So, here we are at the end of another week. Just one week of school and 2 days left. I can't believe it. I was hanging out at school during break and just thinking, "Wow, in just a few short days, I will never go to high school in France ever again." It's kind of like my high school graduation is coming early. Every single day brings a flood of emotions. I yearn to be back home surrounded by family and friends, back in the places I know doing things I love. But at the same time, I'm overwhelmed by the fact that I am going to be leaving France and will probably never see a lot of the people I have met this year again. So, as the time ticks down, I'm just trying to do my best to take advantage of everything I can. While it is true that I miss my home and family, I know that the time for me to step onto the airplane will be here before I know it. I can do nothing to make that clock go faster or slower, so I know I just need to make the most of the rest of my time here. We really are coming to the final phases of an amazing adventure. I think back to October when I flipped through my planner and looked at the final days, wondering when they would finally arrive. And, here we are. It seems like my time in France has been an eternity, but at the same time, I think back to things I did months ago which feel like just yesterday. It's weird but wonderful, all at the same time.
Ok, so now let's talk about the week.
So, last weekend was our three-day weekend. We didn't really do much with the days off except just chill out and enjoy the weather.
Tuesday was our last day of school ending at 5:30. Although we still have 2 Tuesdays left in the school year, we finish at lunchtime for both. This coming Tuesday is the official lab tests for the seniors passing the scientific bac(among them my host sister) so the labs are taken and the teachers can't take us for class. Since Tuesdays are our crazy science days, we only have 3 hours of class this day without science: math and 2 hours of PE. Then the next Tuesday is the last day of school and we finish at lunchtime. Actually, since we have PE for our last 2 hours of the year, we are probably going to go to the bowling alley to celebrate. So, although this last Tuesday was long and difficult like all the other Tuesdays of the year, it was the last one, and also, my last classes of physics for the year. It makes me sad as I realize each time...."this is my last class of Physique-chimie. This is my last class with the spanish assistant."
Wednesday was a typical Wednesday with our 2 hours of French in the morning. We did our last "Lecture Analytique." I don't know if I have already talked about these, but they are the texts that we study in French class which will show up in the oral portion of the bac. For example, we read an entire murder mystery, but we only did 3 "Lecture Analytiques." This was the last one of the year, and it was our third poem of Victor Hugo. Normally when we do these, our teacher gives us almost all of the answers and we just have to find the examples in the text. But this time, we did it in groups of three and our teacher was there to help us but wouldn't do it for us. I worked with my friend Laure and Ophélie, and it was actually kind of fun. Once they had helped me to understand the poem, I was really able to help find examples and things they had missed. I understood what was going on and as a group, we were really able to do a good analysis. It was nice to really feel like a contributing member of the group, and it was a more enjoyable two hours of French class than normal because I was involved and hanging out with my friends instead of just taking notes as the teacher dictated.
Thursday was another normal Thursday, meaning three hours of study hall. Since my time is winding down here and my summer homework load is building up, I decided to try to get a bit of a head start so I worked on the load of APUSH work during my study hall. Although I did feel a bit guilty working in English, I really didn't have other work to do and I figure my French is at a pretty good level by now. If I want to really enjoy my summer when I get home, I figure I need to get some stuff done now.
So, Friday was our usual Friday morning with 2 hours of math, spanish, and geography. But the afternoon had a special twist: the inspector. My SVT teacher was getting inspected to try to get a special level or a raise or something. Everyone was super stressed since he came during our class(luckily, we were warned so we brought our materials and knew to be quiet.) The inspector was not very nice, in my opinion, but at the same time, he is an inspector. My teacher was supposed to teach normally, but we could tell she was so stressed she could barely put her sentences together. The inspector sat in the back at first and let her teach, but then he started walking around and asking us really hard questions about what we were learning. We then started an activity to calculate the speed and direction of the tectonic plates. It was complicated to get started and hard to understand, and my teacher wasn't really able to help us because if the inspector was near, she didn't want to make it look like we couldn't do it ourselves. He looked over our shoulders, looking for mistakes and posing nit-picky questions about the thing we were learning right there, not things we had already learned. I managed to answer the question he asked me about the graphs, but I made a horrible culture mistake, one I have been making the whole year. I said "Attends" instead of "Attendez" when trying to think and buy time to answer the question. For those who don't understand, this means that I used the informal Tutoiement instead of the more respectful vousvoiement. This has been a real problem for me from the beginning of the year. When I am going to ask I question, I remember to think and say "Vous" but when I'm trying to think fast, the words just jump out and I mess up. So, hopefully Mr. The Inspector doesn't take it personally. So, the inspector spent the whole hour asking individual people questions and stressing everyone out as we all hoped it wasn't going to fall on us to answer his question. The thing that bugged me most was that he signaled people out. Once I had managed to answer his question exactly right, he didn't come back to me. However, the girl who hadn't known how to answer his 1st question was retested at least 4 or 5 times. So, it didn't seem very fair. At the end of class, I went up to the front to wait for my friend who was cleaning up her stuff and talking to my teacher, and the inspector came over. He asked me "So, how do you like SVT this year." And I said it was great and he was all "oh yeah, I'm sure you're just saying that to help your teacher." And before I could respond to say that "No, really, it was so cool to get to dissect mice and pig eyes" he cut me off and recommenced his questioning. He asked me about the fault lines in California(since my teacher has told him I was American) and it was the thing we had studied on Tuesday. I knew what I was saying, but I could not remember the official name. And he kept pushing and pushing the question, and I could see my teacher practically praying, trying to send me the answer through telepathy, but I just couldn't come up with the name. I felt guilty, like I was letting my teacher down when we had studied it. But, I still think I helped her out on the whole because I helped the 6 people around me do the graph activity(meaning she didn't have to help us) and I did answer some of his questions. It was a very interesting experience to be there for the inspector, and I'm glad I got to see it. Actually, it reminded me of a scene in "Le Petit Nicolas" when the inspector comes and asks the worst student which river runs through Paris and he manages to respond and the whole class cheers. Here, we weren't cheering out load, but when the people around us got questions right, we were happy. Since I'm not sure this type of inspection exists in the states, it was a really cool experience, even if it was a stressful hour.
To destress a bit after the SVT, half of us finished off the day with spanish with the assistant. Some of the girls who take German came, too, just for fun. We played Scategories and talked about summer plans. And laughed a lot, so it was nice. As the last days wind down, I really relish every moment when I feel just like a normal member of my class. It is so cool to feel 100% integrated into my class, and I'm really thankful to everyone in my class that helped me out and welcomed me through the year. I bought the class photo, and I know it is going to be one of the very best souvenirs I can bring home from the year.
Well, that's it for the rundown of the week. This weekend is going to be great. I'm going bicycle camping with AFS, and it should be great. We'll be playing games, going out to dinner, and then in the morning, we're going to a challenge course before heading back home. I can't wait to tell you all about it.
So. That's it. If we start a countdown, I'm at 35 days until I get back onto a plane to the USA. I can't believe it. Like I said before, so many emotions are filling me up. I know that right now(as I watch the final of Koh Lanta) I am soaking up every moment of my limited time left here.
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