Aprés la Pluie, le Beau Temps

A lot of sad things happened last week- I ran out of my favorite body wash, I got stung (twice) by a wasp while riding the tallest roller coaster in Europe, and, to top it all off, it's been raining. Great.
But lately... I've been thinking a lot about this French proverb, the proverb I decided to use as the title for this blog post (THANK YOU MS BARBER FOR TEACHING IT TO US). The literal translation is "After the rain, good weather." Which could figuratively mean, you have to go through tough times to get through to the good times. I think this applies SO MUCH to every exchange student in one way or another. We all go through difficult or sad times- learning the language, the occasional pang of homesickness, making friends, making mistakes... but through all this hard work, we are going to have the best year of our lives- a year that will stick out in our memories forever.
These past few days have been amazing, and yet, incredibly sad at the same time. Who knew such contrasting emotions could occur at exactly the same time? Anyway, on Wednesday, I went to a Brasserie with a few of my friends from CLA. It took us about 30 minutes to search downtown for a restaurant that served dinner as early as 5:30 (I KNOW! Crazy right?). It was an insane amount of fun! I love how easily we all became friends. I remember the first day of class when I met Mana, Tomo, and Enrico, and how hard it was to speak to each other in a language so different from our own. And now, we may not be fluent, but I really think we've improved! We can (more) easily associate with waiters (it's harder than one would think!), and we can have a conversation without constantly asking to repeat what the other said or ask for the meaning of a word. Learning French is a slow and painful process, but I'm definitely getting better!

Tote, Tomoyuki, and Enrico :)

Anyway, back to Wednesday. I had the most AMAZING steak ever... with (GASP) FRENCH FRIES. "French Rare" steak (basically they put it on for like 5 minutes and it is done) is actually REALLY GOOD. It's so juicy that marinade is almost unnecessary! Loved it. Then, after our fantastic meal, the guys-Enrico, Tote (a really awesome Thai person who lives in thesame host family as Tomo), David, and Tomo, all walked Mana and me to the bus stop. It was so sweet- they waited the whole 30 minutes it took for our buses to come, in the pouring rain, after dark. It was so incredible being able to make such amazing friends after such a short time here. I'm planning on visiting Enrico and Tomo on Wednesday (I have a HALF DAY every week! SCORE!), but it's still going to be so sad without Mana there (she is going back to Japan after a week in Paris). We spent so much time together after school- going to cafés and patisseries and, yes, practicing our French. I hope that I make more friends at the high school, too, as amazing as my CLA friends are!

I had this amazing idea a few days ago. My sketchbook was completely empty, so I decided to use it as a way my friends could write a little message inside so I could remember each of them after exchange (even though I'm sure I'll remember them all anyway). Enrico wrote me the sweetest poem IN ITALIAN! It made me tear up just a little bit...

TRANSLATION:
 Like the swallows have migrated
you fly from world to world
this trip is fruitful
for you, for those you love

be careful while walking
the flame is never extinguished
there is color in your day
in your heart there is love

cheep cheep the Swallows always sing
but your songs are the most beautiful
a new friend, Voila!
I hope one day we will meet again!

I'm going to miss them so much! However, like my host dad said (in French), "you can't fall every time you take a step. You have to keep walking or you won't experience everything." I loved that. It's like this song that I've had stuck in my head this week: "may your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground, carry on". I can't wait to see more things, meet more people, and live my life in the shoes of a French person. This journey is fantastic, and it is only going to get better. There may be rain and tough times, but after the rain, there will always be good weather ahead.

The tallest roller coaster in Europe! The first drop is all the way on the right (this shot was taken from the parking lot)

Looking French Already!

"Aprés la pluie, le beau temps"

Random things:
-Riz Pilaf: do we have that in America?
-their standard pillows are square shaped.
-Pharmacies are as abundant as Starbucks in NYC
-They DO sell jeans with holes in them at your average store!
-It is polite to have both hands on the table while eating.
-They listen to English music here!
-Buses are used by EVERYBODY, not just bums. It's actually looked upon as a good thing- saving gas, etc. Plus, there are no school buses here so all the kids use the bus to go to school
-Figs are SO GOOD. Seriously.
-There are NO SUVs here... there are mini vans and tractor trailers, but no SUVs...
-Their cop cars look like ambulances. They make a different sound too, that is SO HORRIBLY ANNOYING.

Nîmes!

All of the inbounds and rebounds at our integration weekend at Vescemont. This is gonna be a good year <3

 Things here are happening so fast! It's so hard to write about everything that's happened, because every day, I seem to learn and see so much! When I think I've seen everything in this city, I find something else, I taste something else, I meet someone else... It's all so exciting! I can tell this is going to be a really great year.

Last weekend, I traveled on a TGV (a really really FAST train- 300 km/hour) to Nîmes, a city in the south of France. It is really well-known for its Roman architecture. I even saw an arena! It looks just like the Colosseum in Rome, really. It's crazy- I never knew there were other arenas like that! We went this weekend for 2 reasons: First, this weekend was the "Feria des Vendanges". This marks the end of the BULL FIGHTING season, and it's a huge three day festival. Throughout the whole city, there is this huge party, with music of every kind, tents with all types of food, and, of course, bulls. Saturday night, Véronique, Colombine (my host sister who is in college in Nîmes), Aurélien (Colombine's boyfriend), and I watched bulls run through the streets. They put up these fences, and the horses surround the bull to make sure the bull doesn't get away. Then, when the bull comes out of the trailer, a bunch of guys chase the bull down the street! It is such an interesting tradition! We also watched a competition where young men will try to grab the bull's horns for money. It was so exciting! The guys would jump over the fence to escape the bull, and sometimes the bull would get out of the center ring! It was so funny watching the officials try to lour the bull into the center.

A bunch of people wearing authentic regional costumes! The stilts were so the shepherds could watch over their sheep!

The second reason why we went to Nîmes this weekend was the "Journées du Patrimoine". This is a special weekend, throughout the whole country, where people can get into museums and other historical sites for free. It's a really great concept! We took a day trip to Arles on Saturday to visit the museums. There was another Roman arena there too!

An old gravestone! There were at least a hundred like this at the museum. They were all found in the same old cemetery!

A marble coffin! There were also a bunch of these, too! They were all so perfectly preserved- I couldn't believe it!

Roman Mosaics!

AQUEDUCTS! It was so neat to see these in person. They were things we talked about a lot in history class... but I had never actually seen them!

The streets were so adorable, too! The divot in the middle is so that water can flow out of the street!

The arena in Arles

The Rhone River! It was so pretty!

We had a REALLY AWESOME lunch on Sunday, too! It was calamari, with a really yummy salad. It tasted really great! I have only had calamari fried before. If you like that, you will like this at least eighty times better. I LOVE LOVE LOVED it! Then, for dessert, we had strawberries with whipped cream. This wasn't ordinary whipped cream. This was homemade whipped cream we bought at the market that morning. It was most certainly a whipped cream that put all whipped creams you THOUGHT were good in the dust. SO GOOD.

Whew, I have to go do my homework and be a good student and all that jazz. I'm still in CLA for another week and a half. After that, I begin my high school year! I am so nervous!
Here are a couple more quick things:
~Yes, peanut butter does exist here. It's not Jiff... but yes, It exists.
~Euro coins have different designs on the back, based on what country they're from! Colombine collects them like some people in the US collect quarters!
~It's true: clothes here are REALLY expensive.
~Their cups of coffee are really tiny, but the caffeine content is the same as our's.
~Always keep both hands on the table while eating your dinner!

And now... here's a song from the sixties that has been stuck in my head all day:

Bonne journée! :)

Always do What you are Afraid to do

This is the view from my porch at sunset... how cool is that?!

 "Always do what you are afraid to do" -Emerson

I've been thinking a lot about this quote lately. In fact, it's the "divise" (motto) I chose to write on my "Portrait Chinois" for school. It explains so much about me. I've spent my entire life living under a rock (even though I'm sure some who read this will say otherwise). I lived like my French cats live. When someone (or, in my case, something) new comes along, they run and hide. However, once the person leaves, the cats turn around and wait for the person to come back. I used to live in a state of fear. It was the same mindset for every new thing: "I want to do this, but I'm afraid of..." and then I would go through this long list of trifles- pathetic reasons why I chose not to do something.

Last year, I opened up. Last year, I found my confidence. I broke out of my shell, tried new things, and said "yes" to virtually everything. Then, I discovered the concept of youth exchange, and that opportunity was the ultimate "yes" to conquer them all. 

I'm so happy I made this decision. It's only been a week and a half, and I have already met so many interesting people, and done so many interesting things. I learned the importance of public transportation. I learned that it is okay to ask for help sometimes. And finally, I learned that even when you feel like a mess one day, it doesn't necessarily mean the next day will be bad, too. 

A lot happened this week. I started school on Monday at the Centre de Linguistique Appliquée (CLA). The first day, we had to take a test to see which group we would fit best in. Originally, there was supposed to be six groups: 3 letters, A, B, and C, and then numbers 1 and 2 for each letter. However, the schedule got changed at the last minute. Now, there is simply A1, A2, B1, B1+, and B2. I got placed in the B1+ class, which is pretty incredible! The French? I'm picking it up FAST. We have a really great teacher for half of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Yesterday, we did this awesome group activity where 2 people had a picture of a painting in front of them, and they had to tell everyone (in french) how to pose so we would look like the people in the painting! It was so fun! I'm not a huge fan of the teacher we have for Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday though. I'm pretty sure he thinks I belong in a lower class (it's amazing how adults will judge your knowledge based on how old you happen to be). I'm the youngest student at CLA. There's a couple 19 and 20-year-old's, but I'm the only high school student! It's actually kind of awesome how everyone gawks when I say how old I am. I guess I do look older than I am!

There's only 8 people in the class, so we all have gotten kind of close over the past week. There's about 45 or 50 students at CLA from a bunch of assorted countries around the world. There are 3 or 4 other Americans that I know of, some Italians, Russians, a Belorussian, a Greek, some Serbs, Chinese, Mexicans, and a LOT of Japanese people. In fact, I made friends with 3 Japanese students! I also met a really awesome Italian named Enrico, who's a monk back in Italy! There's a lot of people studying to be theologians at CLA. It's really neat!

I've been having lunch with the same 4 people every day- Enrico, Tomoyuki (Tom for short), and Mana, along with assorted other people, depending on the day, the time, and where we are. Tom, Mana, and I even hung out after school! We went to the pâtisserie, where we had our first experience of an instance where it costs more to eat outside. How bizarre is that? :D Then we went to the department store downtown, where everything was so expensive, I was afraid to touch it! I saw this really cute sweater, and I was gonna buy it, too... until I realized it was 165 Euros! WOAH!

Last Sunday, I spent the day baking cookies with Véronique! Then, my 2 future host families came for a visit! I met my host brothers- Benoit, who went to Canada on exchange last year, and Corentin, who went to Australia. It's so great having people in my "families" that know what I'm going through right now! 

Benoit, Corentin, and me!

My second host family!

My third host family!

And Véronique and François! :) My current host family

Okay, I really need to go to bed before I pass out. Here's a couple other things I learned this week:
-How to take the bus to school (and what to do if you take the WRONG bus!!)
-The French use a LOT of butter in their food
-My host family REALLY LIKED my gifts... and the Reeses :)

Bonne nuit! :)