Its been... Three weeks!

Its been 3 weeks today since we arrived. It feels like an eternity. So much has happened, and yet so little time has passed. I am very thankful that it has seemed like a long time, though I am worried that the next months really will just fly by! I guess we will see.

This week of classes has been really intense. On Tuesday (as I have said before) we had 3 hours of French in the morning, a lunch break and then another hour after that. Then on Wednesday we had 2 hours in the morning, an hour for lunch, and then 3 hours after. Thursday was the most intense. 3 hours in the morning, an hour for lunch, and then another 3 hours. So crazy! And the sad thing is that even walking away from the class, I was not sure exactly what I had learned. French, just as in High School, seems to be more of an absorption thing rather than a clear cut learning. It takes repetition and time, submersion and experience. Though I know there were rules and vocab that we learned, until I have used it in a conversation outside of class it won't really feel like it has been learned. Its a little frustrating, but what can I do. I just hope that it continues and by the end of my visit here I will be feeling a lot better about my french.

I have to make a choice. I have to decide just how American I am. This may sound silly, but in a way it really does make a difference in my experience here! I have to decide just how much of the social expectations or formalities that I care to abide by. For instance, two problems have arisen for me.
1) Is that, as a teen or young adult, you are expected to do a pretty large amount of partying. Maybe not every night, but pretty much every weekend it is strange not to go out on the town at least for a few hours. Now, obviously there is partying and there is partying, but no matter what, I think that the expectation that that is what I am doing is the hardest to deal with so far. Its just... very strange not to go out and do that at every week. Starting on Thursday night the bars are full, and it is very funny NOT to be out. So, that is something that has been trying on me.
2) Is how everything is a group event. Going to a cafe and sitting by yourself with a book, or going to a monument or museum to walk around or (at least at the monuement) sit and read is very strange. I did it yesterday (I went and sat for a few hours with a coffee and a book) and I noticed a lot of people giving me strange looks. Then I really looked around me and saw that I was the only person who didn't have at least one other person with them. Now, that only bothered me a litte (since its never great to be looked at funny by EVERYONE around you), but what did interst me about it was how different that seems to be than in the States. I mean, going to Starbucks by yourself and sitting with a coffee while staring out in space... that is odd. But with a book? I have done it in BA plenty of times with not one funny look. Here, thats not really done. I asked the French girls and they all said that it would be strange. Usually if you are by yourself you are waiting for someone or just there for a little bit. But my sitting and reading, and then wandering around at the fountains and the parks, that is odd and pretty much never done by a true Frenchy.
So there are my choices. I either conform and be french, or I continue to be me and don't care what others think. I know, the choice isn't actually THAT hard, being yourself is always better. But it gives me pause sometims. It affects just how comfortable I am grabing my book and going out and sitting by the fountain in town for a few hours. I would LOVE to do it, but sometimes it difficult.

Well, I think that really is all that has happened!

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