Busy, Busy, Busy

It just seems like I don’t have any more time in the week! At first while I was here, I had hours with nothing to do, but now it seems like I hardly have time to fit everything in. In between class ending late, volleyball, rugby, badminton, the Rotary meetings and events, and everything else in-between time is really flying. It’s nice to have my life here really humming along, but I’m also going to appreciate our two week long fall break, in just another week!

Subway, Vegemite, and Another Strike

Yesterday there was a second strike- this time by all state employees who were demanding a pay raise and more time off. What this meant was that there was still school and all my classes, but there were no buses and no cantine. It worked out fine, since Laurie and I got a ride to school and I got a ride home from a friend who lives near-by. Since the cantine was closed I went to a French Subway for the first time with Laurie and her friends. There was no difference whatsoever, expect that the menu was in French, and the cheese selection was actually smaller than in the US. (Of course, the cheese they did have was better). Afterwards, we went to the house of one of her friends, since the lunches are long, and I helped three of the group practice their monologue for English. I like being able to help with my friends’ English homework, since it seem like the least I can do for everything they explain to me. This dialogue was especially interesting for me because the mistakes gave me insight in to which speech patterns and vocabulary are the most natural to native French speakers.

Usually on Tuesdays, I have a Rotary meeting, but since it was the second Tuesday of the month, the meeting was at noon and I couldn’t go. So after school, my host family and I ate an early dinner at 7:30, because my host mother’s drama club met at our house at 8:00. She started drama with an amateurs club a few weeks ago, and since they haven’t yet found a location, by 8:30 we were all sitting around the dining room table with the teacher at the head. Laurie and I were there only to watch, since we’re both too busy to sign up for a drama club, but the other members were nervously preparing to give their monologues. It interesting to sit and listen to the goings on, because I not only picked up quite a few words, but even when I didn’t understand what the teacher was saying, I could follow his drift because he had such a dramatic ability to express himself.

Today my morning started off well. Since I don’t start until 11:00 on Wednesday, I usually don’t have much to do in the morning, but today I got up early and walked to the library. I had to return Le Jour des Abeilles, but it was nice to talk a fall morning walk, since the air already smells crisp with a hint of wood smoke. That smell is one of my favorite things about this season. After getting to school, I stopped briefly to talk with a group of Australian students who are visiting France and my lycée for two weeks. They have each been matched up with a French correspondent who will return the visit in February.  Since it being in a foreign country can be so intimidating and they already knew each other in Australia, they tend to group together during breaks and at lunch. For me, it was very disconcerting on the first day they were here to suddenly walk into a group of English speakers in the middle of a French high school. However, they are all extremely friendly and this morning thanks to them I tried something called vegemite which is apparently the Australian version of marmite. I had always thought that marmite was sweet (since it sounds like marmalade), but instead vegemite was an extremely salty and spread which I was told is eaten on toast with butter. They all laughed at my expression after tasting it. It wasn’t bad, just surprising.  Of course, am in no position to say what you should or should not be homesick for- one person’s vegemite on toast is another person’s PB&J sandwich.

After lunch and then volleyball practice (I swear I’m improving, slowly but surely!) Laurie and I can back home and I had a few hours to do homework before leaving for Rugby. In between buses I stopped by the post office downtown (those Rotarians reading this should let me know if my quarterly report doesn’t arrive in a few days, since I wasn’t entirely sure I put the envelope in the right slot). Just this short trip made me realize how much progress I’ve made since arriving here. Just being downtown, I run into all sorts of different people who I know from school and from other activities. I saw no less than four different friends to say hello to just in the time it took for me to run to the post office and back. It seems that I’m really finally carving out my niche here, at the same time as I’m still busy exploring and finding everything and everyone new.

Visa Validated

Well the official visit in Orléans went fine. I just got back, with a fresh stamp on my visa and all the paperwork in order. Since my counselor wasn’t able to miss work to drive me into Orléans an hour away, another Rotarian volunteered to escort me there and back. I really enjoyed talking to him on the way there and back, since he had plenty to say in answer to some of my questions that my classmates aren’t often interested in. We discussed everything from France’s history, to the coming elections to the changes in French society due to immigration.

I also saw part of Orléans for the first time, but as my Rotarian guide explained, a great deal of Orléans was destroyed during the first and second world wars and so despite its rich history (it was the city which Joan of Arc saved during the Hundred Years War) it lost its historic buildings and does not have the reputation of being the most beautiful of French cities. Rather, it is the administrative center of the region- which was why I was summoned there to register my visa.

Since we arrived early, we got a coffee before the doors were opened. In Europe, a coffee is always what we would consider an espresso, so they find our coffee extremely watery.

When the doors opened to the building, spent the next hour and a half alternating between waiting and being summoned to different offices to some papers and have other papers signed. In between waiting I met another American, who recognized me by my passport, from Virginia who had finished his undergrad and was spending the year being an assistant English teacher. Since he is the second person I’ve met here working as a teaching assistant (a girl from Wisconsin is now doing the same in my English Literature class), it seems like an interesting idea to keep in the back of my mind for the next four years.

All the official business dealt with briefly and efficiently, and I had no trouble understanding the French, so the visit passed quickly. As for the medical examination, I was measured and weighed and it was verified that my glasses sufficiently corrected my vision (this was actually the only part of the visit which took any effort, since read the eye chart required remembering the French alphabet and I always mix up the vowel pronunciations). They also took a radiological picture of my chest, which seemed strange to me until the American I met in the waiting room explained that it was to look for tuberculosis, something which isn’t often worried about in the US. Luckily, I’m TB free which I suppose is something nice to know.

Besides that, all it took was one final stamp, I was free to spend the rest of the year in France!

Fall in France

Is there anything more wonderful than listening to the rain outside while curled up with a good book? After these last few weeks of a strangely warm September, fall has moved in swiftly. It has been cold and rainy here for the last few days, which I’m told is much more keeping with the usual season. I’m enjoying the change- I finally get to wear sweaters and use my umbrella during the fall, since in Davis summer always seemed to drop off abruptly into a gray winter without anytime in between. However, I’m still waiting to see if the leaves with change colors. Since there aren’t any Maples here, there may not be the same fireworks as fall in the Pacific Northwest, despite the similarities of climate. (There are lots of Sycamores here, however, and I enjoy seeing them surrounded by such a lush environment since I’m used to thinking of them as trees that grow in more arid climates.)

On Friday night after rugby practice I was able to stay for the dinner that the rugby club prepared on Friday nights. It was a good meal, and it was really enjoyable to spend time with the team outside of practice. The girls range in age from 15 to 25 and in person they lack all the aggression that they show on the field. Since the practices are in Bourges on Wednesday nights and St Florent (which is even farther from St Doulchard than Bourges) on Friday nights, I usually don’t stay for the dinner since I get I ride home from one of the women who help organize the team’s affairs. This Friday, however, both she and I stayed until nearly 11:30- which wouldn’t have been late if I didn’t have class on Saturday morning.

After class on Saturday, I came home to a lunch celebrating the birthday of Coralie, Laurie’s sister who lives in Bourges. Saturday night, I went with Louison, a the French teenager who spent last year in Peru with Rotary, and Dora who is the Icelandic exchange student at my lycée to the Bourges Ecological Film Festival. We arrived about an hour early by accident, but the docent let us into the award ceremony, which was by technically invitation only, for the different documentaries. After the ceremony there was free dessert, so everything worked out pretty. The films we had some to see didn’t start until late so I admit that I may have slept through the first one, which was about contaminants in drinking water. The second film, however, was a very interesting documentary about oil spills in Nigerian marshes.

This morning I was up early once again, since Louison and Dora had invited me to accompany them on a countryside “marche” or walk which their families were involved with planning for a local elementary school. Our job was to help lead three ponies which the kids took turns riding. While it was lovely to get outside for a walk, it was to my dismay that I realized “marche” could also translate to “three miles through the countryside in the rain”. If I had known I would have worn something besides my converse!  But despite the weather I made the acquaintance of Donald, a little devil of a pony for wanting to stop and nibble, and numerous six-year-olds who were happily tramping through the mud and asking for another turn. We stopped by a small family farm where the kids petted calves and saw cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens and two donkeys who, to the adults’ amusement and the kids’ confusion, decided to put on a rather age-inappropriate display in the middle of the field. It was about then that most of the students were whisked away for fresh picked apples and brioche.

Tonight I plan to spend at home with some homework and a good book (I recommend La Maison de Papier  by Françoise Mallet-Joris if you can find an English translation) since I have to leave early for Orléans  tomorrow. Unfortunately it’s not going to be a sight-seeing trip, rather since I’m technically an immigrant for the year, I have to complete paperwork and have an official medical exam at the Office of Immigration, which is located in Orléans. At least I’ll get to miss school tomorrow (though I’d rather be at school with my friends than jumping through hoops for my visa). I’ve heard from other students that it’s not a difficult trip, just a technicality, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Moon Hanging Over a Rugby Field

Today I saw a new face in the moon.  It’s not much of a blog topic and it’s not strictly related to my exchange, but that's what I'd like to write about today.

Out on the rugby field tonight the floodlights blocked out all the stars, but I could still see the moon as I did sit-ups.  Usually to me the night sky is reassuringly familiar- when I close my shutters at night I always take a moment to look for the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia- but tonight the moon hung in the sky with an entirely new person. It was quite solemn, like a tragic mask from the ancient Greek theater, rather than my usual eye-crinkling friend.  But tonight the familiar lines of the face’s crow’s-feet ran down from his eye dramatically, as if representing Oedipus’ tragic fate.

This is not to say that I found the new moon upsetting. Moreover, I think it just shows what happens when you get in the habit of seeing things from new perspectives. It turns out that even the Man in the Moon had another side to him after all these years.

The USA

As I get used to living here I find that I have less and less to say about my everyday life, not because it’s uninteresting, but simply because the cultural differences which were so notable to me upon arrival now seem to me wholly unremarkable.

Perhaps what would be interesting is to talk about the French perception of America. Of course, there are as many opinions here as there are people, but one thing I’ve noticed almost universally among the teenagers here is the glamor which is attached to the US. Since, as Americans, we can be fairly critical of our own country, I expected to receive even more criticism from a country which has been on the receiving end of such stellar exports as MacDonald’s and reality TV. However, I’ve found in general that Hollywood and the American media have done their job; the vast majority of TV shows, movies, and music are American. I think it is as a result of this that there has been no small number of French teenagers who have used the phrase “la rêve américaine” to describe how they feel about the U.S.

I find the usage of this phrase extremely interesting since it captures perfectly the difference of perspective between living in the U.S. and viewing it from the outside. For us, or for me at least, “the American dream” evokes images of a self-made American, possibly an immigrant, who has managed to achieved white-picket bliss armed only with determination and grit. Here however, “the American dream” evokes an image of prosperity, but viewed more distantly. Attached to it are the images of movie stars and the spacious lifestyles seen in sitcoms; it is an abstract idea of the wealth and glamor as seen on TV. As one of my classmates said of going abroad, “England, well, it’s England. It’s right there. But the United State,s I mean… it’s the United States!“ .

That said, I have also fielded a large number of questions about our obesity and gasoline usage, so clearly not all aspects of American culture glitter like Hollywood.

Actually, the prevalence of American pop culture has created an interesting dilemma for me, since I have never been a real follower of American pop culture. I find that many of my classmates know a great deal more than I do about Lady Gaga lyrics and Desperate Housewives plotlines.

This is not to say that all of the French are falling over themselves to adopt American culture. Rather, American culture has marketing power, particularly with people my age. (And especially the state of California.)It’s similar to how most shampoos in the US sport French names, since France has a marketable connotation of sophistication to us.  

Though I find it interesting to try think about the French view of American culture, I clearly can’t give a definitive description. Beyond the surface stereotypes, both good and bad, there is also the understanding that the US is just another country and culture, with some differences with also just full of ordinary people. Perhaps this is the view which comes out strongest when you are face to face with someone from another country, at least it’s the view that I come around to again and again whenever I talk to someone (be they from France, Taiwan, Iceland, Australia, Romania, New York, Costa Rica…)

My Weekend

I want to apologize for the number of mistakes which I know are present in most of my blogs. Sometimes I go back and look at them, egotistically enough, and I cringe to see some of the garbled sentences and words I came up with. Today however, I finally had the bright idea of typing my blogs out in a Microsoft word document rather than directly on the site. The font may look a little different because of this, but hopefully the new presence of spellcheck will make a difference for both of us.

Now I do have a test in History tomorrow so I can’t stay up too late typing this; even if my grades don’t count this year, I’m still putting up a good effort in class for three main reasons: 1) It helps my French immensely, 2) I would be bored out of my mind all day if I didn’t, and 3) it’s hard to break a habit that I’ve had since kindergarten.

However, I thought that you would want to hear about my weekend! Saturday commenced with the usually two hours of class, making my Saturday feel surreally like another weekday and a weekend day mashed into one. After class I missed my bus, and read my book while I waited for the next one. I picked out La Maison de Papier from the school library, and I’m enjoying it even if it is more challenging to read than the last book I was working on. I actually enjoy my bus rides, even my 40 minute Friday bus ride to Rugby practice, because it carves a section out of my day where I get to read. The last few years I’ve found that it’s too easy to get swept up in the business of school, leaving whatever book I’m reading sitting lonely on the table. Since I not only have time on the bus, but also usually arrive early to wherever I’m going due to the bus schedule, it makes for the perfect time out of my day to get lost in a book.

But to get back to my Saturday, after I caught another bus home and had lunch with my host family, I went back into town to meet up with the other American exchange student who is with Rotary. There is one other Rotary exchange student from Taiwan, Joseph, but he couldn’t make it. The two of them go to another school, so this was the first time that I’ve seen another American (or native English speaker) since the Rotary Paris weekend. It was great to see Hana and we spent the time taking all the touristy pictures that we can’t take when we’re with our unimpressed French family and friends. Next time I’m hoping to get all the exchange students we can together, whether they’re with Rotary or not.

After our long walk we met up with two of my friends from class who were in town, and while I had to leave early (I wasn’t about to miss two busses in one day) it was really fun to spend time with them before I had to go. It may not sound very impressive, to say that it was fun, but for me to be able to casually meet up with classmates and not feel uncomfortable due to the pressure to try to imitate or conjugate correctly is a very fundamental breakthrough, which I’ve been really enjoying for the last few weeks.

That evening I visited my second host family’s house for the first time. They also live in St Doulchard, but a little bit closer into town. The daughter is a year younger than me and the son a few years older though I’m not sure exactly how many. The house is a vine-covered abode, stately for not being too large. We spent a few hours talking about nothing of great importance, but I left feeling that I will be as excited to live there as I will be sad to leave my currently host family.

Since I was gone all Friday (my rugby practice makes for a long day, since it take place in St Florent, which is located outside of Bourges and I have the take the bus directly there after school) and most of Saturday, I spent today home with my host family. I made marble cake for the first time with their help, and in honor of their older daughter’s birthday, she and her boyfriend come over for a big family lunch. Otherwise, today was spent with little excitement beyond that usual of living in France.