Half-full or Half-empty?

So, we often talk about someone's attitude by asking them if the glass if half-full or half-empty. For an exchange student at the half-way point of their experience, the question translates to: "phew, halfway-finished, just 5 months left" or "darn, half of my time here is already gone, only five months left." Yep, that's right, I'm officially at the halfway point. I got here the 1st of September, and I leave the 7th of July, which equals 10 months and a few days. And today, the 3rd of February, I have been here for 5 months and a few days, and I still have 5 months and a few days. So, my response to the half-full/half-empty question: both. I'm relieved to have made it this far and glad that I only have 5 months left, but at the same time, I'm sad to think that in 5 months I'll be going home and there will be so many things I will miss. I guess the lesson to learn is to take the most out of every minute that I do have here.

Here's a most of the group photo from the AFS meeting last weekend. I think it's so cool that we are like our own little world all gathered here in the chilly but friendly North of France. From left to right top: Italy, USA, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy. From left to right bottom: Japan, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia. Not in the picture but still part of the group: Poland, Malaysia, and USA. And, all girls. I guess the boys don't have the guts to spend a year abroad. Just kidding, there just aren't any boys in our chapter.

Well, I feel like I'm starting to run out of things to talk about. Everything feels so normal now. It’s not that my days are boring, quite the contrary actually, but I just don’t have earth-shattering observations to make. I’ve got a rhythm going now, and I usually know what to expect from one day to the next. It’s really nice that things are finally clicking into place and I have a stable schedule that I enjoy. Well, I still wouldn’t mind going without the two days a week when I finish at 5:30 pm. At least it isn’t pitch black outside at that hour anymore, because that really depressed me, finishing school and walking outside to find that it was nighttime. But, the days are getting longer and the school days are feeling shorter, so all is well.

However, just because we’re moving out of January and away from the darkest days of winter doesn’t mean it’s getting any warmer. In fact, winter is finally arriving here, with an entire week of negative temperatures and snow projected for Sunday and Monday. Today’s high was -4 Celcius, and the low was -11. On Monday, it snowed, but just a little bit and not enough to cover the ground or anything. It was just swirling flakes that landed on my coat and in my friend’s hair. The little pond next to my school has a layer of ice on the top. And when I step outside and feel the blast of freezing air hit my face, I think of my one week each year of skiing in Tahoe. It takes me a moment each time to realize that I got all bundled up just to walk to school, rather than to hit the ski slopes.

I love the fact that even though my days are nice and structured, predictable and stable, lots of little things can happen to turn a normal day into a good day. It might be getting a history test back and seeing that I got 14/20(better than the class average and the best grade was 16.) Or it could be coming home for lunch and seeing that we were going to have my favorite kind of bread with the cheese. Or having crêpes with ham and cheese or butter and sugar for dinner. Or understanding a joke that my classmates make. The list goes on and on, so each day has it’s little ups. Of course there are the downs too, but that’s life. It’s like every day makes a roller coaster, but that’s what keeps life interesting. Who wants to go through the world on a flat train at 5 mph when you could ride the roller coaster every day.

So, a little story concerning those specific crêpes that I ate on Thursday night. Back home, the few times I have tried to make crêpes, I used my mom’s upside-down crêpe pan, which worked just fine, but my crêpes always turned out very small and thin. I asked my host brother yesterday if he could teach me how to make the crêpes like they do here, and he was like “oh yeah, sure.” But instead of really teaching me, he just said “So, you put some butter in the pan, it will melt right away, then you put the batter in, let it cook a few moments but not too long, then turn it over. If you have any problems, I’m in the living room.” It seemed to me that he practically skipped out of the room, incredibly happy to be freed of his job of making the crêpes. So, I was left standing there in front of the pan and trying to copy what he had done. At first, I was having some major difficulties. My crêpes has holes and tails and were thicker in some areas than others. But, by the time I had made a few, I was consistently getting nicely rounded golden-brown crêpes, and succeeding in flipping them in the air, rather than with a spatula, which made me very happy.

Handball is going well, I guess, although I have the feeling that I’m not really getting much better. The school team won 30-3 on Wednesday, but considering that the other team was one player less for the entire game...I wouldn’t call it a super intense victory.  The club team is much more intense. The games are usually within a margin of one or two goals, and there is a whistle practically every 30 seconds, either for a foul or a goal or an out-of-bounds. It’s fun to watch, but it’s a bit stressful for me when I play because I’m always worried I will do something really stupid and let the other team score.

I got a 20/20 on a French class activity that I did with two of my friends. We were analyzing a film that related to our unit about the murder mystery novel we read. I understood the film well enough to really participate as we did our group assignment, even contributing key examples to add. It is so nice that I’m finally becoming capable of helping my groups in class, instead of just being a free-loader.

Well, I guess that’s it. With my french oral and a 3 hour physics test coming up soon, I should probably go do some homework. I have a busy weekend ahead, with a handball game saturday night, and a birthday party I’m going to on Sunday afternoon.