Yep, it is Friday and I am posting on my blog. Why Friday? I only have class after lunch so I come home and I usually have the house to myself, so I don't mess up my integration by blogging on Friday afternoons.
First of all, the McDonald’s here is really weird. They have changed their theme colors from red and yellow to green and yellow. So, the big signs that you can see from the highway, or whatever, are green with the golden arches, instead of red. And, their commercials make them look super gourmet and like all the ingredients are really fresh. And, the nice dollar menu double cheeseburger is about 3 euros, and 1 euro is about 1.40 dollars. So yeah, so such thing as a dollar menu here.
We have pizza every friday night with my host family, but it is always different. The first time we ordered pizza, and the second time we had grocery-store take an bake pizza. Last week, my host mom made a pizza from scratch, well mostly from scratch. She made the crust from scratch, and it was really cool and really yummy. The sauce wasn’t exactly a sauce but more of just a lot of tomatoes, but there were good spices. And it was cheese and ham on the pizza. It was fun.
I have always heard about Mars bars, but I didn’t know what they were. In Harry Potter, when Harry is on the train for the first time and the trolley comes to his compartment, it says that he was going “to buy as many mars bars as he could carry.” Well, I bought one from my snack bar, and it turns out they are just Milky Way bars with the same name. I guess I should have made that before, but I didn’t. While I’m on the subject of candy, another funny thing. They don’t really have normal m&m’s here. They only have peanut ones, you know, the ones that come in the yellow packaging. If you want plain chocolate covered with a candy shell, you buy Nestle Smarties, which are basically plain m&m’s.
I went to the grocery store a few days ago and spent some time looking around. It is amazing. They sell tiramisu in little packages, and you can buy chocolate mousse. And the cookie aisle!!!! I will try to take some pictures next time I go. Oh, it was so awesome. There were rows and rows of all kinds of cookies I have never seen before(and some I have seen.) They sell my favorite, palmiers, in little packages. And they had these shortbread cookies topped with caramel and then dipped in French chocolate. I can’t wait to go back and buy cookies. Maybe I should try to eat my way through the whole cookie aisle by the end of the year. What do you think? I can walk to the grocery store, so when I finally get around to cooking and baking for my host family, at least it won’t be a hassle to try to go look for ingredients. I am going to try to learn to make palmiers while I am here because I think it would be fun to make them for all my friends back home, since they are very very traditional french.
I miss Rio quite a bit. I didn’t really think I would, but I do. I miss a lot of the little things that made it comfortable and easy. My school here is so different, and I sometimes wish I could just take a few days off to go back to Rio and be able to eat outside and see different people in each class, and actually understand what the teachers are saying. So many things that I liked about Rio and didn’t even realize it. But, that just means that my crazy, insane, stressful, exciting, and awesome senior year will be even better because I will know how to appreciate all of those little things that all my Rio friends won’t realize they miss until they go to college and it is too late to come back for one more year of high school. I’m bummed about not being there for playathon. This will be the first playathon I miss since 7th grade, and of course, it is the one with the theme I have wanted for the past two years. Oh well, what can I do?
Here is another stereotype. When I came, I thought it was normal for French families to drink wine with dinner every night. I had heard that even the kids can drink with their families, and that is totally normal. I asked my friends at school, since I already noticed that my host parents only have wine occasionally. They said that some people do drink a glass of wine every night, and others don’t, but that it is more the older generation that does that. I asked about kids and they laughed. And i said that I had heard that kids as young as 12 sometimes drink wine at home with their families. And my friends just laughed and said no, not really, maybe sometimes on holidays.
I got my in-class history test on the industrial revolution back. I got a 10.5 out of 20, which is passing! Yeah! He wouldnt even let me use my dictionary, so i totally bombed one of the 3 questions because i didnt even understand the question let alone how to answer it. And what is more, 10.5 was the average score, which means that I am just as good as about half the class. Back home, being completely average would make me scandalized, but here, i wanted to jump up and down when i saw that i had passed and brag about my 10.5. But, I restrained myself because some of the people around me had gotten 10’s, so I didn’t think that would be very nice.
Ok, now for some serious business. I know my blog sounds happy and great and like I am having fun and discovering new things all the time, but I think it is important to let everyone know that that isn’t always the case. There is an adjustment period, and for a while I just really wanted to go home. I think everyone gets homesick and it is just a challenge I had to work through(that was maybe tougher for me than for others because I am so close to my family), but you don’t just “fall down the rabbit hole” right into fitting in. You really have to have your senses on high alert as you try to figure out what is ok and what ins’t and how to fit in. I have gotten into a rhythm now, which is nice for me, but I still have to tell myself to see things in as positive a light as I can. I really have to work for the highlights of my day, but when I do have something special happen, I know I worked hard for it and deserved it(like getting a 16 on my SVT homework.) So yeah, I am having a great time here and I am discovering new things, but it is a bumpy process trying to settle in to a completely different style of life.
I had my AFS orientation last weekend. We had to draw a chart of our emotional feeling throughout the journey. Mine was like a roller coaster, compared to other people who had one small down and then all up. But, I dont think they were being completely honest. There are ups and downs to every experience. The food at the orientation was absolutely awful. Completely horrible. And we did a lot of activities that I have now down 4 or 5 times. But, it was really fun to hang out with my friends from my chapter. There were 35 students there from the three most northern AFS chapters. We played a giant game of human knot which was fun, and we “succeeded” but with cheating, so I don’t really count it as succeeding. So yeah, there were ups and downs to the weekend too, just like with everything else.
Ok, that’s all for now. No Koh Lanta tonight because apparently there is a soccer game that has been deemed more important, so I’m not sure what we will do with our friday night, but I know we are having pizza because I saw it in the refrigerator. Oh, and it was Matthis’s birthday on Wednesday and I gave him a baseball cap from Hawaii.
Happy Birthday(a few days early) Olivia!!!!
I love the cookie challenge -- wait until I tell the Heron boys, they'll want to come live with you in France just so that they can try them all out with you. And Smartie's -- bleck! When my sister lived in England, we ate them when I came to visit. They're not nearly as good as M&Ms. You make us all see things differently Julia. Just by checking in we think more about seeing the little things in each day. You're extraoridnary for all that you know at your age. We are so very, very proud of you!
ReplyDeleteHey, Im an 8th grader that is hoping to spend a year abroad in high school. . . But i havent decided which year, any suggestions?
ReplyDeletePs i love your blog, its insirational to see people living out their dreams!!
I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. Keyan, I recommend junior year as the best year to go, but it depends on a couple of things. I'm sure you know that there are age restrictions on the programs, so make sure you double check that you will fit into the age range. Are you thinking you would redo the year you skipped, or do you think you would come back a grade older and stay with your class? Are you set on the year program, or are you considering the semester programs too? like I said, the traditional choice is junior year, but you have options. If you are old enough, you could go sophomore year, meaning you would probably be placed in 2nde, and it might be easier to break in to a group of friends because high school starts with 2nde. But, being you can be tough, as i can attest, being only 15 right now. If you go junior year, you do miss a lot of stuff, but you still have your senior year, so if you say, really wanted to go to junior prom, you could probably get a junior to ask you when you came back. So anyway, lots of options to consider, but i would suggest junior year. That is when most people go.
ReplyDeleteChristy: i totally agree. Smarties are nowhere near as good as m&ms. But, all the other fun food stuff makes up for it.
ReplyDeleteGood point. Thanks, that helps loads!
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