in the morning...

Here's the house as I leave:

 I'm going to put the other photos in a second blog, in the hopes that the website will be able to load the pictures faster.



15 min post

I have 15 min before I leave for school so I thought I'd post something quickly. As you may be able to tell, school has very quickly eaten up a lot of the time that I would otherwise spend blogging...

But I wanted to describe the school cafeteria to you! So I aldready mentioned that lunch is a big deal here (as I side note, another exchange student recently contested with me that dinner may be as big as lunch here, but regardless I'm not used to much ceremony while eating in the middle of the day). So on my first day I was wondering what that would mean for school lunch. I knew that most people ate at the cantine, rather than bringing sack lunches or going out like most students do at home. As I was asking around about the school food I didn't get very enthusiastic reponses. The ubiquitous answer was "all right" but not "good". Comeing from the land which invented cafeteria mystery meat, this gave me a sense of foreboding.

However, on arrival I realized that their responses had no idea how low my expectation were! Walking though the line, I filled my platter with a salad, a small package of brie, and chocolate mousse. The main dish was hot roasted chicken, coucous, and ratatouille... all eaten with the fresh bread taken from massive bins at the end of the line. All in all, a far cry from the microwave pizza I never had the courage to touch at home!

The cantine is large, with tables full of kids talking, laughing and eating. Water pitchers are placed on the table as the beverage, to be refilled as needed. And I've even been lucky enough to be invited to eat everyday with different people in my class everyday... though after paying such close attention in classes I can't say I make a great conversationalist. Lunch is a wonderful thing here at my lycee, but it's also a much appreciated chance to let my brain relax!

(Again, apologies for typos as I'm on my way out the door...)

Catch-Up Post

This is going to be a quick post, since it's really time for me to be going to sleep, but I don't know when else I'll get the chance to write about the last week.

My first week of school went really well. As disoriented as the first day was, each day has gotten easier and I've moved from trying to make contact with people to actually a number of my classmates who I genuinly enjoy spending time with and I really look forward to getting to know. I'm able to follow all of my classes. It helps that I have so many classes in English and the history class is review for me. So far, French is the most challenging classes, but that said, I haven't had my physics class yet, which I look to with apprehension.

I actually consider myself lucky that I'm already integrating with the system with success, moderate as it may be. That's because I spend Saturday and today (Sunday) meeting all the other inbound students in my Rotary district. They are from all over the world, and absolutly wonderful! I say that I consider myself lucky, because after meeting the other inbounds, I realized that I'm starting off with really good language skills compared to many exchange students. We're all struggling to communicate and make connections, so it was both really relaxing and really exciting to be surrounded by people who knew how it feels to think at two thousand miles an hour but only speak at about two words a minute.

However, communication was really pretty easey between most of the exchange students because those who weren't native English speakers (and between the U.S., Canada, and Australia, there were a lot of us)  had learned English primarily before learning French. In fact, it was pretty impressive how nearly fluent the Taiwanese, Argentinian, Swedish, and Mexican kids were in English. On the whole, it was one of the coolest expiriences I've ever had to be surrounded by people who were switching off between first, second, and third languages (with varying degrees of success) as they changed from group of people to group of people; and the absolute best part was being able to participate in it. I love the feeling that I can switch between two different languages at will. I'm nowhere approaching fluency in French yet, but I'm proficient enough to say anything I want and to understand everything said to me... and what a difference just these past two weeks have made!

In fact, we were all so busy talking to each other, comparing expiriences, comiserating and exclaming that I think we barely noticed we were in Paris at all for the entire journey from the train station to the hostel. As the rest of the day continued we did most of the really touristy things in Paris- climbing the Eiffel Tower, seeing the Mona Lisa and the Venus di Milo, taking a boat tour on the Seine. To be honest I was impressed by all the sights, but I was really taking mental notes for things to come back to sometime when I can visit Paris outside of a massive group of other students. At one point we were walking through the Louvre together, talking and laughing, when we were briefly distracting by the huge portrait of the Coronation of Napoleon (I'm sure you'd recognize it if you saw it). We stopped momentarily to gaze at the enormous canvas, the original of an image which all of us had seen in countless textbooks, and then recommenced our discussion on how much we missed peanutbutter.

Sometime soon I will describe my school and school day, and you may be lucky enough to find it includes pictures! I have, after far to many unimmortalized expiriences, finally purchased a camera. Unfortunatly, it turns out you have to buy the memory card seperatly... Who knew?

Please excuse my typos in this blog as well as in the last several. I hope you'll understand that when it's between sleep and proof reading, I have plenty good motivation to choose sleep.

The First Day of the Rest of the Year

Today was not only my first day of school, but also my first weekly Rotary meeting. Both went absolutely wonderfully, and I look forward to attending both of them for the next ten months!

I took the city bus to class in the morning- it was incredibly easey since there was a mass of other students all heading in the same direction. As we waited outside the gate I was able to strike up conversation with a few other students, a littly bit haltingly, but altogether friendly. My Rotary counselor is also the prof du sport, or PE teacher, at my lycee (high school) and he met me outside in order to help me become a little more aquainted with the school. He introduced me to my professeur principale, who is similare to a homeroom teacher and is also my English teacher, and to two girls in my class. They were kind enough to take me under their wing for the day, which, pleasently enough, ended by noon,

The intervening time was spent with my classe (who I will have most of my classes with for the rest of the year) in our professeur principale's room. She told us our electives and then wrote the schedule on the board for us to copy down. To be honest, it was a lot to take in (everything from the lined paper to the handwriting is just a little bit unfamiliar), and it didn't help that the teacher was so pleased to have a native speaker in her English class that she singled me out rather frequently, invariably drawing the classe's attention to me whenever I was attempting to decipher some cryptic new piece of information. However, I was bolstered by the help of my classmates sitting next to me, and I look forward to getting to know even more of my new classmates tomorrow.

I am in the equivalent of junior year here, and though I'm a good two years older than my classmates I don't think it should make too much of a difference, since I'm playing catch-up on a lot of skills they take for granted (like being about to talk). I'm in the literature (L) track, as opposed to the Science, Math, or Economic/Social Studies tracks. What that means is that since I didn't choose math as an elective (because I didn't choose any of my electives) I actually don't have a math class this year. I'm sure I'll enjoy that for now, but we'll see how college level math goes next year once I'm out of practice! On the other hand, I do have a science class, once a week, and French, Spanish, History/Geography, and Government/Social Studies. I also am in no less than three English classes. I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but I think that in addition to the mandatory English class and the mandatory Foreign Literature: English class I was given supplementary English instead of another elective. At least those are three classes I won't have to worry too much about!

As for a description of the school itself, it is actually built in two distinct parts, seperated by a city street. The most visible part is the old building which house the girl's school about a century and a half ago. While the interior is renovated, the exterior makes quite an imposing impression on a girl used to schools built well into the 20th century. Just across the street are a colection of modern buildings which contain classrooms, the gymnasium, the caffeteria, etc. There is quite a bit of open courtyard space in between the buildings, which is pleasent as can be right now, but I'm hoping won't be regreted too much by winter.

On the whole, I'm really pleased by the school, and I think that I can look forward to the coming challenge!

As for my first Rotary meeting, I really enjoy being with such genial host Rotarians. Of course, there was pleanty of business at the meeting which had little to do with me, but it was offset completely by the different Rotary members who spent the evening good naturedly teasing me in between the club affairs.

It's late enough to sign off, but thankfully I don't have to be in class tomorrow until 11:00- and Wednesday afternoons are entirely free. Though that good new may be offset slightly by the time Saturday morning rolls around... and I have a class at 10:00!

Fête!

Yesterday was my first French party, the celebration of my host sister's 17th birthday and her friend's 18th birthday. I learned that 18th birthdays in France are a combination of the American Sweet Sixteen and, since 18 is when they gain la majorité, the American 21st birthday.

On the whole, it was great to meat a lot of people before starting school (tomorrow!), but those of you who have ever had a sleepover with me won't be surprised when I say that I was ready to be finnished at midnight. However, the party was going strong until 5:00 in the morning, when everyone fell asleep in chairs or in sleeping bags scattered across the floor. With the clean up in the morning, we didn't actually leave until 1:00pm the next day.

Once I resigned myself too a long night, I was able to follow the crowd in the French dances. One of my favorite things to see was how they danced to the American song Cotton-Eyed Joe. I know that there is actually a choreographed dance to this song, since we were forced to learn it in 8th grade PE, but since nobody was familiar with the dance (or understood the lyrics), they made a tunnel of people holding hands, London Bridge-style, and as the two people at the end of the tunnel each ran through it to the other side, the tunnel snaked energetically around the dance floor. In general, many of the pople there were excited to meet the American. In fact, many attempted hilariously to speak in English with me, leading me to the conlusion that there is very little more difficult to understand than a drunk French teenager attemping to speak in English. Actually, thanks to American media, many of the kids there were surprised when they heard that I personnaly don't drink. But none of them cared enough to stop asking, variously, if I was proud to have a black president, if I played American football (miming a basball bat), if I was familiar with the names of different soccer players, and if I went the the beach a lot.

Yesterday was spent cleaning up and catching upsleep, and today, being my last day before school starts tomorrow, I am enjoying the quiet. In fact I though I might spend the time listing just a few of the cultural differences I have encountered so far.

1. Flip flops are worn in the house, but seldom outside of it. Once my host sister accidently left the house in her flip flops, and we had to drive home so that she could put on real shoes.

2. It is not uncommon to wear the same clothes for two days in a row. This isn't even rewearing jeans or a sweatshirt- the entire outfit, if it isn't stained or too wrinkled, is laid out at the end of the day, ready for the morning. It's not considered dirty- my host sister was the first person who I noticed to do it, and she is the only person I have ever met who brushes their teeth three time a day. (As a side note, there is zero truth to the stereotype that the French don't shower).

3. Since the roads are so small, drivers just park with two wheels on the sidewalk. In addition, I though the the California idea of following distance was nonexistant- but French drivers don't come to a halt until the front bumper is practially touching the bumber of the person in front of them.

4. It's all about the bread; there is baguette bread with every meal, and it is such a staple that it isn't even placed on the plate. Rather, it rests next to the plate and often used instead of a knife to push food on to the fork, and at the end of the meal is used to practically swab the plate down. For us, good bread it a part of the meal. Here, as far as I cam tell, it is almost one of the utensils used to eat the meal, and it just as common and necessary as water. In fact, today I discovered where the stale bread goes (since it is bought fresh everyday) in the house. In the garage by the recycling bin I found two enormous tote bags of the odds and ends of bread which hadn't been eaten before it went stale. (And the tote bags here are enormous, since they don't use paper or plastic shopping bags).

5. Those of you with rats and mice at home might be wondering at the wisdom of keeping that much stale bread lying around. However both those rodents, and one other pest have been pleasently absent to far. Dispite the standing water of the nearby marais, I have seen no mosquitos whatsoever. It is a mcuh appreciated absence especially after, for some of you, our night by Charlotte Lake not too long ago.

6. Everyone wears watches. Actually, because of this, I've noticed a lot fewer clocks around, so I'm going to need to get one too.

7. This may only be my host family, but they iron everything from T-shirts to jeans.

8. Pizza actually is eaten with a knife and fork. When I mentioned that it was my first time using utensils to eat pizza, I was greated with surprise. "Even at resaurants?" asked my host mother.

9. On the topic of food, I haven't seen any grilled meat so far. At home, something comes off the barbeque nearly every night during the summer and frequently during the winter. Here however, meat is fried in about a quarter cup of melted butter in a frying pan. At the end of the cooking process, both sides are sprinkled with salt, garlic powder, and dried basil. Simple, and very, very good.

10. There is just as much subtlety to the bises and handshakes (kisses on the cheek) used for greeting and good-byes are there are to the hugs and handshakes used at home. Women and women do bisous with eachother, as do women and men. Men shake hands, for the most part. However, you know the hankshake-hug-backslap that men who are good friends do? Replace the hug-backslap with a bise, and you have the French version!

The First Week

My goal for this last week has been to familiarize myself with Saint-Doulchard and Bourges, and I think that I'm well on my way to starting to feel a little more at home. The day before yesterday, I succeeded in getting a library card from the local library. It's within walking distance, so going back and forth helps me get to know the neighborhood a little bit better. I've been missing having something to read, because, though I brought some books from home, I don't want to get lost in the English language until I'm a little more secure in my language skills. I've been reading the Tintin and Asterix books in my room, but as comforting as it is to see familiar faces, I've been worrying about learning French from the likes of Thomson and Thompson (or Dupont and Dupond, here).

I've also been running, because I find that I'm less likely to feel frustrated or homesick if I exercise, and I gained a fairly good knowledge of the neighborhood and a reputation as being 'sportive'- I'm not the only runner I've seen out, but so far I haven't seen any other girls or teenagers.

I've also got my bus pass, which I'll use to get to and from school for the rest of the year, and a map of the towns so that I can orient myself. Give me a mode of transportation, a map, and a library card and I'm ready to conquer the world!

Last night, I met my host Rotary for the first time. There was a delicious dinner outside with a view of the marais (marshes which were trained into lush canals centuries ago for the use of fertile marshland and as a part of the towns fortifications; they are now maintained as the city's main greenspace). I absolutly love my host Rotary club! They are friendly lively, and perhaps a little bit insane (there were a number of costumes present for the dinner- orange and pink wigs, and at least one fake mustache- all mixed in among the respectability of the rest of the club). They introduced me as a new member of the Rotary club, and I'm now looking forward to attending the weekly Tuesday night meetings. In fact, it's a pleasure to be hosted by such an interesting and involved club because I've heard from other students, returning from previous years, who had little to no contact with their hosting Rotary club during their exchange. At the same party I met my second and third host families, who I liked immediatly. They were as excited to meet me as I was to meet them, and they were fascinating to talk to during dinner. Not to jinx anything, but I think I may have had more luck than is fair for this exchange!