Swaggy Maggie

Listen! I will be honest with you,

I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,

These are the days that must happen to you:

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,

You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,

You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you hardly

                  Settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an

                  Irresistible call to depart…

                                                                        - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

It’s strange to think that if this year is measured in length by a line that there is a definite starting point and a time to depart, but there’s also the stuff in between; the Oreo filling, if you will. I have the choice to scrape it all off with my teeth from the get-go, take it in all at once and want more before it’s digested, or double-stuff it and let it soak in a glass of milk. Sit yourself down in a nice comfy chair with a cup of tea, better yet, some Oreos, and let me share with you some more adventures…

My host family is fantastic. After a long day at school trying to make friends and have enough energy to last through history, econ, French, etc., it’s been great to come home to my host dad’s greeting of, “Margaret!” or going to the beach with my host mom. That’s not to say that I’m getting the laundry right or wearing the right shoes, but I’m working on it! I had no idea that I’d be this tired all the time, but from my current standpoint, it takes a lot of concentration to understand what the teacher or students are saying via making sentences in my head, making sense of them grammatically, then translating them into English. It’s pretty crazy.

Another great thing about my host family is that they are great cooks – I’ve never had just an “okay” meal. They’ve all been delicious and different! Besides liking everything, some of my favorite I-could-have-this-every-day foods are guava juice, goat cheese, tartes (cucumber, tomato, you name it), some kind of fish, fois gras, baguettes, brioche, yogurt, etc.

On Wednesday my host dad took me to the Fréjus port and St. Raphäel, two villages close to Puget. I was exhausted but of course it was worth it to explore more of the surrounding area and I asked my host dad enough questions to make a book. One of my favorite parts was visiting the St. Raphäel church; not only is it gorgeous, but there’s an incredible feeling of life there. As we were walking around we heard prayers being whispered, saw candles being lit, and light shining through the stained-glass windows. It was breathtaking (I also didn’t have the brainpower to ask questions) and I think I found a new place to clear my head if I ever need it.

People here are shocked to know that I’m over eighteen years old, even my host parents. I kind of have a baby face and I’m hoping it’s not a question of maturity, but I didn’t think people would just assume that I’m sixteen! Luckily I wasn’t telling everyone when I came so it’s just coming up every once in a while. However, my age doesn’t seem to make that much of a difference when it comes to friends.

I am pretty proud of myself for making the variety of friends that I have so far. There are times when I’m wandering for a minute or two, but I always find someone to talk to, even if it’s just by introducing myself to someone random. But hey, I’m going to play the “exchange student card” as long as I can. My new nickname is “Swaggy Maggie” hence the title, and this came from a few friends that I made this week. With these new friends I also filmed them saying “purple squirrels” which hasn’t uploaded successfully on my blog, but it’s on Facebook so check it out if you have the chance. French speakers have a difficult time saying “r” so it was extremely cute and I had fun laughing fully for a change.

I’ve had many chances to be goofy or share some laughs with friends like playing paper football with an empty ink cartridge with Sarah, sharing tongue twisters, talking to Emily, the other American exchange student, and having small conversations in English.

Playing paper football with Sarah and the ink cartridge...

My school, entrance and administration

I take all of my classes in this building

The hang-out area, lockers

I taught some friends how to play "cellphone"

Speaking of ink cartridges, THEY HAVE BEAUTIFUL NOTES. Everything (besides math apparently) is written in pen. Everything. And not just one color, it’s perfectly neat cursive in blue, black, red, and green ink, underlined with a ruler if need-be. They tear their papers with a ruler and glue them in their notes. I still don’t understand when to write in my notebook and when to write on loose-leaf… This is all due to the BAC, or the Baccalaureate, which is their ACT or SAT. However, school is oriented completely around the BAC, even gym, because you have to take several BAC tests for each subject. They work so hard here and the teachers work them hard in turn. You have to stand before sitting down in your seat until the teacher says to be seated. You can’t enter the classroom until told to do so. The teachers move classrooms so there’s no homework help before or after school, no fun posters to be distracted with, unfortunately.

I love beautiful notes and I'm particularly proud of this one - fun colors!

 
My homework. I didn't understand the directions completely so I drew...

In terms of the schedules, it’s ridiculous. There are times when I have Econ for two hours then history for two hours, an hour of math then an hour of French (and repeat)… There’s week A and week B, and times where I have to wait two to two and a half hours until I have my next class. During this time I usually hang out with friends and we talk, take pictures, listen to music, whatever.

It’s true what the stereotypical French image is: people dress nicely here. I’ve seen high heels, lots of American flags, dresses, sweater vests, and popped collars. Most of the girls paint their nails every day to match their outfit, and always look adorable, while the majority of guys gel their hair. Another thing that makes Americans significantly different from the French is that they smoke. A lot. Personally that won’t be a choice I will make, but it’s part of the culture here. Students and teachers alike wait by the gate to have a smoking break since it’s not allowed inside school grounds. On the second or third day it was shocking to see how many people smoked and I couldn’t help but think how young they must have been when they started smoking. Today I was able to talk to my class about the image of smoking in the United States. I said that it’s frowned upon more so than in France and that because of our law that eighteen year olds and older can buy cigarettes, it’s not something that people do at school.

I was relieved to go to gym class and have my gym teacher give the class a lecture (friendly, though, he’s a great teacher!) about smoking and that it will make exercise more difficult. On Thursday I had “step” which was actually pretty fun! I am not the most coordinated person but I eventually caught on, especially when he had music to go along with the moves. The first song he played was “Call Me Maybe” haha! After a good hour or so, we were all drenched in sweat, or as the French call it, << j’ai transpiré >>. I honestly don’t understand why they would have a word that resembles “transparent” when you could clearly see I had just had gym class. When class was finished, I was off to the bus…

And here comes the part you’ve all been waiting for: the Madge Update.

A few days ago there was this boy who was being pretty loud when he was playing a game on his phone. At this point, Madge is booking it to school but she’s on the highway and can’t do much about it. I thought she’d just yell at him from the front of the bus, but no! She parks the bus on the side of the highway and shuffles down the aisle to the boy who is still laughing hysterically. Madge tells him to keep it down or else and starts the bus back up again… he was silent the entire way to school. One point for Madge, zero for the general public.

Today Madge was turning on a particularly small road and she usually has to wait, but this time someone had parked their car in the street. What does Madge do, but wail on the horn. With the gum-smacking, sunglasses, and easy attitude, it was a sight to see. It was especially funny because Madge has this radio station that she likes and it’s mostly techno, rap, and L’il Wayne. When she likes the song that’s playing she grooves; like head movement, lip-syncing, and sometimes hand actions. I’ve decided to make a Madge playlist so that you too can jam like Madge. Anyways, this particular day, before being stopped by a parked car, Madge was jammin’. But once the car was in her way she was back to business. I’m just glad that she had her usual parting words; it made me feel confident that the old Madge was back. This time it was <<bon weekend>>. I seriously love my bus driver.

This is what I received while going for a walk in my neighborhood. I passed by a house with beautiful grape vines and olive trees and said "bonjour" to the elderly gentleman sitting in his yard. After complimenting him on the beautiful grapes, he came over and gave me this bunch - they. were. delicious. We talked for a while about my exchange, how his wife is an English teacher, and old proverbs, he wished me well, gave me two kisses on the cheek and told me to come visit again! I am definitely going to trust my gut instinct to put myself out there to meet new people.

I will say à bientôt “soon” with this parting photo, I hope it will make you laugh like my host dad and I did:

Sorry I forgot to put this on right away - THERE'S SO MUCH IN MY HEAD!  Anyone else think this should be "Basic Instinct"? Maybe that's the reason they're having a sale...

P.S. Don't forget to check out more pictures. I created a shutterfly account where I've uploaded some pictures to share. The link is on the top left-hand side of the blog!

Bisous,

Maggie