Mardi: 3 fevrier
Before I forget: les pantoufle. I have no idea how to spell it, but that’s generally the word for the slippers we have to wear in the house. C’est bizarre. Also: the bathroom, which is always warm, has a pretty sizeable tub, with a shower head like apparatus of significant length, but it’s not a shower nor doesn’t it at all facilitate cleaning oneself in a standing position. I haven’t taken a bath since I was very little and honestly I don’t know how. Oddly enough, it takes me about the same amount of time (I don’t’ wait for it to fill all the way). But the second bathroom is under construction right now and should be done in about a month. I’m not sure if it will have a standing shower, but it’ll be nice to be able to go to the bathroom at night or in the morning when I’m about ready to stain my shorts and other people are in the bathroom for 30 minutes to an hour. I’m a generally patient person, but when it comes to bowel movements I can get a little anxious. Moving on, school: ooh, let’s make a table!
Time Class Comments
9h30 - 10h30 Anglais The teacher made me read Obama’s inauguration speech to the class (in English). I was later informed that the teacher was giddy, because she like Obama so much (oh yeah, we didn’t have a first class today, I don’t know why not)
10h30 - 13h00 Education Civique, Economiques, et Module Français I have little to no memory of this class happening (it’s Wednesday 17h40 as I write this, so that could be why). I don’t think I particularly enjoyed it though. Wow, that’s really strange…
13h00 - 14h00 Dejeuner! (Chicken in this sauce stuff on…noodles? Maybe? And a crepe, and cucumbers in crème sauce, and yogurt, and bread) J’ai mangé avec Thomas, Éric, et Noäh, then I got a tour of the school (again) from a strange group of individuals, none of which wanted to talk in French nor wanted me to talk in French. Now, when I say tour, I mean of the small little wing of the floor that I’m on, which I think is the third floor (out of four). And I’ve only seen about a third of that floor, so I haven’t actually been through most of the school.
14h00 - 15h00 Mathematiques Blur. It wasn’t inequalities though. Which is odd, in fact I remember no transition between what was discussed yesterday, and what was discussed today.
15h00 - 17h00 Umm… Thomas had a test in français which I didn’t have to take and it would’ve been terribly boring for me to sit in that class for two hours, so I chilled in the library. I wrote, I internetted, I read.
So that was my school day. The way home was the same, even though we caught the second bus but missed the first - so instead we took a different bus which follows a similar route. In fact, there are four 186 Buses that I saw. Four buses that adhere to the exact same route, all of which passed the same stop within minutes of each other. Chaos, I tell you. More Naruto in French…it’s really funny actually, but I still can’t get over how horrible those ninja clothes are…(Fun fact: “Ninja” in French is pronounced “neen-jah”) (Another fun fact: similarly, when they say “fish,” they pronounce it “feesh.” I have myself a little giggle to myself every time I hear it.)
It got to the point, though, where I was too tired to continue mashing buttons on Brawl or squint at silly French ninjas, so I went upstairs to read in bed with every intention of passing out for an hour or so. So I did. It felt good. Then dinner. Okay, so I’ve tried some weird stuff since I’ve been here, and I’ve generally enjoyed most of it. Not this, this was too much, I didn’t like it. Sea Urchin. In the spiky little half-shell. It wouldn’t have been so terrible had my bite (you have to scoop it out with a fork or spoon) not contained a few spines. I didn’t feel so bad wiping my tongue on the napkin to rid my mouth of that evil (I swallowed the actual bite, but not the shell/spines) because Thomas et Quentin had already refused to eat it, and Magdeleine informed me that she only eats the red parts (about half). It was all in good humor. Then there was…meat? Er, I really need to remember these meals better. The rest was good. Oh, there was salad. And noodles. Yeah. Then I slept again.
Am I already unable to think of a statement to end this blog entry with? It’s like the third day, this is shameful.
Taylor en France
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Le premiere jour d’école
Lundi: 2 fevrier
J’ai reveillé á 7h00, j’ai mangé petit dejeuner. C’était deux crêpes, un jus d’orange, et un chocolat chaud. C’était très delicieux. Ma mère française conduit mon frère français (Thomas) et moi á la station de train. Nous avons voyagé en train á l’école. D’accord, that’s enough français maintenant. The classes I had today were “Accompagnement” (8h30 - 9h30), “Mathematiques” (9h30 - 10h30), “Sciences Economiques” (10h30 - 11h30), “Francais” (11h30 - 13h00), dejeuner (13h00 - 14h00), “Sciences Physiques” and “Sciences Vie et Terre” (14h00 - 17h00). During most of the first class I was getting a tour of the school, which is a very big school. I guess there’s about 3-4000 students, but they’re of all ages. It was bizarre to see little kids in the hall walking around with all the high school aged kids, especially when they’re all dressed too. Oh yeah, everyone dresses like 5 notches higher on the fancy scale in France than people in the US, even the little kids. However, we’re not supposed to wear ties. I’m not entirely sure why not, but my host mom explained that it’s a major faux pas. Math wasn’t bad, because numbers are numbers, however they write a lot more for each problem, as in each problem not only do you have to find the answer you have to write up to a paragraph about how and why that’s the right answer. Sounds intense, right? Well, my homework was p60, # 113b, 115b. They were both solving inequalities. Someone still in math can verify this, a homework assignment of two inequalities (we didn’t even have to graph them) is so small in comparison to our average 10, 15, maybe 20 problem assignments. But I suppose the French stay in school for two and a half additional hours. I’m just going to settle on “It’s about the same” because my school starts a half hour later than school in US and lunch is a half hour longer here. Economiques was very hard, I really didn’t understand anything. They kept asking me questions: What I thought about Obama, what I thought about the recession, how Boeing was doing, things like that. In English, I feel that I am relatively equipped with handling such questions, and BSing whatever I don’t know. Not in French. Ne pas en français. Le classe de français was about théâtre classique, et je comprende (I know how to say the word for about, but I haven’t the slightest how to spell it) about half of it. I know many theatre terms, so that came in handy. Dejeuner: oh mon dieux, il y a beaucoup, beaucoup des gens á mon école. (Fun fact: when you say “mon école” quickly, it sounds like “monocle.” I have a little giggle every now and then). With 3000 students, the school is about twice as big as mon école dans les états unis. I had… oh what did I have…I had food. I can’t believe I forgot. I ate with Thomas but partway through lunch he had to go talk to a teacher about something (side note: the teachers are generally nice, helpful, friendly, and occasionally funny. They acknowledge students in the hall, and answer questions before and after class. I say this because I was told many times over that most teachers won’t give you the time of day, they march in, give a lecture, then leave. That’s really not the case at all, even the principal is helpful and friendly), so he left me with some of his friends (Éric, Noäh, and others) and I was supposed to wait there with them until he came back. Well, they hadn’t eaten yet so they were like, “Come on, you can chill with us while we eat” but not really because it was in French, so I did that. Then we went back and they tried to teach me how to play Magic: The Gathering. A generally short story even shorter: I didn’t learn, maybe from lack of trying. Physiques was not physics, but chemistry, and I understand chemistry, so I had fun, especially because we got to build molecules with the little model sets and I’m really good at that. I actually got to help Thomas, and that made me feel less like a stray puppy following him around all the time. However it didn’t help that I had a nosebleed in that class (Oh, je suis malade, j’ai une rhume, et quand j’ai une rhume mon nez saigne souvent - I have a cold, and when I have a cold my nose bleeds frequently. Yes, I’m using the Neosporin, mom) (another side note, I like telling gruesome bloody nose stories - the first night here I woke up in the middle of the night, and I could feel that my nose had just started bleeding. I tried to make sure to guide the runoff so that I didn’t stain these new pillows, but as a result I ended up having to desperately wipe away the blood that had pooled over my left eyelid. I had to act quickly, you see, because once it dries I can’t open that eye until I scrub and wash it. I managed to keep my bedding clean, as well as make it to the bathroom without anyone noticing my bloodied face. Did I successfully gross everyone out?) Wow, this is lasting really long. Where was I? Okay, Les sciences de vie et terre, or biology and geology. I almost fell asleep. As I believe I said before, the afternoon (about 3, ou 15h00) is when jetlag (I think) hits me like a, well, a jet. This particular class was about reproduction as far as I could tell. I recognized the word “blastula” and the other terms that I’ve forgotten at this point because I never liked bio. There didn’t appear to be any “terre” this time, which is strange to think about because the class was about 2 hours long. The way it works, the reason I put it in the same time slot as physiques, is because it’s supposed to go physiques, then vie et terre, then physiques again, then finalement vie et terre, at least that’s what it says on the schedule. Then the way home: Thomas et moi walked a block to the train station, rode a train for a while, got off, walked a block to check a bus - oh, did I say walk? I meant sprint because we were about to miss it - then rode that bus for a while, got off, then sprinted to catch the next bus, which we missed. So we walked home, it only took about 20 minutes though so it wasn’t that bad. And all that running made the snow negligible. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, my first night there it snowed. It was pretty much melted by afternoon though. Though generally sunny, the temperature has been flirting with 0°, bouncing on either side throughout the day. Mais, c’est la même á Bellingham. So, school: I got made fun of a little, but it was funny and I didn’t really care. Way home: I would get lost if I had to do it by myself. Home: watched Naruto and South Park en français et c’est très bizarre mais assez drôle aussi. Played a little Smash Bros Brawl, Thomas pwns as Kirby…puts me to shame…fait mes devoirs des Mathematiques, et j’ai mangé at like 21h30 or something. It was fish eggs in bread or something. I think it was fried. It was good. There was a bunch of other stuff too. Dinner always includes: appetizer, first course, bread, second course, desert. (Desert is usually pudding or yogurt or the like). Then I slept. Oh, how I slept. And the rest will be saved for Tuesday.
Á demain, mes amis!
Taylor en France
J’ai reveillé á 7h00, j’ai mangé petit dejeuner. C’était deux crêpes, un jus d’orange, et un chocolat chaud. C’était très delicieux. Ma mère française conduit mon frère français (Thomas) et moi á la station de train. Nous avons voyagé en train á l’école. D’accord, that’s enough français maintenant. The classes I had today were “Accompagnement” (8h30 - 9h30), “Mathematiques” (9h30 - 10h30), “Sciences Economiques” (10h30 - 11h30), “Francais” (11h30 - 13h00), dejeuner (13h00 - 14h00), “Sciences Physiques” and “Sciences Vie et Terre” (14h00 - 17h00). During most of the first class I was getting a tour of the school, which is a very big school. I guess there’s about 3-4000 students, but they’re of all ages. It was bizarre to see little kids in the hall walking around with all the high school aged kids, especially when they’re all dressed too. Oh yeah, everyone dresses like 5 notches higher on the fancy scale in France than people in the US, even the little kids. However, we’re not supposed to wear ties. I’m not entirely sure why not, but my host mom explained that it’s a major faux pas. Math wasn’t bad, because numbers are numbers, however they write a lot more for each problem, as in each problem not only do you have to find the answer you have to write up to a paragraph about how and why that’s the right answer. Sounds intense, right? Well, my homework was p60, # 113b, 115b. They were both solving inequalities. Someone still in math can verify this, a homework assignment of two inequalities (we didn’t even have to graph them) is so small in comparison to our average 10, 15, maybe 20 problem assignments. But I suppose the French stay in school for two and a half additional hours. I’m just going to settle on “It’s about the same” because my school starts a half hour later than school in US and lunch is a half hour longer here. Economiques was very hard, I really didn’t understand anything. They kept asking me questions: What I thought about Obama, what I thought about the recession, how Boeing was doing, things like that. In English, I feel that I am relatively equipped with handling such questions, and BSing whatever I don’t know. Not in French. Ne pas en français. Le classe de français was about théâtre classique, et je comprende (I know how to say the word for about, but I haven’t the slightest how to spell it) about half of it. I know many theatre terms, so that came in handy. Dejeuner: oh mon dieux, il y a beaucoup, beaucoup des gens á mon école. (Fun fact: when you say “mon école” quickly, it sounds like “monocle.” I have a little giggle every now and then). With 3000 students, the school is about twice as big as mon école dans les états unis. I had… oh what did I have…I had food. I can’t believe I forgot. I ate with Thomas but partway through lunch he had to go talk to a teacher about something (side note: the teachers are generally nice, helpful, friendly, and occasionally funny. They acknowledge students in the hall, and answer questions before and after class. I say this because I was told many times over that most teachers won’t give you the time of day, they march in, give a lecture, then leave. That’s really not the case at all, even the principal is helpful and friendly), so he left me with some of his friends (Éric, Noäh, and others) and I was supposed to wait there with them until he came back. Well, they hadn’t eaten yet so they were like, “Come on, you can chill with us while we eat” but not really because it was in French, so I did that. Then we went back and they tried to teach me how to play Magic: The Gathering. A generally short story even shorter: I didn’t learn, maybe from lack of trying. Physiques was not physics, but chemistry, and I understand chemistry, so I had fun, especially because we got to build molecules with the little model sets and I’m really good at that. I actually got to help Thomas, and that made me feel less like a stray puppy following him around all the time. However it didn’t help that I had a nosebleed in that class (Oh, je suis malade, j’ai une rhume, et quand j’ai une rhume mon nez saigne souvent - I have a cold, and when I have a cold my nose bleeds frequently. Yes, I’m using the Neosporin, mom) (another side note, I like telling gruesome bloody nose stories - the first night here I woke up in the middle of the night, and I could feel that my nose had just started bleeding. I tried to make sure to guide the runoff so that I didn’t stain these new pillows, but as a result I ended up having to desperately wipe away the blood that had pooled over my left eyelid. I had to act quickly, you see, because once it dries I can’t open that eye until I scrub and wash it. I managed to keep my bedding clean, as well as make it to the bathroom without anyone noticing my bloodied face. Did I successfully gross everyone out?) Wow, this is lasting really long. Where was I? Okay, Les sciences de vie et terre, or biology and geology. I almost fell asleep. As I believe I said before, the afternoon (about 3, ou 15h00) is when jetlag (I think) hits me like a, well, a jet. This particular class was about reproduction as far as I could tell. I recognized the word “blastula” and the other terms that I’ve forgotten at this point because I never liked bio. There didn’t appear to be any “terre” this time, which is strange to think about because the class was about 2 hours long. The way it works, the reason I put it in the same time slot as physiques, is because it’s supposed to go physiques, then vie et terre, then physiques again, then finalement vie et terre, at least that’s what it says on the schedule. Then the way home: Thomas et moi walked a block to the train station, rode a train for a while, got off, walked a block to check a bus - oh, did I say walk? I meant sprint because we were about to miss it - then rode that bus for a while, got off, then sprinted to catch the next bus, which we missed. So we walked home, it only took about 20 minutes though so it wasn’t that bad. And all that running made the snow negligible. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, my first night there it snowed. It was pretty much melted by afternoon though. Though generally sunny, the temperature has been flirting with 0°, bouncing on either side throughout the day. Mais, c’est la même á Bellingham. So, school: I got made fun of a little, but it was funny and I didn’t really care. Way home: I would get lost if I had to do it by myself. Home: watched Naruto and South Park en français et c’est très bizarre mais assez drôle aussi. Played a little Smash Bros Brawl, Thomas pwns as Kirby…puts me to shame…fait mes devoirs des Mathematiques, et j’ai mangé at like 21h30 or something. It was fish eggs in bread or something. I think it was fried. It was good. There was a bunch of other stuff too. Dinner always includes: appetizer, first course, bread, second course, desert. (Desert is usually pudding or yogurt or the like). Then I slept. Oh, how I slept. And the rest will be saved for Tuesday.
Á demain, mes amis!
Taylor en France
Le premier jour
Dimanche: 1 fevrier
Je. Suis. Fatigue. I’m also very, very full. I’ve been fed so much delicious food, it makes me doubt whether I should continue eating because obviously at this point any food consumed hereafter will be a comparative disappointment. But I am so, so very full, I may just explode. Growing up, I never had that pressure to finish everything on my plate, but somewhere along the lines that got implanted in me. It would be a much easier feat if I saw all the food at once. Dejeuner was between 2 and 3 PM (for sake of reference: 5-6 AM Pacific US time). It began with appetizers, or..uh…the French word for appetizers (desolé, my brain crashed and burned around that time). There were mini pita sandwiches, mushrooms avec la beurre de escargot (not actually escargot, just the butter sauce that usually goes with it), little bread things with an assortments of other things piled on top, then these plastic/rubber sleeve things stuffed full like mini sausages with bread doused in pork blood - actually not as gross as it sounds, but I have a thing about extracting food from a tube, call me old fashioned…and I think there was other stuff. After that I thought, “well, okay, I’ve been generally satisfied hunger-wise, I can get used to this.” But after some time, we moved from the salon (living room) to the salle de manger (dining room), and began our full meal. This consisted of bread (that we had purchased à la boulingerie (okay, I’m not actually sure how to spell most these words, so bare with me here). Then there was this awesome meat stuff that actually stopped me in my tracks. I think it was beef, it may have been pork, though what I am sure of is that it was a life-changing experience. I will not describe it, and unfortunately I do not know what it was called so you can’t look it up for yourself. Oh la la, j’oublier les autre répas (FYI - répas was not the right word to use there).
I would take pictures of my awesome room to show how awesome it is, but I guess we’re not supposed to do that? Because if someone were to see it on the internet, they could be like “hey, their computer is by a window and it looks unlocked, I could totally get in there” (Note - l’ordinateur de ma famille n’est pas près une fenêtre et c’êtrais beaucoup difacile to totally get in there). The tracks lights along the ceiling, the lava lamp on the dresser, the LED lamp on the glass-top desk, the orange neon rave lamp in the corner and that Sharper Image like circle lamp thing beneath by bunk bed (the bottom bunk is my couch/dresser) are all controlled independently by one of two remotes in the room. Ce n’est pas important.
The photo game. This is really cool, and would’ve been much cooler were I not on the brink of passing out from jetlag and general fatigue and were it not Freezing Cold degrees centigrade (it’s pretty much the same for Fahrenheit, if you’re looking for a conversion). I guess ma famille had tried to tell me about this a number of times and I wasn’t quite picking up on it, but I figured out the rules as we went along. So, a bunch of people meet up at this place, then at this place they divide into groups of about 4-6 people (there were 6 groups this time) and then the assignment is given. Three one-word/phrase categories are given out and each group needs to take a picture for each category, then everyone comes back at a certain time, picks their best for each category, then they put those pictures on this guy’s laptop which is connected to a projector. He then projects all the pictures for each category, and after a few times through, everyone votes for their favorite. Then each category has a winner (the group I was in one the first two categories), and then everyone hangs out and eats cake (you know the kind with the toy inside? Then whoever gets the toy est le roi?). The categories this time were Cuoak: it was spelled something like that, it literally means the sound a duck makes, but is used to express something strange or bizarre; Bling - Bling: I guess this also means something strange, or something, I don’t know. I know I’ll get it terribly wrong, so I’ll just say what it means in English: Up and down, or upside down. This last category was the one we lost. Our group was among the several that took some sort of variant of “this picture contains someone who is upside down.” The winning picture was the photograph of the address that had the numbers “69.”
I want to sleep, but I have to use the bathroom and the bathroom is taken…I have to go to school tomorrow…whiny whiny whiny. Good, glad that’s over with. I wondering at what point a torrent of hate and unhappiness and homesickness will hit me.
So I believe that about wraps it up. I know for the first few days I’ll be able to write a whole lot easily, but as time goes on, I’ll probably step down to a weekly schedule.
Merci beaucoup!
Taylor en France
Je. Suis. Fatigue. I’m also very, very full. I’ve been fed so much delicious food, it makes me doubt whether I should continue eating because obviously at this point any food consumed hereafter will be a comparative disappointment. But I am so, so very full, I may just explode. Growing up, I never had that pressure to finish everything on my plate, but somewhere along the lines that got implanted in me. It would be a much easier feat if I saw all the food at once. Dejeuner was between 2 and 3 PM (for sake of reference: 5-6 AM Pacific US time). It began with appetizers, or..uh…the French word for appetizers (desolé, my brain crashed and burned around that time). There were mini pita sandwiches, mushrooms avec la beurre de escargot (not actually escargot, just the butter sauce that usually goes with it), little bread things with an assortments of other things piled on top, then these plastic/rubber sleeve things stuffed full like mini sausages with bread doused in pork blood - actually not as gross as it sounds, but I have a thing about extracting food from a tube, call me old fashioned…and I think there was other stuff. After that I thought, “well, okay, I’ve been generally satisfied hunger-wise, I can get used to this.” But after some time, we moved from the salon (living room) to the salle de manger (dining room), and began our full meal. This consisted of bread (that we had purchased à la boulingerie (okay, I’m not actually sure how to spell most these words, so bare with me here). Then there was this awesome meat stuff that actually stopped me in my tracks. I think it was beef, it may have been pork, though what I am sure of is that it was a life-changing experience. I will not describe it, and unfortunately I do not know what it was called so you can’t look it up for yourself. Oh la la, j’oublier les autre répas (FYI - répas was not the right word to use there).
I would take pictures of my awesome room to show how awesome it is, but I guess we’re not supposed to do that? Because if someone were to see it on the internet, they could be like “hey, their computer is by a window and it looks unlocked, I could totally get in there” (Note - l’ordinateur de ma famille n’est pas près une fenêtre et c’êtrais beaucoup difacile to totally get in there). The tracks lights along the ceiling, the lava lamp on the dresser, the LED lamp on the glass-top desk, the orange neon rave lamp in the corner and that Sharper Image like circle lamp thing beneath by bunk bed (the bottom bunk is my couch/dresser) are all controlled independently by one of two remotes in the room. Ce n’est pas important.
The photo game. This is really cool, and would’ve been much cooler were I not on the brink of passing out from jetlag and general fatigue and were it not Freezing Cold degrees centigrade (it’s pretty much the same for Fahrenheit, if you’re looking for a conversion). I guess ma famille had tried to tell me about this a number of times and I wasn’t quite picking up on it, but I figured out the rules as we went along. So, a bunch of people meet up at this place, then at this place they divide into groups of about 4-6 people (there were 6 groups this time) and then the assignment is given. Three one-word/phrase categories are given out and each group needs to take a picture for each category, then everyone comes back at a certain time, picks their best for each category, then they put those pictures on this guy’s laptop which is connected to a projector. He then projects all the pictures for each category, and after a few times through, everyone votes for their favorite. Then each category has a winner (the group I was in one the first two categories), and then everyone hangs out and eats cake (you know the kind with the toy inside? Then whoever gets the toy est le roi?). The categories this time were Cuoak: it was spelled something like that, it literally means the sound a duck makes, but is used to express something strange or bizarre; Bling - Bling: I guess this also means something strange, or something, I don’t know. I know I’ll get it terribly wrong, so I’ll just say what it means in English: Up and down, or upside down. This last category was the one we lost. Our group was among the several that took some sort of variant of “this picture contains someone who is upside down.” The winning picture was the photograph of the address that had the numbers “69.”
I want to sleep, but I have to use the bathroom and the bathroom is taken…I have to go to school tomorrow…whiny whiny whiny. Good, glad that’s over with. I wondering at what point a torrent of hate and unhappiness and homesickness will hit me.
So I believe that about wraps it up. I know for the first few days I’ll be able to write a whole lot easily, but as time goes on, I’ll probably step down to a weekly schedule.
Merci beaucoup!
Taylor en France
From the Hostel in Paris
Paris - 1 fevrier
As far as hostels go, I’d have to say this one isn’t bad. Well, this is my first time in a hostel, but no sadistic businessman purchased me for the purpose of gruesome torture, so I’m deciding that I got one of the good ones.
My sleeping schedule has completely shifted: I am now a morning person. I get really tired around 10 PM and well pass out if not steadily stimulated. Friday night I woke up in the complete dark, fully clothed on top of my blanket, music still playing in my headphones, book open laying on my chest. Out like a light. I’ve been waking up around 5 AM and falling back asleep off and on until about 6:30 AM when I simply can’t do it any longer and must rise and join the world of the wakeful. Saturday morning I did have an epic lucid dream via music-induced meditation (lucid dream meaning the unusually kind one has conscious control over). I went around and visited all of you. When you asked why I wasn’t in France I stated frankly, “I am, I curled up sleeping on my bed in a hostel right now, I’m just visiting you in a dream.” To which you completely understood. So, if I visited anyone, you must let me know.
I won’t go through the details of the itinerary, it’s usually various ratios of eating, sleeping, orientations and socializing. And ridiculous singing and dancing in parks (side note: I got to teach theatre games! Yay for being a theatre geek!) We also had a bus tour (our guides were the AFS local volunteers, they made the whole thing a lot of fun) of Paris, of which I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures of - my camera was dying. However, many other people took pictures and will be posting them on Facebook. In such event, I will steal them or link to them. That is as soon as I get internet (oops, I realized the anachronistic nature of that sentence, in that I don’t have internet at the time of writing this, but by time anyone reads this I will have internet…because I’ll need internet to post this. Oh well).
I met all sorts of fascinating and awesome people. Actually, four of the students were at one point in their lives models (two guys, two girls). Yeah. That happened. New Zealanders are really cool people: when we were divided into smaller groups, I got to be in the group with most of the people from New Zealand. I’m not sure if they represent all of New Zealand in that way, but they were fun. One such Kiwi, Francis, brought Flight of the Concords on DVD as a gift for her host family (because they’re New Zealand’s claim to fame right now) so a group of us watched a few episodes.
Sometimes I feel a little intimidated, I suppose, of the frequency at which these other AFSers have traveled. I mean, discounting the travel that happened before I was forming cognitive memories, I have never left my time zone. Most people here would need both hands to count all the countries they’ve been to or lived in. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere, right?
Discounting plane food, I am ashamed to say that the first place I ate in France was…McDonald’s. I’m not sure if it was to ease the culture shock or what, but the AFS volunteers decided that that would be the best place to start. Well, I didn’t eat anything there considering the food’s tendency to make me physically ill, so I suppose the first food that I ate was here in the cafeteria of the hostel. It was generally pretty good, even though I didn’t really know what most of it was. Ooh, this is bizarre: the French don’t color their yogurt (later edit: actually they do, sometimes, but not all the time). Therefore, no matter the flavor, it is always white and the same consistency (no fruit chunks). It’s a trifle disorienting to be eating something that obviously tastes pink or red but is unmistakably white. Also, mineral water: still gross in France.
It’s pretty quiet right now - my roommates are both sleeping and all but 5 or 6 of us have gotten on buses and trains to take them to their families. In about 30 minutes time, my family will arrive to pick me up. I will meet them, then I will be part of their family. There’s something odd about just hopping into a situation that usually grows from, quite literally, a fetus. Je vais être son fils. C’est etrange.
Lastly, to clear up confusion due to my misinformation: when I received my Visa information, I was uner the impression that I was going to be in Poitiers, so when I received my family information and the address said Cachan, I figured that it was a suburb of Poitiers. This, however, is not at all the case. Cachan is a suburb of Paris, about 10 or so km outside the city. Much to the jealousy of many other travelers, I will be staying just outside of Paris. I find this ironic because often times when other people would talk about my exchange, they would say I would be living in Paris and I would correct them by saying France, I’m not sure where in France yet. So, people who would say Paris, instead the more general France, it turns out you were right. Annnnd… I have to go downstairs now…to meet my family soon.
Wish me luck!
Taylor en France
As far as hostels go, I’d have to say this one isn’t bad. Well, this is my first time in a hostel, but no sadistic businessman purchased me for the purpose of gruesome torture, so I’m deciding that I got one of the good ones.
My sleeping schedule has completely shifted: I am now a morning person. I get really tired around 10 PM and well pass out if not steadily stimulated. Friday night I woke up in the complete dark, fully clothed on top of my blanket, music still playing in my headphones, book open laying on my chest. Out like a light. I’ve been waking up around 5 AM and falling back asleep off and on until about 6:30 AM when I simply can’t do it any longer and must rise and join the world of the wakeful. Saturday morning I did have an epic lucid dream via music-induced meditation (lucid dream meaning the unusually kind one has conscious control over). I went around and visited all of you. When you asked why I wasn’t in France I stated frankly, “I am, I curled up sleeping on my bed in a hostel right now, I’m just visiting you in a dream.” To which you completely understood. So, if I visited anyone, you must let me know.
I won’t go through the details of the itinerary, it’s usually various ratios of eating, sleeping, orientations and socializing. And ridiculous singing and dancing in parks (side note: I got to teach theatre games! Yay for being a theatre geek!) We also had a bus tour (our guides were the AFS local volunteers, they made the whole thing a lot of fun) of Paris, of which I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures of - my camera was dying. However, many other people took pictures and will be posting them on Facebook. In such event, I will steal them or link to them. That is as soon as I get internet (oops, I realized the anachronistic nature of that sentence, in that I don’t have internet at the time of writing this, but by time anyone reads this I will have internet…because I’ll need internet to post this. Oh well).
I met all sorts of fascinating and awesome people. Actually, four of the students were at one point in their lives models (two guys, two girls). Yeah. That happened. New Zealanders are really cool people: when we were divided into smaller groups, I got to be in the group with most of the people from New Zealand. I’m not sure if they represent all of New Zealand in that way, but they were fun. One such Kiwi, Francis, brought Flight of the Concords on DVD as a gift for her host family (because they’re New Zealand’s claim to fame right now) so a group of us watched a few episodes.
Sometimes I feel a little intimidated, I suppose, of the frequency at which these other AFSers have traveled. I mean, discounting the travel that happened before I was forming cognitive memories, I have never left my time zone. Most people here would need both hands to count all the countries they’ve been to or lived in. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere, right?
Discounting plane food, I am ashamed to say that the first place I ate in France was…McDonald’s. I’m not sure if it was to ease the culture shock or what, but the AFS volunteers decided that that would be the best place to start. Well, I didn’t eat anything there considering the food’s tendency to make me physically ill, so I suppose the first food that I ate was here in the cafeteria of the hostel. It was generally pretty good, even though I didn’t really know what most of it was. Ooh, this is bizarre: the French don’t color their yogurt (later edit: actually they do, sometimes, but not all the time). Therefore, no matter the flavor, it is always white and the same consistency (no fruit chunks). It’s a trifle disorienting to be eating something that obviously tastes pink or red but is unmistakably white. Also, mineral water: still gross in France.
It’s pretty quiet right now - my roommates are both sleeping and all but 5 or 6 of us have gotten on buses and trains to take them to their families. In about 30 minutes time, my family will arrive to pick me up. I will meet them, then I will be part of their family. There’s something odd about just hopping into a situation that usually grows from, quite literally, a fetus. Je vais être son fils. C’est etrange.
Lastly, to clear up confusion due to my misinformation: when I received my Visa information, I was uner the impression that I was going to be in Poitiers, so when I received my family information and the address said Cachan, I figured that it was a suburb of Poitiers. This, however, is not at all the case. Cachan is a suburb of Paris, about 10 or so km outside the city. Much to the jealousy of many other travelers, I will be staying just outside of Paris. I find this ironic because often times when other people would talk about my exchange, they would say I would be living in Paris and I would correct them by saying France, I’m not sure where in France yet. So, people who would say Paris, instead the more general France, it turns out you were right. Annnnd… I have to go downstairs now…to meet my family soon.
Wish me luck!
Taylor en France
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Bienvenue à l'Hotel California
my family listens to The Eagles. In English. Music in english throws me off...
ma famille ecoutent de The Eagles. En anglais. Musique en anglais est difacile pour moi.
I try to listen to music without words, that why I can think in french.
j'essay écouter à la musique sans mots, donc je peux penser en français.
Ah! I'm talking like a little kid! I just want to be better at french already! I want to be able to talk quickly again, and be able to say what I want to say and not a butchered mesh of blah!
Oh la la! Je parle comme un bébé! Je veux etre meillure...at...français! Je veux pouvoir parler vite encore, et pouvoir dire quoi je veux dire et ne dit pas un ... butchered mes de blah!
Wow, I was hoping to quit out halfway through that, and start throwing in random, french words instead.
Wow, j'ai ésperer quitter aprepres, um, melieux, et commence, uh...au hasard...mots français...
...baguette?
ma famille ecoutent de The Eagles. En anglais. Musique en anglais est difacile pour moi.
I try to listen to music without words, that why I can think in french.
j'essay écouter à la musique sans mots, donc je peux penser en français.
Ah! I'm talking like a little kid! I just want to be better at french already! I want to be able to talk quickly again, and be able to say what I want to say and not a butchered mesh of blah!
Oh la la! Je parle comme un bébé! Je veux etre meillure...at...français! Je veux pouvoir parler vite encore, et pouvoir dire quoi je veux dire et ne dit pas un ... butchered mes de blah!
Wow, I was hoping to quit out halfway through that, and start throwing in random, french words instead.
Wow, j'ai ésperer quitter aprepres, um, melieux, et commence, uh...au hasard...mots français...
...baguette?
Monday, February 9, 2009
So, here it goes
The Excuse.
It started in New York. I wrote a blog on my laptop, didn't finish it, and just saved it to the computer. Then again in Paris, at the internet-less hostel, I wrote another blog and saved it to the laptop. You can see a habit forming: I'd write a blog and save it until I got internet access. It worked.
It worked especially so when I heard my family would have wireless internet. Prefect, I thought. And perfect it would've been except for one detail: my family doesn't know the password for their secure wireless connection. So, on my laptop right now sits about 10 pages of blog, just eager and waiting to explode into the world. And wait they shall.
I tried using my flashdrive, but it turns out that the little thing doesn't speak french. I'll keep trying different file formats, to see if something works. I believe Magdeleine is in the process of working something out. With all hope, Robonator will be up and online soon, and then ye shall receive a torrent of status updates. I even have charts.
Please, bare with me here. Once this ailment is remedied, we will see some normalcy.
Taylor en France.
It started in New York. I wrote a blog on my laptop, didn't finish it, and just saved it to the computer. Then again in Paris, at the internet-less hostel, I wrote another blog and saved it to the laptop. You can see a habit forming: I'd write a blog and save it until I got internet access. It worked.
It worked especially so when I heard my family would have wireless internet. Prefect, I thought. And perfect it would've been except for one detail: my family doesn't know the password for their secure wireless connection. So, on my laptop right now sits about 10 pages of blog, just eager and waiting to explode into the world. And wait they shall.
I tried using my flashdrive, but it turns out that the little thing doesn't speak french. I'll keep trying different file formats, to see if something works. I believe Magdeleine is in the process of working something out. With all hope, Robonator will be up and online soon, and then ye shall receive a torrent of status updates. I even have charts.
Please, bare with me here. Once this ailment is remedied, we will see some normalcy.
Taylor en France.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Ma Famille
Ma famille francais!
as relayed in an IM conversation
Taylor says:
the last name is "chabennet"
the poppa is phillipe
and the momma is magdeleine
they are 44 and 43, respectively
then they have two boys
Thomas is almost 16 and Quentin is 14
Mariah says:
nice
Taylor says:
25 years ago, phillipe spent a year (senior year, I'm guessing from the math) in tacoma, wa
which is pretty cool
Mariah says:
oooh
that is pretty cool
Taylor says:
they live in the suburbs
in an "average" house
a recently remodeled old one
with "period" furniture
Mariah says:
everyone has period furniture
did you get pictures?
Taylor says:
some of the pictures were in the house
but they were all in one room
they have a tv, a compy, email, and a library
Mariah says:
k
Taylor says:
now remember that library thing for later, it comes up again
Mariah says:
do you sleep in the library?
Taylor says:
no no, something else
at least I don't think I sleep in the library....
they have a family car and otherwise I can take public transport
normal stuff right?
so far...
Mariah says:
k
do they have a dragon?
Taylor says:
no, just a dog
a black lab named Utah
Mariah says:
utah?
Taylor says:
yep, utah
out of "regular schedule" "active" "calm" "relaxed" or "orderly"
they checked the "regular schedule" box
I'm not sure what that means....
it's in the "general atmosphere" section
they do not practice any religion
Mariah says:
maybe it'll be like boot camp or something
Taylor says:
no no, something else
I'm getting there
Mariah says:
well get there faster!
Taylor says:
they wanted an american boy with no dietary restraints or smoking
Taylor says:
which I so happen to be
Mariah says:
true
running tests on you?
Taylor says:
and I will not have to share a room
Mariah says:
nice
Taylor says:
which, when I think about it
they have two kids and boys that age wouldn't share a room
and I get my own room
the parents have a room
we're talking at least four bedrooms
oh, they also have a garden
Mariah says:
possible or the two boys are just sucking it up for a year
gardens are common things
Taylor says:
okay, here we go
the rest is all in quotes
"we are a family of 5 peoples
Mariah says:
are they counting the dog?
Taylor says:
magdeleine, the mother: she runs a travel agency, working a lot, but close to our home
(anything in parenthesis will be me talking) (yeah, counting the dog)
so she manages to be available for the family when it's needed
she loves to cook for the family and friends
thomas
he is the oldest boy of the family (nearly 16)
thomas plays badminton on saturday afternoon and is attending scuba diving on wednesday evening
Mariah says:
oooh! badmintion!
Taylor says:
he likes to play with his video games - psp, xbox, wii, and computer -
Mariah says:
so they'll have video games too?
Taylor says:
(yeah, it gets even better
he likes to read comics and he is the biggest friend of our dog called utah
quentin
he is the youngest boy (nearly 14)
quentin plays judo on monday and thursday evening and like his brother he is attending scuba diving on wednesday evening
he plays video games with his brother and likes to read comics also
phillippe - the father:
he is working for a company which produces and sells women's underwear -like victoria's secret
Mariah says:
lol
Taylor says:
he works all over france and isn't often home except the weekend
he likes to cook, read lots of comics - we have about 4000 comics - and play video games with his boys
Mariah says:
sweet
Taylor says:
he also enjoys to look for mushrooms in the forest when it's the season"
(okay, we now go back a little...remember that library I mentioned? 4 thousand comic books....)
(you know all the comics matty and I have, all of them put together?)
(yeah, we have maybe 500)
Mariah says:
but yours are also tiny little magazine things
i don't know how many i have...
Taylor says:
you have a couple hundred
but they have four thousand....
and they play video games as a family!
it keeps going though
"Utah: it's the family dog and the keeper of the house. it knows every person of the family
all the family likes good food and to cook
Mariah says:
fat taylor!
Taylor says:
we play all together video games and read comics
the boys seem to fight all the time, but are missing each other if one isn't there
we all enjoy travels abroad - canada, australia, st martin - and going to our summer place near the sea - oleron island"
that's all
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