Survival of an Exchange Student- Chapter 1

Bonjour tout le monde, 

I have been in France for 2 1/2 weeks and I am going to give you a rundown of my life since the last time I posted about Paris and my first days of school. 

I survived my first week of French school without a single tear shed. I pride myself on that and think I am doing really well, and hope it is not just "the honey moon phase". If it is, I am going to kick life in the face when it's all over because I am having fun, still not understanding, but learning in a content way. 

I have made four really good friends in my base class, and three others outside of class. I have to thank god for Lulu (short for Lucas) and Dimitri on their ability to translate and help me communicate on a primal level or I would be constantly saying "je ne comprends pas" or just nodding my head, smiling and trying to look happy. I have also been offered more cigarettes in the past two weeks than ever before, and if I have one of them around they get to the point of yelling at the person offering after talking about my disdain towards smoking. I'm okay with it though. Also I may have mentioned once that I can't do drugs and now everyone in the school knows not to offer me any because they don't want me to go home early. I think that's a good thing. 

Moving on, lets talk about my classes. Lets start by saying something I would never EVER think I would ever say. I love French class. My prof is by far the best teacher I have. Not because she can speak fluent English (although she never does) but because she has me do things regardless of how basic the task is in class to help me learn French. Every day she will walk over to me and in a very slow and articulated way, she gives me a task she wants completed by the end of class. Sometimes it's translate a page, one time it was pick out words I knew and understood in her lecture, another one was understand a paragraph in a very complicated piece of French literature. Sometimes she has me do the same assignment as everyone else but just doesn't expect the same level of quality or quantity. She just wants an effort. I feel like I have learned more in her class than I have in any of the other "one size fits all" classes I have. 

My second favorite class is history. I need to thank someone here first, before I continue. I would like to thank my history teacher from last yearfor allowing me to do a quick one hour presentation on the history, government, and politics of America in this class. I also am able to answer random questions I the teacher asks me about the US they may be talking about. I am able to understand the general idea of some lessons in French because of that man. 

Math is impossible. I can hardly understand it in English, then put in in French, might as well have me become a rocket scientist without any education. At least my teacher is understanding. I tried to math the other day and lost. 

Spanish is irrelevant at this point.

My English class is a little frustrating at times because I am at such a high level and everyone else is still learning the basics, but I try to be helpful. 

In other news, I came in first in my class for the pacer test. I got 106. Thirty laps above the second place, which I am very proud of. I also got to visit Lille which is gorgeous and see my awesome friend Kinzie for about 20 minutes in the city which I was really happy about. I also have to say that the only money I have spent that is mine is for a water bottle at the airport in New York. Talk about stingy. I also got to play air soft with my host brother and his group which ranged from 18 year olds to 12 year olds. I also later found out, the oldest Gregoire (who also spoke fluent English) hosted a girl from the US through AFS, and she is the reason I am with the family I am with. And with that, it wraps up week one. 

On Monday night, my host mom and I went to the local ice rink, which is about a twenty minute drive from my house to go to my first hockey practice in France. It was great. The level was much higher than I expected, and I felt so out of shape, becoming exhausted quickly with drills I would be able to do with ease by the end of last season, which was frustrating. My equipment was a bit too big for me and as a result, quite cumbersome but I did fine and was glad I got my skates sharpened before I came. I felt like I didn't disappoint my new coach, whose name is Fred... The irony of it. I made a good representation of York hockey in my first practice instead if the coaches wondering why this American was here disrupting the flow of practice. 

Aside from hockey, week two was the same as the first week with the exception of Tuesday. I wasn't going to include this, but I decided I need to. This is a testimony of my year abroad, the good, the, bad, the pretty, and the ugly. So here is a at the time account of what happened on Tuesday. 

"Tuesday Sep 17, 11:34 AM

Today is the first really hard day. I know know what people meant by saying it was going to be difficult. I feel empty and angry and sad and depressed and all I want to do is understand. It's one of the most difficult things I have ever felt in my life. 

As I write this I am sitting in the bathroom of the third floor locked in a stall on the verge of crying and being terrified everytime I hear the sound of footsteps clacking by coming to tell me I can't be hear and yell at me in a language I can't comprehend and get frustrated with myself for not being able to understand. 

The day started off fine, waking up at 9 to go to school at 10 to help a teacher with her English class and talk about American culture. After the class, I went to the library, where the evil librarian screamed at me that it was closing for an hour. I was terrified and went upstairs where the previous week my class had a study hall. I could not find my class, when a plump lady came by and tried to help me, and it ended up her screaming at me "bibliotech!" I had no idea what a bibliotech was so I noded my head, terrified and stressed and said merci. 

I then looked in my dictionary and saw bibliotech was library. Again I felt like I was going to cry, something I do not ever feel on a daily basis. So I went to the library and a nice librarian let me in and read for a little bit, before the evil one came back, chased me out and said it was closed until 12! 

I almost lost it coming up the stairs, feeling like I didn't belong and afraid I would come across a teacher who would yell at me in French! None of my classmates are in the building to help me, and I don't know where to go. 

Which brings me back to being locked in a bathroom stall stressing more than I ever have before. I feel homesick, tired, stressed, like I am not learning any of the language and just afraid. I was doing really well in terms of all of these emotions being controlled  but I guess I went over the deep end. 

I hate this school and the disorganization behind it all. Nothing is ever set in stone, I can't find people because of how discombobulated everything is. Nothing here is steady and rhythmic, it's all chaos, which normally I thrive in, but I miss the order and actuality of Dallastown. I miss the constant flow of classes, when you need to be here, when you can't be here, and I miss my friends and family back home! I hate this feeling!

I really needed to put this down because I felt like it was really important, regardless of me feeling like absolute shit this very moment. 

I will update this in a few hours and say how I am feeling and if it has improved or gotten worse."

One hour later, 1:46 PM

I left the bathroom around 12 and immediately saw Valentin, a boy in my class and more importantly, a familiar face. That made me feel a million times better right away. Someone who wouldn't scream at me in French even though I couldn't understand, just someone I could try to talk to and show gratitude for an unknown reason to him. 

I went to lunch and sat with Lulu who is only there on Tuesdays, but it was still a hard lunch. I felt better, but I still had mild side effects from the state of depression I had earlier and I couldn't shake them. I am now at the end of my two hour break and I can't bring myself to be social so I am sitting on a bench with my headphones trying to just de-stress. Everyone is around me talking in French really fast and I can't understand or communicate and it sucks. I just can't wait to have back my ability to communicate."

So after arguing with myself about putting that in, there it is. The bad and the ugly. That is the lowest point I have has since I have been here and I don't want to have that same feeling again. This just shows the ups and downs of being an exchange student. One minute your fine and the next your on the verge of tears for any reason. The perks of being an exchange student, your pretty much tempermental about everything and your always tired. #perksofbeinganexchangestudent

I also wanted to say that I don't feel this way at all and it was just a temporary thing to feel. It's difficult to get me to that low point so when I do get there, everything that pops into my head is negative. I'm glad I did decide to write that down as this is an account of my year here and I need to stay honest to what happens. 

So moving on to happy thoughts, yesterday, Saturday we went to the neighbors for a cocktail party for a friend get together, and as a unofficial welcome party to the Americans. When I say Americans, I mean I am not the only new American in the neighborhood. A military family from Colorado just moved in about two weeks before I arrived and have four kids, none of which around my age. I suppose this is a good thing, but a bit of a let down at the same time. They are all really nice, and said I can come over for a quality American burger whenever I want. 

And then today, I went to my host dads sisters house for a family get together for her birthday. I had a great time, getting to walk into the small town about five minutes away, eat mouse au chocolat and listen to my host grandmother in law sing "Summertime" to me as well as a French song that I didn't catch the name of. It was great. Everyone was really embarrassed but I thought it was super neat. It was exhausting listen to everyone speak French as it always is, but I got a little homesick being at a family gathering. I was fine, but it was just a tad bit depressing. Everyone was super nice and trying to help me understand, even the two year old and four year old girls, who didn't quite grasp the concept of me being unable to speak French tried to help me out in their own cute way. 

And as promised, here are some pictures from, well, everything with a brief description for each one.

This is the first group of Frenchies in our exciting ice breaker; spare the one boy who ùwas going to Italy

A group of mes famille français: or the greatest people who came to France

The best seat on the entire plane to Zurich. I am one lucky guy.

I am well aware that this is the worst picture of me possible, but this is also my face walking off of the plane in Paris.

A small group of the Americans in Paris. Mes famille français part 2

And now we have some lovely pictures taken in Paris. Above is photography, below is me being social with fun people.

Rock on in front of the Eiffel Tower

Spread the love!

Natalie and I, from begining to middle to the end, we are together.

And here we are skipping together in front of the Eiffel Tower... We are such dorks

Belle Lille

I love Lille

So yeah. That is all I have for now and let me conclude by saying that french keyboards are gross. 

Thanks everyone for reading and until next time!

Au revoir,

-Aidan

Guys... We're In France

Bonjour tout le monde!!

I am, as you may already know in France, and have been in France for a few days. I spent a few days in Paris with all of the other AFS kids, and today was my first day with my new family! My host family is amazing, the are super sweet, extremely friendly and just perfect for me. Also, I made some amazing new friends in New York and in Paris and it was really hard having to say goodbye even after a few days of knowing them. 

One of the biggest things about being an exchange student is that you are always saying goodbye to the people you meet. What they do tell you, and we agreed that we didn't believe this, that you will become such good friends with the other AFS students and they will be some of the biggest support you will have. I have met some amazing people in the past couple days, most of which are not in my chapter, but I still plan on following their blogs, and keeping in touch to see how they are adjusting to French life. Mes famille français!!!

Now it's time to talk about what happened in the past couple days. First my parents dropped me off in New York and I went into the hotel, just knowing one other person in the hotel from my chapter when I first arrived. It was really early when I did arrive, so only about twenty people were there talking already and making friends. There was a significant amount of students going to France, like Katie, Kinzie, and Annie, all of whom were their when I arrived and welcomed me with an empty seat!

We talked, and as more students showed up, we formed a huge circle group and began doing our own ice breaker activities. The majority of the students in the circle were going to France, but you had the occasional student going to Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, etc. I got to meet new people I have never met before, saw people I already knew, and put faces to names that I have seen on Facebook, but have not met in person. 

At 4:30, when the majority of the students have arrived, the orientations started. The group was amazing, which is what made New York so amazing. Sure we had the silly ice breaker activities but I did learn a lot there and felt ready to come to France afterward. 

After New York, we headed to the airport along with the students going to Spain and Italy because we were taking the same flight to Zurich and then parting and heading our separate ways there. So we hopped on another plane, and headed to Paris. 

Here is a random thought I had while being very sleepless on the plane to Zurich. 

Over the past couple hours, as I write this at 5:26 in the morning (Paris time, I realized something I never expected to find, especially this early of being an exchange student. I realized that no matter the background, personality, gender, sexuality, appearance, intelligence, or anything we are all the same and we are all a family. We may have met each other only hours ago, but in those hours I came to make new friends I would never meet otherwise, and through that meeting, I learned something from "mon familee français"!

I have seen the good side, bad, and in between of every person who is on this plane and I cannot say I've seen or experienced that with some of my friends back home. I don't know what to think of that but I do know that it just makes me feel more comfortable to be whoever I am and it's a great feeling. No one is judging anyone, there are no obnoxious social cliques, because everyone is a friendly outgoing exchange student who wants to make friends and have new experiences just like you. I wish everyone at some point in there lives could experience this feeling, because even in the past 48 hours, I feel different, a more confident human being than the person who was dropped off in New York a few days ago.  

I wrote that down in my iPod as fast as I could because I had a very low battery and I wanted to remember that as I thought I would not remember it (and I didn't) in a few days. I had some great times on that plane, watching the sun come up through the clouds way off on the horizon while listening to "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles with Lily, Deia saying "I can have a conversation with a brick wall, and a damn good one at that!" Making me laugh pretty hard, and hearing Harris talk about his screenplay, (it's not a good idea... sorry Harris) as well as so many other things. 

Moving on to Paris. The first day we arrived, it was crazy! The Americans were seemingly the first ones to arrive and we were all extremely tired, bored, irritable, and unshowered. We all tried to stay awake but the effort was fruitless. About half of us crashed in our rooms or in someone else's while hanging out with someone else, while the other half managed to hang on until some other countries arrived. We were staying at a hostel in an area of Paris that didn't seem like Paris, so we all agreed we could have just been anywhere and they pulled one over on us. 

But we were in Paris so our phrase we always said was "(Shit)! Guys, we're in France!" The shit was optional. The next day we had more orientations which were fine, just like the ones in New York. After lunch following the orientations, we went on a bus tour of Paris, which would have been so much more enjoyable if we were not all exhausted and fell asleep on the bus. I did get a few good pictures of l'arc de triumph and then we got to walk around the Eiffel Tower for about 45 minutes and did some weird dance in the middle of this landing view thing which was weird but fun. Eiffel Tower = Much more beautiful in person, which means its perfect. That was perfect, Paris was perfect, the people were perfect, I was just in awe. 

We got back, had dinner, and another really pointless meeting. ALSO, I got to sit with the lady in Paris who works for AFS and accepted all of our applications to France. Her English was PERFECT!! I mean, I thought she was American at first. So she was super cool and along with the other French advisors, at about 10:00 that night, we ended up learning a difficult Australian dance (of course it was Australian), a wacky French dance, tried teaching Cotton Eye Joe, and then had the most competitive game of limbo I had ever participated in. It was Epic!

The next morning, we woke up and said our very sad goodbyes to our fellow AFS'rs and went on our way. We waited in the Paris train station for about 2 hours waiting for our train, it arrived, we boarded, and had an uneventful train ride north. 

When we arrived in Lille, all of the host families were on the platform waiting for us. I saw my host mom from out the window and I just got super anxious, along with everyone else meeting their host families. They are all extremely nice and sweet. I have tried doing chores around the house, but each time had someone reject me from doing anything. IT'S GIVING ME ANXIETY!! LET ME DO CHORES!!! PLEEEEAAAASE!!!

Now onto school... DUN DOOON DUUUHHHHNNN!

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be in terms of people. As for the language... It was worse. I remember people telling me in Paris I would be fine because I had taken French for a few years. Lol! I understood nothing the teachers said, the student needed to repeat things about 10 times very slowly for me to pick out 1 or two words in each sentence, but I managed to make friends which is good, and everyone wanted to try practicing English to my personal dismay. But I had fun all the same. 

Then today was so much easier. I had about 3 hours of study (basically a study hall) after getting at school at 9, had a 2 hour lunch, 2 hours of gym, and a class in which the prof told me I didn't really need to pay attention because it was a review class. Talk about simple. Note to self, *Tuesdays are easy*. So I then got home, took a twenty minute nap, got up and helped Jules make quiche lorraine pour dîner. 

I hope everyone at home is doing well, and the other exchange students are having fun! A picture post will probably be put up tomorrow of pics from NY, Paris, the plane etc. 

Bonne Nuit,

Avec armour,

-Aidan