First Week!

Before departing for France, there was an orientation in New York City for all kids going to certain countries in Europe on foreign exchange for one semester. My mom drove me down to NYC right after I took my Global and Chemistry midterms. Let me tell you, studing for exams while preparing to study abroad is not easy! In New York I finally got to meet all the girls going to France. It was really nice to be able to talk to other people who are sharing this experiance. The orientations were pretty boring but they did cover some helpful material about going abroad.

AFS-USA going to France

The Plane Ride: At the airport, it really started to sink in that  I'm not going to be in the US again for another 6 months. The plane ride was pretty rough. It is so hard to get comfortable in those seats! Tip for the Future Exchange Student (TFES): really try to sleep on the plane, it helps alot with jet lag. Upon arriving in CDG airport, I think eveyone was pretty tired. After meeting up with some New Zealanders and Argentines we were driven via bus to our hostle.

Airport bound!

The Hostle was kinda scary. Even a few of the volenteers told us it was in a bad part of the city.  The food was subpar and the top bunk was really shaky. Also, they didn't provide towels so a bunch of people including myself, just used a shirt to dry themselves. TFES: bring a towel!  Despite this, it really wasn't as bad of a place as it sounds. There were beds, food and it was heated. Also, we had a lot of fun playing cards, talking and meting people from all over the world!

My room in the hostel

Look! A sink!

Audree, one of my roommates, chillin in our room

Paris Orientation was very helpful. They told us about getting to our host communities and French people were there to answer all of our cultural questions. We had a lot of fun in Paris walking around La Tour Eiffel and seeing all the sights in our tour bus.

AFS-USA in Paris!

La Tour Eiffel et moi

Yes, Remy the rat from Ratatouille was saved here.

Meeting My Host Family: I had to wake up at 5:30 to have enough time to have breakfast and get my baggage ready to leave Paris for my host family. My sleep deprivation form the past few days was not bothering me because I was so excited to meet them! As I was getting off the train, my host dad just kind of appeared and took my bag. Then I met my host mom and only one of my host brotheres because the other was at a kayak competition. Things hapened pretty fast: off the train, host family, in the car, at the home. Their house is really, really cool and they are very nice.

I get my own sink!

Look who's in the garden!

The view outside my window

First Day of School: Pascale drove me to school at around 8:30 to meet with my Prof Pricipal and with some of the administators. After that I got to meet the girls in my class! They were all so nice, I had talked to a few of them via e-mail prior to my departure and it was so nice to meet them! They showed me the school and we walked around the town a little too. Throughout the day, they made sure I was introduced to the teachers and had someone to sit next too. The first day was a lot easier than I had expected, the hardest part was remembering everyones name! TFES: smile a lot and talk on the first day, make a good first impression!  Usually, I wake up at 6:30 (half an hour later than in RI!) to catch the bus at 7:10. School starts at 8:04 and finishes at 5:11. I have to walk to the middle school to catch the bus that get to my town at around 6:00. One thing that really surprized me about the school is the amount of kids smoking. I knew smoking was popular here, but when school is over there is literally a crowd of people outisde the lycée smoking. In America you hardly ever see young people smoking so openly.


Track Practice: After school, my host brother who does track came to the lycée to get me. We walked to the track and I met some other people on the team. I don't mean to brag or anything, but the practice was really easy, except for the running drills which I couldn't get right; the coach pulled me aside to show me how to do them properly, haha

The rest of the week went very well. My host family is nice, the kids at school are friendly and all the teachers are nice to me. It's kinda funny actually, a few of my teachers are a little "spécial" (as the kids at school tell me) and they have trouble controlling the class. So someimes they'll yell at everyone and then come over to me and make sure I understand everything and are all nice. Oh, the preks of being an exchange student! On friday, some girls from my class and I went to the Bar à Pâtes for lunch. At the restaurant they offered nutella paninis.... I love France. That evening I ate there again with the track team. So much pasta in one day! On Saturday and Monday, Pascale and I went running together with the dog. The country side here is absolutly beautiful. Next time I go running I'll be sure to bring my camera because no amount of descriptive language can possibly convey the beauty of this place to you, dear reader. The reason I was able to go running on Monday was becuase school was cancelled due to snow even though there is only like 2" on the ground. For the rest of the week the buses didn't pass because the roads are bad. The snow hasn't melted because it's so cold out.My host mom tells me as long as they have live in Léogeats they have never seen temperatures this cold.