Salut!
I'm closing in on my 7th week here, and I'm sad to say that my french is still horrible. I think I'm understanding a lot more than when I started, but my vocabulary is pretty much non-existent, so I can't say what I want. I only have myself to blame for that, because I depend too much on the fact that my family speaks english. Instead of taking the time to look up words and conjugate the verbs, I choose to speak english instead, because I know it will be easier. But I'm not benefitting at all from it and it only means that my progress will be delayed. I've started looking through my old notes to refresh my memory on grammar and vocabulary, and I'm going to try my hardest to speak more french, even if it takes me eternity to form one sentence!
School is going pretty well, but one thing I find frustrating is the fact that we have to bring all of our books home with us. I was never exactly one for homework in the united states, I chose to do it during lunch or in between classes, so I've never really brought home a lot of stuff with me. But now I have all my notebooks and textbooks that I have to carry around all day in my purse and it's so annoying! I swear to god, girls here practically carry around duffel bags to hold their books. Guys use backpacks, but the majority of the girls just use an oversized purse. It gave me an excuse to buy this bag that's been taunting me for weeks, but after a while I get tired of lugging around this massive weight on my shoulder. And wednesday's and thursday's are even worse, because I have to bring a change of clothes and shoes for gym as well. But I guess it's something I'll just have to get use to! I'm still managing to get lost in school, because my schedule is so random so I haven't been able to find a routine yet. One of the buildings has a bunch of towers, and I can never remember which one has my art room on top. I always climb up the wrong one then have to go all the way back down and repeat until I find the right one... so at least my legs are getting a good workout!
Girls at school are always dressed up. Always. I don't mind looking nice every once in a while, but honestly, I love the days where I just roll out of bed, throw on some yoga pants and my XC hoodie and head to school. But nopeeee, not here! Girls never wear t-shirts (so that rules out all my favorite cross country shirts) instead they wear their fancy heels and flashy shirts. They always look like they’re ready to go out on the town for an evening of partying. A lot of the guys are much more composed than the united states as well. They often wear collared shirts underneath a sweater with a scarf. Which I have to say looks pretty nice, compared to the endless guys in Ohio with their hoodies and boxers hanging out of their pants. Although I’ve also seen a lot of guys just wearing t-shirts and stuff. Yesterday my math teacher was wearing a Guinness t-shirt, which I found amusing.
One thing that’s a little bit different is gym. Every month we can choose from 3 sports that we will play for the entire month. So for the month of October I had the choice of badminton, soccer or tennis. I chose badminton because that’s the only sport I don’t completely fail at. But sadly each time we play I have to pay one frank to use a racket. I just don’t understand that at all. And last week we played tennis and it was 2 franks for a racket. Why is the school charging me for equipment that I use for an hour and then safely return to it’s cubby? Also, a random thing to share, a lot of the girls wear wind pants for gym. Now I personally haven’t worn wind pants since I was about 8, but perhaps I’ll have to invest in a pair!
A few other notes:
- They are hardcore about taking notes in class. I’m talking about 20 different colored pens to label and underline. And they always use their mini rulers to underline stuff. Even if it’s like 1 word, they all whip out their baby rulers and underline it so it’s perfect. Fortunately I’m a champ at drawing straight lines, so I’m not too concerned about investing in a ruler.
- They can’t drive cars until they are 18, so instead a lot of kids get their scooter license at 16. I feel like every single person has a frickin scooter (including my host brother)
- It’s illegal to ride a scooter without a helmet.
- I’ve found a channel that is almost always playing Friends, which makes me really happy because that’s my favorite show. So it’s really fun to watch it in French. I’ve also found a British channel that also plays Friends, so I can see it in English as well.
- I think I have finally mastered the European way of eating (fork in left hand, knife in right) It took me forever because my left hand is completely useless. But here it’s considered rude to have your hand in your lap while eating (which is what I always do) so I trained myself to start eating with my left hand.
- I just discovered the band called Norwegian Recycling. You should go check out their songs on youtube. especially How Six Songs Collide, Miracles, and No Taylor No Scar.
I'll leave you with some John Mayer. I have no idea why you can only see half of the video though...
Friday, October 8, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
École
Ok, first I have a few random things I have forgotten to mention in the past
1. Instead of light switches, they have light buttons, which I think is more fun
2. We don't have a lot of thin sheets and layers on the bed, instead it's just one massive comforter. It is also very common to walk down the street and see these massive comforters hanging out the window to air out. More than once I've come home to find all the contents of my bed (including my stuffed elephant) sitting on my window sill.
3. There are no ceiling fans
4. Closets are not built into the wall
5. The parking garages are tiny because they have tiny cars. Everyone here is a champ at driving and can parallel park in a spot that I could barely stand in. Doris the taurus would not fit in here.
6. They have oreos and peanut butter here, which I think is fantastic!
7. To say hello some people say 'coucou' which I love.
So now it's time to talk about school! I attend Collège St-Michel, which was first built right around 1600, so the majority of the school is pretty old. There are a total of 6 buildings, some of which are more modern, but some are all stone with towers and swirly stairs, which I enjoy greatly. I like to pretend I'm at Hogwarts as my cool new european boots clack down the stone hallway and I walk through an archway as I make my way to the train station to return home at the end of the day. School here is extremely different, because we have one class that we stick with all day long. There are 21 people in mine, 15 guys and 6 girls. We all have the same schedule and move from class to class and building to building together all day long. I still can't decide if I like this concept or not. I think it will be beneficial because I will really get to know these 20 other people very well throughout the course of the year, but it also prevents me from meeting a lot of new people, because every class consists of the same students. but it's pretty cool because we do a lot of stuff together as a group including a trip at the end of the year! My class is trying to go to Croatia, so we will be fundraising throughout the year.
Another thing that is extremely different from America is our schedule. It changes everyday, so some days I have 8 classes, where as other days I only have 3. I finish my school day anywhere from 10:30 to 3:45, which is pretty awesome. And actually this friday we don't have our french class for some reason, so my school day is finished at 9:35! Throughout the week I take a total of 15 different classes, which sounds overwhelming but honestly isn't that bad. Some class I only have once a week like Science Religion, Art, and Physics. and then other classes I have 4 times a week like French, Math, and Economics. But even though I have those classes 4 times a week, they're not usually in the same classroom. The teachers don't seem to have their own room, because they're always moving around, so none of the rooms are decorated too much. And also, if the teacher doesn't show up we don't have class. Last week our gym teacher never came, so we got to leave early for lunch.
Currently I just kind of chill out in the classroom and don't really do much, because I can't understand a thing the teachers are saying. I really like my philosophy and math class, because those teachers write a lot on the board, so it gives me a fighting chance to understand. But my history teacher has yet to use the chalkboard (no dry erase boards here), he only lectures and the students take notes off of what he says... so that leaves me kind of stranded because our desks are separated which prevents me from copying other peoples notes, which I do in a lot of other classes.
On Tuesdays I have 2 blocks of 45 minutes that are free because my class is in German and English, which I'm not taking. So I usually wander around Fribourg, and I've found a couple of good bookstores where I like to chill out. It's really nice to have those breaks, because I've been getting really bad headaches from constant french, so it gives me some time to just listen to music and get a break from school.
The people are really nice in my class, and they're doing a pretty good job of being welcoming, especially because they started school a month before me and have already had a chance to get to know each other. I still don't know the majority of the names though, because in general I am so bad when it comes to names, but honestly none of their names would be used in America, so it's a little complicated for my brain to remember!
A random thing is that none of the classes have clocks in them, which drives me insane! So I am constantly taking out my phone to see what time it is.
So yeah, that's basically all I have to report for now! So if you'll excuse me, I have a new episode of Glee to watch!
Ciao
1. Instead of light switches, they have light buttons, which I think is more fun
2. We don't have a lot of thin sheets and layers on the bed, instead it's just one massive comforter. It is also very common to walk down the street and see these massive comforters hanging out the window to air out. More than once I've come home to find all the contents of my bed (including my stuffed elephant) sitting on my window sill.
3. There are no ceiling fans
4. Closets are not built into the wall
5. The parking garages are tiny because they have tiny cars. Everyone here is a champ at driving and can parallel park in a spot that I could barely stand in. Doris the taurus would not fit in here.
6. They have oreos and peanut butter here, which I think is fantastic!
7. To say hello some people say 'coucou' which I love.
So now it's time to talk about school! I attend Collège St-Michel, which was first built right around 1600, so the majority of the school is pretty old. There are a total of 6 buildings, some of which are more modern, but some are all stone with towers and swirly stairs, which I enjoy greatly. I like to pretend I'm at Hogwarts as my cool new european boots clack down the stone hallway and I walk through an archway as I make my way to the train station to return home at the end of the day. School here is extremely different, because we have one class that we stick with all day long. There are 21 people in mine, 15 guys and 6 girls. We all have the same schedule and move from class to class and building to building together all day long. I still can't decide if I like this concept or not. I think it will be beneficial because I will really get to know these 20 other people very well throughout the course of the year, but it also prevents me from meeting a lot of new people, because every class consists of the same students. but it's pretty cool because we do a lot of stuff together as a group including a trip at the end of the year! My class is trying to go to Croatia, so we will be fundraising throughout the year.
Another thing that is extremely different from America is our schedule. It changes everyday, so some days I have 8 classes, where as other days I only have 3. I finish my school day anywhere from 10:30 to 3:45, which is pretty awesome. And actually this friday we don't have our french class for some reason, so my school day is finished at 9:35! Throughout the week I take a total of 15 different classes, which sounds overwhelming but honestly isn't that bad. Some class I only have once a week like Science Religion, Art, and Physics. and then other classes I have 4 times a week like French, Math, and Economics. But even though I have those classes 4 times a week, they're not usually in the same classroom. The teachers don't seem to have their own room, because they're always moving around, so none of the rooms are decorated too much. And also, if the teacher doesn't show up we don't have class. Last week our gym teacher never came, so we got to leave early for lunch.
Currently I just kind of chill out in the classroom and don't really do much, because I can't understand a thing the teachers are saying. I really like my philosophy and math class, because those teachers write a lot on the board, so it gives me a fighting chance to understand. But my history teacher has yet to use the chalkboard (no dry erase boards here), he only lectures and the students take notes off of what he says... so that leaves me kind of stranded because our desks are separated which prevents me from copying other peoples notes, which I do in a lot of other classes.
On Tuesdays I have 2 blocks of 45 minutes that are free because my class is in German and English, which I'm not taking. So I usually wander around Fribourg, and I've found a couple of good bookstores where I like to chill out. It's really nice to have those breaks, because I've been getting really bad headaches from constant french, so it gives me some time to just listen to music and get a break from school.
The people are really nice in my class, and they're doing a pretty good job of being welcoming, especially because they started school a month before me and have already had a chance to get to know each other. I still don't know the majority of the names though, because in general I am so bad when it comes to names, but honestly none of their names would be used in America, so it's a little complicated for my brain to remember!
A random thing is that none of the classes have clocks in them, which drives me insane! So I am constantly taking out my phone to see what time it is.
So yeah, that's basically all I have to report for now! So if you'll excuse me, I have a new episode of Glee to watch!
Ciao
Friday, September 24, 2010
Harry... tu es un sorcier.
Ok so where to begin? Let's go back to last Thursday when I went to the Cailler chocolate factory with my french class! There are 8 of us in the class, and our teacher Cécile wanted to take us out to celebrate the end of our french class, and what better way to celebrate than with chocolate! We took a bus about 25 minutes, and then we took a small train until we got to the factory. Overall it was pretty boring, because it was a museum about how the company started, and i'm just not big on history.... but the end made up for the boring tour because there were SAMPLES! One of my personal favorite things in the world! We walked into a room that was just filled with tons of little chocolates and you could eat as much as you wanted. It was literally my heaven :) When is it chocolate time for you?
Friday was my last day of french class, which was actually pretty sad, because I was finally getting adjusted and having fun with the other kids in my class. and sadly the majority of them don't live near Fribourg, so it will be pretty hard to see them this year. We spent our last day painting... I don't really know why. We were supposed to paint something about our journey in Switzerland or something like that. I didn't fully understand the assignment...
So yeah, this is my painting!
My french class <3>
Friday night I went to Bern to meet up with a bunch of AFSers from all over Switzerland! It was really fun because I got to see some of the Americans that I flew over with and I got to meet a lot of new people. We spent the night wandering the streets of Bern and attempting to find good clubs, which was pretty amusing :) The picture on the right is of me and Grace in Bern, and she is basically the only reason I have stayed sane these past 5 weeks. I think I've mentioned her a little bit, but just in case i'll fill you in. Grace is from Maine and we met in NYC right before we took off for Switzerland. Her host family is related to my host family (our host brother's are cousins) and on the first day my host parents actually took Grace to our house because her family couldn't pick her up from the airport. Grace and I live about 20 minutes away and we went to french classes together for the past 4 weeks. We freakishly have a lot in common including music, books (she likes Sarah Dessen!) movies, and food. Practically everyday we discover something else we have in common, which is so bizarre, but extremely comforting at the same time! We try to keep each other happy, because we've both had a lot of trouble with homesickness, so it's good that we have each other or else this would be a lot harder!
Saturday I went over to my host cousin Jeanne's (pronounced Jen) house and we made cupcakes! As the world has probably figured out, I love baking, so it was a pretty quality time! They were the most intense cupcakes I've ever made, and they were delicious!
Tuesday night I went to a Fribourg hockey game with my host parents, which was surprisingly very enjoyable, especially because I'm not usually big on sports. My host dad is highly influential to the hockey team, i'm not exactly sure how, but my family knows the whole team and we had special passes and stuff. So beforehand we went to a special cookout with a bunch of people who help fund the hockey team, which was pretty fun. I met a guy who reminded me a lot of my uncle's friend (John Dude's friend Jack) so if you know Jack, then you'll know that this guy was pretty fun! We had fantabulous mashed potatoes (my favorite) and lots of wine, and then went off to the game! We had really good seats, and the atmosphere inside the arena was amazing! There were about 7,000 people inside all cheering for Fribourg and they had a lot of songs and chants, which was pretty amusing. Sylvie was hilarious because she was so excited about the game and got so into it! Since she knows all the players she was telling me about them, for example, who she found the most attractive... haha so we had a pretty good time! After each period we would go have a drink and then come back for the next part of the game! It was so fast paced so it was easy for me to stay interested, and in the end we won, so overall it was a pretty good night!
This was an extremely long post, so I'll update later about school. It's windy and rainy, which is the perfect reading weather, so I'm going to get back to Harry Potter in french :) But I'll leave you with this: If you don't get chills at 1:30, there's something wrong with you...
**hmm that video didn't work out like I planned... but at least you can enjoy the left side of the trailer!
This was an extremely long post, so I'll update later about school. It's windy and rainy, which is the perfect reading weather, so I'm going to get back to Harry Potter in french :) But I'll leave you with this: If you don't get chills at 1:30, there's something wrong with you...
**hmm that video didn't work out like I planned... but at least you can enjoy the left side of the trailer!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
It's easy once you know how it's done
It's been 4 weeks since I've seen all of my friends and family back in Bay Village, which is the longest I've ever been away from home. I thought that each day would get a little bit harder as I count the days I've been away from them, but surprisingly each day is a little bit easier than the last. Of course I still miss everybody terribly, but each day I'm settling in a little bit more in Switzerland and adjusting to my new life. The one thing I really miss though is driving. Whenever I'm stressed, or sad or anxious, or basically just any heightened emotion, I like to drive around. There's nothing more relaxing than blasting my music and driving down lake road or 480. But sadly I'm not allowed to drive this year :( So instead of killing time in my car, I spent my afternoon baking Nutella Chocolate Chip cookies, which was a very good second option :) It was so relaxing to bake again, because it was one of my favorite pass times in America, but I haven't had the chance until today. I love cranking up the oldies music and eating so much dough that I feel sick, it's just strangely comforting to me.
I spent the weekend at an AFS camp in Veysonnaz, Switzerland which is about 2 1/2 hours away. It was probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen, there were mountains everywhere! Not a lot happened that weekend, but it was a lot of fun to be with other AFSers from all over the country.
The mountains!
All AFSers from the French part of Switzerland
I'm in my last week of french classes, which I'm a little bit upset about. My french has not caught on as quickly as I would have liked, and I still feel very very lost in conversation. On Monday I start regular school, and I am so nervous for it! I'm scared enough about being a new student, because anyone who knows me knows that I'm horribly awkward when meeting people, so doing it in french will be even worse. I know there will be a few familiar faces, and probably a lot of people who speak english, but I don't want to rely on others to survive. It's really hard that I can't be independent yet, because the language just slaps me in the face everytime... but hopefully soon enough I'll be ok!
à bientôt!
I spent the weekend at an AFS camp in Veysonnaz, Switzerland which is about 2 1/2 hours away. It was probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen, there were mountains everywhere! Not a lot happened that weekend, but it was a lot of fun to be with other AFSers from all over the country.
The mountains!
All AFSers from the French part of Switzerland
I'm in my last week of french classes, which I'm a little bit upset about. My french has not caught on as quickly as I would have liked, and I still feel very very lost in conversation. On Monday I start regular school, and I am so nervous for it! I'm scared enough about being a new student, because anyone who knows me knows that I'm horribly awkward when meeting people, so doing it in french will be even worse. I know there will be a few familiar faces, and probably a lot of people who speak english, but I don't want to rely on others to survive. It's really hard that I can't be independent yet, because the language just slaps me in the face everytime... but hopefully soon enough I'll be ok!
à bientôt!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
These are a few of my favorite things...
-Trains
-Bread
-Chocolate
-Banana flavored hookah (in moderation)
-Care packages
-Asians with cameras
-Harry Potter in french
-Mountains
-Bread
-Chocolate
-Banana flavored hookah (in moderation)
-Care packages
-Asians with cameras
-Harry Potter in french
-Mountains
Saturday, September 4, 2010
walk on, cause you can't go back now
Hello World!
In case it wasn't completely evident to the entire world, I'll let you know that I was having a horrible time adjusting here. and to be honest I wasn't exactly trying. But after receiving a massive shove from my dad I've finally accepted the fact that whether I like it or not, I'm here for the year, so it's up to me how I want to spend it. I can either sit in my room and cry and miss home, or I can go out and actually enjoy myself. I've been given an amazing opportunity that so many people would die for, and I already spent 2 weeks wasting it. So from here on out I'm actually going to start living. I realize that I can't just erase my homesickness overnight. Every morning I wake up and for an instant think I'm back in my bed in Bay Village, and a sense of dread washes over me when i realize i'm not at home. But maybe someday soon I'll wake up and be happy I'm not in Bay. I think this has been so hard for me because living my life has never been about where I am, it's been about who I'm with. and when leaving Bay I left behind all of my favorite people. So I know it's going to take time for me to be completely happy here, but I think I'm finally up for the challenge!
Here is our back porch :)
In case it wasn't completely evident to the entire world, I'll let you know that I was having a horrible time adjusting here. and to be honest I wasn't exactly trying. But after receiving a massive shove from my dad I've finally accepted the fact that whether I like it or not, I'm here for the year, so it's up to me how I want to spend it. I can either sit in my room and cry and miss home, or I can go out and actually enjoy myself. I've been given an amazing opportunity that so many people would die for, and I already spent 2 weeks wasting it. So from here on out I'm actually going to start living. I realize that I can't just erase my homesickness overnight. Every morning I wake up and for an instant think I'm back in my bed in Bay Village, and a sense of dread washes over me when i realize i'm not at home. But maybe someday soon I'll wake up and be happy I'm not in Bay. I think this has been so hard for me because living my life has never been about where I am, it's been about who I'm with. and when leaving Bay I left behind all of my favorite people. So I know it's going to take time for me to be completely happy here, but I think I'm finally up for the challenge!
Here is our back porch :)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
You have to leave the ground to learn to fly
I've officially been away from home for 2 weeks, and this is without a doubt the hardest 2 weeks I've experienced. Being thrown into this completely different world has already taught me so much, and it has really made me appreciate my small town and close family and friends. I'm still getting adjusted here, and it's making me feel like I don't have a home. I feel like I'm in limbo because I'm not comfortable enough here to consider these people friends and family, yet I'm so disconnected from Bay Village that it's almost weird to consider that home anymore. When I'm stuck in my challenging french class I always mutter to myself that I want to go home, but I don't even know what I mean by that anymore. I know it defiantly takes more than 2 weeks to adjust, so I'm trying to have a little faith! The major challenge I'm dealing with is that I haven't had an appetite since arriving here. My host mom has been making the most incredible food, but I literally can't eat anything. I don't know if it's nerves, or just the fact that I'm not adjusted... but either way it sucks because I'm basically living off of Diet Coke. Fortunately I finally figured out that it's a lot cheaper to buy Diet Coke at the grocery store as opposed to the little Kiosk's at the train station, so at least I can afford it now!
Here's something that might make you laugh: A couple of days ago I was walking to school from the bus station and I passed a lady in her 40's speeding down the sidewalk on a razor scooter smoking a cigarette. I was the only one staring, so I can only assume this is semi-normal. Now I don't know about you, but I haven't ridden a razor scooter since I was about 12. Perhaps I'll have to give them a second chance!
Here's something that might make you laugh: A couple of days ago I was walking to school from the bus station and I passed a lady in her 40's speeding down the sidewalk on a razor scooter smoking a cigarette. I was the only one staring, so I can only assume this is semi-normal. Now I don't know about you, but I haven't ridden a razor scooter since I was about 12. Perhaps I'll have to give them a second chance!
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