Settling In

I think that part of being an exchange student is never knowing the whole story or part of something in the first couple of months. During training for this adventure, I was constantly shown a graph that showed “the roller coaster” of emotions I would go on during my exchange. I never truly believed that it was true until now. One minute I am feeling comfortable while speaking and the next minute I am confused out of my mind. One minute I am riding the bus alone home from school feeling independent and the next minute I am not able to turn the key correctly to get into my house (yes this did happen). I think that I definitely need to work on embracing these faults and embrace the uneasiness that an exchange brings with it.

This past weekend I had orientation with 40 other exchange students from my district. We were in an area in the campsite that had a lake and a restaurant. We stayed in dorm-like buildings with bunk beds. I got to the registration with many Rotary exchangers surrounding me and had to hand over my phone for the weekend. Although we were without phones and it was raining outside, we still did paddle boarding, boating, and went swimming in the lake. I also went on a dreamy french countryside bike ride and ate way too many Haribo candies. It felt really comfortable to speak English to my other American, Australian, and Canadian exchangers, but everyone stressed to us the importance of making French speaking friends while we are here. The really cool thing about Rotary is that there is a network of French students in my school that have already gone on exchange! I have also met a lot of kind people who are curious about America.

I currently take Italian and English class in school. In English class my teacher only lets me speaks French while my classmates speak English around me. I think that it is interesting what they learn about. They had to analyze a photo of America clichés with people like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and talk about how America is a “dreamland” of glamour and entertainment. In my classes like history and political science our first units are about the United States. Especially on this day that I am writing, Sept 11, 2019, I have always had discussions about the tragedy that struck America in 2001 in my school with classmates and teachers in America, but today my French history teacher talked about it to us. I never knew that even though America and France are different countries, this day is talked about worldwide.

Today I also gave a presentation to my political science class about how the United States government functions as well as explaining what the caucus is. I tried my best to explain it sufficiently in French by drawing pictures on the black board and explaining my experience growing up in Iowa.

This coming weekend I am going to Cassis to visit the mother of my host mom. It is such a beautiful area with bright blue water. I can’t wait! I am definitely a little homesick and miss everyone, but my boyfriend Niksa keeps telling me that “it’ll be ok” over the phone from Iowa and I think that is so true. It will be ok. My problems today are most likely different than my problems tomorrow as an exchange student.

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Things I have noticed that are different in France compared to America:

Most fruit is peeled (peaches and nectarines)

On Wednesdays school gets out at 12 pm

“Cold” here is 60 degrees Fahrenheit (I'm not complaining)

The cliché that all french teachers are mean is not true for me

Bread is better in Europe

Everything is more fresh

Hot chocolate is a snack

Voice memo is preferred rather than texting

Some of the many new words I have learned:

Permanence (perm): study hall

Fatiguant: for something to be tiresome

Bonhomme de neige: snowman

Briller: glitter