Sunny Side Up

I know that there are the “stages” that exchange students experience like the honeymoon stage, holiday slump, and so on, but I don’t even know where I’d place myself. If this is supposed to be my honeymoon stage, where everything is wonderful and my cheeks hurt from smiling all the time, I’d have to disagree and say that France and I, we’ve been married for quite a while.

There’s something about the lifestyle and attitude that just plain makes sense:

·       Armed with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other you can conquer anything because your one hand pushes food onto the utensil and the other airplanes the fois gras, ratatouille, gratin, salade, or pâtes into your mouth.

·       It’s actually kind of awkward to give hugs to people you don’t know that well – cheek to cheek is oddly less uncomfortable, especially when you’re an expert at not actually kissing your acquaintance.

·       Mopping up your plate with a little baguette makes for a happy dishwasher.

·       Eating food without preservatives IS good for you. Who knew?

·       Having a smaller descriptive vocabulary is much easier, although Shakespeare and Harry Potter are a little lackluster. Don’t worry; the French make up for it with their gestures and noises.

·       Yogurt for dessert rocks my socks.

·       It’s polite to have a word especially for those you just met or to show authority: vous and then a word for your friends and those you know well: tu – it keeps you always thinking about your relationship with that person.

·       School isn’t the same everyday; it changes based on your class schedule so you don’t always have homework due the next day. That also means that I get to go to the beach after school J

·       Shops aren’t open on Sunday – it’s the day of rest and they take it seriously around here! It’s refreshing, really, to know that the French know when to work and when to chillax. Not everything is about making money.

I guess what I’m saying is that of course I had to adapt and I am continuing to make mistakes – my math teacher tore my paper in front of the class because I wrote in pen and not in pencil. MY BAD, I was just trying to fit in with every other class since it’s ink or die – but I think I’ve just taken things as they come and accepted the good, bad, ugly, and foreign. Yesterday I had the chance to skype my lovely family for the first time and it felt completely normal. We all agreed that it doesn’t seem like there are a few landmasses and a body of water between us. Erik, I would have to agree with you that time is weird, but I’d add on that distance is as well. I spent so much time on google maps before arriving in Puget that I could instantly find roads without typing them in google. However, now as I’m here I can’t fathom Cannes, Nice, Marseille, Monaco, and the Italian border unless I was in a helicopter (google map style).  That being said, I’m now itching to go out and explore my town and the surrounding areas...

This past weekend was incomparable to anything I’ve ever experienced due to the sheer variety and amount of fun I had. On Saturday morning, my wonderful host mom and dad took me to the beach! Not just any beach, mind you, but we drove to another town half an hour away, taking in the beauty of the coastline. After we found a suitable parking lot, I got out of the car and said, <<j’ai beaucoup de questions, mais pas le temps et pas la vocabulaire>> meaning, “I have so many questions, but not the time or vocabulary.” Images passed before me so quickly en route that I resorted to oohing and awing in my head, virtual popcorn included.

We immediately found ourselves amidst kayaks and my host mom turned to me and asked if I would like to kayak for an hour. She didn’t even have to ask, I was ready to go! The water is breathtaking. It’s clear blue and when you look down you can see little fishies, white things (rocks), and black things (algae). I’m not a big fan of having my feet touch seaweed or fish when I’m swimming, so having these white and black things pass by my kayak freaked me out. My only explanation to my host dad was that I thought they were animals, specifically beluga whales… I knew they weren’t but the thought of swimming with other animals, even fake ones, was scary. On our way to the cove where we swam and once we returned the kayaks, I made a few important discoveries:

1.     Do not shave your legs and swim in the sea. It hurts. A lot.

2.     Even if you have poor eyesight, leave your contacts at home or they will end up behind your eyeball for a few hours. No joke. I pushed off to swim and I must have had a bubble in my contact because it had somehow flipped and I found it in my eyelid almost three hours later…

3.     Don’t be shocked by nudity. Enough said.

We then went to a restaurant across the street from the Mediterranean where I had a Carpaccio bœuf – I think that’s what it was - (thin slices of raw beef marinated in citrus juices) and it was delicious! For dessert we had café gourmand’s, which consisted of an espresso, lemon bar, chocolate mousse cake, scoop of gelato, and tiramisu. It was smaller than what I am making it out to be:

Kayaking in the Mediterranean. Port Agay in the background.

The next day, on Sunday we visited a town called Roquebrun where we attended the annual Bande Dessinée or BD’s (comic book) festival and meandered the tiny streets to find adorable nooks and crannies. For those of you who don’t know, BD’s are extremely popular here and are not just for the children. I found a copy of Lucky Luke, who is a cowboy, where he comes across Jesse James and his gang. I didn’t miss out on my share of DJJD festivities like I thought I would… In the end, I bought a double feature BD of Asterix and Obelix.

After touring the festival, my host parents and I meandered around Roquebrun. Although a part of me wants to scale a bell tower or lay down on the street for the perfect photo, my other half tries to tell me to assimilate.

Eventually we had to walk to a meeting spot where we met up with the other exchange student’s and their families! Can I just say that I immediately felt connected to everyone there? Even though we all spoke English, it was a breath of fresh air to be understood not only verbally but also emotionally. We shared stories of misfortune, absolutely-don’t-do-this-or-that, and what we have all been up to after being in France for a little under two weeks. I will tell you more about them once I have everyone’s countries and names down. The best part about it was making connections and finding out that one of my friends named Hannah lives in Antibes. It’s far enough so that I will take the train sometime to visit her as well as Eamon, the other exchange student living with her. I also got to meet my friend, Caitlyn, who is what we call and “oldie”. That means that she is from the southern hemisphere for exchange and started her exchange here in France a few months ago and will finish when I am halfway through my exchange.

Maria (Colombia), Me, Hyesoo (South Korea)

Rotary Youth Exchange D. 1730 with families

Sandy (Taiwan)

Once my host parents finally tore me away from chatting, we went to the activities fair in the centre ville of Puget (central part). I am going to hopefully fit in an art group and a sport to my schedule. My choices are: photography, drawing and painting (really want to do this!), ceramics, yoga (so going to do this), speed biking (really want to do this!), and possibly hang out with an English teacher when she has classes for kids who are learning English.

I know I’m skipping around a lot, but I have to go to bed soon because I wake up for school at 6 am!!!

In short, today was not a happy day for teachers. The BAC (I will blog about it later because it’s so intense and deserves an explanation) is their ACT and SAT times 1,000,000,000. Today was stressful for them and some teachers were short with those who didn’t do their homework, me being one of them but I explained that I had no idea what it was. It was all good. After a stressful, tiring day (It takes a lot of energy to think in two languages by the way), my host mother took me to the beach to swim in the sea and read a book in the sand. That was exactly what I needed! Just a little more advice, don’t be alarmed when you don’t know where to change into your suit. It’s right at the beach… an interesting experience indeed…

Ratatouille made by my host mom, Simone. Mmmmmm

Fig. From the front yard. No big deal. 

Bisous,

Maggie