Another post!

Okay, I actually wrote this blog like 3 days ago, but I've had trouble posting. This site doesn't always like me and I have pretty limited internet access...

Hello again,

Well, I’m already 12 days into my adventure and I can hardly believe it. Things are pretty much going smoothly. I have a host family now! They came and picked me up from Bernard’s on Thursday. They’re pretty much close to amazing. M and Mme DeLafforest have 4 daughters, only one of which will be living at home while I’m here (the others will be leaving for school shortly, minus Sophie, the eldest, who is mentally handicapped and lives in a home elsewhere).

The youngest one, Raphaelle, is absolutely a doll. She is 12 and she attends an international school in Clermont-Fd where she spends half of her day taking classes in French and the other half of the day taking classes in English. As it turns out, she studies violin and plays in the orchestra at the conservatory, which is where I will eventually be taking lessons. In fact, I rented a violin on Saturday which is costing me 76 Euros for 3 months. I hope it’s worth it! I decided I would give it a go on Saturday while the family was taking the second oldest to the train station. They came home while I was playing and Raphaelle couldn’t wait to get her hands on it. She pulled out her own violin and we played Pachabel’s Canon together. Rapha was really excited, and unfortunately for me, when Rapha gets excited, she speaks extremely fast! Anyway, this should be really good. Mme DeLafforest has high hopes that I’ll kick Raphaelle’s butt and make her practice.

The next youngest is Beatrice, who is 17. She is heading off tomorrow for her first year away at university (the French education system is quite a bit different. For example, I’m attending a grad school, but all the first year French students are also 20). Her school is in Paris and she’s quite nervous to leave home. She’s running around like crazy trying to get everything ready to go. She’s really interested in American culture and likes to talk about American movies, TV, and music.

The second oldest is Caroline, 20, and she attends a school about 4.5 hrs away from here by train. She is also studying biology! She left yesterday afternoon to return to school and take a small test for her English class for which I’ve helped her prepare. She’ll come back in a few days and then leave for school in the middle of October when her semester starts. In the winter, she’s going to study abroad in Prague.

As you can see, I have lots in common with these three. They’re fabulous, and it is incredible how well they get along with one another, considering the age gap. Yesterday, Rapha was crying because she’s sad that her sisters are leaving her and for the first time ever, it will just be her and her parents. This is where I had to play the awkward foreign student role and remind her that she wouldn’t be alone, but she’d have me, the weirdo that lives in her home and only understands half of what’s said to her (for the other half she just smiles and nods, or laughs uncomfortably).

The apartment is quite old and charming. It’s on a really nice street with lots of stores underneath. I have my own room with my own shower (it’s really Bea’s room, but she’s leaving for school). You can’t imagine how good it felt to unpack my bags and have my own space after living out of suitcases for so long (which didn’t even show up with the plane).

That's where I left off the other day. Just to quickly update, orientation with the other french first years started yesterday. We sat through a presentation by the faculty in the morning and then did a "Brise Glace" activity in the afternoon (ice breaker), which was terrifying. We had to do a bunch of get to know you games, which was really difficult because it's a lot harder to understand French people my own age than adults. They talk a lot faster and with a lot of slang (naturally). Afterwards, the school offered us champaign and we had a little mixer. Needless to say, this made it a little easier to meet people. The guys here are very forward and it's kinda scary. Almost immediately after they ask your name they ask, "you have boyfriend?" It's a bit much.

Today we sat through the most boring presentation ever. We were told by the school we needed to go to this meeting, but it didn't pertain to us at all. For the first 1.5 hours, the speaker talked about classes the other kids would take over the course of their 3 years here. For the other 1.5 hrs, the speaker basically lectured us on how to use a computer. It was totally useless. This afternoon we ran around and registered ourselves all around town, at the library, at the conservatory, etc.

Well I should go, I miss you all!!