My First Few Days

Posted by Aaron in Journal

Hello everyone!  I have arrived!  The day finally came!

Sorry that I disappeared off of the face of the internet world.  My host family cannot remember the password for their WiFi, so I’m waiting for that and then I’ll be only a little more.  I’ll eventually get around to posting photos.

My first few days here have been busy.  First day here, I arrived at noon in France (5:00am in Texas) and then we went to the house to drop off my bags and have lunch.  After that, my host mother, my host brother Hugo and I went shopping.  We live in the city center, so we could go anywhere with the tram and it’s all close together.  My host mom bought me some “Stabilo” pens that I had wanted, but I left them accidentally at American Express when I was having my money converted. :/  So today, I went back to the “papeterie” (stationary store) and I bought them, but this time with my money.

The second and third day, I went to a French course put on by a host mother for all the Rotary students in my area.  My Rotary district covers a large part of France, so this was just for the students who live in and near Bordeaux.  There are 7 of us, me, another American from Hawaii, 2 Brazilians, 1 Finnish girl, 1 German girl, and a guy from Taiwan.  The guy from Taiwan cannot speak French at all, so I’ve been helping him and explaining the rules of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary to him.

This day that has just passed, Saturday, was an awesome day!  There was no French course since it’s Saturday, so I went shopping of course!  My host dad took me to see my “lycée” (French high school) and then we went to “rue Sainte-Catherine,” which is a VERY long street FULL of stores.  I bought a charger for my Blackberry, which thankfully works with my French SIM card.  I also went to Subway and ordered my first meal in French.  I also bought a business card holder.  All Rotary Youth Exchange students have their own business cards.  I have 500!!

After going down rue Sainte-Catherine, I went home and rested for a little.  I then went to mass at a church very close to my house.  A lady there gave me grapes from her garden. After I returned, I got on Skype.  I talked to my cousin, Cassie.  And then a past exchange student from France who went to Houston last year, Arthur, started talking to me on Skype.  He eventually came and picked me up on his electric scooter and we went to the city center for a drink.  We talked for about two hours and then I returned home.  After that, I got back on my computer and I’ve been on it up until I am writing this!

I’m going to log off now.  It’s a bit late here and I have a Rotary picnic to go to tomorrow.  I’m excited to meet all of the other exchange students!  It’s weird being around them in the sense that I am now one of them.  I hang out a lot with exchange students in America, but to me they’re different from me because they come from a different country and are in America.  For me now, the other students are just like me!

As for my French skills, I’m getting better and better everyday!  I’ve dream a little in French.  I know it wasn’t English.  But for the most part,  I still think and dream in English.  With time, it’ll change.  When I arrived, it was so overwhelming to hear French everywhere and to be spoken to only in French.  But within 2 hours, I got the hang of it.  I am able to express myself, communicate, and converse in French!  I’m getting better with time.  I can now understand people better, even when they speak fast (or at a normal speed for them).  My host parents both speak English, so they’re able to translate vocabulary for me if I have need.

I’ll try to write more in the future!  Sorry for such a late start.