Some talk about school

Hey everyone! Sorry about the lack of pictures on my blog. It just means I have to practice my descriptive writing, with lots of sensory details. So if you can bear to read and read without getting to look at any pictures, here’s some more info about my life in France(even though at this point, I’ve only been here 7 days).

First, I’ll talk a bit more about my host family. My host father, Thierry, is an engineer, and he works most of the time. Usually he’s the one that drives me and my host brothers to school. My host mother, Edith, works about half time and spends the rest of her time doing stuff around the house, like cooking and cleaning and doing laundry and stuff. And she has been the one to pick me up from school these past few days, although i am going to have to start riding the bus soon too, I think. My host brothers are Lucas(16), Alexis(14) and Matthis(10). Alexis goes to my school but is a grade below me, and Lucas goes to a different school and is  grade above me. I am in the class equivalent to 11th grade. Lucas plays soccer and is really good at rubix cubes. Practically every time i see him at home(except meal times) he has a rubix cube spinning in his hands. Most of the time I see Matthis, he is watching a funny cartoon on TV, and I sometimes like to watch with him to try to improve my French. This morning, i watched a couple episodes of Garfield. Matthis is also often outside, running around the neighborhood with his friend who lives close to us. And Alexis uses the computer a lot, but he is always willing to help me. He will jump up right away and show me how to do something or where to find something. He’s very enthusiastic and jokes around quite a bit. I really really like my host family. The first day we got home, Edith had to finish up some stuff on my room, so I played what i call “tetherball tennis” with Alexis and Lucas. It’s a pole with a string attached to the top and a tennis ball attached to the bottom of the string, which hangs about waist high. And they have these funny blue rackets about the size of a pickleball racket, but a little but squishy. You hit the ball back nd forth around the pole, and it sounds boring, but the boys are really good, and when i was playing with Alexis, he could just hit it back and forth with himself and try as i might, i could not get my racket on it. So i guess the goal is to hit it all the way around as many times as you can without the other person being able to hit it. And when i gave my host family the presents i brought, we immediately went outside and played frisbee in the backyard with the frisbee i brought. It was really fun. And Lucas has started to teach me how to solve rubix cubes, so by the time i get home to the united states, i should be able to solve all of the scrambled rubix cubes that are in my game closet(at least, that’s the plan.)  So yeah, my host family is great.

Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for...DRUMROLL, please!!!! SCHOOL!!!!  Wohoo *wild applause* *cheering*. I know you all have those burning questions in your mind...what is french school like? has she made any friends? Is it easy to understand everything? ect ect ect... So i will do my best to answer these, but this will be a long section, so hold on to your hats and buckle up tight for the roller coaster run-through of my first three days of school.

So my first day of school, which was, i might add, my first full day with my host family,) was just a partial day. I started at 130 and ended at 430. My host mom drove me and came in with me to introduce me to the director. Just the juniors and seniors were there at that time and everyone was in the courtyard/quad. There was a big board at the front of the quad and it said “Premières” on one side and “Terminales” on the other. For those who don’t know, “Première” is 11th grade and “Terminale” is 12th grade. So, on each side of the board was a bunch of pieces of paper. I found me name on a paper marked 1ere S III, which means première sciences 3. That means I am in the third(of 4) class of “juniors” on the science track. In France, when you get to 11th grade, you choose a track, sort of like declaring a major. And then you stick with this track for 11th and 12th grade. The choices are literary, sciences, or economic social. In my grade, I believe there are 2 classes of ES, 1 class of L, and 4 classes of S. But in the grade above, there are 2 of L and 1 of ES so it just depends on how many students choose which track. And in France, you just have your class of 30 and you stay with them for everything except language. Since half our class takes spanish and half takes german, we combine with another class during that hour. But besides that, you travel with your class(which makes it pretty easy to be new because you can just pick someone to follow). Sometimes we move from room to room, and sometimes the teachers come to us. It just depends on your schedule(and I will explain mine later)

So anyway, after I found out I was in 1SIII, I just waited around with the other students until the director came out and started calling out different classes. And then we followed our “homeroom teacher” or our “prof principal” to our “home classroom.” We took role, and when they were taking role, after they called your name, they double-checked your language choices, but I didn’t really know what was going on so i just raised my hand when she called my name. Then i was supposed to nod after she finished reading that I was going to be in Anglais et Espagnol, but I didn’t nod, so she read it again, and i still didn’t nod. I think i just kind of shrugged and looked like a deer in headlights so she just moved on. And then we did the schedule. And instead of handing us a paper schedule, oh no that would be too simple, we had to write it all down, which was obviously a bit difficult for me. So instead of writing it directly on the schedule, I just tried to take notes and figured i could copy someone. The schedule is so complicated it is absolutely ridiculous. So if you don’t care at all about my schedule, you can skip the next few pages, since that is how much space it will take to describe my schedule.

Monday: 1st thing monday morning I have english. It lasts about an hour from 815 to around 910. Then from 915 to 1010, I have DNL, which is for kids in what is called Euro. What euro means is that you have an extra hour of english per week, and you have DNL. DNL is a history class taught in english. Then we have a 15 minute break. From 1025 to 1120, I have French. and from 1125 to 1220 I have math. Then we have lunch until 125. i’ll explain how lunch works later. after lunch is where it gets tricky. From 130 to 225, i have either french, Physics/chem, or P.P(prof principal) which means a meeting with my main teacher to discuss how things are going. So every three weeks I have each of those classes once during that hour. we have a schedule that tells us which weeks are which. Then from 230 to 325 i have history/geography. 10 minute break. And from 335 to 525 I have TPE which i’m not really sure what it is. I think it is some sort of big project. I dont exactly know because i haven’t had it yet. and then I go home after TPE.

Tuesday: 1st hour i have either physics/chem or Life and earth science. again, they alternate week on week off. 2nd hour i have either math of history/geography, same thing, 1 per week, rotating weeks. 3rd and 4th hour i have EPS, which is P.E. Since the school has no sports facilities except one little room, we will have to take buses to local places in the community to do our sports. that’s why everyone has sports in 2 hour blocks. And we got to choose which 4 sports we would focus on for the next 2 years(except for me it’s only one year). You choose because french kids get tested on their sports. more than just having to run a mile in a certain amount of time, they really get tested on each sport at the end of their senior year. So anyway, you got to choose between 2 lists. i chose the list with ping pong, basketball, swimming, and step aerobics. it should be fun. and you can wear whatever sports clothes you want. there isn’t a required school pe uniform. after sport i have lunch. then 5th hour i have physics. 6th, 7th, and 8th hour I have TP which is like lab. So the class splits in half and we go to different places then switch. for the first 1.5 hours i have bio and 2nd 1.5 hours i have chem/physics. and we have to wear full on lab coats, like with the buttons and everything. its pretty cool. and then i go home.

wednesday: wednesday gets really exciting. Every other week i get to arrive at school at 10am. One week i have english 1st hour and then study hall 2nd hour. The other week i don’t have english 1st hour, so i dont have to come for study hall. so i get to come to school at 3rd hour. but 3rd hour and 4th hour i have french. and french class is really really hard for me because we read and analyze and i cant understand the reading so i have a hard time analyzing. and it takes me as long to read sentence as for them to read a page. Then lunch. After lunch i have history/geography, and then spanish. I’m in spanish right now, but i understand basically nothing. I took spanish in elementary school and that is it. the kids in my class have taken years of spanish and the teachers teaches class completely in spanish. so i might change out of spanish. but for right now, i have spanish 6th hour on wednesday. and then my class gets to go home.   

thursday: 1st hour english. 2nd hour study hall. 3rd hour study hall. 4th hour either study hall or ECJS which is like law and justice and stuff. So i alternate between that and study hall every other week. After lunch, i have history/geography 5th hour, french 6th hour, and math 7th hour. then i get to go home.

Friday: Math 1st hour. spanish 2nd hour. History/geography 3rd hour. Math 4th hour. Lunch. SVT(life and earth science) 5th hour. And then i get to go home.

And no, I dont have classes on saturday, but my older host brother Lucas, who goes to a different school, has class on sat morning, but not on wednesday afternoon.

I did my first real dissection on tuesday in SVT TP. we dissected a mouse, and it was really cool. Right now my math class is pretty easy. we are just doing algebra 2 stuff(complete the square) so no problems there. French is crazy hard for me. In history, we are studying the great depression, and it is really weird for me to hear them talk about the USA from the outsider point of view. It’s just bizarre. Just like my english class is very weird too. It’s cool, but weird.

Ok. now i’ll talk about how lunch works. Everyone is either an “externe”, a “demi-pensionnaire”, or a “répas apporté”, and you have an ID card that corresponds to that. If you are an externe, it means you can leave the school during lunch. If you are a demi-pensionnaire(like me) it means you eat the school’s food. And if you are a “répas apporté” it means you bring your own lunch.  The “cantine” or cafeteria where we eat is a room with a bunch of tables and a counter where you get your food. To get in, you have to wait in line and then you scan your card. after you scan your card, you can go get in the line to actually get the hot food put on your plate, and the people who bring their lunch can just go sit down. There are also some tables downstairs. The food is actually pretty decent. Everyday except today we have had some sort of potato. and then there are some not-so-good vegetables(even if you like veggies, these arent so good) and you get a choice between 2 meats. We have had chicken, beef, meatballs, stuff like that. it is definitely edible. But the amazing things are the microwaves. There are at least 12 microwaves spaced around the 2 floors of the cantine, and anyone can use them. so most of the BYOL(bring your own lunch) people bring pasta or other things in tupperware, and then use the microwaves. And they have stacks of real plates that you can use to heat up your food on. It is brilliant. and at the end of lunch you give your tray and plate and silverware to the lady who washes the dishes and there is no paper waste.

The school is really really different. My school is really small. It is basically 2 buildings that are each 3 stories. and there are only about 210 kids in each grade, so about 630 in the whole school. There is just one courtyard where everyone hangs out in the middle of the two buildings. and they have a basketball court and a stone ping pong table, and that is it. The classrooms are long and narrow so looking at the board feels like looking down a tunnel. And it is all chalkboards. Green with real chalk, the whole deal. You definitely aren’t going to walk into a classroom and see a smartboard here.  And the walls are completely blank. The teachers dont have their own classrooms. They move from room to room, and sometimes the students move but most of the time we dont. we just stay in our room. except for going to the science labs and the phys/chem room. and most of the homework does not get checked or graded. The tests and the essays are the important things, and homework is mostly for your own review so you can pass the tests. Another thing i have found out is that students aren't really proud of their school here the way we are in the united states. There are no sports teams associated with school. No mascot. Not many clubs. School is for the sake of academics, and you just dont really have fond feelings for your school in France. On the one hand, that makes sense, but on the other, i think it brings a student body together to have pride in their school. You can meet new people by going to cheer for a basketball game(not that i ever do), or you can join a club and make a name for your school in the community by doing acts of service with the club.

Everything is very different, but it is cool to see the ways things can be different but still accomplish the same purpose. For the school, the purpose is to educate the youth, and help them pass the bac(big tests at the end of junior and senior year.). For us, high school is a little bit more than that. It's about getting into college, but it's also about becoming well rounded and sometimes finding out who you are and what you really like. But overall, isn't the purpose of school to help you be successful in life? And schools in France and schools in the USA obviously both accomplish this goal because there are lots of successful people in both countries.

That’s all I have for now, but keep checking the blog as I continue to explore culture and live here in France.