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!

I have loved the letters that I have recieved! Send more!

First REAL day of school

So today we went to school!!!
It was so cool to be in that setting again. It was hard, since we have already missed a whole week. But the people tried hard not to make us feel stupid and by the 4th hour we were all pretty into it. Its immersion French, so no matter what, if we were talking to the teacher or to another student, we have to speak in French. The boys and I were able to speak together in English, but other than that, French was the only common language in the room. Cool, no?
We had 3 hours in the morning, starting at 9:30. It seemed a tad early to be thinking in a foreign language, but none of the other students seemed to be perturbed by it. In fact, it seems a little weird that we are all in the same class; all the other students seem to be able to communicate pretty well in French, while the boys and I have a hard time doing anything in it! But we will see. When I was looking at the exercises it didn't seem that bad... so pray for me!
We had about a 20 minute break after the first hour and a half. The teacher looked at us and was like, "une petite vacance" and then left the room. All the other students started to get up, and the boys and I just looked at each other. After we met out in the common area we thought we would have MAYBE 15 minutes. We ended up having upwards of 20 minutes! It felt like SUCH a long break. We thought maybe it felt so long because no break in ANC would ever have felt that long.
After the break we had another hour and a half, and then an hour for lunch. Unfortunately that meant that we had barely enough time to get back to our dorm, eat, and be on time for class. We are so used to the Bryn Athyn style (the dorms being about 3 minutes away) and we are aware of the cost of a lunch on campus without a school ID (which we hope to be getting in the next few weeks), so we thought we would be fine to go back to the dorms and eat the food that we had in our rooms. Tomorrow I may just pack a lunch...
After lunch we had a new teacher. That hour, I really enjoyed. The teacher was really energetic and she was totally having fun with us! She started out by coming into the room and telling us all that we all had to sit in a circle... which meant crowding the small room with the tables lining the walls. I don't know if I can describe it well, but once everything was set up no student could get out of their chairs easily except me, the girl next to me, and on other boy at the other side of the room. The other complication with this circle plan was that each table had too many people at it. They were designed for 2 people at each table.... there were at least 3 at each one :) So I had a good try at a conversation with the girl touching elbows with me and Jeremy was on my other side. Then the teacher asked us to introduce ourselves to the class, and left the room. We were all SO confused! She just pointed at me, said "Comment tu s'appelle?" and walked out. So I turned to Jeremy, asked him, and started the class going around the circle, each asking the next person their name. It was quite a sight. We were all laughing at the end, at one thing or another.

So that was it. The hour went by very quickly and once school was over we all felt a bit better about being here. Another nice thing about France is that their texts books are so cheap! The 3 that I needed combined cost less than any text book that I have ever used in the States. It was nice to see that come up on the register.

Tomorrow we have the same, though this time for 5 hours. We start at 10:30 and go until 4:30. Intense right?! But again, I think it will be great.

We already know that we are going to have a 2 week break in February! 2 WEEKS! And school has barely begun! Starting the 16th of February we are free until the 2nd of March. What do you think I should do with the time? I was thinking Italy... but it all depends on travel/cost, that sort of thing.

Well, I think that is it for now.
I love hearing from all of you, so keep it up!
Bon nuit!

Oh Toulouse!

We went to Toulouse this weekend. It was crazy! The adventure started with the big storm a big storm that went all over south France. It knocked out the trains and trams, so we thought we were not going to be able to go to the party that was in Toulouse and that we had already paid 20 eros each to go to. This is what happened:

When we woke up we didn't know that the trams were shut down, so we got ready and walked to the stop. When we found out that there weren't any coming we went to the Grand Theater to see if we could find a cab to take us to the train station. So we stood in the rain and wind for like, 15 minutes when we decided to go around the theater to see if the cabs were waiting somewhere else. They were not, so we asked this guy if he knew where we could find any. He had been waiting in a doorway to be out of the rain while making a phone call. He said that there were not any around here, but that he would be happy to drive us to the train station, and even wait for us if we needed a ride back (since he was pretty sure that all trains were canceled). So we took him up on it and we ended up at the train station just in time for our departure time. But the trains were all canceled. Only the ones going up north (away from the storm) were still going. Thankfully, we were able to get our money back for the train tickets and we then went out and found a taxi outside.

Once back at Julie's we tried to see if there was any other option for getting to Toulouse. Have you ever heard of the website where, if you are driving someplace farther away and you have room in your car you advertise for a rider? Well, we found a ride! Unfortunately, it was for only 2 people. As 4 of us were going (Jeremy, Julie, Dibb and I) we thought at first that we should just not take it, but Julie had been looking forward to it for so long that I pressured for her and one of the boys to take up this ride offer and me and the other boy would have a weekend here. So that is what we did. Julie and Jeremy went with the strangers and Dibb and I stayed at Julies apartment, just hanging out. Soon after they left though, Julie called me and said that a friend of her friend's boyfriend was coming to the party and that he could come through Bordeaux to get us! What a miracle right?! So we were picked up by a nice guy and his parents and taken to Agen, a small town half way to Toulouse. There we dropped off his parents and the three of us went the rest of the way to Toulouse. The party started at 9, though we were going to "pre-game" at Adrien's (the boyfriend of the friend of Julie's, who was also the friend of Benjamin, the boy who drove us) before going to the actual party. We didn't end up getting to Adrien's until about 10pm! So we were a little late. During the ride we had fun talking. He could speak English pretty well, and we tried our French out on him. He is 22 and almost done school. He speaks French, English and Spanish! Isn't that crazy? He was super nice to, so it the whole thing was enjoyable. Even he agreed that it was like magic that we were able to get a ride from him. Once at the "pre-game" we were able to change to the nice clothes for the party and started to get to know the other people there.
We then walked over to the party around 12am. This party, you should understand, is the largest student organgized party in Europe. With over 2,000 people attending, it was also the largest party I have ever heard of. There was a waiting list to get in. You had to be well dressed and orderly to get in. There was security, so it was one of the safest parties around. And it went form 9pm on Saturday to about 7 or 8am on Sunday. It was a LONG night. They sereved food and drinkes in almost every room. SO intense.

It was crazy! They were so strict about how nice you had to look that Jeremy and Dibb didn't get in at first. It took them 2 hours to get outfits together that would pass! The girls and I were find, for we had actually wanted to get dressed up :) Once in it was weird. There was an interesting combination of drunk people and sober people. There were like, 10 different rooms with different genres of music playing in each one. I stuck with the girls that I knew and just went out dancing! It was so much fun! Remember what I have said about the different ways that boys pick up girls? Here was even more different! At this party, the boys would look around, and if they liked you, they would make eye contact. Then they would come up to you and just dance next to you until it had been a while and then they would reach for your hands. As a girl, you could let it go as far as you wanted. If you didn't want them to come over at all, you didn't return the smile or even look at them. If you were fine with them dancing you just didn't let them take you hand, etc. So it was nice. It was really easy to just keep your eyes on those you knew or closed or up at the ceiling or on the floor... that sort of thing.

The whole party was like this. We stayed until about 6:30 in the morning! It was crazy! And I didn't even really feel all that tired. By 7 I was feeling it though. We had had to walk back to Adrien's (which was about a 10 minute walk in the freezing cold!) and get our stuff. Then we had to walk to Mathilde's (Julie's friend who we were going to stay with for the night) which was another at least 20 minute walk. We were all SO cold. I had a shortish skirt on and just leggings, so I was freezing, and by the time we got to Mathilde's I could not feel my legs! Anyway, we got there and realized that we had enough sleeping bags, but no cushioning of any sort. So the hard floor was all there was! It hurt my back but pretty soon after changing and getting into my sleeping bag.... I was asleep. By this time it was close to 8am. There were shutters for every window and the sun doesn't even rise until close to 8:30, so it seemed like it was still very late to us. We didn't wake up until about 3pm!

We then drove with Julie's dad (who met us in Toulouse) back to Agen where Julie's family lives. Its a really cute, out of the way, village in the French countryside. It was so beautiful and reminded me a lot of Kempton. There we had a crepe tea-time snack (around 6pm) and then drove back here to Bordeaux with Julie (a different one that is our friend, this Julie is a friend of our friend Julie). And now we are back!
A crazy adventure right? I am surprised that it all happened. The whole thing was super fun and we all had a good time.

Today we have to get our school figured out. I think I am going to take the 15 hours (a week) of D.E.F.L.E. classes (meaning all French), and then, on Fridays take an English class about Virginia Woolf. I am really excited that it is working out. I will always be surprised at how relaxed the whole French system is. As far as I know, all we have to do is show up and say we are from America and there you go! That is it. Weird, right? But I am looking forward to class tomorrow. Its going to be our REAL first day of classes.

Well, that is all for now.
I will write as soon as I have something interesting to say :)
Bye!

Toulouse Party!

Hey ya'll!
I am going to Toulouse! As its going to be a few days before I get back to the dorm I thought I would just leave a note to begin my adventure here.

The party we are going to is one that is organized by a big business school in Toulouse. It is going to be huge! Lots of dancing, lots of different rooms with different kind of music, and very fancy. I am so excited!

So there you go! I hope to tell you all great things about it when we get back.

Bye for now!

First day of classes and finding resultes

Today, was a big day. Today we attended our first "class". I say "class" because yesterday we attended a lecture, but it was one half of this class. Today, we went to the classroom and had class. It was very interesting! All about American history. True, true, we have had classes in American history before. But have you ever had it being taught from a REAL French perspective? I didn't think so. But yes, while yesterday was the lecture part, today was the class part, and it was all very good. Yesterday was a little bit crazy, because we got there late, and so walked in and had to find seats in not that big of an auditorium and all the while everyone talking in a language that you didn't understand at all! Though the class is being taught all in English, the teacher was introducing the subject and stating in the required texts for the class, all in French. So for the first 15 minutes we were lost. I caught a word here and there, but hardly enough to get a sentence together. I really felt lost. I have always really wanted to have at least TRIED to be prepared for any class that I take. This, however, had been impossible this time. Hopefully next time it won't be that bad. We sat through class though, and it was very cool the different ways that the teacher talked about things that I feel like I had learned yeas ago! He took his time, and detailed things that I honestly hadn't ever considered important parts. I guess it just shows the different ways to view history.
Today though, as I said before, we really attended the class. We got there early so that we might find seats all together. Once in we were again completely lost. Not because it was in French or English, but because the system is so different! You need a passport picture for EVERYTHING. They wanted one right there and then, I think so that the teacher may have a sheet that has your name, address, and then picture to then try and get to know you. Makes sense when you are dealing with so many students, but it was much different than we were expecting. After that though, it was very good. Nothing big happened, though the teacher did ask us a few questions, as we were the only American students in the class. I feel silly for being in an American history class while being an American. But then again, its from a different perspective, so that is cool.

Though we did attend class, we are not yet registered for the class. We have until I think the 28th to really be all set up, but we none of us know what we are doing... so that makes it hard. Soon we shall figure it all out, and when that happens, I will be SO glad. I am getting very frustrated with the whole French system.

Another problem came up. We got our test results back from the French placement tests. We are all in the same group! Its good I think, for if we were completely different we would have different schedules, and as it is, it is already complicated. The only problem is that it overlaps with any class that we might want to take at the normal school. You see, we had intended to be registered in two separate schools. Bordeaux 3 houses D.E.F.L.E, which is a school for French as a second language. Most exchange students just come for that, but you can also choose to do both. We had wanted to do both, but somewhere along the lines that was not communicated, so we are somewhat stuck. In the next few days we hope to have it all worked out, but until then... we are not really required to do anything. Again, I really hope to have it worked out that I have normal (though taught all in English) classes in the day and D.E.F.L.E classes at night. When it is all sorted out I will let you all know.

Tonight we are going to a dinner party. Nothing big, but some of the friends of our French friends want to have us all over, so that is the party. I am excited for some more home cooked French food! So far we have only really dinned out once (in a nice restaurant) and other than that we have had very simple, thrown-together meals.

So that is my excitement for the last two days. Nothing super special, though it has been nice. It has been misting for the last few days, so that makes everything an unpleasant damp. We have bought food for in the rooms though, so now we don't have to be so dependent on going out into the damp to get meals.

All in all, everything is pretty good. I want to know more about what is going to happen school wise, but slowly, it is being taken care of. Now all that is left is just for me to relax, trust in the Lord, and enjoy my time here.

And now off to dinner. Love you all!

Send me things!

I am finally taking the time to remember to find and post my address here.
So, if you want.... I would love to receive anything!

Ok, here it is:

Mlle Geneva Echols
CHB 103
1 Cours du General de Gaulle
33170 Gradignan
France

or it can be
Mlle Geneva Echols
Res Montesquieu. ENITA. A103
1 Cours du General de Gaulle
33170 Gradignan
France

Either one will get to me, they really are the same place, I just don't know which one is MORE official.

K? Now send me things :)

One Idiot American

Today (Tuesday, though I am posting this late, so it says Wednesday) I decided to take a day for myself. I have been feeling all these feelings and seeing all these places without being able to take my own time with anything. So, as we did not have anything that we needed to be doing today, I rode the tram into town and had myself a good time. I wandered around for a while, then stopped at a market and got myself 2 croissants, lunch (of cheese, a small baguette, two apples and an Orangina) and sat down at a small cafe next to the Cathedral in all my pictures, the Cathedral of St. Andre. The waiter was very nice, and I got a cappuccino that was delicious. There I sat and ate my croissants and wrote a letter to Tykah. It was raining, and so very cold, but it was also very nice to be on my own. While I was there a bunch of people came out of the city hall all dressed up in funny clothing. I still don't know why, but I would like to figure out who they were and where they were going.
I then took another step by myself and went to the natural history museum. It was very cool. It was all in French, of course, but it was free. I decided that the 2.50 ero's for the English audio tour was worth it, so I really was able to get a lot out of the whole thing. It was really cool how they had it set up! Most of it was local history/findings, and there really was enough just from the area surrounding Bordeaux to fill the whole museum. I think my favorite part was the Roman room where everything was put on display in such a way that you could walk right up to it and go all the way around it! Like, there were steps onto the same platform that the pillar was on! A guy came up to me and told me to step up to get closer. When I obviously hesitated he sorta laughed and said, "No really, go ahead" (in French of course). From that time on he would come back and check on me every now and then to talk to me about the different displays. He also gave me a free ticket to go see one of the temporary displays upstairs (that you normally have to pay money for). It was really fun. The only sad part is that close to the beginning of the tour the guy came up to me and offered to put my coat and bag (back-pack with all the food) in the Checked area, which was very nice, but at the same time.... I forgot to get my camera out! So the whole thing was spent just enjoying the sights without any documentation. For that reason I hope to go back and take some pictures of the wonderful displays and artifacts that they have there.

This is the view from the little cafe that I was sitting at.

I then spent the rest of the day with the rest of the group shopping. It is so hard not to feel like I can afford anything I like! The money is so different... but I am determined to be tighter on my budget, so its really not going to be bad.

Well, school starts tomorrow, so I shall start to try to fall asleep. I miss you all and wish you all a great rest of your day/night!